KellySmith3

This story actually begins on Tuesday April 24thbut unhappy events don’t begin until after the chime of midnight. Since I’m in Florence and church bells actually ring the hours there are actual chimes, although I didn’t hear them that evening. So Tuesday evening was the farewell event for the AIFS group from California, and to celebrate a karaoke evening was planned. Everyone from the Washington group was going to go and Michelle was even going to sing, if accompanied, because performing karaoke was one of the items on her bucket list. The basement of the Old Stove in Palazzo Vecchio was packed full of rambunctious college students ready to celebrate the end of finals; their teacher was not as kind as ours when it comes to school work. To start off the singing were three girls ... read more

Saturday April 21st was a day full of pain; the leisurely hike I was expecting was not what I got. It began with a pleasant public bus ride to a Tuscany town called St. Brigida, which took about an hour. After exciting the bus we start down a small side street and are told we are going to the sanctuary called Madonna of the Rock, it has nothing to do with the painting of the same name. From where we are standing we can see the church building up about halfway on the hill. Okay, I think that is doable. Then he says it should take us about half an hour to get there, alright, more difficult but I should be okay. We continue to walk along and we come across a cross and plaque on ... read more

Wow, it has been 10 days since I posted, sorry everyone! Sometimes time just goes by too quickly, I think this is the first time I wished a quarter would slow down. To help me reconstruct the past week I’m going to post emails I’ve sent to my mom, I try to email her daily. April 9th I'm about to cook my first steak!(It is true, I had never cooked a steak) I hope it goes well; being able to cook at home would save money. I almost have to relearn cooking because what is available is so different! No cheddar cheese, let alone Colby jack, tons of unknown ones though. They don't refrigerate their eggs or oj, but I like the oj here better more watery or something. I also can't find raspberry jam. +( ... read more

Happy Resurrection Sunday! I want to focus this blog post on my day trip to Milan with Florence For Fun; I’ll make a second post either tonight or tomorrow on Scoppio Del Carro (explosion of the cart). My day began early since it is just over a three hour bus ride to Milan from Florence. On the way up the group watched The Devil Wears Prada and the beginning of The Holiday to pass the time, although some people did sleep. Upon arrival we went to the historic district and walked around, we visited the cathedral and the gallery. The church was massive and had glass windows and artwork everywhere. This church is said to be the house of one of the nails that was used to hang Jesus on the cross; but this is only ... read more

3/25/12 Still no wifi at the apartment and our student center is closed on the weekend so I’m unable to go there and use the internet. I could go find an internet café but I don’t want to pay for it. I think the most difficult thing for me to get used to is paying for almost everything with cash and only getting receipts about a quarter of the time. There is actually a law that a receipt must be provided but it still isn’t done. Because of this I’m having a difficult time keeping a solid record of my spending. Last night I didn’t get a chance to update my spending spread sheet so today I had to calculate two days’ worth and I’m off by 11.38. This might not be a big deal to ... read more