First impressions

I am here. Life is good. I made it safely to the ESM last night, went running this morning to St. Peter's Square and back, not suffering from any jet lag.
That last point is pretty nice. So far there are four Americans who have arrived. Janelle from Seattle, Chris from MA, and Monty and I. As far as I know, the rest of them are still in bed even though it's 11 am here. I managed to sleep at the beginning of my flight and that helped me adjust to Italian time. I went to bed last night at 11 pm, woke up at 8 am, ate and went for the run I mentioned. So no jet lag. Yea!!!
Let's see, first impressions from the trip. British Airways is a nice airline. Meals, little travel kits to make the flight better, complete with eyecovers and a toothbrush with paste. Good movies too, but I only saw The Interpreter because I was trying to sleep. Monty, on the other hand, couldn't sleep, watched 3 movies, and is especially tired.
Speaking of Monty, it was nice to have a travel buddy. We made it onto the express train into the heart of Rome easily. (When we were in the station at the airport I was attacked by mosquitos. It's really weird because I have about 10 bites located only near my knees and those bites have grown into large bumps. I seem to have a more than normal allergic reactions to mosquito bites.) Once we got off the train, we wandered for a long distance through the train station to get to the buses. We would leave our stuff with one person while the other ran around trying to find out where to buy the bus tickets and where we were supposed to go. I have a rolling suitcase, but Monty has the old school kind that doesn't roll straight so he had a rough time carrying it through the station. We definitely looked like tourists who overpacked, but we're going to be out here for a long time and needed a larger selection of clothing than the average visitor.
Once we made it to the bus with the help of free luggage carts (thank you God for the luggage carts) I needed Monty's muscles to get my almost 70 lb. suitcase into the bus. I would reverse into the bus, Monty would pass his pack to me and then the suitcases, and then he would climb on. We did that three times, on the bus to St. Peter's, then back on that bus after we had gotten off and realized we didn't get off at the right stop, and then onto bus 46 to the school. Once we got off the bus we had to walk 150 ft or so to the school. We landed at the airport at 5:30 pm and arrived at the school at 9 pm. I had to laugh at how silly we must have looked.
Now to the school. We are in a hotel owned by the Emmanuel Community so it's interesting. There are tourists in the rooms across from us. Not really a place I can feel comfortable walking around in my pajamas or barefoot. At least so far. The floor is tile, the bathroom is smll with a bathtub that is deep and small without a curtain so I had to sit down to use it so I wouldn't spray water everywhere. The community floor has a kitchen, cateferia style eating room, small circle of couches to hang out. It is in need of some coziness. We can see the top of the dome of St. Peter's from the balcony off the main room.
We head for Assisi on the 1st and will be there for the Feast of St. Francis. When we get back we are assigned rooms. Five people arrive today I believe. It turns out that there are 7 Americans, people from Indonesia, Australia, Germany, France, Italy, Denmark?. I don't remember anybody else.
Well, off I go to practice Italian. After trying to get around the city and people having to talk to me in English, I am determined to pick up the language. Peace all!