T'was the Nightmare Before Christmas...

I have been in Italy for 4 months and was really looking forward to seeing my family and friends in the US again. Though I hated leaving my boo in Italy, I was very much ready for my glorious return to the US. The Friday before my scheduled Monday departure Florence recieved an unprecedented amount of snow, 8 inches. This may not seem like a lot to most people, but in Italy it was enough to pretty much shut down the country. Friday was great because the snow was really festive and I didn't have to go anywhere except to turn in my grades. Andy got off work early in the market and we enjoyed watching the snow from our apartment and cooking all sorts of delicious warm food. The snow remained for the next two days and I hibernated inside, packing and cleaning and finishing my Christmas preparations. Monday morning I awoke at 3:30 to prepare myself for my taxi to the airport that I was scheduled to take at 5 AM. I had no idea that I would not arrive back in Charleston until exactly 48 hours later!
My taxi driver came right on schedule, and surprisingly the ride only took 8 minutes, even though there was still all over the rodes that this man decided to take. Guess it was just because he still didn't drive with caution, like every Italian on the roads. When I walked into the airport, I couldn't even move because there were so many people inside. Every flight out of Florence had been cancelled since Saturday because the city has no equipment to clear the snow. My flight to Frankfurt ended up being delayed until 8:30 and they wouldn't let us check in early because there were so many people checking into other flights, so I just had to stand in a clump of people in the ticketing room with my fellow travelers. Though Florence is a popular travel destination, the airportis one of the smallest I have ever been in, even smaller than the Jacksonville, NC airport! So not to my surprise the airport was a giant cluster. When we finally were allowed to check our luggage in, the airport staff alerted us that we would be boarding a bus to Pisa because Florence had to much fog for our plane to get in, so we were going to meet it instead. After the hour and a half bus ride to Pisa, we were delayed yet again, not taking off until 11 AM, when my flight was scheduled to leave Frankfurt at 11:40. So we all arrive in Germany, and pretty much everyone on the flight had missed their connections, sowe were all forced into ridiculously long lines to start the re-ticketing process. There were no flights heading back to the US for the rest of the day that weren't booked solid, but I ended up being incredibly lucky and getting the last seat available on any flight to the US for the following day, which was a relief. Then Lufthansa booked me into the hotel attached to the airport because they were trying to get as many people out of the airport as possible since it was so crowded. I spent the rest of my day watching BBC world news, where the only story they kept talking about were the horrible travel conditions in Europe and how it was hurting the economy even more. My hotel had ridiculously priced food, so I ended up eating German pretzels and drinking beer in the comfort of my hotel room, which is a lot better than a lot of other people fared, but I really just wanted to get back to the US.
The next day I woke up and made my way straight to the airport. of course my flight out of Germany ended up being delayed for 3 hours because our plane was stuck in Manchester, England and couldn't get out. The flight went quite smoothly and I watched four movies to pass the time. Of course, since I got the last available ticket, I had the last seat on the plane, so I was the last person to recieve food every time the crew came around, so I had no options and got served the worst crap, like some "beef burgundy" that had one mouthful of beef in it and a lot of sauce. When we arrived in Charlotte, every person on the flight had missed their connecting flights, especially after we all had to go through the ridiculously long customs lines and recheck luggage/re-ticket. I finally got a seat on the last flight to Charleston for the night, and hoofed my way over to the gate. After sitting for a while, it was announced that our flight to Charleston would be delayed due to a crew switch. I literally thought I was going to lose it by that point, but found solace in a smoothie I bought across the hall. I was finally allowed to board the flight, and was seated next to a really nice man who chatted with me for the entirety of the flight, so my last flight "flew" by. I ended up arriving in Charleston at 9:00 US time, 3:00 AM Italy time last night, and ran to my family at the arrivals gate. It was an incredibly long, nightmarish journey, but it made me even more happy to be home with my family for Christmas. Keep all the travelers in Europe in your thoights because many will not be making it home for Christmas since the weather conditions are not improving. Happy Holidays everyone, and Buone Feste a tutti!

La vita è bella (minus not having heat and never-ending rain)!

Ciao a tutti!

I know I have not posted anything in a long time, but so much has been going on here in Florence. First, Andy left for Turkey for 11 days, so I got all reorganized and back on track with school work, but also had fun. I saw "The Social Network" in English, which was one of the best movies I've seen in a long time. I also made my first trip to Lucca, which is definitely in my top five places in Italy! After this period of alone time though, I was invaded by visitors, which I had been craving!
First my best friend for 20+ years, Amy, came to visit for two weeks. It was so good having a girlfriend around to chat with and just do girly things with. I introduced Amy to Trattoria Anita, the best restaurant in Florence, Don Chisciotte, the best pizza in Florence, and to Andrea and vino sfuso. Needless to say, most of her visit revolved around our eating schedules. Andy arrived home the day after Amy arrived and the three of us saw Harry Potter (in English with Italian subtitles), then ventured off to Rome. I was so excited to show both of them how amazing the eternal city is (and how it trumps Florence in every aspect). The only thing that dampened our visit to Rome was the copious amounts of rain, which I am sick and tired of since it has rained every day for the past month. Anyhow, we took a guided tour of the Vatican museums, which allowed Amy's inner art history nerd to shine, and we walked all around Vatican City. I was also reunited with my friend Yann, who taught with me at UNC last year. Yann took Amy, Andy and me out to the best aperitivo I have ever been to, where we actually hung out with Italians. This was pretty much the highlight of the trip for me because I never meet Italians in Florence, and when I do they insist on speaking to me in English. Anyhow, Yann and his sweet girlfriend Antonella were excellent tour guides and showed us all the beauties of Rome by night. The next day we went and saw all the Roman monuments, like the colosseum and the Roman forum, etc. Since it rained even harder on that day though, we decided to head back to Florence, where more rain awaited.
During the second half of Amy's visit we hung out in Florence and prepared for our foreign Thanksgiving, and the arrival of Andy's parents. Even without hot water (which broke) and heat (which was out for 5 days) our Thanksgiving was honestly one of the best Thanksgivings I have ever had. We had thirteen people for dinner, including two Mexicans, a frenchman, and an Italian. We had delicious food, including a 17 lb. turkey cooked by my friend Charlie (thank you). It was so amazing to share Thanksgiving with so many people that had never celebrated it before.
While Andy's parents were in town we did some more traveling and sight-seeing, as well as watched the Auburn Tigers beat Alabama 28-27 in the Iron Bowl (War Eagle)! My favorite part of the Gilliom's visit was our tour of Chianti. We all piled into a van with our guide Claudio, who was the stereotype for all Italians in the minds of Americans. We traveled to Greve in Chianti and went to five different wine tastings, as well as ate a delicious Tuscan meal in a medieval village nearby. It was sunny the entire time we were there and I drank so much red wine and ate so much olive oil that I had to lay off of both for a few days afterwards. It was so much fun getting to see Andy's parents, especially when AMy and I took his mother shopping in Florence. The day they left though was a miserable rainy day, and also the Florence marathon, so getting them out of the city was quite the task. After making sure they were able to find a taxi though, Amy and I went off to Siena, where we ate some absolutely delicious gelato and braved heavy rain to see the duomo and the church that houses St. Catherine's head and thumb.
Amy left two days later and the heat and hot water returned and life went somewhat back to normal. Now Andy and I are relishing our last few weeks in Italy together by preparing for Christmas. We went on a date yesterday to Lucca and went ice skating and to their local Christmas market, as well as shopped, which was a perfect day for me (minus missing the train we wanted and having to sit in the train station for two hours until the next one came). Overall, life has been pretty great the past few weeks, and I'm trying to enjoy the last two weeks until I come home for the holidays.

