Oggi a Firenze...

I had my first class in Florence today and I didn't get lost or kidnapped! Lucky for me, my class wasn't until 6 p.m. so I had all day to wander around, finding different buildings, school supplies, and lunch with the lovely Veronica.

I made it to class all by myself, oh, and did I mention it's a cooking class? We basically spent the whole class watching our teacher cook a very simple spaghetti with tomato sauce. Well, first he taught us how to cut and chop certain vegetables, and showed us other little tips and tricks for the kitchen. The sauce he made was literally just boiled tomatoes, garlic, olive oil, salt, and pepper. He topped the spaghetti with a little bit of grated parmesan and we each got a plate of the deliciousness. It was SO GOOD. And I get to do this EVERY WEEK! Plus starting next week we get to cook on our own. AND we will not only be cooking a pasta, but a main course (some type of meat and vegetable) and dessert each class. I've already told Clayton to prepare himself for some delicious cooked meals. I'm sure my family is looking forward to that as well. That is assuming my cooking disabled brain can actually absorb some of my professor's teachings.

Tomorrow is my longest day of classes :/, starting at 10:30 and ending at 5:30 with a two hour break. Luckily I live so close to the campus that its a quick 10-15 walk home so I can grab a bite to eat. My first two classes are Italian 2 and History of Political Terrorism. My last class of the day is Modern and Contemporary Art. I'm not as worried about getting lost because they all take place during the day and, well, I haven't gotten lost so far.

I need to learn my numbers in Italian.

Just went down the street with Beth to a teeny tiny pizzaria/bakery where we got dinner. We each got a couple slices of pizza and I tried ordering doughnut holes in Italian. I wanted a dozen. So I tried asking for twelve doughnut holes. I said "Voglio venti due fratelle." Ventidue means twenty two. Dodici is twelve. Woops. Its a good thing we like them. 

After buying our Italian cell phones yesterday and slowly deciphering how to change the settings to English, they refused to activate. Today they started working, and just in time. We had left for IKEA in a taxi when we realized we were going to have no way to call a taxi to pick us up and take us back home. Five minutes after this realization, our phones went off, welcoming us in Italian to Wind mobile. 

We have also discovered a delicious juice (succo) made from blood oranges. It's called succo d'arancia rossa. It's very very sweet and has no pulp! In addition, the oranges we accidentally bought at the market the other day are blood oranges and soooo delicious. 

I have also discovered the store H&M which apparently everyone has been to except me. I had to buy a couple extra pairs of jeans since we have to leave our clothes out to air dry, which can take several days in a freezing apartment. I definitely am not fashionable enough to live here. But my roommates are helping me. Beth already has been scoping out street vendors to find me a colorful scarf to counter the one plain gray one I brought. 

The market next door has everything we could need in case of an emergency, including toilet paper, water, a few fruit selections, blow driers, and alcohol. So much alcohol. And the guys we've met who work there have already offered us 15% off all alcohol purchases as well as 3 bottles of wine for 10 euros. Plus, every time we purchase something, they give us free candy. 

Last night we cooked our first dinner here. Really simple stuff, mostly because Beth did it, but really simple boiling of tortelini and heating up of tomato sauce. We decided to try the bottle of wine we daringly purchased at the market. After fifteen minutes and four different people's attempts at opening it, Beth and I couldn't handle it. Our palettes are just not mature enough for wine. Its so gross! We tried re-corking it, but that didn't work either so we now have an open bottle of wine on our counter. If anyone wants it, come get it. 

I'm slowly adapting to city life. It's tough, and very confusing, but I'm adapting nonetheless. It's nice to finally have things in my room organized (thank you IKEA!). Makes me much more relaxed. I also am beginning to recognize familiar stores and signs which has made me a little more comfortable. Tomorrow is my first class, and it's cooking. Lets just hope I find my way there and back because it's late at night, and I don't think I'd survive being lost in Florence at night. 

If you don't read a new blog post within the next 36 hours, I suggest you check in with me and make sure I'm not still wandering the streets of Florence. 

New Foods

Today Beth and I went to the market for the first time. We needed spread for our sandwiches so I trusted Beth to go pick out something new but delicious. When we finally got to making sandwiches, we opened it to taste it, and it smells like cat food, tastes like cat food, and looks like cat food. Turns out its pate, which is ground goose liver. Welcome to Italy.

Moving Day

Day two has begun and come to an end very quickly. We woke up this morning and were sent to our new apartments. After so much uncertainty about what our living situation was going to be, it was quite a relief to get unpacked and moved in. I was very thankful for its spacious rooms, bathrooms, and wifi. However, it is FREEZING. The government controls the heat, so it only comes on at certain times of the day. And it is not on right now. Nor do I think it was earlier when I was in the room today. I think they lie to us. I think its never on. Oh well. That's what coats and heavy clothes are for.

Our study abroad program, ACCENT, has been very helpful. They took us on a walking tour today of the main part of the city where we are living, showing us where all the important buildings and shops are that we may need throughout our stay here. Unfortunately, my jet lag has not gone away, and one minute we were in front of the Duomo, and the next, well, we were back in front of it all over again. And I had no idea how we'd managed that. I will most likely be getting lost at some point. Luckily we can see the Duomo from our apartment, so as long as I can find the Duomo, I can get to my room.

Tomorrow we get a tour of the supermarket along with a nice little lesson about how to buy produce. No touching! In addition, we'll have school orientation.


The food has been incredible. I've had so much pizza already. Also coffee here is so good! And I don't even like coffee. I made the mistake of drinking a cappuccino last night before I went to bed and fidgeted all night in my sleep. I'll remember not to do that again. I'm just very worried about cooking. I came to the realization today that I have no idea how to cook. This has become real because there is no microwave in our kitchen.

Lastly, here's a tour of our apartment! I hope you enjoy. It's kinda long so feel free to skip through.

Finally.

Today was the longest day of my life. Besides having to come to the realization that I’m spending the next few months away from all the people I love and adjusting to a completely new culture, my travels went completely askew as soon as I arrived in Rome. 

Here is what my itinerary was supposed to look like:

leave DFW at 10:45 am

arrive in Atlanta at 1:45 pm and leave at 3:50 pm

arrive in Rome at 7:35 am and leave at 9:45 am

arrive in Florence at 11:15 am

Everything went pretty smoothly up until we entered Italy. Unfortunately, the Rome airport is very difficult to maneuver which made the homesickness kick in pretty hard core. Beth (my lovely travel buddy) and I were exhausted so it was a relief to finally sit at our gate. However, our flight became delayed 30 minutes due to fog in Florence. We finally took off almost an hour after planned. Sadly, the Florence airport was still closed because of the weather conditions when we were ready to land, so our plane landed in Bologna (a small city about 60 miles north of Florence). 

Obviously my biggest fear concerned how I was planning on getting to Florence after we landed. We were fortunate enough that the airline did take care of bus transportation to the Florence airport. However, since the airport was not entirely prepared for our arrival, it took us almost an hour to get our luggage and there were not enough busses for everyone and their luggage. So...I got to my hotel at about 3:45 pm, almost four hours later than planned.

As I said before, with all of the problems and the slow realization of where I was and how long I was going to be away from home, my homesickness was quite awful. I was very emotional all day which, of course, made me feel like a fool. Especially with how  long the day felt, I became very worried about whether or not I would be able to handle this long being away from my comfort zone. I still don’t know if I can handle it, but I have at least become distracted by the wonders of Florence.

We caught our first taxi with a very nice lady driver who took us straight to our hotel. Once Beth and I had a nice bathroom break for the first time since the flight to Rome, we checked out our hotel room view...of the Duomo. Its amazing. (I'll post pictures when I move into my apartment). We then went out for a little walk to find Beth a new suitcase because of how disastrous her original one was: it was 58 lbs and had no handle to roll it with. Of course, making our day even more difficult. But the encounter allowed us to meet another kind Italian who spoke to us for an eternity about schools and wifi. 

We also found the coolest ATM! Its enclosed in a glass room which only unlocks when you insert your credit card, locks behind you and remains locked until your done. We felt very safe. Then, on our walk back, we passed a guy playing an accordion, and turns out, we can hear him playing from our room.

Right now we are preparing for dinner. I’m about to go take a shower in a bathroom thats small enough for me to take a dump and shower at the same time. Don’t worry. I won’t. That’s unladylike. 

Bells just rang outside of my window!!! Thank goodness for little things like that, or I’d still be holding back the tears I had all day. I still miss everyone at home so much and I don’t know what I’m going to do without them for a whole semester. 

Prologue

Ok, so here it goes. I've been avoiding posting anything because I feel like it will just be dull and boring since I'm still at home. But I figure I should give a little disclaimer and prologue, per say, for those of you who I haven't told every single detail to about this upcoming trip.

I'm going to Florence, Italy for this semester. I'm studying at Lorenzo Di Medici Institution which has been developed as a school for English speaking study abroad students. So don't worry those of you who have seen my pitiful attempts at learning other languages! All of my classes will be in English, all of my roommates will speak English and for the most part a lot of the people I encounter will also speak English. However I did get the opportunity to take Italian this past semester so I at least know how to ask for the bathroom and say thank you.

I do plan on traveling around other parts of continental Europe while I'm abroad, as I have no classes on Fridays or Mondays. Hopefully you'll know where I've been based on updates on this blog. No promises though. My consistency when it comes to writing these sorts of things tends to be, well, completely dismal.

Finally, those of you who know that I work as a writing tutor or that I am minoring in writing (well I guess you all know now), give me a break on my spelling and grammar. My job requires me to act like I know what I'm talking about, not to know everything about grammar. I promise to overuse commas and misuse vocabulary several times over the next few months! For example: The tentatively listening tour group made sure to listen to every word the tour guide said. Yes, after further research, I have learned that the appropriate word here would be attentively, but I'd rather give you all a little bit of a chuckle every once in a while than change it. 

I leave in 2 days. I'm scared out of my mind. I'm going to miss everyone dearly. Also I really don't want to be bored on the plane so I downloaded a bunch of apps for my ipod.