Germany-Where you learn to love beer.

This weekend I went to Munich, Germany for Springfest/my birthday. For any that don't know, Springfest is the sister festival to Oktoberfest, on a smaller scale of course. It was quite fun and entertaining. I was told if you go to Germany hating beer you will come back loving it, I find that to be true. Granted I didn't hate beer when I went, I sure was not its biggest fan, but two days and around 6 liters later, I was. All the other countries and languages I have encountered so far shard some similarities and I could get the gist of what people were saying, however, in Germany I couldn't understand anything, let alone pronounce anything. The Springfest food was amazing though, an array of sausages, breads, pretzels, many chocolate covered things, sugary sweets, popcorn, and fries. Germans know how to make some good food as well as beer. Friday we arrived and took a train to Munich which was quite fun in itself. That night we went to Springfest rode some of the carnival rides, partied in the big beer tent, and saw a fireworks show from the Ferris wheel. My birthday celebrations began then. It was crazy beer only seemed to come by the liter and by the next day my hand was bruised from holding a beer stein for endless hours. Saturday, also my actual birthday, we went to Dachau concentration camp. Dachau was one of the first camps opened in 1933 and served as a model for other concentration camps, as a result there are more photos and film from Dachau than most other camps in Germany. It was also one of the only camps that was used the entire 12 years camps were operated during the War. My visit affected me more than I expected, it isn't an experience that is easily described, because everyone has their own personal experience with things like this I am sure. In fact, I am not sure it is an experience that should even be described. Regardless, it was quite touching and sickening to me. I had a constant urge to vomit the whole time I was there and felt a little uneasy all day as a result, not exactly how I would have liked to have felt on my birthday, but it is a small price to pay for an experience that powerful. I wouldn't describe it as a positive or a negative experience, but definitely powerful. Just the thought of what happened on the grounds is sickening and to think that it actually happened is even more sickening. I have learned in school countless events during WWII and the Holocaust, but to be in an area where it all happened brings it all to life.
After the camp we went to the Hofbrauhaus for dinner. The Hofbrauhaus is one of Munich's oldest and most popular beer houses. The food and beer was quite good, right along with the atmosphere. After dinner we made our way back to the Springfest grounds and had some more fun. The only downside to Saturday was that since it was May Day most things were closed, all stores and quite a few restaurants. Apparently May Day is a much bigger deal in Germany than it is elsewhere in the world, and as a result I was unable to get any souvenirs from my trip. Overall Germany was a great trip and I definitely want to go back, which isn't surprising since I want to go back to everywhere I have been so far.

All the little things

So I have gotten near the end of my time in Italy and I hate that. Since I only have a couple weeks left here my friends and I have been discussing the things that we have missed back home during our time here more frequently. I find it funny because when we have these conversations it tends to largely revolve around the foods we miss from home...and all the other little things. We miss fast food, steak, free refills on drinks, going to the grocery store having a million options and actually understanding the information on the packaging. We miss being able to go pick something up past the hour of 9 pm, taking less than 2 hours in a restaurant for dinner. We miss having a dryer, normal brown sugar, measuring cups, screens on windows, breakfast foods, etc. These conversations rarely have anything to do with the people we miss at home, it always leans towards food. I guess when living in Italy that would be natural. We have gone from having a lot of different food types as options to only have Italian food as an option. Don't get me wrong Italian food is amazing but after months of eating nothing but pizza or pasta I am ready to have some other options. I am also excited about having storage space for my clothes instead of using shoe boxes as drawers.
While I miss the little things from home, I still wouldn't mind staying here longer. After I got to Italy I forgot what it was like back home, it was hard to remember the day to day activities in my life. Now that I am getting ready to go back home, I can suddenly remember all the day to day things and I feel that I have hardly been gone at all, like I was just at home a few week ago. I find that interesting because just a couple weeks ago I felt like I had been away from home for years, like I never really was there but just imagined it all. Interesting how quickly life changes and how easily it can change with your current perspective. It will most certainly be interesting to see how "home" is once I get back, and in time all the little things I miss from Italy. I am very interested to see how I have changed in all the little ways, I know some things about have changed that I can see, but along the way I am sure that a lot of little things about me have changed that I won't even notice until I am back in my native culture and they are much more prominent. I guess I only have a couple more weeks left until I get to find out.

