Fall Break cont....

I can't remember if I have written about how terrible my internet connection is here. But if I already have, then I repeat, it is terrible, and oh so frustrating! I am dedicating the next hour to blogging...

The problem with procrastination and putting stuff off is that it eventually turns into a huge monster that one has to conquer, almost impossibly. I am very familiar with this monster. Unfortunately, we've become somewhat close over the years. I must like putting myself in these crunch situations. So here I am, with a very important decision to make... do I write as many mini entries as I can and try to fill in the days/events that have passed? Or do I start from this past weekend and leave the rest behind... I'm thinking the prior. So here I go...

Starting where I left off with fall break...

I live right next to Piazza San Marco and hadn't been inside the church yet, so Linda and I did that on Monday. It was gorgeous! This church was built by Cosimo de' Medici who was worried about getting into heaven so he asked the pope what he should do. The pope told him to build a church, so that's what he did! And he put a LOT of money into it, so its very intricate and beautiful.

 

 

Tuesday I went to the market at Cascine park with Linda. Talk about overwhelming!! There was SOO much stuff, you really have to dig to find what you want, but eventually I walked out with some goodies :) 

I do like all the open air markets here, but they definitely overwhelm me. I like to look at everything to make sure I am getting what I want, but when there is so much stuff how do you know for sure?? Good shopping buddies are pretty essential to keep me in line.

Me at the market...

Even though I was pretty tired from all the walking/shopping, I fought the desire to go home and lay down and instead walked to the other side of the river. We walked all the way up to the Basilica of San Miniato, and man am I glad we did. I was whining to Linda the whole way up, haha, but this church is SO worth the walk. The church itself is nothing less than stunning, and as unbelievable as it sounds, the view of Florence from there is even more spectacular. A picture is worth a thousand words...

 

Then we walked down to Piazza Michelangelo and took some fab pics. While we were doing so, an old Florentine man walked up and offered to take a picture of us:

We then had a very nice, super choppy, Italian conversation with our new friend about Tuscan food, haha. It was quite lovely :)

K I thought I could do this but it just takes me waaay too long, so I'm sorry I will have to pick up where I am leaving off later... But I love and miss everyone SOOO much!!

Il Giorno Due!

Alright, on to day two! Saturday Linda and I went to the Basilica of San Lorenzo. You aren't allowed to take pictures inside, but here we are davanti alla facade...

For the first couple of weeks I was living here I walked by this church multiple times every day, not knowing what it was, let alone that it is one of the largest, most beautiful churches in Florence! As you can see from the outside, it looks pretty unimpressive, but when I walked inside I was shocked to see how incredible it really is. Goes to show, you can't judge a book by its cover. Many of the important buildings here in Florence are the same way, the outside bland, but the inside totally stunning. The Basilica of San Lorenzo is also the burial place of 40some members of the Medici Family, so it is pretty important because of the connection with the family. It is arguably the oldest church in Florence, having been consecrated in 393. We saw the burial place of Cosimo de' Medici (suuuper important guy) and Donatello (very influential artist of the Renaissance, and yeah, one of the ninja turtles.) Brunelleschi, who was the leading Renaissance architect of the first half of the fifteenth century, (he did TONS of other stuff, most importantly the dome of the Duomo which is still a total phenomenon) was commissioned to design the Basilica of San Lorenzo. Michelangelo also did a lot of work on it. I won't go into any more detail because I know most of you are like, this is so boring who caresssss, but seriously, when you come here and study it, you just start to care. Its pretty awesome actually :) So anyway, that was that.

Then we went and saw the inside of the Duomo which is pretty cool. I had been inside before, but like most of the stuff here, I could go back again and again and again and still find it interesting. I've posted pictures of the outside before, it's still the most impressive building to me here. At least visually, from the outside. Every time I walk by it, which is multiple times a day, I am just in complete awe. It is impossible to describe in words. The inside is different. While the outside is so intensely intricate and colorful and almost mesmerizing with all its patterns and details, the inside is quite, well, plain. I have to say, when I first stepped inside I was actually disappointed. But the second time I started to appreciate it more. It is HUGE first of all. Everything is huge. The columns and Gothic arches make me feel so small and insignificant. I think that's the whole point of it though. At the time God was seen as the all powerful important one, and people were just little blobs who were supposed to do whatever he said. So the architecture is meant to make you feel like that. My pictures aren't great, but I'll put one up anyway so you can at least have a little idea about what I'm talking about.

