Was going to have to use that title eventually...
Hello again friends!!! My papers are officially DONE which means a) spring break is here and I’m seeing the lovely Keren Shpigel TOMORROW and b) you all have the lovely privilege of reading about my la dolce vita. But seriously, I’m really living the sweet life. I had midterms that week, but I’ve learned when you’re abroad that pretty much doesn’t mean anything and I think I studied for a total of maybe 2 hours for each test…abroad college is great. Here's a brief(ish) run down of the week before my family got here and hopefully I'll post about their visit in a little bit. Tomorrow morning (literally morning as in 5 AM) I leave for spring break which includes Barcelona, PARIS!!!!!!!!! (AHHHHHH), Prague, and then I am turning 21 in Berlin. Never in my life did I think I'd be spending my 21st in Berlin, but hey, I'll take it.
Monday afternoon I went with Miriam and Negrin to a park near Piazza Independenza and we, and by we I mean Negrin and I, kicked a soccer ball. Keep in mind I was wearing a leather jacket and boots…great soccer playing outfit. I even headed the ball…I’m gonna be the next Mia Hamm. That night we had a lovely dinner with Stacey and Joanna and their friend from home and I had my first Italian garlic bread. It was extra garlic-y and delicious. The next day Miriam and I went to apperitivo after class and felt really grown up having our pre dinner drinks. After we went to dinner with some girls on our program from UMD, and it was great to just have a night talking about UMD and catching up. The next day AIFS organized a pizza making class and OH MY GD…seriously some of the best pizza I’ve had…and I made it. I put peppers on my pizza which was very exciting because they NEVER have peppers here. Afterwards we went to Joshua Tree, where Negrin and Doug DJed for the night. Thursday I literally cannot remember what I did so it must not have been that exciting. Friday I sat around and did some work on my papers and then went to Chabad with Negrin. Later that night I met up with Jess and her roommates and we had an awesome night at the club Full Up…complete with a bongo player accompanying the DJ. Jess’s roomates’ friend from home was visiting that night from Rome and he was too funny. He constantly spoke Italian and said Santa Croce strangely and then proceeded to call the Duomo the Dwarma. Jess and I also randomly ran into a girl from our high school that night about 5 different times, and by 5 I mean twice, but still, random. We finished the night at the Secret Bakery with delicious fresh baked pastries!! The next day I was supposed to do work but I pretty much spent the day in bed waiting for my family to get here!
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Monday, March 21, 2011
papers are dumb.
But, really. More posts when my stupid papers are done.
But life is great. Having my family here was wonderful and I fell in love with Venice this weekend. Seriously...it's great. Everyone should go. Especially to Burano.
I'm officially done procrastinating
....maybe.
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Lean with it, rock with it
Ok, I'm sorry for the lack of timeliness in posts, I'm the worst. So I'm gonna give you a quick run down of my life, from about a week ago.
It was a fun week, even though I've started to have to pretend to do work because midterms and term papers apparently actually exist in Florence, who knew? They pretty much suck, because no one wants to take time away from doing things around Firenze, especially because it is FINALLY getting (sort of) warm outside (meaning when you're in the sun it's great, in the shade, not so much).
On Tuesday, Miriam and I went to this really cool bead store near our school to explore a little bit, and then headed over to the Pitti Palace to go through one of the 5 million museums housed there (ok, it's more like 8 or something like that, but whatever). Miriam and I just went through the basic art collection, which is cool because it's set up in the rooms where the Medicis used to live in the palace, so it was kind of a double tour. There was A LOT of art in there, seriously there were maybe two blank spots on the wall. My favorite room documented the life of Hercules, which is way more graphic than Disney makes it seem. That night, I had dinner with Jess and we got super yummy gelato afterwards!
Wednesday was fun! Joanna, Beth, and I changed it up and got lunch at a place other than GustaPanini, and it was yummmmmmy...great bread, tomato, mozzarella, and lots of oregano...mmm! Miriam's parents were here for the week, so they took a bunch of us to La Giostra for dinner (thanks again!!). I cannot even begin to describe how delicious the food is here. Everything is so fresh and so yummy, and it is probably one of the best places to eat here. I got ravioli with zucchini blossoms and it was delicious. The guy who owns the place has silver bracelets on both arms up to his elbows (how do you sleep like that? It can't be comfortable) and 4 giant rings on each hand. He's so hippy dippy, which is funny because of the reputation of the restaurant. Anyway, he was great because Negrin's boss knows him, and made sure we had a great meal. Afterwards, Miriam, Negrin, Jordan, and I went to Joshua Tree and hung out for the night! Paulo, the manager, tried to get me to sign up to DJ one night. I told him he was crazy.
