Italia is not America and America is not Italia.

It's been a hectic and interesting 3 days so far...the luggage being lost is somewhat devastating due to what was in the bag. No money can replace sentimental items. It's unfortunate but it happens...you live and you learn.

Through the past 3 days I have learned the title of this post quite well: Italia is not America and America is not Italia. The people, culture and socially acceptable things here are not the same in Italy, and vise versa. The men gawk at you, especially my friend Gina...you'll see. She's beautiful and looks very ethnic and Italian and they all gawk at her. Any native Italian will call us bella or bellisimas because they think we are suckers. Some people are very nice, others are very, VERY rude. Tonight on the bus ride home from The Pantheon (one of the most amazing things I've ever seen in my life...was built BEFORE CHRIST...and Christ is a pretty old guy!) we got yelled at by a homeless looking man on the bus, "BASTO, BASTO, BASTO AMERICANAS!" (translation: SHUT UP, SHUT UP, SHUT UP AMERICANS!) It was strange all in all but a lot of people on the bus agreed with him, which was disheartening.

I love the Italian culture. We didn't eat dinner until 10pm tonight and the food is amazing. Baked Lasagne was fabulous and I have recently discovered chocolate candies called Baci, similar to the Rocher candies at home. I pretty much have AMERICAN stamped on my forehead, but I am okay with it kind of; I've been making small attempts at the Upim department store (to replace clothing) and at the Mercato (market) and at the Gellaterias (gellato) to speak Italian and most people just laugh at me because I am sure I'm not very good, but you can tell they appreciate the effort.

It's 2:30am but it's so hard to sleep, I think I am still on American time, leaving me at 8:30pm...huge difference! This weekend we are hiking 17 miles (yes, you heard me...I am HIKING 17 MILES) over a span of 2 days which makes it more tolerable on the islands of Cinque Terre (pronounced chinkwa terra). It's supposed to be beautiful and I'm really excited to see the different villages. We are staying at a hostel in Pisa (the hostel is a private room for just us, thank God) so we'll be able to go to the Leaning Tower of Pisa which I'm really excited about. We are also planning a trip to Venice for the last weekend we are in Italy. We're planning it with some girls who are my year in school and also go to SHU that I knew before the trip, one of which was my roommate at orientation.

I was homesick today...I miss the family and even the friends...It's odd sometimes to be away from everything you know, but I really don't think I would trade an experience like this because it's so unique to what we are used to.

That's all for now, I promise I will upload pictures tomorrow and post the link on the blog. Sorry about the lack of posting lately. Classes start tomorrow and Dad just sent me an instant message telling me to go to bed:)

Ciao!

xo,
--K