August 31st

So this morning I got up at around 6 because we had a massive thunder and lightning storm. It was really nice, it cooled everything down and didn’t make it that humid either. So we had a very packed day, at 9am a woman from our leasing company came by to go over some ground rules and show us how to use our appliances and our fuse box. Then at 10 we had to go to the school for orientation, which included a very interesting talk from the chief police officer for Florence. He was super hot, and sadly already married, but like everyone has a crush on him.  He pretty much just taught us good ways to be street smart in Italy, especially us girls, and warned us against doing anything illegal. Then after that we had an hour lunch break where Jordan and I (one of my roommates) found this cute little panini place that was super cheap but really good. I don’t even know what they put in mine I just ate it and it was super good. I just realized that I never really gave the names of my roomies, I’m actually rooming with Avigayil, then Tess and Jordan are in the other double room and then Jessi is in the single. It was actually her birthday today too. Then after that we headed back to the apartment where everyone else was, hung out there for a bit and regrouped then we all headed back at 2 for the next part of orientation which was when they handed out our schedules. I got into most of the classes I wanted, the cooking class sadly got dropped because it would have had a huge studio fee to cover all the necessary ingredients, and they also dropped my art history class which was a 400 level, the other two art histories they are offering are just 300. Anyway so I have Italian lessons with everyone from 10-noon every Monday and Wednesday. Then Experimental Photography from 4:15-7pm on Monday and Wednesday. Painting 3 from 1:15-4p every Tuesday and Thursday, and then immediately following that at 4:15-7 is my Drawing Florence class. Because I did not get the art history class I am taking a History of Florence class, but I’m not sure I I’m gonna keep it, I know a lot about Florence all ready and I really don’t need a history class for any credits… but we’ll see. Then all of us have to do this Art and Culture Seminar, which is for one credit and is every Wednesday from 7:30-8:30pm and pretty much they explained that its gonna be used as a way to really get us immersed into Italy. It’s not gonna be a lecture type thing, we are gonna be going places, having a wine a cheese tasting, going to a super cool library that is where all the college students go to etc. So I’m really excited, plus I already know some people who are gonna be in my classes. Us girls in the suite are already starting to really bond, it’s probably because we are all in a foreign place and have no one else but each other, but its still really nice. So then after schedules we were allowed to talk to Laelle to change anything we wanted to change, I had to see her actually cause she spelt my last name with out the e. Then we had another orientation where we got to meet a couple of the professors, it was really fun. The one professor of history is hilarious, he went on a 20 min rant about how you shouldn’t drink bad or cheap wine and how is it ridiculous to get drunk on wine. After that we had two hours till we had to go back for the welcome dinner, so I went back to the suite. But on the way there I kinda got stalked by this guy, I shook him off eventually but it was kinda funny cause that was the exact thing that the police officer had been warning us about and he told us what to do, just ignore them. So that’s what I did, and I had to walk right past my apartment building cause I didn’t want him to follow me in there, so I went down to the Japanese restaurant right at the end of my block. It gave me an excuse to check out the prices of the restaurant, which they aren’t that bad so I’m really excited to try the food. Then I safely made it back to my apartment and just hung out for a bit. Then after an hour and a half I went back to the school and just hung out there. I met some new people and talked with them and then when we were all there we started heading to the restaurant. It was a little bit of a walk, but worth it. The teachers had already planned what was to be served to us so we all had the same dishes. We started out with three bruschetta’s which were topped with tomatoes, mushed up olives, and one which was like liver pate I think. I at them all they were actually quite good. And all of dinner was accompanied by the house wine in red and white. The wine was good, not all that dimensional taste wise but still nice. Then for the primi we had penne in a red sauce with sausages pieces and ravioli in a white cheese sauce and asparagus cut into it. The ravioli was amazing, and the sauce was even better. Then for the secondi we had chicken in a yellow squash sauce and potatoes that were cooked with rosemary, it was wonderful. For desert they served flan, I tried mine but just couldn’t eat it, it tasted disgusting to me. Then we all just sat around and talked for ever, people started leaving one by one till there were just the three teachers: Alexandra, Martha, and Laelle and then Jessi, Casey and myself left. We all just sat and talked for a good hour and the teacher got us some lemon cellos to wash our meal down, it wasn’t that bad tasting it was kinda like lemon cough drops with alcohol. Then a little after we finished those we left, by then it was past 10:30pm. Jessi, Casey and I decided to have some gelato (honestly I don’t know how we even had room for gelato) so we went to this new gelateri where Casey and her roommates had made friends with the owner, Francesco. The gelateri is also right in front of Casey’s apartment so when we got our gelato we went up to her apartment and ate our gelato on the roof. I’m actually so jealous of her apartment, it is beautiful and huge! The bedrooms are very spacious they have a separate dining room and a winding staircase that leads to the rooftop where they have a spectacular view of the Duomo and can see right into the Pallaza d’Medici. We hung out at her place till like midnight and then Jessi and I walked back to our apartment and promptly passed out.