Art Appreciation

Yesterday's post, since the internet decided to stop working again...

Non posso credere di essere in Italia. Ogni giorno vedo qualcosa famosa di cui ho sentito ma che non ho visto mai. Non voglio mai tornare in America, ma mi amano i miei amici e la mia famiglia più di Venezia. Ho cominciato la mia classe italiana a CLIDA oggi. Non era facile, ma spero di imparare più di tutte le altre persone. Se faccio attenzione nella classe e provo di studiare (quando non voglio fare un’altra cosa), penso di potere essere quasi scorrevole in italiano.

Translate it guys! Devo praticare il mio italiano TUTTO IL TEMPO.

Just kidding… enough of that. English is so much easier and faster per me! Allora, penso di scrivere in some kind of hybrid language for a while.
So, today was the first day of class. It was a little strange actually having to wake up and go somewhere… especially when that somewhere is school. We all got our class assignments… Apparently I tested into level 3. I’m pretty sure that was the level I was supposed to test into after my 4 semesters of italiano, but I am honestly not sure if I have adequately prepared.

Here’s a shocker: I am basically the slowest person in my class. Not too shocking considering that I am always slow and that I am the only person from Alabama. Then there are four Kansas University girls (including my housemates Kate and Kayla), 4 people from what they claim to be like a Canadian Ivy League school, a woman from Germany, and a woman from Argentina. And most of them seem to be ridiculously good at Italian.
My teacher is named Maria, and she seems really cool. She was willing to slow down and explain when I was particularly lost, which was MUCH appreciated. Four hours is definitely stretching my attention span, but hopefully I will get used to being in class that long eventually. Hopefully by the time it’s over, at least…

After lunch about half of our group went to the Uffizi (a huge art museum) to eat lunch and at least start looking at some of the art (for free… yay museum passes). There is so much, it took me forever just to look at everything on the third floor. But I definitely saw works by Rembrandt, Michelangelo, Raffaello, Botticelli, and Leonardo da Vinci. I feel so cultured now. And my legs feel exhausted. I am in serious need of a pedometer to see just how far I walk every day.

Sara and I both took forever to look at everything, so we ended up leaving around the same time. We went to CLIDA to use their internet since ours seems to be down nel nostro appartamento all the time. Then we walked home, discovered a piazza and market place that we had yet to visit, got some gelato (today’s flavor for me being menta), and came home.

Dinner was absolutely delicious tonight. We had bowtie pasta with pesto (il mio favorito), salad, lots of cheese, a yummy vegetarian patty of some sort (well, everybody else had big hunks of meat while I ate soy), tomatoes with mozzarella, and fruit for dessert. I am starting to grow more stomachs, just as Paolo advised me…

And now I’m in my bottom bunk writing this and then perhaps trying to study il congiuntivo stupido for a while. We’ll just have to see how that works out…

I kept today’s update pretty short, didn’t I? Maybe because almost 4 hours of writing this morning (given, that was Italian…) has kept me from wanting to do so for pleasure. But here you go anyway. ;)

Buona notte a tutti!

View from the top... of il Duomo! :)

Here is my update from yesterday which I was unable to upload because of severe lack of internet:

Before I begin, let me assure you that this entry will not as long as the last. Promise! Well, promise is a strong word…

We got a little bit of a late start this morning… just enjoying our last chance to sleep in before classes begin tomorrow morning. I am at least a little terrified about being immersed in Italian for 4 hours every morning, but I am really hoping that I will somehow just magically pick it up… with the help of a professional, that is.

We got going a little bit after noon. We were afraid the weather would be cold and rainy like yesterday, but we were pleasantly surprised to find that it was sunny and beautiful… just the way Florence should be. We were all starving because we slept through breakfast. We walked down our street and found a little store with relatively cheap food. I had a bottle of water and a panini with lettuce, tomato, and A LOT of mozzarella. Yum! And all for less than 5 Euros, which is better than I’ve been paying so far. Italy is expensive, especially in places where there are so many gullible tourists like myself.

We ate our lunch while sitting on the steps of Il Duomo, or the Cathedral of Florence Santa Maria del Fiore… I’m a little confused if Il Duomo refers to the entire church or not, but it is much easier to type and say, so that’s what I call it.

After Jessica bought some hot purple sunglasses, we stood in line for a little while to get inside the cathedral. It was beautiful! There were beautiful stained glass windows and a lot of paintings, most of which I knew absolutely nothing about since I don’t really know anything about art at all. But I did recognize one called “Dante and his Divine Comedy” by Domenico di Michelino. I assume I saw at some point when I read La Divina Commedia in Maurizio’s UH 300 class first semester. And the fresco on the ceiling of the cupola (if that makes sense… I am reaching a little out of my comfort zone in an attempt to describe these things) was gorgeous!