Dublin--Home of what I decided are the friendliest people!

Brooke and I went to Dublin the other weekend, and I could definitely live in Dublin! Our flight left at 6 in the morning so we woke up at 2 am to catch the bus to Pisa airport, meaning that we only got a couple of hours of sleep. I decided that this whole traveling business requires people that can run on little to no sleep. So this is my practice. This trip everything went according to plan; the flight left on time, we arrived on time, we didn't get lost. We probably didn't get lost because we took a taxi to our hostel. We stayed in the Temple Bar area of Dublin, which as you might guess from the name is a really large night life and pub area. It was amazing. Dublin probably has the most traditional culture I have seen yet in Europe. I walked down the street and could see old Irish dancers, and hear traditional Irish music, green, orange and shamrocks were everywhere! I loved it. The Irish people are so proud of their heritage and their history. Which I learned quite a bit about their history while I was there, it is very interesting. But back to the friendliest people thing, our taxi driver immediately starts talking our ear off (something I noticed is a trend with people) he is asking us where we are from where we have been, telling us old Irish stories, good places to go to, places not worth the trip, and along with the history of it all. We get to our hostel and they tell us directions to places, answers around 5 questions for us. Then we head off to the Bus station to get tickets to a couple Bus tours. The first was the Coastal and Castle tour which we took as soon as we got there at 10 am. We went through the city, learning quite a bit about U2, like where they went to school, some of the original pubs they played, etc. Then we arrived at the Malahide Castle, which was quite pretty. On the way back we went along the coast and learned a little bit about their history with Britain and the Napoleon thing. We then grabbed some lunch at a local pub, which was filled with tons of people wearing yellow and blue and screaming and drinking in preparation for the rugby game that night, it was only noon by the way. This was closer to American culture than I was used to, drinking midday before a big game, sounds a lot like tailgating to me. :) We grabbed an Irish coffee, which after one drink quickly learned was not the same as Bailey's coffee. Irish coffee used whiskey instead, and it quickly welcomed us into the Irish culture. We then went back to the hostel got our rooms, where we quickly learned we were rooming with two guys for the weekend. It turned out okay. We took a little cat nap and headed out for dinner and beer at a local pub, where we were treated to some traditional Irish music. After dinner we dropped by another pub, had a cider beer (which is amazing by the way) and watched the rugby game. We didn't know it was rugby until Sunday when we made a friend that enlightened us.
The next day we went to the Jameson Distillery, where I became a certified whiskey taster, then we went to the Kilmainham jail, where we learned a lot more about Ireland's history. It was really interesting though. Then we went to the Guinness factory and had a tour. We then went to dinner and took a Ghost bus tour. This tour was quite entertaining. First the old ghost stories and haunted areas of Dublin were fun, but we made some friend with a large group of Irish women on the tour. They were have a great time and all of them had mix drinks with them, in what seems to be true Irish style. At one of the stops I got creeped out and I think it may really be haunted, because our guide had is own recent incidents with the place and it used to be an old church that has had a lot of random fires associated with it since the burning of a priest. But the altar is where most of the things seemed to start and when I tried to take a photo of the altar my camera would take the photo, but then it wouldn't save, no pictures had been used on my card, and then I changed my camera settings and it took the picture finally after three tries. Then when we got back on the bus I went to look at the photos and all my photos were gone! I checked my card slot and my card had been ejected, I put it back in and luckily my pictures were still there. Then the next day when my card ran out of memory, I went to delete photos that didn't turn out well and the three pictures I had tried to take of the altar that wouldn't take were there on my camera nearly all black in the order I tried to take them. Now tell me that isn't a little creepy.
The next day we went to Dublina, a Viking museum and learned all about Viking Dublin, quite entertaining. After that we went in search of lunch and came across this coat and arms store which I wanted to stop in because my surname is originally English yet I saw it on a rack of things that said Traditional Irish names. So I found out I was right and my surname is English, yet they moved to Ireland some 400 years ago or something. Besides that we made friends with the owner, John. We talked to him for about a half hour and learned that he feels Irish people truly live up to all their stereotypes and that some stereotypes they have about Americans are that we hate the French(funny because Americans think the French hate us, where did all the hate come from? I liked them) that we are arrogant because we think we won World War II, and I forget the others or even if he mentioned others. He then told us some pubs to go to for lunch and we just asked if just wanted to come along, so he did. Unfortunately all the places he recommended were closed so he just went back and opened his shop while Brooke and I had lunch. We then stopped in at a local pub, grabbed a beer before we left. We were chatting at the bar when this old man came in and began talking to us. We ended up chatting with him about the most random things for the next couple hours and drinking beers(Irish cider of course.) Before we knew it, it was 4 pm and we had to leave for the airport, so we bid a farewell to our new friend and went on our way home to Italy.
After visiting Ireland I decided I definitely wanted to go back. It is much more similar to American culture than Italy is of course, but yet so vastly different. I have really never met friendlier people as a whole as I did in Ireland, and just the atmosphere of the town was enticing. I don't really know how to describe it, but I would definitely recommend going to Ireland.

