Apartment Pictures!

When it was clean (the second day...)

Hectic first week of classes!

My room is messy, so I guess that means I've officially moved into my apartment and made myself at home!

I feel more comfortable walking around, even if I get lost I can usually find a landmark or the Duomo and figure it out from there. Grocery shopping is kind of hard too, I think I'm going to get things to make sherpa stew tonight if I can find them.

Classes here are going to be tough, I'm definitely not in one of those "slack off during the week and travel every weekend" programs. I have 100 pages to read for my Italian Cinema class for Monday. I also had to switch some of my classes around and drop one. So I'm taking Italian everyday, Italian cinema on monday, Life and works of Michelangelo on Tuesday, Graphic Design on Wednesday and Photography on Thursdays. There was a problem with the photography class where I was accidentally placed into a second semester of a year long course, so I had to change it today. Classes are so long though. Italian is 2 and a half hours and the rest are at least 3. I'm just not used to focusing on the same subject for that long just once a week. It will be an adjustment!
Everything else is good! I've made friends and I should be getting my museum pass next week so I'll start going to the state museums for free whenever I want! (Soon Grammy!!)

We have a school trip to a vinyard in the Chianti Hills at a house owned by a countess and her family. The email I was sent described her as "eccentric." Its supposed to be amazing! I think I might also be doing a day trip to Sicily in a few weeks with my program (it only costs 15 euro, and thats for dinner, quite the deal actually).

My sleep schedule is all screwed up, but it usually is so thats fine, I'll get better at it.

I'm starting to feel like I might just be okay here for four months. I actually learned how to count to ten in Italian (finally!) so I don't feel awkward asking for two of something like I have for the past 10 days!

Last Friday one of my advisers took a group to a small town in the hills just outside of Florence called Fiesore. Apparently it is where the first settlers of Florence lived. It has the most amazing outlook where you can see all of Florence and the hills surrounding the city. My pictures don't do it justice!





More pictures soon once I figure this thing out!

Ciao!

First few days... am I really here?!

Ciao!

I've been here for 3 days and just finally finished unpacking, I'm all moved in now! I haven't had time to do it yet because I've been so busy since the first minute I was here.

My flights here weren't very eventful, but I made some friends! On the flight from Chicago to Zurich I was seated next to a girl the same age as me, also going to study in Firenze. We watched movies together and tried to keep each o

ther from thinking about how we are going to be gone and how nervous we both were.

I hate layovers. Especially 6 hour long ones in Zurich. Fun fact: when flying from Zurich to Florence, you don't board the plane at the gate, instead they put you on shuttles that take you out to the smaller plane already on the runway. I wasn't expecting that!

When I landed in Florence I was supposed to get my bags and buy a phone card to contact the people in charge of our arrival and Mom. Nothing was open, and the only payphone I could find was broken. Luckily, I noticed a guy from my flight who I could tell was a student... and was wearing a Bears t-shirt. I asked him how he was planning on getting to his apartment, and he said he didn't have any idea, but I could use his interna

tional phone. He basically saved my life, as I had no idea what to do either! Turns out, he went to high school with one of my friends at Butler and goes to IU! We decided to share a cab because our apartments were close, and he ended up staying with me until he knew I would be let in, then payed for the cab fair. It was a really great way to start off my interactions with people here.

So far we've had orientation, which included walking tours of Florence and seeing both buildings. I walk across the Ponte Vecchio everyday... no

big deal right? I can't believe I'm going to school here. The first building is where all of the liberal arts classes will take place and is directly across the street from the Pitti Palace on the Piaza della Pitti. Its amazing, I'll take pictures on Monday when I go for my first day of classes. The second building is across the river, but directly on the Arno. This is where all of my studio classes (graphic design and photography) will be. The best part about the second building is that it has a rooftop terrace with a 360 view of Florence. It was absolutely amazing!

I'm in an apartment about 5 minutes from the Duomo and 3 blocks from the Piaza della Republico. I'm on the top floor (technically the 4th, but I think in America it would be considered the 5th or 6th) with 4 other girls. The floor below me has 2 other Arcadia apartments, one with 8 girls (where my two friends from Butler live) and the other with 4 girls. It feels like being back in the dorms freshman year, everyone goes in and out of each others apartments and eats together. We've been exploring our neighborhood, there is a delicious and cheap pizzeria at the end of my block, right across from our favorite place, The Lions Fountain Pub. Its been fun getting lost and trying to find our way back with a map and limited Italian. Most people speak English here, so its not too difficult.

I just can't believe I'm actually here! The first time I saw the Duomo in person I was walking down the street and it just emerged from behind the smaller buildings. I wake up to the bells every morning instead of my blaring alarm clock, which is a very nice change! I

Tonight one of the administrators at the school, Iris, took a small group of us to a small town that is in the hills around Florence. I can't remember the name of the town just now, I'm having trouble keeping all of the locations here straight, but I'll put the name of it in my next post. We took the city buses there and went to a cafe for hot chocolate. I

t tasted like a chocolate bar was melted and had some milk a

dded to it, it was that rich and thick. The view was beautiful, as you can see below in some pictures so far!

(on the roof of the school with the Duomo behind me)

(a side ways view of the doors in an art studio)

(On the walk to school)

Miss and love all of you! I'll put up a post of all pictures, blogspot won't let me put more for some reason)

Ciao,

Italian Erin