Thursday, I went to the Uffizi with my friend (and future roommate!) Ali. The building itself was gorgeous, and obviously, so was the artwork. It was really cool to see the Birth of Venus and Primavera up close, both paintings are STUNNING. After, Ali and I had fun in the gift shop and read children's books about art. They are surprisingly informative. Brought me back to art appreciation class from elementary school...look how far I've come. Thursday night was another delicious dinner with Miriam's parents, this time at Il Gato, which has the most heavenly balsamic vinegar ever (thanks!) I got yummy spaghetti with pesto sauce, tomatoes, and tons of parmesan, YUM.
Friday, my friend Emily and I went to the central market, which is really cool!!! There is so much fresh food there, it was hard to pick what to eat! We got some yummy sandwiches and then went shopping for a little bit. That night, the two of us went to services at the Florence Synagogue, which is stare-with-your-mouth-open-for-too-long beautiful. Seriously, services weren't that great, but the setting made up for it. The women's section wasn't so excluded, but it was weird to hear a Kabbalat Shabbat service with pretty much no singing. I don't know if it's something I'll do all the time, but it was really cool to see the building. After, we ate at Chabad, and it was so nice to have CHALLAH!!! We met these people from Teaneck (obviously) and ran in to my camp friend because otherwise it simply would not be a Jewish function. Emily and I had a sleepover at her place that night because my apartment was empty and I didn't want to sleep alone and I had to be at the train station bright and early the next morning.
Saturday was great, although not quite as planned. I was supposed to go to Venice for Carnivale with my friends Sarah, Melissa, and Marissa, but for some reason we didn't think that the rest of the world would want to do this and the train was sold out. Probably, one of my dumber moments here. So, instead we went to Pisa to see the Leaning Tower. Not quite Carnivale, but still fun. It only took us an hour to get there by train, and then we stopped for lunch (complete with a crepe!) before heading over to the Tower. Pisa is cute, but the tower is pretty much the only thing to do in Pisa. The Tower was SO COOL!! IT ACTUALLY LEANS!! Which sounds stupid, but after seeing pictures your whole life, when you get there it's cool to see that it really does exist and isn't some photography trick. The Tower is really pretty and we were lucky to be there on a beautiful day to take the obligatory pushing/kicking/leaning on the Tower pictures. It was great. We snapped a few pictures and then headed back to the train, because there really is nothing else to do there. We could've climbed the tower, but it was 15 euro, and Pisa doesn't have much of a view, plus it looked a little creepy. That night it was Beth's 21st birthday, and even though those don't matter here, they're still fun to celebrate!
Sunday it was BEAUTIFUL out, so I just spent a lot of time walking around. I walked up to this park on the outskirts of the city center and found a cool market. I got some sort of spicy cheese and it was delicious. They had all kinds of stuff there, including vintage bags, so good thing I didn't have a lot of cash on me. Miriam and I ordered in that night (I think we found one of five places in Florence that does it, plus it takes our meal tickets, win!). Buuuut, the food wasn't that great, but we stayed in our sweats, which is really all that matters.
More updates soon...plus my family gets here today, yay!!!!
Ciao, belli!!!
It was a fun week, even though I've started to have to pretend to do work because midterms and term papers apparently actually exist in Florence, who knew? They pretty much suck, because no one wants to take time away from doing things around Firenze, especially because it is FINALLY getting (sort of) warm outside (meaning when you're in the sun it's great, in the shade, not so much).
On Tuesday, Miriam and I went to this really cool bead store near our school to explore a little bit, and then headed over to the Pitti Palace to go through one of the 5 million museums housed there (ok, it's more like 8 or something like that, but whatever). Miriam and I just went through the basic art collection, which is cool because it's set up in the rooms where the Medicis used to live in the palace, so it was kind of a double tour. There was A LOT of art in there, seriously there were maybe two blank spots on the wall. My favorite room documented the life of Hercules, which is way more graphic than Disney makes it seem. That night, I had dinner with Jess and we got super yummy gelato afterwards!
