Va Bene

This is where I live.....

Lindsey (my apartment-mate) broke my roommate's bed...

we got McDonalds. it was a beautiful day. my tummy was very happy

our kitchen

my bedroom!!! :-D

Saturday i moved into my apartment in Florence. finally.

i love love love love love love love my apartment. i share it with 3 other girls. we live right down the street from the arno river and the bridge we cross everyday looks right at the ponte vecchio. we have 2 bathrooms, a small kitchen, a living room, and two bedrooms. everything is furnished (microwave, hairdryers, toaster, etc.). we even have one of those cute little clothes lines that hang out of our window out over the ground below on the little pulley system. i feel like a true italian when i do my laundry. our landlord is super adorable, we have a tv that spats out loads of italian, the walls are full of weird drawings and paintings (one we took down because the creepy lady in the picture scared us too much), and we even have a really cute neighbor who keeps his bike downstairs. we see him once and awhile pumping up his tires. we exchange "ciao's" and then go on our merry little ways.

my classes are closer than going to grove city's. and if anyone knows grove city, that's pretty darn close. i can leave at 5 till and still make it on time. and our school is a beautifully renovated building. i should also mention that i don't have classes on friday. i think that's quite a nice perk. extended weekends are quite amazing.

i'm taking Fashion Marketing, Painting, Italian Early Renaissance Art, and Basic Spoken Italian while i'm here.

already in my painting class we've gone on site to paint a church (tourists took pictures of us. little did they know that we're tourists too...)

in my early renaissance art class we went to the duomo and studied its history of construction. its truly fascinating. however, i was really surprised to find out that the fascade of the cathedral was just recently completed. in the 1920s! that's so new!!! i can't look at it the same.

i'm not fluent in italian yet, but i'm trying. i'll let you know how i'm doing later on. right now i'd say C+ :-D

so now for a day by day update::::

Saturday-
we left Lido di camaiore and moved our things into our new florence apartments. then we had dinner provided for us by our school (Richmond) at a really nice restaurant. i then went out on the town. which ended up being me, one of the 4 guys in our program, and two other girls wandering around for 3 hours trying to find something to do. we were pretty pitiful. i saw the duomo for the first time that night, and also got myself oriented to the city. so the night was not a complete waste.

Sunday-

orientation. the school told us about safety, how to call 9-1-1 (or 113 in Firenze), and also gave us our most valuable possession: our meal vouchers. they give us the abilitiiy to go to restaurants and eat food without having to pay. sooo sooo sooo nice.

that night we went to the most beautiful restaurant. its right on the arno river and the waiter gave us complimentary champagne to toast our first night in florence.

monday-

first day of class. painting class we went on site to paint. i found out how bad of a painter i am. but that's ok. then i had a few hours to kill before italian so i walked to the supermarket. i bought some essentials with my meal vouchers. toilet paper was desperately needed.

that night i cooked dinner for me and a friend (spaghetti...nothing too serious). and we ate in my apartment. it was super chill. we went for some gelato afterwards. i got cookie. it's my favorite so far. and of course we sat on the bridge looking at the ponte vecchio glittering in the night lights while we ate it. then we talked for a bit and she walked home and i went back to the apartment to watch bambi in italian. i had no idea what he was saying. but i still cried when his mom died. stupid man in the forest.

tuesday-

class. used the internet for a bit. gotta love internet. more class. then i went out to dinner at a really nice restaurant in the middle of town with a large group of friends. it was one of the girl's birthday. we ate gnocchi and veal. molto bene. then we went to the birthday girls apartment for some celebratory wine. then went to an American bar. i know, very cliche of us. but they were playing some soccer game that everyone wanted to watch. i wasn't very interested. then i walked home across the ponte vecchio. it was very pretty...

wednesday-

class again. i only have painting until 12 this day. then i'm done. i love wednesdays now. my roommate tiffany and i went to H&M after class to check things out. we were in a shopping mood. then we window shopped. ate some gelato. you know, the good stuff.

that night i went to dinner at an outdoor cafe overlooking the palace that's the next street over from my apartment. the food was good (i had gnocchi and roast beef). after i went over to my friend's apartment while they booked themselves some trips. they're all going to oktoberfest. i'm not sure what i'm doing.

thursday (aka yesterday)-

last day of class before the weekend. internet guy came to our apartment. so now i have internet. and i can update this more often. yay for me. and for you!

then we got all bedazzled and went to a fancy restaurant for dinner. there were cute waiters (they were italian...of course...) and we tried to speak italian to them. it didn't go so well. better luck next time i hope.

then we went out on the town once more. this time with a little more luck.

this brings me to today. Friday-

no class today.

traveled to a little town up on the top of a hill just north of Florence called Fiesole. we visited the ruins and museum there. really cool.

then we hiked up an evil hill and the view of Florence was FANTASTIC! we ate brunch afterwards. i ate way too much food (but free food always seems like a good deal to me.) and then that leads me to now.

in between all that there were walks to the duomo, window shopping on the ponte vecchio and other such adventures, but the whens and the exact wheres have been lost in my brain. so just create your own pictures in your heads and i'm sure the images will be quite colorful and beautiful and close to correct.

i also got a cell phone. i feel so much safer now. even though i live on a major street and have never felt unsafe in the town ever, its nice to know i have to way to call someone if i need.

mom has the number if you feel the need to give me a ring. i'm not charged a cent if you do :-D hehe

well, until next time everyone. i hope the U.S. is treating you all well...enjoy the changing of the leaves for me(Florence doesn't have that many trees).

Ciao!