I safely made it to Firenze, all in one piece!

The train ride was pretty uneventful....I did splurge for first class because I was a little nervous about things :)

I took a cab to my apartment (after my experience in Roma, I wasn't taking any chances...even with my googlemaps) and arrived at the exact same time as one of my roommates, Emily. My other roommate Hailey arrived very shortly after, we were all on the same train and had all been eating alone in Roma for the past few days! The apartment is amazing, you walk through heavy wooden, oval doors that go as high as the first floor. Through the doors you walk into a huge, open courtyard with terraces. My landlord, Mr. Pinzani, was extremely welcoming and nice (knew very little English). Emily and I have the very top 2 rooms, about 5 flights up. We share a bathroom (so far seems to be excellent water pressure and temp. :). The kitchen is also on our floor which is nice because we have more of a chance to meet more of the tenants. There are about 8 rooms totaly and 4 are occupied with students from my school. The other rooms are students from other schools or Italians. The only complaint is that my room is very cold, slippers are the first thing on my list of things to buy! I do have the most spectacular view of the Duomo, river and bridge.

Today was the first day of school. It was a brisk 32 degrees walking to school this morning (it's much colder here then Roma, but I like it). We stop for espresso and pastry on the way. My Italian is sloooooowly coming along. It helps that Emily is pretty fluent so she helps me along. School was great and is actually right next door to where the Jersey Shore apartment was, lol! The teachers and everyone that works at the school are very very nice and reassuring. It will be a lot of work and a lot information crammed into 4 weeks. Some of us might actually be demo teaching on Wednesday already! There are about 20 students total but we are split into 2 groups, a morning and afternoon group. By the grace of God I am in the afternoon group! :) There are a few days a week we need to be there early, other wise we arrive at 1:00 and are done by about 6/6:30. I am planning on taking huge advantage of the mornings for touring and studying :)

I am happy to be unpacked and settled in one place now. I liked Rome but so far I Love Florence. I could instantly tell, just walking off the train, it's slower, less crowed and less touristy.

More to come soon! CiaoCiao