Rimini !

Long time no post! So a week and a half of class has gone by, as has our first travelling weekend. Everyone warns you about Week 3 when you study abroad--it's supposed to be when the "honeymoon stage" wears off. For me, so far so good. I'm still enamored by Arezzo and feel like I have so much to explore still. The more time goes by, I get to know people better. We're all learning who has similar travel styles, who brings what to class, and how we work as an ensemble. I definitely like some people's presences more than others, but I respect (almost) everyone artistically, and am interested in their progress as performers. So nothing too awful yet with others.

My Italian class has been constantly struggling with our terrible teacher, Maria Grazia. I took the most ridiculous quiz of my life--she had never taught us anything on it and it had no instructions. I got one thing wrong and got 6 points off on a 50 point quiz. All of us have been complaining to the higher-ups, so today she was supposed to be observed. Well we got to class and were told she had QUIT! She went right up to the head language teacher today and said, "I'm sorry, I don't work here anymore." So THAT was exciting! The head teacher, Monica, is like our mommy here. She's lived in Arezzo her whole life and knows English perfectly, and she's HILARIOUS. So she taught our class today, and I learned more in those 2 hours than I have in 2 1/2 weeks with the old teacher. So we'll see what happens next week with a new teacher!

Right now its almost 6 in the afternoon on Wednesday, and I feel like its my first bit of free time in over two weeks. We've been barraged by a rush of class, homework, meetings, movies showings, group events, and travel. Last weekend was a beautiful but slightly stressful trip to Rimini. Even though I LOVE travelling and seeing new things, its kind of tricky! Italian trains are confusing, you have to spend money on everything you put in your mouth, and you have to be well informed about where you are.

In Rimini, I felt like I was the only one who had any idea what they wanted to do--I wanted to go to the beach, try the local food, check out the historical piazza in the centro, and not spend much money! I was the only one with a tour book or a map. So the 4 other people seemed to follow me. That was strange because all I really wanted to do was explore and appreciate the small things--I felt bad for not providing entertainment at times. That's not really how I want to feel when travelling. I want to sit on a bench in a piazza and watch/talk to the locals, or take 35 pictures of a fountain, or get lost in a residential area. Myabe thats not "fun" for everyone. But then, they didn't have any opinion on the matter, so they just followed me!

Also, food was SO expensive! we were lucky we got free breakfast at the hostel, though. Our hostel was the Jammin' Party Hostel--we were a little bit wary because of the name, but the reveiws online were excellent. And this hostel will probably ruin all future hostel experiences--it was the nicest place. ever. We got our own linens in the room the 5 of us shared, we had free breakfast, internet, and bikes (!!!) which we used on our last morning to do some great exploring. It was in the perfect location--right near the beach and the main strip. It's probably a really crazy place during the summer, but we were right after the rush. It was a great resting place--oh we also had our own balcony.

So we decided in the end that Rimini was a great place to visit--fun and beautiful and interesting, but not necessarily crucial. I'm not necesarilly going to tell everyone to go to Rimini for the weekend, but it was perfect for what we needed that weekend.