April 19th, the past 10 days

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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 9^th

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. +( the most I've made so far has been some tortellini that was pre made, I didn't like it, and cooked some mushrooms.

I’m not sure I mentioned it, but our apartment doesn’t have an oven and our fridge is what people normally have in their dorm rooms. Not a whole lot of space. We do have a microwave though.

I’m for sure getting in my exercise to get to my apartment there are 43 awkward steps from the main road, then a hill to the apartment building, then 16 steps up to the apartment. Since this email to my mom I have counted the other steps I have to go up regularly. I take my Italian language course at ABC school once a week; there are 61 steps up to the school. For my other classes and the AIFS office where we go to print things out or get advice on whatever we need there are 41 steps. Tuesday and wed we go up at least twice, once in the morning and once for our afternoon class. Monday and Thursday it is just once for classes but we are often there more than that. So many steps!

April 10^th

I booked my time in Greece but not through the Florence for fun I went my own way and will be spending the 26 through 30th in Athens with a night in Rome on each end. Florence for Fun is a tour company geared towards study abroad students; they are the group that I went to Milan with. I heard from some other AIFS girls that the Corfu trip was basically a nonstop college party, not what I’m looking for. So instead of a couple of days on Corfu I will be spending my time in Athens! I feel like I will enjoy that more.

April 11^th

Today was raining and thundering. I went and bought jeans, I was so cold today, I also need to buy a pair of boots to keep my feet warm and dry. (Which I have since purchased, so cute!) It is supposed to rain all week. Because of the weather we are doing the town visits this week and the beach next week. (The weather has continued to be bad so myself and the other Washington students have dropped out of the Cinqueterra trip and will go together on our own when the weather gets better.)

Today was the curiosities of Florence tour; we walked around for two hours, some wet, and some sun. She pointed out a face carved into the side of a building I have walked past numerous times and have not noticed, it is said to have been done by Michelangelo while bored during a conversation with someone, behind his own back! I also learned that when Michelangelo’s David was first put on display the Florentines at the time didn’t like it so they threw things at it, like rotten fruit.

I still need to find a hostel for Rome for the 25th and 30th plus my train tickets. I also want to check into a tour, Phillipa (one of our AIFS office people) gave me the email address for the guide company they use; maybe I'll be able to tag along with another group. (That reminds me, I still need to do all this!)

April 12th

Hello, I went shopping today with Rebecca and Michelle. I didn't find any boots, and decided against an umbrella, there are better uses for my funds. I did however purchase the pair of Florence soccer shoes which will work as husky shoes at home, they were still only 30%!o(MISSING)ff but I'm glad to have another pair of tennis shoes. (These shoes would take off a layer of skin on my heel after only a couple hours of wearing them in which most of the time I was sitting! The next day would be painful, but it has since healed.)

April 13^th

It was to two towns in the Tuscan countryside. Montepulciano is known for the filming of new moon, parts of gladiator, and under the Tuscan sun. There are some interesting buildings here and plenty to look at, but I found it amusing how they are cashing in on the Twilight craziness. There was a random tourist who stopped me and Rebecca and asked if our tour guide knew where the fountain was from the movie. I guess it was placed there, because there isn’t one. During our tour there were a couple of jokes made by the tour guide that had to be explained to me because I’ve never seen the movie.

The other town, Pienza, is known for its cheese. I tried it, but didn't like it. I wanted to bring some back for Liz and Grandma Jo but was told it wouldn't keep. Other than that it is a small town without much to see, it took 30min to look at everything. There were some great views of the countryside though.

I stayed at home on the 14^th and 15^th, I felt a bit under the weather, and my foot hurt.

April 16^th

Hello, I had a busy day, full day of class than an olive oil tasting, which is just weird. You drink the olive oil then eat a piece of bread. Super strange. We tasted three levels. The last two I smelled kiwi fruit, which was wrong, but that is what the smell made me think of. Anyways, after olive oil tasting Michelle and I went out for a tasty voucher meal. I had a veggie soup thingy (it is supposed to be a Tuscan classic), roasted chicken with a side of beans and chocolate cake. I liked it except for the cake, it had a different texture, but it was all included on the voucher so it was a great deal!

The culture calendar for the 2^nd half of our time here came out!

April 24 Good bye to California group, karaoke night! (This is Rebecca’s group and the last one besides us here)

April 30 Notte Bianca (White Night) Shops, restaurants, cafes, certain museums, cinemas, etc. will be open all night long, some until 6am! There will be concerts in the piazzas, art installations, djs and more.

May 2nd Pizza making class

May 11^th Pisa and Lucca day trip

May 14th Palazzo Vecchio secret passages tour! And it is only 3 euro!

May 23rd Cooking class: ravioli di spinaci (spinach) e ricotta and sformato di verdure (a type of soufflé of vegetables) and panna cotta (cooked cream…I think.)

June 1st Departure day +(

We will have a good bye dinner also but that isn't scheduled yet.

April 18^th

Went to Santa Croce with our Italian Life and Culture class, our teacher is a great guide. I was getting tired of churches but she had so much information it created a story and really drew in my interest. Michelangelo is buried here as well as Galileo, and Machiavelli. Dante has a tomb there but not his bones, they are kept by the town he was exiled to, Ravenna. Every year Florence writes to them and requests his remains to which Ravenna replies “you didn’t want him in life so you cannot have him in death.” There were also picture posted of the huge flood that happened in 1966. It is amazing to see how much was damaged and how high the waters got. I wish we could take our teacher around with us everywhere!

I have also started a dropbox account with all of my pictures; if you’re interested in looking at everything instead of just the few I post on my blog message me through the blog and I will send you an invite to get access.







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