I have arrived!!!!

Hello everyone! I have been keeping a physical journal as well that I will post soon. But I wanted to say hello and let everyone know that I'm here and safe. Today has been a lot of fun and really exciting. I got to the CAPA center around ten am and checked in. They told me that my apartment wouldn't be ready until 3 pm though. So, I left to explore the city. I found the duomo and many streets lined with street markets. It was so cool and so hard to resist spending my entire savings. I did buy one thing though, a cashmere pink scarf that was only 5 euro. So, I did indulge in that. I also took some neat pictures of around town as I walked. So, I spent over an hour just walking around the street markets and exploring. Then I started to get hungry so I began to search for a restaurant. That's when I came across Osteria dell Agnolo, www.osteria-agnolo.it , and Hanni, the manager asked me to have a cup of coffee with him. I obliged since he was so friendly and we'd be in a public place. He was very nice and spoke a lot of English. We talked and I told him that I was in Florence for a month studying opera and learning Italian. He asked me to have lunch with him at 3 pm but I told him that I couldn't because I was going to my apartment at 3. So, he let me have lunch early, but asked me to come back that evening. I told him 'forsa', maybe. But he gave me the lunch, coffee and wine all for free! He told me that he wanted me to come see him everyday and I could have whatever I wanted to eat or drink. I told him that I would practice my italiano on him. He was very helpful in practicing my italian because he'd only speak to me in italian unless I didn't understand, non capisco, and then he'd translate. He'd also teach me how to say a few words too, such as travolo, working; or bisogno imprare italiano, I need to practice italian. But he was very sweet and told me that he liked me, because I spoke italian well. That's when I laughed! Hahaha! Anyway. I hope everyone is doing well. I need to get used to these keyboards! They have things in different areas because they have the special accented characters on the keys as well. So, it's difficult to get used to. But I know I will before too long and then I'll have to get used to my American keyboard all over again when I get home! Ciao!!!
Mi amore!
Stephanie