first day of class, italian style

Today was our first day of class and it was so incredibly loooooong. We had class from 9am to 3:15 and then house meetings until 5ish. I don't sit still for that long very well, so it was rough, especially since the classes are mostly very discussion oriented and you have to really be on top of things to keep up in that type of class (unless you don't care about participation grades, that is). But, hopefully I'll be less overwhelmed and start to hit my stride soon, because next week I present to the class and have a debate, and the following week my group in the commerce class has a RWPS presentation in about 2 weeks. Even though I'm usually pretty high strung and uptight about school, I haven't started taking it super seriously yet, and I'm not sure if it's because we've had so much time to just mosey around the city or if it's because my classroom is about 5 feet from the Grand Canal.

After class, some of us went back to Billa, the local-ish grocery store to get more food and I ended up making myself look American and dumb by not pre-weighing my fruit. Sounds petty, but I held the WHOLE line up...and had some very angry Italians staring me down. Luckily one of the guys from the house was there as a buffer, or I seriously think I might've been attacked. And all over some fruit. I promptly walked outside and enjoyed one of my previously unweighed bananas. Then the boys cooked dinner for me again, this time fish and pasta and salad, and while I usually am kind of scared of anything fish-like, it was absolutely amazing...didn't taste like fish at all...I really am liking the Italian food and the buying it fresh every few days approach (having someone to cook for me doesn't hurt either).

Last night a housemate and I went to get gelato and I've decided I really hope house gelato trips become a nightly thing...it's even better than I remember from when I came in high school! We're going back to the wine bars tonight since class doesn't start until 11 tomorrow and we only have 1 class, so hopefully a gelato stop is in order (and hopefully this time we don't get as lost)!

I still haven't really talked to hardly anyone back home, especially not my parents on the phone, which is weird, since we usually catch up pretty regularly, but the time difference and the unpredictable house schedule makes it hard to talk to people who are a continent away!