Prague

Sorry it's been so long since I've updated, but I've been a very busy bee. I've been traveling outside Florence every weekend since I arrived so taking time to post on my blog has sort of taken a back seat. But, regardless, a post about Prague must be next! My roommates Christy and Brooke and I went to Prague on Euroedventures, which is a group that organizes weekend trips for college students studying abroad. We left Florence at 8 p.m. on Thursday night and arrived in Prague, or Praha, at around 9 a.m. Friday morning. Needless to say it was a vaheerrrrryyyy long bus ride. Luckily our group leader had a bunch of bootleg movies so we watched the lucky bones and AVATAR on the ride, which made it much more enjoyable. Once we checked into our little hotel we went with the group on a little tour of Prague. We visited St. Wenceles Square, one of the biggest squares in all of Europe, that had all these 24 hour stands with sausages, fried cheese, french fries, basically all the drunk food you could ever imagine, lining the streets. After that we walked to the Old Town Square that has the famous astronomical clock tower. There was actually a wedding going on when we walked by so as the clock struck noon and the little wooden people came out of the tower, the bride tossed her bouquet at the same time! It was really romantic, even though it was about 10 degrees out and the bride was wearing a strapless dress-- I felt so bad for her! But after that clock, which actually was sort of a let down, we went into the square that had more food stands and a great crepe stand! The square also had an exhibit of the surrealist artist Salvador Dali, which we went to the next day with Handler, Chukerman, Evan, and all my boys from home!
After that we saw the Old Bridge and the Prague Castle! It was literally the most beautiful castle I've ever seen. The gothic church attached was amazing as well. The stained glass was so colorful and something out of a disney movie!
The last stop on the tour was the Lenon wall, which was a really cool site because it had about a million drawings and spray painted names and sayings- and pictures of Lenon of course. It was clearly a huge tourist attraction though, so we didn't stay that long.
After the tour Christy, Brooke and I took a little nap before we met up with Handler, Evan, Churkerman, Jimmy and all their roommates for dinner. We got some great potatoes and meat, which I had actually really been craving after eating nothing but pasta and bread for weeks.
After dinner, we saw their apartment, which was huge and in a really cool old apartment building right on the river. It was so great catching up with all my friends from high school. Even though I was so far away from Highland Park, I felt really at home. It was amazing. We went out later that night to an underground club where there were all these little passages to different levels. I swear if I wasn't with Ben the whole time, I would have gotten lost. On the way home, Christy and I stopped at the 24 stands in Wenceles square and got some very healthy food.... NOT. Worth it though.
The next morning we slept in and then got up to meet the boys in the square for some coffee and then to see the Dali exhibit. It was alright, they only had his prints, none of his big paintings. But you definitely saw how creepy and surreal his work was through his drawings. After that we walked with the boys over the Bridge and to the Lenon wall again.
We met up for dinner that night at a Mexican restaurant which was... very needed in my diet. I was craving fajitas more than anything I think. It was incredible! The meal was a little expensive though, and the currency in Czech is so weird. They're not on the euro, but with crown, or krona... I'm not exactly sure what it is. But my bill for dinner was about 750 crowns... which I think is about 20 euro. Still, I felt like I was spending thousands of dollars the whole weekend!
Overall, I don't think I could study in Prague. It was a beautiful city but a little too eastern european for me. It was an amazing weekend such a great place to visit, but we were all really happy to return to Florence (after the 13 hour bus ride) on Sunday night.
Ciao for now!

