One Week Down!

Wow...I can't believe that I have already been here for an entire week! It is completely amazing how quickly we are learning Italian! At this point, we are able to actually have conversations. None of them are too complex, but fun none the less! And this morning after I got off the bus, a woman asked me which bus I had just gotten off and I was able to answer her correctly without even skipping a beat! It was SO cool!

We moved in with our families last Wednesday, and everything is going great! I live with two other girls (Emily Ho being one of them!) and our host family consists of only one woman in her mid-50s. She is absolutely adorable and just a blast to be around. She speaks French which has been very adventageous for when we get stuck in our communication, seeing as she speaks almost no English! She is a great cook and just a wonderful host! I have a single room to myself and it is absolutely huge! One great thing about the apartment is that it is absolutely FILLED with books! She has tons and tons of shelves all over, and then just books sitting on tables and stuck random places. She is definately a woman after my own heart! She is also a grade school teacher and so is great at being patient with us as we are learning the language (and as I am confusing my French and Italian). And here is the house:

The bathroom: notice the shower head is not attached to wall (result: water everywhere!)

The kitchen where Anna fixes our amazing dinners and where we eat breakfast.The living room/dining room where we eat dinner and Anna does her school work.Amy and Emily in their bedroom.And this is my bedroom! SO CUTE!!!
This weekend we went to Pisa. It was about a 45 minute train ride and then a 20 minute walk to the other side of town to see the tower! It was so cool, but it was different than I expected. there were buildings all around it...and I had always pictured it standing along in the middle of a huge grassy area. Not true. It was very fun except that as I was trying to climb onto a little post in order to be at a better angle for the classic cliche picture of holding up the tower I dislocated my knee...again. This kind of put a damper on the rest of the day, but luckily it just went back in on its own and so now I'm trying to lay off it a little so that it can heal, which is very difficult with all of the walking that we do here in Florence!

The postcard view of the Leaning Tower.A wonderful view of the church and the bell tower.

Life in Florence is truly amazing! I can't even put into words how great it is to wake up here every morning to the smell of coffee brewing, knowing all of the gorgeous, interesting, historical, and just plain fantasico things that I will get to see! I do miss some things from home, but overall I would not return to the states right now if you paid me a million dollars! This is my home for now, and I absolutely love it!