Classes- Day 1

It's strange being an American in a foreign city, and automatically being identified as an American. But it's even stranger to be mistaken for an Italian.

Today was the first day of classes, and I only had one class. At 12:30. However, the student life office started enrolling people for trips today, so we had to go early to sign up. So, I was on campus before 9am. I'm headed to Pompeii and Tuscany in March through AU. The Tocsana weekend includes a trip to a vineyard for wine tasting! (cooking lessons also start tomorrow night woo!!!)

Kel and I stayed on campus for a little bit to plan out our spring break. It looks like we're heading to Paris, London and Scotland over the 9 days- not exactly what I wanted, but it's a start. I think I'm going to find someone to head to Spain and Portugal over Easter, since those (as well as Germany) are the other main countries I want to see. I think Kel and I are heading to Germany right after the semester ends. I want to spend by 21st abroad, because not many people have that chance, and I'm not a huge "drink to get drunk" type of person. I'd rather hang out at a bar and talk with friends than go to a club and get smashed. So, I want to go to a German bar on my 21st. From there, we think we're heading to Croatia for a day, then home, because my flight leave sometime around May 19th.

Anyways..... After planning spring break, we headed back to the apartment, then over to the grocery store because I was out of bread and she needed some stuff as well. That actually went really well. Aside from things being in random places, I found an ice tea mix and water I'll actually drink because it tastes like water!

sidenote for an explanation: I've been swimming just about my entire life, and I've trained myself to not swallow water that tastes like chlorine. Well, that's a problem when all of the water here is chlorinated and has floride in it. The water tastes gross, and makes me gag when I've been drinking too much of it. Juice is expensive, and apparently apple juice really doesn't exist around here (I've found it once, and the local store doesn't carry it), so I just haven't been drinking water, or when I do, it's in tea. I can't drink tea 24/7 though, especially since boiling water here is a bit of a hassle. So, I found ice tea mix, and a large bottle of mineral water that tastes decent! YAY!

But also at the store, I ran into this little old man while I was looking for bread. He wanted a specific number of loaves of bread, but he must have a bad back, and couldn't bend over to get them, so he needed help. After he went off in Italian at me, I got the gist of what he needed and helped him out. He called me a "bella ragazza italiana!" A beautiful Italian girl! Being IDed as American is fine- that's what I am, but being called Italian, when I don't look anything like the women on the street- I'm blonde, for starters!- is really strange.

So, I wandered back to school to head to class, where we took a placement test. I need some review, but I'll be fine in the class I'm in. Some review, according to the professor, and the review I know I need, are two totally different things, however.

After class, I headed over to a fresh food market that's on the way home, and I picked up some apples, carrots and peas for soup. The food here is so fresh! I boiled a rotisserie chicken the other day to make the base for a soup, and when I pulled it out today, there was no fat on it. In the States, the layer of grossness to pull off is about a half inch thick, and solid.

Overall, I was able to communicate with just about everyone, bought food and talked to a few people in class. Today was a good day (and it's not over yet- it's not even dinner time!)