Mi chiamo Becca et studio la storia!

today still had that "meh I feel like a freshman" kinda feeling going for it. but overall more ups than annoying downs.

-my alarm is not loud enough. I turned it off and promptly went back to sleep for another hour, which was bad. I'm going to try to get a cell phone this weekend, and hopefully it will have a loud alarm clock on it. and then people can call me (for free apparently! on my end at least...), but more importantly so i can get ahold of people around here. Catherine and i have been emailing to try and find each other haha.

-this morning we went back to the movie theater where we were yesterday to talk about academics stuff, which i was definitely more interested in than safety from yesterday. Also the dude who runs PICS (Put Italy Center Stage, ie the play!) spoke about it and i'm very excited. we have a meeting/auditions tomorrow at 11:30 and I'm stoked. He seemed really cool, and i'm hoping meeting some kids interested in theater will help me make friends. 400 people is hard to sift through when youre in florence.

-after that we got lunch with our PA (peer advisor, kinda like a RA but not really, considering she doesn't live in our building and we never have to meet her). which brought up an interesting thought of mine.

What's it like being a semi-vegitarian with strange tastes in Italy? It means choose your sandwich: Ham and cheese. or Tomato and cheese. DANG.

I went with tomato and cheese and took all the tomatoes off and surprisingly i could only taste them a little bit. regardless, i think that's a question i'm going to spend the semester trying to answer when there's no real answer except: Eat Gelato.

-Then we took a bus to campus (finally) and for the first time I got to see the campus other than the building i was in for check-in. i cannot describe to you how beautiful it is, and I didn't take hardly any pictures because I get to go there EVERY DAY. it's strange that one of the prettiest parts of florence (next to the duomo, in my opinion, which is in my backyard) is where I go to school. and although I strongly dislike nyu, theyre dang baller for having a 36 acre villa outside of florence. anyway it's beautiful; 500 year old buildings, gardens, olive grove, etc. there are classrooms with these huuuuuge floor to ceiling windows that overlook the gardens and i was like, dang if my classes are in here i will never pay attention. anyway, pretty cool campus, small little library (which ill definitely use when im stuck on campus), cafes, etc. i found out that they sometimes have notetakers!!!! which i got really happy about and then i found out its the same deal, if there's one in one of my classes, theyll email us and ask for one and it's a first come first serve. but ill be on the lookout for that. :)

-still dying to start classes btw. feels like ive been here forever, and it's only been two days. i want to learn. i want to stop orienting. i want to learn and be taught and take notes and read books and listen and grow.

-while there we had this survival italian lesson which was really "let me throw random italian phrases at your face and see if you remember them" which turned into this title "my name is Becca (literally, I call myself [like spanish me llamo]) and I study history." :)

-it finally clicked with me today that toscana is tuscany. whoops.

-it also finally clicked with me today that the galleria dell'accademia where the David is is the building right next to mine. why is that weird? because it blends right in with my apartments. like smooth, slick, tan building with lots of windows and shutters. For some reason, it is very strange to me that behind that wall is one of the most important and beautiful pieces of art in the world. and it blends in with my apartment. cant wait to get my museum pass (tomorrow!) and go.

-a mosquito has gotten into my room and bitten me on my leg, two on my right arm and...nose. i woke up this morning with a nose that was bright red and was like "dude catherine i look like i got punched in the face" and so i rubbed it only to find out that that made it itchy and suddenly i knew. i bought a mosquito thing you plug into the wall, but i heard it earlier so it is still alive. i am angry. and sleeping all the way under my covers tonight (gah i love my room, i love my single i love my apartment)

-there's a bus system in firenze that has a C1, C2, and C3. although it makes me happy and sad at the same time, it doesnt make me miss the duke buses. haha

-met some more girls today on the ground floor and they were way cool. two go to nyu and one goes to wake. im starting to realize nyu girls actually means down-to-earth, not weird. i probably shouldnt say that out loud, because yeah, stereotyping is bad. but im starting to be really embarrassed to tell people what college i go to, based on the people here.....

-still no boys...i miss talking to kyle about random things in my head.

-catherine and i have been hanging out every evening and this morning so far, so that's been good. shes so close, which helps, even though it's hard to show up at the door at the same time as the other coming down to open the door. but let me just go over out meals the past couple days:

1) last night for dinner: it was too late for an atm we were looking for and we wanted to go to this panini shoppe which we realized is kinda only open to lunch or early afternoon and sorta just ended up at this place by chance. read my review for the story: http://www.rollinglobe.com/RGWeb/map/details.aspx?loc=1997&city=4&cat=1&subcat=116

we ended up being there for like 2.5 hours and just had the best time. we talked about everything. almost like zack and i did last thursday. holy cow, that was last thursday. feels like eons ago.

