Where has the day gone?

Having the apartment to myself this weekend makes me realize just how fast this entire experience is going. While at first it felt like I had been here months already its just now the end of week four. Lately, I wake up and wonder where the previous day has gone.  My life here in Florence has started to fall into a sort of routine. Days I don’t have class, which is the majority of my week… I sleep in (blaming culture shock), make breakfast, sit at computer, get dressed, eat a snack, maybe take a walk around to city, eat gelato, people watch till dusk then its back to make dinner, more computer and skype and by this time its already 10pm! Like I said… Where did the day go!?!  Im happy to say that each week I look forward to Tuesday nights now because I have found a place to go and worship in English! I stumbled upon this little Methodist church one night and noticed they did a service in English on Tuesdays and ive only gone twice but I love it already. It is just a small group of 4-6 each week and this past week after worship Mark Shultz and his wife walked in the front door looking for a place to worship during their stay in Florence. Silly me I didn’t even recognize him when I introduced myself but when I got back that night I realized that I have like 5-6 of his songs in my “favorites” playlist on iTunes! This Sunday he is going to sing a few songs with another girl from Nashville so I plan to attend the service despite the fact the message will be in Italian I am going to bet at least a few songs will be in English! When I met him he mentioned that he was a Christian Music Artist from Nashville and after I rambled on about my claims to fame I said, “ Oh that’s wonderful, you should definitely join us for a jam session sometime! “. I am pretty sure he was ok with that idea if I remember correctly! Little did I know what that would really mean!! Aahh

So today I am spending some time inside to catch up on writing blogs but I plan to sit by the Duomo this evening and people watch while I attempt to do a little homework. Tomorrow is going to be exciting! I signed up to go hike through the Florentine hills with my school! It’s free, its exercise, its new and exciting and I will be sure to bring my camera! ;-) That’s all for now!

Ciao!

Pasta, Pasta, Bread and more Pasta!

Angel Hair Pasta

One bag of this stuff lasted me a week!

My diet the past few weeks has consisted of il pane (bread), buttered pasta and parmesan, popcorn, bananas, an orange here and there, American cereal, Pringles, chocolate chip cookies, chocolate covered bread, chocolate muffins and anything else I see that slightly resembles chocolate. Along with the usually stuff, I have been eating a ton of peanut butter toast, peanut butter and Ritz, peanut butter on celery and so on and so forth. I think you get the point, I eat a lot of peanut butter and chocolate, but I have recently expanded my palate to include Nutella! My new favorite snack is Nutella spread on banana slices! IT’S DELICIOSO!

NUTELLA

Tonight I made myself a baked potato in the tabletop oven contraption!  I followed the cooking instructions on line and even cooked it an extra 15 minuets on each side and it still came out uncooked through the center, but in the potatoes defense it was quite large! It was a good change from pasta even though it wasn’t completely cooked. I mixed in a little fresh cheddar cheese and butter with the potato and for desert I had a few slices of this chocolate bread roll that I got at the Conrad’s grocery. Eating out in Italy, just as in the US, is not budget friendly so I try to eat in as much as possible! but when I do eat out I spend anywhere from 5-12 euro. This could be just for spaghetti or it could include the bread and water and the cover charge. Eating out is about the price of a grocery bill that could lasts 2-3 days! Really if you think about, it its not much different from at home in the US. I just never noticed it as much at home between my meal plan and having food at home. Food here is exactly what I like to eat at home minus the fattening fried foods but I can do without all that no problem! I cannot wait for cooking class Wednesday! Last week we made FRESH homemade pasta with a walnut paste, and crepe suzette! I'm so excited to make and EAT something fresh and different!

CREPES SUZETTE

The Auto"hell"

