Ciao!
Its Saturday night here and I'm exhausted after a great two days! Last night we had our Welcome Dinner and it was amazing! SO many courses and fantastic Italian food! I made an entire group of new friends that are so sweet and fun! One goes to University of Arizona, another at Indiana, another at Concordia and another at Cal Poly San Louis Obispo. They are wonderful we all just really get along great! We all went out together last night and had a blast! This morning we had to be up and at our Academic Orientation at 9 at our campus. Literally every teacher is so passionate and interesting that it really motivated all of us to learn and take advantage of being here in Florence. I seriously don't even know how they've accumulated such a great staff but it made me excited for classes to start! For lunch me and my new friend Jillian (from Cal Poly) and this boy from our program ventured across the Ponte Vecchio and grabbed a bite! It was amazing although since it is the weekend it has been a little crowded. Our whole group met at the train station and took about an hour train ride to the town of Lucca. It is over a 2000 year old city and the city walls remain that once protected it from invasions. Instead of tearing them down they turned the 100 ft. thick walls into a bike path that is lined with trees so our whole group (50 of us) rented bikes and had a tour of the city. We stopped in two of the biggest churches of the small town (there are 220 churches total and this town is tiny!!!). In the first one there was the body of a relic named Zita who was a woman who lived in Lucca 800 years ago. In order to be a relic you must have miracles happen to you before death, during death and after death. Zita's miracles were that she once stole bread to feed the poor and put it in her apron, but then the man caught her and upon opening her apron flowers fell out instead of bread. During her last breath of life the bells of the church started ringing without anyone pulling the ropes. 10 years after her death her body was dug up and miraculously it had not decayed and it smelled like flowers!!!! Her body was in a glass tomb in this church and I have a pictures....its creepy! But anyways after a lovely bike ride (minus the fact my bike seat tilted backwards about 60 degrees...so uncomfortable) we headed back by train to Florence quite exhausted!!!! My new group of friends and I went to a cute little hole in the wall for dinner it was so good! I ordered chicken and steamed vegetables and it was sooo amazing because all of us have been literally living off of cheese and bread since we haven't had time to go to the market yet! Luckily we are walking miles and miles a day and I'm climbing approximately 20 or more flights of stairs a day! We found the greatest gelato place that was recommended to us by one of our teachers because its completely natural gelato and it was really good! We will definitely be going back! We are all just staying in and relaxing tonight since we are dead from all of our activities! But we have a historical walking tour of Florence tomorrow that will include a few stops into some of the museums! Thankfully we have the afternoon and night free tomorrow so I can do some grocery shopping! The girls and I are trying to maybe go to Croatia this weekend so I'll keep you posted when I can! Love you and miss you!
Arrivederci!
xoxo
Kara
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Friday, August 28, 2009
Hi All!