When in Rome

This past weekend was my first trip with the school to Rome. We took a coach bus which was cool because we got to see the tuscan countryside. What was not cool was the fact that by the time we got to Rome it was raining, hailing, and blizzarding! This was the first time Rome had gotten snow in 25 years! So of course, like any snowless city, they didn't know how to deal with it. Our planned tours of the Colleseo, Foro Romano, and ancient ruins were all cancelled for the afternoon, even though by the time we got to our hotel it was sunny and all the snow had melted! Despite the slight setback, we checked into our hotel and ventured out to see the Colosseum, which happened to be right around the corner from our hotel. As we rounded the corner I think my mouth literally dropped open. It's one of the most known architectural images in our history, and yet, unless you are actually standing right next to it, you can't possibly imagine the feelings you get- I was speechless. Our tour guide for the trip, Francesca, walked us around the Colosseum and Arch of Constantine giving us historical significances and telling us storied. We snapped pictures for another half an hour and then it was on to the Roman Forum. I have literally never seen so many ancient ruins before- VERY cool sight. The rest of the night was given to dinner at the hotel and going out. My friend, Mariana, and I went to this Irish pub near the Colosseum which was basically like an American sports bar. Go Beer.
The next day was the trip to the Vatican. We took our bus to the Vatican City and got a tour of the Vatican Musuems, Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's Basilica. I'd say the most memorable part of the whole trip for me was definitely being inside the Sistine Chapel. You're not technically allowed to speak or take picture- but everyone does- so I got plenty of great pictures of Michelangelo's ceiling.
St. Peter's Basilica was also really cool. It's the biggest church in the entire world and there are these markers on the floor of the nave that are labeled with other churches names basically showing that if they were placed inside St. Peter's where they would compare length-wise. Basically none even compare to how huge St. Peters is.
After the Vatican (which I wish we saw more of) we took the Metra to the Spanish steps and had lunch at a little spaghetteria down one of the side streets. I had the best spaghetti carbonara! Surprisingly it has eggs in it, and I don't even like eggs. Trying new things every day.... expanding my palette.
On our last day in Rome, we saw the Trevi Fountain. It was Valentine's day so I thought it was pretty romantic, even though I was all by myself ha! I through a coin into the fountain, so hopefully I'll come back to Italy!
Overall, the trip went by fast. Maybe I'll get back to Rome, because it's definitely a big enough city to take up at least a week of touring around. Needless to say, though, I was happy to be back in my smaller city of Florence Sunday night and get a full 10 hours of sleep before class on Monday.

More soon, Ciao for now!

Carnival in Viraggio

My first trip out of Florence was this past Sunday. The school arranged a day trip to a small town outside Pisa called Viraggio who hosts Carnival for the whole month before Lent. Venice is the most popular place for Carnival so most people go there, but Viraggio does basically the same thing but on a smaller scale. For those who aren't familiar with Carnival, it's basically a combination of Mardi Gras and Halloween and lasts a whole month, with parties each weekend, usually with costumes, floats, parades, and general madness. Even in Florence I saw a ton of people dressed up in masks and incredible outfits walking around the streets throwing confetti.
To get to Viraggio we took the train from the S.M.N. station (Santa Maria Novella) which is right behind the church, and on the opposite side of town from where I live. The ride was about an hour and a half and super easy. When we arrived my roommate Christy and my friend LJ explored the main street of town and found a little pizzaria where I had probably the best pizza I've had since being in Italy. Florence isn't particularly known for their pizza, so this place was a GREAT pick. After some food and lots of wine we headed over to the main square where the festival was going on. It was the most amazing thing to walk around and see costumes in Italy. They are nothing like Halloween costumes in the States. People with crazy make-up, men wearing full on zebra print onesies, huge purple afros, the most intricate masks I've ever seen, feathers, sequins--- it was literally aesthetic overload. The town is right on the beach too, so to have all the floats and people going by against the background of the Mediterranean was incredible. Nothing topped the floats in the parade though. These floats were straight out of Alice and Wonderland and sort of warped and creepy but completely entrancing at the same time. They were probably close to 5 stories high and it was nothing like a parade in America. There were no police or barricades stopping you from joining in and getting so close to the floats you could basically climb on. The whole event was so much fun and something I'm so glad I didn't miss out on. It was definitely a great day trip!
The only bad part was taking an hour and a half train ride back that was so packed I thought the train would break in half! Luckily we made it back to Florence in one piece--- and in plenty of time to catch the Superbowl, which started as 12:30 am here!
Ciao for now :)

10000000000 steps

The past week has been filled with classes, more exploring, and a ton of walking! My classes are so interesting and new. They're definitely not anything I'd be able to take in the states. One of my art classes is a photo editing class where we are asked to bring in photos that we've taken and then we take on the role of an editor to create a comprehensive chronology of our photographs-make a story-and gain the ability to be objective of our own work. (which is VERY hard). My teacher was born in Oak Park, but he's literally lived all over the world- Florence, Paris, London, New York, South Carolina- he is most definitely someone I will learn a lot from. And he's just a super cool guy, and considering the class only have 5 students in it, I think we'll all get to know each other pretty well.

