Sorry for never updating this

Hi everyone,

For those of you who have been waiting for me to update my blog, I am sorry it has taken me so long. But it's been really busy and I just couldn't motivate myself to spend the time to write for over an hour. So what I am going to try to do is briefly summarize my life for the last few weeks.

Okay, so I started writing about Paris in an earlier post. The rest of the week in Paris was fun, the rest of our group arrived so we were able to do the major sites we had been putting off. One of the days we took a free walking tour that went to a lot of the main sites and the tour guide's name was really interesting. He moved to Paris three years ago after meeting his wife there and now they have a child. Cute love story from the city of Love. We also went as a group to the Eiffel and to the Louvre, which although I've been to before, never get old. I thoroughly enjoyed the Louvre this time around because I saw rooms and sections that I hadn't. You could probably spend a week inside the museum and not ever begin to see it all. A lot of favorite moments from that night were around or in the Louvre. At one point, I stopped to look out a window and could see the pyramid lit up for the night, as well as the Eiffel simmering in the background. I sat there for a few minutes reminding myself that I was actually in Paris and seeing all of this beauty firsthand. Then when we left the museum, the group of us were walking through the courtyard and heard a woman playing the violin. At that moment, Kelsey, Jenna and I looked at each other and couldn't even contain our happiness. There was something about her music and the view of the Louvre at nighttime that was overwhelming. After this moment, Kelsey and Jenna coined the statement "Paris" said in a happy tone to describe their experience. It was lovely.

Right after leaving the Louvre, we walked across the Pont de Arts bridge that we had seen on our walking tour because our guide informed us that it serves as a group meeting place for friends, and that it is full of mini picnics of young people. And he was exactly right. It was so interesting. There were at least 15 different circles of people up and down the small bridge, all with piles of food and wine in the center just relaxing and laughing. It was a really nice atmosphere and seemed like a weekly occurence for some. After observing this whole scene, we began our walk to the Eiffel to see it sparkle. Ever hour from 8 pm on, the Tower begins a light show where it literally glitters for 10 minutes. So the 6 of us were able to get to a bridge and see it perfectly. We all sat on the steps and viewed the show. Kelsey claims her favorite part of this was when she noticed all of our cameras being turned off and the whole group silently watching together.

So those are some of my highlights from the trip. I really do love Paris, but by the end of the week I was exhausted and glad to be moving on to Italy for some more stability. The luggage hauling is a really stressful experience, I ended up having to send a box home from Paris and then paying a lot of money at the airport due to my large suitcase being overweight. Oh well, lesson learned.

In all honesty, you should take a look at http://jennaostrowski.blogspot.it/2012/04/my-spring-break-spent-in-paris.html because she did a fabulous job of describing spring break, and I was with her the entire time, haha.

Italy

Alright, so this week I am in right now is my 3rd week and it is definitely going fast. Everyone warned us about the quickness of the second half of the semester, and now I completely understand. I guess I should start at the beginning, but I apologize because I know I will leave things out.

We arrived in Pisa on Sunday March 25th. The day did not start out on a good note, but did progressively get better. We had to be awake by 3 in order to take a taxi at 4 to get to the airport on time. And because of lovely daylight savings time, 3 am was actally 2 am. So to say the least, everyone was exhausted. I surprisingly did wake up at this time, ate an apple and a granola bar and got all of my things together. I was feeling fine, until about halfway through our taxi ride. I am used to this though, with my motion sickness, and usually when I get out of the vehicle it gets better. But this time I was not so lucky because as soon as I got out of the taxi, I threw up three times. Super fun way to begin my day. Thankfully I had friends who can handle this type of thing and made sure I was okay. After that, the rest of the transportation process went fine and we got to Pisa right on time. At that point it was still morning, so we stored our luggage at the train station because it was cheaper than the airport, and then found a bus to the center of town. The rest of our morning and afternoon were spent lounging in the neighborhood of the Leaning Tower. We sat on the steps of a fountain for at least an hour relaxing, then walked around the Tower and the Cathedral there. We were surprised by a parade that began in the afternoon, a Medieval Renaissance Parade. Very neat, everyone in costumes and playing the drums.

After the parade, Rachel and I walked down the street and ate pizza at this cute little restaurant. The best part was the view of the Leaning Tower that was right behind us. We were laughing at how stereotypical we were being: eating pizza by the Leaning Tower of Pisa. But it was really great! Soon after our lunch, we had to leave to return to the airport for the bus to Florence. And while we were standing waiting for the bus, Alyssa showed up which was quite the coincidence because she had stayed in London the whole week away from us! The upstairs family girls were reunited for our journey to Florence :)

We arrived in Florence at about 5 I think and had an orientation at 7 followed by dinner at 8. Fabulous food really, but my stomach still wasn't 100% better.

