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Published: September 3rd 2008
hey everyone!! so i finally made it over here. i honestly cant tell you how beautiful it is... its the kinda thing where it just feels like theres no words to give justice to it.
(ill probably make a lot of references to places around the city.. so i apologize if it doesnt make any sense! ill try to explain.. but i definitely suggest you open up a map of florence on google so u can kinda follow along.
SO.. here we go.
Its funny because all before I left, everyone kept asking me if i was scared or nervous about the culture clash.. and of course about not knowing how to speak italian yet, haha. But quite honestly, i really wasnt. I didn't really even begin to take in the whole idea. I couldn't even conceptualize it, u know? I'm a travel bug at heart, so new places and different cultures are nothing but enticing and amazing to me... its always just a matter of affording the ticket to get there. However, the moment I turned my cell phone off in JFK airport in new york it became real. I finally realized how far away i was about to be and my mind started to race with thoughts. haha. I was pretty much stoked! ... and im not gonna lie a bit nervous in general.
The difference between italy and anywhere else ive been to is the language barrier. I finally caught on to that as the plane was taking off. First off, noone spoke english around me, except for a small family from what sounded like staten island... but that accent in no way gives me comfort.ha. Then, I looked up at thi sign on the ceiling and it said "uscita" with "exit" written in small print below it. Now I must have sat there staring at that word trying to figure out how in the hell that word is supposed to be pronounced! I swear i had a mini anurism as i started to realize the reality of it. haha. I mean, ive been blessed to have seen many different places with lots of people who speak with crazy accents and slang.. who have all sorts of different practices and ideas. But i've never been in a situation where english isnt the dominant language. I sat there thinking.. holyyy hell.. i cant even read that damn sign, let alone pronounce it. and EXIT is a pretty dang simple word, you know. how the hell am i gonna do ... well .. anything?! haha. Soooooo.... i ripped out my little italian book (with all sorts of common phrases and their pronunciations) and read that thing cover to cover. It was a little stressful. haha.
After changing planes in Rome, which might have been one of the most confusing and stressful airport experience ive had, I finally landed in Firenze. I can't tell you how excited I was! I wound up being found by a couple girls from my program solely because of my bright yellow backpack and the "KIMB" written on it (thanks maldy and matt!) haha. We took a taxi to a hotel right downtown Firenze and finally met the rest of my study abroad group from Rutgers. I was immediately stoked cuz everyone really seemed like pretty good people! We lugged our bags to the elevator (which by the way.. here the elevators are barely wide enough for one person to stand comfortably) and got our room. We all went out to dinner, got to know each other and went out that night on a pub crawl thru florence to celebrate. lets just say we kicked off this trip off with a bang.. like a 'Grandpa Buchanan on the 4th of July' kinda bang haha.
2 days later, sunday the 31st, we moved into our flats and were finally able to settle down a bit. It felt pretty great to start to take my stuff out and get comfy. We have 7 people in our flat (well 9 right now.... 2 of the girls from our group got bed bugs from their apartment.. haha eww.. so theyre staying with us for the week). It's pretty modest.. not much to it really, but its way more than i ever expected out of a program like this! It is a beautiful apartment, and if the floors were finished and every piece of everything wasnt from ikea it would probably rent for and easy 5 grand at home. We have a beautiful terrace off our kitchen thats actually pretty huge. The view is pretty awesome too! which also is rare here. Because florence has made so many laws preventing the destruction of buildings (since theyre so old and historical) the buildings are pretty cramped and kinda built one on top of the other. so its rather rare to have an outside area like that.. and DEFINITELY rare for student housing. Only problem.. it is seriously way more hot here than i ever expected. also, florence has a serious problem with mosquitos! and since none of the windows have screens, its a choice between sweating for a night or itching 37 mosquito bites until they bleed for the following 4 days. haha. I share the room with a girl, Jessica, from rutgers. I couldn't ask for a better roommate!! So after a few days of us both being covered in mosquito bite madness, we opted for the sweat.
We started classes the next morning at LingaViva. There we study Italian from 9-12:40. Its a pretty long time to be sitting in one class room, but its a pretty awesome class. After that we have a break until 2, so well go home for an hour and grab lunch, go grab a coffee and a panini or something. Then we head south across the River Arno to our other building, called the Euro Centre. We study italian culture there from 2-4. At LinguaViva our group from rutgers is all divided up into small classrooms of about 10 people each. I love it because were in there with kids from all around the world who have come here to learn italian. In my class we have one girl from japan, 3 kids from mexico, 1 from columbia, a girl from sweden, another american and a few people from Rutgers. Its pretty cool to interact with people from so many different places inside one little classroom. Ill tell ya, i dont think ive ever heard so many languages at one time! haha. and despite all my worries, I'm really starting to get the language! I can actually have a conversation with someone... that conversation may include a shit ton of broken italian and a lot of "como si dice"'s (which means how do you say ....?) BUT im pretty damn proud of myself, considering i came here with nothin! I can totally pronounce "uscire" now, in case you were wondering! haha. Our class at the euro centre is just the rutgers group. we speak english there, but we basically talk about all of the controversy and issues that occur in italy nowadays. Theres so many crazy things going on in this state that I really never knew about.. so its incredibly interesting. Our teacher, Francesca, is a florentine herself, so its good to know im hearing it all straight from the horses mouth. Shes a feisty lady, Francesca! haha.
