Settling in...

Wow, what a whirlwind of a week! It's pretty crazy to think that I have now officially been in Italy for 7 days. This time last Sunday, I was on a bus into Rome... and now I'm hanging out in my apartment (a freaking permanent residence!) in Arezzo. It still blows my mind that I live in Italy now.

I live only a 3 hour drive from this. Like, what??

Anyway, to catch up on what I've been doing the past couple of days... A LOT! Probably the most important thing that I've had to do was submit my permit of stay, or my "permesso" that legally allows me to stay in Italy for a long period of time as a student. Even though that sounds unbelievably boring, it was actually a pretty funny experience! We had to fill out a bunch of paperwork (not so funny) and then take it to the post office in Arezzo to go through the submission process. Now, we had been warned by our director of student affairs, Charlotte, and Lucio, an Italian man who helps out around OUA and basically connects us to the Arezzo community, that there was a certain woman who works at the post office who is a major stickler and is basically just super uptight. Apparently she would have no qualms about refusing an application if there is even a smudge out of place. Compared to the usual relaxed and go-with-the-flow nature of most Italians, she is definitely an oddity. Anyway, we went to the post office in kind of reverse alphabetical order, so I was one of the last people to go submit my permesso kit. When I got there, Lucio and Kaydee (our graduate student assistant at OUA) told us that we had lucked out and Patrizia (the crazy one) hadn't been working the entire time they had been there (about 3 and a half hours). How would I know her name then, you might ask? Well, literally right as my number was about to be called, Patrizia took over one of the windows. There were about 6 different windows that were open, but guess which one I got?? Yep. So Lucio had to help translate and walk me through the process since Patrizia did not speak any English (something that Lucio told me she was muttering about to herself the entire time that she was looking over my application, which was a decent amount of time since she checked everything about 5 times). While we were dealing with this, we heard an Italian woman start to yell at Kaydee who was helping out two of my friends, Katie and Brynne, at a different window. I, obviously, had no clue what she was yelling about (and they didn't either), but Lucio had to run over there and talk to the woman. Apparently she was upset that there were so many of us Americans taking up windows for so long, even though we had taken numbers and waited our turn just like everyone else. I'm not going to lie, from what Lucio told us, she was kind of a b that rhymes with itch. After that got sorted out and we finally finished, we went home. I didn't really do that story justice, but trust me when I tell you that it was pretty much hilarious. Witnessing people yelling at you in a foreign language for a ridiculous reason and listening to a crazy lady talk to herself about you in front of you is kind of a singular experience, well, for me at least.

So that was one of the more eventful orientation tasks that we completed.

Other than that, one of the coolest things I've done so far was walking around with our Getting to Know Arezzo class to different places to buy food to cook and prepare at home instead of going out for every meal. Now, those of you who know my eating habits know that I'm definitely no chef and am definitely hurting for some Canes or Braums right now. But I'm going to try to cook from home a pretty good amount this semester. Not only is it much cheaper, but it's also kind of awesome to go shopping here... it's just so different, and yet somewhat the same, you know? Going to the supermarket was an awesome experience. I couldn't read ANYTHING on the labels, but I mostly figured it out. I made my best purchase to date...

Goat cheese!! No clue what the rest says, but I know exactly what this guy is

I also got some other healthy stuff...

And some not-so-healthy stuff...

What can I say? I'm not perfect.

But just because I can make some stuff from home now, that doesn't mean that we don't still go out on occasion! Here are some pictures from a dinner that I had with a few of my friends, including some red wine that I enjoyed!

From the left: Brynne, Katie, and Karin (one of my roommates)

The vino! I thought the bottle was cool.

Lindsey is in the front, then Kelsey is on her left (another one of my roommates!)

We've had some great times so far... I love all the people here! I can definitely tell that there are adventures to come.

Yesterday morning we woke up and went to the Saturday market here in Arezzo where they sell a huge variety of things (clothes, household items, shoes, etc.) for cheaper prices. I didn't buy anything, but there were some pretty cute sweaters for only a few euro! There were also food trucks there, and I got the best chicken wing with french fries that I've ever had, and it was just 2 euro... Let's just say that every time I'm in town for a Saturday market I will be stopping by that rosticceria truck.

Then me, Lindsey, Katie, and Karin went into a few stores to go shopping a little bit, and I bought a sweater there. First, though, we had to warm up from walking around in the SNOW through the market! (Yeah it was only flurries, but still.) We stopped by Coffee O'Clock, a kind of Americanized cafe where I got an ah-mah-zing caffe mocha. All the other coffees I had tried so far in the Italian cafes just weren't to my taste, but this mocha was soooo good. Apparently Coffee O'Clock will also let you take coffees to go! That's a rare thing in Italy, so I have a feeling I'll be back.

Yum... and so pretty!

 Well, that's just about all I've got for now. We have also gone to a discoteca and some of the bars around town, but I don't want to bore you with those details. Suffice it to say, it's been a fun week! I need to go get some food before our movie night we are having at OUA tonight, but please comment with any questions! I miss all of you and would love to hear from ya! Have a wonderful week!