School Daze

Today was the first day of classes, and all I can say is: It should be interesting. Classes in Italy are set up quite differently from what I'm used to, so it will take some time to adjust. For example - they are on a quarter system here. I have one set of classes from today til the first week of November, then from the second week of November til mid-December is another quarter. Not much time for a class but they cram A LOT in there. Then the exams are after the Christmas break =\ . My classes this quarter are mostly in economics, which as you can guess is not my favorite subject. But I continue to meet new people every day and in my classes everyone is extremely nice, and friendly!
After classes today, one of my new friends (Mr. Popular, from the Friday night post) helped me get a cell phone so I can stay in contact with people here in Italy. Then we started walking around a little and it turned into a personal tour of the city - we'd take back alleys, and he'd stop here and there and say 'this is the best store for music' or 'this is a great place to get nice clothes' or 'this bookstore also serves beer'. You know, useful stuff. He clued me in on some of the politcal stuff that is going on; if you didn't know already, Bologna is a very leftist city because of the big youth population, and there is tons of graffiti (which is all political, not gang-based). I needed clothes and shoes for playing soccer so he showed me the best store for cheap stuff of that nature, so now I am all ready for to play a game tomorrow! I don't know exactly what to expect but it should be an adventure in any case.
When I finally got home (it was a looooong day), my roommates had also just returned with some chinese food (Hah!) Turns out it tastes pretty much the same here as it is in America! Who'da thunk?
We got to talking about games, and I informed them how the drinking game Kings is played... much to their delight it turns out. They cannot wait for a night that we can give it a try.
I'm currently waiting for my first load of laundry in Italy to finish - it's a little bit of an experience, let me tell you. I even had to wash a little by hand, and when it's all done it will be sitting out on the balcony on a clothesline to dry! Can't wait to see what tomorrow brings.