Arrival

Yesterday my host family (Marco, Marina, and Daniele) picked me up from the airport. I was so excited to be here but at the same time completely exhausted! The family is incredibly nice. Their English is very good, but I hope that we only use it for beginning and emergency understanding. I hope that they will speak Italian even if it confuses me. I am much better at listening than speaking at this point. I can recognize words that sound similar to Spanish, etc, but I do not know many Italian verbs and conjugations so I end up nodding and smiling much more than talking. Last night we arrived at the house and they showed me my room. They have four levels (including the basement- where I am now). It is most similiar to what is most like a townhouse in America, I think. It is not very wide, but tall. The ceilings are very high, and they have beautiful windows and high doors everywhere. They have a very small backyard that I can look down on from my room on the second floor. Once they showed me around the house, I showered and we ate dinner. I met two of Anna's friends although I cannot remember their names right now. I was pretty much half-conscious during dinner. I slept like a baby and I feel much better today. I'm not sure whether jetlag will be a problem since I had not slept for such a long time before I arrived. This morning Marco took me to the bank and the post office. There are many banks. I exchanged my dollars for euros. I think I will have a lot of fun getting to know Milan.

Enough for now,
Grace