I havent really had a chance to really talk to anyone from home, which is a real bummer. I finally got a cell phone here, but a lot of you guys at home dont have the plan to make european calls (GRR to YOUU! but YAY for you guys that did! i love you!) One of the questions i keep getting asked is "What have u seen since youve been there!". Well as u can see my class schedule right now is pretty hectic. Were in class 5 days out of the week and all day. Everything closes super early here too, so by the time we get out we cant really get to stuff. And by the time the weekend comes were all so dang pooped from all the walking, going out late and getting up early that we havent gotten to do as much as we all would like. Not to mention learning a new language thats were all completely surrounded by is mentally exhausting. Im pretty eager and determined, but it is tiring and frustrating sometimes. I HAVE however made my way around this city several times.. and i have an absurd amount of pictures of scenery and the city (which i WILL be posting on this thing tomorrow). So you guys can check that out!
I walk past the Duomo everyday.. in fact I can see it from my living room window! Basically its the most historic church in Florence... its fricken MONSTROUS.. and so incredibly gorgeous! The crazy thing is that it was built in about 1260 AD.. DaVinci actually built the giant golden sphere that the church's cross sits on top of. The Ponte Vecchio is a famous bridge over the arno where this kinda street market takes place. That was pretty neat to see.. even if u dont have any euros u can entertain yourself by watching all of the gypsies. haha. We went and saw Dante's house.. which honestly kinda sucks. haha. Theyre basically like.. well.. this MAY or may not be Dante's house.. this MAY or may not be what it looked like then. This is a copy of a replica of a really important book of his time.. haha.. its that kinda crap.. so that wasnt really all that cool. Being that Florentines have so much pride because of that man (starting the italian language, and florentines speaking TRUE italian) youd think theyd come up with something better than that! haha. I also saw Michaelangelo's house.WHICH, by much contrast, was actually his house.. man lemme tell you.. that guy must have been such a pimp in his time! haha.. complete britney spears status circa 2000. They had a lot of his original clay models as well as two piece of marble he cut into amazing pieces of art when he was just 14. seriously?! 14?! we couldnt take pictures inside there, so i cant show u, but google it! i forget the proper names off hand, but one is the battle of the centaurs and the other i think lady of the scale? lady of the stairs in english. it was crazy to think about.. dude when i was 14 i was worried about things like how best to burn my plaid skirt from Our Lady of the Elms and when Hanson was coming to town... not.. stone cutting.. things!! ha. Oh and theyre food! SOOO good.. but im a bit poor so i dont get to bath in pasta at dinner every night or anything. however, theyve got some weirrrddd foods here too.. for instance.. today at the marcata (market) I definitely saw an entire window full of horse meat.. cut up horse.. complete with a poster of different horses behind the counter, so you can point and pick which kind of horse u want for dinner.. pinto or thoroughbred??? haha... ewwwww.. and theres a food here called "trippe", tripe in english, that they make sandwiches out of. Its pretty much the 4th stomach of a cow. and its boiled and slapped on a bun right out of a cart on the street. FU*KING GROSSE MAN. haha. theres just no better way to put it!
Well i know this thing is suppperrrrr long.. so for those of you who have made it all the way thru.. thank you for taking the time to read about everything!! A lot has happened since I got here, and I just havent had the time or the internet hotspots (like this one.. where i buy a beer and get free wifi! hee hee hee!) to actually write everyone.
Tomorrow Ill post all my pictures for u guys to see.. ill try my best to explain the pictures.. where theyre at, the people in them and what not! if you subscribe to this blog, itll email u whenever i post stuff, which is pretty clever.
Well in closing.. i love u all!! i miss everyone so much! keep in touch!
-kimb
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Rachel Gore
non-member comment
Amazing!
Kimb. Good luck on this adventure!! I was in Italy my freshman year for a class, although not nearly as long as you will be, only for a week.. But that week was by far one of my favorite memories. Out of all the cities that we visited, Florence was my favorite, besides Burano (which is outside of Venice..) I'm jealous that you get to walk past the Duomo everyday; isn't it amazing! I only wish you the best, and hope that you have a fabulous time! (Although, I'm sure you will.. you're in Italy!!) Take care! Ciao!! Rachel