Day 14: Two Weeks Already!?

Today I didn't have class until 12, and the building is two minutes from my house. The class was international politics, a class that I was really looking forward to taking. It was a huge letdown! I have definitely taken that class before; it was exactly like GLS 116 mixed with GLS 102. I was so disappointed. So I think I'll switch into a lit class or advertising or something.
     In Italian today, I kept asking questions that we end up doing in a later lesson plan. It can sometimes be frustrating when you speak two other romance languages, because you know what grammatical things to look for, when most other people don't think of that immediately. For example, I wanted to know what was the polite form to address someone as a you. In french, it's vous, but in Italian, it's lei. And we're going to learn that tomorrow.
     I worked on changing around my schedule until dinner. Tonight's dinner was amazing! It was pasta with my favourite sauce, fresh bread, and salad! At dinner, I said, "sono figa!" to Mafalda, which I thought meant I'm cool, but apparently it's slang and also means, "I'm a vagina." Oops. At least I didn't make that mistake at a club or something! Ater dinner, Caroline and I went to explore to the end of the bridges. We saw an outdoor movie with a ton of Italians watching it a nice area by the river. The reflection from the buildings on the river was just breathtaking. It was such a nice night out. But then again, all nights in Italy are beautiful. :)

Day 13: Photography Class

     Today I woke up at 8 and went to my photo class. Photo is from 9-2:30. It was kind of boring because we just learned about the history of how a camera was made instead of learning cool techniques on a camera. It was not what I was expecting, but I'm hoping future classes will be better. Then I had Italian class at 3. My back was to the sun, and I got a sunburn during class. Ouch! I still love that class, though. Patrice (the french girl), and I talked again. I just love speaking french; it makes me so happy!
     I went back to my room, finished the one book I brought, skyped for an hour, organized all my photos into folders like my professor told us to do, and then we had dinner. Marco's girlfriend was with us today. He had made tortellini with ham inside, told me it was vegetarian, and I almost ate it! But I didn't believe him, and then when he realized my question, he was like, "No! Don't eat it, there's meat!" So I had soup again. But that's okay, I was just so relieved I hadn't accidentally eaten meat! After dinner, Caroline and I went for a run. It was awesome to run through the city. It's absolutely gorgeous out at night, so I was super happy to get out and run.

Day 12: Funniest dinner ever.

     The grandmother of Mafalda and Marco is house sitting while the rest of the family is at a wedding in Rome. She doesn't speak any English, so communication is a little difficult. This morning at 8:45 am, she hurst into my bedroom saying "Breakfast! Mangiare!!" really loudly. Caroline had already left for her class. I was really confused, but she stayed in the doorway until I got out of bed. She had bought fresh bread, and gave me blueberry jam. I never had blueberry jam until today, but it is so delicious! I went out and did some exploring after that, and then had an Italian class at 3. I loved it. There's nine Bentley kids and two others. I forgot how great language classes are when they aren't too easy (like the French class I took freshman year)!
     After class, I talked to one of the girls not from Bentley; she was from Paris. We spoke in french, and walked back to the Duomo together. She is really nice :) I went back to my house, met up with Caroline, and we went out and bought some notebooks for class. Before dinner, I skyped Tom for 2 whole hours!

    Dinner today was hilarious. It might be one of those, 'you had to be there' moments, but I'm sharing it now anyways. We had soup. During dinner, Luisa, my host mom, was asking about our families. When talking about my sisters, I said, "One is 14, and one is 16, but the 16 year old one is turning 17 in two weeks." And Luisa said, completely innocently, "Oh, is your sister a virgin??"

     Caroline and I both stopped what we were doing, in shock, looked at each other, then burst out laughing. I literally couldn't stop laughing for 15 minutes. We knew she didn't mean virgin, because she had asked so nonchalantly. Apparently, she was asking if her zodiac sign was a virgo. But even after knowing that, we couldn't stop laughing. Best. Dinner. Ever.

Day 11: Relax!

