And now it really begins...

Last Friday marked the final day of our month of intensive Italian class. I passed my final with flying colors (meaning I got 100%!). I am sad to be done with that part, but the rest of our classes stared today and they all sound really fun and exciting! It is crazy hard to run around to at least 2 or 3 locations throughout the city each day and take notes as we try to take everything in. We have to listen to our professors lecture while looking at all of our amazing surrounding and take our notes standing. Its hard, but fun none the less! Not a whole lot of other new news. I might be going to Pompeii this weekend. And if I do, you will definitely hear all about it! But now I am going to share some long awaited pictures with you! (I'm going to add some to past posts too, so take an extra little gander if you have the time!)

The Duomo Facade.My roomies and me at the Chianti wine tasting!A beautiful view of the Tuscan countryside.The River Arno with the moon rising over it.

San Miniato, a gorgeous church up on the hill.The Duomo at night from my professor's apartment terrace.An adorable man fiddling on a corner in downtown Florence!

Ciao!

So today is the start of the fourth week here in Florence. This is very important, because we have our final Italian exam on Wednesday and then we switch over to having all four classes, and a more college-like schedule starting next week. It is all very exciting, but at the same time, I am having a lot of fun with the Italian, and since that was my main motivation for coming on this program I am definitely sad that it will get cut down to only 2 classes each week for 2 hours each time. The five hours that we have daily right now can be a bit much at times, but it is still very fun and I am learning SO much!

This weekend was our first weekend without any planned school activities and so my roommates and I were able to have a very fun and relaxing weekend. We slept in on Saturday, which felt wonderful, and then we went into "il centro" and just walked around and did some window shopping. We got home early and were able to get some reading and homework in before dinner. Then on Sunday we took the bus up the hill to the next town called Fiesole. It is known for its beautiful views, and that is most definitely true. I saw the best view of Florence that I have seen yet, and probably will ever see. It was a very fun little trip and we hiked around a little bit (my knee is finally starting to feel better!) and then had a little picnic of bread, cheese, and wine. It was perfect although we are pretty sure that picnics like that are a bit of a faux-pas here. Oops!

Other than that, this last week has been fairly uneventful. Since returning to Florence from Venice, our days have been full of school, homework, resting my knee, and a tiny bit of exploration. That is starting to diminish though, because everyday we are becoming more and more familiar with our surroundings and so we feel the need to explore less and less. It is truly amazing how comfortable I have gotten with living here and using the public transportation and even asking for directions (in Italian, of course!) when I am not sure where I am or where I am going. SO FUN!

Yesterday when we got back from Fiesole, we walked around a little bit by the Duomo and we found a huge bookstore that sold books in Italian (of course) and English! It was really fun and so after looking around at everything and recognizing lots and lots of favorites, I ended up making a purchase. I bought "Gli Snicci e altre storie" by Dr. Seuss! (The Sneetches and other stories for those of you who need the translation.) It was one of my favorites as a kid, so I am quite familiar with the story. It is super fun to read it in Italian and it has actually been helpful in obtaining some new vocabulary. I am definitely planning on buying a few more books in Italian before I leave, and the one that I am the most excited to try and find is "Oh the Places You Will Go" but I don't know what It is called in Italian and they definitely did not have it at the store we were at yesterday. I even asked one of the clerks. I just love being able to actually say what I need to in Italian. It makes everyday so much better!

Venezia!

I just got home from Venice last night, and I miss it already! Venice is the most beautiful city I have ever seen in my life! Everything there is just pretty and cute and the most absolutely picturesque place you have ever seen! We spent a lot of time there at the Piazza de San Marco which was really cool, and very fun at night because there were all sorts of little bands that played at all the cafes and you could just sit and listen all night. It was very fun.

The Grand Canal.Yes, that is me, and yes, I am on a gondola on the grand canal!The rest of our group arrives. (With some pretty good looking gondoliers, I might add.)And this, is Piazza San Marco, the hub of all the activity in Venice.

