It helps to think we are made of the same things.

I'm starting to notice little things in my life right now that I really enjoy. Amidst the craziness of adjusting to Florence, Orientation, starting classes, and getting everything I needed (food, school supplies, apartment stuff), I feel like I'm starting to breathe for the first time since I've been here. Everything is starting to feel like home. I feel at ease, even with so much to do. More than anything, I think I just feel good. And for now, that is enough.

Today I didn't have class until three so I decided to get up and run errands. My apartment was quiet (I suppose people were sleeping or off to early morning classes), so I took my time getting ready. Ate some cereal with not-skim milk (because I'm a big girl and can get over it), and just sorta leisurely got ready.

I'm happy to say that I can buy bus tickets, stamps and envelopes, a mirror (YES FINALLY) and school supplies without having to use English once. It didn't hit me until after it was all over that I hadn't use English. I also realized that I know my way around my neighborhood (Duomo and around) pretty dang well. And I couldn't help but smile against the angry sky of Florence.

It rained, was extremely sunny, rained again, and then was cool today in Florence. My walk home tonight (Class got out at 7:15 and I printed some stuff in the computer lab at Villa Ulivi) was chilly but in a weird, comforting way, especially along with the purple and pink sky. The campus cat (An all-black, skinny, Italian cat) walked me from Villa Ulivi to Villa Natalia (basically across campus through this huge valley in the center of campus) where we then parted ways as I headed towards the bus stop.

My Econ class was better than I thought it'd be, though I'm going to an extra class tomorrow just to make sure. The professor is sweet and accommodating and the class didn't seem too bad.

I cooked dinner tonight mostly myself because Catherine kept cutting her finger or burning herself. Cooked carrots, penne pasta just with some seasoning, olive oil, and parmesan cheese, with garlic cheese bread. the kitchen is disgusting from the other girls. I don't know what possesses people to think that leaving dirty dishes is something everyone enjoys looking at, smelling, and then cleaning for you. I want to treat this apartment as if I'm going to be living in it for the next 3.5 months...oh wait.

I just finished up some Italian hw that was easy (so similar to Spanish rules), and now am about to go read the first two chapters of A History of Fascism, 1914-1945 by Payne, and I'm excited. I also need to memorize a map of europe and all of its capitals because my prof gave a hint of a pop quiz in the future. it's embarrassing how little i know about western european geography. I read an article earlier called Mario and the Magician (can't remember author and don't feel like moving), and for the first like 40pages I had no idea why I was reading it, but then by the end of it, I was blown away. It was terrifying. and interesting. and intriguing. and unnerving. I can't wait to talk about it in class tomorrow.

I can't say I feel like I'm a different person, but I feel really adjusted. stable. independent. There's something to be said about doing a study abroad program with hardly anyone you know in a country you don't know the language. I'm still daily frustrated by the people here, but some people I have met and my professors make up for it.

I'm also afraid of becoming addicted to coffee. Coffee is way cheap here and it's always served in very tiny cups. I told abby glackin the other day that i was sad there are no large coffees anywhere...but then i realized it's even more of an issue because, since theyre so small, i sometimes get more than one in a single day. The barista on campus is fabulous and so sweet that I can't tell if i'm going because I love all the coffees he's made me or because I need it to stay awake in class. Either way I think I need to be careful.

I think I'm in a weird mood.Tomorrow is going to be a long day. Three classes andthen rehearsal. so I better get a move on.

buonanotte.

becca

me and a cappuccino

Come Significa 'Buffo'?...ehh... I tell you later.

Sorry I haven't written in a couple days. what with uploading pictures online (See my picasa!), and writing for Rollinglobe, that was quite enough. Plus the weekend was kinda chill (good prep for this week!), minus some more orientating bologna, that that was enough.

I'm in the middle of my 2nd day of class, though I've only gone to two classes so far, Italian and Family & Gender during Renaissance Italy. I have one more new one today (European Fascism), and then tomorrow night I'll have intro to european economic issues.

I love my classes so far. liiiike LOVE.

