Sabrina, Spring Showers, and Spremuta

So I started the day out very well by eating a huge FREE breakfast (complete with a pan of tiramisu) at my hostel.

Next, I packed all my gear up and headed out to locate my student apartment. Found it without any problems on the street, Via dell Rosa and even got a chance to explore a bit before I had to meet with the study abroad representative who would let me in.

I found out that we are literally less than a minute's walk from Santa Croce - this beautiful church:

 

 

Sitting on the piazza steps watching the pigeons and gabbing Italian women was priceless.

Equally fantastic was our apartment itself. Fully furnished, airy, and huge, the place is beyond what I had imagined. And despite the 5 bolts in the door that are locked by turning our skeleton keys four times...I feel very safe. The neighborhood is quaint and fairly quiet...at least during the day when the nightclub near by isn't jamming out ;D

 (our view)

 And as for my roomie - her name is Sabrina - she's awesome! We both have decided that getting lost is almost more fun than knowing where we are...and way more exciting. On our walk to the grocery store that was supposed to be right around the corner we ended up several blocks away yet discovered a beautiful outdoor museum surrounded by trees that smelled like lilacs. We ran through a sudden rain storm that made the cobblestones shine and our hair curl, we were given free chocolate mini-cakes by a girl who invited us to eat again for free tomorrow at a community center nearby and besides that, we even got to see a car-race featuring several gorgeous ferrari's.

...sexy.

We did eventually find the grocery store - and even a dollar store that sold lingerie...awkward yes, but we felt very proud buying our own supplies for the next two weeks (including a carton of Arancia Spremuta "Orange Juice", some bread, cereal, milk, and fruit - though were admonished by the cashier for not weighing our peaches and grapes beforehand).

Afterwards, we dropped off our supplies and then met up with the rest of the group at a local bar. 15 gals in all - some a bit more exhausted than others. But we're all here! Tomorrow we have our orientation and walking tour - not like we haven't seen basically everything already. But it will be good to get to know better these ladies I'll be sharing life with for the next month-plus!

However, like I said before, Sabrina is awesome and we shared many laughs as we grabbed some gelato, sandwiches, and € 5,50 red wine on the way back to our apartment.

(first gelato! it was a raspberry swirl...and it was delicious)

 (first glass of Italian wine!)

 In fact, as we were walking back, we even were stopped by a young Italian guy who asked us where we got our sandwiches...of course we couldn't answer him back as fluently in his native language as h, but we were very proud of the fact that we at least looked enough like the locals to get asked. This in addition to the woman who asked me a question in Italian at the train station when I first arrived as well as the man at the sandwich shop who started out speaking in Italian before we had to break the news, all reinforced our decisions aimed at blending in.

Indeed, besides a leering "Buongiorno" from an old man, I've found the Italians to be very open, friendly people! They also dress fabulously. Men in Armani suits and leather shoes going to get a loaf of bread or women in heels and spotless white dress pants riding scooters...I can say I have seen and I believe. They also completely live up to the sterotypical hand-gestural, loud speech patterns. I love them already. <3