2) this morning she came over for breakfast and we attempted the cereal and milk id got. the milk said "parzialmente scremato" which i tried to assume was "partially skim" because mente's are ly's and screm looks like skim and creme. it isn't. we're still not entirely sure because it says 2 gratsos (fat?) but we dont know how much 2 is. 2% bleh? anyway, she found skim later when we went to the grocery store again and i was jealous.

3) so after i got back from campus today, catherine came over and we just talked for a bit about what we had learned because we both did different things and her RHM (res hall manager) is way more helpful, and i found out some junk about signing up for day trips and cooking classes through nyu. then we went to the grocery store because she hadnt been yet and i still needed a few things (bread, salt, pepper, onion, chicken breast, plastic bags, etc). we finally found this grocery store i like around the corner but it's so small (every store is) and I always get stressed out when people are so close to me. I was like checking out and was like having a cow because i felt like i was not going fast enough because i am a stupid american. bleh.

anyway, got back to my apartment. and i found out that catherine has cooked like never so i said you chop veggies (bell pepper and onion) and grate parmiggiano formaggio (cheeeese), and i will season this chicken breast in pieces, saute it and the vegetables, and boil penne pasta.

oo another click today. italian food and pasta names are all plural ,panini (sandwiches) (panino [ sandwich], i knew that already), penne (penno), things ending in i or e are plurals. otherwise it'd be one noodle. hahaha click click click.

anyway, back to cooking. as we cooked, girls came in as they were getting ready to go "out" for the evening and were like "becca it smells soooo good." "You can cook?" "OH EM GEE youre cooking." "wow youre like a chef." and i was like "yes, i can boil pasta...."

pasta, olive oil, vegetables, chicken, parmesan cheese, vino rosso, grazie. :) twas delish and we had a good time.

after that we cleaned up and made a list of our ideal trip list for the semester. hopefully like 50-75% of these will happen because id die. we're just going to wait til we get our syllabi (for mandatory field trips, tests and things) and hopefully meet some other people and then we will plan! i am very excited, but i wont share the list because it looks a little crazy right now. but we are being optimistic.

and now i am here. i am excited for tomorrow because it's our last full day of orientation, but we get to pick and choose what we go to. we're going to tips on traveling (around europe/italy) info session, play meeting/auditions (eeeeek), something about services in florence (shops, errands, sending mail, etc), academic office hours (catherine has to change italian courses and i just want to go) and hopefully sign up for a day trip and a bus tour and get a cell phone. apparently there's also going to be an info fair during lunch with poeple from local shops, hair salons, bookstores, bakeries, etc too. should be a fun day.

i could not live in a better neighborhood if i had tried by the way, i know i say this every day, but we found out from some nyu kids that they knew to request ricasoli, and we're just here randomly. love it. all the designer stores are close by too, not that i would ever use, but it's kinda neat to be in italy, where all these designers are from (gucci, dolce & gabana, prada, etc)

one of the nyu girls i met lost both her suitcases and nyu isnt doing aynthing to help her and it sounds like the airline isnt either. she said she's probably going to H&M over the weekend and i said id love to come, considering i dont have the money to go shopping i would love to go shopping for her haha. shes outrageously tall like prob over 6 feet, but i told her my boyfriend is 6'5" so i dont mind. :) i feel bad for her though. i brought the majority of my favorite clothes and most essential personal belongings and it's hard to imagine losing all that forever. :( like shoes, toiletries, clothes, everything. :( and nyu sucks.

tabacchi (which literally means tobaccos) are all over the place. i saw one on google maps when i was snooping before i came and assumed it was just for like cigarettes and stuff. yeah not really. theyre pretty much gas stations without the gas. some have primarily cigarettes and stuff, but lots have tons of gum/candy/gelllatttooo (which is literally every two steps by the way)/books/magazines/bus tickets (we got our monthly ones today)

note to padres: hardly anywhere takes american express, including atms. im putting everything on my visa (ie food and essentials) rather quickly....we can talk maybe this weekend about it.

i think that's the majority of my thoughts today. but i definitely need to go to bed. so busy all day every day.

im definitely getting comfortable and adjusted to everything. i talked to a man almost completely in italian today in a store, except when i said "Come si diche straightener?" ("how do you say straightener?") you pick up conversation stuff real quick haha.

love to all and to all buonanotte!

bec