Well I've been in Florence for a week now, and it is wonderful...sorta.
When I first arrived, I arrived to a non-existent apartment. I had been scammed, I guess it serves me right for trying to find cheaper off-campus housing that allowed guests (the school does not).
But this was after the airport losing one of my bags, and waiting an hour to establish that point. Thankfully some nice girls from Univ of Illinois-Champagne stayed with me and split a cab. So a terrible 8 hours later, after 13ish hours of flying (where I met some nice girls-one from the East Coast and one from Croatia), I had somewhere to stay. There was a single room left with a group of girls from Clemson, in South Carolina. They have been very welcoming and have invited to just about everything they do. The apartment below us is also full of Clemson girls, with another Univ of Iowa (Go MIDWEST!)
And no we didn't do the color scheme on purpose!
Lauren, Me, Caitlin, Caroline, and Molly
Kaylee, Charlotte, Lee Ann, and Ashley
We went to Venice immediately this weekend. We took a train really in the morning, which was a hassle itself, as the girls chose the one line with a sign that says the guy did speak English. I tried to help as much as I could but my Italian was only marginally better than theirs. On the train we met Luca and David from Pisa, who were a hoot. I don't think David spoke much English but Luca was highly entertaining. I was trying to use my Italian-English dictionary like crazy, but the charades was fun. As we got off the train Luca did the traditional kiss the cheek goodbye, he was disappointed to find that in our short time in Florence we have already experienced this at an amazing restaurant, Il Gato e Il Volpe (the cat and the fox-like from Pinocchio). David was sitting by himself during all of this so I made sure he got a kiss too, tee hee.
Kaylee, Ashley, Luca, David, Me, and Caroline
All 10 of us at Il Gato e Il Volpe
(previously not pictured is Megan ->1st on left)
Venice was a headache too. When we booked the hotel, there was no notice that the hotel was in a separate city then Venice. The girls did not want to take a bus, SO we tried to find new lodging, after taking the wrong bus to the hotel that was too far away. I wish I spoke Italian more fluently, would have made things much easier. So we stop at this cute restaurant near the train station and the waiter, Maximillion, was very helpful. He called around the area looking for lodgings and found a room for 5. That left 4 of us to figure out what we were going to do. Thankfully within a stone's throw of the 5 girls' B&B, we found a hotel with 2 double rooms.I roomed with Ashley and our room came with cute little keys. Overall, splitting everything evenly and down the middle, it ended up costing 70euros each for lodging, including have to pay in full for the forgotten hotel. The day ended with a walk to the Realto bridge and a gondola ride!
After getting situated we did some shopping, and let me tell you, these sorority girls from SC know how to shop. After a few hours I was bored but I did find some good stuff for the girls in my family and CW and KT. You see Venice is renown for its glass (ok actually Murano but the same area) and so glass jewelry and other trinkets were abound. I found a lot of things that would look awesome in my apartment but as I will be here for two more months and I am a klutzy, I left the glass items alone. Masks are also really big in Venice. I saw a lot I thought would look awesome in my room, I never realized how expensive they were. I've made paper mache masks before, but obviously my painting abilities were not nearly as good as these. They were in all different colors with feathers and glitter, some with those fancy S-something crystals. If I had a greater budget, I definitely would've bought one. On of my best buys I've made since coming to Italy was a fan, like the cute fancy ones you see in Spanish or Asian movies, except it has Venice pictures on it.
Venice at a Glance & Jesus painting outside of Basilica San Marco
We went and visited San Marco basilica, museum, and bell tower. The basilica was really cool and while walking around the museum on the top we heard the end of the church service (as it was Sunday). The chanting/singing was pretty awesome and the church was very pretty. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside but it was beautiful. From the top of the bell tower you could get a panoramic view of all of Venice. It was beautiful. And of course we were up there when all of the belss decided to go off. The decibal rating was so high, it was like when you leave your iPod on high multiplied by 10+x. But it was really cool to have that moment.
