As the first week comes to an end

As you can see, it has been quite a few days since I could find the time to post on here. Since the last time I wrote an entry, I have seen and done a ton of things. On Wednesday we had a day trip to Sienna with our program. We had a tour of the town and were then given time for lunch before we had to go back to Florence. Things move a lot slower in Italy than in the U.S. And by a lot slower, I mean A LOT. We were given two hours for lunch, and we used every minute of it. We ordered a few different pizzas at a restaurant overlooking a square and enjoyed our leisurely meal. At the end of the meal, we were given these lemon liquor shots. As most of you know, I cannot take a full shot ever, but somehow I managed to do it. I was expecting a sweet shot that tasted like lemon juice, but whatever this was burned my entire body. Needless to say I won't be taking one of those again. When we got back home (can't believe I'm lucky enough to call Florence my home for now) I took a much needed siesta. After being here for almost a week, my sleeping schedule is still messed up. My roommates and I woke up and went over to our other friends apartments in an attempt to book some of our trips. Most people are going to Amsterdam in 2 weeks so they got that one done first, but Heather and I are staying here this weekend because we have visitors. Rebecca, Hannah, and Sara are visiting us for my birthday, which will be a great time. Seems like Florence is going to empty out that weekend, but that won't stop us from enjoying the weekend. We had made a reservation at this restaurant called La Giostra that Allie's sister had suggested. When I say this was the best food I have ever eaten, I'm not kidding, and that's a lot coming from me. There were 12 of us at dinner, but the restaurant wasn't big enough for us to all sit together so we sat 7 and 5. The 7 of us at my table all ordered different entrees so that we could get a taste of everything. The waiter brought us a complimentary appetizer platter with bruschetta, priscuito, eggplant, and some more things that I've never seen before. That was good, but it didn't compare to the main dishes. Some of the entrees included mushroom risotto, gnocchi with ricotta, ravioli with pear and cheese, ravioli with brie cheese and artichoke, rigatoni with pine nuts and fresh mozzarella... need I say more. Our friends decided not to go out that night, and Heather's home friend was at the same restaurant as us so we stayed with her and her friends and went back to their apartment in attempts to go out with them. By the time we left their apartment it was already 2 A.M. and and we had to be up at 8:45 the next day for orientation, so we just went home.

Orientation began at 8:45 A.M. at a hotel a few blocks from our apartment. We basically sat in a theater as different people told us about safety, classes, clubs, etc. I think the highlight of this presentation was when the Dean of Students, who went to LDM and apparently loved it so much she decided to move here and be Dean of the school, went up to give her speech. You'd think someone with a doctorates degree would be able to talk to a group of students and give a well presented speech. Well, that was not the case. She typed out her entire speech and read it off the page the entire time. It sounded much more like a bat mitzvah speech than a welcoming speech for a school. This was my entertainment of the morning. When that was finally over we had a few hours before we had to be at the school for another orientation meeting. We stopped at a coffee shop and talked and had a drink while we were waiting. This next meeting seemed to drag on way too long. We got a print out of our schedules and I have friends in all of my classes, so I was happy about that. When that finally ended a few of our ventured to find this sandwich place called The Oil Shop. After asking a handful of people for directions, we ran into this American promoter who walked us there, only to find it was closed. Apparently they close when they run out of bread for the day. So he gave us directions to another place called Pino's. Once we eventually found our way there, I ordered a turkey panini with fresh mozzarella, tomatoes, lettuce, and pesto. It was delicious, as expected. We sat at lunch for a few hours, which seems to be part of the culture in Florence. Meals are always long, and I find this relaxing. The only problem is it takes forever to get the check, but us Americans are just going to need to learn some patience. We walked back to our friends apartment after lunch so that we could book some more trips. Booking trips is a big pain. I know, if this is my only problem here I'm one lucky girl. We all sat around looking up different flights and hotels and comparing prices. I sat on the computer doing this for almost four hours, and after all that time all I got booked was my London flight and my Rome hotel. At least we accomplished something. By the time it got to be about 9 P.M. Jenna and I were the only ones awake (everyone else was napping) and we wanted a quick dinner before we went out. When we arrived in Florence each apartment was given a welcome basket with pasta and red sauce, so we decided on that. Our dilemma was we wanted parmesan  cheese to complete the meal. We ended up in a restaurant right across the street from their apartment, and we decided to ask if we could buy the cheese from them. The woman looked at us like we were crazy, but we didn't care. She ended up giving us the cheese for free. The best part was that we saw her take the cheese off of a table and put it into a container before bringing it to us. Sanitary, maybe not, but it tasted good. The club to go to that night was called Full Up. Heather and I walked there and got lost so it ended up taking us about 40 minutes. Not ideal, but we're still learning. There was a VIP room in back where everyone was, and it was the size of a box. There were strobe lights flashing and not even enough room to breathe. Not my idea of a great night. It felt like you were having a seizure every time you stepped in there. We got home around 3, but for some reason I wasn't tired so I thought it would be a good idea to stay up until 5:30 when we had to be up at 8 for our day trip to Pisa.

