It's Friday and week one is almost complete! Where is the time going? Currently, I am sitting in the Astor cafe, the only place my computer seems to be willing to (sometimes) connect to the internet. It's been a long battle trying to get my internet to work over here. It has been working perfectly for everyone else in our apartment and it seems, on this trip in general, but me and my friend Kelsey seem to be the owners of demon laptops that just refuse to connect to the internet.  

After waking up early this morning, we met our guide Constantina for a two hour walking tour of Florence. It was nice to have some places pointed out to us and to see that, in fact, if you go in a logical path (or something of that sort), things are a lot closer than you would think. After getting lost yesterday, it seemed like Florence would be one hard puzzle to solve, but in reality, it isn't so big or so difficult to maneuver. Along the way, we stopped by the Duomo, got Gelato (Nocciola (hazlenut) and Cafe flavors) from the best place around - Grom, learned where the API office is, and also how to survive in the fresh food marketplace. After our tour, a few of the girls from the apartment and I went to the fresh marketplace called Centrale Mercato, which luckily, is literally about five hundred steps from our apartment! We stopped off at a fresh fruit stand and I tried my first fresh apricot....which was absolutely delicious! I could have eaten an entire carton of them right then and there, but I settled for getting a few fresh nectarines to have with breakfast this week instead. The afternoon passed quickly, and it was just a relatively relaxing one. At 6:30 it was time to head out for our cooking class!! That was amazing! It was about a twenty minute walk to the cooking school which was just beyond the Ponte Vecchio! It was amazing getting to see the bridge in real life!  We made fresh spinach and cheese raviolo, linguini, eggplant parm with cheese and a potato and zucchini filling and of course, you can't forget dessert, which we made tiramisu! We walked home under a clear sky and perfect weather before meeting up with Alex and a few other friends to explore more of Florence. Also, I managed to find our way back home! First successful navigation of the streets of Florence on my own -- under pressure too, I might add! It felt great to be able to get myself home. Only three days here and already things are slowly becoming familiar. I think I'm ready for classes to begin on Monday morning, but for this weekend, I'm going to enjoy this beautiful weather and all that Florence has to offer. Oh, and did I mention? I don't have any classes on Tuesdays or Fridays....what is a girl to do?

la vita è bella

Alright, so looking back on it now, I suppose it was a pretty hysterical experience, but I wasn't exactly thinking that at the time. After a long first day of moving and getting settled in our apartment, when 1 am rolled around, it was time to shower before getting to bed. What I thought would be a simple task, quickly turned into a highly injurious experience. The way our shower is set up is that we have two doors that meet in the middle and swing open both ways, sort of like the old west swinging saloon doors, and the shower head was conveniently pointing out towards the front of the shower. Not to mention, the standard deviation of the water going from hot to cold is about 500 degrees. So, I think you can see where this is going. First, I turned on the shower and all the water went right onto the floor in front of the shower....not in the shower. Then, when I finally shut the doors to keep the water from coming out, I was attempting to slip in without letting any water out when I was scalded by the 500 degree water -- for real. After finally managing to get the water to cool down, I was able to actually get in the shower quickly. At that point, I realized that the shower head can be turned completely to the side so that the water won't come out when you turn it on. After a quick shower which included further injuries (banging my head, arm, leg on the wall), it was time to just go to bed. Luckily, the shower this morning was much more successful. 

Wait, so did I really just wake up this morning in FLORENCE? Well, it's day one, and I'm finally sitting down. Florence is beyond beautiful. The streets are rich with history and beauty and it seems at every turn that Florence only gets better. After waking up to a beautiful blue sky and my kind of temperature (oh, probably about 94 degrees), we had a delicious breakfast and our housing orientation before being bused off to our apartments. I have to admit, our apartment is pretty large, open, and so much more than I expected. Coming to Florence, I was prepared to live in a box, but this apartment is beautiful, and I love that we live among the locals of Florence. After unpacking and getting settled it was time to tackle the internet issues. Believe it or not, not every country in the world has amazing internet connections quite like we have back in the U.S.. So, everyone take a moment to appreciate your internet a little more these days. Lucky me, I seem to be the only one who's laptop doesn't feel like it wants to cooperate. Sigh. Can't I catch a break?!

After giving up on our attempts to get my laptop to connect to the internet, me and the girls in my apartment decided to take on Florence...and what an adventure that was. We wlaked around and found a local supermarket where we can get most of our groceries, and I'm pretty sure we just arrived back at our apartment much more confused about how to navigate the streets of Florence than before we left our building. First day of Florence, and it's only natural that we get lost among the streets, right? I suppose it's sort of like an initiation: in order to make it here, you first have to get utterly and completely lost...for hours.  Mission accomplished.

By 8 PM we had still yet to eat dinner... welcome to Italy, right? By 9:00 it was time to head down to dinner. We went to this adorable place just outside the front door of our apartment. Talk about a three course meal! They started us off with the best plate of Bruschetta that I have ever tasted and some bread with balsamic vinegar.  Then, for our main meal, they brought us out a plate with three different types of pasta on them. One was penne with a cheese sauce (my personal favorite),  the second was Gnocchi in a mushroom sauce, also pretty good, and finally, tortolini with prosciutto. Needless to say, we were pretty content after that meal. (I think the Gnocchi is still settling itself). 

Today has certainly been a whirlwind first day. Thankfully, tomorrow we are taking a "survival walk" around Florence, with the API company for two hours where they will show us the most important places we should know. Everyone say a prayer for me tonight that I can remember all the locations! 

Ah, yes! Just got a brief window of opportunity! Our internet is working (who knows for how much longer!) so that's all I have for you...for now! 

Stay tuned!! 

This is the view from the rooftop garden where we had dinner our first night in Florence.