Paris--where I didn't understand the language

Okay I am terrible at keeping this updated because I went to Paris on Spring break about 3 weeks ago, but here's a rundown of my trip and little of what I learned. Probably not my best work, but when so much happens in the meantime it's hard to keep track. It is better to be busy living life than just writing about it all the time. Enjoy :)

You know those day's where everything that could go wrong does go wrong? Well, that is basically how this trip started out. We arrived at the airport four hours before our flight was scheduled to depart because we forgot that we already figured the time and just wrote that down. Upon arrival at the airport we learned our flight was no longer at 7:00 pm but at 9:00 pm. On the bright side we met our new friend Todd in the airport because he heard we spoke English. He happened to be an intern in Paris since January so he told us some things close to our hostel and we talked to him for about two hours in the airport and another hour and a half on the flight. Luckily, after landing in Paris at 11:30 pm he showed us how to get the right bus to the metro and further taught us how the metro worked (yeah neither Brooke or I knew how those worked since we had no need for them) and then he told us what stops we needed to take for all the important things, namely our hostel. After finally getting off the metro, we had no map of the city and it was well after midnight, and we walked around Paris looking for our street. We found some French women and Brooke used her French skills to ask them where our street was, they had never heard of it. So we proceeded to walk around unable to find our hostel, starving as the last time we ate was at 3 pm. Just when we thought maybe we will just be stuck walking until daylight, we walked past this Hotel and the doorman asked if we were lost. We said yes and he immediately offered us help. We went inside told him the name of our hostel and it's address. He proceeded to google the Hostel, got us a map and their phone number. He then called our hostel and they told us we did not respect our reservation (yeah it was for 9pm, the time we were supposed to get there) and could not stay there tonight. The doorman got on the phone spoke some French then hung up. He then told us you go there at 9 am and they will give you a room for the rest of your stay, and then he offered for us to stay in that Hotel for FREE. I might add this was a very nice hotel in a very nice location, costing minimum of 200 euro per night. He then walked us to a market about 7 blocks away so we could get some food. He basically saved our lives. So after everything went wrong we became the luckiest people in the world, and people said that French people were rude. So untrue!
The next morning, running on two hours of sleep, we got a free breakfast, went on a mad hunt for Starbucks (we miss the little things over here) which we didn't find, and then went to the Louvre. We went through every exhibit in the Louvre in less than 2 hours because we were so tired, and we may have glazed over a lot of the Roman and Greek art stuff since we see it all over the place in Florence. After the Louvre we tracked down Starbucks after stopping a woman in the street carrying their cup. This was the best part of our day at that point, caffeine was exactly what we needed. We then had lunch and went back to the hostel (after getting lost again) where we cleaned up a bit then went to see the Notre Dame, this cool underground crypt, and finally the Eiffel Tower. Waiting in line for the tower I made friends with the security guy, but I did not go see him after got done with my visit like he requested. Instead, we met up with Becca and had dinner with her at this little Italian restaurant we found (I know I should eat French food in Paris, but it was hard to find and we were hungry.) Our waiter/host befriended us and just loved that we were Americans that lived in Italy. He was born in Canada, but lived in Paris, or something like that. After dinner, we had crepes which are delicious and should be tried in France, they do them the best. We then wandered around the city on the way back to the hostel, and got caught in a bit of a rainstorm.
The next day, we tried to go to the Orsay Museum, which was closed on Monday's apparently. So we decided we would go to the Palace of Versailles, which was also closed, except for the gardens. The free gardens were definitely worth the train ride out there. They were gorgeous and huge! We returned to Paris to take a stroll down the Champs Elysees (main shopping street) where we saw the Louis Vuitton headquarters, from the outside at least, and the Arch of Triumph. We then took a walk through the city and went back tot he hostel to get ready to go home the next morning.
I absolutely loved Paris! I don't know if I would want to live there forever, but I wouldn't mind staying for a few weeks or months. It was quite and interesting trip, and showed me that in some of the stickiest situations everything turns out fine in the end. I didn't have to sleep on the streets or miss my flight. We may have gotten lost on the way there and on the way home(forgot to mention that) but we got home. In stressful situations, like those, I can always figure my out and how to fix it. It is kind of like life. Things go wrong and off plan ALL the time, it just matters how you deal with them and how you react greatly determines the outcome. I never had a nervous breakdown or freaked out about being lost a million times, you just have to walk around until you find the right turn sometimes, or maybe you will get lucky enough to meet some very friendly and helpful people.

