Made it!

To my darling friends and family,
So much has happened already, and I’m already learning so much! I guess for starters, our apartment is so great! We have our own garden and giant terrace, my bedroom opens out onto the terrace..which I’m so excited about. It's in the centro storico, the historical center of Arezzo, so it feels like we live in a movie. We’re surrounded by cobble stone streets, and the Italians love to get dressed up and just walk around. Everyone here is so beautiful! They also love to dress their dogs, we see dogs in outfits all the time, and dogs can go everywhere. Coffee shops, grocery stores, malls…I mean everywhere! It really makes me miss my dogs, even if they are horribly cranky and misbehaved. One of the funniest things I’m adjusting to is having to push the doors to enter. Doesn’t sound like a big deal, but I swear everytime I try to go into a building I look so ridiculous because I always struggle to get the door open! Also, getting into a bank is like trying to get into a spaceship, and the bathtub/ shower situation is…interesting. Arezzo has a big city feel to it, but is actually kind of a small town. We’ve been checking out all the bars (which means both coffee and alcohol..) and are already starting to see familiar faces just walking around the city. The first night I got here, I thought I was going to crash at 8, but instead everyone decided to go out! We went to a bar called Crispi’s and had pizza and beer..they also have karaoke on Thursday nights..so we’re going back tonight! Then we went to a little bar called Marilyn and met the owner, Maurizio. A couple nights later we also met the bartender, Luca, and the DJ, Paolo, who work at Marilyn at a different pub called Mister Bloom. Its so nice to actually know some locals! We’ve met up with the students from Arezzo who were at OU last semester..and they are wonderful! Claudia, Lorenzo and Maria Grazia. They’ve also introduced us to some of their friends here..and given us a chance to start practicing our very bad Italian...but I’m learning pretty quickly. I think. The whole month of February is our language class, we have it 2 hours a day everyday and that should whip us into shape! Our classes are kind of..all over the place so we should have plenty of time to travel ;). Yesterday we took the train to Florence and walked around a little, then went to the US consulate and got a tour and a ‘safety briefing.’ Other than that…we don’t have a lot of school to do and are spending our time eating, drinking, and walking around Arezzo! There is a giant park at the top of the hill in the center of the whole city…and it is so beautiful. I know what I really need to do is get some pictures up of stuff, the adjusting and getting everything figured out has just been crazy. I feel like so much has happened already in the first week..it’s impossible to explain! Anyways I’ll update again soon…more Italian adventures to come!
Love love love!
Jenny