Bonjourno! Sorry it has been a few days, I have to pay 5 Euros per hour for Internet at a café ☹. On Thursday the 27th I woke up at 5am to catch my 8:45 plane ride. A girl named Marissa who is in Orvieto with me was on the same flight so we met up at the airport. We were both furious when the flight attendant told us we’d have to check our carry-ons because the others who had boarded before us took up all the overhead space (even though we were the ones who checked in online first!)…Um WHAT?!?! We had all of our important belongings in those bags! Contacts, umbrellas (which have come in very handy since arriving), toothbrushes, etc. We were so nervous our bags would get lost and not make it to Italy. However, after two long flights and 1 short hour of sleep, we arrived in Rome right after sunrise and our bags were there waiting for us ☺. I have to say, I was nervous about being in the airport lugging around all 3 of my bags. We had a very thick student handbook that described what we should expect, and I was expecting to see the men being much more forward than I’m used to, and to be pick-pocketed left and right! That handbook needs to be rewritten because it was not crowded, the Italian men kept their hands to themselves, and I never came close to getting robbed. The handbook did fail to mention how awful Italians drive though. I’m pretty sure I’ve almost been hit 10 times!
We all got into a huge Greyhound bus that took us to Orvieto. The ride there was all green with cows and sheep grazing the grass. It did not look what I had imagined Italy looking like. We finally made our way up the windy road that led us up the hill to our city. The view was breathtaking. Orvieto is a city in the clouds. If you look over the wall of the road, everything is so small below. We all got our luggage and our landlords picked us up and brought us all to our different apartments. I was sad to know that we weren’t all in the same building. I am rooming with Colleen, Caitie, and Annie. We get along GREAT! Our apartment is very small with a cottage-like feel. Colleen and I are in one room and Caitie and Annie are in the other. The floors are old brick, which looks really neat, but it’s cold and hard so we can’t lie on the ground. The two girls across the hall are in a two-person apartment that has a full kitchen, dining area, and living room. We are supposed to share their kitchen because ours only has two burners and no oven, but they keep locking us out! We’ll see how that goes. We are at the top floor (4 long flights of stairs…ugh) so the roof is slanted. Needless to say, I will be coming home with brain damage because of all the times I’ve hit my head in my room while changing or getting into bed. Our heater has a mind of it’s own and decided not to work for a while on Friday, so we were all bundled up at the table with glasses of wine to provide us warmth. A major downside to our apartment other than not having Internet is that we have no washer. We asked our landord about it and she said we have to wash our clothes by hand. Well, there goes any hope I had of getting laundry done during these three months! Since we were all dropped off at our apartments separately, we never got to see where everyone else was living. We spent two hours that Friday wandering around looking for our friends and the rest of the night getting lost around town.
Saturday night a girl named Bonnie (who is a UA and Orvieto program alum who moved to Orvieto after she graduated and married a man she met here) set up a nice dinner for us at her husband’s restaurant. For 15 Euros each we got wine, appetizers, a veggie lasagna, and dessert. It was delicious, and it was our first “family” dinner, so it was tons of fun! After dinner we all took a walk to each other’s apartments so we could all see where everyone actually lived. After our walk all of us went to an American bar called “Beer House” where we met students from Kansas State who are here studying too! It was so fun to meet new people…and to talk to people who knew English because most of this town doesn’t know any.
Monday will be our orientation where we will finally find out where everything is in this town and get our class schedules. It has been extremely difficult getting around town because we don’t know where anything is. We did find the grocery store yesterday though, so that was an accomplishment. It’s weird but I am actually excited for classes to start because I have had such a long break with nothing to do. It will be nice to have some structure to my days again. I wonder how things will change after we actually know where to get our shopping done and where to eat. Until then, ciao!

P.s. My internet doesn't like me so it won't let me post pictures, but I'll try to get them up asap!