Take Me Home Tonight (July 1st- July 10th)

"Take Me Home Tonight" would be our theme song for the next 12 hours of traveling. At random times during the day, one of us would start with "Take me home tonight..." and the other two would fill in accordingly. We were ready to be back in Rome. Now don't get me wrong, traveling Europe is fantastic. But, being a tourist is hard work. Walking, sight seeing, and no sleeping. Our travels went as smoothly as they could have gone. No frisking, no wounds, all of our bags fit. It was like Rome wanted us to come back too. Our flight touched down around 5:15 and we made it back to St. John's University an hour and a half later. We were "home".

Exciting things since I've been back in Rome 

Now that I'm back in Rome, I have gotten back in to the normal routine of things. Or as normal as being in Rome can get. I've picked back up the schoolwork, caught up on sleep, and caught up with friends and family. Here are some of the highlights of this past week:

1. Family dinner with the UF group. The night after we all made our way back to Rome, the eight of us went out to a nice dinner to share all of our stories from the past week of crazy adventures in Europe. It was nice to have the group back together again. And even though it was lonely without the St. John's kids, the eight of us are a good group and get along just fine. 
2. Starting "Survey of Art and Architecture". This week, I started my art class. Or as many prefer to call it, "Intro to Walking Around". We basically tour all of the famous sights in Rome, and get a grade for doing so. I can't say that it's my favorite part of the day, but it's nice to get out and about every day and see the sights. It's definitely hot, though, which makes walking around for 3 hours in the sun less than awesome. But. My flip flop tan lines are pretty awesome. 
3. Vatican Museum. Kaleb and I went to go see the Vatican on Monday. Jennifer and Shelley had already been, and the other girls took a trip to Florence for the weekend, so it was just us. (We are going to Florence a different weekend, by the way. I'm still going) The Vatican Museum houses the Sistene Chapel, home of Michelangelo's famous frescoes. It was truly a sight to see, and incredible to think about someone actually painting this ceiling. My neck would have been killing me. 
4. Castel Sant'Angelo. Earlier this morning, Shelley, Jennifer, and me went to tour Castel Sant'Angelo. Although the layout of this gargantuan building was rather confusing, we somehow made it through. Originally constructed as the Mausoleum of Hadrian, this building has also served as a castle and fortress for the popes, and now is used as a museum.
5. New sunglasses. A rather dull highlight of my week, I know. But, after losing my sunglasses somewhere in London, I couldn't see very well in the sunlight. At all. Today, that problem was fixed and now I don't have to squint like Popeye in all of the pictures. (Although, that is my signature look)

Hope you all are having a fantastic week! I'm finally caught up on days which is nice. Thank you for your patience with that and I hope you all enjoyed "coming" on my European escapade with me! Have a great Tuesday :)