I walked through the revolving gate and stopped a good 20 feet from the food counter behind the mob of people waiting in "line". Unlike fast food at rest stops in the US, the food here is "more fresh" rather then frozen, deep-fried, prepackaged or nuked. You have ultimately three choices when you enter the rest area. There is a counter where you can order premade sandwiches (which by the way, are EVERYWHERE in Italy at every restaurant, grocery, café or bar) they also have baked goods like muffins and pizza type stuff. But, if you don't feel like spending an arm and a leg on hot food you have the option to spend both your arms and a leg on packaged foods like M&Ms, crackers, cheese, ect. The first rest stop we went to even had a full assortment of cold cut meats, cheese, wine and pretty much anything else you'd see in a regular supermarket. Oh and I can’t forget about the cappuccino bar where you can get your piping hot cup of cappuccino! Deciding which counter to approach is the least of your worries at a rest stop however. Here is a little word of advice for anyone interested in driving through Italy anytime soon. DON'T STOP AT AN AUTOGRILL! Or do so only if you’re willing to push shove and bump your way to the front of the line to get food, pay your bill or even use the bathroom! But I will say one good thing about the AutoGrill is that it is FREE to use the toilet! Most public places in Europe make you pay to use the bathroom. That is just something you get used to while live here I guess?  
Italian’s, women especially, are very pushy when it comes to waiting in lines, they just apparently don’t understand the concept! All us Americans where hysterical laughing by the end of the trip at how impatient the Italians were! First of all they tend to cut you in line if they don’t feel like waiting and if they don’t resort to cutting, they just get as close to you in line as possible because apparently it makes the line move faster? One lady behind me literally had her entire body up against mine in line, bumping into me like I could have moved somewhere!? It was quite comical and it’s probably a good thing we did speak the same language, if you know what I mean!  

Field Trip to Pompeii

Sorry for the length of this blog entry but trust me its worth the time and patients to read!;-)

 Last weekend I visited Pompeii, Sorrento and the Island of Capri with LDM (Lorenzo de Medici) We loaded the bus bright and early at 5:30am on Saturday and took off for Pompeii closer to 5:45am. Cruising along the highway we passed a few gas stations, which I hadn't even notice existed before then. Once we were out of the city, the first few minutes of the drive sort of made me feel like I was back in the states, but then we'd pass a goofy looking semi truck and id remember where I was.

After an uncomfortable few hours of sleeping upright on the bus, we stopped at our first rest stop. Rest stops in Italy are called AutoGrills and take my word for it, THEY ARE A NIGHTMARE! I'll explain more about Italian rest stops in another Blog entitled Auto"hell". If your interested in the full story just read that, it's a good story especially if you ever plan to travel around Europe in your life time!
So aside from the ridiculous rest stops the field trip was great!

Saturday we visited the ancient city of Pompeii. It was a surreal and fascinating experience to see the devastation Vesuvius caused so many years ago.

That afternoon we drove to our little hotel in Sorrento called Hotel Michelangelo and the evening consisted of complementary dinner, cheap table wine, tasting the famous Lemonchello (lemon liquor, NASTY stuff!!) and watching fireworks by the shore with a small group of girls. 

 Sunday morning we loaded the ferry for Capri Island (case number two, feeling like herded cattle!). Looking back at Sorrento from the boat was cool to see, but hard to capture in a picture.

We arrived at the blue cave expecting to wait just a few minuets in line. We waited over an hour for our turn and honestly, I didn’t mind it one bit! I was relaxing on a boat, in the beautiful blue waters of the Mediterranean, soaking up the warm sun, while most everyone else one the boat was either; impatient, seasick or hungover from the night before! The main reason we had to wait so long for our turn was again some impatient Italian who cut us in line. We couldn’t understand what he was yelling but we were certain that he was extremely, impatient and rude. Lol Our boat captain blared a siren over the loud speaker impatiently to get someone’s attention and the first rowboat finally pulled up alongside our boat. In groups of three we disappeared into the Grotta Azzurra (Blue Cave) only after coughing up another 11.50 euro for the entrance fee that is. 

To get in to the 60meter-long, 25 meter-wide cavity, you had to be taken in one of the small rowboats by an experienced rower. The opening is so narrow, that you have to lie on the bottom of the boat when you enter and if the waters are to ruff they will close down the entrance of the cave all together. We got lucky and were the last group aloud inside that morning. Jumping out of the little rowboat to swim inside the cave was an extra tip of 5 euro or so depending on how much you had in your wallet. After hearing about the jellyfish my friends swam with earlier I kept my 5 Euros and decided not to risk it! 

The cliffs of Capri towering into the sky were breathtaking and I didn’t think water could get any clearer or more blue then in Hawaii, but I was wrong! I was fascinated by the house on the highest and farthest peak of the cliff that has to be one of the most valuable properties in the world.

 look closely at the picture, above the sea cave entrance you'll see a house!

We passed under the arch of love to hug or kiss our friends + loved ones as tradition calls

Capri was a beautiful little town but a very expensive one!

I rod the cable car to Ana Capri and paid way too much for some ravioli and bread at a fancy pansy restaurant. Then I found the famous geltaoria Lucca recommended and treated myself to some chocolate gelato on a cone. Mmm that stuff NEVER gets old! After dessert we stopped in the little shoemaker store and a few people bought custom hand made sandals! I took a little nap on the stone beach before meeting Lucca at the boat to leave, and then it was back on the ferry to meet the bus in Sorrento.