Just bought myself an adapter so I can finally use my computer! My apartment miraculously has some wireless internet already (though I may purchase some to guarantee a better connection)! So I arrived last night after a long day of travel! My first flight went smoothly and I ended up making a friend who just graduated from Stanford who was on her way to Prague to visit her boyfriend. We ended up hanging out and shopping around together in the Zurich airport while waiting for our connecting flights. On the flight to Florence I ended up sitting next to an older Italian man who spoke very few words in English but we ended up talking with a few words here and there in Italian and English and using hand gestures. He was really friendly and was giving me advice on where to visit around Florence like the smaler towns. After nearly breaking my arms off carrying my luggage to a taxi I arrived at my aparment, well I should say the front door of my building because my apartment is on the 4th floor. But let me tell you the 4th floor is more like 5 or 6 floors up there are SoOOOO many stairs! I don't think I've ever sweat more in my life than when I had to haul all 4 pieces of luggage by myself up to the veryyy top. It was lovely. But when I got inside my apartment it was all worth it! It is HUGE! It is really spacious and clean! Our cielings even have frescos on them! They said our building is 700-800 years old!!! Natalie (my roommate) got us the biggest room and it is so great we each have a tiny set of drawers and plenty of cabinet space where there are rods to hang clothes on hangers! The bathroom probably has the best view of any room in our apartment! Literally when you are sitting on the toilet or baday( I have no idea how to spell it, but you know the thing that sprays your butt haha) you have the most perfect view of the Duomo! Literally our apartment could not be closer, like it is literally physically impossible to be closer! Its amazing! After unpacking Natalie and I went for a stroll around our neighborhood and literally anything you could ever need is close by. This morning we had orientation until about noon and our school is amazing as well! It is in the cutest Piazza that has its own Merry-go-round and an ancient obilisque (the Egyptian poles). Our group is 50 kids and they all seem great, I havent had much of a chance to talk to many but we have a Welcome Dinner tonight followed by a walking tour. I also bought my cell phone today so I'm glad to have that figured out my number is +39 331 2367893. After I bought it I attempted to find the Mercado Centrale (open air market) but didnt find it so I just wandered around by myself for like a half hour looking at everything and trying to get my bearings. Its pretty warm today like 95 but its just beautiful! I think I decided I want to stay in Cinque Terre for my birthday weekend since we have a field trip there on September 11th anyways. But I'm excited for tomorrow because we have a 1/2 day trip to Lucca where we are going on a bike tour! That's all for now! Love you all and miss you already!!!!
Ciao!
Kara
Just bought myself an adapter so I can finally use my computer! My apartment miraculously has some wireless internet already (though I may purchase some to guarantee a better connection)! So I arrived last night after a long day of travel! My first flight went smoothly and I ended up making a friend who just graduated from Stanford who was on her way to Prague to visit her boyfriend. We ended up hanging out and shopping around together in the Zurich airport while waiting for our connecting flights. On the flight to Florence I ended up sitting next to an older Italian man who spoke very few words in English but we ended up talking with a few words here and there in Italian and English and using hand gestures. He was really friendly and was giving me advice on where to visit around Florence like the smaler towns. After nearly breaking my arms off carrying my luggage to a taxi I arrived at my aparment, well I should say the front door of my building because my apartment is on the 4th floor. But let me tell you the 4th floor is more like 5 or 6 floors up there are SoOOOO many stairs! I don't think I've ever sweat more in my life than when I had to haul all 4 pieces of luggage by myself up to the veryyy top. It was lovely. But when I got inside my apartment it was all worth it! It is HUGE! It is really spacious and clean! Our cielings even have frescos on them! They said our building is 700-800 years old!!! Natalie (my roommate) got us the biggest room and it is so great we each have a tiny set of drawers and plenty of cabinet space where there are rods to hang clothes on hangers! The bathroom probably has the best view of any room in our apartment! Literally when you are sitting on the toilet or baday( I have no idea how to spell it, but you know the thing that sprays your butt haha) you have the most perfect view of the Duomo! Literally our apartment could not be closer, like it is literally physically impossible to be closer! Its amazing! After unpacking Natalie and I went for a stroll around our neighborhood and literally anything you could ever need is close by. This morning we had orientation until about noon and our school is amazing as well! It is in the cutest Piazza that has its own Merry-go-round and an ancient obilisque (the Egyptian poles). Our group is 50 kids and they all seem great, I havent had much of a chance to talk to many but we have a Welcome Dinner tonight followed by a walking tour. I also bought my cell phone today so I'm glad to have that figured out my number is +39 331 2367893. After I bought it I attempted to find the Mercado Centrale (open air market) but didnt find it so I just wandered around by myself for like a half hour looking at everything and trying to get my bearings. Its pretty warm today like 95 but its just beautiful! I think I decided I want to stay in Cinque Terre for my birthday weekend since we have a field trip there on September 11th anyways. But I'm excited for tomorrow because we have a 1/2 day trip to Lucca where we are going on a bike tour! That's all for now! Love you all and miss you already!!!!
Ciao!
Kara
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