Okay, so now I'm going to summarize weeks because I think that will be easier.

Week 1

Week one was filled with a lot of orientations, but was very helpful. Everything is much more structured here in Florence as far as classes and trips, which is nice considering all the adapting we already have. On Tuesday Jenna and I moved in with our host family, which was a nerve-racking experience but turned out really well. Our family consists of Bruno, the husband, Cristina, the wife, and their son, Francesco who still lives at home. In Italy, it is common for children to live with their parents longer. Francesco is 29 but has a job, and a girlfriend. So he is in and out, but usually around for dinner. They also have a daughter, Beatrice, who I think is in her 30's and has a 9 month old daughter named Sheila, she is soo cute!! We have also met one of their sisters, their nieces, and some family friends.

Jenna and I have our own room, which has two beds, two desks, a wardrobe that takes up basically one whole wall, with Jenna's bed in a nook beneath it. It is a lot of storage, which is nice because we had a lot of things to put away. I really feel comfortable here, so that is nice. We also have our own bathroom, which is small, but serves it's purpose. The strangest thing about the bathroom is the shower, which is just a shower head coming off the wall opposite the sink, but there is no shower curtain around it. What we do is close the bathroom door, put a towel along the bottom of the door, pull the shower curtain over the door and turn on the faucet. So the water goes everywhere, but there is a drain in the middle of the floor to catch it. The system works, but it was hard to get used to. And the hot water doesn't last long, so fast showers are the new thing, haha.

The language barrier was really hard at first, but is getting better. Still not great, but they are very understanding and helpful which is great.

So during the first week, I was enrolled in a drawing class that I didn't want to be in, but because the add/drop forms were not final until the end of the week, I had to attend two classes anyway. It was a good experience I guess, but I was so happy to find out that I was for sure out of it. The anxiety that it would have caused me would have just made it a chore, and I knew other students really wanted to be a part of it. The class consists of learning how to draw casts, or statues, and then moving on to drawing a figure from a nude model. So the first two classes we drew a statue of a woman, and I actually mostly finished her shape before they ended. I could not figure out how to finish the feet though. Gave up on that. The teachers were really passionate and helpful, and I'm sure it's a great class for people wanting to learn and improve.

The classes I am actually in for this part of the semester are Renaissance Men and Women, Medici as Patrons of the Arts, and Italian. The first one is mostly classroom based, with a few trips to monuments or musems. The Medici class is always on site, and the Italian class is only classroom. I am liking all of them so far. The workload is more difficult than it was in London, and finding that motivation is a little tough, but I am working on it.

The first weekend was spent in Venice, which is just a beautiful place. It's so pretty that at times it seems unreal. I took soo many pictures the first day and a half. When we first arrived, we took a boat to Murano to see the glass factory and were able to watch one of the glassblowers work on a piece. It was fascinating to see. After that we had some time to explore the island before getting back on the boat to go to the main island. Our class stayed in Hotel Messner, and we had dinner in the hotel both nights. On Friday, we visited San Marco, the Palazzo Ducale as our main visits. We also went to many other churches and museums, which I regrettably cannot remember the names of. But all were fantastic.

Unfortunately, on Saturday Jenna got sick with fluish symptoms, and by the end of the night, both Rachel and I had it as well. So to say the least, the rest of our time in Venice wasn't as enjoyable as it should have been. But at least we got to see and enjoy it for a day and a half.

Week 2

Week two was a lot of adapting and getting used to the schedule of classes and the late dinners that occur in Italy. Dinner in our house is at 8 or 8:30 pm and doesn't end until 10 pm. It takes some adjustment, but overall I like it. And the food is so marvelous!

As far as classes, we visited Santa Croce and the Brancacci Chapel with Professor Mariotti for the Medici class, and also visted the Pergola Theatre with the class as well.

