Hippogriff sighting in Tuscany!!

Since I wrote last I had the privilege of going on a complimentary Tuscan excursion...courtesy's of Study Abroad Italy...which in reality I probably paid for in my program fees, but lets face it it's a lot more fun to imagine that it's free!! 
The trip started on Friday with a trip to a seaside village called Talamone after about a three hour drive from Florence and checking into the hotel.  Now before I get to far into telling you about what we did over the weekend, I want to explain the title.  On the way to Talamone after we checked in, we drove past a house with a balcony that had a large stuffed animal on it...life sized you could even say.  On closer inspection, I saw that it looked exactly like a stuffed hippogriff right down to the horse body, wings and curved beak!! It was crazy!! I was only able to get a blurred pic, but here's the evidence!

Our program guide Allessandra was kind enough to get us some free gelato to tide us over till dinner when we arrived! Maria and I decided to hike up to the castle that was there since we had about an hour and a half to kill, the view was incredible from up there! Of course I had to take a classic Titanic pose...haha

That night it was on the itinerary to have a "typical Italian meal"...so ya we're expecting some pasta, maybe some bread with olive oil, possibly tiramisu...but what we ended up getting was a FIVE COURSE MEAL!! It was delicious! 

Day two was started early with a short bus ride to a Archaeological site that was right near the beach we were going to be spending the rest of the day at.  We arrived there around 10:30 and took a tour of the tombs that had been left behind by an old old Etruscan tribe.  It was actually really interesting because we learned that the only reason the tombs were preserved for so long was because the Etruscans were some of the earliest producers of iron weapons. Unfortunately, the Etruscans had no way of heating the iron hot enough that it would melt, they could only get it hot enough to melt off the excess sludge and then be moldable.  When the armies in Rome learned about the value of these weapons the Etruscans had to produce more and more of them to the point that the excess sludge started to be of some inconvenience.  So they decided to start dumping the sludge on top of their tombs so that they would be protected forever.  However, in World War One, the soldiers discovered that the sludge still contained up to 60 percent of iron and started digging it up.  About 7-8 meters after they started digging, they discovered the tombs buried underneath.  Since then all the sludge has been cleared out, but the ground there is still shiny and glimmering from the leftover iron fragments to this day!! Here is a pic of the biggest tomb we saw...

   

After a day at the beach, we made our way back to the hotel before heading out to our second dinner of the trip.  After a little freshening up, Maria and I decided to take a look in the little store next to the hotel where guess what I found?!? A STRAIGHTENER!! That's right, my hair is finally going to look normal again!! I was so excited, I haven't been able to find one in Florence that wasn't sold in a hair salon and was ridiculously expensive!!! I'm not gonna lie, getting that hair straightener definitely put me in a good mood for the rest of the night and while dinner and our nice walk around the Porto Santo Stefano was great, it was even more amazing because I was so glad I could finally straighten  my hair!! In fact...here is a funny pic that Maria and I took during dinner haha

Sunday was probably my favorite day of them all, we spent the whole afternoon at this villa that was converted into an inn, organic farm, and restaurant.  This place was seriously beautiful, and exactly the type of place I would love to own someday.  They grow all their own grapes organically and then produce them in the wine cellar that we got to tour, which they also hold meetings in.  Apparently even though the rooms of the cellar are not that large they have a system that hooks up all the sound to each room so that they can essentially incorporate one large 350 person meeting.  Being the HRA dork that I am I found this all wildly interesting and started asking about occupancy and rooms and stuff (in case you were wondering they have 21 rooms and three apartments that are offsite that can hold up to 60 people :) )  They also had a chapel onsite as well as a spa...it was truly a beautiful place.

    

While we were there we also got to see the villa's organically raised cattle being rounded up and hog-tied by their butterie (what the Italians call cowboys).  This was pretty cool, however definitely the part that was the most fun was when they let us ride the horses!! So guess I can cross "Ride and Italian Horse" off my bucket list now! haha

On the agenda for this weekend is Sicily!! Maria and I are flying into Palermo on Friday and getting back on Sunday and we're super excited to eat CANOLI!!! I'll let you know how it is :) I miss everyone so much but it is so great here! I even gutted fish in my cooking class this week, another first for me! haha, if you want to look at more pictures of my trip you're always welcome to visit my facebook, but until next time!! 