All in all it was a great weekend and I am glad I got to experience Pompeii, Sorrento and Capri. Who knows were will my next adventure take me!

Festa della Rificolona

Jess and I have been struggling the past few days to focus with all the noise from the street below our apartment so We closed the windows early tonight and scarified a cooler apartment for a "slightly quieter" one. Not long after we locked the windows we could here extremely loud music coming from outside and it sounded like drums. When we opened up the windows this is what we saw!

We called over our neighbors from ISU and we all decided to get a closer look! We walked out dressed in workout clothes/normal U.S. loungewear, apparently not normal Italian “paper lantern festival style”! We asked one guy what was happening and he asked us if we just came from soccer practice?! We headed over to the piazza looking American, with cameras in hand and we didn’t care! We joined the rest of the crowd in the Piazza Santissima Annunziata still trying to figure out why the heck all these people were here with paper lanterns on a Tuesday night! We were busy gauche over all the people, music, and children’s lanterns when all of the sudden! Brittany was hit with a spit wad! Well, we thought it was a spit wad at least! We looked around and notice ALL of the children had long black spit wad tubes and they weren't aiming at us but actually at the lanterns! Well at least they were supposed to aim at the lanterns!

 

The Festa della Rificolona means Festival of the Paper Lanterns. I wont give you a history lesson right now, although I think it is quite interesting, ill just sum up the modern day version of the festival for you. Florentine children make their own, beautiful lanterns in colored tissue paper and carry them on a tall pole while others target the paper lantern with spit wads made of clay in an attempt to furtively hit them. The objective is to make the candles fall over and set the lantern on fire. It is very common for most lanterns to be burned by the end of the night. 

 

We stood and people watched for a few minuets and decided to go grab some money so we could get the FULL experience. THERE WAS CANDY!!! I believe I said at one point, “I feel like im in Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory!!” I spent 4euro on a handful of gummy worms and a small bag of roasted peanuts and they were DELICIOSO! What a seriously random and adventurous Tuesday night in Florence!

 

THE QUESTION OF THE DAY IS...

Do you know what the highest tobacco-consuming nation in the world is?

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OK stop...

What was your guess?
I guessed Italy, because sometimes i feel like literally EVERYONE HERE SMOKES!
But apparently, to my astonishment, Europe doesn't even make the top three.
If lighting up before, after, during and around a meal is THIS common here, I can't image what it's like in Japan!! I am very lucky to live in America where I can enjoy a smoke free meal or even walking out doors without breathing someone elses second hand smoke! Id say ive taken that law and a few other laws for granted.

Now that I have spoke my piece, I shall go back to writing happy, cheery notes about how much I love Florence! Because it's for real AWESOME here! :)

Oh yea I almost forgot... GO AMERICA!

Culture Shock

Today I had my first real experience with culture shock. Grocery shopping in a foreign country... need i say more?

Easy Button?

The other day Jessica and I went on a hunt for school supplies! Apparently this is quite tricky in Florence. There are no Office Depots, OfficeMax or Staples here! Where is that “easy button” when you need it!? We wandered into a cute stationary boutique and bought a few over priced pads of paper. We decided to head back to the apartment, when I noticed a little shop across the street that had an entire back wall of pens and highlighters! So after wasting 4 Euros in the first store, we found just what we needed. I even got an error correct pen, but it apparently doesn’t even work. I wonder what the return policy is here in Italia? So now I have a weird looking folder, some paper, a few pens, a pack of post-its and a broken error correction thingy and I am ready for class! I can’t believe I actually have to go to class in a few hours! I am excited to meet new people and experience even more Italian culture!

Above & Beyond Florence

 Its seems to be a typical morning ritual to swing open our green shutters, take a breath of morning air and people watch for a few moments, before doing anything else. I looked up and down the streets like every other morning this week and noticed a large number of white tents set up in the Piazzo di Santissima Anauziata. My roommate and I had the entire day to ourselves, so we decide to go looking for the Statue of David since it meant walking through the Piazzo to get there. We didn’t quite find The David, but walking through the Artisan Fair we had our first interaction with Gypsies.We witnessed one gypsy with a mouth full of grapes running from a fruit vender. It felt like we were in the middle of the Hunchback of Notre Dome Disney Movie!  After wandering the streets near our apartment we came back for lunch. What we did next I wish everyone could experience at some point in their lives!

