Saluti a tutti!

So I"m using an Italian keyboard in an Internet cafe to type this, and I can"t seem to find the apostrophe key. Thus, I will be using very little contractions and the quotation key in place of an apostrophe. Just wanted to give you an explanation as to why this entry might sound very formal.

Everything is going really well so far! Yesterday we went shopping for awhile (realized I am going to have to budget my money verrrrry carefully...shopping in Italy can be incredibly dangerous!!!) and wandered around the city. It was raining for awhile, but luckily I had my handy-dandy purse umbrella. Che fortuna! (What luck!)

Later that night we went to this nice little pub called Noir during happy hour when appetizers were free. Maybe it"s the 20-year-old in me, but I"m not going to lie...I felt ultra cool legally ordering a drink. (Don"t worry parents and grandparents, it was a Shirley Temple, I swear!) But the appetizers were really good and we filled up on dinner there. We get really hungry here because we are constantly walking around, so it was nice to have a really filling dinner.

This morning I had my first day of class, and I guess I didn"t do as poorly on the placement exam as I thought. I was placed in the intermediate, which is a huge relief! (Yayyy that means I"m gonna get credits when I transfer schools next year!) None of the other girls from my program are in the class with me so I was a little nervous, but I met some really nice kids in class today. They"re from all over the world; Japan, Russia, Denmark, Canada, Spain, U.S...it is going to be really fun getting to know all these people from different countries! And I think we all had at least one thing in common--the fact that we nearly fell out of our seats when our teacher told us we were having an oral exam. But it wasn"t as bad as we thought; we just had to introduce ourselves to the class and talk about where we were from and all that easy stuff. When I said I was from California, a collective "ooooh" reverberated throughout the room. I"m debating whether or not I"m going to tell the truth when they ask me if I surf and live next door to a movie star. Don"t want to lower my coolness factor too soon!

After class we dropped off our laptops at this place where they are going to hook us up with wireless Internet so we do not have to keep trekking to Internet cafes. Then we grabbed these DELICIOUS paninis and some gelato (I thought gelato would not be edible at such cold temperatures, but somehow I managed to power through and eat it. It was delicious.) I know I"m a nerd, but I"m having a blast speaking Italian to all the vendors! Hopefully by the end of the trip my Italian will be good enough that they don"t respond to me in English...

Now we"re just hanging out to the Internet cafe until we pick up our computers in about 15 minutes. After that, it"s off to the airport to track down my luggage...wish me luck!!!

Oh, and Mom and Dad: turns out it is free for me if you call my cell phone. If you dial 10-15-200, then 01139 before my Italian cell phone number, it is a lot cheaper for you. Everyone else, if you ever need to contact me, my Italian cell phone number is 335-714-6057. I get texts for free, so if you ever get the urge I would love messages from people at home :) You don"t have to dial 01139 before texts, though. Just keep the time difference in mind!!! (I am 9 hours ahead of you, so subtract 3 hours from whatever time it is in the U.S., then change the AM or PM accordingly. See Auntie Erin, me not so dumb!)

Okay everyone, vi voglio bene! Ciao per adesso! (Bye for now)
Love, Caity