Yes...Switzerland was rainy...but it was also one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen :)

Hello all...first of all my apologies for the delays on this post, it just seems as though there's so much to do! 


I left off with a wonderful weekend experienced in the beautiful Capalbio and the crazy Boar Festival! Not too much happened that week, I just had classes.  The only major thing that happened was that I got approved to be involved in community service in Florence.  I'm really excited about this as I hope it will help me get to know some of the locals better.  It's a little funny though because the community service project I got chosen for is the Ars de Fides association that coincidentally offers tours of the most major churches in Florence free of charge to English speaking tourists haha.  Unfortunately this means that I have to memorize about 10 pages of info about the San Lorenzo church, ideally before my first shift next Wednesday!! Wish me luck!! haha


Now on to the good stuff...made my first trip out of Italy this past weekend!! The trip started on Friday with me leaving my apartment at 9:15 in the morning, giving myself plenty of time to make it to the train station for my 10 am train to Montreux.  Silly me however remembered that I forgot to take my passport with me about half way to the train station and had to literally run home to get it.  But don't worry!! I made it to the train station with about 10 minutes to spare and got on my train safe and sound...made it to Milan (almost got attacked by a pigeon at the train station!)...and then finally pulled into the Montreux train station (after seeing some beautiful scenery on the way) right at 3:23 to find the lovely Nishita waiting for me!! I was so happy to see her! However she did make me feel like a bum a little since she looked so amazing in her suit and heels and I was dressed down in jeans and a t-shirt haha...but alas...story of  my life :)


We proceeded to take the first train up to her school (Swiss Hotel Management School) (which by the way is on the side of a mountain!!!) and arrived there about 30 minutes later :) Now for those of you who don't know the exact layout of Switzerland, Montreux is a city that is on the opposite end of Lake Geneva from Geneva and is a beautiful place to live with a lake right there for the summer water sports and mountains all around it available for skiing in the winter! Nishi's school is in a small town on the side of the mountain called Caux and is housed in the Caux Palace.  The whole school has spectacular views of the surrounding country and in general is just amazing! Sorry to say this Missouri State but I actually found myself thinking "why didn't I go to school here instead??" 

That's me pointing to Caux Palace from down by the lake! 


After taking a tour of the school, we sat down with Nishi's hilarious best friend Mugs and had dinner at their French restaurant where all the students are trained in their first year in the classic style of French service (in case you haven't ever eaten at a high class French restaurant the service is really difficult and intense!!), I had the poached salmon and it was delicious! That night we started the evening by having a cocktail in the schools bar and club called the Grotto and then taking the last train down to the city with a ton of her school friends to go to this club called Millisime.  Not gonna lie...I was a little apprehensive cause of the weird name but this was probably the nicest club I've ever been to.  All of their drinks were amazing (although super expensive!!) and all of her friends were so nice with sharing their drinks as well...such a fun night!


During my stay Nishi and I stayed with one of her friends in downtown Montreux who's apartment was in a super good location right near Millesime and the train station, we went out again on Saturday night (although this time with the girls) but I left a little early cause I was soooo tired.  We would have done more in Montreux on Saturday but unfortunately it was raining the whole day :( So instead we decided to hope for better weather on Sunday....too bad it was raining then too! But instead of chickening out we decided to brave the rain and the cold to go see the Freddy Kruger statue!! Oh wait...haha...I mean the Freddie Mercury statue...and for those of you who like me didn't know who that was till I looked him up on wikipedia just now, he was the lead singer of Queen!! who knew?! here's the wikipedia on him if you would like to read :)


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freddie_Mercury


Unfortunately after walking around Montreux for a bit we headed back up to school for my last few hours to spend with Nishi in Montreux :( I left the next morning and Switzerland was so sad I was leaving that it cried/rained haha...however good news!!! I have made plans to go back and visit over Thanksgiving weekend because Nishita is in this really cool performance thing at SHMS that weekend called International Day! It is on November 27 and this chick is going to be there! I'm so excited to go back and I'm really hoping we can work out a weekend for Nishi to come visit me in Florence as well so we can go to all the Jersey Shore clubs together haha....


So now that you have heard about my wonderful weekend in Switzerland, there's only a few things left to tell you!!!


