First days in Italy!

So I am moved into my apartment! I have finished the first part of orientation, and started my week of intensive Italian! And I just have to say to anyone thinking of being a language major...your brave! I now remember why I was soo excited when I finished my year of language at Stonehill. Four hours of Italian in the morning just makes my head cave in. At least we only have intensive for one week. Then we just have regular one hours class each morning. Ill get back to that in a second.

Anyways here are a few things to cover to catch you up on my Italian adventure. Fist off we moved into our apartments Monday (9/1) and it is great. Take a look around for yourself but I think its pretty cute and cozy. Sam and I are sharing a room and our roommates Chelsea and Lizzy, from Denison University in Ohio, are sharing the other bedroom. We also have a little kitchen, a living room and a bathroom. We don’t have air conditioning but it should be cooling off here soon. On the plus side we do have a washing machine, so at least I wont be hiking up and down the hills to do wash!

Welcome to Via della Cupa 7!

Our little bitty bathroom

Our tiny kitchen that we have yet to cook in

Sam and my room--my bed is in the other corner

View out my window

So I know I mentioned our week of intensive Italian earlier so let me fill you in on that. ITS HARD! But I am learning. During this week of intensive Italian our afternoon session is called “survival Italian.” Each day we have a new topic to help us make our way around. Today’s topic was bars. Now don’t get too excited, here in Italy coffee shops are called bars. Most of them are privately owned so each one is slightly different. So today I learned how to order all different sorts of coffees or caffe, gelato, pastas (pastries) and other things. We also got to try lots of samples!! ;-) YUM! I dont know whats planned for the new few days, we will just have to see.

Yesterday (9/3) the girls from Stonehill went out for a really nice dinner. Here in Italy people don’t typically eat dinner till much later. Appritivios, or what we consider appetizers are usually eaten around 7 and then people will eat sometime around 9. We compromised and ate around 8 to save a little on the pocketbook. The outdoor cafe we picked was delicioso! Here are some picts of us enjoying our relaxing dinner.

Good news too! I have tentatively planned travel for the semester!!! Before I come back to the states I hope to visit lots of spots in Italy, but also Germany, Paris, Barcelona, Ireland, Greece, Switzerland, and wherever else I can fit in! But you will have to check back for more on my travels.

Arrivederci!