Yes, We're Still Alive

We haven't got too lost yet!

Well so far the trip has been amazing!! We've had a couple packed full days between sight seeing as a class, and going out alone in groups; we've pretty much seen a good portion of Florence/Settignano (where our villa is).

Our first two days of classes were INTENSE! We are in a crash course of Italian. We've got 2 teachers, and we're split into 2 classes of 13. My teacher doesn't/won't speak English, so its going to be a very interesting semester. Emily got lucky with her teacher, he can actually explain to the class what he's talking about, in my class its like a Play, he has to act out everything while we guess! They had us do a competition yesterday between classes, we had to carry on a conversation asking about your name, where do you live, etc. It wasn't pretty...

Our history class is pretty interesting, a little different. He took us on a tour Wednesday night, and then the next day taught about it all which was really cool. However, a lot of the stuff in his presentations isn't all that important or useful. So who knows how its actually going to turn out.

The tour our teacher took us on on Wednesday was a lot of fun. He took us all around the Centro, or the center of Florence where all the old Churches, and Palaces are built (pretty much everything thats important). We got to see the Dumo, its massive; The Baptisery which has gold doors; a Castle that was built within the city; and two palaces of the Medici Family. We saw a lot more than that, thats just all the big buildings.

Today we actually went for a hike to a castle just up the road, more like an hour up hill the whole way, and its was really cool. It was built in about the 13th Century, they still had a couple "books" that were in mint-condtion; but the fortress itself and the view of the city was fantastic!

Lastly, Emily and I found a soccer "field" not too far from our villa, so have no fear, we're getting in our own "spring training!"

But I think that catches up on all the big stuff we've been doing, leaving out the night life stories... For another time...
Hope all is well back in the states!
Ciao!