Ciao, bella.

i didn't sleep well again last night. i don't think it's jet lag anymore, but i'm definitely not used to this bed. hopefully i get used to it. the 4.5-5 hours of sleep i've been getting a night just isn't working for me. today was my first day at the Fassi school. i'm partnered with another American student named Laura. she's a SPED major at Clemson University. she seems really nice. it's definitely nice to have an English speaking person (aside from the English teacher we're shadowing) to talk to. she's been just as homesick as me, so we made a pact today to help each other through it by letting the other bitch about it until we get over it, haha. today was good though. the teacher we're working with is fluent in English, but he is VERY strict. he's an older man and has been to almost every state in the US which i thought was cool. he's directing a rendition of Grease that my host mom is choreographing, haha. we will get to see the rehearsals and we met the girls playing Sandy and Rizzo today. they speak in mostly Italian and sing in English. all of the Italian students were very excited to meet us. there were even girls screaming and jumping up and down because "the Americans are finally here." haha. we are basically celebrities. :D even the teachers are very nice. Laura and I had our cappuccino bought for us and were given bread during our break. so that was nice. it's raining here today, so i had to carry an umbrella. i am semi retarded though and scratched the hell out of my chin with it. don't ask me how because i don't really know. haha. we get done with school at 1:00 every day so Allessandra and i came home and she made chicken salad for lunch. later today i had a meeting with all of the rest of the program members (Americans) at an elementary school to go over our lesson plans. after that i came home and did some work for the class portion of the trip. observation worksheets and whatnot. i organized all of my papers for my class. i didn't realize how many papers i'm supposed to be filling out as i go (or that i was supposed to have already filled out! haha). luckily, i am all caught up now. i also went through and labeled the map of Missouri that i brought with me. today at school i talked to my teacher about my planned lessons and he thought they were great ideas so by labeling the map, i wrapped up all of the preparation i can do before i teach the lessons. i'm nervous about this idea, but.. i'm hoping that it will go well. :) after i labeled the Missouri map i got out my map of Carpi and marked out the bike route to the city center and the train station just so i have it and don't have to ask my host mom for it all the time. the train station location was especially important because the MU and KU girls (there's 13 of us total) are planning trips to Modena and Bologna, both of which we will need the train for. Modena is a larger city nearby here (about 22 km according to google), while Bologna is a little further away (71 km-ish). it's nice that there are other cities so close by train for us to take afternoon trips all together. also, one of the girls (Paige) from KU is turning 21 on the 18th. we're all very excited because we will get to have a night out on the town together in order to celebrate. she won't be taking shots or anything, but we'll probably go to dinner and drink. bars here aren't like bars at home, they are mostly for purchasing coffee. but either way it will be nice to celebrate. the trip is fairly segregated in terms of MU/KU and Clemson/College of Charleston. we all kind of stick to our own. i'm glad that Laura is in my class though because it makes me feel a little more connected to the other people even though i know the MU/KU girls better. hopefully this will change as the program goes on. it would be nice to get to know everyone.

CIAO!