Day 4 Highlights

Three highlights of today:
1. Getting on the WRONG bus home from class today. We were walking to the bus stop, and a bus goes by us. Even though it says "22" and we take "A", someone yells "BUS!" so we all started running down the street. We were pretty far, but it stopped, waited. And we got on. We got the exit, but whatever. We then realize that yes, indeed we are on the wrong bus. So we got off the next stop and waited 15 minutes for our bus to come. When it did come, we got on with Dr. Lange and Dr. Alexander (the Alabama prof.). Whoops!

2. Since we got out of class early today, we got to spend the entire afternoon by the pool. And by pool, I mean bath since the water is no lie probably 85 degrees. Our first day here we witnessed a water aerobics class which consisted of all senior citizens since that is 98% of the guests here (us being the other 2%). So when we saw the woman come today to teach the class, we jumped at the oppportunity (and it was free too). The 'class' was hilarious. We were all the way in the back and kept laughing and having fun with it. Everytime she started counting we did our best to count to 10 in Italian, some of the other people that were participating too were helping us with the pronounciation.

3. There was finally chicken for dinner! And it was soooo good. Lunch tomorrow is pizza.. yumm!

I haven't uploaded any pictures today, so this is from the hotel website. Yes it's that gorgeous in real life.

Ok test tomororw, gotta go study! Tomorrow we're going to visit a nursing home that has a spa! Sounds like the hotel :)

xoxo S

Also - some of the people here are going to Rome and Florence this weekend. Leaving for Rome Friday afternoon and coming back Sunday night from Florence. Yes or no do I go? Obviously, it's going to cost money for the train/hotel/food.

Day 1

It is now 10:30 at night. After I last posted we received our "gift bags" from the hotel. Inside? A bottle of champagne, chocolates, cookies and stuff like bus passes (I'm Miss StempLen). After settling into the room, we changed into our suits and headed out to the pool. You are required to wear a bathing cap in the pool and the hotel charges 3 Euro for them...so we're going to use our shower caps and save money. Oh and towels are 3.50 E for a 2 week use... so we're going to use the smaller towels from the shower. The pool has a grotto and spa, you can swim from the inside to the outside - like the seals do at the Maritime Aquarium.



We figured Jane and the other people on the group flight would be arriving soon, but their flight was also delayed, so they missed their layover in Madrid and had to take a different flight 3 hours later. They didn't arrive until 5ish.

I slept for a couple hours after coming back from the pool. Then we showered and went to our opening thingy. The woman (Piera) opened champagne for all of us, and she told us about stuff we're going to be doing. Then we headed over to dinner - so fancy and so cramped. Everyone has to dress up - shorts and tank tops are not allowed. I'm so glad I packed all those jean skirts now. When we were sitting we were all on top of each other and other tables...it was like a cafeteria. Then menu, oh man. First course was a salad bar. Second course we choose the "wide noodles capri style". They were... wide noodles that were funky in color but tasted oh so good. The choices for the next course were 2 fish options (don't eat fish) and 2 veal options (baby cow - no thanks). Of course the meals have all weird names. One was fricandeau. Freak-can-do? We were joking that someone should order to see "what the freak really can do". Turns out it's veal. Since I had no other option I ordered the "grilled calf steak". Gross. But I was brave and tried it. It wasn't bad, but I can't bring myself to eat baby cow. Thankfully those wide noodles and the breadsticks (like Centro's) were filling me up. And then we had... GELATO. It tasted like cake batter ice cream (I picked vanilla) because it was just so incredibly sweet.



The hotel lobby has wireless so now I can go on my computer and don't have to worry about the other one. Some keys had 3 symbols! Besides the shift key, I had no idea how to get to them so it was definitely confusing. Plus they were in different places. There is some piano bar thing going on now, all these old couples are dancing a-la Dancing with the Stars. Cute.

Ok I'm exhausted so I'm going to head off to bed. I feel like I'm still on the plane when I lay flat. Feels like a roller coaster ride.