The Wind Comes Sweeping Down the... Peninsula? -- An OU Student's Semester in Italy: Arezzo: The Beginning

Ciao amici! (Hi friends!)

If the past few days are any indication, I have a feeling I won't have the chance to blog super often... there is so much to do here! I will definitely try to write at least once or twice a week though so that you guys know that I'm alive.

The thing is, I don't know if you guys have heard, but Italy is freaking awesome! I've had the opportunity to walk around and explore Arezzo a lot more in the past few days, and it is such a cute town! There are definitely modernized areas, but the historic center is quaint and very old school. The other day we went on a walking tour and one of the coolest views I've ever seen was up at the highest point in town, looking over the city walls to the surrounding parts of Arezzo that are outside the "main city". Since I'm terrible at descriptions, I'll give you a few pictures.

They really don't even do it justice, to be honest. Anyway, so it was very cool to go on our little walking tour and see just a taste of what Arezzo has to offer.

One of the many hilarious things that have already happened in our first few days was the creation of our new catchphrase. At the risk of failing in humility, I have to say that I was the one who came up with it. We were talking during our welcome dinner last night (side note, it was amazing... a free 3 course meal in which my favorite dish we had was a black truffle tortolini pasta that was AH-MAZING) about how the whole "yolo" (a.k.a. "you only live once" for those not aware) thing is soooo 2012... but we needed a reason to order some more wine other than just that we were thirsty. So since yolo wasn't cutting it, I had the thought that we should just say "yoliio" --- an Italianized version of yolo, complete with the Italian hand gesture below, to stand for "you only live in Italy once". Because, let's face it, most of us probably won't have the chance to live in Italy for 4 months again. But yeah, everyone thought that was pretty funny and we've been throwing it out and hashtagging it ever since.

Thoroughly Italian kids over here

Speaking of #yoliio -- I actually had red wine with dinner last night and I even enjoyed it! I'm sure no one will be as surprised by this as my parents because, even though they are what some people may call wine connoisseurs, I have never really had much of a taste for it until now. But, I figured that while in Italy... You just gotta do it. Yoliio. And it was good! I'll keep you posted on my progress.

That's about all I've got for today... I don't have too much time, and I'm a pretty boring writer anyway, so I'll just leave you with some pictures.