Then we went underneath the church where the remains of the ancient Roman cathedral of Santa Reparata are. It was pretty interesting. We were tired after all that so we got some gelato and went grocery shopping, made some dinner and then baked the BEST CHOCOLATE CAKE EVERRR! I made it in my cooking class, but making it in my own kitchen was quite satisfying.

And that was my day! :)

Fall Break Day 1 :)

Ciao tutti! So even though I am writing all of these posts today, (or hopefully today, I may finish them later this week depending how long it takes) I want to write about my days in separate blog entries. So lets start from the very beginning, what a very good place to start...

Break technically began Thursday evening when I finished my last midterm! I know it is silly that I was stressed out about midterms considering the classes I'm taking are totally awesome, but I was, so it felt good to be done. I cooked dinner with my roommate Hillary and had a little sparkling wine to celebrate :) Then I went out to this bar, the Lion's Pub, or something, with my friend Linda and some of her friends. I sang karaoke (Spice Girls, Wannabe...pretty awesome song) IN PUBLIC, it was quite... special, haha. Unfortunately Linda got a recording of it...but I don't want to blow your ear drums away with all of that beautifulness, so here is a picture... :)

Fun Fact: guy behind me is AWESOME at singing and dancing Beyonce's Single Ladies. No joke.

So I'm going to include Friday in day 1 of break because Thursday and Friday were both kinda half days. So Friday I woke up and cleaned the apartment for a large portion of the day and then Linda came over again and we made dinner and went to her friends' apartment for dessert. There are two girls who live there, one from Denmark and the other actually is from Boulder, which is cool. They are 25 and 26 years old so it was nice because everyone there was older and more mature and just fun and interesting to talk with. They had 4 other friends over, 2 others from Sweden, 1 from Japan, and 1 from Italy. And I think I mentioned before, Linda is also from Sweden. So it was a very interesting and eclectic group of people. We had some really good cooked pairs with vanilla ice cream for dessert and then went to a local bar/mini brewery and had a beer and chatted. It was a lovely evening. Then Linda and I went home to sleep. She was my roommate for the week since all my roommates were out of town. It was really fun! :)

My Past Few Weekends!

 Well hello everyone!! Life in Italy has been busy busy busy, but last week was midterms and now I am on break!! I had planned on going to London, Madrid, and Barcelona, but then decided last minute that what I really want to do is stay in Florence/Italy because there is so much I want to do and see here and so that is what I am doing! First: a quick update on my past few weeks. Three weekends ago I went to the Amalfi Coast (Sorrento, Capri, and Positano) with a couple friends. It was stunning!! In the same sort of way that the Cinque Terre were, but different. I LOVED it.

And then last weekend I was in Perugia for the chocolate festival, Verona, and Venice. Perugia seemed like a really cool city, I didn’t get to see much of it because I was only there for a few hours and I was pretty focused on all the chocolate. It was a rainy, yucky, day but chocolate can make just about anything better and I hardly even noticed ☺. Chocolate ravioli...yum....

I didn’t really know what to expect of Verona, but I ended up really really liking it! It is actually one of my top favorite places I have visited so far. It is just adorable. We, of course, saw Romeo and Juliet’s houses (they didn’t actually ever exist, but their families did). Apparently it gives you good luck in your love life if you rub Juliet's boob in a circle three times with your left hand... so now that I've officially felt up a bronze statue, come and find me prince charming!!

And I ate some pretty great food. Verona is known for their polenta, as well as their horse meat stew…so that is exactly what I had. It doesn’t look all that appetizing in the pictures, but both were fantastic.

Then we went to a winery to learn about wine and wine making :) Good thing my taste buds have matured just in time to be studying abroad here and I have acquired a taste for wine!

