Prediction

Blearily rubbing my eyes as I headed into the lobby to join the rest of the group, I rued the fact that I had been unable to sleep on the plane. I had been excited and, to be honest, a little terrified during the flight, because I simply couldn't believe that it was actually happening. I was going abroad! And to ROME! Not to mention the fact that I was on a large plane for the first time in my life. All of these did not help me sleep on the trip over to here.

As I stood among my classmates, I sympathized with those who looked just as weary as I felt, and envied those who seemed refreshed. I resolved to buy some espresso as soon as I could, in the hopes of waking myself up. I didn't want to miss a single second of my being here, least of all for a silly (to my mind) reason such as lack of sleep. As we headed out for our first walk to the Campo di Fiori, I felt the warm sun on my back and shoulders, and relaxed a little. As we walked, I heard Dan and Jackie argueing over which cafe had better coffee, and what restaurant we should all go to. A group of young men on motorcycles passed us by, a few of them giving our little group a second glance. "PAULO!" someone shouted, and the the whole group burst out laughing.

I looked around as we kept walking, constantly spotting little details in the buildings, and interesting people that the artist in me wanted to stop and sketch. Seeing as I couldn't do so at this very moment, I began to keep mental tabs of the buildings that I wanted to draw, of the intersections of the lines from various buildings, and of the various colorful shapes that I saw around me. The lines and shapes I would probably end up doodling somewhere over and over, as soon as I found some particular arrangement that really struck me, until they ended up in one of my final pieces of artwork. And, oh! All the lovely combinations of colors that I kept seeing everywhere. I mentally kicked myself for not bring my colored pencils and wondered if I should buy some while I was here.

             As we kept walking, I began to wonder about our free time, and how much I would actually be able to do during it. I had wanted to try and search, at least a little, for the grave of my grandfather, who died while leaving the Soviet Union and coming to America. Unfortunately, I didn't know how feasible that was, particularly with all the other sights that I wanted to see. Setting aside this thought for a later time when I was more wide awake, I tuned into the group discussing things that we absolutely had to do tonight, including get our very first Italian coffees, and our first real gelato! I grinned at the thought of gelato, remembering the delicious gelato that I could find in Boston's North End, and wondering if this gelato would or, even, could be better.

            We reached the Campo di Fiori right as my stomach gave out a huge grumble. I looked at all the people passing by, and wondered where they all came from. I gave a start as I realized that Dan and Jackie had reached an agreement, and were leading us to the restaurant. I followed the group, and smiled, excited that I had a whole two weeks to spend in this fantastic and inspiring city.