Navigating the Eternal City

Story 1:
After getting some scattered advice during orientation from tour guides and program directors (e.g. to look drivers in the eye when crossing a street so they won't run you over), I decided to take on the Italian bus system to venture back to my apartment from a far away corner of Rome.  My roommate Lauren and I ask some Italians in the street using the VERY few Italian words we know, the name of our street, and wild hand gestures. They indicate which bus to take and wave it down for us.  We hop on.  I immediately get into a silent "argument" with some older Italian man who got on at the same time as me over who can give the seat to the other. Eventually my Schlussel-persistance won out and he sat down.

The next step was figuring out where to get off.  We start to ask someone using our wild gestures again and soon, the entire bus (note: some Italian busses are very tiny. See "does size matter.") is involved in our struggle.  Suddenly, the bus turns away from where we want to go and we end up getting off in some cobble stone alley. Eventually, we get on the right bus and end up home in time to pick up our newly arrived 6th roommate (of 7) for dinner.  (Yes Adam, it always comes back to dinner).

Story 2:
Somehow, Shabbat came by surprise this week and I realize Thursday afternoon I had no Shabbat plans.  I got in contact with Chabad and at the very last moments before shabat (literally) arranged to go to a Jewish Italian family's home for Shabbat dinner with my new friend, Becca.  The kind Jewish stranger said he would wait outside his apartment at a designated time.  I walked to meet Becca and an hour and a half later, we're lost in a new neighborhood in Rome and time is running out.  We were very close but the number system of the houses made no sense and we run frantically up and down the block.  We find a policeman and hurriedly ask him for directions.  Of course, he replies in Italian and we look at each other and shake our heads. He tries a few times without success so he leaves his booth and ESCORTS US to our destination down the block.  The conversation during the walk went like this:
Polizia: "Obama, buono?" (we understand this to mean: "Do you like Obama?")
Us: thumbs down
Polizia: "Bush?"
Us: "Eh"
Polizia: "Ron Paul?"
Us: thumbs down
This continues until we arrive at the destination and we thank him and part ways.  We made it JUST in time!

Moral of the stories: Italians are great!