Sono arrivata!

After what felt like the longest day of my life (plane to Munich, another plane to Bari, two hour bus ride to Lecce, lunch, trip to the supermarket, tour of the city, and finally bed), I'm well-rested and ready to take on Italy!

We're living in a small school complex on the outskirts of the city.  Right now, it seems like it's just our group staying here.  I'm living with three other girls in a beautiful villa with a fully-supplied kitchen, two bathrooms, and a washer and dryer [edit: clotheslines].  There are two doubles; one shared by me and my new friend Clare, from Vassar, and the other for Liz (from Wesleyan) and Jennifer (from Colby), who hasn't arrived yet.  As soon as the trip leaders find the password for the wireless internet, I'll be able to upload photos- for now, picture me in the clip I found on Google images- our tour stopped in this piazza, which is only a few minutes' walk away.

I wish I could write more about Lecce, which has a lot of old churches, an ancient stadium, and tons of gelaterie, but the tour was completely in Italian and would have been difficult to understand even if I wasn't falling asleep on my feet the entire time.  Tomorrow, though, we start intensive language classes, so soon I'll be able to figure out what's going on.  Today, I'll be going to il supermercato to stock up my fridge, and then we're all going to the beach, where we'll get to swim in the Adriatic sea.

So far, I haven't had any pizza or gelato, but my morning caffe from il bar next door to our complex was delizioso!  (In Italy, un caffe is just a shot of espresso, but it definitely did the trick!)