Almost time for departure!

Thursday- February 23

Time was moving quickly the closer it got to when we were supposed to meet Yelena at the school. We were to meet her at 6:15, but at 6:10 p.m. Kate and Jess were still running around the apartment. I was finishing up getting ready and was ready to leave at 7:15. Jess asked "Do I have time to dry my hair?" I said, "Jess, we're supposed to meet Yelena now."

I told Kate and Jess I was going to go meet Yelena so she wasn't standing there by herself. I got there five minutes late, and we waited for about 10 minutes until the other two got there. 

Our train was set to depart at 7:08 and we got there at 6:50, perfect timing. When we looked up at the main board to find out platform we saw a 5' in the "ritardo" row, which means late. There was also not platform listed, so we were so confused because one we didn't know where to go and two, we didn't know what the 5' meant. 

Yelena and I went to the ticket office to find out while Kate and Jess went to go grab food. The line took about 10 minutes to get through and Yelena and I were starting to get antsy because we didn't know if we were going to end up missing our train. When it was our turn I walked up to the window and said, "Parli Inglesi,"and the woman thankfully said "yes." 

She said the 5' meant the train was going to be five minutes late. After learning this information we met back up with the other two and told them it meant the train was delayed for five hours. Kate's face dropped and she said "Crap, I have to email the hostel then." I tried holding myself together, but I'm horrible at keeping a straight face and I burst into laughing. 

We finally got on the train. We weren't all sitting together because we bought our tickets separately, but we were at least in the same car and only a few rows a part. I sat next to a Korean girl, and I had no idea how to communicate to her because I didn't know if she spoke English or Italian so I pointed to the seat and asked in English if I could get to it and then said grazie. She understood me at least, but I laughed at myself for using two different languages. 

As I was sitting in my seat waiting for the train to pull out I was looking out at the platform of people rushing by with their rolling suitcases. I was thinking to myself how everyone who walks by is someone different with a story. I occasionally do this and sit back from everything. There are just so many people in this world and there is so much more out there that I have yet to see. 

We arrived in Rome at 8:45 and we left the Roma Termini train station for our hostel. We were staying at Mamma Hostel and it only took us two wrong turns to finally find it.

There wasn't any sign outside, but we saw a buzzer with the name Mamma Hostel next to it. When we buzzed in, what I thought sounded like a woman, answered. I didn't know what they said, but the door was buzzed open and when we walked in a man stuck his head out from a flight up stairs and said, "hello!" and told us the hostel was up this way.

I don't remember the owner's name, but we was nice. We learned he was Indian and could speak about eight fluent languages — pretty impressive.

He showed us to our room and then we had to do some paperwork. The hostel was good enough for me for a short night, but I could not stay there for more than that. It was just tiny and the bathroom was so dirty. Yelena was planning on showering that night, but she decided against it. As a college student it was affordable and convenient, but we all agreed our parents would take one step in and walk back out.

Afterwards we asked him if he knew of any good gelato places nearby and he gave us directions before we headed out.

We walked around Rome a little bit and tried to find this gelato place that was apparently 140 years old. The area we were in gave off a shady vibe, so we decided to stop looking for it. We found this other gelato place, where I got chocolate and coconut — so good. The woman working was a very unpleasant person, so we didn't stay too long.

When we were walking to find something for Kate to eat, there were these three guys behind us who started making very odd whistling noises. I ignored them, but Kate turned around and then jerked her head back saying, "guys, don't look back. Those guys are super creepy." So we started walking a bit faster and when we crossed the street to a busy area I heard one of the guys say "ladies, you better watch your purses." I immediately grabbed mine and searched it to make sure everything was still in there. Thankfully it was. I only had a mini heart attack.

We walked around the Roma Termini for food for Kate, but because it was 10, most places were closed so we decided to cross the street to get McDonald's, as it was the only thing opened. We were trying to avoid it at first because creepy men were standing outside of the main doors.

Yelena said "Just act confident and ignore them and you'll be fine." So we did that and once we were inside everything looked normal.

Afterwards we headed back to the hostel and when we were getting ready for bed the owner was so sweet and gave us a bottle of red wine, compliments of him for staying at his hostel. He opened it for us and after he left we each had a cup. We didn't drink much of it though because it was already midnight and we had to wake up at 3:45. We felt bad, but we didn't want to make it more difficult to wake up in a few hours.