We did some more shopping and then grabbed a bit to eat before we left. I slept the entire time on the first train home. We were all very excited to find a McDonalds near the train station on our mini-break. It was probably the most excited about McDonalds I have ever been. The 2nd train home we met some Moroccon guys who lived in Italy. At first we were creaped out becuase they spoke very very little english and were trying to warn us about taking night trains. Eventually we settled for charades and what was gotten from that was that sometimes at night if your door is not closed, people will come and spray someting in your eyes and knock you out and steal your self. You could imagine how weired that came in out with a language barrier. We all thought we were about to be murdered by our compartment mates. It was slightly uncomfortable, but overall they were friendly. One guy even showed us pictures of his kids (he was the oldest of the group). They were going to Naples to go swim in the ocean, a very nice vacation I think.
Since that trip I have just been relaxing in the city. I haven't gone sightseeing, just getting use to class and the city. I have tried gelato, but wasnt very impressed. I've actually become more addicted to the copious amounts of fresh fruit everywhere. Macedonia di frutta fresca (fresh fruit cups) are available everywhere. They come in cute little waht we call ice cream sundae dishes in pear/fruit juice. They are the same price as the junk food but are so good and so much better.I have met some awesome kids from my class (5 out 9 are from Univ of Hawaii). The rest of us comprise of me from Missouri and 2 from New york and 1 from new Jersey. It seems that way a lot here. I've met a couple kids ftom the midwest, but mostly coast kids and mostly girls. According to our advisor, boys tend to go less romantic areas of Europe - Germany, Switzerland, Amsterdam...of course. I feel like we have learned quite a bit in a week adn I was excited to get 100% on our first quiz. I'm planning on missing the next one to go to Ireland and they drop score so I was glad to have done so well on the first one. It seems like I'm doing better than most in my class,but I may be one of the only truly focused on their class as well as travel.
Starting next week I plan to be more touristy, but I'm trying to save it for the weekends I am in town. Thus far my excursions into the city have been purely supermarkets, restaurants, and bars. I haven't felt the need to get drunk everynight (like some) because I can here. I've tasted limoncello (a must), and had a total of three drinks, not including each wine I've tasted every time my roommates split a bottle. I think I'm just gonna be a hard liquor girl and should just stop trying. I've yet to find a wine or beer I like.
Limonocello
The bars I've been too are cute. They are mostly occupied by drunk Americans and some Italian men, but they are fun nonetheless. The first night we went to Red Garter, which has Karaoke too!, and met another 2 girls from NY who are wonderful. I feel like I get along with them best of all the groups of people I have met here. I just wish they didn't live so far away from me. It's way way too far to walk by myself and cabs are so expensive here. I went out to Red Garter again last night, but the experience was not nearly as good. I went out with a friend and his two roommates, they were all already pretty drunk and my friend got ridiculous. I felt very uncomfortable and ended up paying way more than necessary to take a cab from there to a friends. BUT we went to a discoteca, a far away one at that, but it was a lot of fun. I danced with the girls and a couple of Italian guys and it was a lot of fun. I think the club was the most fun I've had here and was very surreal. I think that will be one of the moments I remember for a long time. Every girls' dream, going clubbing in Europe and hooking up with an Italian guy, minus the hooking up part. One guy tried but since I'm a good girl I denied. Just danced with the girls instead, which was so much fun. The girls from NY are dancers and the girl from Mexico is well, hot Latina, no need to explain. I love their apartment. The girls are great and so much fun, maybe too much fun, lol. Eliza (one from NY) is my class, and we are constantly speaking Spanish on accident.
Erica, Eliza & Janet
Janet, Anah, Eliza & Erica
I slept off the week today. Probably slept way mroe than necessary which is why I'm still awake now, approx. 5 am here. Gonna have to hit the sack though. I still wish my friends from home could've come, but I'm meeting new people and doing new things. It's an experience...and I've only been here a week!
Week 2 here I come!
When I first arrived, I arrived to a non-existent apartment. I had been scammed, I guess it serves me right for trying to find cheaper off-campus housing that allowed guests (the school does not).