We thought these trips were optional, and when we woke up in the morning there was no way we were going to make it. We ended up sleeping until after 2 P.M., which was much needed. We later got an email from our advisor Milva that many people were missing and the busses waited for us for a long time. I felt bad, but we all needed to catch up on sleep, and we will be back to Pisa throughout the semester. When we woke up a lot of us booked flights to Munich for Spring Fest aka Beer Fest. I've heard this is a must go weekend, so I can't wait. We are going on a Thursday to Sunday but the festival doesn't start until Friday so we are going to visit a concentration camp on Thursday. Should be a great trip. By the time Heather and I left our apartment it was already dark. We got a few grocceries and then met some of our friends for dinner at this place called Cyro & Sons. It was a few blocks from our apartment and right on the way to our school. I ordered a caprese salad and pasta with pesto sauce. Both were great. After dinner we made our way to Grom for gelato. This was my first gelato experience! I've been here for almost a week and it was my first one, which I couldn't believe. It was amazing. I'm sure I'll be having much more in the months to come. We got back to our apartment and got ready to go out for the night. All of the Iowa girls had friends visiting so we met them at a bar called Kikuya to get these drinks called Dragoons. It is a beer, but much much stronger than a beer. We hung around the bar at a table for a few hours before leaving for the club. The nights destination was a place called Space. We got there and it was crazy. I think last night was the most fun night we've had so far. By the time I went to bed I only got 4 hours of sleep. We had to wake up at 9 to go to the Verazzano Castle for wine tasting. What a rough life I have.

Todays day trip was definitely the best. We got to the wine castle and took a quick tour of the property. They then brought us into a dining room and we all sat down at tables as waiters poured different wines into our glasses. They told us that these wines went well with pasta, so a large bowl of penne with a special red sauce was brought to our table. They gave us parmesan cheese and spices to mix in and the pasta was really good. I could not bear to actually drink the wine after last night, so I, along with a couple others, gave all of our wine to Daniel and Alec who were sitting at our table. I thought the pasta was our entire meal, but I was very wrong. They continued to bring out garlic bread, salami, sausage, an egg dish, and dessert. I tried some things I would usually never eat, and actually liked them. Our lunch lasted for about 3 hours, and then we headed back to Florence, and now here I am writing this blog post. Tonight we are going back to Space, but before I can think about going out I'm going to need to take a nap. Ciao for now!

How to put it into words...

Last night we got a late start after a long day of traveling. Heather, Amanda, Michele (my roommates) and I got ready and left our apartment around 11 P.M. We wandered in the direction that we thought the club we were going to was. The best thing I have discovered here is that if you get directions on your iphone and take screen shots, you're golden for getting anywhere. It has definitely helped us not get lost! After saying that though, we still couldn't find exactly where the club was last night. We saw a nice restaurant in a square where there was a carousel and decided to have a late dinner and some drinks before we went out. Heather and I split margarita pizza, which was amazing. The four of us split two bottles of wine, the second one we bargained down to about half the price of the first, and made friends with our waiters. We had a club promoter who kept coming to our table and telling us where we should be going at night, but it turns out the waiter told us one of those places was a gay bar. Not sure we'll be taking this guys advice. After we finished our meal our waiters led us in the direction of the club, called Yab. It was down the street and only about a 4 minute walk from our apartment. We went right in and met up with a bunch of the people on our trip. There were a ton of creepy Italians there, but it was fun meeting a lot of people on our program and experiencing our first night in Florence. I hate to say it, but this was much more fun than a night at TRL (sorry Champaign). Another plus, the drinks are strong. They fill up big cups with 3/4 alcohol, so it's worth the money. After a fun night, we walked back to our apartment at about 2:45.