When we finished looking at the inside, we got in line to climb the 463 steps to the top of the dome. I guess that sounds like a lot, but it felt like even more for my poor legs. I am out of shape! Before we got inside, we met a guy In front of us whose daughter goes to Alabama. Can you say random? And there were two guys behind us who actually go to UGA. The world just feels like it keeps getting smaller and smaller…

After climbing what felt like millions of steps, we finally reached the top. There is simply no way to describe how incredible the view was. I don’t think anybody could understand by looking at my pictures. It was too beautiful. I could see myself in a scenic home in Florence. Yep, sounds like a plan to me. :)

We stayed up there for a while; Sara wrote in her journal, and Jessica and I just sat there in awe of the amazing buildings and hills and sky and etc. Che bella! We descended the 463 stairs, which seemed more complicated even though it was much less physically demanding. I was feeling a little claustrophobic, particularly when I had to suck in and let people pass who were making their way to the top. When I finally got to the bottom, I noticed my legs were shaking. Kind of pathetic but true. If I didn’t have to pay 8 Euros to climb to the top, I would totally do it every day and call it cardio.

We figured a workout like that surely deserved some kind of reward. So naturally, gelato! I truly believe Americans would be SO much happier if there were at least one gelateria on every block. It is amazing to see Italians out after work talking, walking their dogs, and simply relaxing. It sounds like a pretty sweet life to me. Unfortunately, Americans are not as active as Italians, and a happy thing here such as gelato may only contribute to America’s laziness and obesity epidemic.

To work off that gelato even more, we walked around for a while looking for the post office and a few random stores. Then we met Laura (who is finally in Florence and awake at normal times!) and her roommates on the steps of Il Duomo. We went back to see their apartment, which is amazing, and we all hung out and talked there for a little while.

We came back to our apartment where I totally crashed. I am a huge fan of pre-dinner naps. No real surprise there.

Huge family dinner, again… although with a few less people. I tried to talk to my host family in italiano. Can you say FAIL? I just wanted to ask if Laura could come over for dinner one night. Pretty easy words, right? Well, apparently they just don’t make sense coming out of my mouth. But I will not give in! I will try again tomorrow.

Now it’s time to be super lame and go to sleep early before my first day of classes at Centro Linguistico Italiano Dante Alighieri. Good luck to me…

Sono senza il internet!

Hey everybody!

So I definitely wrote an entry last night, but the internet at my homestay is not so dependable... I am at my school right now mooching off their internet, but I promise I will update the blog as soon as I can. :)

I hope you are all doing amazingly, and know that (depending on who you are) I probably miss you a lot a lot a lot.  Si manco molto!

Firenze! =)

Okay, so I've figured out that if I don't update this multiple times a day, I am totally going to forget everything I've done. There is just so much going on in Florence!

After the last post, I didn't quite get to pass out. My roommates Jessica and Sarah and I met Kate, a girl who is staying at our homestay from Kentucky, and walked with her to meet her group at "Il Duomo", which is a straight shot down the road that we all live on... maybe a 10 minute walk. It is beautiful, and about half of the pictures that I've taken so far are of that building.

Afterward, we walked around Florence and attempted to find where our school, CLIDA (Centro Linguistico Italiano Dante Alighieri) is. We knew it was in the Piazza della Repubblica, but we had no luck finding it. Addresses on i piazzi are a little confusing.

We ended up coming home after that, where I passed out for a few hours (unintentionally) until dinner time right around 9 PM. And oh was dinner interesting. We knew that this was a big apartment, but little did we know that we have a miniature world represented here. I feel so much more cultured having met all of these people.

Our dinner crew: our "parents" Gianna and Paolo; their daughters (who don't eat at the big table with us, because there isn't enough room) Martina, and... I'll get back to you with the other two. Too many names; a guy named Matt, who goes to Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, and who has been studying here since August; Matt's friend Alex, who is from Germany and attends law school there, but who went to high school in the United States; Matt's friend Amanda, who has been studying in Florence since August but will be leaving next week; Rachel, a girl who used to live here who is from Jersey (a small island which is sort of part of England but has its own currency and government); Anna, a lady from Russia; a woman from Thailand who apparently doesn't speak a word of Italian; a girl Paige who showed up later who used to live here; the two girls from KU who are also staying here, Kate and Kayla; and finally myself, Jessica, and Sarah.

