I finished up my city of Rome class last Thursday and I am now taking Italian II, which is a good thing because I am getting so frustrated that I can't communicate with anyone here! A lot of people do speak basic English, but I have also encountered a lot of people who don't speak any.

I stayed in Rome last weekend, but the weekend before that I took a trip to Florence with 4 of my friends. We spent Friday and Saturday in Florence and then went to Pisa for the day on Sunday. I loved both places, Florence was beautiful. We went to the Ufizzi Museum which was amazing. My favorite painting was Boticelli's "The Birth of Venus" and the view from the balcony on one of the top levels of the museum was incredible. I tried taking picutres of it, but you could see everything so much more clearly in person!! I also saw Michaelangelo's David at La Academia. One of my favorite things about Florence was the huge outdoor market, at which I bought a beautiful brown leather jacket that I loooveee. Florence is very big on Pashmina scarves, they sell them everywhere and they are all so beautiful! (I picked up a red one and a green one to go with the jacket :-) ) I had good pizza for the first time here (I don't like the style of pizza in Rome) and we also had lots of delicious gelato!

Pisa was much smaller than Florence, but made for a nice day trip. We took a scenic route through the town to get to the leaning tower, which is really all there is to see there. (I have lots of pictures of it in my album!) My friends, who were all born and raised in NYC, thought Pisa looked like a place where people marry their cousins, which I thought was hilarious because although its a small city it is still a city! I should show them Hali Mass...

I think I'm staying in Rome this weekend, because it's supposed to rain in every place we were thinking about traveling to. I'm sure I will have fun here though! My roomates and I are having a Valentine's Day party in our apartment next Wednesday which I'm really excited about!! We handed out invitations last night to all the students in our cohort and some of the grad students here and the kids studying in Rome for the whole semester. I've also gone out a few times recently which was fun, and some of us went to the HardRock Cafe on Sunday night to watch the Superbowl. (they didn't play the commercials!!) Oh, and I also ate at La Carbonara. :-)

I miss everyone and I will try to write more often!! My internet connection is terrible here, and as of yesterday my laptop isn't working at all so it's been very difficult. (I'm in the computer lab at school right now.)

Ciao for now! ( and don't forget to check out the new pictures!!)

-Rachel