where they make the cheese!

Mmmm -- I'm writing this ONTO MY BLOG and not onto a Word document because I HAVE INTERNET!
Maybe the capital letters should instead read I'M IN PARMA! Because that's true too.
Guys, its so cool here!
I think I'm a little slap happy still of getting out of Florence and the hotel, because some people already are complaining but I'm super excited to be here.
We took the bus from Firenze to Parma and there wasn't enough room for everyone's luggage. Very nice, bus. We spent a cramped 2.5 hours and then got dropped off at our respective homes.
I am staying in this woman Nice (pronounced knee-chay)'s apartment, and although I have a single (the other people living in her apartment have doubles, except for one girl who is staying the whole year who also has a single), I am technically doing a "homestay," which means she makes me dinner and breakfast. But mostly dinner because she told me she gets up early to run, so I buy what I want and she'll pay me for it. Which is good news for me! I bought tea and Honey Nut Cheerios today so I'm totally set.

BUT YEAH!
Nice is adorable. She got us (the 6 of us living here) huge things of gelato which we ate with another homestay family who lives nearby, and the two BC students living with them. First of all, the gelato was amazing, and it's right around the corner. Also, it is called Gelateria Mickey Mouse. HA.
Everything in our rooms is from IKEA, which they LOVE here -- we all had like 9 stuffed animals in our rooms. Nice gave me a mouse stuffed animal to keep to welcome me. Too cute.
I have my own bathroom and tiny tiny (smaller than yours, Suze) kitchen area, and windows that look out over this arched passageway and a lane lined with trees. So pretty. We're very nearby the center of the city and close to a beautiful park.
Nice told us that in two weeks she will stop speaking English and only speak Italian, and that we will get bikes to ride around. I'm sad about the latter because everyone already has bikes :[ I feel a little left out.
EVERYONE RIDES BIKES! It's so cute and European. I can't wait to join and possibly die because of the wacky traffic.
Today Nice went to Milan, but I'm super excited about dinner with her later. We had a boring day, lots of standing in lines and shelling out money to get bus passes and a permit of stay. Parma is adorable, and completely different than what I expected. It has a definite city vibe to it, but its small and soooo much less touristy than Florence.
Our welcome dinner was fabulous last night -- tortelli, prosciutto and parmesean cheese (obvi), vealish type meat, sparkling vino (?) and a YUMMY cheese crepe thingy.

Right now I need to go figure out if I can do laundry (the washers are TINY TINY and there are no dryers) and upload some pics! HOORAY!
Love you all, hope life is molto bene!