Firenze

Pictures of my first week in Florence and our apartment:


In front of the Ponte Vecchio on the way to school
Hey-waddaya know! Grosso!

Walk to school

Arno River

They have an American diner in Florence and we cleaned our plates!

First dinner in Florence in a gorgeous palace

My roommate Emily and I

Emily, Samara, leah

Dinner-Night one

Pics of the apartment:

My bed:)

I'm all settled into Florence. I've been here since Friday but it seems like forever. We unpacked right away and got everything situated. Our apartment is so cute and so much more modern then I expected. It's small, but actually not small for Europe! We have 1 double, 1 single, 1 kitchen, 1 bath, and one small living area connected to the kitchen for the 3 of us. We decided to split the single up so we each get it for a month. This is my month:)

We're about a 25 minute walk from school which is rough, but it is a gorgeous walk. Not many people can say they have to cross the Ponte Vecchio bridge to get to class. haha. We are also by the nightlife and great restaurants!

Today was our first day of classes in Florence. Mondays are going to be brutal for me. I'll have 4 classes. I go from 9am-6pm with a 2 hour break in the middle. Tues and Thurs are going to be great because I'll have one class at 2:30pm. Wednesday I have 3 of the 4 classes I'll have on Monday, and Friday I have no classes. I'll take that. One of my classes is Italian Mafia and it is so interesting and intense. (Rob would love it...plenty of guns/violence..haha)

Everyone has been booking trips recently for the weekends we have open. Im hesitant to book them because of money and my fear of flying, but Im really trying to suck it up. The train is also an option, but it takes quite a long time to get to most of the places I want to go and is more expensive then flying half the time if you can believe that. There are some really good discount european airlines. (ryanair) Some people have definitely encouraged me to travel (Thank you!!)

I am realizing a lot being here. Particulary, how lucky I am to be here. Also that a bad day in Florence is still compareable to a good day at home. (haha) This place has some sort of magic about it. (don't get me wrong..Italians are still greasy, and smelly..haha) Not all of them..that's a generalization...but mostly.

Im excited to see how my classes continue to go and to get to know my roommates even better and especially to travel!

A few more observations about Italy/Italians:

1. Not the biggest fans of Americans: Often get weird looks once they realize I speak English. They think we're obnoxious, drink too much, and are too loud. Well sorrrrrry smellies.

2. Faith in Barack Obama: Think he's focused on improving our foreign relations because Bush messed them up. Should be interesting to see how much that actually happens.

3. Never realized how much they hated/how terrible Mussolini was: They hated the guy. I mean really...he messed things up...bad.

4. Very bad European winter: All over the news..wicked cold, lots of rain..I WOULD end up here during that. haha

5. Within Europe...discount airlines are much cheaper than trains. Who knew?

6. Bread, Bread, Bread.......yuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuum

7. Hot chocolate in Italy is basically a melted chocolate bar..that thick...no joke. Self explanatory.

8. At restaurants it's never "What do you want to drink?" It's.."How many bottles of wine do you want?" everyday/everynight Talk about upselling:)

Time for bed:) Check back in soon!