I have arrived!

View of the Arno from our taxi ride to our apartment

I'm here! Traveling went smoothly (I slept practically the whole way) and although we had to wait a while at the airport to get taxis to our apartment, it was worth it -- the apartment is gorgeous!!! There are six of us in a four bedroom, two bath place and it is so cute. We have a marble staircase leading up to our apartment, tile floors everywhere, and it already feels homey. Well, aside from the fact that the kitchen light blew out as soon as we got here. 

Pictures: 

My room with roommate Katreina opening the window

Our beds (mine is on the right of this picture)

The loooong hallway of our mansion when you come in :)

One side of the living room (huge couch!)

My roommates Marie (left) and DeeAnne (right)

Roommate Jessica

Roommate Erin

It's taking forever to upload pictures to here, so I'm not going to put a ton more now. But after unpacking and showering last night, we went to dinner in a cute little square about 20 seconds from our doorstep for amazing pizza and friendly Italian service :) Then we walked across the Ponte Vecchio (gorgeous at night and not as crowded!) and over near the Uffizi, where there was a guy playing guitar and people milling around in the big, beautiful square. When we came back we did some more unpacking and skyping with friends and family, which meant we didn't actually get to bed til after 2 AM.

Delicious!

Ponte Vecchio all closed up at night

That led to me sleeping through my alarm this morning. My water clock, while very cool, has a very quiet alarm and no snooze function, so if you miss it the first time, you're out of luck (meaning I missed skyping with my mom :( ). Luckily they supplied some other alarm clocks so we can set multiple ones in the future. Once my roommate woke me up, I got ready speedily and we headed to the Santa Croce to meet up with the rest of the group for orientation.

They showed us the school where we'll be having our PCC classes (beautiful room) and the ABC Language School as well. I found out that I only have an hour of Italian each day, meaning the most hours I'm ever in class is 4 hours on Wednesday. Monday I only have one hour of class...tough life.

When we finished with the orientation presentation, my roommates and I got gelato for lunch and huge water bottles. We went to a gelato place I had gone to last summer and loved with my family; I'm glad it was easy to find again! I got two different pink kinds of gelato (Lampone and Fragola I think?). I didn't know what the names meant but they were delicious!

Gelateria dei Neri

Now I am back at my apartment and about to take a nap before we head out for our walking tour at 2 PM. It's weird to think that everyone back at home is sleeping now as it's verrryyy early morning for you.

Overall, I am having a fantastic time so far and not feeling too jet-lagged -- just a little sleepy since we went to bed so late last night. So, naptime for me, more later!