First Week of School-Wednesday

Wednesday, I don’t have class until 3, and it’s Italian, which is only an hour and a half. My roommates plan to wake up early to go to the Boboli Garden at the Pitti Palace which is not even a full block away from our house. It was one of the official homes of the Medici’s (great rulers of Florence), but you know it’s…no big deal. I live where kings used to, but I’m not bragging. Anyways, it’s no secret that I’m not a morning person, so I don’t plan to go. However, my boyfriend, who acts as a father, talks me into going. “Take it all in” he says, and of course…I listen. I get up and put on my dress. One of my roommates from across the hall says, “Roni can you teach me how to dress?” I thought that was so cute! Anyways, we headed to the Palace with out free museum pass, and just as we were about to go to the garden, it begins to rain, and we decide to go back home. Guess I’ll be taking it all in another day. I go back to bed. When I wake up later, I go to the laundry mat, since our washer is still not working. I look on the map, and try to find my way. The rain has stopped, but the clouds are still gray, and I’m walking down random streets. I’m a little nervous, so I try to keep on my “I’m not scared of anyone,” face. I’m holding my hamper in hand, and I stop inside a small restaurant to ask for directions. I get a reply completely in Italian, so I say “Grazie”, and keep walking. I run into it in two minutes. To my surprise, it was 3.50 euro to wash one load, and 3.50 euro to dry. That cancels out the two loads I had planned for, so I only wash one. As I wait, I begin to read “Eat, pray, love”. I love it already. In one hour, I have already completed nine chapters. My load is done, and I begin heading home…and the rain begins coming down. I want to wait in the laundry mat, but it’s getting closer to class time so I have to go. For some reason, the hamper is also heavier. I struggle down the streets, a little confused about where I’m going, putting the hamper from hand to hand, all while crumpling up my map. After about twenty minutes of struggling, I am finally home. I make a sandwich and head to class. After class, Katie calls me and tells me she met a guy named Fabritzio that works at our school, and he and his friends want to hang out at a Pizzeria. Wanting to get to know more locals, of course I agree to go. When we get to the pizzeria that night, Fabritzio is waiting there, and greets us by kissing us once on each cheek. We sit down with him, and eat some of the best pizza I’ve had yet. He was a nice guy, who was very attractive. He stared each of us in our eyes as we talked to him, and I couldn’t help but notice his beautiful light eyes. (disclaimer: I’m faithful) He told us about how many American students don’t get he full experience, because they don’t talk to locals. He also told us to stay away from American boys, which didn’t surprise me. He said they are arrogant, and don’t know how to behave. He told us a lot about the city, but sometimes when I would ask him a question, he would respond “Eat”, or “I’m eating my pizza”. I took it that he just didn’t want to respond. After he took us to the front, and paid for us all. The guy in the front told us we were all “Bella!”, and gave us a ticket to get free coffee at the café next door. We went and had some, and he asked if we wanted to hang out with a couple of his friends in Piazza Santa Croce. Katie agreed, and I gave her the nervous eye. We begin walking with him, and I watched cautiously. I refuse to fully trust anyone out here. He wanted to stop at his place, and they agreed. So we headed up what seemed like twenty flights of steps. When we got to his place, he tried to shut the door, but I stayed in the doorway. Another student came out, which was strange. She introduced herself, she was from Germany, and was very nice. He went into the room, and came out brushing his teeth. Katie reminded me that he’s certified because he works for our school, ut I still didn’t trust it. We then headed downtown, and walked for what seem like forever. I had my pepper spray ready. We went to this area full of locals that were all hanging out in the street smoking and drinking. We sat down, and felt a little out of place, because we knew no Italian. Fabritzio decided to ask if we have boyfriends, and we said “We all do.” “That’s not good. When you come to Italy, you leave the American boys behind.” From then on, he socialized with everyone else, but us. After a while, we decided it was late and headed home. It was an eventful night. The Italian guys love us. Ciao Bellla is all you hear!

First Week of School-Tuesday

On Tuesday, I had no class. I woke up, made an egg, ham, and mozzarella cheese sandwich. I went back to sleep. When I woke up again. I headed to the book store. I bought my two Italian books, and a dictionary. I searched for another bookstore, my Mass Comm teacher told me to go to, but it was shut down. I also stopped to get some boots for the rain, and found some really cute ones. I headed back home. That evening we went in search of a festival that honored Mary. We headed to the Duomo which is a large church at the center of the city. We could not find the festival, but we just sat back for a while and enjoyed the scenario. We sat on the steps of the church, and watched. We watched fabulous Italian women as they passed in their high fashion. We watched the people eating at the nearby outdoor restaurants. We watched people pass by trying to sell things to tourists. We watched a group of youngings next to us with birthday hats on, celebrating, laughing, and speaking Italian. We imagined that one may have turned 16, and can finally drink. We then met up with one of Katie’s friends from Texas. She took us to her apartment. We stopped for Gelato on the way, and we were all disappointed, because it’s just not as good as the one near our place. We went up ten flights of stairs, and went in to her antique Italian home. It was huge, and very old in style. We went up to her balcony, and looked over at some old Italian buildings. The thing that stuck out to me the most, was two men having dinner on a balcony across the way. I have to talk to more Italians! It’s a must. I want the FULL experience. Each day I pick a few things up from Gucci on the way to class... A girl can dream...can't she...

First Week of School-Monday

It’s Monday, and the first day of classes. I wake up at about ten, and get ready. I head to class, and stop at the cell phone shop on the way. I tell them the phone they had given me was broken, and they instantly give me a new one. Crappy place. I then head to class, in which I’m about thirty minutes early. When class starts, it’s only four of us. I expect more to arrive, but they don’t. The teacher comes, and she has so much personality! She’s from America, and she’s lived multiple places, but all I can remember is Connecticut. She said she’s lived in Florence nine years, and she fell in love with it after stopping at one of the Pizzeria’s and seeing how much fun they had. Later on she goes into how she also fell in love with a man, and had his child. She said they had been separated a couple of years, and may get back together. She also said she could never imagine moving back to America and taking his child away from him. Real personal, I know. We then all introduced ourselves, and what we wanted to do with Communications. Everyone was impressed by my Dr. Phil and Fox internships. One girl said “I feel intimidated, because you’ve done all this, and I still don’t know what I’m doing.” But honestly, I don’t completely know either. The class seemed pretty interesting, and it touched on a lot of corruption in the media. You now, things I love to learn about. After this class, I head to my other. It was Italian, and I loved this teacher as well. He was an older Italian guy, but I could tell he had soul. He came in playing Michael Jackson, The Temptations, etc., and I think he took a special liking to me. I’m really excited for this semester. I would say the only thing bad about this place is the graffitti....kind of reminds me of home though lol.