Soup Kitchen and seeing Emily!

This week we got to volunteer at a soup kitchen in the center of Rome. When we arrived we learned that it is actually a homeless shelter as well. They divided us up into three different areas. Some got to refill water for dinner, others cleaned out the rooms, and a few of us divided up clothing donations. In theory it sounds easy enough to do, keep the better quality clothing and throw out the crummy clothing. It makes it significantly more difficult when you are working with two old Italian women who don't speak any English and have very different opinions of what garbage is. Not to mention European fashion is quite a bit harder to decipher whether clothes are for "Donna" (women) or for "Uomo" (men). Purple velvet pants with a satin stripe can go either way here, in case you were wondering. We did increase our clothing vocabulary at the end of the day and I'd say it was an excellent way to spend our time here. Everyone there was so grateful for our help. Seeing a place like that truly makes you appreciate how lucky you are. I would say it was even more so than usual volunteering because of the experiences I've been privileged with through studying abroad.


Last night I was able to finally meet up with my good friend Emily who goes to Loyola in Chicago. She's studying here in Rome too, but for the entire semester. She brought me to the most modern looking bar I'd ever seen called Fluid. The walls were glowing and the floor squished with lava when you walked over the tile. There were trendy white couches everywhere and heat censored artwork even. It reminded me of something you'd see in Sex in the City.



There were over 200 different kinds of girly mixed drinks there so it took me about 20 min to pick something out. I chose a Mango Frozen Daiquiri, which was HUGE but so delicious. Then with your drink purchase you got free appetizers which we had for dinner. They had all sorts of fancy foods in a buffet style. I had no idea what I was eating, but they were phenomenal as well. I'll definitely be going back there with my group. We even grabbed chocolate dipped gelato afterward, which was a first for me. One of the most fun nights I've had in Rome!

It was great catching up with her and comparing our experiences abroad. It was so fun to see another familiar face in this foreign city. Hopefully I'll get to see her again before I leave for Greece!