Luggage!!!!

Okay, so my first happy news is that after 12 days of misery, I finally succeeded in getting my luggage! YAY! It was a pain right to the very end though. On Wednesday, the Rome airport FINALLY called Brian's phone back after I had called and Danielle(Peter's brother teaching the photo class. He also served his mission in Sicily) called leaving messages in both English and Italian and anyway, they told me that because I had a faulty claim number they could not send the bags to my school, but they would send it to the Florence airport where I could go out an claim it. So the next day (Thursday) they called to say it had arrived and Morgan (one of the girls in the program) and I hopped on the shuttle bus to the airport -- leaving my passport laying on the ground next to my bed... so I got there and about had a fit trying to explain the situation to the woman at the lost and found who kept telling me that they didn't have a bag under my name (I knew that already) and that they didn't have one under my tag number (I knew that too) and that they just couldn't help me. I told her they called me and told me it was there and she said that I could come look for it, but it probably wouldn't be there. Then she asked for my passport... so I called Peter (in the middle of a class he was teaching turns out) and asked if someone else could bring me my passport before the lost and found closed at 8. Danielle showed up at quarter to 8 with my passport and we rushed to the lost and found and there was a different woman at the desk. So we had to explain it again and they were all very frustrated with me and told me they didn't think they had it and finally they asked what it looked like, went and checked and figured out that they had had it all along. Go figure. But at any rate I have it and I have never appreciated clothes and art tools more... also, I have my camera!!!!!! Hooray!!! So that means pictures (as you can probably tell). The picture on here is of the courtyard to our school. It's pretty much amazing! The rest of the pictures will have to be coming soon. If anyone knows of a site to just put all of them up in one place. let me know! Otherwise, I will just do what I can. Maybe Facebook is my best bet. In fact, a lot of them are already on facebook, so check there.
So last Sunday we went to church and it was way fun. We have to take the train out to the church. Church is not in a separate building, it's like just in a part of a building next to some apartments and shops. There are two tiny branches that meet in there (apparently one of them used to meet in a building even smaller and they didn't fit, so there is some transitioning going on there), so we split up and half went to each branch in an attempt not to overwhelm one branch or the other. There were like 8 missionaries there though and they translated for us during sacrament. Two girls even bore their testimonies and a return sister missionary translated for them (she had the most adorable little baby that I got to hold)! I love that we can come half-way around the world and the church is the same everywhere. It's true whether you're in Utah or Florence. We had sunday-school in English (two elders were asked to teach on the spot) and then the return sister missionary translated for Relief Society. It was sooo great!
Monday classes began. I'm taking beginning painting and beginning sculpture on Mon, Wed and photography on Tues, Thurs. It's been fun so far, but mostly it's just intro stuff still...
We also had tours this week of Florence -- a medieval history tour and a reneissance history tour. They were both really interesting and we got to go into some preserved palaces and things and pretty much it was awesome. Turns out that in Italy a building is brand new if it was built in the last 4 or 5 hundred years...
On Friday we took a day trip to San Gimignano (a city on a hill, like Sienna) where we saw some awesome old towers and churches and ate lots of world famous Gelato. There was a gelato place there that was voted the best gelato in the world last year. And for good reason. It was SOOOOO good. Then we went to Sienna and had a tour where we got to see the Duomo cathedral and all sorts of awesome buildings including the church of St. Catherine of Sienna. Her head is preserved in a small chapel there along with a lot of amazing artwork.
Other than that I have spent a lot of time working on my first assignments for my classes. We are doing color wheels and color charts for my painting class and those have taken the most time. It's fun though. Oil paint is a lot different than water color... I like it. Oh! And this morning some of us took a trip up to the Piazza di Michealangelo where you can see the whole of Florence from a hilltop. It was FANTASTIC! I didn't have my camera charged yet, but I'll get pictures from one of the other girls... I love you all and miss you so much!!!!