Venice was a kind of horrid day. Not that I didn’t have a great time, because I did, but the actual day itself was just ugly and wet and FREEZING because I stupidly (but not surprisingly) forgot to pack a coat… so I was prancing around (literally, to keep warm, of course) in boots, tights, jeans, a long sleeve shirt, and a little sleeveless dress (It sounds weird, but I rocked it. I didn’t have much choice. I had to layer on everything I brought, haha).

 Venice, of course, was so super cool. Consisting of over 100 tiny islands, all the canals and little gondolas were so beautiful. I liked it a lot! And took lots of vitamin C when I got home that night to prevent catching pneumonia.

And that has been my past few weekends! I have to go grocery shopping to make dinner, but I will write about this weekend/break later!!

No, it isn't broken!

No, it isn't broken!
Some may have thought that the mafia infiltrated my blog and changed my password, preventing me from writing any further fantastic blog entries; however, this theory would be incorrect. Everything is ok, and I am back in business! I am thoroughly exhausted though because in the middle of the night it was raining so hard, I thought our house was going to get pounded into little pieces, and I was kept up for a couple hours. Ma va bene, I will still write. So update on my past week... I'm not going to go into detail because there is a lot, but I should mention things.

Last Tuesday I went to dinner at Carly's and it was really nice! Her roommates are awesome and its really fun connecting with an old friend. That Thursday I went out to dinner with Marissa, who is on a different program as well but I know her from Davis, and her friends and it was soooo good and also really fun to meet new people! That night after dinner I met up with this guy Aaron who I actually went to Israel with four summers ago, and he is studying abroad in Israel now but was visiting Florence for a few days. So I went to a club with him and his friends who were all really nice. It is so funny how I automatically feel more connected with people who are Jewish. Anyway, then on Friday I just relaxed and recovered from staying out so late Thursday night. Saturday I went to Bologna with my program (API). We went on a guided tour and saw the church as well as the university, which is actually the oldest university in the world! It was really, really cool. And I had the most DELICIOUS tortellini everrr. Then we visited a balsamic vinegar production place, which was totally awesome, I learned a lot, considering I didn't even know that balsamic vinegar is made from grapes. Then on Sunday API took us to the soccer stadium for a Florence vs. Palermo soccer match! We (Fiorentina) lost :( but it was still really fun. I couldn't believe how vulgar the fans are! Soccer is clearly a huge deal... there are tons of cheers. I could only understand some of them, but one of the most popular ones was "vaffanculo Palermo, Palermo!" which means, "fuck off Palermo, Palermo!" That was the cheer. I mean I am definitely not the best judge of sporting events, but I feel like people in the US would be offended by that cheer at one of our games, I don’t know. Haha. Then I just did some homework and stuff the rest of the day. Monday I went with Victoria to Fiesole, which is a really old town high up that looks over Florence. The Etruscans originally settled it and there are some really cool ruins from that time as well as Roman times. It was beautiful! We also went to the archeological museum and church there. It was very cute and quaint. I liked it a lot. And then I went to yoga and made a new friend! Yay! haha. Her name is Christine, she's from California also which is cool cause I haven't met too many kids from California. So that was my weekend :) Very brief update on my life here. But I'm very busy and meeting lots of cool interesting people and learning a ton and thinking a whole lot and eating good food and I'm thrilled! It is totally awesome. I could write lots more but I'm going to post this so that I finally have something new up and I'll write more later! Ciao!!

Behind me is the incredible view of Florence from Fiesole

Siena!