This morning we had to go to Lorenzo de Medici (our school) to do some stuff with our permit of stay. We ended up being the second people there so it only took us 10 minutes and we had 3 hours free until our walking tour of Florence. The school is also only a 4 minute walk from our apartment, so it seems like we have a pretty great location. On the way back to the apartment we found a grocery store and got a few things we needed, then dropped some stuff off at the apartment and went back out. Our mission was to find a panini shop called L'Antigua Noir (I'm sure that's spelled wrong by the way) so I of course found the directions on my phone and we were off. We passed the Duomo and went down a side street and we were there. It happened to be across the street from a bar called the Lion's Den which has t-shirts from a bunch of colleges all over the ceiling. When my parents went to Florence a few summers ago this was one place they kept telling me about, so we went in and looked around. Looks like a fun and chill place to have a beer. I'm sure we'll be back. Then we went across to the panini shop and got what could have been the best sandwich I've ever had. I got one with turkey, fresh mozzarella, tomatoes, lettuce, mayo, and mustard. It was delish. While eating our sandwiches we continued to walk around and sight see. We walked to the River Arno and over a bridge to the other side. It is much more quaint there and very pretty. The views at the river are unbeatable. We took tons of pictures. We walked to the Ponte Vecchio and back to the Duomo where we were meeting our group for the guided tour. I could take pictures every where I go and still not capture all the beauty here. The guided tour was helpful and our tour guide knew a lot about the history so that was helpful. After we were done my bad had FINALLY arrived so Heather and I went to pick it up and took it back to our apartment. We had a short list of things we still needed to get so we went back out for that. Right around the corner from our apartment we found a hair salon and bought a pretty good straightener. Whoever goes to Florence next year, you're a lucky girl (or guy?) because we won't have any use for it after this semester. Then we walked in the direction of our school because we knew there was a lot there. WE FOUND MASSIMO!!! The leather guy that everyone talks about, we stumbled into him on our walk where there were a bunch of outdoor stands selling leather purses, jackets, shoes, and scarves. Since my purse broke yesterday (great luck I've had), I found a brown leather purse that I loved for a pretty good price and checked that off of my list. I also bought a cute and comfortable scarf, since I know I will be wearing those pretty much every day. The last thing we needed was hangers, and no one seemed to understand what we were asking, so we decided to just go back and relax. On our way home we found a 99 Tutti store, aka a dollar store and found hangers. It seems like anything we could need is only a few minute walk from our apartment, which is great. Tonight we have a dinner for Wells College at 7:30 and then we will go out. Tomorrow morning we are off the Sienna for a day trip with our program. For anyone considering going to Florence next year, I highly recommend you do Wells. I will update more tomorrow on the happenings of tonight. Hope you all are enjoying reading this! But honestly, I'm mostly writing it so I can remember everything I do this semester!

On a side note: I was worried that it would be such a change coming here and it would be hard to get around and find what I needed, but that is one hundred percent not the case. It is so easy that it has lifted a huge weight off of my shoulders. Okay, well that's all for now!

And we're finally here...

After an extremely long day of traveling we finally made it to Florence. The flight from New York to Rome was about 9 hours, and I decided to take an ambien so I could sleep for most of the flight. Note to self: when you don't think the ambien is working, don't take more. I took a little too much and ended up hallucinating for more of the flight. Needless to say it was not the most comfortable experience I've ever had, though it made for some entertainment for Heather. We had a quick layover in Rome and then were off to Florence. Once we finally arrived and were waiting for our baggage, came the best (sarcasm) part of the day. After the same bags kept circling the baggage claim, someone from the airline told us that the rest of the bags were lost. Well, I only had gotten one of my bags so that was fun. We waited in line for them to basically tell us that our bags were all in Rome and we could get them tomorrow. Great start to the trip. While writing this I just realized that we never went through customs... hmmm. So after a few hours at the airport, we finally arrived at our apartment. We are on the second floor so only one flight of stairs for us, phew. We put down our stuff and went out to explore. Heather and I ended up stopping for lunch at some cafe, and had probably the worst pizza we'd ever tasted. Uncharacteristic of Italy, I know. Then we went to this store called Coin to get bedding and towels for our apartment. We ran into a bunch of people there including Allie, Alexa, and Lauren. Heather and Alexa went to go pick up their Italian phones, and I went back to their apartment. They are living with 8 girls so their apartment is HUGE. You can see pretty much all of Florence out their windows. After a nap on their couch, Heather and I went back to our apartment and are starting to get settled. After unzipping the one bag of mine that made it here, I realized I do not have my sheets or any shoes. Also, the adapters I got at radio shack are for Europeans coming to America. Seems just my luck today. Hopefully tonight will be fun and we can start this trip off right!