ariccia

we finally made it to ariccia. i am so tired after our week long travels, but they were well worth it. it is really nice to have all of my stuff unpacked and sorted. the palace is amazingly beautiful. i have only seen the part that we're living in, but i can imagine what the rest is like.

once we got here we threw our stuff down and showered. once clean, we went down and had a sandwich that they had nicely provided for us. they were famous sandwiches with pork on them called porchetta. apparently that is very big here. they were delicious.

then we all cleaned up and headed out around albano (the small town right next to ariccia) where cinzia, roberta, and tommy showed us around. tommy is a big guy from america who works with the program and comes over for the spring semester classes. cinzia and roberta are both from italy. it was so funny meeting cinzia for the first time because she kissed me on both cheeks, which i forgot they do here.

we learned where to buy our train and bus tickets, where the pharmacies were, where the best chinese food is, and then we got our cell phones. it's crazy to have a phone after not having one for so long... not that i really am going to use it, but still.

then it was off to dinner at the ariccia hotel. they had reserved a huge, long table for us to sit at. there were bottles of red and white wine, and amazing bread. this older couple came to dinner (i can't remember their names right now... ill let you know later) and they're apparently our new grandparents. they were really sweet. dinner was delicious. we had a starter that consisted of prosciutto, bruschetta, mozzarella cheese, eggplant, and fried artichokes. then we had a plate of lasagne, and a plate of al dente. we finished it off with really good cake for dinner. it was so much food, but of course i finished every single plate :)

we just came home from dinner and i completely unpacked. tomorrow we have to be ready at 9am. we have an orientation where we go over the syllabus and learn more about the palace. in the afternoon we are taking a tour of ariccia and going to the grocery. should be fun!

pictures of where im living:

this is the living area when you first walk in you can see in the back there are chairs because we hold class in here sometimes. and then at the end of this room is the entrance to the hallway where the dorms are

our kitchen

it is on the right when you enter the dorm area

the kitchen's huge!

it's in the same room as the picture above

the bathrooms are so nice. there are two of these rooms.

there are 2 or 3 sinks in a room like this,

and then 2 rooms that have a toilet, bidet, sink, and shower.

really nice and private!

pretty wall of italy pictures

the hallway outside of my room.

you're looking at our grad student's room, olivia.

at the end on the right is a hall to the bathrooms

and a door to another room of girls that is connected to ours

the benches under the windows in our room

this is a view of our room kind of.

you can see the sleeping nooks on the bottom floor,

and the loft where i live.

the stairs leading up to the loft that

me, cydney, and heather live in

my sleeping nook is so comfortable.

i love it. it is like camp,

but with internet and italians

these pictures don't even do it justice. this place is gorgeous. the pictures kind of look like normal dorm furniture, but it's really nice, dark wood furniture. i love it.