The Grand Tour Part III: Amsterdam

So last I left off, Andy and I were departing from Berlin to go to Amsterdam. I was super excited to go to Amsterdam because I had always heard how pretty it is and how much fun a person can have there. I'd also heard that the hostel we were staying in, The Flying Pig, was amazing. I don't know what all of my friends that have been to Amsterdam were on when they told me this, but I honestly did not enjoy the city. This may have been because 1) it was 40 degrees and raining the whole time we were there 2) our hostel was super ghetto, loud, and reeked of pot (I know, should have realized this would be true in Amsterdam) 3) it is super expensive. When we arrived, it was 6 in the morning and Andy and I passed out in our room until about 10 minutes before we were supposed to go on our tour. We rushed down to breakfast, where everything was already eaten, and started the miserably cold walk to Dam square to meet our guide. Since our group was so large, we were split between 2 guides, and Andy and I were unfortunate enough to be with all the Jersey Shore reject guidos and a pissy Swede tour guide. Amsterdam's history was as strange as the city. We started in the red light district, where we saw a church that was surrounded by hookers in windows, a coffee shop, and a kindergarten. Our guide explained that this is normal in Amsterdam because everything here is considered okay as long as it brings in money. This may be another reason why I was so turned off by the city. We saw a few cool things on the tour, like this street where homeless people can live and not be kicked out, a one room wide house, and the headquarters of the Dutch East India Company. After the tour, a large group of our new friends decided to explore the "coffee shops," which was a cluster because no one could figure out where they wanted to go, etc. We finally ended up going to the Vincent Van Gogh Museum, which was really cool, since Van Gogh is one of my favorite artists, but was not worth the 14 euro entrance fee. Andy and I ended up going home and just chilling at the hostel so we could stay warm.
Day 2 I overslept and Andy and I just decided to go off and do things on our own, which was much better than trying to organize a giant group of people. We wandered around the canals and went into some really cool stores, like a store full of items such as a "Food Face" plate and cooking drumsticks, as well as the coolest vintage store ever. We ended up eating lunch at some overpriced Argentinian restaurant because Dutch food sucks, then waited in the freezing cold rain to go to the Anne Frank House. I really enjoyed touring the rooms where the Frank family hid, as well as the final exhibit where you can vote on current freedom of speech and civil rights issues. We decided to call it quits after the museum and again just spent the night chilling at our hostel. After Amsterdam, I was truly ready to head on to Paris!

The Grand Tour Part II: Berlin

Sorry the description of the 10 day journey is taking longer than 10 days, but life is back in full swing here in Florence.
So after being in beautiful Prague, we woke up and drove for 6 or 7 hours to Berlin. Honestly, Berlin was the city I was least excited about on this trip because I really had no interest in Germany, since I find the language so harsh. I would like to say Berlin may have been my favorite city on the trip, and I know it was Andy's. Berlin is awesome! It is humungous, with of course a very efficient public transportation system (this is Germany). Our hostel, Plus Berlin, was great. Andy and I lucked out and were given a private room with it's own bathroom, which was fabulous. We arrived in Berlin late in the afternoon, so not enough time to go out on the town yet, but Andy and I got ready for the Berlin nightlife by eating a kebab (we went looking for curry wurst, but could not find a stand. We joined the group for a pub crawl around Berlin, mainly because we only had one night in the city and we kept hearing how bizarre Berlin bars and clubs are. I will say Berlin has some of the best nightlife I have ever encountered. We started the night at this bar that I felt was a mix of Fuse and He's Not Here in Chapel Hill. I would call it the equivalent of a hipster bar, with random band posters on the wall, a sculpture that lit on fire every 15 minutes, and a backyard with a fire pit and an abandoned VW van. This place was pretty cool, except for the drug dealers that kept encouraging us to go buy some cocaine. After this bar, we went to a super-crowded wine bar, then to a really posh bar with padded leather couches and fancy chandeliers. Along the way a group of Ausies joined us, and they were way more out of control than any of the Americans. Case in point, on the way to bar four, an underground dance bar, an Ausie fell down the steps with a beer bottle in his hand, sliced his hand open, bled all over the bar, went and found Andy because he took a liking to him and kept asking him for a band-aid. We ditched most of the Ausies at bar 4 when we continued on to bar 5, a legit disco right across the street from our hostel. I really enjoyed ending the night to a German techno dance party. I never really got why everyone called Berlin's nightlife bizarre, but it is definitely varied and fun!
Day 2 we were taken on the best walking tour of our trip. Andy and I had this awesome guide named George from Missouri who was animated and really passionate about German history. We saw such fascinating places as the Reichstag, the Berlin wall, Checkpoint Charlie, the holocaust memorial, the location of Hitler's bunker, and of course, the hotel where Michael Jackson dangled baby Blanket out the window. After the tour, me, Andy, and our roommates from Prague went to this museum called the Pergamon which has the gates of Ishtar from the Babylonian gardens and this ancient altar from Turkey. It wans't as cool as we thought it was going to be, but I can now say I've seen one of the ancient wonders of the world. Afterwards we roamed around some cool side streets before heading back to our hostel, where we had to load all of our belongings for the next leg of our trip: Amsterdam.

