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!!