When I walk to class I am simply stunned that this is my life and that I am finally abroad. I thought my walks to class at Maryland were pretty, but nothing beats my walk to class here. Halfway through rushing to class (because let's be real, me rushing to class in the morning is never going to change) past the Uffizi, the Ponte Vecchio, and over the Arno, I realized oh my Gd, I'm in Italy, this is actually going to be real life for the next three months--CRAZY (or pazzo in italian).
So a semi-brief rundown of my first few days in Italy:
Saturday: See my previously blog post, it was a fun day!
Sunday, Monday, Tuesday: were not so exciting. It was a lot of exploring and getting organized. Sunday I went to Ikea, that was exciting because a)I got a duvet cover and two pillowcases for 8 euro and b)I've never seen Miriam so happy, she really loves Ikea. We had our first day of classes on Tuesday. The only thing that's annoying about classes is that they are too much work...you can all stop making fun of me now. I'm a little disappointed that the school is not taking into account that I'm here for an abroad experience, and that I don't actually need the credits here. So here's to not caring, and if I fail because I decided traveling around Italy and Europe to actually see and experience the things they want me to write a paper on is more important, than oh well.
Wednesday: Went to class, my Globalization teacher is crazy, and probably the most spastic teacher I've ever had. For dinner that night, Miriam and I met my friend Jess (who I went to high school with) and her friends for apperitivo. Apperitivo is a brilliant Italian invention that let's you get dinner and a drink for about 7-9 euro, depending on the place you go to. Basically, you buy a drink and then you get to go up and get as much food as you want, as many times as you want. Normal Italians just go up and fill the small plate once because it's basically a little snack to hold them over until their dinner around 8, but American college students go up 3 or 4 times in order to end up with a very cheap dinner and lots of yummy food. Cheapest all you can eat buffet ever. It was great to sit and catch up with Jess, who happens to be living a few streets over from me, which is nuts, but so awesome! After dinner/apperitivo, Negrin and Jordan came over and Negrin fell asleep on my kitchen table (see facebook for pictures), which meant Jordan and I stuck things in his hear. Great use of our time.
Thursday: During my break my friend Stacey and I got lunch and then roamed the area around school and found absolutely delicious gelato and some super cute shops. Roaming around aimlessly here is one of my favorite activites because the city is so gorgeous and there is always something new to find. That night we went to dinner at this fancy shmancy restaurant that for some reason accepts our meal tickets. It's called Golden View, and it's right on the Ponte Vecchio, and has a great view of the Arno. I went to dinner with a few girls from UMD who I hadnt seen in a while, and we had a great time. The waiter was so funny, and for some reason knew an absurd amount about the NY/NJ area, especially Long Island (He joked he was from Lynbrook, hi Daddy!) The food was delicious, as always (for those of you interested, I had pasta with fresh tomato sauce and grilled vegetables with scamorza cheese, which is a kind of smokey mozzarella cheese, not one of my favorites). After dinner, Miriam, Ali, and I went back to my apartment to hang out for a bit and then went to a bar where they had 5 shots for 5 euro (which were way more sugary than alcoholic, but good none the less). After, we went to this really crowded bar, and left because there were waaaay to many people, so we went to this bar called the Red Garter (which apparently my mom went to when she was abroad here, weird.) Red Garter is pretty cool, a huge hang out spot for Americans, it has kareoke which I will defintiely have to take advantage of at some point (you know you wanna come visit just to see me make a fool of myself). After Red Garter, we went to a disco called Twice. It was crowded and Turtle-like, and had the creepiest Italian men yet. After a while I was very done with this place, so Negrin, Jordan, Doug and I went to one of Florence's secret bakeries. Basically, there are few of these bakeries that are open late at night because they are starting their baking for the next day for a bunch of cafes in the area. Once you find one of these bakeries, you knock on the door, stay really quiet, and 2 minutes later there's heavenly, fresh, pastry goodness in your hand. I got a flaky, buttery yummy yummy croissant--this place is also dangerously close to my apartment (I literally live in the best location EVER!). Then I went to bed, but not before getting a frantic phone call from the one and only Becca Chapman because a bunch of SDT girls thought Miriam had gone missing, don't worry, she was safe and sound in her bed.
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