First month (and a half?) in Review

So I'm trying to stick mostly to themed posts or posts of specific function because I think it gets a bit boring if every post is just a chronicle of my daily happenings....then it becomes more of a diary, which I don't really intend this to be.
But for the sake of documentation, I do want to do a little review with some fun pictures of my time in Italy thus far. I know that some of you have asked me copiously for more of a general overview of what I've been doing, so here ya go. This is obviously quite abbreviated, and I know that I've forgotten a lot or simply omitted things for lack of time, space, and attention span, but you can sit back with some popcorn since the words will be few, and the pictures will be many(hopefully). I'll try to go semi-chonological here, but..........

Inbound Orientation in Bassano del Grappa...all of the exchange students from my district in Italy(about 20 of us) gathered for a few days of bonding and instruction at a historical war site...we got to visit trenches, caves, and other interesting reminders of the past.

We go to raise flags of all of our countries!

The whole group...my best friends in Italy!

 Grocery shopping... the stores are much smaller than the "supermarkets" that we have in the USA, but they are packed to the brim and I love it!

This was a small store, and THIS IS JUST THE DAIRY SECTION.

The meat counter.

Castello San Giusto in Trieste

Piazza Unita at night....it is the largest seaside piazza in Italy, and it just happens to be in my city!

We went to a  Slovenian castle(yes, another country...it took about 15-20 minutes) for the gorgeous view of Trieste! 




Hiking with family friends!

The second inbound orientation was with almost all of the exchange students in Italy, over 80 of us, and it was in NAPLES for 4 days!! The bus ride was almost 14 hours, but it was with the other exchanges students, and it was absolutely worth it. Needless to say, it was gorgeous.

The view from our hotel...hello Mt. Vesuvius!

A fountain in Naples

Streets with the flags of the world!

More Naples!

This is in Pompeii...the famous ancient city destroyed by the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius. We visited on  our Naples trip.

Ruins of Pompeii.

This ancient resident of Pompeii is pretty famous, so it was amazing to see in real life...you might have seen pictures of him before.

We also visited the royal palace in Caserta, which was also beautiful.

The royal palace.

Another quick trip to Slovenia! This time to meet the wonderful and enchanting white horses of  Lipica and to go to a dog show.

Well hello there!

Judging of St. Bernards!

 Trieste is host to one of the largest sailboat regattas in the world, so several other exchange students came to Trieste to witness it. 

It's hard to see, but every single one of those dots is a sailboat, and there are many that are too small to see.

There has been so much more that I haven't written about here...I have taken over 1000 photos so far, so it is impossible to share them all. As always, thanks for reading, and if there is something that you want to know more about let me know!!