Hi Everyone!

Sorry I have fallen behind on my posts!  Life has been crazy since moving into my permanent residence for the semester in Firenze, Italia.  I love my host family so far and my roommates and I get along very well, so I was very fortunate.   It is myself, and three other Bentley girls along with a girl from Australia, Turkey, Germany, and Switzerland.  I knew coming here that my host family hosts a lot of students throughout the year, but we though 8 was the maximum that they could have.  When we first got here it was the 8 of us, along with their three girls Valentina (17), Caterina (14), and Martina (10), and our host parents Gianna and Paolo.  We received quite the surprise last week when four more students from Gonzaga University showed up and moved in as well!  There are now TEN girls, two boys, the three daughters, and the parents.  It is quite the party and I am happy to have met so many great people!

I started classes on September 5th and have gone to each one twice now.  I really enjoy my classes so far.  I am taking the equivalent of two courses of Italian, Crosscultural Communication in the Workplace, which will go towards my Management major, Introduction to the Fashion Industry, which will go towards my major as an unrestricted business elective, or my marketing minor and finally The Age of the Heroes, which will fulfill my Literature credit.  I am SO lucky to have found courses that will be accepted by Bentley and especially ones that will go towards my major because originally two of the classes I picked were rejected by Bentley and I went through a lot of trouble to fix everything.  It was a very stressful situation to try to clear up from 4,500 miles away from the academic advising office.  There were a LOT of emails being exchanged, but it all worked out and I love the classes because they are different than what is offered at Bentley for business courses.  Time has been flying by ever since classes started.  I can't believe I have been here for almost a month already!

Two weekends ago about 20 of us from Bentley took a trip together with the tour company bus2alps.  We went to the Amalfi coast from Thursday until Sunday.  Although we didn't like the tour company very much and the 9 hour bus ride was a lot to deal with, it was one of the most beautiful places I have ever been!  We all had a great time and the weather and scenery was perfect.
On the first day we went to the island of Capri.  We took a ferry there and then took another boat on a tour around the island where we went in the Blue Grotto (see picture 1).  Then we went on the mainland and ate dinner looking out over the water from one of the higher points on the island.  After that a few of my friends and I decided we wanted to hike back down the mountain instead of taking a taxi so we climbed down these narrow little rock stairs down the side of a cliff.  It was extremely scary, but one of the coolest experiences.  It was well worth it!  Once we reached the bottom we had some time to spare before leaving to go back to the town of Sorrento where we were staying, so we decided to go swim and lay on the beach for a while with the rest of the students from our school.  Finally we returned home after a long day in the sun.  We all stayed together at the Seven hostel in Sorrento.  That night we had dinner at the hostel and then went out to an English Bar down the road with the entire group of 120 students on the tour with bus2alps.

The next day we went to the town of Positano where we relaxed on the beach most of the day.  We also shopped around the town that is build into the side of the mountain that we had to hike up and down to get to and from the ocean to the road.  It was quite challenging!  We were also able to take a boat around the island where we got to go cliff jumping as well as cave swimming.  Of course, I practiced some of my dives off of the rocks.  Sorry mom.... (see pictures). I also happened to run into a friend that I went to high school with.  How crazy is that?  I got to talk to Tommaso for a while and catch up.   He has been playing soccer in Europe since we graduated high school and is now living in Italy with his brother and playing on a team here.  The places he has lived and traveled to in the past two years is unbelievable.  I still cannot believe I ran into him.  What are the odds?  I though I was going crazy when I heard someone yell out my name.

On the last day, we visited Pompeii.  We were only there for a few hours, but it was a very neat experience. (see pictures)  Then we made our lovely 9 hour bus ride home.

Last weekend my host parents took our whole family to the beach for the day.  It was so nice out and there were these incredible mountains to the right of us with snow at the top.  Everything here is just beautiful!  (see pictures) We also stopped in Pisa on the way and got to see the famous leaning tower of Pisa.  (see typical picture everyone takes holding up the tower)
Then the next day they took us to the best rated gelato place in Italy.  It is about an hour away from us in San Gimigniano.  Then we stopped in Sienna on the way back and saw their beautiful duomo (cathedral) and a place where there used to be horse races I believe.  I'm not sure because we couldn't quite understand what they were telling us about the place.  None of the students I went with that time can speak Italian so it was a little difficult, but still fun to see different parts of Italy.

That is about all of the traveling I have done so far.  I'm off to Oktoberfest in an hour and I'll be back late Sunday night.  Hopefully it won't take me as long to document my trip like it did this time!

Miss you all sooo much back home!  About 55 days until my family comes to visit...hopefully!

Swimming in the blue grotto.

Doing a front 1.5 somersault off the cliff in Positano.

At Pompeii.

Ignore the lady tanning...but this is the beach our host family took us to with the mountains in the background.

Gianna, Camilla, Me, Martina and her friend from school, Paolo, Margeaux, and Dovlyn at the beach.

Leaning tower of Pisa!

Most of my Italian Family.

Best Gelato in Italy!

Dovlyn and I in San Gimignano.  The town with the best gelato.

Looking out over the town of San Gimignano.