One: I have been seriously thinking lately about continuing to stay abroad after I graduate in December (my family is all probably thinking "Oh no she's gonna pull a Maureen!" haha).  So, today in my Organizational Behavior in the Hospitality Industry class I talked to the professor and asked him his thoughts on American students working abroad.  He told me that while it was unfortunate that I wasn't fluent in any other languages, he does have some connections in the UK and Australia that he can set me up with so I can start networking! He also said that in his opinion he thinks that a good place for me to start out would be in Australia...so ya, just a thought, but now I'm getting really excited about possible working abroad!!


Two: I have been very very busy booking and booking trips!! Here is the updated list of trips I am planning on going on...(bolded means they're for sure happening!!)


Sept 23-25-Tuscan Maremma free excursion with SAI
Sept 30-Oct 2-Sicily with Maria
Oct 7-8-Venice with Maria
Oct 9-Wine Producer field trip with class (only not confirmed because I haven't paid the 65 euro deposit yet!)
Oct 13-16-Dublin, Ireland with Stacey
Oct 22-29-Morocco with Stacey and Sarah
Oct 30-Nov 2-Munich, Germany to see the Neuschwanstein Castle
Nov 5-Parma with SAI
Nov 19-20-Rome with SAI
Nov 25-28-Montreux, Switzerland for International Day!
Dec 2-5-London for Harry Potter tour :)
Dec 8-11-Paris and Amsterdam with Stacey!


So for those of you who haven't realized this....ALL MY FLIGHTS ARE BOOKED!! That means no more endless searching on Ryanair, Easyjet, Skyscanner, Momondo, or any of those other budget airline flight websites that get soooo annoying after a while :)


Till next time my dears :)

Oh what a weekend...

So, I believe I left off with having to go to bed early due to our crazy early call time for the Mediterranean Cruise on Friday...needless to say it was AMAZING! I mean it sucked getting up that early but it was totally worth it.  The water was so blue and beautiful and we went to these two tiny islands that were so well preserved and not modern at all.  The only bad part was I slipped a bit on the rocks and got pretty cut up on my hands and feet, but it was still awesome.  Oddly enough though the water was wayyyy saltier than anything I've ever experienced before haha.  Anyway, we didn't get in until like 10 pm and I passed out cause I was so tired from the long day...


On Saturday Maria and I decided we wanted to go somewhere because we didn't want to just sit around the apartment all day so we found the cheapest train fare we could (1.90 euro) and hopped on a train to Prato! Thinking back we probably should have done a little bit more research because the town honestly wasn't that interesting lol, we only stayed for like an hour and a half, oh well, guess you win some you lose some! 


Sunday we decided to take the whole day and go to that boar festival I was telling you about in the last post after stopping briefly in Pisa to see the tower.  We left around 8 in the morning and made our first stop in Pisa.  I had some apprehensions about this because I was told by my wonderful Aunt Jody that the tower of Pisa is not really that interesting and it is definitely something to skip.  Even though Aunt Jody is normally right about everything I'm sorry to say she was definitely mistaken about this one...the tower was really cool!!  It's crazy how tilted it is...only bad part was I went to lay on the ground to take a picture with my feet holding the tower up and I got stung by a bee for the first time in probably like 16 years! It was not pleasant lol.


Made our way back to the train station and decided to have our first Italian McDonalds experience!! Honestly, I thought it tasted exactly like McDonalds in the states...so disappointing haha.  Got on our train to Capalbio and arrived in the town the festival was supposed to be in around 4 pm....only to find that the festival was no where close!!


We slowly came to our senses (after walking around 2 miles in a residential area) and asked some of the locals where it was and apparently Capalbio City is located on the side of a mountain and is about a 10 minute drive...luckily we had the nicest cab driver who bought us both a glass of red wine when we got to the town on the mountainside.  The boar was delicious and the view from the mountain was even better, definitely a day trip worth taking :)


On other news....Stacey, Sarah and I had been struggling for a while to figure out plans for Fall break...first it was gonna be Barcelona, Paris, and Amsterdam...then Dublin, London, Paris, and Amsterdam...then major switch to Greece and Turkey...and after nixing all those ideas due to lack of interest from some parties of lack of funds from others we settled on an ALL INCLUSIVE MOROCCAN FALL BREAK!!! That's right! I've officially already booked and paid for a trip that includes a camel excursion in the Sahara Desert!! ahhhh I'm so excited! 