But this was after the airport losing one of my bags, and waiting an hour to establish that point. Thankfully some nice girls from Univ of Illinois-Champagne stayed with me and split a cab. So a terrible 8 hours later, after 13ish hours of flying (where I met some nice girls-one from the East Coast and one from Croatia), I had somewhere to stay. There was a single room left with a group of girls from Clemson, in South Carolina. They have been very welcoming and have invited to just about everything they do. The apartment below us is also full of Clemson girls, with another Univ of Iowa (Go MIDWEST!)
And no we didn't do the color scheme on purpose!
Lauren, Me, Caitlin, Caroline, and Molly
Kaylee, Charlotte, Lee Ann, and Ashley
We went to Venice immediately this weekend. We took a train really in the morning, which was a hassle itself, as the girls chose the one line with a sign that says the guy did speak English. I tried to help as much as I could but my Italian was only marginally better than theirs. On the train we met Luca and David from Pisa, who were a hoot. I don't think David spoke much English but Luca was highly entertaining. I was trying to use my Italian-English dictionary like crazy, but the charades was fun. As we got off the train Luca did the traditional kiss the cheek goodbye, he was disappointed to find that in our short time in Florence we have already experienced this at an amazing restaurant, Il Gato e Il Volpe (the cat and the fox-like from Pinocchio). David was sitting by himself during all of this so I made sure he got a kiss too, tee hee.
Kaylee, Ashley, Luca, David, Me, and Caroline
All 10 of us at Il Gato e Il Volpe
(previously not pictured is Megan ->1st on left)
Venice was a headache too. When we booked the hotel, there was no notice that the hotel was in a separate city then Venice. The girls did not want to take a bus, SO we tried to find new lodging, after taking the wrong bus to the hotel that was too far away. I wish I spoke Italian more fluently, would have made things much easier. So we stop at this cute restaurant near the train station and the waiter, Maximillion, was very helpful. He called around the area looking for lodgings and found a room for 5. That left 4 of us to figure out what we were going to do. Thankfully within a stone's throw of the 5 girls' B&B, we found a hotel with 2 double rooms.I roomed with Ashley and our room came with cute little keys. Overall, splitting everything evenly and down the middle, it ended up costing 70euros each for lodging, including have to pay in full for the forgotten hotel. The day ended with a walk to the Realto bridge and a gondola ride!
After getting situated we did some shopping, and let me tell you, these sorority girls from SC know how to shop. After a few hours I was bored but I did find some good stuff for the girls in my family and CW and KT. You see Venice is renown for its glass (ok actually Murano but the same area) and so glass jewelry and other trinkets were abound. I found a lot of things that would look awesome in my apartment but as I will be here for two more months and I am a klutzy, I left the glass items alone. Masks are also really big in Venice. I saw a lot I thought would look awesome in my room, I never realized how expensive they were. I've made paper mache masks before, but obviously my painting abilities were not nearly as good as these. They were in all different colors with feathers and glitter, some with those fancy S-something crystals. If I had a greater budget, I definitely would've bought one. On of my best buys I've made since coming to Italy was a fan, like the cute fancy ones you see in Spanish or Asian movies, except it has Venice pictures on it.
Venice at a Glance & Jesus painting outside of Basilica San Marco
We went and visited San Marco basilica, museum, and bell tower. The basilica was really cool and while walking around the museum on the top we heard the end of the church service (as it was Sunday). The chanting/singing was pretty awesome and the church was very pretty. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside but it was beautiful. From the top of the bell tower you could get a panoramic view of all of Venice. It was beautiful. And of course we were up there when all of the belss decided to go off. The decibal rating was so high, it was like when you leave your iPod on high multiplied by 10+x. But it was really cool to have that moment.
