ORIENTED

I am just heading home on the wonderful bus I seem to have called home for your last 3 days. Orientation trip or bust. Since Friday at 7am I've traveled to 6 different southern Italian cities and seen more new things than I thought possible in sync a short term

Friday we left campus at 7:00 ROUGH. Fine for me, I was just up until 2:30 doing absolutely nothing. We drove to Reggia di Casrera, and old palace that was both huge and gorgeous. Couldn't really understand the tour guide but it was a in nonetheless. Then we headed to lunch which looked just like a wedding reception in a huge room. The scene of 200 college students soaking wet from rain walking in to that was pretty amusing.
We proceeded to Salerno where I had an amazing and unexpectedly nice hotel room with a balcony overlooking the bay. Thank god for the off season. We had a welcome reception with well wishes and advice from all of the JFRC staff about our time studying abroad. I got really in to it. We wrote letters to ourselves setting goals for the semester which we get back when we leave. Hope I make it

The next morming we all got on the buses only to realize Zach wasn't there. We called him, he was asleep. We left. He "turned his alarm off in his sleep" he ran and made the last bus running to it. I would have paid money to watch that. We went and saw the Pasteum Scavi, ruins that are actually older than the Parthenon (only by 3 years, always read the fine print. Our tour guide went way over time much to the chagrin of Cindy (Shes the dean, and HBIC, I love her) Then we went to an organic farm where they produce Mozzarella cheese. The buffalo they use to make the cheese have Mozart daily and a massage machine, random, but hilarious.

We then proceeded to have a 3 hour long lunch with many musical interludes and amazing food. We all got up and danced while the cutest group of old people played music and taught us some fresh moves. After lunch I went to Agropoli, we were just walking around and had no idea where we were going when we stumbled upon the most beautiful bay at sunset I have ever seen.(See Photo) We then went back to the hotel and prepared for dinner and a night out.

After another great meal at the hotel (they upped the number of bottles of Vino/Table for the last night) We headed out to take Salerno by storm. We stopped at our first bar where the best music from 2005 was playing. After a while some of my friends befriended some Italian girls who were set to show us the best of what Salerno has to offer. We ended up at some club with a high cover, so instead we went to the hole in the wall next door.

Needless to say, it was amazing, European dance music, the whole scene. We ended there and went to bed. Twas a great time. We were up early today to go to Sorrento. The bus trip up was amazingly beautiful with the cliffs, bay, and Mt. Vesuvius in the background. We started off in the hills above Sorrento touring a lemon farm and testing amazing food (best bread ever; there was fennel in it) and some lemonchello.

We ended up in Sorrento where we did some touring, saw more of the bay and local shopping. This weekend never stopped getting better and I can't wait to see what the rest of my travels bring me.

Bussing it home now to pass out dead. This weekend was exhausting with many new memories, friends, and potential Facebook profile pictures (PPP's). I guess I have class again tomorrow. I mean my first class is at 2. Better rest up.

Buonanotte

(Hope I don't snore on the bus, how embarrassing)