First school day...

Buonasera everyone!!! Today was the first day of classes...so we woke up around 7 and went down to the cafe for a quick cappucinno and made it to class 45 minutes early lol. It was a long school day but I enjoyed the classes and felt like I already learned a lot. For my first class from 9-11:30 I am taking comparative world justice systems which focuses on comparing international legal/judicial systems with ours. We had a break and walked up to a pizzaria for lunch and split a HUGE salami pizza between five of us..I think I forgot to tell you that I have three roommates...but introduced them in the tour of my apartment video...Mary, Rachel, and Chelsea. David Mary's boyfriend hangs out with us too!  After our break we went back to class and that is when I go to history of Rome. It was packed full of information and I was intrigued but felt soooo tired after climbing the hill to lunch. After our class ended at 3:30 we had a group meeting held by the program director Dr. Harper (we call him Harps) and he was preparing us for our two field trips this week! We are going to the Vatican City tomorrow along with the Sistine Chapel and all that other good stuff. I am really excited to see THE statue of Octavian Caesar and everything in between! I finally got an SD card! Anyway, after class we walked down to the grocery store Conads and bought some snacks and things for lunches. Which is good because you can spend money real quick here. We then proceeded to go to a travel agency and asked about taking a train to Venice from Florence on Thursday (because that is where our feild trip is and we will be leaving for the weekend from there) and then they sent us down the hill again where we just came from to the train station. So we went to the train station and asked how much it would be and then she mentioned how expensive it was, so we decided that we would buy our train ticket after we figured out the hotel situation. So then, we go back to the travel agency, (back up the hill) and he quotes us these outrageous prices for Venice and the surrounding cities. Finally as soon as we walked outside we realized, hey why dont we just stay in Florence and go to Venice for a day? So FINALLY we made a plan, bought a hotel for two nights in Florence (thursday night and friday night) and decided to travel to Venice early friday morning and stay there all day. It was the biggest ordeal and then had to walk back down after we booked our hotel and get our train ticket then walk back up, but this time all the way up to our apartment only to realize we had an hour before dinner. HAHA it was a tad peeved by the time we got to the top because it was the biggest work out I have had in a long long time. I felt really amazing and accomplished by the time I got back though. I don't know why I shared that entire pointless story but I guess I needed to vent it out! haha, so YEAH! Im going to go to Venice! Its going to be so amazing to ride in a Gandola! Soooo back to today, tonight at dinner at the:

where we always eat, and started off with bread, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and parmesan cheese as usual. Then we had the BEST lasagna I have ever had, there was no ricotta cheese (which I do love) but it was just so yummy. Instead it was a different kind of yellow cheese. The meat was really well seasoned and it was just perfecto! So the "main" course was vhicken breast, french fries and salad, so I guess they decided to have an "American night" and give us something that we are used to. The fries were actually good! After dinner Mary, David and went up to the Piazza Grande and relaxed and caught the beautiful sunset. Im adding a link to show the video of the Piazza Grande. FYI, the Duomo is like the city hall and every Italian city has one. Ok going to bed, I have to get up at 6am for the bus! Heres the tour of the Piazza Grande! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxQXWRrueJo