First Day of School

Sorry, I didn't take a picture of my first day of school outfit. But if I did, you would have just seen me all bundled up in one of the two coats I will be wearing every day I am here. Woohoo! Mom, I can't thank you enough for those last minute shopping sprees. And I guess I should thank Macy's for having awesome sales. 

Sooo all my classes are in the same building which is about a ten, fifteen minute walk from where I live. There isn't a central campus here in Florence, so the LdM buildings are scattered throughout Florence. Luckily, all mine are in the same building. Very easy. 

Today I had classes from 9 to 4:30. I literally didn't leave the building. But I also only brought an apple and water..soo I bought a snickers bar for 0,60 euro. I thought of the commercial and that it would stop my hunger. Which I think it did a pretty good job. There's also this really cool cafe' vending machine. 0,60 euro for any kind of coffee, cappuccino, or whatever. And it dispenses your drink and a baby spoon into this little cup. I though it was really cool. Most likely a rip off, but still kind of fun. 

My classes were doable. I thought I wouldn't be able to make it through the 2.5 hours but of course they give you a little break in between to stretch your legs and get a little some some from the snazzy coffee machine. 

I like my classes although they're not like Wine Tasting or Food Culture, which a lot of people are taking. 

But still, I am not taking any summer classes or packing my senior year so I can drink some wine, no no no. Child Psychology is my first class of the day. It's nothing too special or exciting, I'm sure it's just like the one at Redlands, but I wanted to take the course so whatever, it works. Second class of the day is my elective class, Anthropology of Fashion. It's pretty cool. The teacher is really animated and fun. I like it. Of course, I am no fashionista and there are a plenty of girls that are naming all this designer blah blah blah, whatever they're stupid. So that one is fun. And then I have my Italian class. Which has seven people and myself in it. One annoying little shit to my right and a stupid boy to my left. But it's okay. I'm excited to learn the language. I just want to be able to speak when I go out to the market or out to eat! 

LdM (Lorenzo de' Medici) is a big and popular school here in Florence. It offers a bunch of courses and programs, and I'm pretty sure they are all in English. University of Florence is the other big school that the Italian students go to. 

Naturally, in a study abroad program, there are a bunch of different types of students. Generally the division is between people like mwah, who obviously want to experience a different culture and surrounding yet still do well in classes. Then there are the dbags that don't care about their grades at all, fall asleep in class, don't make any attempt to fit in with the Italian culture and norms. They are the cronies that go to every club that is known to be full of tourists and get shmammerd. No joke, one girl came into a cafe and was screaming for an egg on her sandwich. Can you just put an egg on my sandwich!!? It was embarrassing. Well anyways, same girl goes to all the clubs like Space and Central Park, all the places where we were told to be careful of. Same girl went home with an Italian guy. Stupid beezy. These are the people that myself and my house avoid at all costs. 

You definitely have to make an effort to get away from the tourists. But I think my house is doing a splendid job.

...Minus that we are going to an American bar later tonight. Oh well. Fun stories next time I bet!

Piazzale Michelangelo

I tried to post this yesterday but the internet was terrible because of the crazy windstorm last night. Eliza and I were sure that we were going to wake up and the roof of our building was going to be gone. It was so loud and frightening. But let me try this again. So everything is going to be a day off. Sorryyyy.



Seeing as Italy is very family orientated Sunday's and midafternoon like from 11 to 2 most of the shops and little cookeries close down so the shopkeepers can spend lunch at home. But since Florence is so touristy you can still find a lot of places open. But majority are closed. So we thought today would be a good day to take a stroll North of our neighborhood and walk to the Piazzale de Michelangelo which is across the Arno River and up a big hill so you have a full panoramic view of Florence.

On our journey there we wanted to stop by the pizzeria we had yesterday..? But as we expected it was closed. But what we didn't expect was the flea market right outside. It was awesome!! There were so many beautiful antiques, old books, and furniture mixed with the regular jewelry, sunglasses, scarves and such. It was a fantastic surprise. The girls all bought really pretty earrings but I didn't have enough money with me so I didn't get anything. But I have a plenty opportunities to revisit, which I will. My cool item of the day, was a swatzika pin. A legit Nazi pin. It was crazy! This guy in particular had some awesome antiques like stopwatches that I was looking at for Steven but they were around 1.000 euro. Soo not for me but really really cool.

We then continued to Piazzale Michelangelo. We had to walk up some stairs and a hill to get up there and it reminded me of Dana's steps. But not nearly intense. Up on top of the hill is another piazza, which is like a square, they are everywhere here it's pretty cool and really helps with mapping places out. And the view was beautiful. You could see everything it was so spectacular. Just one of those views that will never get old or be taken for granted. There were actually a lot of elderly couples like 80's that were just walking laps around the piazza. And of course these women are bossy and in these gianttt fur coats. And fur hats. But as Kreacher says "Fur is the best way to get you warm. If only I knew where my fur coat is..."Anywaysss I hear it is absolutely beautiful early in the morning so I figure some day I am going to go on an early run and bring my camera with me to snap some pictures.

Ooh let me tell you about last night. Saturday is the big night to go out it looks like. And Emory, the naive, precious, just jubilant roomie wanted to see what the night life is like. Everyone else was sleeping, Eliza and I were snuggled on our bed but I was a sucker and couldn't turn her down so I dragged Eliza up and we threw on our coats and went for a stroll. And we found what looks like the happenin place to be at on a Saturday night. And for some reason was only Italians even though it was in the Center, the tourist center. So we were happy with that find. It looked like the place if you wanted a club kind of scene. There are other here too called Space and Central Park but they are notorious for tourists and we were warned to stay away from them. As our API director explained, "Half of Americans get stolen." What she really meant was half of the americans get stolen from. But either way, she convinced me, that is no place for me. Italy's night life isn't known for discotecas like Spain is. They more are about going to bars and small club/ bar thingys.
Anyways I got distracted sorry. So on our way back from our little stroll, in the middle of a busy street right by this popular bar was this American boy who was obviously gay, just WASTED. He was screaming at everyone to fuck off. He stood in the middle of the street holding his shoes and when a car would come up he would lean over the hood and flip them off. When they moved forward he jumped out of the way cause obviously the little fucker didn't want to die. But he was so embarrassing and out of control that a crowd formed. Eliza and I told Emory not to speak English while we were standing in the crowd watching. So when the little gay ginger realized there was a crowd forming he chucked his shoes at us and then decided the street was his runway and he strutted up and down it, laid on the hood of a car and did a little kick routine thing. It was pretty entertaining. And impressive that out of all the people he flipped off and screamed fuck off to their faces no one touched him. To me it was like this is why Italians think American are drunk fucktards. Pretty embarrassing.
So that was a lovely ending note to our day.

Anyways you're going to be so proud of me! I got my tourist on and took pictures! Only a few, nothing too special but just some to share with you.

Walking up the steps to the Piazzale. 

The view from the top.

The Duomo.

The Ponte Vecchio over the Arno.

A copy of the David up at the Piazzale Michelangelo. There's copies of him everywhere. Yet to see the real one but will do so soon. 

An example of an elderly couple taking a stroll and a sassy fur coat. 

Down below the Piazzale is a bronze artwork gallery throughout this garden that I am sure is really pretty in the spring. Right now they're kind of just sticks. 

This is outside the Uffizi. There are sculptures all over the city it's so cool. After taking my sculpture class I am so incredibly impressed by all the sculptures.

La Loggia. It's an sculpture gallery outside in the Central Piazza. I'll get some close ups later.

Some other building that I need to learn what it is..

A little shot of the Duomo.

The roomies. Left to right is Rachel, Eliza, Cierra, Emory, Elaine, and mwah. 

New profile pic on facebook.

Let's Experiment

So I figured a blog might be a convenient way to communicate and show you a little bit of my life everyday. I may just continue emailing or maybe a little of both. I guess we shall see.

I know you are anxious to see pictures. And I am anxious to show you what I see everyday. But I want to take pictures while I am on my own and have my own time to reflect on what I want to show you guys. But seeing as I am terrible navigating my way around I have yet to take any pictures. It really is soooo frustrating that I can't find my way around. I try so hard to remember this store or this street or this view of the Duomo. But I am terrible. And I HATE it!!! But it'll come.

So let me tell you about my day.
We had a scheduled cooking class today at a place that does just that, they teach cooking classes. Good idea I think. So class was at 3:45. We went out last night so I got up around 11. Eliza, Rachel, and I decided to wander and then meet up with the rest of the house at 3:45. We've seen a lot south of our apartment because that's where the Historical Center and all our classes and such are. So we decided to go north. We were definitely in the residential neighborhood of Italians. It's where I went on my run and got soo lost but didn't hear one word of English which is rare because Florence is very touristy. And you definitely have to make an effort to get away from it. Anyways so we wandered and found an amazing pizzeria bar I guess. Like a to go place. It was 1,50 euro and so yummyyyy. And he didn't speak any
english so you know it was good.

Our cooking class was fun. Made an eggplant, mozzarella, tomato ordeal. And a gnocchi dish, which is like a potato pasta. Finished with tiramisu. It was quite yummy. But I'm just so not the cooker. At one point we were rolling the dough for the gnocchi. The potatoes are mixed with three types of flour. So we were all rolling it and I naturally roll mine right of the counter like woops! there it goes! :)

Now we are back at the apartment. Eliza and I are just hanging out in our room while the girls are finding more food to eat. I just can't afford to snack and eat all the time. Although I would love to. But Eliza is the same way so it's nice to have someone else who isn't going to spend and buy every meal out. She is also a bomb cook soo I am going to need to do as she does.

So I took a few pictures quickly from my phone. They are nothing special but let me share them with you.

So a few crummy pictures taken from my phone.

I thought this was so fun. Actually seeing that I am in Paris, it was truly unbelievable.

The view from our hotel room. That's the Duomo. I believe it's some church or something of the sort. Not quite sure yet. But it's the big shibang. 

Eeyore just chillin like a boss.

So this is the Arno. It has been my landmark and savior when I am turned around (which is 99.9% of the time.) It's the river that flows through florence. It's where I ended up jogging into what I think was a different city or something. I don't really know. But it is beautiful.