For those of you that are interested here are some of the dates I'm thinking for my other trips:
(Bold means the trip is already booked :) )
Sept 16-19-Montreux, Switzerland to visit Nishita
Sept 23-25-All Inclusive Tuscany Tour with school
Sept 30-Oct 2-Sicily?
Oct 7-8-Venice with a stop in Naples for pizza :)
Oct 9-Wine Producer field trip with my Organizational Behavior Class
Oct 15-Cinque Terre Day Trip
Oct 22-29-Morocco!
Oct 31-Nov 2-Neuschwanstein Castle, Germany
Nov 4-Seina wine tour with school
Nov 5-Parma day trip with school
Nov 11-13-Paris and Amsterdam with Stacey
Nov 19-20-Rome trip with school
Nov 24-27-Possible Dublin trip with Snow or Sand...?
Dec 2-4-Skiing in the Alps
Dec 8-11-London for Harry Potter Tour--possibly doing Dublin here instead...


And that's all...for all of those following this blog I would love to hear your thoughts on my trips!! 

Add classes to the list of things that are going to be amazing in Italy!

Sooooo I had my first day of classes yesterday, my two classes were: Italian Culture through Festivals and Feasting and Italian Language 1.  I would just like to point out that my Festivals and Feasting class was under the sociology section of classes and therefore I just assumed it would be a lecture on the various festivals and feasts throughout Italy (I was mainly excited for this on the chance that one of them would be in a time and place that I would be able to attend and get some legit Italy experiences).  So imagine my surprise when I enter the Apicius building on Tuesday morning only to be directed to the building where the cooking classes were held, and then shown into a full on cooking lab room! 


Surprise surprise! Festivals and feasting isn't just learning about festivals and feasts, its about making the actual foods prepared in the feasts! On the first day we tried this amazing pecorino cheese that's made in a town called Penzia in Tuscany.  It was sooooo good, I thought I would always be a Wisconson Cheese person just like my dad, but this cheese was so scrumptious, melt in your mouth kind of amazing.  I looked up tickets today and am definitely gonna make a trip down to Penzia sometime when I have a day off.  We also made this wild boar stew type thing that is made during this festival in a town called Capolbio.  I was doing my reading today and found out that the festival is the second weekend in September so if I have time this weekend I think I might go check it out! 


My Italian language class was really great too, I mean obviously it's hard to top eating delicious food, but I'm really excited to start learning more Italian so I don't feel like such an incompetent idiot all the time! haha I have the class with Stacey and our teacher is really nice, her name is Claudia.  She pretty much would say something in english and then repeat it Italian.  I'm hoping that I'll be able to start picking up some things that people say soon; I've been trying to speak to people at the markets in Italian when I go and ask them what the different fruits and vegetables are called.  


Was finally able to explore the Santo Sprito church (the one right next to our apartment) while on the way back from class cause I finally saw that it was open.  And I just have to say as blank as it is on the outside, it is so beautiful on the inside! I was surprised to not only find all the beautiful paintings on the walls and the amazing arched ceilings, but also in a small antechamber there was a wooden statue of Jesus hanging on the cross.  I read a pamphlet on it while I was there and apparently it's one of the first things Michelangelo ever sculpted when he was only 18! I had no idea that such a treasure could be found right near the apartment, I guess that's the beauty of Italy though :)


Only other thing that happened on Tuesday night was we all attended the Cultural Connections meeting that the school puts on for you to get more connected to the Florentine culture.  Once we got there there were three options in what you could do, either do family exchange, community service, or language connection.  I was hoping to do community service and language connection but since we could only do one I decided to check out community service.  As I expected, it seemed to be a popular choice for people to try and do, but the person discussing it stressed a lot that it was a big time commitment and that you shouldn't enter it lightly.  You actually have to fill out an application and have an interview to even be considered for one of their volunteer positions.  So I'm planning on doing that later today...the interviews are at 8:45pm (my time haha).  