Italian
My professor, Domenico, struts into the room in all black a couple minutes late, looking like a cross between an Italian Jesus and Jack Sparrow. He's quirky, spunky, but more than anything hilarious. While describing how to pronounce each Italian letter, he draws a picture on the board of what your mouth should look like. He makes fun of the girls that are in the wrong room (There's a million sections of Italian), runs out of a the room when an insect flies in, asks a girl for a piece of gum, tells us Italian words that he doesn't even know in English (See title of this blog), and walks up to everyone's desk really close. To be frank, I'm stoked I get to see him four times a week. Although I knew most of the things we learned yesterday (pronunciation, and basic words, questions), I'm stoked for learning more. I wish, with all the time in the world, I could study romance languages. They're really interesting. Regardless, I'm doing my best to think of the Spanish word for each Italian word he teaches us, so maybe one day I'll at least be conversational in two other languages, in addition to english. I also talked to a male for the first time yesterday, so that was lovely.

Family and Gender
She's adorable. She has a really strong accent and you have to pay attention to what she's saying, plus the context of what she's saying, to pick up missing words. like for instance she was saying the word 'vary,' but was saying "Voh-Rie." Just little stuff like that. Regardless, she's so passionate about what she's teaching, and I'm so passionate about what she's teaching that I was pretty much engrossed the entire time. We went over a short document from some Italian dude's memoirs regarding his wedding day. The entire account only talked about his future wife's father, actually never mentioned her once... So we just discussed the implications of marriage during the renaissance that we could gather from this: political, business transaction involving a continuation of family lines, dowries, and powerful connections and potential partners through marriage. Poor women. We also read something from Aristotle about women just being incomplete men, which was a new idea for me. Overall, awesome (I know the majority of you are probably gagging by now, hehe). We take a field trip every two weeks about. mostly around florence which is great because since it's my only 9 am class, I get to often meet her in the city, and not have to come to campus at 8 am. woot. We're going to tons of museums, etc just to learn about the renaissance and women's place in that. At the end of the syllabus, I saw that it said "Having completed this course, do you think women had a Renaissance?" and I got really excited just thinking about spending a semester answering that question. can't wait.

my only complaint is that it's a class of all girls, and a lot of them were bad-mouthing the class afterwards. I hope they drop it. They just complained about the papers and the professor's accent and the fact that the field trip (Oct 1) is when they booked Oktoberfest, and they booked oktoberfest four months ago, so apparently it's not really fair for this professor to have a field trip then. WHY ARE PEOPLE HERE????? okay, i'm done yelling. it's so frustrating though. grr.

So that's it for class so far. You can probably tell how happy i am. :)

Over the weekend, I did something new. I went to Mass at Il Duomo. This is sort of a big deal because not only have I never been to mass before, I've never been to mass in Italian. More than anything it was interesting. I sorta just followed everyone's lead, especially since I had no idea what was being said or done. Overall, it seemed so ritualistic, and I have to say I believe people can have faith or "worship" god in any way they choose, but I'm kinda glad I have a faith where i can believe in god in my own way, without having to follow rituals or other people. Then again, I think the history of it is very interesting and it was cool thinking about how people have done this in Il Duomo for centuries.

Il Duomo itself is gorgeous. Although it wasn't the time for pictures, hopefully I'll be able to get some. the dome has a huuuge mural in the top of it and is one of the prettiest I have ever seen. It's not really made of stone though (like if you think of westminster abbey). the walls are white and holding everything up are large wooden beams. it was very beautiful, but of course I couldn't gape at it while in the middle of mass. haha

Some clergy (?) dude came and talked to us because he could tell we were confused and asked us where we were from and said "god bless you" and was overall very sweet. for some reason, he looked like he was blind, though I think he could see us, but I don't know. haha. the singing was very beautiful, though not very melodic. I did the best I could, I kneeled when everyone else did and let the priest dude stick a cracker in my mouth. Overall, very interesting way to see the duomo. I was overall, really glad I did it.