Wednesday was fun! Joanna, Beth, and I changed it up and got lunch at a place other than GustaPanini, and it was yummmmmmy...great bread, tomato, mozzarella, and lots of oregano...mmm! Miriam's parents were here for the week, so they took a bunch of us to La Giostra for dinner (thanks again!!). I cannot even begin to describe how delicious the food is here. Everything is so fresh and so yummy, and it is probably one of the best places to eat here. I got ravioli with zucchini blossoms and it was delicious. The guy who owns the place has silver bracelets on both arms up to his elbows (how do you sleep like that? It can't be comfortable) and 4 giant rings on each hand. He's so hippy dippy, which is funny because of the reputation of the restaurant. Anyway, he was great because Negrin's boss knows him, and made sure we had a great meal. Afterwards, Miriam, Negrin, Jordan, and I went to Joshua Tree and hung out for the night! Paulo, the manager, tried to get me to sign up to DJ one night. I told him he was crazy.
Thursday, I went to the Uffizi with my friend (and future roommate!) Ali. The building itself was gorgeous, and obviously, so was the artwork. It was really cool to see the Birth of Venus and Primavera up close, both paintings are STUNNING. After, Ali and I had fun in the gift shop and read children's books about art. They are surprisingly informative. Brought me back to art appreciation class from elementary school...look how far I've come. Thursday night was another delicious dinner with Miriam's parents, this time at Il Gato, which has the most heavenly balsamic vinegar ever (thanks!) I got yummy spaghetti with pesto sauce, tomatoes, and tons of parmesan, YUM.
Friday, my friend Emily and I went to the central market, which is really cool!!! There is so much fresh food there, it was hard to pick what to eat! We got some yummy sandwiches and then went shopping for a little bit. That night, the two of us went to services at the Florence Synagogue, which is stare-with-your-mouth-open-for-too-long beautiful. Seriously, services weren't that great, but the setting made up for it. The women's section wasn't so excluded, but it was weird to hear a Kabbalat Shabbat service with pretty much no singing. I don't know if it's something I'll do all the time, but it was really cool to see the building. After, we ate at Chabad, and it was so nice to have CHALLAH!!! We met these people from Teaneck (obviously) and ran in to my camp friend because otherwise it simply would not be a Jewish function. Emily and I had a sleepover at her place that night because my apartment was empty and I didn't want to sleep alone and I had to be at the train station bright and early the next morning.
Saturday was great, although not quite as planned. I was supposed to go to Venice for Carnivale with my friends Sarah, Melissa, and Marissa, but for some reason we didn't think that the rest of the world would want to do this and the train was sold out. Probably, one of my dumber moments here. So, instead we went to Pisa to see the Leaning Tower. Not quite Carnivale, but still fun. It only took us an hour to get there by train, and then we stopped for lunch (complete with a crepe!) before heading over to the Tower. Pisa is cute, but the tower is pretty much the only thing to do in Pisa. The Tower was SO COOL!! IT ACTUALLY LEANS!! Which sounds stupid, but after seeing pictures your whole life, when you get there it's cool to see that it really does exist and isn't some photography trick. The Tower is really pretty and we were lucky to be there on a beautiful day to take the obligatory pushing/kicking/leaning on the Tower pictures. It was great. We snapped a few pictures and then headed back to the train, because there really is nothing else to do there. We could've climbed the tower, but it was 15 euro, and Pisa doesn't have much of a view, plus it looked a little creepy. That night it was Beth's 21st birthday, and even though those don't matter here, they're still fun to celebrate!
Sunday it was BEAUTIFUL out, so I just spent a lot of time walking around. I walked up to this park on the outskirts of the city center and found a cool market. I got some sort of spicy cheese and it was delicious. They had all kinds of stuff there, including vintage bags, so good thing I didn't have a lot of cash on me. Miriam and I ordered in that night (I think we found one of five places in Florence that does it, plus it takes our meal tickets, win!). Buuuut, the food wasn't that great, but we stayed in our sweats, which is really all that matters.
More updates soon...plus my family gets here today, yay!!!!
Ciao, belli!!!
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Roman Holiday
Big.
Rome is really, really big. When I got there, I kind of felt like Coming from Firenze, which is incredibly walkable and small, I was overwhelmed by the size of Rome from the second they handed us the map. I was shocked at how overwhelmed I was by the size considering I've grown up with New York City, but the City is a grid and I've grown really used to it, so Rome was a whole new thing. However, besides being absurdly huge, Rome is pretty cool.
Roma is really different than Firenze (and being there made me so happy I'm studying here instead of there) because the contrast between old and new is so apparent there. In Florence, the new stuff seems to blend in, while in Rome, you're walking down a modern street and all of the sudden it's, "oh hey, there's the Colosseum!" It's also a lot more open and spread out than Florence, which meant I spent my weekend taking cabs or metros between the main city and my hotel (which was on the outskirts in the middle of nowhere, and pretty much sucked all around because it smelled like smoke and the concierge was mean and almost lost our key, rude).
