upon our arrival in rome, we hopped into a taxi and were rushed off to meet our family. rachel and i couldnt have been more nervous...rachel even forgot 1 of her bags on the bus! we didnt even realize the missing bag until 2 hours later! no worries, we called an AIFS rep. and got it under control. our italian mom is Diana Ruta and she is amazing. words cant explain how happy and relieved we were after meeting her. she ran up to both of us and gave us huge hugs. surprisingly, she speaks pretty good english (much better than our italian!). Her house is absolutely beautiful, annie has fallen in love with a chandelier that is in her dining room. Our room is spectacular- we have our own little quarters downstairs and our own front door. 2 beds, a bathroom, and a sitting area. diana said everything is fresh because the workers finished working that morning! We have a housekeeper who is going to change our sheets and wash our clothes every week (moms we know yall are thrilled). Diana told us they also have 2 more houses, one on the sea and one in the country (maybe we will get lucky and visit!). Diana made us a wonderful italian lunch- salad, mozzerella di buffalo, bread, and some kind of meat. we topped it all off with some frutta and strong italian caffe. she asked both of us about our families and we chatted about Rome and life. Diana has big plans for us: she wants to take us to the auditorium and to movies on sundays. she also gave us a tour of our area that we live in which is very nice- there is a park right next to the house where we can exercize. she dropped us off at a supermarket and rachel and i walked home. our first venture out in rome was a success. we told diana to speak to us in Italian when she can and we both have already learned alot today! we are going to be bilingual come may. tonight diani cooked us a dinner and her famliy and friends are coming over. we havent eaten it yet but we took a peek and it looks molto buono. we both couldnt be happier and we are so excited for the next couple of months! rachel is getting ancy so we are going to watch diana prepare la cena. rachel still has an eye infection..the thing wont go away. but she is a trooper! hope all is well in america...we will blog again soon since diana has internet (thank goodness). love you all. ciao!