Buonanotte! I am exhaustified. This post will probably be long, so I shall attempt to be as witty as possible. The operative word being "attempt." After going to sleep around 2.30am last night, which was a serious mistake, we woke up this morning around 7.30 to be at the Study Center at 10. But it was okay, because I woke up to this [by the way if you click on the pictures you can see them much bigger]:
That is from my bedroom window, folks. Not too shabby. Because I promised apartment pictures and the morning light was so gorgeous, I actually took some.
Below is the view out of my window [I know - I'm so avantgarde with my multiple-photo images]. You can see our lovely not-so-little church there on the right, which has a lovely not-so-little bell tower which chimes a lovely not-so-little chime at 7am every morning and 6pm every evening to call us to mass. So
considerate, really.
My poor roommate Sasha got stuck with a twin-sized cot [I have a queen-sized bed] because I got there first. Whoops. Haha. So... my flatmates are Sasha, Heather, Gilli, and Emily. Three out of the five of us are from San Diego, a different three out of the five of us are from UCSB, and all five of us get along really swell. Not everyone loves their roommates, so we got lucky there, too.
The third picture is the view from our balcony. It is so freakin' awesome that we have a balcony. I intend to make thorough use of it.
So back to today... we were running late so we didn't have to time stop at the Bar next door [for those who are unfamiliar with the term, a "Bar" in Italy isn't where you go to drown your sorrows. A Bar is where you go to get a pasta (a pastry) and a cappuccino in the morning. And then a cafe macchiato mid-morning. And then an espresso mid-afternoon. (But there is a strict protocol of what you can and can't order and when. For example, it is unacceptable to order a cappuccino after about 10.30am.) You order, then pay at the cashier, and then you go to the bar (literally) where you stand and get served your beverage by a barista in a white collared shirt and a vest. You are in an out and on your way to work in five minutes. It's a huge part of the culture here - there are bars on every street]. This particular bar next door is pretty sweet. You can get a Nutella-filled croissant and a delicious cappuccino [by the way, the espresso really IS better here] for 2 euro.
Unfortunately, our amazing apartment [see below - it's the triangular building above and right of the target] does have a downside or two: we are on the opposite side of the city from everyone else, and we have the longest commute to school; an hour by bus each way. Today it was surprisingly easier to find our way around the city. Today's orientation was again pretty unremarkable, except one of the professors brought her dog, Mimi, who took a particular liking to me. It made me miss Tika and Dioji, because she looks exactly like Bella Crouton. Anyway, on our half-hour lunch break before we were actually served lunch, we walked down one of the streets near the Study Center and got, finally and for the first time, some gelato. Oh my lord. A very nice portion [I got half hazelnut and half chocolate and almost had to sit down it was so delicious. They know how to do chocolate here] and a cookie was 2 euro. I can't even tell you how much better it was than any gelato I've eaten in the states. Oh man. I'm drooling all over my keyboard.
Lunch today was strange. It was like an Italian tapas bar, which included little fried balls of batter and vegetables, mozzarella and tomato on a stick, frittata on a stick, some bread, and some dessert that tasted like whipped toothpaste [read: NOT delicious]. Below is a picture of Emily, myself [not my best], and Sasha at lunch. We then took an Italian placement test, which you don't really care about. We all pretty much embarrassed ourselves because they tested our knowledge of English grammar as well, and as we all know, they gave up teaching my generation grammar beyond nouns and verbs in elementary school. Oh well.
Nothing really interesting happened for the rest of the day. I'm fighting off the start of some sort of sickness so I went home and took a much needed nap. A few of my flatmates went out on a search for alcohol, because they drank our huge bottle of 2,50 euro wine, and came back two hours later having met the owners of the pizza place across the piazza who got them drunk on tap beer and limoncello for free, so apparently we now have a highly convenient place to get alcohol and some friends to go with it.
Not too much more to report. I'm working on getting a cell phone and a pair of boots [the Italian government decides when all the stores can have sales, and that period started at the start of January, so now is a good time to buy things], and my Italian classes start on Monday. A day trip to Florence is in the works, and EAP is taking us on a trip for Carnival.
Right now my flatmates are watching High School Musical 2 and I have no choice but to join them until I pass out. Arrivederci!