Well, enough about school because, let's be honest, I'm hardly even thinking of classes when I live in such an amazing place. I decided that on wednesday after my class I would go exploring again on my own. I ended up at the duomo again and finally went inside. Not only is the inside the most amazing sight I've ever seen, but if you pay 8 euro you can walk up to the very top, the copula, and see all of florence. The duomo, which means dome, was designed by Brunelleschi, who was one of Florence's most important artists and architects. When I started walking up the stairs of the church, all I could think about was that I was climbing something made by Brunelleschi- someone who I had studied in school for months! After a while though, that enthusiasm faded and my legs starts to hate this decision as I realized I wasn't even near the top and I had already climbed hundreds of stairs! A couple hundred more and I reached the first of 2 stops on the tour up to the top. I was walking around the inside of the dome, where incredible Renaissance paintings covered every inch of ceiling over my head. I looked down and was in awe of how something SOO tall could have been built so many hundreds of years ago. After some more strenuous steps and creepy passageways I emerged onto the copula. It was the most amazing sight. I could see all of Florence and beyond! I saw the Santa Croce and where my apartment was located. I saw the Orsanmichele and the Santa Maria Novella. After taking a whole battery's worth of pictures on my camera I took some deep breaths and started my descent. The trip down didn't take nearly as long as the one up, but as I stepped off the last step into the piazza I realized I had made my first real important memory of living in Florence. Who knows if I would ever pay 8 euro again to climb until my knees broke, but the fact that I did it on my own and took in the moment with no one else around really made all the difference.
Hopefully, I'll have many more spectacular memories in Florence to come....
Ciao for now!

Explorations

Ciao,
Yesterday Brooke, Christy and ventured over to the other side of time in an attempt to find the free shuttle that runs to Ikea. We wanted to get some bigger comforters for our beds, a rug, and a lamp... the bus station that we were directed to, however, was not only impossible to navigate, but we're pretty sure the shuttle only runs on Sundays. So after a lot of asking around (in our best italian) we decided to ditch the Ikea idea and explore the part of the city we haven't been to yet. We walked for about three blocks and ended up running into the Duomo and Baptistry. It was the most amazing sight- the highest cathedral and most ornately decorated facade I've ever seen. It was definitely a high point during the day. I didn't have my camera with me (which was a huge mistake) so we vowed to come back in a few days and take a whole album worth of pictures. After we got our fill of the Duomo we walked a few blocks north and ran into, believe it or not, a McDonalds. Although we were surrounded by the best restaurants and italian food in the world, we couldn't help but go in and try french fries from another country, which were, to my surprise, really good! After lunch, we wandered around and ended up finding a store that sold these amazing light fixtures, plugs, hair dryers, and other appliances that we were in desperate need of. We couldn't go another day without a straightener so we split one of those as well. The owner was this really sweet italian man who had actually lived in the states a few years ago so he gave us a list of some local spots that he said was a good place to meet italian college students, and not just americans. It's so crazy that so many americans are studying abroad in Florence. I'd say everywhere we walk we hear English-- or see american students our age.
Our last stop of the day was at Coin, which is the big department store in Florence. We got some wine glasses for our apartment and a few things for our kitchen. Brooke, who I'm learning will stop at every store and every leather market if we gave her the chance, bought make-up and shoes and probably would have gotten more if we didn't pull her away! I know she'll be a great shopping partner when I decide to actually get some leather, which is EVERYWHERE! Every bag, jacket and glove is literally beautiful and smooth and so impossible not to touch. I want to buy everything I see, so it will be really difficult to pick my favorite.
Anyways, after the day of walking around we had to nap a little before we made our first dinner in our apartment, which was... of course, pasta. We bought the most incredible parmagiano from the market next door, which for anyone that knows me, is my weakness. YUMMMM

More details on the food later. I'm off to lunch and another day of wonderful explorations.
Ciao for now!

Giorni Due e Molti Pizza

Day two of my Italian adventure began with our program orientation as a hotel off right Arno river about 10 minutes from our apartment. Needless to say, the orientation was the least exciting part of my day. After the presentation I ventured downstairs to the bar and ordered a cappuccino with Brooke. We ended up meeting a women named Kate who is studying at our adjoining culinary school. We sat down together and ended up talking for almost an hour. Kate, who is 35 and abandoning her career as a landscape architect to become a chef, was so sweet and offered to cook us dinner once she learned some good meals! We were so surprised that she continued to chat with us for so long, but we realized that we were all in the same boat. Scared, excited, and nervous to be living in a brand new place. After the orientation ended we split up and walked around the historic district of town for a while before lunch. Passing the Santa Croce, we ventured farther into the city. Brooke and I went into Prada and Gucci and other amazing shops to explore and drool over the italian fashion and leather. We passed the Ponte Vecchio bridge and found it was a great place for people watching as everyone just hangs out around the entrance. The city already felt small to me as I started passing recognizable shops and restaurants. Everything I passed I wanted to try on, or eat, or look at. Explore! That was the name of the game for today! Brooke and I ran into Kate again outside a little pasta shop and went in to get some lunch. Paying in euro was getting easier and ordering in Italian, though choppy, got us the most incredible little meal ever!
Later we finished orientation with a meeting as the FUA school, which, as luck would have it, is right across from our apartment building. In fact, all my classes are within 15 feet of my front door! Here I came thinking I'd be walking all over the place to go to class and I live right next door!
I took an Italian placement test and was put in Intermediate. Hopefully I'll be challenged enough to really learn the language, both in class, and in speaking it outside of class with locals. Not only are classes close to me, but we have a little food market right next door, the computer store where we get our cell phones and computer fixed is across the street, and a bar is right on the corner to get our morning dose of caffein! I could stay on my block all day and have everything I need! I would never do that though-- there are too many exciting things to see!
Later that night, FUA and it's adjoining schools had a welcome reception in a Hotel a little farther into the city. We drank red wine and had little appetizers which is the Apperitivo (meal/drinking before dinner). I ended up meeting a lot more people on my program and ran into Katie again!
The end of the night was a big party at this club called Cavalii on the other side of the river. A bunch of people from my school, as well as other americans studying abroad were there so the crowd was pretty english speaking. It was nice to meet other people who spoke the language and were going through what I was. Brooke, Christy and I didn't get home until 5 in the morning and let's just say : Never wear heels in Florence, or try running home as 5 am. Very bad combo- but great second day!

