Ciao!

I finally got my internet up and running. Oh wireless, what would I do without you! Needless to say, I am very excited.

So I am finally in Italy! It was a long and tiring trip but I am here and will be in Europe for the next 8 weeks. I'm still kinda shocked to be here..it is still barely my second day here. I didn't really know what to expect but as far as I am concerned, things have been going smoothly and pretty well. Rome is huge and it is so beautiful. But where to start...
Oh yes, Troy Camp was amazing. A week in the forrest playing with kids! It was a very tiring week but well worth it. I unfortunately do not have too many pictures to share due to my camera laziness. But here are a few.


Playing sports


Troy camp kids lining up for lunch in the dining hall.


Wacky counselors! We got really messy. Played lots of double dare games (i.e. Condiment twister, whip cream and chocolate syrup faces, peanut butter and jelly hair do's)..the things we do to make the kids laugh.

Very much fun times. I love little kids even though they cry a lot and always get hurt no matter how much you try to prevent it. But they are so loving and so much fun! I must say that kids have the biggest hearts.

The day I came back from camp (last Saturday), I didn't sleep. Instead I finished packing during the day and went to the Troy Camp counselor party at night. The plane didn't offer much of a comfortable sleeping environment, but I survived.


Here is a pic of Kirstin and I at the Toronto airport in Canada while waiting for our connecting flight.


12 hours later, we arrived at Rome. I practically missed an entire day being that we left Los Angeles at 8am on Sunday and arrived in Rome at 10am on Monday. My internal clock is still going crazy. Our residence area is pretty nice. We're across the street fom the Vatican which I still have yet to explore. My apartment is very nice and a lot better than I expected. Here is the view from my room window. In the middle is a courtyard of the residence hall.


A picture while roaming the streets


A piazza...dont know exactly which one. There are so many, I don't think I'll ever memorize all of them! But this one was particularly nice. The fountains in the middle remind me of Ceasar's Palace in Las Vegas!


A street performer!


The pantheon


A picture while inside of the pantheon.

We took a three hour tour today during our on site orientation..and we didnt even cover that much ground! Hopefully all of this walking will do me some good. I need to not be camera lazy anymore and get some quality pictures.
It's a really weird feeling...for the first time in my life, I feel at a cultural disadvantage because of the language barrier. I have never studied Italian, but I'm hoping to catch on a little bit while here. The program also gives us survival Italian classes which is nice. So far, I've managed to get by with using Spanish since a lot of it is similar to Italian. Luckily, the people I have come across here have generally been nice.

Classes begin tomorrow. I am taking thermodynamics and Art & Architecture of Europe. The nice thing is there is no class on Fridays and the Art & Architecture class meets only on Tues. and Thurs., plus we take lots of field trips! I'm hoping to buff up on my history knowledge. Let's see how well this goes...

2:30am..I should probably go to sleep now. Classes begin at 12:30pm!

Happy first day of June!!