My roommate and I decided to tour the Duomo, which is only down the street from our apartment. We forked over another 8 euro and climbed the 465 steps to get to the top of Brunelleschi’s cupola overlooking all of Florence and Tuscany! Breathtaking, magnificent, vast and detailed are just a few words I would use to describe the view. The climb to the top was somewhat challenging at times. I wasn’t sure how narrow the walkways were going to get or how much higher the incline of the steps could possibly go.

Eventually we made it to the top, but that was the easy part apparently. Getting back down meant you had to leave the same way you came up! The more people that climbed up the ladder, the less people were able to leave the roof top.

The line seemed like it would NEVER stop and I personally was starting to questioning how much 70 or more tourists, stuffed full of Italian bread and pasta could weight? So me, being the outspoken American leader, politely asked the people at the bottom of the stairs to wait so a few people could climb down. At that point I wished I could speak 5 different languages but I just stuck to basic American lingo! “Stop please, wait one moment, uhh, thank you!” It was quite entertaining and it got the job done! 

When we finally made it down the 465 steps, we headed toward our apartment, but only after stopping for gelato on the way! Feeling rather adventurous I decided to try something a little different then my normal flavor of gelato. I had chocolate gelato on a croissant from a little cafe in the Duomo Plazza. And let me tell you what, it’s a must have! While the gelato here is extremely good, i would have to say that climbing to the top of the Duomo has been the best part of my study abroad experience so far!

     

I may not speak italian but I CAN read english!

My little picell phone chirped at 7:30 this morning to wake me up for orientation. 10 minuets later I rolled out of bed, swung open the shutters and sang a good morning to the street below! I then got ready for a long day of lectures and pulled out the only thing in the cabinet that I could easily recognize for breakfast. Cheerios! The walk to The Oriento Theater wasn't bad, we arrived 5 minuets early.

As some of you might know, here in Italia things are done a little differently then back in the states. People here aren't in as much of hurry and it's often hard to even FIND the line to wait in at a restaurant. Today I learned from experience that when an Italian university says arrive at 8:45am and BE PROMPT! They really mean... "Don't bother coming till 9:30 or so because were going to make all the Americans sit and wait for over an hour before we even begin to bore them silly for the next 5 HOURS talking!!! BBAAAHAHH!?!?! When they finally began orientation, they lectured for a few hours, then we got our hour lunch break and then we met with our advisor for another few hours after that… Were just going to classify this as culture shock, ok people! The orientation was for the most part interesting however I did learn some disappointing news. I learned that it is illegal to have overnight guests in your apartment in Italy! On the other hand the most exciting thing we learned was that there are MANY field trip opportunity coming up in the next few weeks and some are even included in tuition costs already! The funniest part of the whole day was the fact that everything they were lecturing about was written in plain English and printed out in front of us to take home and read. Don’t they know we can read English?! When we finally left the orientation the jet lag hit me, but after an hour of researching trips were going to take I began to regain a little energy. I am so excited for my free Italian meal tonight at the clubhouse, complements of Lorenzo de Medici! I must go get ready to EAT!!

Ciao!!

chocolate triangle of goodness

So the plan tonight was to go eat at a place called the clubhouse, which is where LDM was providing free dinner for all the new students! Needless to say none of our friends answered their cell phones and we didn’t have an address to the place where we were supposed to meet, so we never found our way to the clubhouse. Two hungry and slightly frustrated girls decided to indulge in a sugary treat for dinner! J Berg had a delicious canoli and I had a chocolaty triangle of goodness! It was some sort of powered pastry with a pudding like substance in the middle. It was a scrumptious end of day treat! 

After polishing off our dinner/desserts we wandered across the Plazza del Duomo to the Baptistery of San Giovanni. I was hesitant to fork over another 4 Euros to go inside, but the minute I stepped in and looked up It took my breath away! “ This was SO worth 4 Euros to see jess”. I whispered when we stepped in farther. The Baptistery is the oldest building in the square and for centuries believed to have been a pagan temple converted to Christian use. The inside of the dome illustrates Biblical stories, which the believer is invited to ponder so he may live his faith to the fullest. 

Overhead is a 13^th-century mosaic of the dome; the giant figure of Christ and under Christ’s feet the dead rising from their graves. This place was truly a breathtaking and reverent sight. After 10-20 minuets of gawking over the beautiful gold mosaic dome we left satisfied with how the night had turned out. 

