Ciao!

Officially booked my first mini trip today. Going to Venice tomorrow by train, should arrive there around 11:30 am, going to explore, stay the night in a hostel that's in the heart of Venice, then returning to Frienze at around 8 pm Sunday night. Gotta take advantage of this last weekend before school starts!
Got some school supplies today, the paper here is longer and has 4 holes down the sides instead of 3, so just a little different than back home, and i guess that means we'll have to write more for a one page paper. /: haha
I'm excited for tonight, after a meeting about some travel excursions there's a free dinner, and probably some mingling, at a castle! It sounds like it'll be a cool location, as well as some delicious (and free i might add) food.

As for last night, Andrea and I explored more of the city, found some beautiful areas,


and outdoor restaurants that looked very fancy. We were trying to meet up with some new friends, but they were at a bar that was a little confusing to get to. So after getting a little bit creeped on we decided we'd save the bar outing for another night (probably tonight) since we didn't want to be walking back to our apartment that late at night anyway.

Still getting used to the time difference. By the time we got back it was after 12am, and could not go to sleep, but that went for a lot of my roommates as well, so we had company while we stayed up just a bit longer.

day 2

We had to wake up early for orientation today. I thought i got a good nights sleep but later on in the day I realized I was wrongg hah. In the morning we got a little chocolate croissant and cappuccino at a nearby cafe and only paid about 2 euros so it was pretty cheap! and delicious i must add

We had our first orientation with a group in a pretty theater type building, then we had to break off into smaller groups for a later, more concentrated, orientation.
We decided to take that time to go to a nearby market and get a few groceries for the next few days or so, im pretty proud of our purchases :p Got some sandwich ingredients as well as pasts (of course) and some breakfast cereal. One of my roommates loves to cook and made a pretty good smelling/looking meal tonight with chicken and veggies so ill have to get her to teach me/ make some more food haha
We then had our next orientation that turned out to be suuuper long and suuuuper boring. Over 2 hours of the same information we've heard time and time again. Most all of us were jet lagged and not able to listen to all of that information since all we could think about was going back to the apartment and taking a nap. And that is exactly what I did.
After the nice nap, hung out for a bit, waited for our land lord to get here to explain some things, then cooked my first meal!

before .. and ..

after! and of course for dessert,


gelato! so delicious.
Still deciding on what to do tonight, maybe some more walking around the city. Met a few guys at our first check-in that we keep running into, so we might meet up and walk around with them and see more of whats out there. That's all for now!

Italy.

Wow, I can finally say I have made it here! Got here late last night, after a verrrryy long night/day of travel with hardly any sleep on the plane unforutnately. Fortunately we were well fed, with many beverages, unlimited amounts movies, tv shows, games, and music. I finally got the courage to order some red wine on the second flight, which I ended up having some left over and used to drink with my first home-cooked dinner tonight.
Upon arriving yesterday, we got a taxi from the airport and soon found out how crazy they drive over here. They swerve, cut people off, look like theyre gonna hit anything thats in front, to the left, to the right, basically all around them. They hardly stop for pedestrians, so you better look out when you're walking the streets! All said and done, we did make it to the check in point in one piece.
After getting a little overview and the keys to our apartment, we were set off in the streets of Florence to find our place. We even got easier directions from the counselor than what was on the google map directions. Sounds like it'd be an easy find since it was only a little more than a block away right? Wrong, oh so wrong. Of course, knowing me, I should have known that I would get lost, and, I did. Andrea (was on my same flight) is good with maps, but where we ended up was NOT on the map that we had! ah! Someone not so sketch helped us out and we were able to FINALLY find the door to our apartment building, after a 10 (what should have been a 2) minute walk, with ALL of our luggage.
And we're on the 2nd floor (which in America would really be the 3rd floor) so imagine carrying a three month packed suitcase up alll of those stairs, hopefully we didn't wake the neighbors.
Well we unpacked a little, showered and went out for our first italian dinner which was actually pretty late, luckily they eat out late here!

my dinner! it tasted better than it looked :p