Trying to blend in

So I've been here close to a week and a half now, and things are going great. My first week of classes went very well. While I'm here I'm taking International Business, Italian, Art and Architecture in Rome, and Theology. Lucky for me, that means that I only have class from Monday to Wednesday, giving me a nice four-day weekend every week. I think my most fun class by far should be the Art and Architecture in Rome class, since it consists of us traveling during each class to a different place in Rome. This week I'll be visiting the Colosseum. It should end up being a great class. Aside from that, I spent most of my week settling down and getting paperwork taken car of. For anyone who has never needed to stay in another country fro an extended period of time before, it ends up being a lot of paperwork, and this week we all had to get a "permit of stay" which allowed us (coupled with our visas) to stay here legally for the time we'll be here. On Saturday my roommate and I spent time touring the city, which actually isn't quite as big as we thought it was. We realized as we walked around that we were hitting familiar spots frequently. We stumbled upon the Stadio Olimpico, which was the site of the 1960 Olympic Games, and is currently home to the AS Roma soccer team. Since we all have been dying to go to one of the AS Roma games, we were pretty excited to find it. My Italian seems to be getting better, since it pretty much has to. We also found a nice pub down the street from us that is filled with American and Italian students every night, and it seems like a cool place to hang out. Their food is pretty good, and their prices are reasonable. They also have a little taste of home with some burgers and fries (although they make them much better than we do). This weekend my friends and I are taking our first weekend trip to Paris, France. We found a really cheap flight that leaves Thursday afternoon, and we'll be staying there until early Sunday morning in a hostel right inside the city. We're pretty excited since none of us have ever been, but we're trying to watch our money the best we can. Not only is the exchange rate horrible, the general cost of living is much more here as well. I don't have a ton of pictures this week, but after I go to the Colosseum and to Paris I'm sure I'll have more, so stay tuned. Hope all is well back in the states.

Mike