Getting ready to leave for my second day of classes.  Today I have Organizational Behavior in the Hospitality Industry, Italian Beginning and Wine Appreciation 1.  Then interviews later tonight and going to bed early to get ready for the 5:45 am meet time for our Tuscan cruise!! So excited about this on Friday :) Still trying to iron out plans of what to do for fall break, but maybe thinking Greece and Sicily?? Also have a couple of ideas of other places I want to go this weekend...probably Cinque Terre and Capalbio (the boar festival!!).  I'll keep you posted :)

Will the Sweating Never End?? Also...Italians are pretty INTENSE about their jousting

So the last time I left off I had told you I was planning on going on a free pub crawl with the roomies on Friday night, well just so you're aware, that did happen, it was awesome and I am still alive! yay! We went to two bars and one club and the only bad part about it...really the only bad part about Florence so far is it really genuinely feels like I am never going to stop sweating! It is so hot here and add the whole no building has air conditioning thing to that...it's just a recipe for disaster! I think I've sweated off at least 5 pounds since I've been here haha.  


Other than that Friday and Saturday were pretty chill, added Gusta Panini to my favorite list of Gusta restaurants, it's this family can do no wrong! We also tried this cool kabob place over by the Squola language school where we had to apply for our permit of stay, it was really good as well.


So now on to what you're all waiting for....AREZZO!!!


To start off I really need to go all the way to the beginning and talk about the fact that even though you have a code, apparently if you buy your tickets online for the train, they still cannot give you a ticket if you do not have the printout...so unfortunately had to spend an extra 12 euro buying tickets that I had already bought to go to Arezzo, luckily it wasn't much more than that or I probably would have had doubts about it...oh well! 


It was definitely worth it when we got there...besides being the hilliest town I've ever been to, (no wonder they are all in such good shape) Arezzo was beautiful.  We started off the day by going to check out the place that the festival was going to be at later and enjoying a pastry and coffee at this small place right off the square.  Then we decided to go check out this antiques festival we heard was supposed to be going on the first Sunday of every month.  That was another hilly walk but when we finally made it up there it was definitely worth it.  Think of the biggest flea market you've ever been to and multiply it by 3, then add the fact that you're in a gorgeous place with views of the hills of Tuscany all around, definitely a sight to behold! And if that wasn't enough, we also got to enjoy free live music by a genuine one man band playing "I Shot the Sheriff" by Bob Marley...who knew he was so big in Italy! haha


We ended up having lunch at a small place that was recommended in my book as authentic Tuscan cuisine and it definitely was because we couldn't read a single thing on the menu.  I ended up getting a dish called ribolitti and gnocchi funghi which translated is a stew like mixture of carrots and celery and pasta dumplings with mushrooms.  It was really good! 


So as the day proceeded, we figured out there is basically two parts to this festival...the parade...which basically goes on all day (we saw it four times) and progressively gets bigger and the jousting (which is insane!!) The parade was very cool with drums and trumpets, as well as flags from all the families with the various teams parading through and supporting their jousters (there are two from each team)...we also got to see the noblemen/women and the priests walk in the parade.  


Now...since we are silly Americans and we wanted to fit in with all the crazy Italians, we decided that we needed to get flags to tie around our necks so that we could each support a team.  While this is a good idea in theory, the way we approached it probably could have been better.  We decided to each get the flag that we thought was prettiest and support that team.  However, once the massive parade was over and we fought our way through the crowds to get back inside the Piazza Grande to wait for the jousting to start, we realized that each team had a different section to stand in.  This wasn't a problem for me since we soon realized that we were standing in my team's section.  Sarah was a little frightened since my team is the biggest and loudest team and she was getting several dirty looks because apparently our teams didn't get a long :/ So ya she took her flag off for the rest of the jousting...haha 


But I can't stress enough to you how intense it really was! There was chanting and yelling and angry looks being thrown every which way and after we finally got through the opening ceremonies to the first joust (my team) it was crazy to hear every one get dead silent as the herald shouted "PORTA CRUCIFERA....(dead silence)...CINQUE!...(CROWDS ROARING!!! AHHHH!!!!)  Anyway, it was so intense and we had such a long day that we were totally lame and only stayed for two jousts before we headed back to the train station to go home...I did get lots of pictures and some video though! Be sure to look on facebook for that!! 


Here's a website I found with some more information on the festival if anyone is interesting


http://www.seeyouintuscany.com/tuscany_travel_guide/arezzo_area/arezzo/giostra_del_saracino/giostra_del_saracino.html


Also in case you were wondering...


