So my classes start tomorrow!! I guess I DID place into the advanced italian class because my schedule hasn't changed!  I'm kinda nervous about it though.  I have my italian class at 9 AM TOMORROW oh my gosh, ive been sleeping until like 1 or 2 pm everyday the past couple of days so thats going to be hard.  I then have this "italian grand tour: italy through the eyes of famous travellers" literature class, it's supposed to be a really cool class, so we'll see.
So since I (and the other advanced italian girl (the one from croatia)) don't have class on mondays, I think I'm going to do this thing with the elementary school here in tuscania.  It's like every monday we go in and teach the kids in italian certain stuff.  I don't know exactly what we'll be teaching, it could be english, or just games?  I don't really know, but it sounds cool and at the end of the semester I get a certificate saying i taught in italy.  It would really help my italian and be an experience, but it would also look good on a resume!
There are so many random things about Italy that are so different than the US.  Here's a couple.
- When me and Stacy went grocery shopping the other day, we noticed some odd stuff.  Some milk was refrigerated, and some wasn't.  We bought milk that was, it seemed gross.  They also don't refrigerate their eggs. aaand in one carton of eggs we saw, there was a tiny chicken feather kinda splatted on it. uh...gross.  When cooking the eggs, the yolk is literally like a neon orange.  It's weird, and looks so unnatural, but still tastes the same.
-Their gas stations.  Well, I don't know if you would even call it that.  They just have like 2 gas pumps, right on the side of the road.  Like on the main road right outside the walls here, you just kinda pull your car over a little bit and pump it right there, it's kinda weird. 

Alright, sooooooo we might go to Paris in a couple of weeks!!  I really hope it works out, that would be amaaaaazing.  It's kinda complicated though to travel from my town unless you have a car.  Like I'd have to take a 20 min bus ride to Viterbo, then an hour or so long train ride into rome, and then to the airport.  BUT  for 80 euro, we can hire a driver to take us straight to the rome airport, which split between like 4 or 5 people, wouldn't be that bad...and so much easier. 
Alright, enough for now.  I shall update sooooonnnnn, hope all is well negli stati uniti.  I MISS EVERYONE, WRITE ME!! buona sera

All settled in!

Alright so the program is actually a lot different than i thought.  Only 4 people, including me, are going to be in Tuscania for the whole semester.  The other 10 people are leaving in a month (they're doing a three cities tour-tuscania, rome, and venice or florence).  I really hope they all want to travel around europe as much as i do!  One of the girls (shes staying the whole time) is from Croatia, which is somewhere i've always wanted to go so hopefully a trip there is in my near future!  Today, we had our orientation.  We had to be at the school at 9:30 am for them to explain everything to us about the program and all the rules and all that nonsense and then had a break for lunch...and then i had to take my italian placement test.  All the people that signed up for classes above the beginners level had to take one.  I'm kinda worried!  I think I did alright, and I know my italian is alright for getting around in the town,but I havent studied it since early December so I've forgotten a lot...so hopefully they dont move me down a level.  
After that, Massimo, one of the school administrators, gave me and the other 3 students staying the whole time a tour of the town and explaining all of the history of certain buildings and stuff.  He actually took us down under this restaurant and showed us this really old and creepy tuscan tomb.  it was like a dark, wet cave.  eek.  We then got one of the other advisers to take us around in the van to show us good restaurants and also introduce us to the locals.  Got a free glass of wine out of it!  
The town is really safe and stuff even at night by yourself.  I really like that, especially since I have the whole 'taken' thing still in my head and have the fear of being sold into sexual slavery (haha...but seriously.)  Tonight, from this restaurant where we just got a bunch of wine (and got harassed by creepy (yet kinda cute) italian men) I walked back part of the way by myself and felt totally fine!  Everybody in the town is really nice, and the fact that they can tell that you're not italian (with the blonde hair blue eyes thing) actually makes them more friendly.  Stacy and I's apartment is really cute and quaint.  I don't have very many good pics of it but heres our living room and kitchen before we moved in!

