School starting!

Mary Shannon: Hello everyone! Sorry it has been a couple of days, we have been SO busy! School started yesterday and somehow it seems like weeks have passed since this weekend. Yesterday I had my first class at 9am-ouch! It was so cold! But once again, you can't complain about the walk when you are walking past cafe after cafe down the Ponte Vecchio or Ponte Santa Trinita and century old buildings to class. The mornings here are so much busier than the rest of the day, people are on mopeds and bicycles and buses and tiny 'gerbal' electric cars. I had beginning Italian on Monday and learned how to pronounce some vowels: Ci sounds like 'ch' and chi sounds like 'key'... Then I went to Cafe Santo Spirito outside my apartment and got a danish type breakfast and capaccino!mmmmm. Last night we also made PBJs for dinner!! It so good-and cheap! Kelsi and I also went shopping, where I found a cute pair of brown leather boots (flats) for £30!! (By the way, that is the style here, big scarves, sweaters tight jeans, and flat tall boots with jeans tucked in). Its comfortable and warm, so I like the fashion here haha. I also found some cute jeans for £30 too! There is soooo much shopping here, but it is all really expensive, so to find good deals you have to walk in EVERY store to get good deals. Also, the main street closest to us is the 'Rodeo Drive'. Bad news parents with kids over here! Its all Puccini, Gucci, Prada, Ferregamo, Armani, Versace, etc! Kelsi and I window shopped as if we were looking for a pet puppy that our mothers had warned us never never to buy unless we were going to pay for it and take care of it haha. We also had gelato stacked on warm waffles, and it was GREAT!! (All the walking here keeps any sort of dietary guilt far away!) Last night, we met a guy from Jessieville, right outside of Hot Springs, and some guys from Georgia. I love running into other southerners! (I accidently figured out that a lot of people get offended by being called 'yankees'-oops!) Today we bought croissants on the way to class, Intro to Conflict Management, where my Italian woman teacher told us how she had had a law degree but didn't like being an Italian lawyer. So she quit and moved and began working for the UN helping with international rghts. Now shes back in Italy teaching, and the volunteer director of the Buddhist Centre of Florence where she books the Dali Lama (however you spell it) to come speak. In her words, 'He's a very nice man to be around, to have next to you.' Somehow I'm not surprised...
Things I've noticed lately: A lot of Graffiti, the same old woman everyday on the Ponte Vecchio saying 'grazie, grazie' over and over holding out a can for change, shops pretty much open whenever they feel like it day or night, weekday or weeknight, gnocchi is potato pasta and it is so good, staff at the non-tourist restaurants can be pretty snotty if you dont use Italian... Love you all, miss you all. -Im doing good :)