Reflection

I was walking to a friend's apartment the other night, taking the same route I have taken about a thousand times, and just as I was in the middle of the Uffizi's Piazza it hit me. I was in Italy and felt entirely at home and oriented in my new city. Two months before that night, the first night I had ever walked around Florence I walked through that exact same Piazza and I remember feeling as if my world had flipped upside down. I couldn't have told you up from down or left from right that night, in fact, I got lost that night as I remember. But that night, two months after arriving in Florence, everything was in place. I was well oriented and I could tell anyone who asked directions to the major points in Florence. I knew the Duomo was North of me just down the street on the left and that the Ponte Vecchio was just down the street to the right, I could go on but I won't, you get the point. But, most importantly I felt at home. I just realized in that moment I had a second place in the world I can call home.
For the past month I have been growing a lot more comfortable navigating the winding confusing streets of Florence and feeling feeling that my life before Italy is just a faint memory of someone else. On that brief five minute walk, everything just sank in, before Italy I was, in many ways, someone else. I haven't done a complete 180 on myself, but the experiences I have had in Italy have already changed me. I am beginning to see the world from and different perspective (and culture), I have grown quite a bit personally, and the day-to-day tasks of living in Italy have brought out more of my personality that I don't always express (including strengths and weaknesses.) I am still very much the person I was before I came to Italy, but I feel like I have improved myself. I still haven't entirely figured myself out, but really who does that in their teens or early 20's, most people aren't even figured out in their middle age so I feel okay about that.
As I continued walking, I began thinking about how quickly life can change and how subtly life can change you. In just two months I feel like a different person, and in reality I am. Then I realized I am more of the person I have always seen myself as becoming and I am on the right track to really being that person. But how did that happen? Wasn't I always waiting for it to happen someday? Yes, I had been waiting for it to just happen, expecting some major life event to make it happen, that one morning I would wake up and just be the person I wanted to be. Life doesn't work like that, I made it happen. I didn't just sit back and let life happen around me, I took the initiative and made it happen. I am living out my dream of studying abroad in Italy and becoming who I want to be all on my own, and it all started the day I walked into the study abroad office on campus and said "I want to study abroad, but I'm not sure where." Saying those words out loud to strangers made it real, and before I knew it 10 minutes later I was walking out of the office with about 20 brochures on 3 different countries and I had a conversation with a stranger about dutch people. That short statement started my journey. (By the way thanks Tasha for nagging me about wanting to study abroad, but never actually taking the time to go ask about it.) Studying in another country wasn't just going to fall into my lap my any means, I had to take the initiative to make it happen. Boy was it a lot of work to get here too, mostly paperwork. After being in Italy, I realized that me growing into the person I want to be wasn't just going to happen either, I had to take the initiative to make it happen. I had to step outside my comfort zone, and luckily being in a foreign country where I didn't know anyone made it quite easy to do that. I think I lived constantly outside of my comfort zone for the first month I was here. It wasn't going to be one big sudden transformation, but it was going to be a very gradual one. Even if when you realize it's happened it seems to hit you on the head, it didn't it had been happening for quite some time, it was just never realized. It can start with saying yes to an invitation from a potential new friend, or trying a new food, or in my case getting on an airplane for the first time in my life alone. I went half-way across the world by myself at 19 to live with strangers in a country where I couldn't speak the language. Doing all of that has made me more independent and self-confident, not to mention outgoing.
It has only been two months and I already feel like a such a different person. I can barely remember my lifestyle before I got to Italy, and what people speaking English sounds like. I will be curious to see how home feels when I return, but for now I am enjoying my time in the relaxed culture Italy has to offer me.

