One week!

I've managed to get through my first week in Parma. Everything's going well so far, but I think I'm going through that so-called "honeymoon" stage of study abroad, which I'm enjoying.

We've started our Italian and History of Italy courses. There's only one other student in my Italian class, but we're doing pretty well, I think! I feel like I've already made a lot of progress and noticed a bunch of things I have to fix in my speech/grammatical knowledge. We've also got some great tidbits under our belt about Parma and the region.

On Friday we all got the chance to go out and eat at a local pub on Via D'Azeglio (L'Acquolina) for aperativo, but I opted to split a margherita pizza with two of the girls. Then, we went to another place, which turned into a little dance club. Compared to other customers we were clearly Americans, but it was still fun.

Our only successful picture of the evening

Americanssssss

And in that moment, I swear we were pizza

Yesterday was miserable and wet, but we still did some window shopping and FYI Lush is awesome no matter what country you're visiting. We also found a great new pasticceria on Via Mazzini called Cocconi. I got a cappucino and a pastry for a relatively reasonable price.

Still enjoying the sights despite the rain

All the alleys/smaller streets look like this - ridiculous, right?

Warm coffee on a damp day 

Yum!

Today was sunny! We visited the Cittadella, a local park/former fortress in the 16th century. It was HUGE, and it took us a painfully long time to get out of it. And finally, the day ended on a high note: GELATO. FINALLY. It was perfect and delicious, and I never thought that I would prefer something over ice cream, but I do. We got a cute little waffle thing to eat it with too!

Two scoops: White chocolate and Nutella-flavored 

The entrance to the Cittadella Park

Some ruins, nbd

The Po River at sunset