class...pietrasanta...and GELATO

class started this week. our teacher is so much fun. she speaks really good english and i feel like i'm actually learning something. maybe i'll be fluent in italian by the time i return. who knows. we have class in the local public school building that's about a 20 minute walk from the hotel. it's hot. 4 hours long. but Nicla (our 26 year old teacher who is brilliant makes it especially fun). today we fought with a hornet for about10 minutes before returning to the lesson.

we travelled to pietrasanta yesterday (it was free...yay for free trips). it was a lovely old small city that used to be surrounded by walls. some of the old walls remain and the main square has a beautiful church. we rode a tiny little train there...like one you'd find at the fair for little kids. people honked at us. i thought it was fun :-D

we got free gelato too. and got to see mosaics in the making. one was as big as a room and was being shipped the next day to a church in New Mexico for 70,000 euro. it was beautiful.

i bought a children's book. it has basic words in it like hand (mano) and bathroom (bagno). it's for 2 year olds but i got it to get around with. the guy at the book store laughed at me when he found out who it was for. i think it's exceptionally grand and carry it with me everywhere.

we eat every night here at the hotel (breakfast is included as well in the AM) and the food is amazing! 3 course meals with tiramasu, cheesecake and rum cake. pasta that's delicious, and veal. i think i've hit the jackpot. i might weight 300 pounds by my return but it'll have been well worth it.

today i spent the whole day (after class of course) on the beach. i studied on the beach. i ate pizza on the beach. i did my homework on the beach. i walked on the beach. basically i enjoyed the beach (which is spiaggio in italian..in case you were wondering). this town is beautiful and the townsfolk are really friendly. they always try to practice their english with us and laugh at us with our attempts at italian.

i'm still trying more flavors of gelato (last night was melon...it was DELICIOUS!!!) and plan on some caffe flavors soon.

Sandy- so far i've had Lime, biscotti, raspberry, and melone. thought i'd let you know. :-D

Until next time- ti amo- ciao!

First day in Lido di Camaiore (2 weeks of orientation)

Last night we arrived in Lido di Camaiore- a hotspot for Italians to vacation on the beach. yes- the beach! so today we got all our info about rooming assignments for this semester, how to stay safe while in Italy, how we shouldn't be obsessed with being on the internet, etc. then, of course, we all went to and saw the ocean. i'm already burnt- but it was totally worth it. it's gorgeous, and i get to be here for two weeks. this is going to be so hard to take.

however, tomorrow we start our orientation Italian classes. they're 4 hour classes for the next two weeks, and then after that we'll travel to Florence to begin our classes for the rest of the semester. i don't think they'll be too hard to handle considering we can study on the sand by the ocean. sounds pretty good to me.

not much else to update on. my roommates pretty awesome (we're in rooms of 2 in the hotel here). and i'm in an apartment of 4 once i get to florence.

ciao

London- 3 day excursion....

i'll start from the beginning-

i guess you could call it an excursion- but i like to think of it as an extended layover...in LONDON!

Thursday morning at around 7 (which is 2 am in the states) we arrived in London. then we romped around and discovered that our room wouldn't be ready till 2. so, exhausted and a little bit worn we tredged on through the city. the 5 others that i was with had never been so they wanted to see Everything (emphasis on the everything). i just wanted a bed. however, we eventually got our room and i was happy :-D

then friday we continued to run around the city- and owing to more sleep and a shower i was much more obliged to do so. we took a bus tour to all the great sites.

we visited the queen- she was pretty awesome.

we visited westminster- lots of dead people.

we visited st. paul- pretty impressive, but he cost too much, so we didn't go in.

and we even visited the tower bridge. it's not the one falling down. fortunately.

then we went shopping. i didn't buy anything because i have no money (at least not that i want to spend in London).

that night we went to an indian restaurant for dinner where we bothered the owners. poor guys. our cards wouldn't go through (we didn't have pounds on us so we had no other way of payment...) and then he felt bad and gave us glassware in return (they're really awesome glasses, i'm pretty pumped!)...we got our picture taken with him so we'll always remember that night (not that a picture was needed to remember it...haha)

the food was great there though! and they forced (yes mom, forced) indian beer on us, and it was delicious.

then we went out to a pub. quite the experience. quite a few germans, italians, londoners, and of course americans mushed together into a little room. really noisy. but fun.

then that leads me to now. saturday morning

in an hour we leave to fly out of London to finally head to Italy. we should get there around 8 tonight and then tomorrow morning we'll have our Orientation. Monday morning we start our Italian course for two weeks. then after those two weeks we'll finally head to Florence.

I'll try to update as much as i can, but free wifi is hard to find, and paying is expensive.

i would like to also note that i think i have it set that the time for my posts are set for when i post them here...so if it say i posted them at 8 in the morning it probably was in the morning here when i posted it, not 8 in the states....i think.

k- till next time! ciao!

Departure

Goodbye USA...I'll miss you.