time to start poppin' pills

one word: exhaustion.

i'll try to briefly recap on all the important details of the weekend/first day of classes

first night out on the town was thursday, we went to a bar in arezzo called mr. blooms. fairly young crowd, but the guys are way metro here. i don't know what i expected. anyway, they're a lot less creepy than i had anticipated. everyone told me that i was going to be grabbed and pinched by random strangers... but so far i've only received two very flirtacious winks. the older men are the only ones with the balls to really approach younger women. and to that, we just ignore them or run away swiftly. there was one 70 year old who was really digging emily. good stuff.

some serious accademia dell' arte bonding occurred friday night. our chef, ricardo, threw us a party in the mensa (dining commons), where we played flip cup and pong, enjoyed delicious food, and sang karaoke. i love how we aren't treated like kids here. yes, there are rules. but generally speaking, we are given a lot of freedom. all in all, best night so far. it ended with us all putting our orange fluorescent running vests (we all have one courtesy of ADA).

went to the local market, which occurs every saturday from 7am-1pm. ran into town with alex and my roommate, jess. we bought the most amazing local cheese (picarino fresca?) and two loaves of bread. the cheese melts in your mouth. also, we bought enough cheese and bread to last for several lunches, for only 5 euro (roughly $8). shazam.

communicating in this city has been challenging, to say the least. not many people in arezzo speak english, as it is a very small city. we've been able to get by with numbers, pointing, etc. but ordering at one restaurant on sunday night was really rough. especially when it came to paying the bill.

best restaurant hands down was the one we ate at on saturday night. we each paid 7 euro for a drink (fashion iced tea; rum, gin, vodka, champagne = death), and with it came a buffet of free appetizers. seven different types of pasta, rice, bruschetta, etc. we were able to make a meal out of the appetizers.

we saw a really great dance performance afterwards, including one dancer named Stefano who will be teaching us in a few weeks. the whole performance included three 20 minute solos. fluid, abstract, hilarious, quirky, disturbing. really great stuff.

phew. almost done.

first day of classes today. technique at 9AM was rough. i've had a sore throat since the first night here, which still hasn't gone away. i think it may just be the change in air... its much drier here. along with that, came a really bad rash that i developed today. in philosophy i started freaking out, thinking i had caught some terrible disease in italy. the professors reassured me it was probably just a reaction to the dust (rolling around on the floor) or just over-dried skin.

we took a bus into the city for ballet. our teacher is this tiny bird of a woman, no more than 80 pounds. speaks some english, very thick italian accent. she danced with nureyev. it was just the 9 of us taking class, but one italian dancer from studio was there too translate and demonstrate for us. perfect technique, crazy intimidating. but overall the class was great. i'm relieved to know that i won't be losing my ballet technique over the semester.

tomorrow we'll be taking our first italian class, and a four hour section of tarantella, which is like a mediterranean style dance (tambourines, scarves, etc).

there will be a cabaret on thursday night, emily alex and i will be dancing a little snippet of choreography from Adele's class, performed to Queen. costumes will be a surprise. we'll try to get someone to video tape it for us.

ciao! maybe next post, i'll be able to offer up a few more italian phrases... just maybe.