I also spent time going to a couple of museums. One was the Peggy Guggenheim private collection, and the other was in the Duke's palace and in that, there was an amazing exhibit on the relationship between Venice and Islam (i.e. the Middle East). It was very interesting even without being able to read any of the labels. Ibasically just loved everything about the city. There was never a dull moment, because even when we just sat down on a bridge to read, the scenery was so amazing that it was impossible to concentrate on my homework.

This is the canal that I was looking at! Our hotel was off on the right.
The weekend was quite the adventure however, because on Friday morning my knee went out again while I was getting off the bus. I could barely walk and so one of my professors ended up taking me over to the hospital where it went out one more time on the x-ray table. The hospital was very interesting because they would not allow my prof to come back with me, but they didn't really speak any English. My limited Italian was enough to get the point across, but only with a little bit of charades thrown in there for kicks. I ended up crying a lot and felt like a complete idiot in front of all the doctors and nurses. It was quite the traumatic experience, but now all is well. I now have a soft brace for my knee, some pain meds, and of course, crutches. The crutches are quite hilarious because they are not the normal under the armpit ones. They are the ones with the little band around the forearm and they are very difficult to use, but that seems to be all they have here! So, since there is bascially no way to get around Venice except to walk, I used those crutches quite a bit these last three days!

No matter how much I loved Venice, I was still extremely excited to get back to my house in Florence. Anna, had an amazing dinner ready for us when we walked through the door and we had a blast telling her about everything that we did. She is just such a wonderful woman! She has definately made her house a home away from home for me and my housemates!

One Week Down!

Wow...I can't believe that I have already been here for an entire week! It is completely amazing how quickly we are learning Italian! At this point, we are able to actually have conversations. None of them are too complex, but fun none the less! And this morning after I got off the bus, a woman asked me which bus I had just gotten off and I was able to answer her correctly without even skipping a beat! It was SO cool!

We moved in with our families last Wednesday, and everything is going great! I live with two other girls (Emily Ho being one of them!) and our host family consists of only one woman in her mid-50s. She is absolutely adorable and just a blast to be around. She speaks French which has been very adventageous for when we get stuck in our communication, seeing as she speaks almost no English! She is a great cook and just a wonderful host! I have a single room to myself and it is absolutely huge! One great thing about the apartment is that it is absolutely FILLED with books! She has tons and tons of shelves all over, and then just books sitting on tables and stuck random places. She is definately a woman after my own heart! She is also a grade school teacher and so is great at being patient with us as we are learning the language (and as I am confusing my French and Italian). And here is the house:

The bathroom: notice the shower head is not attached to wall (result: water everywhere!)

The kitchen where Anna fixes our amazing dinners and where we eat breakfast.The living room/dining room where we eat dinner and Anna does her school work.Amy and Emily in their bedroom.And this is my bedroom! SO CUTE!!!
This weekend we went to Pisa. It was about a 45 minute train ride and then a 20 minute walk to the other side of town to see the tower! It was so cool, but it was different than I expected. there were buildings all around it...and I had always pictured it standing along in the middle of a huge grassy area. Not true. It was very fun except that as I was trying to climb onto a little post in order to be at a better angle for the classic cliche picture of holding up the tower I dislocated my knee...again. This kind of put a damper on the rest of the day, but luckily it just went back in on its own and so now I'm trying to lay off it a little so that it can heal, which is very difficult with all of the walking that we do here in Florence!

The postcard view of the Leaning Tower.A wonderful view of the church and the bell tower.

Life in Florence is truly amazing! I can't even put into words how great it is to wake up here every morning to the smell of coffee brewing, knowing all of the gorgeous, interesting, historical, and just plain fantasico things that I will get to see! I do miss some things from home, but overall I would not return to the states right now if you paid me a million dollars! This is my home for now, and I absolutely love it!