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.
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!
