The Old Stove

Ciao! Yesterday was officially our first day of class. We have Italian from 9-11am and then art history in the afternoon from 2-5, although both days we've been done with art history by 3:30. Originally I was taking Italian because it was required for my program but now that I am here I am so excited to learn the language. As for art history of course it has been incredible, how could it not be while being here in Florence? On the other hand me as well as all of my class mates are pretty worried about our final at the end of the course. Only because it's pretty difficult to take notes while you're walking around the Duomo trying to avoid walking into the rude tourists that are everywhere. So that will be interesting to see how that works out. During our break yesterday about 10 of us decided to go to the grocery store to get food for lunches and some snacks. It was something you wouldn't think about but the grocery stores are completely different than the U.S. To begin with obviously everything is in Italian so that makes life a little more difficult. Also, it is frowned upon to not have your own reusable bags and if you don't then you have to pay for the plastic ones. As well as the fact that you bag your own groceries and other little things like the process of getting fresh fruit is different with scales and stickers. It was definitely an experience. For art history yesterday we went and spent the afternoon at the San Miniato al Monte, a beautiful church at the top of a hill which over looks the whole city. After class we got some dinner and FINALLY I had some gelato (I know everyone you're shocked that I was able to hold out that long but I did). After my wonderful gelato (I had strawberry and chocolate- so bomb) we went to our newly favorite spot, the old stove, which is a local bar that's about a 20 minute walk from our apartment. The bartender knows us already and everyone gets some free lemon chello when we walk in. The word spread and by 10 o'clock almost everyone from our program, including the kids from New Jersey who are in our classes, showed up and took over the bar. It was a great night and sparked some new friendships. Today we all struggled together waking up for Italian at 9 after staying out late. Luckily, on the way to class there is a great cafe that we can grab cappuccinos to go. I have a feeling we will become best friends with the cute little italian men who run the shop. We spent the afternoon at the Duomo for our art history lesson and then after about 20 of us went to a little wine bar down the street and had some appetizers and wine. (My taste buds have officially acquired the taste of red wine, Mom and Dad you should be proud) I'm officially not worried about gaining any weight from eating too much gelato because we walk absolutely everywhere with the six flights of stairs every morning for Italian. Off to go get ready to go out, Ciao!

Ciao!

Officially in Florence! Let's start at the very beginning with the flight(s) from hell. I've had my fair share of bad traveling experiences but this absolutely beat them all. It all started when my flight took off an hour and half late from Philadelphia causing me to miss my connecting flight in Germany to Florence. There, US airways forgot to re-route me and told me all the flights were booked for the day and the best they could do was standby. So I got on standby for the next flight and then Papa Thill called US air and got me on a flight that afternoon but I ended up getting on the earlier flight. So I get on the flight and everything was going just fine I was chatting with the nice South African man sitting next to me when I realized that we had started to fly in circles. Never a good sign. So then the captain comes on the overhead and announces that the weather was too bad in Florence to land and instead of taking us back to Frankfurt they were taking us to Bologna, a city an hour and a half outside Florence. From there we would have to take a bus to get to Florence. After the plane landed the lady sitting across from me overheard me talking to the South African man (who's name I dont remember) and asked if I said I was from Arizona. We talked for a while and I found out her(Carol) and her husband (Greg) were from Chandler, Az and were celebrating their 20th wedding anniversary. Small world. I walked with them to baggage claim where we realized that the airline had not organized any sort of transportation for us and there was a bus that went back and fourth between Florence and Bologna that we could take. Could take as in if there was room on the bus. Of course there wasn't any space left on the bus and the bus was not running on the schedule that was printed so we had no idea when the next one would go. So most the people starting getting in taxis to go to Florence. Carol and Greg said I could go with them and we could split the taxi three ways. Of course it was a 150 euro taxi ride. On top of that there is some rule where the taxi drivers from Bologna cannot drive in the city of Florence or they get fined. So he dropped us off at Carol and Greg's hotel which happend to be right outside the city. I was crossing my fingers that there was an ATM at the hotel because I only had the 50 euros on me. Of course the ATM was broken which left me without any euros and in need of taking a Florence taxi into the city. Thanks goodness that Carol and Gregg were some of the nicest people I've met and gave me my 25 euros back because they didn't want me without and money. After that I took a taxi and Caterina the lady who was supposed to get me from the airport talked to my cab driver and told him the address to my apartment. From there everything got MUCH better. I got to my apartment and two of my three roommates were there. Merin,Chelsea, and Erica are my roommates and I love all three of them. Our apartment is adorable, we have a kitchen/common room with a table and a couch and then there is one bedroom up stairs which Chelsea and Erica share then then stairs down into me and Merins room where and our bathroom as well. After everyone finally arrived (I wasn't the only one with flight delays) we decided to go out that night. In our apartment complex there is a group of girls that go to Penn State and are here studying as well. They were incredibly sweet and said they wanted to take us out. So about 8 people from our group at ASU went out with them and went to some disco techas. After we got back my friend Kyle and I decided that we wanted pizza. So the two of us went on an adventure to find a pizzeria. Thankfully Kyle was my personal body guard for the night because the italian men sure do love my blonde hair. After we got some pizza and a glass of wine we got lost for a solid hour trying to find the apartment again. Which surprisingly was really fun and we got to meet some locals that way when we were wandering around. Today we had are orientation which was pretty boring. After that Merin and I went shopping for a good 5 hours because it had been SO cold here and neither of us had a jacket besides sweatshirts or any sort of boots (its been pouring all day). But hey I love any excuse to shop. Now were getting ready to go to dinner with some girls from our program and then go meet up with the other kids who will be in our classes from New Jersey. Ciao!