I could live here....

It has been awhile since I have updated and it is impossible for me to remember everything that has happened because I have been very busy. I will start with my classes. Midterms are coming up this week for me and they are definitely different from midterms back home, meaning they are not really multiple choice. All of my classes have been going quite well so far, it turns out that Fashion Illustration is my favorite. I am better at sketching than I ever thought I would be which is why I think I like it the best. It is definitely challenging for me because everyone else in my class is SO much better at it than me but it is very fun to learn how to do things along the way. My sketches may not always turn out so well, but I can typically recognize what is wrong with them I just don't know the proper techniques to fix it. Recognizing your mistakes, to me, is the first step in learning anyway, so I am on the right track. Italian is definitely improving for me, I am still a bit hesitant to speak it but I can better understand when someone speaks to me and can usually get my point across when I do speak it. Plus after quizzes in class we typically get to go on a fun field trip. For instance, after the first quiz we went to this mosaics laboratory, which was really interesting because these artists make such beautiful pictures out of stones. We were walked through the process and the attention to detail and time it takes to do the smallest piece is remarkable, and the laboratory we went to is one of the last surviving in the world. After the second quiz we went to this little gelato place, which is always a treat.

Aside from classes, I am mostly busy with going out and experiencing the culture of Italy. I have been going out to clubs and bars with friends, trying out little restaurants, and finding places to be a regular at, and I have been going out shopping (one of the Italian favorite activities.) I have also gone to some museums with classes such as the Ferragamo Museum, who was a shoe designer so basically a museum of shoes, I loved it of course; the Alinari Museum, which is a photography museum; and on my own I went to the Uffizi, which is an art gallery. I also went to the chocolate festival and I was amazed at what people can do with chocolate. They were truly artists. Along with going out and experiencing the Italian lifestyle, my friends and I did find a restaurant with American food which was a nice little treat.

Along with going out and about Florence I have been doing some traveling around Italy. I went to Siena at the end of January and aside from all the rain that day it was a very beautiful city. Siena was definitely different from Florence, first there were A LOT more hills, and it was a lot less touristy. We didn't get a lot of time to explore the city so I only saw the main sights such as the Duomo, which was amazing...I really can't describe the beauty of it. I also went to Carnevale in Venice the first weekend in February. Carnevale is an Italian Celebration that historically occurs 8 days before Lent, but today the celebration spans a couple weeks . I loved Venice...unfortunately due to the mass amounts of people in Venice for Carnevale I did not get to explore much of the city other than the main area where festivities were going on and I also did not get to ride in a gondola. The masks and costumes of Carnevale were quite amusing as well as extravagant. We also went to a glassblowing factory and got to see the process, which was very interesting since Venetian, especially Morino, (the factory we went to) is some of the finest glass in the world. On the way home we stopped to use the restroom and it cost 1.50 euro to pee!! I thought that was insane, I am well aware that in Europe you typically have to pay for public restrooms, but 1.50 euro is over $2...to pee!! I will never take for granted being able to just go into a gas station to use the restroom for FREE again. Overall Venice was definitely a good experience to have in a lifetime, but I would like to go back to do a little more exploration of the city itself and of course ride in a gondola. This past weekend over the 20th of February, we went to Pompeii and Sorrento. Sorrento was pretty, mostly because it is on the coast and the view is amazing, but it wasn't very sunny that day so it was an interesting atmosphere. This trip was provided in my Study Abroad program so I just had to pay for my meals. The hotel was stayed at was very beautiful and had a great view of the mountains and the sea. The Rome based program was also at the same hotel and lets just say they were very American and not in a good way. They drank way too much and trashed the hotel...of course they suffered the consequences, but based on their behavior I am not shocked that Europeans have bad impressions of Americans. Honestly, being in Italy has made me dislike American behavior somewhat as well. I understand that Italian and American culture are entirely different and I don't think that when going to another country you need to entirely conform to their culture, but at least show some respect for it whether you agree with it or not. Now back to my travels, Pompeii was gorgeous, definitely my favorite place outside of Florence for sure. Well, at least the excavated city of Pompeii, we didn't really visit the surrounding city. The day we were there is was gorgeous I was walking around in a t-shirt and was still hot...in February!! The sun was out and bright and the grass was so green. It amazed me that in a place that was destroyed, and perfectly preserved at the same time, by a volcanic eruption thousands of years ago, still had so much life. I started out exploring with a large group of my friends and then just ended up with my roommate Tori and eventually another friend Lindsey, but the smaller group was fun. We mostly explored the part of the city that is still being excavated, and since we had no tour guide and the only information booklets left were only in Italian we had no idea what anything really was. So, of course I made up my own stories, with the help of Tori, and we had quite a fun day. I would love to go back to Pompeii and explore the remaining city I missed, but I might wear some better shoes next time because the streets were pretty hard to walk on. I would definitely recommend going there.