finally, i guess the last thing to talk about is the play. Amphitryon's Double Trouble, which is mostly Plautus's Amphitryon with some of Moliere's version mixed in. Yesterday I was disappointed that I only got to read one time in callbacks....and then I ended up getting casted in that role, but today, I'm actually really excited about it. Only four people in the cast don't have a double, and I'm one of them. As in for the part of Mercury, there are three people casted. for the part of Alcema, there are two. Jove (jupiter), amphitryon, Sosia, and my role, Cléanthis, are the only parts with only one person casted as them. Although I don't think my part's HUGE, I'm excited to play a role i never have before (an older woman, of lower class), and it's kinda interesting because she's dealing with Mercury posing as her husband, Sosia, and he treats her poorly. that's kinda confusing, but some time soon i'll go over the plot of the play in more detail. anyway, her character is personally struggling because she wants to cheat on her husband because he treats her poorly, but she is a honorable woman. SO. I'm excited to play a role unlike anything I've done before. I think the director's perspective was that if we could act, we could play any role, which i think is an interesting tactic (though i don't believe in it myself), but i'm anxious to test the waters of playing an older character, and one with a serious personal conflict. Though it's not a major role, I think I'll learn a lot, plus, we're working with an actor who's actually in the cast of mamma mia getting started for the first time in Italy in Milan...sooo he's pretty cool, i found a website about him, but it's a little outdated, but you can get an idea...

http://www.set.it/4DCGI/Rec01_34927_18

hopefully that works. we have a read through at five and then after that I think i'm going to go to one of these mandatory upperclassmen sessions, we have to go to at least one and id rather get it done.

the play is going to be wed, oct 13th, in the gardens outside villa la pietra. it's going to be so beautiful. and we have a make up and costume artist working with us so that will be very neat.

anyway, all for now, i have to go find catherine cause i told her i'd meet her after class.

ciao a tutti! i miss you all!

[Edit: Turns out my part is a lot bigger than i thought! :) i end the play! gonna be a ton of fun! ill talk more later about my other classes, i have homework to do!!!]

online photos

http://picasaweb.google.com/117760715011314376547/Florence?feat=directlink

here's the majority of my photos! ill try and put them on there when i can so you all can see lots of pictures while im here.

today is the first chill day of the week.. but i might go try to buy my italian textbook and go see a museum. I'm excited for tonight because we're going to watch the film A Room With A View with the rest of the kids on the program in the campus gardens tonight at 8:30. should be beautiful.

in other news, I'm going to Paris for Thanksgiving! :) what could be better?

fotografie infine!

(pictures, at last)

figured youd want to see some. :)

the duomo. Il Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore.

about fifty feet from my apartment.

my room!!! :)

Catherine and my first time cooking in my lovely kitchen. so delicious: penne pasta, with vegetables and seasoned chicken, parmesan cheese, and vino rosso. :)

me on campus. Villa la pietra (main house/now-museum) on the left and villa ulivi (majority of classes are in there) on the right

Blogger takes forever to put pictures on here. so i think ill put pics on my picasa account eventually and send you the link so you can look at more more easily. :)

enjoy! :)

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

ehhh... dov'e.... ehh... per favore.... fono???

wandered all around my neighborhood today. starting to get it, but went to about 10 different stores to get ten different things.

buuut, now i have fooood! breakfast stuff, fruit, pasta sauce, parmesan cheese, cracked pepper, pasta, olive oil, diet coke, water, and a bottle of wine. :)

and we finally found hangers. and a blowdrier.

orientation this morning was pretty much just about safety and i think i fell asleep once because i looked up at catherine and realized she had spoken to me and i had no idea what she had said.

right now i really just want my bus pass (tomorrow's adventure), my museum pass (friday's adventure), and to start class (monday). i wanna start sightseeing because all this organizing is getting annoying

the lock on our front door is so messed up that literally no one (eleven people) in my flat can open it... except for me. i mean open it when it is UNlocked and closed. there's this magic thing i do where i twist the key to the right, pull the door towards me and then push the door away with my foot at the same time and it works. haha. thank god for that. hopefully everyone else figures it out too.

my room is still bloody amazing. i already think i will miss this the most because it looks and feels so home-y already. and it's adorable. makes me angry at duke for housing still though.

finally starting to meet some people, especially people in my building (via ricasoli 46 is the newest building out of all of nyu in florence housing. it jsut completed renovations august 1 after 2 years of construction. not only is it the nicest, but no one has lived in it before and in my opinion it's in a great location. five minutes from the duomo, five minutes from piazza san marco, five minutes from the bus stop to school, and five minutes to the train station. yesssssss. i heard some poeple have to walk twenty minutes and thats just to catch the bus for a 15 min drive to campus. boo-yah. i dont know why i am so lucky.

but i did find out that half of my flat is from duke. nyu's form of "random?" ...yeah.

all of them are in sororities and seem surprised to find out i go to duke.

