28 January 2011
This morning we woke up to stand in line for an hour just to flash our passport at the consulate official to make sure we were not in Italy illegally. It was a perfect example of Italian bureaucracy. Afterwards my roommate Nikki and I grabbed breakfast. I got a fresh scone like pastry filled with blueberry jam. It was perfection. The bread melted in my mouth and the jelly was the perfect sweetness. After breakfast and a nap I ran around the city. Literally. I ran about a mile and then power walked uphill (and when I say uphill I mean vertical hills) another mile. After my run Lauren my roommate who is a workout instructor lead me and my other roommates in a 40-minute abs routine. It was tough and kicked out butts but we will be in great shape if we keep doing it. It was hysterical though because we cannot jump around in our apartment because we are on the top floor and the people below us can hear everything. So we were all jumping on our tiptoes while trying to work out. After a quick shower we went to a reception for every student in Florence! After a mediocre dinner of sandwiches, all 600 of us went on a pub-crawl consisting of two bars and a disco techa. The first bar we all got free champagne and sang karaoke to the spice girls. At the second one everyone got a free shot and at the third one, the disco techa, we did not have to pay the 10 Euro cover charge. My roommates, a few of our new friends, and I danced the night away. I am now writing this entry at 2 am and am ready to pass out. Hopefully I will be awake for tomorrow’s festivities!
29 Janurary 2011
Hello my friends who have access to a dryer! Today was the first day I attempted to do laundry. In Italy because electricity is in short supply no one has a dryer and washing machines take about 2 hours to wash our loads of about ten items. Also because of the poor ventilation in my apartment we are banned by our land lady to dry clothes in our house. So after I washed my clothes I hung them out to dry on the line off our kitchen, which is four stories off the ground and basically touching the wall of our building. Currently my clothes our outside turning to popsicles because it is 30 degrees here but this is still better then smelly socks! Before I undertook my laundry adventure I made my way back to the open-air market to buy dinner for tonight. For about 11 Euros we bought four chicken breasts, olive oil, sottoli misto (an olive mix), bread, oranges, apples, broccoli, Italian spices, and two sandwiches. I’m getting pretty good at my Italian for ordering food! I can’t wait to try out my Italian kitchen tonight to make our fist meal.
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So our first home cooked meal was a joke! First of all our burners on the stove can only be set at high or they turn off. Secondly we do not have a single oven safe pan yet and thirdly the water in our sink is only set to 100 degrees, and way to hot to put our hands under to wash anything! Disregarding these major speed bumps my crafty roommates and I were able to concoct a rice and chicken dish that was at least edible! After dinner we went out to an Irish pub where many of the girls were bought roses by other boys on our trip.. VERY cheesy and embracing. After we were done at the bar we walked home only to get caught in a huge rainstorm. We decided to embrace the torrential downpour and splash and play in the puddles. Very singing in the rain of us. This was a good idea until we realized how cold and wet we where still a mile walk away form our apartment. O well, we jogged/ran the rest of the way and got straight into warm clothes. The best part of this whole thing is that if you remember correctly I did laundry this afternoon which means all of my clothes are outside in the rain! What is worse is that I can not take them in because we are not allowed to dry clothes inside for fear of heavy fines! So I am waiting it out but I’m pretty sure I will just have to wash those shirts all over again.
30 January 2011
This morning was the first dreary day in Florence. It was cold and rainy. I went to the school hosted trip to Ikea which is about a 20 minutes bus ride to and from the train station which is a 20 minute walk from my apartment… all in the rain. After I picked up a few things for the apartment I went home to have a lazy day. The high light of today was dinner. We went to Gatto de Volpe. It was the best food I have eaten thus far. I had been craving handmade pasta so I dragged my roommates out to Pasta… it is officially a verb in Italy (or at least in my dictionary). I ordered fettuccini with pesto and fresh tomatoes. A waiter knew one of my roommate’s friends so we got free lemon chello shots! The whole meal was just heavenly. Tomorrow I start classes so I am not writing much tonight but wish me luck in my Italian class… it starts in 12 hours!!
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