Love at First Sight

...No, I'm not talking about men.

The moment I left the airport and crammed into a taxi with 7 fellow IES students and ALL our luggage (wondering if we should fear for our lives due to the rumors we had heard about Italian drivers) and began to drive from the airport to our hotel in downtown Rome, I absolutely fell in love with Italy.

After arriving at our hotel, receiving warm greetings from the IES Staff, and grabbing our (or at least my) first Italian lunch, the group of already-arrived students decided to explore the ancient city.

Out hotel was only a 5 minute walk from the Coliseum. I REMEMBER LEARNING ABOUT THE COLISEUM IN 6th GRADE!!!!! The fact that I got to see it in real life just blows me away (the above picture is one I snapped at about midnight that night). Yeah, that sounds ridiculous, but there is SO much history that occurred there, and that I only ever got to learn about through text books. To see it in real life was astounding.

Not only that, but Rome is architecturally an intriguing city (no wonder why architecture majors study here). The remnants of ancient ruins, Roman baths, and then all the churches, statues, fountains, buildings, etc. are surrounded by modern apartments and hotels. We were driving through the city, and then, what seemed like out of nowhere, we were passing the old Roman baths - just like that. No warning or anything. They were nestled in a little valley, near a park and other things....the ancient tucked away with the new.

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I am now in Siena - where I will be living and studying for the next 4 months. :)

I went to the weekly market yesterday. Let me tell you something, I am going to have to send clothes home, because I am going on a shopping spree for clothes next week!!! :) I can't wait until it gets warmer and they start selling sundresses!!! :)

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I went clubbing last night. It was mostly for American/study abroad students...so there weren't really many Italians. I still had a REALLY great time...once I got someone up to dance with me. If you really know me, you know I go to clubs to DANCE - not to drink. But...while dancing, there were 3 of us in a line, leaning back, dancing, and we all fell backwards. Yep...

...I fell down my first night in an Italian club. Completely sober. While dancing. Wonderful.


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I started Italian class today. I wish I could just snap my fingers and be fluent in it. I think it's a really sexy language, and would be really sexy to be fluent in, but somehow I don't think that's going to happen in one semester. I keep wanting to use Spanish words when speaking Italian - both languages are quite similar.

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Next mission: Start taking ballroom lessons. There is a girl who just has to give me the address of the studio and then I will be over there and signing up. Can't wait! :)