The Grand Tour (a blog in 4 parts)

Ciao a tutti, I haven't written in so long! My life has been a bit hectic pretty much the entire month of October. Andy arrived, I had to give my students a mid-term, I was booked up every day for tutoring, and trying to think of better ways to explain English to 40 year old bankers.
After a very busy few weeks did I have a relaxing fall break? No! Instead Andy and I went on a ten day bus tour around Europe, hitting Prague, Berlin, Amsterdam and Paris. Why did I sign us up for this trip? Well, I figured I have only one real break during the semester and instead of flying somewhere new every weekend I would try to hit as many cities that were on my list of places to go as I could in one swoop. So imagine a 10 day trip with 90 other people, mainly American students aged 19-22, and over 50 hours on a bus. Though I had a ton of fun and met some great new friends, I don't think I will ever travel by bus again!
So our first stop on our European extravaganza was Prague. Everyone, I mean everyone, should go to Prague! It is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. Such a contrast to the ugly war-ridden history of the Czech Republic. Also, the country is way cheaper than the rest of Europe because they haven't switched over to the euro yet. 1 euro is worth 25 czech crowns right now, so our money went a long way!
We arrived in Prague on a Friday morning after a 12 hour bus ride and pulled up to the best hostel I have ever stayed in called The Mosaic House. Each room had it's own bathroom with heated floors and a legit shower, the beds were super comfortable, they had the best breakfast spread, and they had a bar with a big screen TV that constantly played ESPN America (for my football loving boyfriend). Our first activity was a three hour walking tour of the city with our lovely Welsh guide Sarah. We saw all the great sites of Prague, the Astronomical clock, the old town, the new town, where Tom Cruise is staying while filming Mission Impossible 4, etc. After learning everything there is to know about Prague's history (most of which had to do with kicking other people out of the city), Andy and I met up with my friend Salva. I hadn't seen Salva in a year since he had left UNC and I was so excited to be reunited with one of my favorite Spaniards. Salva did a great job of showing us places in Prague that we didn't see on our tour and we got to enjoy a few delicious Pilsners and pretzels. I think reuniting with Salva was my favorite part of Prague. After parting ways, Andy and I joined our group for a Pub Crawl through Prague. Normally I do not enjoy pub crawls because I feel they are just another way to look like an ignorant American tourist, but we wanted to hang out with the group and not be creepy loners, so we joined in. This was by far the sketchiest night of the trip. Our first locale was a basement in an abandoned church where we had an open bar of beer in plastic bottles and some moonshine sangria, mixed in with free shots of absinthe. The basement was decorated like a hippie den with tapestries and hookahs scattered about, as well as a giant statue of Stalin's head. We then moved to the actual church, which is now a disco, where I met a frenchman who spoke Italian and chatted with him for like an hour, then tried to dance salsa with Andy, but he wanted to create his own steps instead of actually salsa dancing. At this point Andy and two of our roommates, Andrew and Kevin, went on a search for munchie food and found a sausage stand that sold the biggest hotdogs you have ever seen for the equivalent of 2 euro. We then headed hom instead of continuing to the next two discos.
The next day we woke up bright and early and climbed a giant hill that had the best views of Prague. We then trekked over to Prague castle, which is the biggest castle in Europe, and explored the area, including the giant cathedral inside the castle. Afterwards we went for an authentic czech meal, where Andy and I tried goulash, then Andy and I broke away from the group and went on a mini-date at a café in a cubist building where we ate some awesome deserts and drank our favorite coffee beverage: caffè macchiato. After buying Andy a pair of tennis shoes since his one pair of shoes he brough now have holes in the soles, we spent an evening at the hostel bar watching the Auburn Tigers crush LSU!!!
Prague was an amazing city, and in my next post I'll let y'all know all about the city with the coolest vibe: Berlin!

Finally feeling settled in...

I have now been in Florence for a month and a half and life is starting to take on a real routine. I have been busy as a bee with school, between teaching and private tutoring. I've also been giving English lessons and having a language exchange of my own, so I pretty much spend the majority of my days teaching. Good thing I enjoy what I do! What has really made me feel like a resident of Florence is forming friendships in the city. This weekend I had two nights of guests at my apartment, drinks on Saturday night and a wonderful dinner party on Sunday. You would not believe the feast that my friend Charlie cooked last night! Chicken and pasta with all these fancy home-made sauces, wine a plenty, bread, cheese, roasted chestnuts, fresh Italian olives, etc. Buon appettito per noi! The dinner party at my place last night totally reminded me of all the ROML potlucks my friends at Chapel Hill and I have had over the past two years. I can't wait to have more nights filled with friends, good food, and good wine.
Also, my wonderful boyfriend Andy arrived in Florence this week! It is such a relief to have him here safe and sound with me. I am so excited to no longer have to skype with him in the middle of the night and to have someone to hang out with when I come home from work. I definitely feel more settled with my boo now, doing normal everyday things like going to the Billa to pick up bread or searching for guitars and shoes for Andy. I'm definitely content with my life at the moment and can't wait for all the upcoming adventures with friends and loved ones coming up this month!

Creepin', Spanish Style

This past weekend I made my first trip outside of Italy to Sevilla, Spain to visit my UNC friends. I was so excited to be with my people, especially for the reunion of "Kate, Allie, Barcelona". So you make think that it would be very easy to just fly from Florence to Sevilla. Wrong. Okay, so of course I flew Ryan Air (better known as the Ryan Scare). Ryan Air is the most famous of the European budget airlines, and it re-defines the word ghetto. Ryan Air only flies out of certain airports, so I had to get to Bologna, which is normally only 45 minutes away. Since my flight left at 6:30 AM though, I was forced to take a weird German train from Florence at 9:45 Thursday night to Bologna, then take an airport shuttle at 11:30, then spend the night "sleeping" in metal chairs. I maybe slept one hour and then of course was approached by a creeper who decided it was time for a chat at 3:30 in the morning. This creeper happened to be Albanian and was named Endri. He was a pharmacy student at the University of Parma and was also flying to Sevilla to visit some of his friends on erasmus there. He was a very nice creeper, buying me a coffee and trying to buy me breakfast too (I said 4 AM was too early), but still had a bit of that Eastern European skeeze about him. So Endri actually helped me out a lot in the airport and saved me a seat on the flight since of course Ryan Air doesn't assign seats and Italians don't know how to form an orderly line, so they run in mobs onto the plane. I attempted to sleep, but Ryan Air made that impossible because they made announcements every five minutes about what their attendants were going to be selling in the aisles, each announcement being said in English, Spanish, and Italian. Did you ever need an International SIM card? Lottery tickets? Discount cigarettes? A body temperature regulating watch from Israel? Ryan Air can sell you all that and more! Needless to say, the on flight marketplace kept me awake for the entire flight.
Tank goodness for my amiga Elena! She was kind enough to pick me up from the airport in her car and to let me sleep in her apartment until the rest of our friends got off of work. I truly appreciate all the hospitality she showed me. After a 2 hour power nap I was reunited with my ROML friends Allie and Megan, who are both working in Spain like I am in Italy. We had a delicious lunch of tapas and went to The Factory, a Spanish Outlet Mall (my idea of heaven). That night we had a giant Spanish dinner and ventured off to an outdoor disco. What an experience! Imagine not leaving the apartment until 2:30 in the morning, arriving at a super poppin' disco, dancing the night away to a bit of great music and a lot of really bad techno, and watching Spaniards creep on each other. I knew no one would believe that I went to a place like this (accept if you remember my secret disco stories from Perugia) so I decided to document the night. I took on the role of paparazza and photographed pretty much every creeper within my line of sight. This seemed like a good idea at first, except when some straight creepin' gay men saw me trying to document their grinding on each other and insisted that I take a real picture of them and post it on tuenti. After that my career of event photographer ended. We ended up staying out until after 6 in the morning (don't know how I was still awake).
Saturday we went to this cool international festival where of course we ate Mexican food (the only food I ever really crave in Italy, besides Chik-fil-a). We also just walked around Sevilla, ate more tapas, and saw a Flamenco show at La Carboneria. Sadly though, I had to leave early the next day.
Thanks to all my Sevilla friends, Allie, José, Megan, Elena, and Anamari! I had a fabulous time and hope you all come visit me soon in Florence!

Dante+Dancing with the Stars=Funniest Thing Ever!

So this weekend my goal was to immerse myself in all Florence has to offer culturally. As I explained in my last post I joined a library, I got a haircut, and I went to a festival. Well last night was the culmination of all things awesome about this weekend. My landlord Michele had stopped by my apartment last week to have me sign some papers for him so that the government here knows I'm not a terrorist. While he was over he gave me a pamphlet for an event put on by the Arthur Murray School of Dance in Florence. If you are not familiar with them, Arthur Murray schools are dance academies where you can take ballroom dancing classes. They offer everything from swing to salsa. The school was putting on a performance of Dante's Inferno and Purgatorio (because we all know no one cares about Paradiso except Cervigni). The event was free and I love dancing, so I decided I was definitely going to go. My landlord had told me it was going to be a modern dance performance, so I was thinking modern dance like people not wearing shoes and doing interpretive dance, or maybe at least having ballet shoes on. I was totally wrong. I mean, I knew Arthur Murray specialized in ballroom dance, but honestly, how are you going to turn that into an interpretation of Dante? Picture this: people of the entire age spectrum, from infant (there was a baby dressed as an angel who got carried around the stage) to past expiration date. The majority of the performers were students of the "retired" age group who are taking ballroom dancing classes for fun. Imagine if all the worst participants from Dancing with the Stars (like Cloris Leachman, Kate Gosslin, and Steve Wozniak) all got together to put on a show. There you have two hours of my Sunday evening. Watching people portray characters from La divina commedia while ballroom dancing. Here's an example: my landlord, who failed to mention that he was going to be in the performance, was Cicero, one of the residents of limbo (my memory is currently failing me, but possibly in the noble castle?). He waltzed around the stage with one of the female residents of this same circle of Hell. Another example: Paolo and Francesca (played by two of the professional dancers) performing a very sensual waltz/foxtrot/tango combo. Honestly, I don't think I'm doing this spectacle justice, but if I find any Youtube clips I will attach them to a comment here.
The show's ending was by far the most ridiculous part of the evening. All the characters arrived on stage to do a final twirl about, when a great light shines and in comes Beatrice. For those of you not familiar with Dante, Beatrice is the woman that Dante idolized and loved. She shows up in all of his works and he pretty much dedicated his life to her. So Beatrice shows up and she is supposed to be this beautiful woman who shines with a heavenly glow, like the Virgin Mary. This Beatrice, to my surprise, was about 100 years old, with stiff joints and no dancing ability. Let me add that the man playing Dante was probably 30, with long flowing locks and a goatee. This woman had to be at least 50 years older than him and was his love interest! Why???? She couldn't even dance she was so old. They tried to do a little shuffle ball change, but I thought she was going to break. At the end of their painful performance, there was the curtain call, and everyone took their bows about three times and got flowers, etc. But then, of course, because this makes total sense, the whole cast breaks out into Thriller, including old Beatrice (who couldn't do any of the steps, so she just kept turning in circles). I know that this was a serious performance, but I totally lost it. I could not take Dante for Ballroom seriously. Honestly, I don't know how the directors of the studio came up with this. For real, this is a performance I will never ever forget, not because it was beautiful and moving, but because it was absolutely, without a doubt, one of the most ridiculous spectacles I have ever seen in my life.

"Che birre": Oktoberfest for Italians

Well my weekend here in Florence has been quite interesting. I have become a card-carrying member of an Italian library, the biblioteca delle oblate, so I can continue being nerdy and read the books from my comps list that I never actually got to reading (My first attempt is La coscienza di Zeno, by Svevo). I discovered the cutest bookstore ever, The Paperback Exchange, where I traded in some of the weird books in my apt. here for credit to buy new better books, my gift to whoever lives in this apt. next. I definitely think my first purchase will be one of Christobel Kent's books because I have been dying to read them ever since I saw her speak. I have also converted myself into an Italian by getting a super trendy haircut. Lesson to be learned though: ask the Italians what they are doing to you during the process. What I thought was going to be a 19 euro student haircut turned into a 47 euro day at the salon (15 euro to blow dry my hair, no thank you, next time I will walk home wet).
By far the most exciting thing I did in Florence all weekend was go to the Italian artisanal beer festival called "Che birre". My new friends Katie and Charlie and I hit up Santa Croce to see what the festival was going to be like. We figured it would be a bunch of Americans drinking beer samples out of tiny little cups around the square. We ended up being quite pleasantly surprised. To participate in Che birre, we had to go to the cassa and decide how many beer chips we wanted to buy, each chip being 2.50 euro. Once you had your chips (we all bought 4 each), you went to all the booths set up in the square and traded in your chips for beer. Each chip got you the equivalent of 12 oz. of beer, or you could trade in 2 chips and get giant beer stein size cups. We all sampled different beers, me enjoying light birre chiare, Charlie trying the beers with the highest percent alcohol, and Katie drinking all the stouts. The best booth was this manufacturer from outside Parma. My beer tasted a bit like Cruz Campo and green Alhambra beer (delicious Spanish brands) and Katie's tasted like some smoked turkey was in hers. I asked the man at the booth where he distributes here in Florence and he told me his beer is only carried in a German pub, which I am now on a mission to find. While all the beers were delicious, I think what I enjoyed most were the people I was surrounded by. The majority of the people at the festival were young Italians, not tourists. Also, my new friends are so nice, and we had the pleasure of meeting a great group of students from a study-abroad institute here. They were my ideal students, and reminded myself a lot of me when I was studying abroad. They were all trying really hard to immerse themselves in Italian culture. They were going out and having fun, but they were trying to branch out to places where it wouldn't just be Americans, but Italians too. They had only traveled in Italy so far, and they have done a great job of seeing cities that are off the radar. We liked these kids so much we invited them to this cool pub, The William, with us, and we had a great time discussing travel, their classes, music, halloween, etc. This was probably the most fun activity I have done in Florence yet and I can't wait for "Firenze Wine Town" coming this week!

In my next life I'm going to be Christobel Kent

Today my inner nerd came out to play. This is my first time not technically being a student and though I enjoy not having to study and write papers, I really do miss going to class. To continue my efforts to meet new friends in Florence and explore the city, I attended a lecture at the British Institute by author Christobel Kent on Florence as a setting for fiction. As soon as I arrived I got super excited because the lecture is one of the beautiful rooms of the library, which looks more like a library in someone's home (like the beast had in Beauty and the Beast). Also, the room was filled with old British people, as well as trendy looking students, two of my favorite types of people. Since I am a total geek and really enjoy being an attentive student, I sat right up front for the lecture, next to this adorable old British couple. Ms. Kent gave an absolutely wonderful lecture on her writing process, why she chooses to set all of her novels in Florence instead of in England, how she chooses her setting before she dreams up characters, etc. She was wonderfully honest and open, not uppity or stuffy like a lot of lecturers are. She is also as cute as a button, a mother of five kids, and married to a professor at Cambridge. I pretty much decided right on the spot that if there is such a thing as reincarnation, I want to come back as Christobel Kent.
After the lecture, and since we are in Italy, the British Institute has free wine and refreshments to partake in while people chat about their thoughts on the lecture. I went up to a group of people with American accents and introduced myself. I ended up meeting a really cool girl named Yoko who is a PhD student in Art History at UVA, as well as her friend Monica, who just finished her PhD and is a writer now in Florence. I even got the chance to talk to Ms. Kent, who sympathized with me over the lack of interest study abroad students have in the culture of Italy, as well as all the "Wow, I can't believe this is where I live" moments an expat in Florence experiences (i.e. every time I walk by the duomo and just go "whoa"). Ms. Kent also reignited my wish to maybe write some day (I definitely have lots of stories to tell).
I loved the feeling of being in an academic environment again. I know, I'm a teacher and tutor who spends all day at school, but it's just not the same as attending class yourself and learning about subjects that really interest you. I will definitely be attending more lectures at the British Institute and will hopefully learn even more about Florence, Italy, and the culture that I so dearly love.

What a beautiful day to learn English!

Fall has definitely arrived in Florence. If I were in Charleston or Chapel Hill right now it would still probably be 85 degrees outside and humid. Instead, I am enjoying crisp fall weather, a beautiful breeze, and wearing my new Italian trench coat. What could make this beautiful day any better? The fact that I am now giving English lessons to five Italian bankers!
How did I secure this new job you may ask? I have a new colleague at the school who told me that her friend Fabrizio was looking for English lessons for himself and a few of his colleagues. I told her that I had never really given English lessons before, but I had translated a lot between my sketchy Pugliesi friends and my sorority sisters, as well as attended a lot of tandem language exchange sessions, so I was up for the challenge. Fabrizio and I set up a meeting for us today at the bank. I came prepared with my English grammar book, thinking it would just be him and that we would discuss how to set up the lessons, then ask his friends if they were interested. Instead, I was led into a big meeting room where 4 more very vocal Italians showed up to discuss our meetings (they are hilarious!). What we have decided to do is meet for lunch next week (since everything in Italy revolves around food) and have a preliminary chat, where I will decide what level everyone is at with their English. I will then divide them into groups and we will have differeng lessons based on if they fall into beginner or intermediate English. After we decided all of this I was rushed out of the bank, but not before they asked me if I was British, to which I replied no, which they liked because they would rather have American accents.
Beautiful weather, new teaching opportunities and the prospect of having non-creepy Italians to speak with is getting this day off to the right start!

Turning into an expat, one day at a time

This week I have really been making an effort to find new and unique places in Florence. My first great discovery of the week was The British Institute of Florence. For those of you who know me well, you know pretty much my favorite things in the world are Italians and BBC mini-series. Seriously, I have equal obsessions with both. The British Institute is pretty much my nerdy idea of paradise. The library is three floors of English and Italian books, dvds, and newspapers, all housed in a beautiful palazzo on the Oltrarno side of the Arno river, with beautiful views of the city from all of its windows. I was given a lovely tour in "italish" by Lucia, one of the librarians, of the beautiful premises, as well as given at least 4 pamphlets on all the institute has to offer. Being the nerdy academic that I am, I am so excited to tend the lectures and film series that happen every Wednesday, this week's being on "Florence as a setting for fiction", as well as get more involved in the expat community here in Florence. I'm a sucker for the Brits (especially anyone that may resemble Richard Armitage, my BBC lover), so I can't wait!!!!
Next, I have finally started to find a community of people my age. I had previously met these super nice boys at my school's library named Charlie and Peter who work for this great company called "Snow or Sand" (check out their site). Charlie studied at the same school I did in Perugia, so we are able to reminisce about "the good ole' days" and how different students are in Florence from Perugia. Charlie and Peter invited me to go out for aperitivo with them, pretty much one of the best things about Italian food culture. Aperitivo is the Italian version of "happy hour". When you buy a drink at the bar though, you can partake in a buffet of delicious antipasti for free. So with my pint of beer I was able to eat a heaping plate of couscous, veggies, crostini, etc. What more could a girl on a budget ask for! The boys also invited a friend of their's named Cristina who is working for their company. She and I had all sorts of things in common, like having boyfriends named Andy, studying abroad in Italy at the same time, and both being friends with the owners of my favorite hostel in Ischia. After hanging out at Pop Cafe, which is in Santo Spirito, a piazza where Italians hang out, not drunk students, we went to this cool bar that reminded me somewhat of Fuse back in Chapel Hill, minus the annoying hipsters. I had the most delicious cocktail ever (which the waitress created especially for me) and just chilled. I loved being with people my age and definitely more my speed than my students. We all rode our bikes, so we had a lovely ride along the Arno on the way home. It was such a fun night, being with people interested in the culture and travel.
As a side note, after all of my trying to be an expat and faking that I'm Italian, I am currently in the most American place on the planet, McDonalds. Why you ask? Well, in Italy everything is closed on Sundays (and oftentimes on Monday) so Mickey D's has free wireless. You dont even have to buy anything to use it. Future tip for anyone who needs internet and has cruddy service like I do.

La Questura: Italian bureaucracy at its best

Yesterday I was lucky enough to experience the oft dreaded experience of La Questura. The Questura is the Italian office where anyone who wants to live in Italy for longer than 90 days must go to register with the police, be fingerprinted, and receive a card, il permesso di soggiorno, saying that you are in fact allowed to be in Italy Italy. The last time I studied in Italy I completed the first part of the permesso process, but was not actually summoned to the police station until after I had actually left Perugia. Yesterday I finally got to experience the torturous experience everyone had warned me about.
When I arrived here in Florence I asked my boss at school if it was at all possible for me to use the same service that the students at the school use for registering for their permits of stay. She hooked me up with this man, Dottore Careri, who I payed money to to pretty much facilitate all of my paperwork so that the process would be less painful. I felt he was well worth the cost. Anyhow, I received all of my documents from Dott. Careri telling me that I have my appt. at the questura on September 14 at 9:36 AM. Me being American and used to the American rules when it comes to setting appts. thought that I just needed to show up at the correct time and I would go have my fingerprints taken and receive my permesso. Boy was I wrong! Okay, so I show up at 9:20, approach a police man and tell him I have an appt. at 9:36 and ask him where I need to go. He hands me a number (227) and I proceed to a giant room filled to the max with people all waiting in line. The workers are currently assisting number 121. So I spend a half hour waiting to be seen, and when I approach my window and pull all of my paperwork out, the man at the desk just hands me a new number and tells me to go wait in another area of the room. I'm really tired of standing at this point, but I don't want to sit in just any open spot. I found the questura a bit scary. Let me paint you a picture. Imagine if the DMV were combined with the United Nations and you have the questura. There were people of every nationality, and a bunch of varying "ethnic" smells (curry, chinese food, Italian B.O., etc.). I spotted an open seat next to a priest and I figured I would be relatively safe from gypsies, black santas, and creepers sitting next to him. I had a group of young people sitting across from me who also looked relatively harmless. I see that the priest is reading a book in English, so I ask him why he's here in Florence. He was actually a seminarian from New Orleans who was at his last year of school in a neighboring town. I got some information on churches in Florence that offer mass both in English and Italian that have friendly priests. I then proceeded to spend the next 3.5 hours chatting with him in Italian, as well as the young people across from me, while I waited to be called the second time. I had the pleasure of meeting two Albanian girls who are studying medicine and physical therapy at the University of Florence and a boy from Israel who is also hoping to study medicine here. We discussed all the differences between our countries, why we love the Italian language, the abundance of annoying Americans, and our mutual hatred of "i cinesi". Of course, I was the last person to be called from our group, but finally, at 1:45, my 2nd number was called and I had my fingerprints made and received my next letter, which told me to report back on October 14 at 15:00 to receive my actual permesso. I can't believe I have to go back to that awful place, but I hear the 2nd visit is never as awful as the 1st. I also know that i"m lucky I only ended up spending about 5 hours there, since I've heard horror stories of friends being stuck at the questura for 18 hours or more. Next time you go to the DMV and your hour-long wait seems like the biggest waste of time, thank your lucky stars you are not in line at the questura and dealing with Italian bureaucracy!

Bus2Alps, thanks for saving me from boredom

Okay, so I know I've been complaining a lot about being bored and lonely, and y'all are probably like "hey, shut-up, you're in Italy". Well, I finally decided to take a stand against boredom this weekend and go off on an adventure. Not that teaching in a foreign country isn't an adventure, but for real Florence is like the "little America" of Italy. You know how they have little Italy in a bunch of cities in the US? Well Florence is the complete opposite. I mean, yes, I do speak Italian on a daily basis, and yes, there are a bunch of creepy Italians still following my scent, but there are also about 100,000 American study abroad students and just as many tourists. So I decided I needed some time out of the city and a new opportunity to meet people. My cousin told me about this company called Bus2Alps because she and her friends (and possibly me) are using them to get to Oktoberfest in Munich. So on Friday after my teachers meeting, I went on their site to see if this site was legit. Well let me tell you, I am in love. Most of you who know me know I love to plan trips. On my blackberry at home I had the kayak app on my phone which I used every day to check flight prices, hotel rates, etc. Well, Bus2Alps offers about 12-15 various trips across Europe, ranging from one day to 11, at very reasonable prices. Every trip includes at least luxury transport by bus, a guide for the day, and a handout about important sites and good places to eat. Longer trips offer extra options, like walking tours, breakfast, and hostel reservations. Well, I decided right there and then to take a trip over the weekend. The only one that was open was a day trip to Venice, which was fine with me because I love it there. Yes, it was my third time going there, but 1 day in Venice is just perfect (trust me, you really don't need more than that). I also made a reservation to go to the Eurochocolate festival in Perugia (home sweet home), and I'm looking into going on this awesome trip they have during fall break to go to Prague, Berlin, Amsterdam, and Paris. Seriously, this site is my new travel addiction.
So I woke up Saturday bright and early and trekked it to the train station, where I met up with my group. Of course, I was the oldest person there, besides Mike, my tour guide, but oh well, I don't have a problem with babies. So we loaded up the bus and spent a nice three hours drive watching "Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist" (kind of cute, way better than "Nights in Rodanthe", Sherry) and chatting. We arrived in Venice to perfect weather, sunny and 75, and proceeded to hop the water taxi out to some of the surrounding islands. So I've been to Venice twice before, but I had never been out to Burano, the island closest to Murano, where they blow all the glass. It is definitely worth the trip. The island is famous for its lace, as well as its colorful houses. For all of my Charleston people, imagine if Rainbow Row had been transported to Italy, been put on an island, and multiplied by hundreds. There you have Burano. So I walked around the island with Mike the tour guide and badgered him about how someone can get his job, because it really sounds too good to be true. After a lovely hour or so, we hopped the ferry to Murano, where of course, the girls went crazy shopping for Murano glass items. I even bought myself a souvenir, this awesome ring that is half the size of my middle finger and is made of swirly white and red glass, like a giant peppermint. After Murano, again we hopped the water taxi and booked it for mainland Venice. We checked out Piazza San Marco, which was full of pigeons and tourists, as always. We walked over the rialto bridge and checked out the grand canal, and we went on a search for cheap food in Venice (which is near impossible, since Venice is probably one of the top 5 most expensive cities I have ever been to). We ended up at a local trattoria, where Mike convinced me, but no one else, to try the local cuisine. I ate spaghetti with squid/cuttlefish that was cooked in a sauce made from the ink of the fish (just imagine black spaghetti with bits of grey stuff in it. Did it look appetizing, no. Was it delicious, YES! I'm happy that with age I have become quite adventurous with food. I love trying unfamiliar things (remember the fried sea creatures Allie?). After dinner, we spent a while just enjoying Venice by night, then we took the water taxi back to Tronchetto to pick up our bus. Overall, a lovely day, where I got to talk to a lot of new people, including two girls from CofC, eat good food, and enjoy the beauty that is Venice.
The next day, I slept really late because I was exhausted, lounged around, then called Mike the tour guide because he had told me about a bar in Florence showing American football on Sundays and said a lot of expats would be there. Well, he didn't pick-up, but I decided to suck it up, get some guts, and just go to the bar by myself. I ended up meeting up with Mike there and meeting a cast of characters ranging from "Cheese", an Australian club promoter, to Tim, an international real estate salesman. Though I talked to a lot of new people, it was a bit like sorority recruitment, with me just going up to strangers, introducing myself, asking them where they were from, what they do, etc. I'm proud that I actually broke out of my funk, and maybe I will continue to just go out and be that creepy loner at the bar, but at least I will meet new people and hopefully start to make friends here. I'm just glad I discovered Bus2Alps and will hopefully continue to meet lots of cool people and experience new places on their tours.

