I was supposed to go shopping Thursday after class with Rhianna, Jaimie, and Karen, but we got as far as Campo Santa Margherita and I just wasn't up for it. The last few days have just been a little weird--the initial excitement of being here has worn off just enough to be a tiny bit homesick. It's not even so much being homesick as it is wishing my friends and family were here with me, but either way, it's hard. Between the time difference and the fact that everyone (including myself) is really busy, I've not been able to keep up with people quite as much as I had hoped, but I think that will work itself out as I fall in to a routine here.

Most of the students could tell I was having a rough few days and I think literally every girl insisted on hugging me at some point Thursday, which was really sweet. We really have become a family pretty quickly and it makes me happy to see people looking out for each other. They refused to let me skip our impromptu house dinner out at San Travaso and dragged me to Campo Santa Margherita afterwards, and of course it ended up being a great time, so I'm glad they did!

Friday half of us had to wake up early to go to the post office by the bus station in order to process our "permission of stay" forms, so we dragged ourselves out of bed and got that taken care of. Then Kayla, Elizabeth, and I walked to the train station to buy train tickets for them to San Marino because I had talked them in to joining Brian, Megan, Ana, Jaimie, Brian, and I on a day trip Saturday. On the way home, we stopped at the grocery, then decided to come home, eat something, and head for Murano and Burano. We talked David, Chris, Kelly, and Eugene in to joining us and headed for Fondamenta Nuova (literally as far from Casa Artom as possible) to catch the "LN."

We started in Burano (my selfish choice as I've been to Murano before but never Burano and wanted to make sure I got there this time) after a 40 minute vaporetto ride. We just wandered around taking pictures of the beautifully painted houses, got gelato, poked through a few stores, and then headed back to catch the LN to Murano. While we where walking back to catch the boat, Eugene saw this guy taking a picture using a tiny little tripod just like Tom has and stopped and said "dude, I'm sorry but I just have to take a picture if you using that tripod...one of our friends has one just like it" and luckily the guy and his friends were Australian and clearly spoke English, because the language barrier probably would've otherwise made that really awkward (we ended up chatting with them for a few minutes, they thought it was hilarious). In Murano, we also just kind of wandered, looking through glass shops (Murano is known for glassblowing) and taking pictures. The walk back from Fondamenta Nuova (after taking the LN from Murano to Venice) seemed endless, but after all the gelato and pizza I've been eating, it was probably just what I needed.

Rhianna, Karen and I made spinach risotto for dinner, then the whole house got together on the patio to eat chocolate chip oreo cheesecake before the boys went to the Casino and the girls had "girls' night" later on. At some point around this time, I had the realization that our train tickets for our Saturday day trip were nowhere near where I thought we were going, so we all sat on the porch laughing about what morons we were and trying to figure out where else to go. While we were on the porch, the bell rang and when I went to answer it, I didn't recognize the people, but random people who are associated with Wake ring our bell all the time, so I let them in the street door and went to meet them. They were definitely American and dressed in cocktail attire and told me "we're here for the afterhours party" and so I said "I think you're looking for the Peggy Guggenheim, which is next door..." and the lady goes "well, they don't have an intercom" and I was like "I don't really know what to tell you, but this isn't the Peggy" and so she says "well, ok, we'll go back out to the Peggy...sorry to disturb your evening...and by the way, your English is excellent" and I was so surprised that all I could say was "um, thank you." I just thought it was so funny that she assumed I was Italian (logical, I suppose, since I answered the door in an Italian house) and that I just happened to speak flawless English without any accent...

I ended up not spending too much time at girls' night out because I was exhausted from walking probably 5+ miles earlier in the day, which was a good choice because we took a day trip today and I walked a ton again.