California Girls

I have a lot of catching up to do with you guys! First things first: I have lights and gas! The toilet still doesn't work...but who REALLY needs to pee, right? That's just a luxury some of us can't afford.

The girls moved in on Tuesday...and so did their parents. We had no idea they were even coming, let alone spending 3 nights. So that's been interesting because they speak no English and have interesting stereotypes of us California girls. One of the moms, the first night, subtly explained to us that they're dangerous people out there and we need to make sure to lock our doors and not bring home strange men. Hehe. Of course, we're not the girls who have single rooms and boyfriends living in town (as do their daughters).

But as we (attempted) to talk more, they really warmed up to us and by the end they were super friendly, cooked us dinner, and invited us to Calabria, which I think I might take them up on for Christmas!

Speaking of traveling, I'm hoping to go to Amsterdam to visit Kristen for about 4 days in 2 weeks. It's going to be a challenging (and always expensive) journey all by myself, but I'm really looking forward to it! It'll be SO worth it once I get there. And I'm trying to get Britt to come too so I think it'll be a great trip.

I finished my language course today!!! I had a quiz Wed, an oral presentation Thurs, and a final oral exam Fri. So it's been a difficult week juggling studying with a house full of people. But I'm done! And now it's the weekend of celebration because we're in between programs. One of my classes starts Monday and the other the following week...it should be very interesting commencing with courses at the U. of Bologna. My Italian has gotten exponentially better since I've been here but I still feel like a newbie. We mix words up all the time but it's usually pretty funny.

For example, last week, Shawn (the boy from our program that moved in next door) bought these new tight black pants and we were making fun of him for it because he had asked Charlotte to carry his camera in her purse since it wouldn't fit in his pocket. Charlotte wanted to comment that he could only fit his lighter in his pants, but what she actually ended up saying was that he could only fit his washing machine in his pants! Che divertente.