My friends and I have been meeting a lot of people, mostly guys though since Italian women are not exactly fond of American women. For instance we met some guys that are studying to be in the Carabinieri, which is an Italian Military Police force, then we met some guys that are already in the Carabinieri, we have met guys that work at restaurants and clubs (which is nice because we get discounts and free coat checks :)), and then we also just meet your regular everyday Italian guys. We did meet these two Italian guys that brought us to a secret bakery, which was quite delicious and interesting. Apparently in Italy there are what Italian refer to as secret bakeries that make delicious pastries, pizza, and snacks late into the night and are allowed to sell them to Italian people. Very interesting and helpful when they don't have 24 hour restaurants to go to after a night out with friends. It is interesting the Italian slang and gestures that I have learned from my new-found friends that I couldn't learn in a classroom and Google translator wouldn't get correct. The culture really is very interesting and very different for me. I have already become accustomed to being hit on every other minute when I am walking down the street and seeing people old enough to be my father in bars, restaurants, and at clubs hitting on girls my age, sometimes even me. I just ignore it now and they usually leave you alone. I have found it to my entertainment though, that when guys tell me they love me or try to invite me with them on the street to say "No ho capito," which is Italian for "I don't understand" and then I just keep walking. The sheer look of confusion on their faces is priceless. I have adapted quite well to their culture and have even learned a little in the art of bargaining. When everyone was telling me I would experience this huge wave of culture shock and homesickness after I had been in Italy a couple weeks, I expected it, but I think they were completely wrong. I have yet to feel homesick, that is not to say I don't miss people because I do, but I still feel like I could live here forever, or at least a few years. Honestly I do want to come back and live in Italy at some point in my life, and I think I want to live in other countries too. I really enjoy learning about other cultures and see how they differ from my own perspective. I think there is a lot that other cultures could teach me. Now, as for the culture shock, I have noticed and still notice the differences, but I have embrace them all, whether I like them or not, it is part of the culture and that is what I came here for. After all I am only in Italy a little while....

Life in Italia

I have successfully completed my first week of classes. I think I will enjoy them all, it will definitely be a new experience for me. The most challenging ones I think I will have are Fashion Illustration, simply because I am not very artistically inclined, and Textile Technology because that class seems like it will be quite intense, yet fun as well.

I have no classes on Friday, so after I slept in until noon, which seems to be a habit on the weekend because the wooden shutters on windows in Italy block out all sunlight which is normally what wakes me up, I got ready and my roommates and I went out for a walk in town. We went to a local travel agency that works with study abroad students and booked a trip to Munich, Germany for Springfest in April. After booking our trip we went for a walk down the street just north of the river and came upon this little market that sold mostly tribal crafts, Native American and African crafts. It was quite interesting to see what they had.