It is a rainy Sunday evening here in Florence. I haven't updated in a few days, so I figure now would be a good time to do so. My roommate Hillary and I are going to watch Garden State when she gets up from her nap in a bit...I am so excited!! Anyway, the weeks go by SO fast here it is scary. This weekend has been very relaxing, I haven't done too much, aside from going to Siena for the day yesterday, which was BEAUTIFUL! I can see why it would be a wonderful place to study abroad as well. I still love Florence though :) We bought a pass to see the Museo dell'Opera, Duomo (which means cathedral, every city has one), Baptistery, Crypt, and climb up this tower thing where we could see a panorama of the whole city. It was amazing! The inside of the Duomo was honestly the most incredible thing I've ever seen. I haven't been inside Florence's Duomo yet, but seriously, it is just one of those places that I feel like you have to go see yourself. I took pictures, but they don't do it justice one bit. Every little corner was so intricate and nothing was the same, I can't even put it into words. It was just breathtaking. I could have spent weeks just staring at the place, but unfortunately we only had one day. The Museum was really cool as well, it is so insane to learn about all of these artists and then see their work first hand. I get so excited by it all! Jill said to me, "Ali, you just get so involved when you look at something, every little detail seems to fascinate you." And that right there is why I am such a slow person, haha. It's true, I get really interested in things. It keeps life interesting that way, I think :) The crypt was interesting because it was unseen for nearly 700 years until its re-discovery during routine excavations in the Duomo in 1999. Anyway, that's a brief summary of my day yesterday. I had some pizza for lunch and chilled in the Piazza del Campo with the girls for a while. And then took the bus back home :). When we got back, we (Hillary, Beth, Jill, Ashley, Alyssa, Danny, and I) booked out tickets to go to London and Spain for fall break!! I'm very excited :)

What else is new...well, I've still sworn off boys. However Jill is practicing with a very competitive swim team here and met some of the guys who were introduced to me and one of them asked for my number and keeps wanting to hang out. So we'll see... Honestly, it would be really nice to have some Italian friends though because then we can really learn about more cultural things. Nothing exciting so far though, I'll update on that topic later. Hillary and I are going to watch the movie now so I'm going to go! Ciao :)

Babe, You Should Be Proud!

My alarm went off at 9:00 am this morning, but because my horrendous bug bites kept me up all night, I snoozed till 10:10. I have at least 25 itchy bumps, one of those being on my forehead. I hate bug spray, but I may have to start using it if this keeps up :( Anyway, I got out of bed and said to myself, "I'm going to look good today." I mean, I put more thought into my appearance here than I do in general at home because, well, its fashion city. But today I was going to be extra fashionable. So I put on some black patterned tights, a jean skirt, black tank top, red jacket, and purple boots. It sounds simple, but on the way to class a girl stopped me in the street and asked if she could take a picture of me for her fashion spread! How cool is that! And when I walked into Italian class my teacher said, "Alexandra! Che elegante!" I love how my teachers say Alexandra here, it sounds so beautiful with the Italian accent, so that's what I go by. After class I went to the Italian department and signed up to be paired with an Italian university student! I keep getting stopped by Italians in the street and not being able to respond. It's getting a little ridiculous, so I hope I get paired with someone I get along with and it helps!! Best case scenario I make a cool Italian friend :) Then I went to the bookstore to get a couple books for class and here I am now, sitting outside Louis Vuitton, waiting till it's time for class, just kind of people watching. (I am copying this from what I wrote in a notebook earlier in the day) I really want another pair of boots. Everyone here has such cute boots and I want them all! But I could sit here and play the "I wish I had..." game forever, you always want more. I should play the "I am SO lucky I have..." game instead! Well, I'm in Florence, about to go to my history class where I have the opportunity to learn about this incredible place that I am living in....gah so lucky!!

So now that I'm out of class and home, I have lots and lots of drawing/reading homework. Woohoo! Once I do a few more drawings, or at least complete the ones I've been working on, I'll put them up online. But I'm going to get back to all that so I can go to sleep at a decent time tonight. Yay for another day tomorrow :)

Picture of my disgusting foot bite...blehhhhh... its hard to see in the picture, but its that huge lump!

Following Through...

