Well here I am

For those of you who are hoping to receive tons of personal emails finding out about the very minute details of my day, I hate to break it to you, but it's just not going to happen, therefore I created this just for you! But remember that I do love you very much! So I'll just jump right into it then...

I have been here in Salerno almost a week now and I can't even believe it. On one hand it feels like I've been here forever and then on the other hand i can't believe I've only been here a week. It is so beautiful here. Everything looks like it's leftover from 100 years ago. It is also very strange here. There is absolutely no schedule here. Shops close down whenever they feel like it, but between 1-5 you definitely won't find anything open because that is siesta. And then I was walking along the water and there are people out everywhere in the middle of the day...children, men, women, and groups of old men. And my first thought is "does anyone work"? Which is very American of me, but seriously I really don't know what people do.

Some of our adventures thus far have been taking a boat to Amalfi (which is about 40 minutes by boat) and laying out on the beach, then hiking up about 1000 steps to a beautiful waterfall. By the way, while on the beach I witnessed 3 old woman change in/out of their bathingsuits...something else I don't understand about this culture. Then yesterday we took a bus to this town right next to us to go to Carefour, which a store similar to Wal-mart, and we got off too early. We ended up walking for over an hour....at least 3 miles and all for some shampoo, cereal, and a few kitchen items. It was so ridiculous, but you just couldn't help but laugh! Especially since we passed 8 bus stops on the way!

Right now 8 of us are living in 2 apartments that are right across from eachother. I love them...they are right in downtown and we are a very short walk from anything we need. The problem is that 5 girls are sharing one of the apartments and we are a bit cramped, so right now we are trying to figure out whether to buy some bunk beds or to find another apartment (which we've been trying to do), so if you could keep out living situation in your prayers that would be great.

Fantastic pics coming soon!