No big deal...just a regular Sunday afternoon in Italy

I'm sitting here in my apartment...it's 5 am and I'm watching the Bronocos on my computer! Oh what I'll do for some American football. Too bad I can only see little x's moving across the screen. But what a great game!!!

Anyways...Yesterday Liz, Erin, Lauren, Kristen and I went horseback riding in Tuscany, followed by dinner and wine tasting at a Tuscan castle from the middle ages. O my gosh, it was one of the most beautiful experiences of my life! My horse was ginormous...apparently I was voted the most experienced rider of anyone there, so I got paired up with a monstrous horse. The ride lasted about 2 hours through Tuscany, and we saw a bunch of villas and vineyards, and then we ended at the castle for dinner...which seems to last about 3 hours no matter what you do. But then I guess it does take a while to eat a 5 course meal! Speaking of which...on Friday we had a welcome dinner for our program that took literally five and a half hours! We ate so much food, but you don't even get full because because it takes so long for the food to come out. Plus, you walk so much in this city that you're always hungry.

We hiked up to the Piazza di San Michelangelo, which is at the top of the city. It's a good three miles I'd say from our apartment...but uphill the entire way. Like climbing up a ski mountain uphill...and it was so hot and humid...but the view from the top was incredible! You can see the entire city, and the sun was setting by the time we got there...ah, how wonderful!

Other than that, classes started today, so I'm on my way to learning Italian. That class meets for 6 hours a week, same with my drawing class. Then I have 2 other classes about Italian culture and history, so it should be exciting. But a lot of work...18 hours of credit! Well, I'm back to bed for an hour before I have to get to class. Miss you all!