The first few days

Ciao tutti!
I'm going to try to keep a blog while I'm here in Bologna so I don't keep writing the same thing in many emails. Just a quick update and some funny stories of what has happened in the last 3 days.
I arrived at 9am on August 22. I sleep very well on airplanes, but on this trip I only slept for 3 hours because the rest of the night was just a time change. So the first day, I slept a lot! I already have an apartment with 5 other Italian girls. It's just outside the city walls and a 45min walk to my classes. Needless to say, I've learned how to use the bus ;)
The first day, I tried to buy some food at the grocery store. The first problem was finding it. It was only 2 blocks away from my apartment, but for some reason it took me a good 20 minutes to get there and I had to ask directions from 3 people. When I got there, I just bought a few things so that I could survive the next few days. I gave the lady at the check-out stand some oranges. Well, apparently you are supposed to weigh the fruit yourself and print out the price sticker. I saw other people doing that, but I just thought Italians were paranoid about the weight of their fruit. So when I got to the check-out, the lady asked me where the sticker was. I didn't understand what she was saying so some nice lady in line behind me (who was probably sick of waiting) ran to go do it for me! Then, I took a few minutes to form one italian sentence, "Can I use my american credit card". I thought the answer would be yes or no, which I understand in Italian. ;) But instead, she came back with another question. Oops, non parlo italiano. Unfortunately, no one in line spoke english. But we figured it out in the end. :)
Today I bought my first gelato. Well actually more like my first 2 gelati. The first one I bought tumbled off as soon as I started eating it. I've been under a lot of stress these past few days, and I have to admit, that gelato tumble almost made me cry. But a few hours later one of my friends took me to get gelato and so everything was ok.
And how is my italian? Well, it's all they speak around here. I don't know why that came as such a surprise to me. ;) (I know, too many smilely faces). But I can mostly understand when someone is speaking directly to me and very slowly. In a normal conversation, I can usually only grasp the topic. My italian is better in the afternoons, but first thing in the morning and late at night, it's pretty hard. Everyone has to pray that I pick it up quickly because it is very hard for me not to talk ;)
OK, more stories to come!
Ciao!