     Sundays in Italy are supposed to be a day of relaxation. Most of the places in the city shut down, and you spend the day with your family. Caroline and I definitely did a good job just hanging out all day. We went for a walk around 2 to get lunch. We would've gone earlier but there was a torrential downpour and we were trying to avoid being out in the rain. It was really slippery out. When we got back, I read and napped.
     At 8, I met up with Nick at the Duomo and we went to dinner together. We searched for a place for an hour (because someone got us lost on the creepy part of the city), and then found a restaurant near Moyo and Bacco called "Matina." It's a Russian-Italian restaurant. I got gnocchi in tomato sauce with feta cheese. It was the best dish I've had yet. The service was great too. When we left we realized we were right next to Moyo, where we were supposed to meet up with Nick's roommate to grab the key. It just so happened that they were walking right towards us when we walked out of the restaurant, so we had perfect timing. Billy walked me to the arch near my house, and then I got back at around 10:15. It was a nice, relaxing day! :)

Day 10: Moosehunting?

     Today I woke up at 11, showered, and then went grocery shopping with Caroline. It was confusing and exciting and fun all at the same time! I bought yogurt and blueberries. Big spender, right here! We dropped our groceries off at the house and then went out to lunch with nick. We went on a long walk to get pizza, but it ended up being worth it. On the way back, Caroline and I found a cute park. It took about a half hour to get back, so we started to get ready for our night out.
    So we went to a fancy restaurant with Florence For Fun and 150 other study abroad people. It took three hours to get all the courses because they hadn't anticipated this many people coming. It was alright; most of it wasn't cooked long enough but we were all hungry so we didn't care too much. Afterwords, we went to Club Space, which is the coolest club! It was two floors of dancing, a floor of bars, and then one floor for VIPs. We were really tired so we didn't stay too long, but it was a lot of fun to see. Nick asked us to go to Kikasyo bar that he loves after, and so we ended up staying out until three am. I was having trouble staying awake, probably because I didn't drink anything but water all night. It was a fun night out but now I can't wait to sleep!
     Word of the night: moosehunting. Verb. Definition: when you see someone you like, but their best friend is all over you, so you hook up with the best friend instead of the one you had liked. Then in the morning you regret it. Used in a sentence: "Friends don't let friends go moosehunting."

Day 9: Orientation

Today Caroline and I woke up at 8 am and then went to orientation. The first building we had to go to was the Odeon, and it was only 2 minutes from our house. It was boring, and you didn't even get to meet new people; you were lectured at for a few hours. Part 2 of orientation wasn't any better. Here we got our schedules and learned of discounts we can get. Caroline, Nick, Jeff, and I snuck out early to eat because we hadn't eaten since breakfast. I got ravioli. Then I went home (orientation ended 5 minutes after we had left), took a nap, and facebooked a little. Dinner tonight was at 8:30. We had spaghetti with the best tomato sauce, bread, and the most delicious Caprese salad that Luisa made.
    Toinght, Caroline and I dressed up and went on a pub crawl. We only went to three bars; there were free shots of blue curacao and vodka at the first one. I wasn't really in the mood to drink, so I just chilled and met people. We did meet this guy T, who is an awesome Australian guy who works in Firenze. His job is to get people to go to pubs or something, and he's definitely great at his job because most people in Florence know him. We got back at like one in the morning, and I skyped a little. Tom figured out how to fix my skype sound, so now I can real skype again!

Day 8: Firenze!

Happy New Month!
    Today I woke up at 11:44 am. I love sleeping in! Caroline and I got breakfast: bread with nutella. Italians don't really do breakfast, so this is their version of it. Then we explored all around the city and took tons of pictures. We had tomato and mozzarella paninis for lunch on the other side of the river, and then went back to the house at around 4:30. We showered and got ready for a night out.

     Marco, the 21 year old son of Luisa, joined us for dinner tonight. He speaks english very well. After dinner, Caroline and I went to Astor bar, where we met up with all the Bentley kids. Drinks were 3 for 10 euro, which seems like a good deal here. I have a new favourite drink: malibu, vodka, and pineapple juice. We walked around the Duomo (the bar was right next to it), and then Caroline and I walked Shelly home. We got gelato along the way. It was homemade and very good. I got chocolate mousse and almond. Yum. By the time we got back to the room, both of us were so tired we fell asleep within minutes.