I was about to go to sleep, but then I said to myself, "No Ali! You are going to write on your blog EVERY DAY, even if it is just a little bit and not very good." So here I am, 1:00 in the morning, writing about the day. Today wasn't very eventful, but it was still a good day. I woke up, ate some breakfast, and headed to the market to buy fruit. I've avoided the market until today because it is SO BIG and overwhelming, but I managed to decide on what I wanted, after strolling for 20 minutes. Before leaving I helped some lady barter for a ring, and then headed to school to get my permiso di soggiorno (permit of stay). Back at home I worked on a drawing I started a couple days ago and listened to some good thinking music :) Then I went with my roommate Natalie to get a panini, and headed to yoga! Yoga was fun, I'm really weird though. Some stretches I'm super flexible at and others I can barely do. Not quite sure why that is, haha. Oy, side note I have SO many mosquito bites!!! They are driving me nuts! I seirously look like I have some sort of skin disease. Anyway, after yoga class I went to the Loggia dei Lanzi to draw a sculpture for my sketchbook class. The security guard was just so enthralled with my sketch for some reason, he had to sit next to me and watch. (Not so sure it was the drawing he was really all that interested in) But he barely spoke english and I was very focused, so we didn't have much of a conversation. I must say though, he was one of the few Italian men who haven't treated me like some kind of animal, so that was nice. When I finished I walked back home, made some dinner, and chatted with my roommates for a bit. That was pretty much my day :)

Walking down the streets with a very straight face and avoiding eye contact with males is become second nature to me. When I'm walking with a group of girl friends and a group of Italian men walk by and shout "ciao belli" and then make disgusting kissy noises, "che schifo, vai via!" tends to slip out of my mouth. I really want to work on my Italian because at least once a day I get mistaken for being Italian and someone will come up to me and just start talking or asking a question and I stand there blankly..."uhh....non parlo italiano bene, mi dispiace" and then they look surprised and walk away. It's hard to meet anyone because of the language barrier. But I think I'm getting a little better. I can answer basicish questions and understand better than I used to. I just freak out when I'm put on the spot. I feel like I'm learning a lot every single day though. Mostly about myself. It's hard to put into words. But I do think that I'm maturing. Alright, bed time. Till tomorrow!

Singin' In The Rain!

Alright, so clearly blogging on a regular basis isn't exactly one of my strengths, but I'm going to keep trying! This past weekend I went back to Cinque Terre because we went with my API program the weekend before and it was just so amazing I had to see it again! This time, however, it wasn't exactly warm and sunny. It was actually POURING rain! But even though this was the case, I have 3 and a half months in Italy, and the only way to do it is to make the best of every situation. So that is exactly what we did! I wrote in my journal after hiking up Riomaggiore yesterday, so I will copy that into here:

"I am sitting on a bench outside of this cute little church overlooking the Mediterranean. It is absolutely stunning. We woke up this morning in our hostel in Riomaggiore (one of the Cinque Terre). The hostle served its purpose, I was ready for the worst and it really wasn't bad at all. I mean, I made a few jokes about possibly getting scabies from the blankets, but aside from that it was fine. Last night we ate dinner at a tratoria. I shared pesto pasta and muscles and spaghetti with Tre and washed that down with a nice glass of white wine. For dessert I split a chocolate and creme pastry as well as a fruit torte with Jill. It was all delicious! Earlier in the day I had chocolate, vanilla, and mint gelato and shared a slice of the most amazing pesto pissa with Jill. So basically, the weekend has been full of incredible food. Yesterday was quite an adventure. We were supposed to take the 7:20 am train, but missed it and came back for the 9:50 am one. Took that to La Spezia, and then had to take a separate train to Cinque Terre. Meanwhile its absolutely pelting us outside. Luckily I threw in my rain jacket last minute or I would have been a less happy camper. Anyway, I was starving so during the lay over I went with Andy and Linda to get a kabob in the town. Its funny, I wouldn't expect it, but there are so many kabob places around here. After missing the train we were supposed to take, again, we took the next one. It is an understatement to say that the Italian train system is confusing. We made a few random friends who shared in our frustration though. When we finally made it to Riomaggiore we took some rainy pictures and walked around and laughed a lot at our luck. Danny left his phone on one of the trains. Whenever we needed a bathroom they were no where to be found. But for some reason we still managed to keep our spirits up :) It was just a great group of people I guess. We met some Canadians who saved up money for the past 4 years and are traveling all over the world for an entire year. That really inspired me to want to do the same! It would be quite amazing. I'm learning so much from just living in a different country. We woke up this morning, threw on my clothes from yesterday, and checked out of the hostle. I got a creme croissant, hot chocolate, banana, and water for breakfast and then we all headed up the terre. We just kept walking up until we hit a trail that we hike up for about an hour and a half. It was absolutely gorgeous! It is very humid, probably because of all the rain, but not too hot. Just perfect I think :) Wow, the sun is peeking through the clouds right now and there is a wonderful little breeze going. I am so sweaty and wearing the same clothes as yesterday. Haven't showerd or shaved my legs. Am not wearing any make up and have lots of pimples. But I don't care one bit! I feel fantastic and beautiful :)"