Anyway, we left for Rome at 8 am on Thursday, which meant I had to leave the house at 7 30, which meant I woke up at 7. Hello, high school zombie-faced me. It was great, and a wonderful reminder that I am so glad I don't have to wake up that early anymore. The bus ride to Rome was bellisima; Umbria (where Rome is located) is green and gorgeous, your stereotypical Italian countryside. Once we got to Rome we got lunch, and sat around and did nothing, because the hotel screwed up and didn't have our rooms ready, but our tours didn't start till 2.
Finally, it was touring time. The tours were led by teachers from our school, who all magically knew everything and anything about Rome and every little building and art piece in it. I was amazed. Miriam and I were in a group with a bunch of our friends led by her painting teacher Franz, he's awesome. He also crosses streets whenever he wants, whether cars are coming or not, which is not so convenient (or safe) when you have 25 people following you on walking tours. Only a few near death experiences though. That day we saw the Pantheon, and I was in awe of its sheer size. Miriam captured the moment...
Yes, that was my actual face when I walked into the building. I was most excited about seeing all the ancient Roman buildings and ruins because I am a dork and a)love history and b)love mythology, so the Pantheon was awesome (although its a church now like everything else in Rome). We also saw the Spanish Steps, the Trevi Fountain (where we threw in the obligatory coin, although I just looked up and apparently you're supposed to throw in 2 or 3...oops. Fun Fact: approx 3,000 euros are thrown into the fountain PER DAY...the money goes towards the poor...thanks wikipedia!) We also saw a TON of churches, whose names I can't remember, but they were pretty cool. That night I saw my friend Ben from high school for dinner, and it was so great to catch up. From dinner, I met up with my UMD friends from my program and we went out with a bunch of UMD kids who are studying in Rome. It was so much fun to be with a bunch of Maryland people and was totally worth the late night even though we had to be at approxiamately 7 30 am the next morning.
Friday was Vatican Day. Seriously, I think saw every single piece of artwork in the Vatican collection. It was really cool, and the Vatican is beautiful. The Sistine Chapel (which the signs keep telling you is close, but actually you still have another 2 hours of touring to go before getting there) is really amazing, although really different than what I expected. Each individual scene is much bigger than in pictures and the whole thing is not as tiny and cramped as I thought it would be. From the Vatican Museum we went to St. Peter's Basilica, and by this point I had been on my feet for about 4 hours and was tired, hungry, and my feet HURT (like wearing my 4 inch heels for 4 hours hurts, it sucked). My friend Stacey took a great picture of me that entirely accurately describes my mood
St. Peter's was stunning though and GIGANTIC. I've never seen such a big church, and at this point I've seen a lot of churches. There's statue of a saint in the church that Catholics rub the foot of for good luck and obviously I thought of Testudo and his nose :) From St. Peter's, Miriam and I got lunch with two of our roommates and then went back to the hotel to nap. After our nap, Miram and I went with our friends Sarah, Sarah, and Ali (who are all in SDT with me) to meet up with our friend Laura who's studying in Rome and is also in SDT. It was great to have dinner with them and we went to this amazing place called Tony's (where every single abroad student was eating that night...I saw two people from my high school). The food was honestly some of the best I've had since I've been here. You should all go and order their bruschetta and their penne alla vodka, which isn't technically an Italian dish, but they put the American versions to shame. And we got free dessert :) We were all stuffed and exhausted afterwards so we went home and went to bed.
Saturday was by far the best day of the trip because we went to the Colosseum and the Roman Forum and they were GREAT. It was so nice to have a break from all the churches and learn about another part of Rome's history. The Colosseum was freakin awesome...although really cold...but it was so cool to see where all the gladiator battles occurred and to just be standing in such an old structure. We spent a little while there, and then three of my friends and I got lost. Our group went one way and we went the other. However, Miriam called me and informed that Franz (our guide) no longer felt like waiting for us. Luckily we found another group to take us to our next stop (where we saw the horned Moses) and we found our group again. Thanks for waiting Franz. Although, because we got to the Moses church (yes, I just said that) early, we got to hear this choir singing and they sounded gorgeous. The acoustics in the church were perfect and their voices just soared through the air, it was really awesome. Afterwards, we went to the Roman Forum to see those ruins. SO COOL! We saw Caesar's grave and all these old temples and it was just great. I loved it. The rest of the day involved lunch and more touring, but Miriam and I were tired and "sneakily" ditched our tour (we are the least bad ass people ever) to take a nap.