Bon appétit

Our first night in Florence was good however the buzz of the streets below the apartment at all hours of the night will be hard to adjust to, but the view is way worth the noise! Our morning started at 11:30 with fresh oranges from a little shop down the street. We strolled the streets of Florence trying our hardest to avoid the cute stores we saw along the way. (Italy is a shopaholics heaven!) After a leisurely 15-20 minuet walk we made it to the theater at Pizza Strozzi, where we will have orientation in the morning. Our next stop from there was Via Faenza, which is where three out of my four classes will be held. The streets of Italy are quite busy and much, much more narrow then we are used to! Sidewalks here are big enough for two people side-by-side maximum. The street is just wide enough for a few café tables, one car/mini cooper and about 50 or so mopeds parked alongside! It is the coolest thing to see so man mopeds in one area! The plazas however are beautiful, spacious and well traveled!

After checking out the school building we stumbled upon a quaint little super market and decided to stock up on food for the next 2 or 3 days. 20 Euros later, and each arm 4 pounds heavier we made our way back to Via del Servi (the street where our apartment is located.) After fighting with the Internet connection and doing a good hours worth or research online about train tickets and ferries to Greece, we made a wonderful Italian pasta dinner in our cute little kitchen and we loved every bit of it!!

Bon appétit

Ciao Bellas!!

Well folks I have officially "lived"!

Tonight I bought some gelto from an Italian cutie who said "ciao bellas"! But we heard more then just a complement! When we approached the counter we were greeted with a friendly, “ciao! Where are you ladies from?” “Chicago”, we replied as we perused the many flavors of gelato. “Are you sisters?” the man asked. “No.” we replied…“Are you loooovers?” he asked! I shook my head no as I came down with a serious case of the giggles, jess just smiled and said "nnno no!" in Italian, which by the way, “No” is pretty much the same in every language! But apparently my hysteric giggling confused the guy so he asked us another 3 times just to make sure!?! Leaving the plaza with fresh gelato in hand we heard, "ciao bellas!" from the man behind the counter, followed by... " ciao lovers"!! 

All we could do was laugh, eat our gelato and walk the OTHER direction!! 

Ciao!

Feels like a Dream...

I can not believe it, but I am writing you from the most beautiful little apartment in the most spectacular city! My journey started smoothly and getting through my first security check point at O'Hair airport was surprisingly a breeze.  Walking away from the busy bustle of the security check point I felt a mixture of feelings; nerves, excitement, a little paranoia, and most importantly I felt free! In my excitement I headed down the wrong hallway, away from my boarding gate but I was only off course for 2 minuets before realizing I hadn't bothered to read which direction my gate was! Boarding the plane my roommate (Jessica) and I realize that while the plane looked high class, there was hardly enough room for our legs in front of our seat, let alone a carry-on, purse or even pillow. We quickly got over the cramped leg room situation when we noticed the free, I repeat FREE smorgasbord of movies, TV shows, games and more on the personal TV screen in front of us.  Jess and I watched the newest shrek movie and I fell asleep and hour into the flight. Next thing I know I wake up to the smell of dinner which was your choice of ravioli with macaroni or chicken, mash potatoes and veggies and don't forget the yummy brownie for dessert! Oh and did I mention that we got REAL silver wear?! 

After dinner i took a good 6 hour nap and woke to breakfast! We had warm croissants, yogurt, and Oj. After breakfast it was back to sleep for another hour and I was bummed that I missed the warm towels but woke up with only about an hour of flying left! Swiss chocolates where passed around before landing at the Zurich airport. We flashed our passports to a man behind the counter, he stamped our visas and we proceed to the gate to wait.  We were up again for a short 50 minuet flight to Florence, Italy! We landed and exited down the stairs onto the tarmac and into a transport bus where we picked up our luggage and loaded up a LITTLE cabi! With 16 Euros already spent we arrived at Lorenzo de Medici to pick up our apartment keys. At this point we were feeling pretty descent but weren't going to push our luck so we hopped in another cab and found our apartment in Via del Servi.  Our apartment mates arrived just when we did and we all took turns lugging up one massive suitcase at a time up the 3 fights of stairs. I was the last one up and I could hear squeals and screams of excitement echoing down the stone stairs. "It's SOOO adorable Jess" they yelled down to me! Not only was the apartment spectacular but some AMAZINGLY sweet women in the apartment below us insisted on carrying my big bag up to my apartment with me! I was shocked ! How nice of her to  do that for me! This apartment is like BRAND NEW and is just amazingly cute! I told Jessica to pinch me i was in shock! I can not believe I am really here, halfway around the world. This place, this apartment,  it all FEELS LIKE A DREAM!