How you say "flush"?

Holy crap, mi piace Italia! Where else can you get home at 1:30 am after driving to another city with your [older] brother and his friends for pizza and croissants [and nutella]? I don't know. But something I do know that my ole pal DANIEL could learn a thing or two from Alessio. Sorry, bro, but I really don't think that you would take me and a friend who barely speaks English on a quest like that. With your friends.

But yeah, I just had two [huge] pieces [to call them slices would present an inaccurate image] of pizza, a cup of Coca-Cola [regular...though the cup lids had a "light" button I've yet to see such a product 'round here], and a nutella-filled croissant in Caserta, Italy. It was tres bien. Though near the end of the second piece o' pizza I was so full I was getting that gagging thing whenever I took a bite. But I choked it down, and it was delicious. Then we stopped on the way home and Alessio bought me a croissant before I could say no. So I ate that too. At this rate I ain't gonna be eatin' for a week, I'm so danged full. Caserta is looooovely, all cool lookin' and LOADS of people about, even though we got there at 11 o'clock or later and left after 1. There were even families with kids running around getting pizza and nutella things and whatnot. It was fantastically ridiculous. It was also quite warm out, which was pleasant, and it even rained for a wee bit.

We spend a while wandering the streets [looking for the Pizzeria? I'm not even sure] and holly molly, I so want to go shopping there! Judging by window displays alone it is supah-cool! When we got to the Pizza place we stood in line for at least half an hour, I reckon, maybe longer. And this is at 10 at night! Crazy. But the pizza was worth it. When we were walking back to the car, we passed a cigarette vending machine, a condom vending machine, and a calling card vending machine, all in the space of a block. How strange.

I had the best time tonight, even though I understood about 0.1% of what was being said. It is weird, I didn't before realize how many "sh" sounds are in Italian. Maybe it's a southern thing. But seriously, it sounds como tutte le persone sono parlando la lingua da russia or something.

It's kind of wonky how much American culture is integrated here [and, to some extent, how much Italian is in the US]. For a lot of the time [mostly when people aren't talking, as that's a dead giveaway] it hardly seems unfamiliar. When I got here last night I ate a croissant with nutella [quite the popular snack] and had a glass of milk [ha! they do have milk here, mom!] with NesQuik [sp].

I woke up this morning [well, afternoon...] at 2:30. PM. I felt super-rude, but I hella needed the sleep. I should probably go to bed now but I can't sleep. So right after I got up [I didn't want to take a shower because it was late enough already] I had a huge plate of pasta. I wasn't even hardly hungry, so I could hardly finish it. Plus there were some shrimp. Whole shrimp [which reminded me of Nato and my "camerones entires"]. I was gonna eat 'em, I'm not a wuss like that [even there were, you know, eyes...and legs. Hanna wouldn't-a been able to stomach the sight of them], but I ran into a problem. How the heck does one attack a whole shrimp, like to eat it? What parts are edible? How do you get the shell off? These are questions that need answering. Anyone? Anyone?

So that pretty much filled me up [plus there was some fruit salad with, i think, pears, grapes, and peaches...mmmm...], and then later I had some biscotti saltatie[?] at these people's house, and then even later some German chocolate pudding [that's chocolate pudding from Germany not Germanchocolate pudding]. So by the time pizza rolled around "starving" was not a word one would use to describe me. And now even less so. But it was all delicious.

The O.C. is pretty big over here, which is pretty rad, as j'adore that show. Tuesday nights! Yessss! And Dani, my hostsister, has the DVDs. In italian, so it could count as studying, right? Oh, and Alessio has the LotR Extended DVDs. Como mio! I love this family! Dani also has the O.C. cds, and so I've heard it a bunch in the car etc. And listening to one of Alessio's friends singing along to Jeff Buckley's "Broken Hallelujah" was nothing short of awesome.

Some things are a little frustrating, like the whole not being able to figure out how to flush the toilet thing. And then not having the words to ask for instruction [I eventually got it across]. But, for the most part, it is freakin' awesome.

Some of my more wild outfits are going to take some working up to, I reckon. No one dresses that way around here [they were all dressed so nice, tonight...I kind of feel like all I brought is trash] and so I'm kind of a-feared of being the only one. Not that I wasn't the only one in C-state, but at least everyone was used to it there. And I spoke the same language as them. Oh well, I'll have 9 months here. It'll happen.

It is hard to get used to being in the same place [that's not G-town] for an extended period of time. I haven't been bringing Tupelo [my camera] with me much when we go places, partly because I usually have no idear where we are going when we set out, and also because I'm a little worried about taking pictures until I speak a little more Italian. So, whenever I'm somewhere, I'm usually like, "dang, I wish I had brought my camera to take a picture of this!", and then I stop and go, "Bee, this is the supermarket. I think you'll be back."

A notable difference between Italy and the U.S.: even though it is a cliché, there really are a lot more cute boyzZz here than in the States. Driving down one street I saw more than I saw for the past month in the US. [Ryan being, oh, I don't know, the only one] I highly suggest walking down a street in Italy and just giving yourself over to the enjoyment of the eye candy. Or, better yet, stand still and let them walk by you. Oh my it is lovely. If you're really lucky, get a [pretty cute, I admit, and a good deal less Satanic than first believed]n older brother who has cute friendzZz that you can hang out with for hours in the middle of the night. Because that is SUPURB.

I'm not entirely sure what is going down for the next week, supposedly there is orientation stuff in Maddaloni [the next town over, where my school is] and then a trip to Capri, but Dani says I'm starting school on, I think, Wednesday, and I've heard a gazillion other things about what's happening so I guess we'll see. But tomorrow is: Church, and Pirati de Caribe [sp] due! Haha, mom! I'm going to see Pirates, fer sure! This is my reality!

Staring at the huge pile of crap spilling from her suitcases,
Bee Electric