ITALIA!!

WELCOME TO ITALIA

Sorry about the blog…or the lack of it. 

It's really hard out here to find any Wifi. The only place it is available is in the lobby of where we are staying, and everybody is constantly trying to connect, so it's rare that anyone ever actually gets connected. Plus we have hardly had ANY spare time, which is such a good thing. It has been absolutely amazing here! I can easily say this has already been the best experience of my life, and it has only been a week since I flew out of the US. Braxton says the same.

I have learned so much it's insane. 

We have made friends with so many great people, and have seen so many beautiful things. 

We are staying at The Eden Garden Hotel, which is paradise. It's not the most fancy place, but it is exactly what I pictured Tuscany to be like. The beds are rock hard and the toilets are weird, they have tiny showers and butt cleaners, and I live on the third floor (which is 4 floors up, cause they have a floor zero here) and the elevator doesn't work…. But I haven't even thought of any of that. I am having the absolute best time! The employees here are wonderful, probably the nicest people I have ever met and I have actually made great friends with a couple of them. 

The AIFS staff is perfect as well. They are there to help us 100% of the time, and will go the extra mile to meet our needs, or even just our preferences. They know exactly how to work with our age group (which can be difficult), and they make us feel like a family. I don't know everyone here by name yet, but faces are finally starting to look familiar and it's easy to just hang out with anyone who is near by. We are all here for the same reasons, so we're all pretty accepting of each other. (then again, I've always stayed out of drama, so there probably is some here. but I don't notice it, and that's what's making my experience so perfect!)

PIETRASANTA!!  The city where we are staying….It's breathtaking. It is the most beautiful place I have ever been. And I have had the privilege of living here for a short time, and I still get a week more. Me and Braxton were talking about how we don't want to leave here, but we're sure Florence will be just as wonderful, if not even more. AIFS rented us a beach area, and we have gone every day. We play sand volleyball with some of the Natives and they are the greatest people. They love their soccer, and use their feet and head during the games more than their hands. We actually went right after school today. We ordered uno panino from the cafe, and ate it while we laid out on the beach…PARADISE, I'M TELLING YOU!

 

    

THE PICTURE ON BOTTOM IS THE VIEW FROM MY FREAKING ROOM....YES, THAT IS THE MEDITERRANEAN. IT'S FINE TO BE JEALOUS. 

 We went on a tour of the city after the first day of school, and honestly I've never seen anything more perfect! It's so historic and exotic and ahhhh, just to die for! Pictures will never do this place justice, but it's all I have to show. 

School---Oh my goodness. I wake up at like 6 AM each morning before school even though it doesn't start until 9:00, because I am so excited to go. It blows my mind how much I have learned! Since we are only here for two weeks, we are covering a whole semester's worth of Italian over this time. We have midterms tomorrow and we've only had three days of class! And I feel like I have absorbed everything so well and I'm confident that I will ace the test. It is the best feeling! It's just making sense.. And I think studying French helped me understand the concept of learning a new language, plus they are pretty similar in some ways, so that's definitely a good thing! But in these three days, I have learned more than I did during my three years of French classes. We are thrown into this foreign environment, forced to live the way they do here, and communicate with them. This isn't a tourist area, so nobody really speaks any English here, and to get by we really have no choice but to learn the language and talk to them.

And that honestly is my favorite thing about being here. I go get gelato next door everyday (yeah, NEXT DOOR) and I order it in Italian and it's the best feeling! Yeah they laugh at me sometimes because I screw up, or my accent isn't perfect, or it takes me five minutes to get one word out, etc… but I eventually get there, and they are so nice about it and just happy that I'm willing to try. And it's the best feeling! And makes my gelato that much more rewarding ;) I really am having the best time.

TRUST ME! THERE'S PLENTY MORE PICTURES TO COME, BUT MY PHONE IS 4 STORIES ABOVE ME AND I DON'T WANT TO GET IT. I'LL DO A PICTURE BLOG LATER TONIGHT... SO UNTIL THEN...

CIAO!