We ended up hiking down after that and stopping by Vernazza on the train before heading back home. It really was a great weekend! I did a lot of thinking and also had some good conversations with the people I was with. I am exhausted, but also thrilled that I decided to go for the weekend.  Tomorrow I would really like to be productive because today I spent putting up all my pictures and drawing and writing. It was relaxing, but I didn't do much and I don't like that. I guess I needed a day like this though. Anyway, I am off! Ciao!

Yoga Master

That's what I'm hoping to be by the end of the semester here. Although I'm pretty sure yoga is definitely not an Italian thing, I have offically signed up to be a member of the Yoga Club here at la scuola Lorenzo de Medici. Nothing wrong with some good old relaxation/exercise time. So that's what I did this morning before class. Then I went across town, you know, next to Loui Vuitton (as I said, the LdM buildings are all over the place), to my first class- Italiano! My professor, Daniela, seems totally awesome. She's super low key even though she only speaks in Italian. I'm thinking about going to the Italian department tomorrow and seeing if I can move up a level though, because I want to challenge myself while I'm here, and as dad says, "it's friggin pass fail". After Italian, which was 12-1:30, I had an hour and a half break. So I went back home to make myself only the best sandwich ever...nutella. Nutella is huge here by the way. Anyway, went back to the same building at 3:00 for my History class. Its actual name is The Quarters of Florence: History and Culture. I am SOOO excited for this class!! Excited enough that I came home and made my roommates let me read them the notes I took in class. Marcello Bellini (my prof.) is fantastic, he's so passionate and knowledgeable and I just can't wait to learn!! He said by the end of the semester we will be able to guide anyone around the city :) So come visit and I will teach you! But man, it was hot and humid today. I decided to wear pants...terrible choice. I was sweating, not just a little surface sweat, pouring sweat down my back and neck and forehead. Keep in mind, I've also got Mt. Vesuvious popping out of my nose. So... excellent first impression for all my new friends. But Natalie claims that if I pretend it doesn't exist my pimple will leave the premises of my nose, so I'm gonna try it. Anyway, came back after class and made some delicious pesto tortellini and ate dinner with the roommies. We had a lovely chat about life and then did some Italian homework. And here I am now, writting in (on?) my blog before I go to il letto. Its getting late so I need to wrap this puppy up. But yay for another day in Firenze! Buona notte!

Eeyyy... Ciao Bella!