Laura: Porta Crucifera
Sarah: Porta Santo Spirito (I was kindof sad I didn't choose this one after we found out the names since that's the street I live on :(  )
Stacey: Porta del Foro
There's one other team but we only had three people...


So anyways, it was a fun day and I'm definitely glad I was able to experience such a crazy Italian festival! Maybe I'll get extra credit in my Festivals and Feasting class for going! haha, on that note, classes start tomorrow for me! Today for everyone else! Hope they go well, I'll keep you posted :)

Bongiorno!

So I’m starting this blog because I know that everyone is dying to hear about what I’m up to and this is definitely the easiest way to get out any news about what is going on with me to all of you poor schmucks still living in America…haha jk.  But seriously this will be the easiest way for you to keep updated on my life so definitely keep coming back. 

These first few days have been incredible.  Obviously, as anyone who’s ever been overseas can attest, the whole flying for 8 hours across the ocean thing does suck, and it was even weirder for Stacey and I when we left from Detroit to Paris because most of the people on our flight were French and we hardly ran into anyone that also spoke English…we could barely understand the announcements they made during the flight! However…the one good thing about the French is that even though we couldn’t understand them, they gave us all the free champagne and wine we wanted on the way over which was great! You don’t get that kind of treatment on American flights...haha.

So we finally landed in Paris and made our way on another flight to Florence where we were both pleasantly surprised to find that our checked bags had made it ok! Thank God, we were definitely prepared for the worst.  The drive from the airport was interesting…definitely makes me never want to drive in Italy, I thought we were totally gonna hit something/someone like 10 times.  Check in at SAI was normal and I got my cellphone! If anyone wants this number you can just message me on facebook and I can give it to you.  It’s pretty great cause I get free incoming calls and texts but I just can’t call you cause then it’s like 28 cents a minute. 

After check-in was over, they paid for our taxi to take us to our various apartments.  Mine is in a place called the Piazza San Spirito and it is incredible! I was a little worried because it is across the Arno river from the main part of Florence where my school and the Duomo is and stuff, but it’s really not that far away at all.  The great thing about it being across the river is that it is not very touristy at all which I am definitely grateful for because some of the parts we were driving through on the way to the school from the airport were just filled with Americans, which is not something I want on my Italy experience lol. 

Anyway, my apartment is right off of this little square that’s in front of the Piazza San Spirito Church.  It’s really pretty with a stage set up so that people can play live music there and there’s trees surrounding the courtyard so it’s shaded and stuff during the day.  We also live right next store to this amazing gellatari, I had some yesterday and it was so good! Definitely not what I expected gelato to be like at all though, I thought it would be more like sherbert but it’s more like really creamy and rich ice cream.  There’s also a bunch of caffes and restaurant right near our apt and it’s really neat cause if you go out at night there’s always people just sitting on the steps of the church drinking wine and chilling out, it’s awesome.

So here comes the only sucky part since I’ve been in Italy…I had to take my bags up to the apartment by myself and we are on the 5^TH FLOOR! That’s right…no elevator…just five flights of steep Italian steps to walk up…it was horrible, I was so dead by the time I finally reached the apartment.  Which by the way is amazing! Once you get up here it’s so nice, when you first enter you see a little living room area that has a couch, chair, and to my surprise a TV, although I don’t really expect to be using it that much since none of us know what’s on Italian TV and we probably don’t even have cable or anything.  Then when you go to the left directly from the front door, you see two of the bedrooms, one with three beds and one with two, that look out onto the Piazza.  If you turn right from the front door, you see a bathroom (which surprisingly is pretty big on your left hand side and if you keep walking straight you will first see another bedroom with two beds on your right (for those of you who didn’t count just to inform you that is 7 beds for 6 people, so we definitely have an extra bed for anyone who wants to come visit!! J ).  Then if you keep walking straight you come to the kitchen that has another door on the right that gets you to a small balcony that overlooks some lovely Italian rooftops and is also connected to the bedroom near the kitchen.  If you then walk through the kitchen, you find a small back room that is completely bare but that we will probably use to dry our clothes once we need to.  And then through that room there is another bathroom which we have taken to calling the “back bathroom.” And that’s our apartment, it’s so big and amazing! And I’m definitely going to have amazing calves by the time I come home, what with walking up those stairs multiple times a day!

