Settled In

view from my window

I made it here and my jet lag is almost gone! We arrived in Rome yesterday (thursday) morning and took a train to Castiglion Fiorentino. I LOVE it here! It has four parts to the city and we're one of the oldest parts. Santa Chiara is a renovated convent that has mostly Texan, professor-lead programs all year round. It is extremely old with many different add-ons and four levels. I keep getting lost. I am sharing a room with three other girls and we lucked out with our own bathroom and a room that looks out over the courtyard with an incredible view. We first went to Santa Chiara orientation with the wife of the man who bought the building. Then, this morning we had Art History where we talked about what we will learn tomorrow in Florence. After lunch we went to Art and I talked to Michael about drawing people, characters, and architecture. He suggested drawing Italian sculptures that we see and exaggerating their features. I also drew for a while and got gelato with Olivia. Tonight we had Italian class. Then dinner which A&M joined our group for, so I saw Andrew Scudder (a Providence friend) and guys he came with, but also Evan Clayton (a TCA friend), who I had no idea would be there. After dinner, some of us went exploring and found a medieval fair in a castle! Then we came back for a Cinque Terre meeting. By the way, in Italian, you pronounce c-i "chi" and c-h-i "key." Tomorrow we are waking up at 5:50 am for our train to Florence. I miss Texas but I love it here! Much love

Train ride to Castiglion