So I'm walking along the side of the road, minding my own business, and walking down the street opposite of me is a whole soccer team of Italian boys. Their soccer ball comes rolling towards me and I decide to try and awkwardly kick it away, and of course mostly miss it, but that's besides the point. All of the sudden they are all yelling Ciao bella!! Eeyyy ciao! In movies its funny, but I don't know how else to react to a clan of yelling teenage boys besides avoiding eye contact and walking away quickly. Haha, but hey, that's Italy. I'm just trying to fit in as much as I can because they clearly think American woman are easy. Anyway, I had a LOVELY day today! I actually started to get sick two nights ago. My whole body was achy, not just because I'm sore from walking around so much (pathetic, I know), like sick achy, and my head hurt pretty bad so I stayed in and rested all day yesterday in my apartment. Pretty crappy :( But I managed to get my bottom out of bed for dinner at my friends Beth, Jill, and Kate's apartment upstairs. They have a rooftop terrace and the view is amazinggg, especially at night while the sun is setting. So we all ate spaghetti and salad and they drank wine, of course, but I didn't have any because mom taught me well. Alcohol suppresses your immune system. So you should be proud of me madre :) Oh, and speaking of spaghetti, I realized on Friday while I was taking my Italian placement exam that the title of my blog is gramatically incorrect. Gli spaghetti is plural, so it should actually be Mi Piacciono Gli Spaghetti, so I'll change it eventually. But at least I remembered it for the exam, haha. Anyway, my computer doesn't have much battery left and I left my charger in my room with my sleeping roommate so I'll have to type fast. So today... I wasn't feeling fantastic in the morning so I just showered and chilled here till 1:00 and then I forced myself out of the house. I thought to myself, "Yes, being sick sucks, but at least im sick in Italy. I need to make something of the day." Yay Ali! So I ventured out to explore the city a bit and find my classes. Now, I don't have the best sense of dirrection. It took me an embarassing amount of time to find the Lorenzo de Medici office, but I found it eventually. I first spoke with the Dean, I think his name is Brad, about my accomodations, like getting extra time on tests and all that fun stuff. He's a really really nice guy and super helpful. And then I asked my academic advisor, Olimpia, to show me on the map the best rout to find my classes. She was like, "You know what, I'll walk around with you and take you to them." My school here isn't like a campus. The buildings are all over the city. My furthest one is about 20 minutes away from the office. Can you believe that?? People here are so nice!! Anyway, we walked and talked and I found all my classes. She taught me some useful stuff too. Like, in Florence a long time ago the house address numbers were colored red and the shop numbers were colored blue. Now some houses have become stores and vice virsa, but the red numbers have no correlation with the blue numbers so when someone tells you an address they will say blue or red usually. Anyway, I'm glad she explained it to me because I was pretty confused. I also learned that Italians view shorts as slutty. So even though there are lots of people walking around in shorts, mostly American girls, I'm not going to be wearing my shorts again...but yeah, she is so sweet and I'm definitely going to try and get to know her more. So I found all my classes and walked around some more, ran a few errands and went back home for lunch. My roommates Hillary and Natalie and I decided to go out for gelato because our program gave us free cupons to this amazing gelao place! And oh my god, it was seriously the best ice cream I have ever had, hands down.

And then we took a walk over the Ponte Vecchio, window shopped all the jewelary stores, took lots of pictures, and went to this bar called Negroni that was reccomended to us by an API advisor. First of all, the surroundings were stunning! We got a seat outside and ordered an aperitivo. So, this was a confusing concept for me, but some bars do this thing where you order a drink for 8 euros and get endless appitizers for free! So its like dinner and a drink for like 10 bucks! Pretty awesome... and it was delizioso! Four different pastas, rice, vegetables, bread, chips, sauses. Yummm. And I got this lemon drink that ended up being waaay more rum that lemon so Hillary drank most of it because of the immune system suppression deal. And after dinner we walked back through the streets and listened to live music and oooed and awwwed at all the beauty around us. That was my day :) So yes, everything is fantastic over here in Firenze! Although I do have an enormous zit the size of Jupiter on my face. I'm trything to wish it away...but maybe dad will be happy because I'm sure the boys won't come near me when I have two noses. Ooh! I start class tomorrow!! I'm actually super excited. I have Italian and Florence sketchbook I think? I can't remember off the top of my head. But my first class doesn't start until 12:00, so I can get a good night sleep and walk around beforehand. Alright, I'm off to dreamland :) Buona notte!!

Vivo in Italia!!

So, I wanted to write every night on here, but I guess I should have expected that I would be super busy, especially the first week, and wouldn't have much time. But I have a bit of free time now, so I write I shall! I am officially a resident of Florence, Italy, pretty awesome! I have only been here for about 4 days now, but I already feel at home. The city is amazing! It is so beautiful and clean and so different than anywhere I have ever been; however, I almost feel more comfortable and familiar walking around these streets than anywhere else. Its kind of strange actually. I've heard a whole lot about culture shock and I feel like I could be in the "honeymoon stage", hopefully it doesn't change, but we will see. I have met a lot of people on my trip, mostly girls considering there are like 15 boys out of about 100 people, but I came here to learn about myself and grow more independent, so who needs boys :) I feel like I've definitely made some good friends already, and there are so many other nice people to get to know! A lot of the girls here are interested in the same stuff I am, like art and fashion and the Italian culture and nature and learning etc, so it is really nice because we all have that to bond over. My apartment is wonderful! It is so spacious and eclectic, so much more than I was expecting. I will put up photos onto my facebook. The food, of course, is amazing. Anyone who knows me knows that I live off of pasta and ice cream already, so I am absolutely in heaven!