We did some more shopping and then grabbed a bit to eat before we left. I slept the entire time on the first train home. We were all very excited to find a McDonalds near the train station on our mini-break. It was probably the most excited about McDonalds I have ever been. The 2nd train home we met some Moroccon guys who lived in Italy. At first we were creaped out becuase they spoke very very little english and were trying to warn us about taking night trains. Eventually we settled for charades and what was gotten from that was that sometimes at night if your door is not closed, people will come and spray someting in your eyes and knock you out and steal your self. You could imagine how weired that came in out with a language barrier. We all thought we were about to be murdered by our compartment mates. It was slightly uncomfortable, but overall they were friendly. One guy even showed us pictures of his kids (he was the oldest of the group). They were going to Naples to go swim in the ocean, a very nice vacation I think.
Since that trip I have just been relaxing in the city. I haven't gone sightseeing, just getting use to class and the city. I have tried gelato, but wasnt very impressed. I've actually become more addicted to the copious amounts of fresh fruit everywhere. Macedonia di frutta fresca (fresh fruit cups) are available everywhere. They come in cute little waht we call ice cream sundae dishes in pear/fruit juice. They are the same price as the junk food but are so good and so much better.I have met some awesome kids from my class (5 out 9 are from Univ of Hawaii). The rest of us comprise of me from Missouri and 2 from New york and 1 from new Jersey. It seems that way a lot here. I've met a couple kids ftom the midwest, but mostly coast kids and mostly girls. According to our advisor, boys tend to go less romantic areas of Europe - Germany, Switzerland, Amsterdam...of course. I feel like we have learned quite a bit in a week adn I was excited to get 100% on our first quiz. I'm planning on missing the next one to go to Ireland and they drop score so I was glad to have done so well on the first one. It seems like I'm doing better than most in my class,but I may be one of the only truly focused on their class as well as travel.
Starting next week I plan to be more touristy, but I'm trying to save it for the weekends I am in town. Thus far my excursions into the city have been purely supermarkets, restaurants, and bars. I haven't felt the need to get drunk everynight (like some) because I can here. I've tasted limoncello (a must), and had a total of three drinks, not including each wine I've tasted every time my roommates split a bottle. I think I'm just gonna be a hard liquor girl and should just stop trying. I've yet to find a wine or beer I like.
Limonocello
The bars I've been too are cute. They are mostly occupied by drunk Americans and some Italian men, but they are fun nonetheless. The first night we went to Red Garter, which has Karaoke too!, and met another 2 girls from NY who are wonderful. I feel like I get along with them best of all the groups of people I have met here. I just wish they didn't live so far away from me. It's way way too far to walk by myself and cabs are so expensive here. I went out to Red Garter again last night, but the experience was not nearly as good. I went out with a friend and his two roommates, they were all already pretty drunk and my friend got ridiculous. I felt very uncomfortable and ended up paying way more than necessary to take a cab from there to a friends. BUT we went to a discoteca, a far away one at that, but it was a lot of fun. I danced with the girls and a couple of Italian guys and it was a lot of fun. I think the club was the most fun I've had here and was very surreal. I think that will be one of the moments I remember for a long time. Every girls' dream, going clubbing in Europe and hooking up with an Italian guy, minus the hooking up part. One guy tried but since I'm a good girl I denied. Just danced with the girls instead, which was so much fun. The girls from NY are dancers and the girl from Mexico is well, hot Latina, no need to explain. I love their apartment. The girls are great and so much fun, maybe too much fun, lol. Eliza (one from NY) is my class, and we are constantly speaking Spanish on accident.
Erica, Eliza & Janet
Janet, Anah, Eliza & Erica
I slept off the week today. Probably slept way mroe than necessary which is why I'm still awake now, approx. 5 am here. Gonna have to hit the sack though. I still wish my friends from home could've come, but I'm meeting new people and doing new things. It's an experience...and I've only been here a week!
Week 2 here I come!
Baby I want you to experience everything you possibly can there! You have no idea the lasting friendships you will make, I hope that when you return home you continue to stay in touch with all you connected with there.
ReplyDeleteGlad to see you getting out and having fun.
I'm a follower of your mom's blog, so I wanted to check out yours. It sounds as though you're keeping very busy in Italy, but having a GREAT time!
ReplyDelete