First day of class

Prosciutto and melon

"All my life I had let others provide for me, and while I loved the people who had nurtured and built me intellectually, I felt that emotionally it was time to look after myself" -The Power of One

 Today was my first day of class. Thursdays are my easiest days, I only have Italian at 3:00. I still can't get over how gorgeous the campus is! Pictures don't even do it justice. It's very distracting to look out the classroom window and see rows of olive trees, large cypress trees and villas in the distance. I took my time walking the 4.7 km to class. Unfortunately, it's all uphill. Coupled with the heat of the day, I arrived at class looking as though I had just completed a triathlon. By the time I walked back down after class the sun wasn't as high and downhill was more pleasant. Last night I went to dinner with my roommates and some of their friends from Wake Forest. We then went to a bar called the Lion's Fountain Irish Pub, which is clearly made for the 6,000 American students that flock to Florence. The ceiling was covered in T-shirts from American universities and they played a weird mix of music. For some reason they played 'Sweet Caroline' twice, odd choice.

 These pictures are from a park on my way to school. It seems incredible that it's so easy to stumble upon beautiful, historic monuments.

The Italian slow pace is going to take some getting used to. I've already been enjoying dinners that last hours, leisurely walking and the general lack of urgency that Florence provides. Even the pigeons are more relaxed!

The Beginning

The fox all ready to go (Dad's feet in the background)

I just got to my new apartment and I'm so happy to be able to sit and digest the last 24 hours. It's been a hectic whirlwind, but the second I got off the plane it seemed to be worth it. On my flight from JFK to Rome I sat next to the nicest man. He was from Montenegro, the former Yugoslavia, and was going to visit his parents. The entire flight he couldn't have been more pleasant about helping me with my bags and moving when I needed to get up. We both had connecting flights, so when our plane landed 50 minutes before I was supposed to be on my flight to Florence, we banded together to shove our way through security (he managed to get a closed security line to open up for us) and then again through customs. I managed to make it on my flight, but only because of him.

To my pleasant surprise when I got to my apartment I found out that I am not only am I in a triple, but in a suite that sleeps nine! There is one bed that is empty, so right now it is just eight girls. I honestly couldn't be happier. I think this is a great environment to be in. All of the girls are so nice. Three of the girls are from NYU, one is from Duke and the other three are from a school in North Carolina.

Today we spent the day in orientation. We covered everything there is to know about Florence - how not to get pick-pocketed, expected behavior, emergency numbers, ways to stay healthy, etc. It was then followed by a tour of the neighborhood around the apartment. My building has three floors of NYU girls, 9 girls to a floor. It is directly sandwiched between the Duomo on one side (via Ricasoli dead-ends into it) and the statue of David is on the other side.

After orientation my roommates and myself got our first experience food shopping. Luckily everything has pictures of what it is on it, though with my small vocabulary of food probably I probably could have squeaked by without buying something like cat food thinking it was tuna. I have decided that I'm going to try something new every time I go on a big food shop. Today I bought tiny glass bottles of yogurt with honey. ALSO - I managed to find notebooks with animals on them at the grocery store. "Un mondo di cuccioli" means a world of puppies...yes.