We are now on the coast of Italy, next to Pisa in the fabulous town of Lido di Camaiore in the city of Via Reggio. Our hotel is a 3 minute walk from the beach, where I'm hoping to become better acquainted with in the next week and a half here. The night we arrived the groups (we traveled in 2 since our group was too big to travel together, 88 of us total) they gathered us on the beach for some gelato, de-lici-ous. The next day (Sunday) was a big meeting day to go over lots and lots of details, register with the local police, and sign up for orientation activities.
After a day of destroying my brain with all these 'important things to know/remember', we were able to go see the opera 'Madame Butterfly' in an open air theatre. Following it was pretty interesting to say the least, luckily they had a summary printed in English for us. That night was a bit frustrating due to the lack of respect shown by some members of our group, specifically the ones right behind me. On the other hand, the location of the theatre was the prettiest thing I have ever seen. Puccini's house, which was right next to the theatre, was next to this lake in Torre del Lago, mountains in the background , a dock, and a little paddle boat right in the middle. All of this with the sun setting in the background. Perfect for a postcard, but guess who had left their camera back at the hotel, yep yours truly! Luckily 80 other people went tourist crazy on it as well.
It was a long night due to not arriving back at the hotel until 2 a.m. Not a good when school starts bright and early the next morning.
The Italian language is hard. Very. The past 3 days I have spent the first 4 hours of my day in a classroom with no air (it's been high 80's here), no drinking fountain, one break, professors who speak very little English, people have no desire to learn, and a brain that hasn't really had to function for the past 2 months. Not a gentle transition to make. Hopefully it'll get easier!!
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