"Sono andato! Non sono venuto!"

Things have definitely taken an awesome upward turn in the past day and a half. It is about 2:30 here in Florence and today has been fantabulous. Yesterday I'm not even quite sure what was up to most of the day. I basically just got all of my meetings and stuff out of the way then went and chilled with Emily. We got some gelato and then I went to get the present for my family, the Maceras. My buddy, Nicole Stanek, and another girl Kate Gieser have stayed with the family before so as their welcoming gift, I gave them a picture of the three of us in a frame.
Tori is my little 8 year old host sister. She is adorable she is a stickler about Italian grammar and won't let me get away with anything, hence the title of this post! Barbara is actually from Seattle but is insistent upon using Italian in the house. Franco is beyond awesome. They have a 24 year old son named Frankie who is in the Carabinieri (military police) in un altro parte d'Italia. I will meet him tonight. He comes home every other weekend.

My roommate's name is Jenna and she is from University of Denver in Colorado. She lives in Colorado Springs. We are both clean people and really organized. She is down to Earth and super cool. I'm really lucky. She went on the pre-trip to Greece so already has a lot of friends on this trip and in turn has asked me to start hanging out with them. They are actually really cool. I think only two of them are from SU though and one is actually from RI! Woo! We stayed up and talked last night for a while and got to know each other.

We both slept well despite the awful heat and humidity during the night. We got up early this morning, had some breakfast and hit the road for school. It's only about a ten minute walk - super easy to navigate. I registered for classes, turned in my work study app, hung out in the Student Life Office, and went to my safety and security meeting. After that, Jenna called me and I went to go meet all her friends and we got lunch at Il Masachio which has PHENOMENAL paninis. I got ham, with spinach, and cheese - toasted. It was fantastic.

I went back up the SL Office to chill with Beth because the girls had a meeting. Since then, I've been down here in the Skype room talking to Katie and also messaging a few other people. I'm off to a transportation meeting now so that I can learn how to use the buses and stuff around here.

I'm definitely having a great day and hope you are too!!

Thinking of you, Mom and Dad.

Aveste un buon giorno tutti!