Arezzo is beautiful. Everything here is beautiful, and I'll pretty much leave it at that because it would take an entire book to describe the aesthetics, the history etc...but soon I'll post a photo of the view from my window.
Living in a Villa=awesome. The Villa Godiola, where the school and the dorm are located, was built in 1312 as a Bishops summer home, I believe. The dorm rooms are great, two people to a room with a private bathroom. The decor has been maintained; the villa was well restored because lime was in the paint so they were able to keep all the original paint on the walls and on the outside...the downside to this is if you lean on a wall then you get "villa-d" in that your clothes get covered in either pale yellow, pink, or green dust. The other downside to living in a really old building where the heat can only be on by Italian law 8 hours a day is that it is FREEZING. There is a beautiful rooftop where we get to hang out, and a student lounge called the "limonia" where we throw parties. Another huge plus in Italy...an excellent bottle of wine costs less than 2 euros...and you can bring a six liter jug to the winery a mile away and they fill it up for 5 euros. I look forward to doing that.
Riccardo, the chef, is amazing. We get three insanely delicious Italian meals here a day. I know I'm going to get sick of pasta but so far I'm in dining heaven. Riccardo is like superman, he also does the gardening and does most of the repair work in the Villa. It's nice because for some reason you can tell he really loves his job and is totally excited about new students being here. Apparently he throws parties on the weekends for us if you invite him to performances or simply ask him how his day was.
Another awesome aspect of living here is that Ubu, the dog, is awesome. He is a smelly dirty adorable terrier that needs one thing in order to remain calm and friendly...you have to make a point to throw his tennis ball so he can catch it... and that's it. He doesn't go to the bathroom in the house or bark much...he basically just sits around and looks cute and plays. Very entertaining.
My roommate, Maggie, is really cool. She actually was here last semester for theatre, and she has stayed for dance. At first I found her insufferable because every other word out of her mouth was "last semester..." but I realized quickly that she simply missed her friends who once inhabited her life and needed a few days to readjust to being in the same place with completely different people. Also, she is very familiar with the area, culture, and my classes...so she is a big help. She answers all of my questions and she sleeps like 10 feet away from me. It rules. Oh, and she's crazier than I am...I'm talking off the wall. She's straight up hilarious.
Classes started today. I already met all of my professors...oh goodness...I wish you could hear the church bells right now, they sound so pretty!...bah, anyway, my professors are all really awesome and complete experts in what they teach. I had my acrobatics class this morning and I'm already aching but it was a lot of fun...but also very, very difficult. Claudia Schuner, our teacher, makes everything so effortless, and then I start a movement, get on the floor and kind of stay there. Fortunately my entire class is pretty much at the same level as me, so I'm not the only one who feels stupid about 85% of the time. Today is my lightest day. Like I said, movement in the morning...lunch in an hour and then Italian and then Philosophy and Art. Unfortunately every other day my classes go from 9AM-7PM...there is little rest here. Although everything is about a 1 minute walk from my room (all classes located on villa grounds) this is conservatory style so we go hard core. Also everything is a collaborative effort... we have Cabarets every week where we are supposed to combine what we learned in class to form of art we already enjoy and perform it for the students and staff. There is a whole bunch of other rules but basically...I'm living in an artistic collective and for the most part it's really awesome.
I have yet to really explore the city of Arezzo, but I was in the actual city for the first time yesterday and it is SO beautiful. I have a lot to see and I can't wait to report back on all my explorations. I also need to plan my travel on the weekends. I also need to shower... so I'm going to go do that before lunch. I hope you're all well and enjoying wherever you may be!
Ciao for now,
Lauren
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