Ok it's time to catch my bus to Munich, Germany so I'll have to finish uploading pictures when I get back on Monday!

Day 3 and 4

Yesterday we went to the small city of Viterbo with one of the guides from our school.  He took us on a tour of the city including MANY churches.  The quote of the day was "I have a big surprise for you all, another beautiful church!" (said by our guide Masimo in an itialian accent, of course).  We also had another very filling three course meal there and I had my first caffe (italian coffee).  It is a shot of expresso that they serve you after your meal with one pack of sugar to pour in it.  I didn't really like it, but I have found a new love for cappuccinos!  We also went to a big market in the center of the city where they sell clothes, purses, bathing suits, jewlery, shoes, pots and pans, and many other little things.  Luckily, the fashion in these small towns is not like in Florence, Rome and Milan so I have yet to buy anything other than food.  Mom you should be proud.
When we got back from the trip to Viterbo all 30 of us went to the town center where the bar is and hung out for the night.  They were having an Italian actor there to the bar so it seemed like the entire town was gathered around taking pictures and hanging out.  It was a lot of fun, but a long day.  We probably walked 6 or 7 miles around the town and then my friends and I went for a run when we came back to Tuscania so I was exhausted.

Today was our day off so 28 of us went to a lake about 15 minutes away.  I'm not sure what the name of the lake was, but it was on top of a volcano or something like that.  The sand was not sand...it was black ash that was ground up and looked like black sand.  It was very different, but so beautiful and we had a ton of fun together.  It is extremely hot here, so it was nice to be by the lake and in the water with friends.  We did learn to never trust transportation systems in Italy!  First our bus making us wait 3 hours the first day and then breaking down and making us wait another 3 on the first day we got here.  Then today our driver brought us to the lake at 2 and was supposed to pick us up at 6.  When he got here he told us he needed to change it to 7 and we said that was fine, but then 7 rolled around and we got a phone call saying he wouldn't be there 'till 7:30...then he called again and said he would be there at 8.  Finally he showed up at 8:20 to take us back to the hotel and we had to pay 10 euros each for the trip.  It was surprising that this happened again because both means of transportation were set up by our school advisor here, but apparently we need to tell them an hour before the time we actually want to leave so it will be fine if they are late.

A few of my friends and I just went down to the town center to get some crepes and we are eating them now so pictures of these two days will come a little later when I download them.

Hope everyone is surviving hurricane Irene.  I've seen pictures and it doesn't look too pretty!
Good luck and I miss everyone :)

Day 1 & 2

Hi Everyone!

I landed safely in Rome yesterday around 9:30am Italian time.  We then had to wait until 1pm for other flights to arrive before we took the bus to our hotel in Tuscania.  Unfortunately our bus broke down around 2pm and we were stuck at a gas station on the side of the road until 5!  So that is how I spent my first day in Italy.  We finally made it to our hotel in Tuscania and got a short tour of the town and then went out to dinner.  The dinner was great.  We were served a three course meal with spaghetti, then chicken and potatoes, and my favorite, a brownie lava cake type dessert.  By the time I went to sleep I had been awake for 33 hours straight.  It was definitely a long day and I was very anxious to go to bed.  

I am staying in a hotel room (it is the only hotel in the town) with another student named Elizabeth.  We each have our own little twin bed, which is very very stiff and uncomfortable and of course there is no air conditioning anywhere here so it is definitely a lot different than a hotel at home, but that was expected.  

The weather has been between 95 and 100 so far and there is no wind at all so that is taking some getting used to for all of us.  Especially because we walk everywhere here.  

Today we ate breakfast in the hotel and then went to see the Lorenzo de'Medici school in Tuscania.  We met our Italian teacher for the week and he took us on a more in depth tour of the small town.  We were dismissed at 11 for a break until 2 so we went to the local grocery store (if you can even call it that) to get some fruit to keep in our room.  It is very different than at home and we made the mistake of buying sparkling water instead of regular because all of the labels are in Italian and we can't read them.  

We have a sit down Italian language class from 2-5 tonight.  Then we have the rest of the night to go get dinner on our own and then we are all going to the bar.  When I say bar, I don't mean like at home, or in Boston.  The bars here are basically outside tables where you can sit down with your friends and talk and order drinks.  You won't catch anyone dancing or making a fool of themselves while falling over drunk like in the US.  Even though most people at the bars are our age, or younger here.  

So thats what my first two days looked like.  I miss everyone back home and can't believe I won't be waterskiing at the lake this weekend.  I know Florence will be much more exciting than this tiny little secluded town, but I can't help but miss home, the lake, and seeing all my friends and family!  

This is the potatoes and chicken. (second course)

and the lava cake dessert.

This is a fountain in the middle of the town,  Tuscania.

This is a picture of the back side of our hotel. 

Here is a famous old church in Tuscania.  I thought it looked like my church at home a little bit. Especially the way the inside is painted below.  

Here is just a picture I took of the street we were walking down so you could see what the old architecture looks like.  All of these pictures are from the ancient half of the town.  There is also a more modern half where our hotel, the market, and a lot more housing is located.