We had a free weekend at the end of or for day week and it was extra long because the Monday after Easter is a holiday in Italy. I wish I could say I was super productive on this long weekend, but I used it to relax, which was really needed. On Sunday, Jenna, Rachel and I did go to the Duomo to see the explosion of the Carro. For an explanation of what this is and why it is a tradition, you can read this article: http://www.visitflorence.com/florence-events/explosion-of-the-cart-easter.html. It was a quite the experience as well. We were there about an hour early, which was actually good because that allowed us to get a good spot to stand. The parade arrived at the Duomo first, with costumed people throwing flags and playing drums. Then the Carro was driven in by two massive animals, I think oxen? That's what someone in the crowd said they were but I'm not sure. While we waited for the Carro (cart) to be lit in order for it to produce the fireworks, it began pouring rain sideways! Within about 10 minutes, we were soaked, but we suffered through in order to see the whole explosion. During this waiting period though, a lot of drama occured around us. There was a group of a few Americans, probably around my age who were near us, and the one girl moved up to the fence to see better. But when she did that, an Italian lady behind her began elbowing her and pushing her to take her spot. So these two women began fighting because the American didn't want to be moved out of the way and the Italian woman apparently had to have her spot. Not really sure why though because she had a better view than a lot of people around her. Anyways, it was entertaining. The whole group of people around us were appalled by the older woman's anger and were yelling at her in both English and Italian. I guess too close of quarters for people or something. You'd think peace would be the attitude on Easter for goodness sake, but whatever, haha.

So after standing in the rain and freezing, we all decided to go home for the day. Jenna and I lounged around and watched movies, and it was pretty fabulous.

On the Monday holiday, a group of us: Carissa, Kristen, Mallory, Rachel, Jenna and I took a city bus from Florence up to Fiesole, which is a small town up on the hill near Florence. It was only a 20 minute ride, but it is such a different viewpoint and lifestyle even just that far away. It radiates Tuscany to me, with the villas on hills, colorful buildings and beautiful vines and flowers. It was great to wander around. We went to the archeological museum which is basically a park of ruins. There was an amphitheater and old baths as well as other remnants of buildings. Thankfully the weather that day was sunny and warm, so we could enjoy walking everywhere. For lunch some of us stopped at a restaurant to eat pizza. The pizza here is fantastic, thin with so much cheese. We were only in Fiesole for a few hours, but I'm sure I will be going back. It was truly beautiful.

Week 3

Okay, almost all caught up! Not too much has happened this week, but it has been busy. On Tuesday, we visited San Marco with the Medici class, then had Italian, and Renaissance Men and Women. Yesterday we visited the State Archives with Professor Caldwell (Renaissance class) and that was interesting. We were able to see a room of documents with shelves and shelves of Medici documents from the beginning of the republic of Florence, so earlier than the 1400's. We also saw the Catasto from 1427, which is the tax forms of Florence, basically the records of what everyone owned. It is used for historians to gain a sense of life back then. It was so strange to see books that are that old, it doesn't seem possible that they would survive that long.

Although that trip was interesting, the weather yesterday was gloomy, it poured basically all day, which always puts me in a tired mood. After our class, we had Italian and then Jenna and I came home to do our homework. We asked Cristina if we could eat earlier than usual because last night we attended a play at the Pergola Theater: Colazione da Tiffany's (Breakfast at Tiffany's). The ACM provided us the tickets and it was fun. The whole thing was in Italian, so I barely understood a word of it, but thankfully I have read the book and seen the movie so I knew the general plot line. It was a little exhausting though, to watch something and never know what lines are funny or witty. My favorite part of the night was just being in the theater though because it was very beautiful. They got us box seats because the theater is about half box seats/half floor seats. So five of us were in each box. I felt very important and classy, haha.

So today, Thursday, wasn't too exciting, but again quite busy. We met Professor Caldwell at the Palazzo Davanzati, which is an old palace. Professor Mariotti gave the lecture, however, because she had worked with the palace in the past and had actually translated a lot of their signs and books into English so that the museum could have bilingual signs. So that was neat. The palace was very grand, and in such good shape. The furnishings were not originally, but they were of the same time period, which is still impressive since that means 1400's.

After the Palazzo we came back to Linguaviva (our school) for lunch and Italian class. Then at 3 pm, we met Professor Mariotti again at the Medici Palace. I was excited about this visit because in my class at Ripon last semester, I did a presentation about it. So I actually knew a little! The wealth of the Medici was very obvious in everything in the Palace, it was impressive.

Tonight was relaxed, I decided I should write this, and Jenna and I had to catch up on Glee, haha. I don't try to keep up with shows anymore, but Glee is one that I do.

Tomorrow we are taking a day trip with our professors to Siena, and then the rest of the weekend is free. I do have to be productive though, because I have a 7 page paper due on Wednesday.

Hope this wasn't too much rambling, and I hope everyone at home is doing well. Miss you all!

Much Love from Florence.