On Saturday two of my roommates, Lindsay and Tori, went on a hike that we saw in one Lindsay's travel books on the south side of the river. It was mostly an uphill 2 mile hike, but the view at the end was worth it. At the top there was an amazing view of the majority of Florence as well as the San Miniato Church with a cemetery around it, and next to it was the Piazzale Michelangelo. It really was an amazing view and a lot to take in. After that walk we went to get gelato. That was one of my first experiences with the language barrier. Tori had gone to this particular Gelato place before and got a waffle with gelato on it which she said was amazing and we had to try at least once while we were here. Well, the particular people working when we went spoke no English and we ended up paying 10 euro for a gelato, which is about 15 american dollars. I guess you live and you learn, but it was quite delicious. That night we went out with some girls from Iowa State that go to the Accademia with us, Brooke, Jamie, and Lydia. We went to Ristorante Pizzeria Dante, which the Iowa State girls were recommended to by some friends of theirs who had recently studied abroad in Florence. We mentioned their friends name and the owner, Hanni, instantly became our friend and gave us free water and free wine. I am not a huge fan of wine, but the wine at this restaurant was very good, as well as the food and desserts. Wine it Italy is very different from wine in the states, it goes straight to your head and there is no awful headache the next day, some may say that is a win win. Hanni invited us back for dinner on Sunday, for free. Which we accepted and that too was quite amazing. After eating and socializing for a couple hours at Dante we went to a club called the Red Garter, which had american music, yet the crowd was very Italian. A different experience than clubs in the States, but very fun nonetheless. We had quite a fun night.

Sunday was a more relaxed day, but our apartment had no heat and no hot water, not fun at all. My roommates and the Iowa State girls went back to Dante and had dinner with our new friend Hanni, we were there about 2 hours and had some interesting conversation with Hanni and some of his staff. They are quite the friendly bunch and if you ever come to Florence, you must eat here. Hanni also owns a few other restaurants in Florence and invited us to his bar for breakfast. A bar in Italy is more like a caffe in America, a very key point when living or traveling here. We all went to breakfast this morning (Monday) and again Hanni gave us another free meal, which was very hospitable of him. As of now my apartment still has no heat and no hot water, so Tori and I went to the apartment of the Iowa State girls and showered there tonight, it was nice to shower, since I hadn't since Saturday afternoon. Hopefully our water will be fixed tomorrow.

Everyday here is a new adventure, even if it is only going to class and back. You never what you will see on the walks there, it's something new everyday. To me that is the best way to live, because I get bored easily, so it's nice to have a new experience each day.

Ciao!

A foreign world

My first full day in Florence was quite long. We had orientation to the school where we were given tours of both of the buildings and then a tour of Florence (mostly information on how useful shops and markets near where we lived) it was interesting and may I add beautiful, or Bella in Italian. I met some fun people, but at this point mostly Americans that were in my program. During the many people who spoke to us during my program it wasn't really a shock that many of them were foreigners who happened to study here fall in love with Italy and never go home. Perhaps that will be me. Being here for only a week now I have already fallen in love with this city. After the first night of orientation, me and a couple of my roommates went out to dinner, we stumbled upon this little pizzeria restaurant and decided to eat there. Once we got inside it seemed like more of a local restaurant rather than a touristy place like many in Florence, but the waiters spoke English so that was helpful. That dinner was really my first experience of feeling like a foreigner in this country, the waiters were nice, but still had a bit of a cold shoulder, and the other customers looked at us quite funny. I imagine this is how foreign people in America feel much of the time. Nonetheless the pizza was amazing, much better than anything you could find in the states.

The second day of orientation was similar to the first, nothing too exciting. That night two of my roommates and I went grocery shopping, quite and interesting experience when you can't read the labels very well, but it turned out okay. Then on Saturday, my partner program had arranged a trip to the Chianti area, just south of Florence, to two small hill towns, Castellina and Greve. We went to Castellina first and the feeling of a foreigner was much more pronounced, not only did the shopkeepers look at you a little funny, but so did the everyday people on the street. Not necessarily and unwelcoming look, but more a look of what you would give a tiger in the zoo with a little less awe. Regardless the towns were gorgeous, still similar winding streets, an amazing view, and fun little markets. The second town, Greve, was a bit bigger than Castellina, still just as beautiful. We were taken to a famous estate, Il Paliggio, for lunch and a wine tasting, because this estate makes wine and olive oil. The lunch was quite good along with the wine. After the lunch we were taken on a tour of the estate, which had part of an old castle in which part had burned down and then it was turned to a fortress, and then finally into the vineyard. The dungeon of the castle was turned into the wine cellar, which we also got to tour. That night instead of going out to a club in town, two of my roommates and I ended up sitting in our kitchen trying to plan some trips we wanted to take and having some bonding time. It was nice because in our apartment of five, I was the last to arrive and the others had already seemed to group up, two of them knew each other previously and the other two always went off and did their own thing, which they still do. But after Saturday I bonded with the other two and found many similarities.