Ciao for now!

Corso dei Tintori 6

Buon Giorno a tutti!

I'm sorry I haven't been updating since I arrived, but as you can imagine, it's been incredibly busy and hectic. My semester began on my plane ride over when I met a girl named Katie, who was on my flight all the way from Chicago, and accompanied me through my layover in Zurich, and the small little plane that took up to the Florence airport. Surprisingly enough, a group of 3 boys from the Chicago area were on our flight as well and they ended up being my neighbors here!

Anyways, after the flight, which I was able to sleep through most of, I packed all my luggage (which is WAY too much) and got on the program shuttle. We were dropped off in a piazza on the Arno river and proceeded to check in at the SAI offices, get our apartment keys, and student cell phones.

After a lot of intense luggage maneuvering I was dropped off in front of my building on Corso dei Tintori. My front door, which is about 12 feet, heavy, and wooden, took me fifteen minutes to open, and when I finally did my roommates Emily and Christy were there to help me up the stairs. I live on the 2nd floor of the building, which is seriously amazing. It's from the 17th century and has a gorgeous little courtyard in the center where everyone's window looks out onto do. When I walked into my apartment my jaw dropped. The ceiling are 12 feet high, and each room has an ornately hand painted ceiling. The apartment seemed to go on for miles as I dragged my bags through hall after hall. We have three bathrooms, three bedrooms, a lovely little kitchen and dining room, another sitting room, and every room is tiled and unique in its own way. I was so surprised with out enormous the apartment was. I was thinking I'd get a small little european apartment, and instead I got an incredible 6 person suite!

After I settled in me and my roommate Danielle, Emily, Erika, Brooke, and Christy went out into the streets to explore a little. I can't even describe how amazing I felt walking out that front door into the Italian street that is quickly becoming my home. Corso dei Tintori is right off the Arno and around the corner from the Santa Croce cathedral. The cathedral is the burial place of Michelangelo and a seriously gorgeous building. I still can't believe I live right around the corner from it! The piazza that accompanies the church is always filled with people and shops.

After walking around, we met up with a few other girls from our program that go to school with Emily in Nashville and all went to dinner. My first authentic italian meal was a little hole in the wall pizza place which amazing servers who didn't laugh when we attempted to order in Italian. We got the house wine wine and lots of yummy pizza with great toppings. The restaurant ended up being a short walk from our apartment on Corso dei Tintori so when we walked back after dinner it was still relatively early. The rest of my first night was spent unpacking and getting to know the roommates- who are all amazing.

Each of us are SO different, but I think we'll live well together. We were all nervous about sleeping our first night in a strange place, but with all the traveling and jet lag we passed out. I couldn't have asked for a better first night in Firenze.

Ciao for now...

14 days and Counting

These next two weeks couldn't go by any slower... and it doesn't help that I'm on a supposed vacation in Florida and it's a frigid 38 degrees outside! However, as soon as I touch back down at Midway Airport on Saturday it'll be a full week of packing--not to mention freaking out-- before I depart for my semester abroad. Hopefully I'll have more exciting things to talk about than the FL weather, and hopefully I won't have too detailed of a post everyday. I'd much rather be out experiencing the Italian culture than sitting in my apartment writing about it... BUT to give the funders of this trip/study abroad/vacation/what have you enough peace of mind that I'm not out galavanting mindlessly with Italian men, this blog will serve my parents, and hopefully friends, with ample exciting details of my time in Firenze. Enjoy, and check back in a couple days.

Ciao for now ;)