Post #1...here we go!

My name is Susan.
I am currently studying abroad with Baylor in Great Britain although right now we are in Italy.
I am engaged to the best man in the world who just also happens to be my best friend. His name is Miles :)
I miss my family, friends, and dogs.
I love food and seeing new things and being Intense Girl (as I was so lovingly named by Emily, Laura, Elsa, and Hilliary)
This is my blog.

Basically this is my way of letting everyone know what I am getting to do over here in Europe!

Day One: The Flight

Paige and I ready to go

8 hours to England
4 hour layover
2 hour flight to Rome

Italian countryside from the plane

 So needless to say we were exhausted, but we still definitely wanted pizza...

Hotel room in Rome!

On our way to dinner..St. Peter's Basilica and the Tiber River

Paige and I at our first dinner

YUM

Day Two: The Vatican
The next day we all went on a tour of the Vatican. It was amazing! The Sistine Chapel, St. Peter's Basilica, all the art..incredible. Our tour guide's name for the whole time we were in Rome was Sonja and she was great! So cute and very Italian. The Sistine Chapel is HUGE! Way bigger than you would ever think from the pictures. Also, one of my favorite rooms was the map room. The Pope was made a whole hallway with maps of all the different parts of Italy down it with north towards him and the more southern regions away from him. St. Peter's Basilica has to be one of the most impressive and stunning places I have ever seen. They had a Pope who had been made a saint enclosed in a glass box so you could view and see how he has not changed. (Thankfully his face and hands were covered with wax, everything else was covered up!) Amazing!

Used to be a fountain Christians would wash themselves in before they came into the church.

Used to be a tomb..now a fountain. As Sonja says, "But..Dis is Rome. Bene."

Laocoon being eaten by snakes because he told the Trojans not to take the Trojan horse.

I want my floor to look like this...

...and my ceiling to look like this.

Who put the glad in gladiator? HERCULES

The Map Room! Map murals all down the hallway

St. Peter's Square

Inside St. Peter's Basilica. GORGEOUS.

Outside St. Peter's Basilica

After that a group of us went and walked around Rome ALL afternoon. Literally until dinner. So fun to see all the sights and feel accomplished. I don't know that my feet have ever hurt as badly as they did that day, but definitely one of my favorite days so far...

Spaghetti al pomodoro for lunch...

...in this square

All of us except Bethany (who is taking the picture) taking a break.

One of my three favorite things in all of Rome. This is a column that was dedicated to a Roman hero/politician/nobleman but is now a column dedicated to the Catholic church. A statue of St. Paul at the top. Relief engravings all the way up.

Piazza Popolo. Another one of my three favorite things in Rome. So gorgeous, so unexpected, and a great view from the park above.

Next up...Day Two: The Colosseum.