Tomorrow is the town's local outside market. It's something that they have every friday and sells everything from like scarves to fruit and stuff.  We're gonna go!  Maybe buy some fresh fruit or something there....it's actually amazing how many orange and lemon trees there are all around the town!  You would think that they would only grow in a hot climate like florida or something but they seem to grow fine here, and its freeeeeezing!  Alright, well, it's bedtime here, it's still pretty hard to wrap my head around the fact that it's not even dinner time at home...but here's one last picture!

 Also kinda looks like a senior picture...but oh well.  I MISS EVERYBODY SO MUCH!!!! COME VISIT ME! buona notte

A little case of culture shock

Ok so this is going to be short, Im on a computer at the Lorenzo deMedici school bc i cant get internet on mine.  Wow.  NOBODY speaks english here.  ive met like 3 people that have and it is very limited.  except for the administrators ive met at the school, of course.  we are like the only american here right now except for some group from bentley which is leaving in a couple of days.  ok so imagine one of those paintings you see in italian restaurants and stuff of orange rustic buildings on narrow cobblestone streets with flower beds outside their balconies and windows and tiny european cars all alone a tuscany looking hillside.  this is tuscania.  oh my god.  theres a castle, a bunch of old churches and fountains.  very hilly town too.  red wine with every meal.. One italian custom that i really do NOT like, is that every store and restaurant is closed between 1 and 4/5 pm.  for "siesta".  it is sooo inconvenient because that is when usually i go to lunch or go shopping or when i am out and about.  but anyways. went to see the apartment i will be staying in the semester.  its a tiny house in the front corner of a big gated yard of this huge house (that has a pool!!) and it is only one room, with a curtain separating the beds from the kitchen/living room.  and then a bathroom.  then from the yard is an AMAZING view of the hillsides and the town and a lake off in the distance.  beautiful.  there are like 20 kittens out in the yard too (yesss).  the school told me today that there are only 2 people in my advanced italian class (including me) and then an average of 5 people in each class.  with that and the fact that nobody in the town speaks english, hopefully ill be fluent by the end of the semester...well see.  gotta goo, will post pictures on my next one! ciao tutti

Last night in America!

So I don't really know about this whole blog thing, it feels kinda awkward to me haha... but I guess we'll see how it goes!
I leave for Italy tomorrow!!  I thought I would be really really nervous and pre-departure homesick (don't know if thats a real thing, but it seems to happen to me), but I'm not really at all.  I guess I was a little excited all day, but then when my brother and a couple of friends called me wishing me luck (through screams of excitement through the phone) I started to freeeeak out.  I just can't believe that I'm about to be completely out of my comfort zone on the other side of the world with nobody I know for the next 4 months...thats what I like about it though.  I've heard my mom and grandma, and other people too I guess, say that if they could go back in time, they would travel the world as much as possible when they were young and could...and they regretted not doing it.  I guess that's why I'm doing this, so I don't have those kind of regrets.  I AM really really excited that it's so easy to travel all around Europe though once I'm there.  I was looking online today on Ryan airlines and saw that a flight from Rome to Madrid is like 30 bucks. sweeeeet.  Hopefully I'll be going all around Europe a whole bunch...just bought my eurorail passes for Italy, Austria, France, and Switzerland too. ahhhh!!

I guess the next time I post on this I'll be in Italy!! After hours and hours of packing and re-packing my suitcases, I'm finally ready to goooo. Gah, it was so frustrating when we would finally finish packing one suitcase, thinking we finally got everything to fit, and then when we would weigh it, and it would be 50.7 pounds (it has to be under 50). But anyway, I guess I'll continue to write all about my adventures in Tuscania, as well as all of Italy and Europe!! It'll be an adventure to learn about all the different cultures, languages, foods, and I guess learn a bit more about myself.  Probably won't be able to sleep tonight, too excited!!!
Buon Viaggio!! Ciao
Cam