Moving in and exploration

So it's official, I have moved into my new place! Last night (Sunday) was my first night here, and so far so good. My roommate's are Samuel and Biaggio; Samuel is a 22 year-old guy from Poland, studying at the university for the next few months. He's really nice, very welcoming, and speaks English and good Spanish (we are speaking spanish, but it's nice in that if I don't know vocab words I can tell him the word in English and he can usually help me out). He also showed me how to turn on the water heater, which involves turning on the gas through various knobs and whatnot, and lighting it and everything. We don't have heating here, in general, but he gave me his space heater to use as he says he no longer needs it. He said he spends a lit of time in Scotland, visiting his Girlfriend, and goes away on the weekends to travel and such. Like I said, really nice guy, I think we will get along well. Biaggio is one of the students on the University of Kansas; he's 27, just returned to Kansas to learn Spanish. Also very nice, although he was really tired last night and went to bed super early, so we haven't really had a chance to talk much. Overall, I'm really happy with my set up, and can't wait for Sam and Laura to move in to their apartment (hopefully tomorrow) so that we will all be close by. The other good news is I have wifi in my apartment, a rarity around here, which is oh so nice. The old couple who own the building are supernice, offereing me blankets and checking in on me, and apparently the wife will even do our laundry for a couple euros, which will be super convenient. They are so nice and friendly, it's like having a host family but with more space, perfection! Besides moving in this weekend, I've been spending time exploring the city a bit. On Friday we walked around the Old Zone, absolutely gorgeous, and found our apartments by reading little notices on lampposts and calling the numbers listed, we were so lucky to have found them! Afterwards we went back and took our "siestas" for a bit, and then me, Sam, Laura went out to get some dinner, and got drinks at a nice little bar. Saturday we wandered around a bit, and at night Sam, Laura, Florette and I went out to a really great dinner. It was a place listed in one of our tour books for having great local food, and it really was great. The food in general is very good here, lots of eggs, seafood (some of which I enjoy, particularly the calimari), and then various meat dishes. It's also sooo much less expensive here than it was in Paris, which is always nice. The people are also very friendly, in general, which is also really nice. Sunday Sam and I went and explored the Cathedral, which is absolutely amazing. It is incredibly beautiful, and exploring the inside was great. After grabbing a late lunch, we went to a monastery that was also in the Old Zone, and checked out its museum. Another beautiful building, and very interesting. At night it was back to my new apartment to get everything arranged. I have a couch, small twin-sized bed, nice closet/bureau, a little round table, and a bedside table. It's pretty small, but cozy, and I have plenty of space :). I will post some pics, soon! Today our first week of classes began. My Islam class seems like it will be really good, with this really, really sweet young woman, she's seriously like the nicest person ever, and her class seems like it will be interesting. As an introduction we watched an episode of "30 days" (a reality show done by the maker of "super-size me", where a christian man from West Virginia spends thirty days "as a Muslim", which proved to be pretty entertaining. I also had my class about Transatlantic Hisapnic-something or other, which also seems like it will be interesting. I am pleased to report that I haven't been having trouble understanding (spanish) and such, which is always nice. Alrighty then, well I should do some homework now...it's weird to have daily homework again! Will get pics out soon, so get excited. Much love, Brit