That night we went to the Spanish steps to see them at night and then met friends at a restaurant for dinner. From dinner, we went to the Trevi Fountain to see it all lit up, it's pretty :) Then we went to a place called Scholar's Pub, an Irish Pub where I watched my first ever rugby game...what a violent sport, they weren't kidding when they said there were no rules. We made friends with these older couples from Wales who were in Italy for the Rugby game and they were really fun. It was a chill night with great music and lots of friends :)
Sunday morning was early again. The night before the concierge had lost our room key (a lot of times here the front desk holds onto your key for you) and I was all ready to go downstairs and politely yell at them and tell them I wasn't paying for it, but it was there, so no angry me. From the hotel we went to Hadrian's Villa, which is SUPER old, but the ruins were really cool, although at this point I was so tired it was hard to appreciate them. And then we went to Tivoli gardens which is filled with fountains and beautifulness. Seriously, they are stunning. Miriam and I had asked Franz about them and he told us we'd want to take our wedding pictures there, he was totally right. I may fly back just to take pictures. From the gardens we got lunch and then headed back to home sweet Firenze!
Miriam and I got dinner with Negrin and Jordan that night at our favorite place around the corner. They spent the weekend in Spain so it was great to hear about that. Great end to a great weekend.
Ciao!
P.S. I totally wrote this post in such a timely matter because I am procrastinating from writing my term papers. Be proud mom.
Rome is really, really big. When I got there, I kind of felt like Coming from Firenze, which is incredibly walkable and small, I was overwhelmed by the size of Rome from the second they handed us the map. I was shocked at how overwhelmed I was by the size considering I've grown up with New York City, but the City is a grid and I've grown really used to it, so Rome was a whole new thing. However, besides being absurdly huge, Rome is pretty cool.
Roma is really different than Firenze (and being there made me so happy I'm studying here instead of there) because the contrast between old and new is so apparent there. In Florence, the new stuff seems to blend in, while in Rome, you're walking down a modern street and all of the sudden it's, "oh hey, there's the Colosseum!" It's also a lot more open and spread out than Florence, which meant I spent my weekend taking cabs or metros between the main city and my hotel (which was on the outskirts in the middle of nowhere, and pretty much sucked all around because it smelled like smoke and the concierge was mean and almost lost our key, rude).
Anyway, we left for Rome at 8 am on Thursday, which meant I had to leave the house at 7 30, which meant I woke up at 7. Hello, high school zombie-faced me. It was great, and a wonderful reminder that I am so glad I don't have to wake up that early anymore. The bus ride to Rome was bellisima; Umbria (where Rome is located) is green and gorgeous, your stereotypical Italian countryside. Once we got to Rome we got lunch, and sat around and did nothing, because the hotel screwed up and didn't have our rooms ready, but our tours didn't start till 2.
Finally, it was touring time. The tours were led by teachers from our school, who all magically knew everything and anything about Rome and every little building and art piece in it. I was amazed. Miriam and I were in a group with a bunch of our friends led by her painting teacher Franz, he's awesome. He also crosses streets whenever he wants, whether cars are coming or not, which is not so convenient (or safe) when you have 25 people following you on walking tours. Only a few near death experiences though. That day we saw the Pantheon, and I was in awe of its sheer size. Miriam captured the moment...
Friday was Vatican Day. Seriously, I think saw every single piece of artwork in the Vatican collection. It was really cool, and the Vatican is beautiful. The Sistine Chapel (which the signs keep telling you is close, but actually you still have another 2 hours of touring to go before getting there) is really amazing, although really different than what I expected. Each individual scene is much bigger than in pictures and the whole thing is not as tiny and cramped as I thought it would be. From the Vatican Museum we went to St. Peter's Basilica, and by this point I had been on my feet for about 4 hours and was tired, hungry, and my feet HURT (like wearing my 4 inch heels for 4 hours hurts, it sucked). My friend Stacey took a great picture of me that entirely accurately describes my mood
Saturday was by far the best day of the trip because we went to the Colosseum and the Roman Forum and they were GREAT. It was so nice to have a break from all the churches and learn about another part of Rome's history. The Colosseum was freakin awesome...although really cold...but it was so cool to see where all the gladiator battles occurred and to just be standing in such an old structure. We spent a little while there, and then three of my friends and I got lost. Our group went one way and we went the other. However, Miriam called me and informed that Franz (our guide) no longer felt like waiting for us. Luckily we found another group to take us to our next stop (where we saw the horned Moses) and we found our group again. Thanks for waiting Franz. Although, because we got to the Moses church (yes, I just said that) early, we got to hear this choir singing and they sounded gorgeous. The acoustics in the church were perfect and their voices just soared through the air, it was really awesome. Afterwards, we went to the Roman Forum to see those ruins. SO COOL! We saw Caesar's grave and all these old temples and it was just great. I loved it. The rest of the day involved lunch and more touring, but Miriam and I were tired and "sneakily" ditched our tour (we are the least bad ass people ever) to take a nap.