Sunday two of my roommates and I went exploring in the city and did a little bit of shopping, getting some school supplies and what not. We also kept in mind some shops and markets that were reasonably priced, and some restaurants to try out. That night we went out to eat at a little restaurant, which was very good. The waiter could speak about 6 different languages, and he was very friendly, not minding that we were foreign. He was cute too which didn't hurt either. After dinner we went over to the apartment that some other girls in the program live that I have made friends with, and talked and then ended up discussing some trips to take over the semester.

Monday was my first day of classes, a different experience from the US. They have each class only one day a week for three hours at a time. Except I have Italian 4 days a week for two hours at a time. My first class photographing Florence seems like it will be a wonderful experience. Italian is going to be challenging, our teacher speaks to us only in Italian, but if we have a question she will try to answer in English. My third class Textile Technology, is full of foreigners, I am the only American, a girl from Australia, a girl from South Africa, 1 girl and 1 guy from Italy, A girl from Norway, a girl from Asia, and two other girls that I don't know their nationality. The course seems like it will be fun, but quite intense.

I have done so much already in the week that I have been here, it is impossible to include everything, and many things it is impossible to put the feelings into words. It interesting because in some instances I want to just be in my comfort zone, but here there really is no comfort zone. I am constantly forced to go outside my comfort level and grow and experience new things. To some that may sound frightening, but really that is exactly what I wanted this experience to do. Sometimes a person just needs something big to push them to be who they want to be, and when they always have a comfort zone, they will always retreat to it when they can. It is definitely challenging to not have that but I like it.

Ciao!

I made it!

Ciao Tutti!

I have made it to Florence, or Firenze as Italians call it.  I am in the midst of my second day here and I have already had many different experiences.  Let me start with the part on how I got here.  I spent a little over 24 hours and 2 days worth of my time(because of the time change) in airports and on airplanes, with only about 2 and a half hours of sleep.  All that time was definitely worth getting here.  I fell asleep on the plane ride from Zurich to Florence for about a half hour and woke just in time for the complementary snack, and shortly after the decent into Florence.  I was lucky enough to have a window seat and got to see an amazing view flying over the mountains that are just north of Florence.  Words cannot express the immensity of that view, but I can try.  It was breathtaking, the peaks with snow covered and as we got closer to the valley in which Florence resides little patches of green grass popped up more frequently and then I could see the mountains speckled with houses and little villages.  They look so tiny and neat, but from what I have read about Italy I knew they couldn't be as neat inside as on the outside.

Then we started flying over Florence, which was amazing, the red and yellow tuscan brick buildings were easily visible and nothing short of my expectations.  Just like the small hill towns Florence look so neat and tidy. Soon we had landed at the airport and shortly after transported to our apartments.  

Immediately after I got in the taxi I knew that the neat and tidy city I saw from the plane was just organized chaos.  It was exciting and a bit frightening at the same time.  I felt that at anytime there could be a huge crash and a pile of cars, what with the zig-zagging vespas and the fast paced driving of any other vehicle on the road.

After about 3o minutes I had arrived at my doorstep where I was told I lived on the second floor, but I soon learned that in Italy the second floor is actually about 8 small flights of stairs.  Once in my apartment I briefly met my roommates and my landlord and was then off to go find my school for our welcoming dinner.  I live about a ten minute walk from my school and about 5 minutes from the Ponte Vecchio and right down the street from the Uffizi.  It is a great location.  Every street is lined with small shops and many designer shops as well. It is a city truly full of life.  The welcoming dinner was amazing, a meat platter and some oiled bread for the appetizer, follwed by a type of pasta that resembles a small coin bag that was filled with something that was slightly sweet and well complemented by the sauce, and then for dessert we were served triamisu, which is much better that what they have in the states.  A very delicious dinner.

After the dinner I went back to my apartment only to get lost for the first time in Florence.  It was a nice little walk around my area and the whole time only about a block away from my apartment. We finally made it back home and I unpacked and went to bed and got my much needed rest.