First Day of Classes

School has officially started in Florence. After an hour of orientation, we were immediately immersed into our first Italian class. They split us into two groups (since there are forty of us). It was a lot easier than I expected it to be. I think that my solid background in Spanish is helping me immensely understand what is going on in that class. Honestly, I don't think I've enjoyed my first day of classes as much as I did today. Daniel and Giovanni are our two instructors in Italiano, and their philosophy was total immersion from the start. They didn't use English unless it was absolutely necessary because no one understood. Absolutely fascinating.

Florence from the Villa. You can see the Duomo in the back.

So after Italiano we broke for lunch and preparation for Father Meinrad's class on Reformations in the Church. We used my computer to show the videos we saw -- so I immediately became the A/V man for the Villa. Luigi Giussani (the founder of the Liberation and Theology) was the subject of our first class. He had an awesome point of view on how the world works and the happiness inherent if you are just willing to see it. It might get a little taxing having every class for two hours, but for once I think I can enjoy it.

After our final class a group of us got together to play soccer up the road a few kilometers. It was awesome playing soccer with everyone. We had originally played on a grass field, but it ended up being too wet. The game moved to a parking lot. This was good and bad. One of the guys ended up kicking the ball well over the walls we were playing around and into a cemetery. I ended up climbing onto the roof of one of the mausoleums in order to find where the ball had wandered off. It ended up resting under a movable steel staircase. After THAT adventure we headed back to the Villa for mass and dinner.

Overall, even after only a few days, this has been incredible. It will only get better from here and that makes me really excited. We have a beginning of the semester party at nine, so that'll be awesome.

The statue in the square outside the Villa.
I couldn't make out who it was... sorry!

Verdict for the party? Awesome. A local guitarist came in and played Italian and American songs and we all sang and danced (most did hesitantly). It was like a gay tarantella, to steal a verse. But it is getting late here and I"m starting to tire out. I have no idea what tomorrow has in store for me, but hopefully I'm able to make it into Florence tomorrow and get a little shopping done...

Oh! But if you guys hadn't noticed, there are links in the top right to my photos (at least some of them) from Ireland. Just click on the links and enjoy! God bless!