So far, so good...

Today was the first full day with all 215 CIMBA undergraduate students here on campus. We checked in approximately 200 students total yesterday, so it was a little crazy, but overall, the day went rather smoothly.

Backing up, last Friday was a very busy day for all the staff and RIs, as we prepared welcome packets for students and went on a scavenger hunt through Paderno and campus.

The CIMBA campus is absolutely beautiful and it shares grounds with a Catholic Italian boarding school called Instituto Philippin. Therefore, there are Italian students everywhere throughout the day, ranging from elementary age to high school age kids that also live in the dorms.

This is a picture of the “Jesus Field,” as it’s referred to which is over on the other side of campus. Apparently, every semester the American students play a game against the Italians – and generally lose miserably, from what I’m told (on Sunday, when the RIs had nothing to do, we sunbathed for about 45 minutes on the field – right in front of Jesus. ;-)

On Saturday, we were given the day off to explore Venice. We took a bus to the Castelfranco Veneto train station and then took an hour long train to Venice. We stopped at a pizza joint before heading to San Marco Square (the main part of Venice), took a picture at the Rialto Bridge (see below), and then caught a water shuttle out to Murano. Venice, Murano specifically, is famous for glass, so almost every shop was selling small glass sculptures of some kind.

Needless to say, Venice was beautiful, but by the end of the day, I was beyond exhausted… mainly due to the fact the night before, we walked to Crespano (the next town over) to celebrate my 21^st birthday. The goal is to keep the bar a secret from all the other American students so the RIs have some place to get away if we desire. This will hopefully work out because it was hard to find - we got lost on the way. What was supposed to be a 15-20 minute walk turned into us walking around Crespano, lost, for over 30 minutes… in the rain. Needless to say, it was a fantastic time.

On Sunday, we returned to Crespano so we could attend the massive outdoor market they have every Sunday. This market sold everything – shoes, tops, jewelry (I bought 2 pairs of earrings for €1 each, vegetables and fruits, and more. It was fun and there was a great view the whole time.

Sunday night, we attended a barbeque on the graduate student campus in Asolo. Asolo, is absolutely beautiful and has the most breath-taking views I’ve seen so far.

I think that pretty much catches everyone up for now. I hope to update more often, but now that classes have started, I imagine that it will only be more difficult. Here’s hopin tho!

Ciao!