The weekend has given me some time to catch up on my sketching assignments, do some exploring and enjoy what Rome has to offer. In an attempt to find the local hangouts in Rome our group did a little bar hopping and managed to make a few Italian friends along the way. It seems that Romans are big fans of the Irish because there is some form of an Irish pub on every street corner and I think we managed to hit up almost everyone this weekend.

Later in the week I got together with some of the Italians I had met over the weekend. Over the phone they said they wanted to go to a “rasmus feast,” which I thought meant going to dinner, but as I found out it is a huge party. A funny thing about the translation from Italian to English is that some words like ‘party’ do not translate very easily. What we actually went to was a party for European students studying abroad in Italy at a bar down a small street. It was an incredible experience because I was one of the only Americans and I was surrounded by conversations in various languages. One of the Italian girls I went with to the bar was having a conversation with one of her friends in German, while trying to keep me up to date by translating what was happening in English and Italian. I don’t think I have ever felt so stranded by a lack of communication. Just being immersed in the culture made me want to learn German and Spanish immediately, but unfortunately I am having a hard enough time learning Italian, so I am not going to get my hopes too high.