And the Duomo...probably the most incredible thing I have ever seen in real life. Along with the Ponte Vecchio. It is so crazy that I have seen so many pictures of this city and now I am actually here, looking at it, so close that I can run up and touch. I feel so happy and free. Being here makes me want to embrace each day and really truely live it to the fullest. I am not wasting my time sleeping too much or watching tv or on the internet. I plan on trying something new each day and learning a whole lot. Speaking of new things, I went to my first bar the other night and ordered my first drink. Also bought my first bottle of wine. It is funny how wine is such a huge part of Italian culture. Anyway, this morning I had orientation and an Italian placement exam for school. I'm really excited for all my classes to start! Sorry this isn't going to be my best blog entry because I have a lot of errands to run now, but I wanted to write so that I have somewhere to work off of. Something new I've learned: if you make eye contact with Italian men and smile they take it as an invitation to engage in furthering the length of your encounter. I've heard this before, but it is true. Good thing my father made me practice being unapproachable. Thanks dad. Alright, well I am off to to market! Ciao!
~Ali

Il giorno prima di domani!

This is it! The day before tomorrow...well, I guess technically it is today! But I haven't gone to sleep yet, so for the sake of this blog title I will still refer to it as tomorrow. And what is tomorrow? Only the day that I am off to begin my new adventure...in Italia! So, I've never kept a blog before. Is that how you say it? Keeping a blog? I figure its like keeping a journal, but as I said, I'm new to this. Hopefully I get better as it goes along. Let's see, I guess I will start by writing about my day. This morning, after a long night of crazyyyy partying, the lovely and amazing Cindy Weinberg managed to drag herself out of bed and get to my house at the ungodly hour of 11:00 am. I, of course, slept as long as I possibly could in order to get maximum sleep. Anyone who knows me knows that I can sleep for days. Actually, I'm an abnormally good sleeper. Almost to the point where it is a problem. But I digress...we packed and packed and packed for about 3 hours. I don't know how I would have done it without Cindy, she is a woman of many tallents, but man, can that girl pack. I have seen many a packer in my time, but I have to say, she surpasses them all. And of course, I have to give my thanks to the mother, Sharon Samuels. Without her, I would never be writing about leaving for Italy because I probably wouln't be going. Don't get me wrong, I did the entire application on my own for this trip. Apparently this is a big deal because as my mommy dear later informed me, she had a bet going with her walking buddies that I wouldn't even make it that far. She has great faith in me. However, I managed to prove her wrong and get that application in! And on time! Pretty amazing, I know. Aside from that, she has been by my side the whole way. There have been many memorable moments from this process that I could point to, but I'd say one of the most exciting days was the day at the Italian consolate in San Francisco. That was more than a day, it was an adventure. It was kind of like an enormous scavenger hunt on drugs and the prize at the end was a visa to study in Italy. Mom and I had to run around all over the city and get about 8 different things, you know, some important documents notorized, some abnormally sized envelopes, some pictures taken, the usual. All thanks to me being the most organized person I know (please note that I tend to be sarcastic). My mother loved it; she lives for events like this. Luckily, we got it all done and made friends with the consolate man! Even after mom accidentally locked him our of the building, which I think is pretty impressive, but that's just me. He let us turn in the all of the necessary things like an hour and a half after the consolate closed. Suuuper nice guy, but we got him chocolates, don't worry. Anyway, that was our rat race. There have been other fun little bumps in the road. Try getting a perscription for three months worth of a controlled substance filled by a company who literally has no one working there with a brain. Its not an easy thing, we have learned that and can speak from experience. I will spare you all the details, but thank you thank you thank you mother for everything you have done. Seriously. Well, I think that is enough for tonight. I have about six and a half hours to sleep and then it will be go go go time!! I am verrryyyyy excited! I think I'm really gonna like this whole blogging thing. The next time I write, it will be from the land of la bella figura! Buona notte!