Three days of Creepers, Part II

Okay, so Monday was my first day of teaching here in Florence. I got up early to make sure I looked my best and that I was prepared to teach, since I hadn't taught since April. I rode my bike over to school and sat down with my students in the classroom, then totally surprised them when I eventually stood up and walked to the front of the room and started speaking Italian. It was hilarious, they were all like "wait, you are our teacher, no way". Anyhow, class went well, and my MW class only has 7 students. So after class, one of my 2 boy students walked with me to another one of the buildings on campus, and we ended up grabbing a cappuccino together. He is a great kid, who wanted to discuss Dante with me (I told him I was an expert after having Cervigni), told me the whole reason he chose to study in Italy was because of Hemingway's book "A Farewell to Arms", and taught me about how football really isn't that boring if you think of it in terms of chance. Bright kid, definitely would hook him up with one of my friends. So having coffee with this kid wasn't really creepy, but also toes the line of student/teacher relations. I mean obviously, we didn't go out drinking together and he didn't really hit on me, but he would like to hang out more. Sometimes I find being a TA such a weird position because if I had met this kid normally, I know we would totally be friends and I would call him to hang out and do things with me here. But can I really do that if I'm his teacher, even though I'm only one year older than him?
Alright, so the rest of Monday was pretty boring, but Tuesday, whoa, that is where the creepers reappear. So I go to the school library to use their internet, since my chiavetta here is as bad as dial-up internet from 1997. I end up meeting these two really cool guys who are my age and work for this company here in Florence that takes American study abroad students on guided trips to Greece and Morocco. They told me some cool places to go in Florence and promised to call me to go out sometime (which would be great). So after I leave the library to go tutor, I'm walking down the street and here someone calling "Aspetta, aspetta!" (which means wait). I turn around and it is a young construction worker coming out of the building next to the library. He ends up asking me what I'm doing that night and I told him nothing, just teaching, and he asked me to go out with him. I gave him my number because I really just wanted to get out of my apartment, and by this point I didn't care who it was with. So I tutor and teach, go home to eat dinner, and who ends up calling but the worker. He asks me if we can meet up for a drink, so I go meet him at the duomo, where of course some random parade was going on (this was an actual parade, not a religious ceremony). Anyhow, the guy shows up with a friend, they are both quite friendly, and they take me to this pub called The Lion's Fountain. We are walking to the pub and they are asking me all sorts of questions about where I'm from, what I'm doing in Italy, etc. I ask them where they are from, and they tell me some town I've never heard of. I ask them what it's close to, and they tell me "Yugoslavia and Serbia". I'm like wait, what? They were both from Kosovo, but have been living in Italy for a few years. So I'm out with not straight up Italian creepers, but Eastern European ones. We get to the pub, and the one that asked me out turns mute and is smoking like a chimney. I can't stand awkward silence, so I just start blabbing away about my life, and how I love soccer and Luca Toni, and creepy Italian stories. My cousin Anne Elizabeth ends up meeting us there and I turn into translator between everyone, but the awkwardness becomes even worse, so I faked that I had to get on skype and Anne E and I slipped away. I was happy to get out of my apartment and actually go for a drink, and the guys were nice, but I doubt I'll be hanging with them anymore, especially when towards the end of the night they decided to speak only in their language (Kosovonian/Serbian?). I can't wait to go out with normal people!

Three days of creepers (this is going to take a few posts)

So I am definitely making up for lost time with the amount of creepers I've met the past few days. Sunday night. Picture it. My cousin Anne Eliz and I got to get some gelato, and we are eating it on the steps of the duomo, talking about how excited we both are for the first day of school the next day. These Americans approach us to have us take their picture, and we end up chatting with them for like 3 hours. They were two married couples on vacation for two weeks in Italy, and we gave them a lot of suggestions for sites to see in Florence, and in exchange they gave me wine, a fair trade. So while I'm chatting with these people, this group of three young Italian guys come up and sit down next to us. Of course they say ciao to me and ask me where I'm from. One came from Naples, one came from Sicily, and the other came from Calabria. I knew this was bad news. So I'm chatting with them, and they asked me if I give English lessons, and I say I could. Then, one of them asks me who my cousin is, and Annie turns to me and says "tll the one in the middle he's cute". So I do and he asks me to ask her if she wants to go on a walk with him. I play messenger, and she says no because she is wearing gym shorts and not dressed appropriately. I tell him this and he says (loose translation) "that's okay, they are easier for me to pull off of her". I just ignored the comment and turned back to the American couples and they eventually left. While all this was going on, I got a call from Franco, my little mechanic boyfriend from the day before. He asks me if I want to go out with him that night, and I told him I was at the duomo with my cousin. He asks me if I can stay there until midnight and then go out with him, and I told him no because I had school the next day. He told me that shouldn't matter and that he wants to show me "a good time". I decided by that point it was definitely time to go home and get ready for school.
Stay tuned for more stories of creepy Italians from this week in a bit!

I've still got it (with creepers, midgets, and babies)!

