arg!

Forgive the whinyness of the beginning of this post, but

rant:

I've been in Rome for 5 1/2 days, and I feel like I've seen and done nothing. I don't know anyone from the program who I remember. And I am already fed up with my roommates. It's 2pm on Saturday, and yeah, the weather isn't that great. But it's not raining that hard. It hasn't all week. Well, they don't want to do anything. It's raining, they're tired, they don't want to.... I'm sick of the excuses. Most of them (4) are currently asleep. One is out with a friend of hers from home. And I'm in my room on my laptop.

When we first got here, we agreed that all of us were on budgets, and that we really didn't want to do the American things of hanging out in bars on Campo del Fuire. But, that doesn't mean that we weren't willing to go out and do stuff. Tuesday we found a small jazz pub, and on Thursday, we went to a bar just down the street. But that's it.

The adventuring we've done has been with a purpose, not to just wander around. We NEEDED to go to the Spanish Steps, so we walked the city for two days to do that. And that's it. Yesterday, once we found them, we went home. Didn't do anything else. Stayed in for dinner, didn't go out like we were planning, nada.

I'm in Rome, for Christ's sakes, and I'm here for under 100 days now. I'm planning to spend spring break with a rail pass and a sense of who has couches where, so I can really travel throughout the UK and Paris. But starting tomorrow, if my roommates don't want to so something, I really don't give a damn. They can waste their time staying up until god only knows when doing nothing, then sleep all afternoon and waste all of their time here. But I'm not doing that. Tomorrow, the Resgrads are hosting a trip to a flea market. The meeting place is only about 5 stops away on the tram, so I'll buy my month pass for the metro and head out. I can speak enough Italian to get around,  and some people here speak English, so I'll be fine.

I do know that some of my opinions are my fault. I haven't done much without them, but I'm in a foreign city, and there's safety in numbers, all that jazz. Plus, I'm here to make new friends. I know the pitfalls of being best friends with the people I live with, I've seen that end really badly. But it's nice to have some sort of travel companions, even if it's just to get milk with. Having someone to talk to and socialize with makes us human. I don't really think it's all that bad if I want to do something with someone who is right there.

Today, I'm taking the rest of the day for me. I've already decided that I'm not cooking tonight. If people want food, they can make it themselves. I'd like to go out tonight, but if noone is thinking about coming with me, I have to finish Em's scarf before I see her. I can work on that tonight while watching youtube clips of American shows (because no forms of online TV work here, because it's an Italian IP address- I'm wondering if I can get them at school...). Tomorrow, tho, I'm living here for me, not for anyone else.

end rant.