It is exhausting just reading that. Now imagine trying to have a conversation with all these people... in Italian. Ridiculous! My skills are definitely not up to par. It is my goal to be able to at least follow what we are talking about at diner by the end of this trip, and maybe even to contribute by the end of everything.

Those people who speak English were very helpful, so I mostly know what we talked about. And I can tell that everybody is hilarious and nice and that all of us are going to get along very well. Dinner lasted almost 3 hours with talking, eating (SO much food, although I felt like I inconvenienced them with my vegetarianism), wine, after dinner jelly beans, and more talking. It was a great first night. :)

Now on to yesterday... I'll try to be somewhat more concise.

Sara, Jessica, and I woke up to eat breakfast. We weren't too rushed because we didn't have to be at school until 10:30 AM for our placement tests (other days we will have to be there at 9 AM... whooo). We found our school (thank goodness), took our tests, watched them graded, and were told to come back Wednesday. (Today, Tuesday, is a national holiday of some sort). We don't know what level we tested into, so I guess we will all see on Wednesday.

We cam back to our appartment for a few minutes to put up our school supplies and then went back out in Florence. We ended up eating at a pizzeria on the Piazza della Signoria. We were sitting outside, but then it started raining and got cold (the one time I decided against bringing my jacket, of course), so we moved inside. Lunch was good, although we didn't exactly know the customs and how to go about asking for the check and tipping.

After lunch we ran into a few people from our group (Ashley, Chauncey, and Kirk) and talked with them in the freezing rain (well, it felt like it) for a while. Then we walked down to the river and crossed the bridge into the jewelry district, where we admired store windows for a few hours. :) We went to a postcard shop Sara had read about and went to a book store before walking back to our appartamento. It really is great how we can walk everywhere in Florence! I didn't know everything would be so close, although there is still a lot of walking.

We came back to our homestay, got ready for dinner, and returned to CLIDA for orientation and dinner with our group. One of the school's directors, a sweet old Italian man whose name has escaped me, oriented us for a while. He seems nice and eager to help. He also had a great quote (talking about alcohol, but which could be applied to most things) about how things are best enjoyed in moderation. I will get that from Jessica and write it in here eventually.

Then we went to dinner at I Quattro Amici. It was amazingly nice and so much fun. I sat at the vegetarian and fish meal table which included me, Sara, Lauren, Dr. Picone, Betsy, and Dr. Picone's son Benjamin. Again, HUGE meal with 5 courses. Paolo told us later that we need at least 4 stomachs to eat in Italy. And I believe him!

We came back to our apartment, talked to our family, gave them our gifts, and then Sara and I ended up going out with Matt, Alex, Kate, Kayla, and a huge group of Kansas girls. We didn't stay out too late but ended up coming back and talking with Jessica forever.

We eventually went to bed, slept too late (although my body needed it), woke up, and are now about to head out into Florence for the day. Here we go again... :).

Sono in Italia!

After a long day (or days?) of travel, I have finally arrived in Italy!

My internal clock is pretty messed up since Italian time is 7 hours ahead of Alabama time. It isn't even 5 pm yet, and I am ready for bed. Even though it is 10 am at home. Probably because I didn't really sleep last night. Ahhhh. I am even confusing myself with this jet lag stuff!

Anyway, Mom and Scotty drove me to Atlanta, the group flew from Atlanta to Frankfurt (my homeland!), and then we flew from Frankfurt to Florence.

We took a cab to our homestay... which is amazing. We met our "parents"... who don't speak much English. Uh-Oh! This is going to be a long month! And we met their daughters, who are crazy. They have that squishy stuff that makes farting noises, and they are still in the stage where they think it's hilarious.

Okay... My brain has ceased to function, so I am going to stop writing now... and probably pass out and further screw up my sleep schedule. :)

Arrivederci!

Procrastination at its finest

So... It's almost 2 AM. And I'm not finished packing. Oops.

But I have miraculously found time to make a new blog post. I am so glad my priorities are in order.

It's kind of hitting me that I am actually going to Italy... today-ish. I am almost inspired to write part of this post in Italian. Almost. But I don't want my non Italian speaking friends to feel left out. So English it is!

Okay. Time to pack, shower, power nap, and then head to the airport. Wheeeee.

P.S. I am going to miss my friends and family SO much. But 4 weeks really isn't that long. And hopefully there will be lots of fun stories for all of you to hear... or read. :)

Crunch Time!

And the packing begins...

24 hours until I'm supposed to be at the Atlanta airport to check in.

Today may be a long day.

Oh, and I'm taking bets on how many important things I'll probably forget.

AHHHHHHH.