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From Abroad

And now, a true post about Italy…

...So, despite not having internet, the living situation is fine. I share a one-bedroom apartment with four other girls (it involves a pull-out couch). We have some advanced fan-air conditioning system, which is WONDERFUL. Our apartment is rather cute; I will take pictures soon and post!

We are staying, like I said before, in San Giovanni. At first feel, it felt awful, like this small town was going to stifle us- we were all feeling like we were going to be staying in Florence, not the middle of nowhere Tuscany. San Giovanni, however, is breaking all the expectations we had for it. The town is very charming and sweet: a little slow, but it still has a lot of character, which is what is important of any town (as we all know that despite Morgantown being a ?small-town?, it?s character definitely brings it to life!).

Most of the people are super wonderful: they forgive us for being English speaking Americans and want to help us out, so we speak our handful of Italian to them and they speak their handful of English to us. We, being fashion students of course, have found a couple really cute shops so far. One had a ton of vintage clothes and clothes designed by the owner?s friend. The layout of these shops are amazing: they integrate the clothing for sale into displays in such unique and interesting ways, especially aforementioned shop.

We had our first two classes yesterday: a two-hour Italian class and a one-hour art history class. I have no previous Italian or art history, so it works out well for me (but I am taking art history 101 in the fall).

My Italian is not helped by my three years of Latin in high school: I feel as though French is more similar to Latin than Italian is! I keep accidently replying in French to simple things I should know the Italian for and keep trying to use French as a common language. I know it probably sounds really dumb, but it is second nature to me, especially after spending time in France

Italy is, as I expected, almost unbearably hot. We are not even in Southern Italy, but in the northwestern part, in Tuscany. We are going to Rome this weekend, which is certain to be a meltdown.

More soon, as I am typing this on Pages and will transfer to a blog ASAP (not that it matters because by the time anyone is reading this I will have been successful at doing so). I?m sure no one wants to read ?Designo Italiano: THE BOOK? by Cassandra Pisone and would much rather read the Cliffs Notes version :).