Wherein Katie Begins to Run Out of Creative Titles

I think almost everyone has shown up now--we're missing about ten people, at most. Forty-odd students doesn't sound like much for a study abroad program, but when most of that group is hanging out in one room chatting, things get very loud! So naturally, I ran upstairs to hide. Sorry Mom and Dad--my social skills ran away quickly once the group started exceeding twenty people at a time.

I didn't just come upstairs to hide though. I had gone out to the garden and the roof to get a few pictures of those--and yes, "a few" translates to 21 pictures. I am no more frugal with pictures than I am with words. Click to enlarge any of them (this works with all the pictures in the previous and following posts as well).

First of all, this is the view from my window, when the screen has been raised so I can lean out. The top pictures are what I see just looking straight out, and the bottom pictures are looking downward. The view doesn't change much (except when a nun occasionally passes by), since I'm not facing the street or the courtyard, but that also means that it's quieter.

This is the garden--it's surprisingly large, and very pretty. In the mornings and evenings the temperature is perfect to sit outside and enjoy the atmosphere. The backdrop of the second picture is the grill, which we're allowed to use, and there's a butcher's shop nearby, so a group of us is already talking about getting together to make dinners on the weekends since there's not much sense in firing up a grill to cook for just two or three people. The third picture shows the ping-pong table, which I suppose is fun if you play ping-pong--I was more entertained by the scooter, and later the cat that slunk through the garden.

Some close-ups of the two fountains, and the koi that live in them. I love fountains, and these are very nice ones, so I'll probably be spending a fair amount of time here. Especially since there's a cat somewhere around for me to harass as well :)

This is the little spiral staircase up to the roof--and I do mean little, the thing is terrifying to climb down. The second picture is the best one I could get of the overall roof area that we can get to. As it turns out, the roof on top of the fourth floor doesn't actually have a staircase or any (legal/reasonable/safe) way to get to it, so this is the roof we have to hang out on. I think as long as the weather's nice, I'll be doing my Tai Chi and forms practice up here.

These are the views from the roof--the first two are along the street, and the last one is basically the view from my window but from a different angle. Actually, the opened shutters about in the center of the right-hand building is my window.

Of course, you can also see the garden from the roof--it's a pretty view, and I think it gives a better indication of the size of the garden than the disjointed pictures from below do. Yes, the big tree approximately in the center of all the photos is the same tree.

And no, I didn't spend the rest of the day hiding in my room--a group of us went out in search of dinner, and we found a nice little pizzeria not too far from the Centro before coming back to chat in the garden a bit. Now pretty much everyone is fighting a losing battle against the jet lag, and we have our first Centro breakfast at eight tomorrow, so things are winding down here. Tomorrow is essentially orientation day, and I think we'll do an exploratory walk around the city before coming back for the welcome dinner. My school semester is finally starting...should be fun!