Verona

Hey everyone,
I decided to start a blog to keep in touch with everybody. So I have been in Italy for about 3 weeks now and everything is going really well. I'm with a group of 38 Americans and we do pretty much everything together. I live in an apartment that is only about 15 minutes from my school and the town center which is really nice. I have three roommates: one is a Chinese girl who is a student at the university and she speaks pretty good English, another is an Italian girl, also a student, who is basically fluent in English, and another Italian women who is a teacher and speaks almost no English at all (it's interesting). I really like all my roommates and 4 Univ. of Illinois girls live right next door so I hang out with them a lot. The language is definitely somewhat of a barrier but I am taking Italian classes 5 days a week right now and I am really motivated so that i can speak to my one roommate (I'm pretty sure she things I'm some American idiot lol).
So far, I have done a lot of cool things. Verona is beautiful and a very safe and clean city. Most of the Italians are very friendly but every Italian waitor we have ever had hates us (they don't work for tips so they let us know in less than subtle ways that they hate us lol)
There are a lot of things about Italy that differ from the States
- no dryers (just drying racks)
- Waitors don't have to be nice to you
- No ice (I asked my roommates about ice cube trays and they looked at me like I was insane)
- Ketchup= Mato Mato Squiz and NO yellow mustard (you would cry jess lol)
- Pedestrians DO NOT have the right of way
- Italian men require you to be direct (they do not comprehend subtlety)
- Notebook paper here= graph paper at home
- No microwaves
- Sometimes it costs more to get water when you go out to eat than to order wine (Tell them you get water for free at restaurants in the states and it will blow their mind

The city already feels like home and I can't imagine being anywhere else other than here right now.

More posts to come, I promise.

Ciao
Mia