This is going to be a quick one because it's 1.30am and I have to wake up in 5 hours to be in class on time tomorrow. But it's okay, because today wasn't hugely interesting.
First day of class was today - but for the first three weeks it's just intensive Italian class, 5 days a week for 3 hours a day. My particular class is TINY - 8 people, myself included, but one of my flatmates is in the same class and the teacher is really sweet and so I'm not sweating bullets when I don't know an answer. I do have to say three hours of class felt like an eternity today. Oh and the blog title is from a song they made us sing in class today. Yes, you heard that right. Oy. [The ever-popular Ciao, Bella! is not the same as Bella, ciao! The former is a fun phrase that Italian men like to throw at us daily, and the latter means more like "goodbye, darling."]
For lunch I had my first piece of real protein [chicken!!! on a panino (panini is actually plural)] aside from cheese since I've been here. It was glorious. I get out of class at 1.30pm, and my flatmates all have class at the same time, so we signed up for a ton of activities for the rest of the week, including, but not limited to an opera tomorrow night [Tosca? I think?], a Fellini film, an aperitivo, and a trip for Carnival!
We attempted to go grocery shopping today because we're literally out of food in our apartment, but the grocery stores here are very expensive and the mercato all'aperto [open-air market - it's where most Italians get their food. There are stands for everything: fruits, vegetables, cheeses, meats, fish, other seafood, bread, etc., and everything is FRESH] closes in the early afternoon so we missed it. But don't worry, we now have toilet paper, so the major crisis is averted.
Tonight we had our Welcome Dinner from EAP [the Education Abroad Program]. On the bus to the Study Center, two extraordinarily loud and obnoxious drunkards got on [public drunkenness is rare and highly frowned upon in Italy], one of whom was literally screaming the entire time he was on the bus. He saw two African-Americans (EDIT 1/23/08: [is that the PC term?] - I just realized it was highly assumptive of me to say they were Americans. Whoops.) on the bus and started shouting "VIVA AFRICA!!!" and then saw my redheaded flatmate and my Asian flatmate sitting next to each other and started shouting "FRAGOLA CINESE!!!" (Chinese strawberry). The bus driver flagged down a police car at one of the bus stops and they got off, but it was kind of intense. Anyway, EAP rented out an entire restaurant for us and they served us a full Italian meal - all 5 courses. There was bread, bruschetta [there is NO "sh" sound in that word, Americans], pasta with ham [boo pork], meatballs with potatoes and salad, and tiramisu. I don't actually like tiramisu because I hate tasting the rum in it, but this one had little so it was tasty. Regardless, the food was on the good side of mediocre but the meal was a really fun one.
Afterward, for some ridiculous reason, my friends and I went on a search for gelato [not that we were hungry - we were STUFFED - we just wanted gelato. Because really, who can say no to gelato?], but all the nearby gelaterias were closed, so we went into a bar [an alcohol one] instead. After making friends with the Canadian bartender, some of us got drinks [not me - I'm skipping the 5 to 15 euro drinks (not at that place, but they are commonly that expensive) and saving up for future travels], and then we split up. My flatmate Heather and I went home, and the other three went out to celebrate a friend's birthday.
Heather and I ended up actually bonding and talking for about 2 hours, then we did our Italian homework together, and Heather just went to bed, and I'm eating a delicious orange as I'm writing this. Yum.

Bedtime now, pictures tomorrow for yesterday and today, I promise. You'll want to check back because trust me, there are some GREAT ones.

[See the post below and check out the Flickr slideshow]

Buonanotte!