Orientation's great! Oh, and "classes" started.

Yesterday was orientation, which is code for a lot of talking and practicing my posture while sitting in cold rooms. We first heard from the president of the program, who explained that the villa is somewhat isolated from "downtown" Arezzo so that we can be with other artists who are 100% devoted to their art. Aka we're an artist kibbutz, with chores and everything. We then met with the main dance teacher, Gianni, who gave us a run through of the schedule, though I didn't catch much because he tends to speak in Italian and I was absolutely overwhelmed by the many teacher names. I did get that he is fantastic and we learn with many different teachers, alternating between styes. We also learned about Italian culture. For instance, do not tip. ever. The pope sucks. Italian boys have all become mama's boys, living with their families into their 40's. And, most importantly, there's a gesture that communicates, "your girlfriend cheated on you because you're impotent" (it's the rock on symbol. be careful.) We also got a tour of the villa, so that I now know how to get around. I must say, it's really nice being on time to a 9 AM class when you don't leave your room until 8:57. We finished off the day singing to a ukelele in a hallway and discussing future travel plans.
Today was our first day of classes. Which, really only consisted of one class because we had to spend hours getting our permissos so that we're not deported. The one class we did have was Tarantella with Gianni, where we spent time practicing our breathing and certain movements related to G-d, love, and instinct. Apparently Tarantella comes from the fields, when workers would get bitten by tarantulas, though Gianni doesn't focus on that story too much. He focused a lot more on teaching us series of movements that we did in a circle and with partners. He had mentioned the dance has roots in African dance, which I really saw today. Both dance forms involve using the same movements in different combinations, and almost in conversation. The dances we did were very relaxed and relied on natural movement, so it was a nice way to get to know a group of dancers, judgement free. I can't tell you a lot of the history behind what we were learning, though, because he really liked speaking in Italian. Thank goodness for hand gestures.
After lunch I took a nice walk up the road, and discovered all the nearby villas and farm. I then got my permesso, and, more importantly, a phone and gelato. I must say, I feel very silly walking into stores and only knowing how to smile and say "grazie," though I'm getting very good at communicating by pointing and accidentally using Spanish. I'm just not used to being so quiet I suppose. I've never been so excited for a language class to start though.