Europe » Italy » Tuscany » Florence
January 17th 2011

Published: January 19th 2011

First of all, I would like to state for the record that Daddy is not a grouch, at least not all the time, hehee. He is the most wonderful father a girl could ever have. I am a Daddy's Girl and proud of it. If I inadvertantly described him in such a way as to indicate he is grumpy, I do apologise as it was unintentional. I would also like to state for the record that my Father is a lovable and doting person with a mostly pleasant temperament. (Love you Daddy).

Geloso

So everyone I know from home keeps telling me how jealous they are; but I don't think so. I do not have an english dictionary with me, and even if I did, I surely would not find anyone's face next to the entry for jealous. I do however have an Italian dictionary and in it, I assure you there are no photos of anyone I know next to the entry for geloso. That being said, I would like to say that I don't like the word geloso at all. It's not at all romantic or beautiful to say. If anyone's photo is in the dictionary, coughcoughPatLirotcoughcough, it would be next to the word bramosia which means longing or desire. Now, everyone get your heads out of the gutter! I know who you are! I know that everyone wishes they could be here, and I honestly wish I could bring everyone over here to see it. That is essentially why I started this blog. I am so blessed to have this opportunity to live and study and explore Italy, and I am forever thankful to all of the people who made this possible. And so, I write this blog so that all of the people I love can live vicariously through me, in case they have not and will not have an opportunity to come here themselves. Oh, and actually, Mrs Lirot, I have a better word for you: desiderio. It means "wish" which suits you much better. More Disney-esque, hehee.

Monday 9:30am- Italiano

Okay so this morning I had my first Italian class, and my professor is a totally outrageous nutcase, so naturally I totally love her. I think my biggest problem in that class is going to be keeping my spanish and my italian straight; they are so similar that I've already mixed them up on several occasions. We have Italiano four times a week, which I think is awesome because that means we'll learn faster. Once you move away from the tourist areas people don't speak much English, so I want to learn Italian as fast as humanly possible! My new favorite Italian expression is cin cin (pronounces chin-chin) which means Cheers! way cool.

Monday 10:45am-The Villa And The Garden

My professor's name is Silvia and I havn't quite figured her out yet. She is very articulate and speaks very formal english; not forced, but it definitely feels stiff. She has this harsh 50's mod hairstyle, which sort of suits her speech. But then, from the neck-down, shes sort of this hippie-artsy-earthmother. She always has these unusual freeflowing artsy cloths on, and she actually makes her own jewelry. Her jewelry is chunky and often made of second-hand-buttons which she apparently loves to collect and use in her jewelry. Its sort of odd listening to her, because her wardrobe looks so artistic, and then she sounds like shes reading straight out of a textbook. And for whatever reason, in spite of, or perhaps because of this dichotomy, I totally love her! hehee.
I'm really excited about this class, like you have no idea. I took the History of Landscape Architecture last semester, and I absolutely adored it, so of course I register for The Villa and The Garden. I only have class for an hour on Mondays, but on Wednesdays we meet for 2 hours and usually we meet on site! Yes, you read that correctly, I get to spend 2/3rds of the class learning about Villas and Gardens while being in villas and gardens. How awesome!

Monday 11am-2:30pm

Lost. Again. Mostly its fun to be lost in Florence. Its a safe city during the day and there arn't any bad spots in the city center so long as you avoid the gypsies. But today, my bag was heavy, I slept badly the night before so I was wiped, and I was so totally lost that I couldn't even figure out where I was on my map. The worst part was that I discover that in Europe they don't carry my shoe size. That's one of my big dreams: to own an authentic pair of Italian leather boots. I was literally near tears by the time I found my street. My morning was ruined by my clown feet.

Monday 4pm-Architecture in Context

Franco teaches this class, and I absolutely love him. He's a genious, but he's so humble! And the first thing out of his mouth was that he will treat us as colleagues, and we should do the same. He said we are adults just like him and he hates when teachers pontificate. He wants an open dialogue, and he wants to get to know us. Seriously, I wish more teachers in the states are like this, cuz he is awesome.

Monday 7pm-Grocery Shopping

After class we all walked to the "coop" which is the Italian equivalent of a grocery store. Yes, "coop" is the store's actually name. If you don't believe me, google it, lol! So anyway, grocery shopping is no big deal when you're looking at produce, or cereal or anything with a picture on it. But try going to the deli; I have no idea how to say turkey in Italian! I ended up with chicken instead, lol. Good thing I eat that too! And then I had to grab some shampoo and makeup remover and stuff. Now, this was quite a challenge. Shampoo was no biggee- its the same in Italian. Conditioner was not a big deal either; its the bottle with the funny name directly next to the shampoo. Makeup remover though? not a chance. No pictures, no recognizable words nothing. I felt so bad because I had to harass all the Italians until I found someone who spoke English! Thank God she was friendly, because in general the people of Florence are impatient, and often not very nice. Talk about an adventure! Things I take for granted at home are such a challenge here! lesson learned!

Tuesday 10:45am-Historic Preservation of Architecture in Italy

Carlo teaches this class and I really like him too. He and Franco have similar views on teaching. Inn fact, the first thing we did was fill out a survey for him; some of it was school related some of it wasn't. He asked everything from "Why did you take this class?" to "What's your favorite type of music?" Very cool dude. He is understandable, but he definitely has a heavy accent when he speaks English. He actually had me read the syllabus outloud. I guess he must have liked my voice or something because he made me read almost the whole thing instead of calling on other people... wierd.

Tuesday 3pm- Studio

Carlo teaches this class as well, but he also has two other architects working with him because we have 22 students here and only 12 per section back home. This is sweet because between the 3 of them we'll get more desk-crit time here than at RWU! yay! This semester we are going to do some urban planning here in Florence, then we are going to design a piazza and then we are designing a mix-use infill building. I am super pumped! Carlo made me read again today. Again, just me. People are going to think I'm a teacher's pet if Carlo keeps at it; I have enough problems being thought of as a nerd already. sigh. Tomorrow we are going on-site though, so no need to worry.

Wednesday

So I figured out how Italians can eat so much bread and Pasta without being extremely obese. No, portion control has nothing to do with it, because it is socially unacceptable to eat less than 2 courses at dinner, and it is much preferred if you eat all 4. I am 99%!p(MISSING)ositive that they don't get fat because of stairs. Literally, between my apartment, the 3 different buildings I have class in, todays 2 site visits, and the trip to the library, I walked up and down hundreds of stairs today. I shit you not! And then in the middle of all this, it rained. And they didn't reschedule the site visits. So we walked up and down hundreds of stairs in the rain, and yes most of them were in fact outside, so the rain is relavent. And this is very normal here in Florence. There will mostlikely be days where I walk up even more stairs than I did today.... My butt is gunna hurt so bad tomorrow; I can feel it already. And let me tell you, If I don't have an amazing ass by the time I get home, Ima be super pissed.

Classes Begin