That night we went to the Spanish steps to see them at night and then met friends at a restaurant for dinner. From dinner, we went to the Trevi Fountain to see it all lit up, it's pretty :) Then we went to a place called Scholar's Pub, an Irish Pub where I watched my first ever rugby game...what a violent sport, they weren't kidding when they said there were no rules. We made friends with these older couples from Wales who were in Italy for the Rugby game and they were really fun. It was a chill night with great music and lots of friends :)
Sunday morning was early again. The night before the concierge had lost our room key (a lot of times here the front desk holds onto your key for you) and I was all ready to go downstairs and politely yell at them and tell them I wasn't paying for it, but it was there, so no angry me. From the hotel we went to Hadrian's Villa, which is SUPER old, but the ruins were really cool, although at this point I was so tired it was hard to appreciate them. And then we went to Tivoli gardens which is filled with fountains and beautifulness. Seriously, they are stunning. Miriam and I had asked Franz about them and he told us we'd want to take our wedding pictures there, he was totally right. I may fly back just to take pictures. From the gardens we got lunch and then headed back to home sweet Firenze!
Miriam and I got dinner with Negrin and Jordan that night at our favorite place around the corner. They spent the weekend in Spain so it was great to hear about that. Great end to a great weekend.
Ciao!
P.S. I totally wrote this post in such a timely matter because I am procrastinating from writing my term papers. Be proud mom.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Ok so I'm a little behind, this goes between Interlaken and Austria
The Monday (aka Valentine's Day) I got back from Interlaken I should have been exhausted because I slept for about 5 hours, but the miracle of adrenaline kicked in and I had a great day. Class was not so exciting, although my globalization teacher called me a conformist for recycling and I preceded to give him a death stare. On my way to lunch I saw some flowers sitting on the desk for people, but I assumed they were for other people because my dad had adamantly told me I wasn't getting flowers this year. But, Joanna came up to me and told me there were flowers sitting on the desk for me and I was like "that's impossible!", but my dad made my day and surprised me with flowers. Thanks for the roses, daddy! For lunch that day, my friends Beth and Joanna and I went to the Boboli gardens for lunch! These gardens are HUGE and even though it is even springtime, beautiful already. It was so fun to just roam around see the beautiful views. I can't wait to go back when it gets nicer out. Bonus: it was free because of our awesome museum card! For dinner that night, Miriam and I went to her friend Jill's apartment for a cute Valentine's day dinner. Dinner was really fun, although everyone was Southern and I have never heard "y'all" used so many times in my life. it was quite overwhelming. After, Miriam and I hung out with Jill for a while and then met Jordan, Negrin, and Doug at Kikuya.
On Tuesday morning I had class at the beautiful Palazzo Medici (Medici Palace). It is now the home of the governor of Tuscany, but he's moving out soon. Class got out early, yay!, so I got lunch with friends and then did some much needed apartment cleaning. That night we went to a wine tasting, yummy! It was cool to learn how wine is made and about its different qualities. We met some of my camp friends for aperitivo and then went to Be Bop for Beatles night! I ran into my friend Julia, who went to high school with me and my friend Mara who was in USY with me! This guy cane up to us on the street, who we immediately thought was creepy, but turned out he wasn't at all, and he explained what this secret bar thing down the street from our apartment was. So he was not creepy and helpful...winner. Great night!
Wednesday I had my first meeting for San Lorenzo tour guiding, which was cool, it's a beautiful church. I also found a mozzarella bar and a cute vintage shop that I definitely need to further explore. After class, I was exhausted...I did not want to move ever again. Miriam and I just went to dinner out our favorite restaurant around the corner from our apartment. It's this little whole in the whole and we made friends with the waiter, Maritizio. It's absolutely delicious food. After dinner, I did nothing. It was great.
Thursday, nothing exciting. Just made dinner for Miriam and I and then off to Austria!!!! YAY SOUND OF MUSIC!!
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