First Day of Class

No one in my apartment slept well last night. It seemed like we either couldn't get to sleep or woke up too early. The alarm clocks in our heads are way off. I woke up at 6:30 and couldn't fall back asleep. I layed in bed for awhile before deciding to eat some breakfast. Even though I don't have class until 6 pm, I planned on getting up today to make copies of every page in my passport for the stupid Permesso di Soggiorno (permit to stay). The permit to stay is basically just a revenue raising tax for students studying abroad.

After that we went to one of the best sandwich places around here and got roast beef on a roll. The place was inside of a market so I decided to buy some kiwis I've been craving too. They have the best fresh fruit around here and its all cheap. I need to find some mangos too asap. Then I walked to a great "Euro Store" that had everything you could possibly need plus all the shit you never would. I bought some detergent and "school supplies." This brings my total things for school to; looseleaf paper, a binder, some pens, and a Spider-man notebook. As Elizabeth pointed out earlier today, I take class very seriously. The looseleaf and binder sizes are much smaller here. They are almost square-shaped too.

Once I got home, I laced up my Asics and went out to venture the city by foot (wait thats not any different). This was my first real run in 6 weeks and it was completely pain-free! I decided to test it by running up to the piazza de michelangelo (the same place we went yesterday to take in the amazing view). Like I said, it gets very steep uphill toward the end. At the top, I managed to find some decent paved paths to run along. At least it was nice to get off the cobblestone. I decided just over 40 minutes was a good amount to start with my first day back; or roughly 6 miles. Before turning around, I realized the paths were looping around a track. I had to run a few laps to check my pace and make sure I wasn't running ridiculously slow. I was running relatively the same pace I usually do on training runs so that's a good sign, although I may have been more exhausted than I should've. Great first run overall, can't wait to get out there again tomorrow and explore some different areas of the city I wouldn't normally walk to.

Update: I finally had my first class: Beginner Level Italian and it wasn't half bad. Good thing I took Rosetta Stone seriously even for only a month, it definitely helped me get a head start. At 8:30 we went to a welcome dinner that Lorenzo de Medici  put on at a fancy smancy hotel not far from our house. I didn't bring my camera but hopefully I can cop some pictures to put up. We stayed for two rounds of appetizers and our 1 per person cup of wine then bounced real quick so we could get ready for the festivities of the night.