Arrival in Roma…

When I board the train for Rome, it turns out to be standing room only. After a day of all walking, I’m a bit disappointed, but I do my best to cop a squat on my luggage and concentrate on being thankful that I will arrive before the transport strike.

I get off the train at Rome’s Termini station; its major transportation hub. This is not only where the entire city utilizes the train system, but also where its two subway lines and several bus lines converge, thus making it Italy’s one, well-organized, majorly cool transport central. (I mean, don't get me wrong, the trains, metro and buses are all still late/sporadic at times, but at least they all meet at one central location for once.)

I've chosen a couple possible accommodation options near the Termini station, so finding them should be pretty simple. The first one is booked out, but I catch a break at #2. There are only 4 beds in a room, so that’s kind of nice. When I walk in, I meet a young gal from Illinois who is in France for a semester and visiting Rome on a long weekend. I chat with her (and her friends who stop by to pick her up) for a while before they head out.

I was tired and not really willing to venture around the 'hood after dark, so I spent a little time on the internet (where they charge you extra to use your own computer AND to upload photos/use the USB port – LAME!), and then pop into a café (bar) for a bit to eat and some gelato.

That pretty much tuckers me out, so I come back to the room for some down time and a guy walks in. Oh!...I guess this is a co-ed dorm then. Ooo-kay. So I chat for a while with Jed from New York who is a lawyer, but lives in London. He too is in Rome for a long weekend (must be why everyone is so full at the moment).

I think Jed is (unintentionally) funny because when he talks, you can tell his brain is going faster than his mouth and soon his sentences turn into fragments, skipping the end so he can begin the next one quicker. Thus leaving you, the listener, with the responsibility of leaping from one ending to the new beginning. Fortunately, Jed is not like tangential-Sally; his thoughts have a logical flow and keeping pace is quite easy. (It actually reminds me of skimming: they say that you don't actually have to read all the words on a page to get the full message; Jed is the same way.)

Listening to him speak gives me the sensation of running downhill, which turns into a tumble, which turns into huge somersaults (insert mental picture of Wesley and Princess Buttercup falling down the big, grassy hill - "As...you...wishhhh!!!"). That’s what it’s like. Although, surprisingly, (as I said) it’s not difficult to follow at all. But it does make me chuckle a bit.

Soon one of our other roommates comes back (thankfully – not that I didn't like my new friend Jed, but I wasn’t extra keen on getting ready for bed with ONLY a boy in the room), and the three of us pretty much hit the sack.