ciao. grazie. prego. arrivederci. come se dice ... in italiano?

Ciao Roma. Io parlo un po italiano. Mio appartamento e bellisima! Domani andato alla citta di vaticano per moltitudino con la Papa. Non grande accordo. Va bene si? Ho un esame in italiano lunedi. Non mi piace perche io conosci molto italiano ma non parlare bene.

Who understands what I just said? I mean whenever I type in google.com, it automatically goes to Google Italia and asks me to "cerca" or "mi sento fortunato" instead of search and I'm feeling lucky. Strange right? But the websites it gives me are still in English, I'm baffled.

To get to my apartment today I had to drive through la piazza di San Pietro, and then we were here. Seriously? My apartment is less than a block away from La citta di vaticano? Crazy right. Though I'm not sure if it has hit me yet that I am in Roma. Our hotel last night was next to the Colesseo, and now La Vaticano, and we were in London not even two days ago. I can't figure out what I really need to prove to me that I am here. I see the signs in italiano and the people talking in italiano but they know we are American right away and speak to us in English, and then when I try to talk in Italian to them, I feel funny. I don't know if this feeling will go away in only a month, but I hope that it will, I want to feel comfortable talking to a real Italian (as I put it) and talk in Italian. Maybe going to mass tomorrow and having them speak in Italian will put things in perspective.

For now, I start classes on Monday and have my placement exam for Italian. Then the week holds wine tastings, welcome cocktail, Capri, Monte Vesuvio, Napoli, Pompeii, and exploring Roma, so I guess I just have to see where that all takes me.