Ciao from Italia!

I cannot say anything about this place except that it is completely and utterly gorgeous.

The view outside my window is incredible, the food is fresh, the wine is cheap and delicious and I'm already developing leg muscles I never knew could exist from the somewhat lengthy, beautiful walks into town. The villa that we are living in, we found out, is a former bishop's summer home and is now actually owned by the Vatican. To try to describe the beauty of this place would not do it justice. I will post more photos here in the future, but for now, I have posted just under 100 photos on facebook if you would like to view them.

The students in the theater program seem extremely nice and lots of fun. We all (music and theater students) gathered in the limo (shortened from the Italian word that I can't remember how to spell...the limo is actually our quiet hour free hang out building with a TV and couches, kitchen-y stuff, cd player, etc.) and listened to some classy jazz music and drank from our newly-purchased bottles of wine (found earlier in the day at PAM, a grocery store, which was found with the assistance of the handy-dandy Accademia man, Michael Grady).

The first night here (while still jet-lagged) a group of music and theater students (myself included) and Dr. Britt went into town and got DELICIOUS gelato and after that myself and 2 other students (Josh, a piano player from Furman and one of my good friends, and Jon a new theater friend) went to a wine and cocktail bar next to the gelateria to get our first glass of wine in Italy (mine was a 4 euro Chianti).

Earlier that day, Sam, Owen, Allison, Mary-Catherine, Emilee (a clarinet player from New York) and I went into town in order to avoid napping and get a look at the town (again, tons of pictures on facebook and I will put more here soon). We did some shopping for necessary things forgotten or just not yet purchased (adaptors, shampoo, etc.) and found Guido's statue. If you don't know anything about Guido, he is a big deal. Google him. (Credit to Owen for seeing the statue first.)

Anyways, yesterday was orientation, classes start Monday and I didn't know it, but along with lessons, a coaching with a pianist is included every week for singers AND instrumentalists (I'm having some scores scanned and emailed to the Accademia and others shipped for use later in the semester- thank you, Mom!) This is exciting as the only chance I've had to work with a pianist at Furman thus far was for my jury and the couple times I've played on recital (and now I can kind of noodle around with some music I'm interested in). These coachings start Monday. Also on Monday, my Italian flute professor, Stefano Fanticelli is playing a concert and myself, Dr. Britt, Erik "Fingers" Franklin (a clarinet player and friend from Furman) and Katrinn (from Holland, she works at the Accademia and her daughter studies with Stefano) are going to see him perform.

Well, I'm off to get ready for the day as it's going to be a long one spent mostly in downtown Arezzo...there is an antique fair, which is a big deal and happens once a month here, and the Sarazen joust (http://www.lifeinitaly.com/tourism/tuscany/horse-jousting.asp). Monica, pretty much head of awesomeness at the Accademia (also my Italian teacher starting tomorrow) taught some of the hand gestures of Italy to us yesterday and said that we could expect to be seeing some of those today (A couple of the funnier hand gestures... one, which means "How boring!" is actually translated to "What a big pair of balls!". The gesture actually looks a lot more like the second translation and the lower you do the hand gesture, the more bored you are saying you are. Another, which is worse than the finger, means that a man's wife is cheating on him because he's not doing what he's supposed to.)

More blogging later...off to breakfast!