Orientation Trip Weekend

It has officially set in that I am in Italy and will be for a while. It was a great weekend. We started out Friday at 7AM with a 3 hour bus ride to Reggia di Caserta, the palace of the King of Naples back in the day. It was pretty incredible, but rainy outside so we didn't get time to tour the gardens really! Then we went to lunch at a really cool hotel in Caserta. After a weekend of nice three course meals and unlimited wine, it's going to take a little adjusting back to on-campus food. Been here a week and already a food snob! We drove to Salerno and spent the rest of the night there. It was gorgeous. Right on the water, and the city itself was pretty awesome. Lights hanging over all the streets, lots of people out and about. We had a group dinner at 8 in the hotel, and heard from all of the administrators and such. We are the 50th class at the John Felice Rome Center, which I guess is a pretty big deal. We've also been the best behaved class in recent memory apparently, as no one has been sent home yet, which the resident director said is rare. We went out and roamed the city after dinner. The next morning, we went to a buffalo farm and ruins from a Greek colony at Paestum. Both were pretty fascinating. At the farm we saw how they make mozzarella and leather products, then at the Greek ruins we just kind of hung out while our tour guide struggled through trying to explain everything to us. It was very cool to see though, especially knowing some of the Greek and Roman history from high school Latin with Dr. McConaghy. SLUH follows you everywhere, doesn't it boys? Then we had one of the best lunches I've ever had. Prosciuto, pasta, and pizza, and this awesome band came out and played traditional Italian music and we all danced. Delicious and fun. Then was the best part of the trip. We went a small distance to Agropoli and watched the sunset from the top of a castle. There's really no adjectives I can use to describe it, but the pictures give a small idea of how breathtaking it was. That's when it hit me about the whole "I'm in Italy and will be for a while" thing. One of the coolest experiences I've had in a while. Today, we went to The Convent farm in Sorrento, which was about a half hour ride up narrow, windy roads, which was pretty terrifying, but awesome. We saw the lemon trees and got food and samples of limoncello, which is a very strong, very popular Italian alcohol. To my sister: if you're reading this, I bought you a bottle. Then stopped for some lunch at 5, and made the long bus ride home, getting back around 9. I am tired, but it was an incredible weekend. See Facebook for pictures. Just another week of classes ahead, so until next time, arrivederci!