this may take some time!!

Ok... catch up time! We don't have an internet connection in our apartment yet so hopefully in the future these can be posted more regularly, pics included...it may take awhile to get more up. Ummm...my CILTA (orientation class) class started today and its sooooo long. like 2 and half hours! it's not everyday but pretty random like everything else here:-) the italians get up late (coffee hour is around9!), spend hours eating lunch, close everything down at random times (always when I need something), eat late, and then start all over the next day...i don't know if anything is realy ever accomplished! sometimes 2days a week sometimes 4...its kinda pain with homework and everything but hopefully it'll go by fast. this is the class that brings together all the international students for improving there language skills, so we're meeting some pretty fun germans, english, irish, dutch, etc... and along with that class the BCSP program is having us participate in this parallel course that will teach us a lot about the history of italy and take us on excursions...that one's pretty boring too though:-) Well the excursions will hopefully be awesome:-)

This weekend was one fo the coolest weekends ever!! This is why I wanted to travel abroad...I think it was thursday night and Krissy and Isaac (this guy on the program who knows italian really well) and I decided we wanted to get some sun so, fri. morning we hopped on a train and rode for an hour to the adriatic coast (a town called Riccione) and layed in the sun all day!! It was like going from wisconsin to florida in an hour! it was sooooo awesome, we ate great sea food, got good tans, and I definitely saw more topless europeans than i wanted to:-) then we decided one day wasn't enough so the plan was to head over to the other side to cinque terre sat. morning and stay til sunday. well we got to the station and the train for CT was leaving a bit late, so we asked which train was leaving next and bought tickets for Perugia instead!!! It was soooo much fun!! and perugia is BEAUTIFUL! It's a unique feeling city tuked into and on top of these gorgeous hills and evertyhing but it was more city-like with big white buildings. Normally the italians tell us to take the bus everywhere even if its only 5ft so after gettnig off the train we started walking up the hill towards "centro" and of course this time centro is like 4miles away! by the time we got to the top we were so hungry and sweaty and tired and the first sight of restaurants was like a glimpse of heaven. We forget to watch our time though and we arrived just as tehy were shutting down or midday! ah well, we eventually found some food:-) then isaac gave his friend studying in florence a call so we decided to catch the early train and meet in florence! It was unbelievable...I guess I always expect that the cities most chosen by tourists won't be worth it but...wow, florence is amazing in every aspect!! it was unbelievable! and the guy luke was staying ni an apartment literally 2min from the duomo! wow! so we spent the night in florence and wandered around inthe morning walking thru the same markets as I did with the fam last last summer and the streets...it was pretty cool:-) we finally made it back to bologna though which was a definite relief cause we definitely hadn't gottena chance to shower since going to the sea:-)

the language is still pretty tough, its getting better slowly but surely. Its frustrating though cause there are so many things I want to express but they never come out right! I've embarrassed myself so many times already!! Just with little mistakes...we were talking to this italian who was on some track team and running a race soon so I wished him luck and asked him if they get ribbons for winning here too, but I forgot the word for ribbon and ended up asking him if he'd get a bomb at the end of the race! I've also kindly informed some shop workers that "I'd like to go on a walk today" instead of saying the right thing, they looked at me like I was crazy and said that'd be fine!

ah well! this is getting a bit long so I hope all's well in the states and EVERYONE send me your addresses!!!!!!!!!!