Our First Week in Florence
Trip Start
Aug 20, 2008
1
6
24
Trip End
Dec 22, 2008
Florence,
Tuscany,
Italy
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
it is on a sidestreet from the duomo plaza and we can see it out the window. The lady said it is on the best shopping district and the best location we think we got the best one because we turned in our applications so early. The apartment is amazing we have a huge patio
Our Patio
and a kitchen and couch area, two rooms with comfy but small beds and a large bathroom.
Florence
After check in we did a little shopping for food at a market. I was relieved because everyone we have encountered speaks really good English which did not happen in all of the countries we traveled in. Our roomates arrived and we all went out to dinner.
First Dinner with the Roomies
Our roomates are Caryn from New York and Carly from Rhode Island. They are interior design majors who go to Endicott in Masachussets and they are really sweet girls, I love them!The next few days were spent searching the city for all of the products and things we needed to set up our apartment. It is hard because there is not big target to go and get eveyrthing you need. You just have to search all of these stores in the city and they all have a random assortment of things. Plus the American products and school supplies are really expensive. A pack of post its is 5.50 euro! We also went to the mercato centrale. There is a huge outdoor market with leather goods, souvenirs, clothes etc. And then there is an indoor market that is two stories with meats, dried fruit (which we love), fruits, vegetables, wine, etc.
At the Market
Our friends we met traveling came to Florence so we also hung out with them for a few days. Garrett has four roomates so we hung out with them and some of our roomates friends from Endicott. Florence does not have a huge nightlife but we found a few places to go at night. We also had lots of really good gelato. Gelato is like starbucks here, there is at least one gelateria on every street.
Gelato!
On Sunday we ventured outside the city to find a mall that would hopefully have cheaper stores than the nice expensive stores in Florence. Sara and I were especially anxious because our packages had not arrived and we had barly any clothes. However, it is quite funny the lengths I went through to find a mall, I am sure no one is surprised. The second bus that we were supposed to take did not arrive so we walked into a nearby bakery to see if we could walk. An ambulance driver pointed us towards the mall. We then met a spunky Italian women who led us through a park and pointed us off. We then walked about two miles along the road and finally found I Gigli!
I Gigli
The mall was huge and very crowded. We found a cheap/cute store and I got a tank top, a very italian looking shirt and a belt that was 5 euro! On monday I started my first classes and ran lots of errands. Here is my schedule:
Mon/Wed
12-1:15 Italian
3-4:15 Flamenco
Tues
9-11:30 and 12-2:30 Digital Photography
6-8:30 International Organizations in Global Politics
Wed
9-11:30 Italian Food/Cooking
My italian teacher is nice and the class is probably only 8 people which makes me alittle nervous but is good. My flamenco class only has 4 people but there is a girl who is a dance major at chapman in it named Tara who is really nice. In my digital photography class am going to learn how to use all of the functions on my camera, some history and how to use photoshop. The class is from 9-11:30 and then 12-2:30 which is really long but it seems like we are going to go out and do fieldtrips during class. My international Organizations in Global Politics class has about eight political science girls in the class and we are going to learn about the many different international organizations. It seems like this class will have the most work for me. My Italian Food class is going to be amazing. We are going to learn about food from different regions and cook a full meal from that region each class, including dessert. My teacher is adorable and he made everyone espresso for free on the first day. We are also going to go on a fieldtrip to a restaurant. All of my classes seem like they will be very enriching.
On wednesday we had an orientation dinner with our program. We had a meal on the river near the ponte vecchio. It was beautiful and we had fun meeting people in our program. We met some girls from Chapman who were really nice.
Ponte Vecchio at Night
I only have class three days a week so on Thursday I ran some errands and made a very expensive collage. I also purchased my Italian leather purse and was very excited. I helped Sara pick out a purse too!
Italian Leather
That night the four of us went out with garrett and found some fun places in Florence.
Going Out Together
On friday Sara and I decided to be tourists for the day and walk around the city and take pictures with my big camera. We had a lot of fun and discovered some new places in the city.
Our Street
The Duomo
Sightseeing