This is the first post of what I'm sure will be many about the creepy Italians in my life. So today after I had lesson planned and laid around reading magazines, I decided to get up and explore the city some more. The main goal was to see if there was a bike rack by the building I teach in so I can ride my bike to school on Monday. After walking around LdM's campus, I decided to go to the duomo and partake in one of my favorite activities: people watching. I dedicate this story to Allie, my people watching partner-in-crime:
So I'm sitting on the steps of the duomo and had been listening to this skeezy Australian guy talk to this dumb American girl about how his brother wanted to get it on with her, and how he did too. After this couple left and I didn't have as much entertainment, I noticed there was a young Italian staring at me. He met all the criteria for boys that usually come talk to me (foreign, short, and younger than me). I just knew he was going to come over and talk to me, which he did, of course. His name was Franco, and he was 20. He asked me all about being from the states and what I was doing in Florence. I talked to him because a) I have no friends here yet b) because I needed to practice my Italian c) because he didn't seem too creepy. So Franco asks me to "fare una passegiatta" with him. As I tell my students every semester, I know from experience that you must be careful going on walks alone with Italian boys because most likely they are going to "take you to a dark place" and try to take advantage of you. I was so desperate for someone to talk to though that I went off on a 1.5 hour jaunt with this kid. He took me to all the romantic spots in the city and told me how beautiful I was, made me take off my sunglasses so he could look into my beautiful eyes, etc. As we were walking on the lungarno, he asked me if he could hold my hand. I told him no, since I have a boyfriend. Well Franco says that we can still hold hands because my boyfriend isn't here and I'll be hanging out with him for the next few months. I still did not hold his hand, but for some reason I continued my walk with him. We finally sat down on the steps of one of the gazillions of churches here and he asked me if he could take me out sometime and if he could come to my house. Again, I said," I have a boyfriend, I'd like to be friends with you, but that's it". I finally got away when I told him I needed to go home for a skype date, and he seemed so crushed. He gave me the double kiss and said he will call me sometime to hang out. I don't know if I will answer though.
Even though he was a typical creepy Italian, I still thank Franco for coming to talk to me. The more time I spend in Florence and the more Italians I talk to the better. Oh, and don't think I have been sitting at home super depressed. I treated myself to a day of pampering yesterday and took myself out to lunch, where I made friends with a bunch of Italian waiters who told me that I speak beautiful Italian and that after a year of being here I will speak better than them. Florence is definitely beginning to perk up for me!

A presto,
Kate

The First week in Review...

So I have now been in Florence for a week and I think I would rate it an A. I had my dad here with me for the majority of the time, which was great because I had someone to hang out with since the only people I know so far are my landlord, this creepy old man named Domenico who works at an exchange center and made a list of things I need to teach my students, and the Italian department at LdM. Now that he's gone though, I've had the opportunity to settle in to the idea of truly living on my own. Which is a bit lonely so far, but going fine. I kind of feel like a housewife at the moment. I wake up, run my errands, prepare my lunch, watch my Italian soap opera, take a walk, cook dinner, and either read or watch a movie. Pretty boring, except for my soap opera. For real, this is better than any American soap opera. It's called "Capri, La Terza Stagione" and it's all about these people who work in the tourism industry on Capri and all of their love triangles and family issues. I now have plans for every afternoon this week, since I start my job on Monday (finally).
The only things I have to complain about so far are 1) the mosquitos (I have never had so many bug-bites in my life) 2) men who don't wear deoderant ( it waftes after them and totally makes me gag). Other than that, life's a bit quiet, but I' sure it will start picking up soon.

A beautiful day in Siena

Ciao amici,

Today my dad and I took a day trip to Siena, a beautiful city in Tuscany. We caught a train and enjoyed a lovely and relxing ride through the country-side, then bussed it up the hills to reach Siena's center. Siena's main piazza, il campo, is super cool because it is shaped like a clam shell and is humungous! They hold a horse race twice a year there called the Pailo, where all of the neighborhoods of Siena (the contrade) race for three laps around the campo. My dad and I walked through maybe 5 or 6 of the 17 neighborhoods, which all have their own flags and museums. We also went to the duomo, which has really cool marble floors that have all sorts of religious images etched in them. We had a lunch at a kind of shady cafe, but afterwards we walked forever and went to the church of San Domenico and saw St. Catherine of Siena's head and finger. We also walked around an old Spanish fortress before heading back to Florence. It was a beautiful day for a mini-trip and I was happy to show my dad another of Italy's great cities.

A presto,

Kate

A Firenze

Ciao a tutti!

I arrived in Florence Tuesday morning and my dad and I got to my apartment no problem from the airport. Let me just say, thank you to everyone at UNC who has kept this apartment in the family! I don't think I am ever going to want to leave it. I will post pictures of it soon. Let me just say the apartment is twice the size of my ghetto Chapel Hill one, a billion times nicer, and I have my own garden, with a grape vine and a tree that may grow fruit. The only downside is the mosquitos here are bad, but I can totally deal with that.
The first day here my dad and I pretty much slept the entire day because we really didn't sleep on our flight. My landlord came by to introduce himself, and he is such a nice gentleman, pretty much the complete opposite of Ted, my shady landlord last year. Day two was my first meeting at Lorenzo de'Medici, so I mainly just hung out around the school until it started, seeing as my dad and I didn't wake up until almost noon. The teachers and staff I met were very nice, and I look forward to meeting more people and getting my school life situated. Classes don't start until the 6th of September, but I have to work on my dreaded "permesso di soggiorno" this week, which requires me to register with the Italian police, so that should be fun. Today my dad and I managed to set up internet, order a cell phone, take a 2 hour sight-seeing trip, and eat the most humungous dinner at Trattoria Anita (that was for you Marina, great suggestion!). Got to skype my family for the first time today, and will hopefully skype more people soon.
Will update when more exciting things happen in my life. A presto,

Kate

Packing for a year is impossible!

Ciao amici!

So here I sit, attempting to pack for a year of living in Italy. How am I supposed to bring everything I need for a year in two suitcases, I ask you? I'm already having trouble trying to whittle down the amount of clothes I am packing and I've only gone through my t-shirts! I know some wise person once said to pack everything, then remove half of that, but my clothes hold so many fond memories for me. Guess that's what I get for being a bit of a fashionista.

Anyhow, as part of the procrastination process while packing, I have decided to create a blog to chronicle this next school year I will be in Italy. I do this so that I can keep in touch with all of my friends and not leave anyone out of the juicy details of my life. So if you are interested in following my first year living totally alone, nonetheless in a foreign country, and you wish to know how I will cope without having a nervous breakdown, keep reading. I arrive in Florence the 24th of August and will try to update regularly from then on.

If you have any suggestions for how to best pack, or if you want to give me your address so that I can send you a postcard, just post a comment to this post. I'm back to trying to at least fill one suitcase tonight!

A presto,