WOW thats all I can say.. part 2

ok now for day 2. As i said in the last post we slept for a good 12 hours. we were told to be up by 8:30 to go down to breakfast. they had cereal and croissants waiting for us. only 4 of us showed up so after we stood there for 10 minutes they told us to sit down and eat, so we ate. after breakfast we decided to sleep for a little bit because we could really feel that jet lag kicking in. a liitle while later we got up and decided to take pictures of our beautiful villa. Mainly this whole day was for relaxation and getting adjusted to the time. More people started showing up a little later and almost the whole group was here. one girl was stuck in dublin because she had missed her train in the morning which made her late for her flight. That night we go to go to San Marco square to go to the Festival of the Rificolona (Lanterns) for the Solemnity of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary. It was amazing and i even bought a lantern! we got back late and I went to bed. Day 3 was the day classes started. we had breakfast in the morning then after words we had an introduction meeting where we met the staff, one of which is currently watering the plants under my window at 1 am in the morning....and then we went over the rules. immediately after that we were whisked away to italian class. oh my i have no idea what i got my self into....they started going off an we just looked them them and shook our heads. when we do have italian classes, we will have it for 3 hours with 2 different teachers. one of the teachers told us today that we have to sign a contract that says that we will only speak in italian from breakfast all the way thru dinner....man thats going to be tough for me. next we had lunch. i guess my stomach is still getting used to the food, which is weird because i eat italian food all the time at home. after lunch we had theology. it will be fun because we can speak in english and for extra credit we can take pictures of Benedictine himself and benedictine monasteries. Since today was a feast day we had mass at 6:30 in the choir loft area. we fit all 22 of us in this tiny little area. after dinner we had a welcome party with Italian friends of the program director Jennifer. they came and sang songs and played there guitars all while we danced and had fun. i did have a few sips of beer and a little bit of wine, but apparently in italy they do not put some chemicals in the wine, and without that chemical you dont get hangovers. strange factiod of the night. when we got back we had to get the internet fixed, because for some weird reason we could not access the internet browser. we had to completely change the proxy address and now we have to put in a password every time we get on the internet. and the new proxy is messing with my firewall :/oh well. tomorrow we get to have out cultural class with Francesco and its all day :) that should be fun. we will be like VIPs in a sense beacuse he will be able to take us straight thru so we wont have to stand in lines because his other job is being a tour guide in Florence! and we also found out that there will be another party tomorrow too! I love and miss everyone back home! Ciao!!!