After a quick call to Mom and Dad, I decided to join the four of my roommates that were already there and take a nap because I only got like two hours of sleep on the plane ride over.  Once we were all done napping (at like 7:30) we decided to go to the supermarket to get some food and wine cause we heard it closed at 8.  The supermarket was pretty small but it had all the essentials and was only a few blocks away.  We are thinking about trying to find one that’s a bit bigger that still isn’t too far away though.  After the supermarket, we just hung out, drank wine, and shared stories in the apartment for a while.  My roommates are great btw, they are so much fun and really nice, also we all kindof have the same view of what we want to get out of our time in Italy which is really cool.  Their names are Maria, Joanna, Kristy, Ali and Katie.  At like 9:30 we were tired of waiting for Katie to arrive so we could go get dinner, but right as we were leaving our apartment, Katie finally arrived! So we just dumped our bags and all went to dinner together. 

We went to this great pizza place that’s only like 2 blocks away called Gusta Pizza…it was definitely the best pizza I’ve ever had and it was only 5 euro for their original pizza! The owner Francesco was also super nice and he tried to teach us some Italian phrases but I don’t think it stuck that well haha.  Most people here are pretty nice about the language barrier and do speak some English, I’m trying to work on my Italian but I haven’t had too much a problem yet getting across what I want to tell them.  While we were at Gusta Pizza, we met this really nice American guy who showed us around some of the bars on the other side of the river.  It was a lot of fun, but don’t worry family, we all stuck together and were in control the whole time…I have seen Taken and that will not happen to me haha.  When we finally got back to the apartment it was like 4 in the morning and we all went right to sleep cause we had to get up for stupid orientation at 9 am.  We were all really tired this morning, but also pleasantly surprised when we walked out of our buildings door to find that there’s an open air market selling fresh food and various clothes and stuff.  We asked the guy and he said that they’re there every morning.  The fruit and vegetables looked incredible! I can’t wait to shop there probably every day haha.  Side note for Mom—the cherry tomatoes they had looked soooooo fresh and good! I’ll let you know how they are cause you know I’m going to get them a lot! J

Finally made it to orientation and it sucked.  It was super boring and so far away…my sperrys have been ok so far with walking, but while I’m breaking them in I’m getting blisters on the back of my feet and they hurt so bad! I tried wearing bandaids with them but that didn’t work so if any one has any suggestions just let me know cause my sperrys are definitely by best walking shoes aside from the fact that they make the back of my feet hurt. 

Orientation was like 4 hours long and after it was over we all took a nap and I woke up just in time to go to the welcome reception for SAI, it was over by the Duomo at this beautiful Palazza Bhorghese (I think that’s how it’s spelled).  Our coordinators were telling us that it’s not like a museum you can go into and you can only see it if you rent out the space for an event like ours.  It was so beautiful though, it makes me wonder if all big buildings in Italy look like that on the inside.  After the welcome reception we all just walked back to the Santo Spirito and Maria and I decided we wanted to just chill and get some unpacking done so we went back to the apartment.  After a while I finally decided to get on the internet which you will all see if you saw my facebook status last night, I also got a chance to have my first skype convo with Kendy which was great! I really miss her!! I wish that her and all of you are going to be able to come to Italy cause I would love to share this with you, it is so beautiful here!

Soooo that’s all that has happened so far.  On the radar for the next couple of days…we have to go to another part of orientation today to pay the Italian government 75 euro to get our permit of stay for our time here.  We are also planning on checking out a free pub crawl tonight that our new friend Chase (the guy we met at Gusta pizza) told us about, he’s a promoter for the event so hopefully it’s pretty legit.  Again…don’t worry I’ll be careful!  Don’t really have any plans for Saturday, but I was reading in my Florence, Tuscany and Umbria book (if you’re reading this Aunt Leslie it’s the book you gave me for Christmas and it’s been such a great help, thanks again!) that there’s a jousting festival in a city called Arezzo on the first Sunday in September…which is this Sunday! I think I definitely want to check it out especially since I don’t have any classes on Monday, the book said it was like an hour and half bus ride so I’m planning on looking up some bus tickets later.  Hopefully they’re not too expensive so I don’t have to feel bad about going! Anyways, I’m gonna get ready for the day now and head down to the market to grab some fruit for breakfast…it’s so cool that I can say that! J more posts to come…