whew!

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wow, if I wrote everything that has happened to me since i got here, i could have a book. fortunately, I have a journal.

I hope this letter finds everyone in good health, and in bright spirits. I'm still having a blast. we started classes at the beginning of last week, so I've had plenty to keep me busy. this week, we just started our elective courses. I'm taking choir, private voice lessons, religion (not because I need it, but because I thought it would be nice to learn everything I've learned in the states in Italian), Mediterrenan cooking, and art history. I've also been
placed in intermediate Italian, so I have 11 credits of grammar, composition, and conversation. i love all my teachers. they are all hysterically funny, especially Milena, who has the greatest facial expressions.

My first week of classes started off with me falling down a flight of stairs. Graceful, I know. I still have a huge scab on my knee, but at least I was able to walk away from it laughing. It was at this time that I discovered that while I can forgive this country for not putting ice in their drinks, it's a little harder to forgive them for not having ice packs for wounds. At first it wasn't that big of a deal, but then my knee started to hurt really bad, so I asked the guys dean for an ice pack. He said he didn't know if they had ice packs, but he had a spray. Thinking that he meant an antibacterial spray for the cut, I said okay, but when he came back, the spray turned out to be a can about the size of a spray paint can with synthetic ice. i sort of looked at it for a second, and asked Erica (one of my instructors) to translate, at which point I discovered that this spray was not supposed to come into contact with skin. I
asked the dean if he didn't like me.

I decided around last thursday that it probably wasn't the best idea to isolate myself to the American crowd, so I asked God to make it so that I could make friends with the Italian students. Well, seek and ye shall find...

The very next night, I was in the chapel "playing" the piano (note the quotation marks) and one of the Italian students, Alan, told me and Nathan and Isaac that he was goign to take us out for gelato. Now, this was about 9:30 at night, and at first I wasn't sure if he was serious, but sure enough, he drug me out to his car, and ten minutes later, all four of us were standing on the sidewalk outside the gelateria eating peach gelato. ohmigosh, it was SO GOOD! I'm not especially fond of anything peach unless it's tea, but this stuff was increadible. Very refreshing, especially since it was really warm that night. We hung out for about 30 minutes, and then came back to the Villa. Alan has a friend named Alessandro, and
the two of them together are hysterically funny. They know just enough English and I know just enough Italian that we can fill in the gaps for each other. The moral: God answers prayer.

Last week, we went to Cinque Terre. Cinque Terre is a group of 5 cities all along the coast of Liguria, along the Italian Riviera. We drove about 3 hours to get there, but first stopped at Portovenere, which is a little seaside town oozing charm. There was a small church situated directly on the water. The day was absolutely gorgeous, and we climbed to the highest
point on the church and ate our lunches, then walked around the town. It's a very sleepy town during this time of year since it's not tourist season. Standing by the water, you were looking up at the cliffs, complete with a fortress overlooking the entire town. It cost money to get in the fortress, so we opted instead to roam the streets. Courtney had her first
taste of gelato, which has become a favorite for all of us. Especially the merengue, which apparently they don't have everywhere. it was YUMMY!

We then piled back into the car and drove the rest of the way to Cinque Terre. The vans dropped us off and we walked through the streets of the town, Riomaggiore (biggest river, i think) and counted how many foccacia shops there were. i counted five in between the 2
towns we saw. And these towns are REALLY tiny, a kind of place you would want to go in the off-season for a peaceful honeymoon. Once again, charm was bursting out of the doorways. We walked along the Via dell'amore between Riomaggiore and the other town (i can't remember the name) and ended up at the beach.

Now, for those of you who are picturing a sunny, sandy, Southern California beach, I'm sorry I have to burst your bubble. This was more like a boat launch ramp with a lot of rocks sticking out of the water. On a brighter note, the water was a deep azure, and so clear! NOT like southern Cali beaches! But it was hot, so even though the rocks ate at our feet and the
water was saltier than anything I have ever tasted (which REALLY burnt my knee) it felt really good to swim around. We took turns jumping into the water from the rocks and sunbathed and raced (Kevin and Tom mostly) and cut our feet, and had a billion laughs doing it. After a couple of hours, we walked back to the cars and got back to Villa Aurora, all before supper!

the next couple of days, we spent goofing off, and nothing especially noteworthy happened until Sabbath. On that day, I had gone outside and was sitting on the railing of the balcony, when Alan saw me again and invited me to come and hang with some of the italian students. the next thing I knew, I was in the back of his car again being zipped around the streets of italy with one of my instructors (Erica) and 2 other students. I have never been so scared in a car. The lines painted on the road are not really for lanes, they're just reference points. People don't really drive between them. There were cars driving in 2 lanes at once, making lefthand turns from righthand lanes, barely missing each other in the process... I decited to chalk it up to a cultural experience. But anyway, we ended up at a park running along the river. This was my next cultural experience. For those of you who haven't traveled to Italy before, in all the bathrooms in the Villa, there are these sinks about the height of a toilet, and ever since I got here, I've been staring at it, going, "What the...???" so we were all talking while we were walking along the river, and this comes up in conversation, and they
explain to me that it's like a bignet, for washing yourself in certain areas. so that answered my question, when Alan suddenly mentions that a couple of the American students had tried to wash their feet in it. eeeeewwww....

We walked it until sunset, Then Alan dropped me and Erica off at a little pizzeria where we met my roommate and about 10 other american students for dinner. This pizzeria is owned by a young woman who has been deemed the pizza-making champion of the world. This pizza was SO GOOD! And they were enormous, for not too expensive. We almost got kicked
out once, because we were being really loud (it was mostly my roommate, but it was hysterical watching her).

Then there was yesterday. Thus far, this has been the highlight of the trip. I had my first real
conversation with an Italian. I was in the computer lab, and all the network cables had been taken. So I went and asked Chicha (his real name is Samuel and he's a volunteer in the computer lab) if there was another. So this guy sitting at the table said to me in Italian, "Here, I have one you can use." I thanked him and hooked up my laptop. So after I finished checking my e-mail, I left.

The girls dorm is up the hill from the computer lab, and it was late at night, so I'm walking up this dark hill completely alone, and suddenly here comes this same guy, and he offers me a ride up the hill. Who am I to say no? so I get in his car, and we start talking. And not just the, "Hi, my name is _____, and I'm american" thing that the beginning classes have
been learning, but like, I was able to understand him and answer him and ask him questions! This is a momentous occasion for me!!! Turns out that his name is Bessi (i think that's spelled right) and his dad works at the Villa, and he works off campus. He's not a student here, but he's lived here for the past 8 years, and he started asking me how I like it here, and how long I've been here, and all this stuff, and I'm like, WOW! I'm speaking Italian!

Anyway, that's the extent of my adventures. Every day is something new. Before I left the states, my mom reminded me that no matter what, even when I feel like I'm having a horrible time, I'm still having fun, simply because there's something new and exciting at every moment. I'm already glad I came.

-lauren*

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