ALSO, i haven't met a single boy. not a single one. there are 374 people doing this program (yeah, dang). but my building is 36 girls and we kinda did orientation together so i met no boys. this is frustrating 1) i do not like girls 2) i need protection. some of the girls were talking really loud in english and it was making me nervous and embarrassed in front of all the italians. oh well im sure ill figure out more as time goes on. and hopefully meet some more people. though i have met a few i like. :) just weird hanging out with girls so much. no me gusta.

as for tonight, i cant decide whether i feel like cooking or going out to eat, since i have done neither so far. but first, going to find catherine to go find an atm with her. i want to convert the 40 bucks of american money i have too, because that's just silly.

i love florence, but i just got homesick for five minutes while writing this. i miss my hnh boys. but italia is lovely and all the people are so friendly and helpful, i just need to learn a lot more italian.

ciao!

becca

p.s. i found my favorite herbal essences shampoo and conditioner!!!

pps i have things i can write reviews about for rollinglobe for def start checking that out http://www.rollinglobe.com/RGWeb/blogs/default.aspx?u=lastone (lemme know if that doesnt work)

Florence for Subtlety

I've thought a lot about Lucy Honeychurch lately. A Room With A View is pretty much her self-realization that she should lead her own life by a combination of both head and heart, while not following society's ways blindly. You learn in the novel that it is a popular thing for young girls to be sent to Italy to be "cultured." As Cecil Vyse says, "Florence for subtlety."

Fast Forward to 2010, I am sitting in a single bedroom of Via Ricasoli 46, first floor in Florence, Italy trying to prepare myself mentally and emotionally for what this semester is going to bring. Of course, right not that seems impossible. But I know I'll adapt either way.

One thing's for sure, it's hard to imagine me getting down everything I'm learning and seeing in this blog like it was for Duke in London. I would pretty much just come home every night talk about what we learned from Clum that morning and then talk about the show we saw that night and everything I did in between. I'm starting to realize that with four months of time and four potentially incredible classes, it's going to be slightly more difficult. But I will do my very best to try and get down everything I hope to remember once I leave Florence and everything I think others living vicariously through me want to know.

Classes:

-Family & Gender Roles in Medieval and Early Renaissance Italy

-European Fascism

-Intro to European Economic Issues

-Basic Italian

(at least until I go to them and realize I'm in the wrong place and switch into something else)

------

Getting here was an adventure, as it always is getting to europe, but nothing too serious happened other than my surprisal at a few of the way things went:

-seat next to me from Charlotte to Frankfurt was empty. yes.

-(not a surprise), I couldn't sleep (even after i took a tylenol pm)

-frankfurt airport is under serious renovations

-everyone spoke english

-i went through customs there, but didnt have to get my luggage (weird)

-this woman followed me the whole time like I knew what I was doing. It was annoying

-there are thousands of other students trying to do the same exact thing I'm doing, not just nyu program kids

-Italy is instantly beautiful upon entering it via plane. tons and tons of green rolling hills and little villages. Looks like everything is a wine vineyard, haha, and no, i'm not getting ahead of myself

-as soon as I got to Florence, NYU took care of everything. we got out bags (yes nothing lost!) and peaced. 40 other students arrived when i did and they knew and took all of us via bus to Villa Sassetti, the villa of La Pietra where Check-in occurs. the first song that came on the radio on the bus was "california girls" by katy perry and everyone on the bus laughed. Apparently the US runs the music industry world-wide. ha.

-check-in was annoying. I was tired, and they made you go to different check points and I wasnt paying attention because I just wanted to get to my apartment. One lady describing the bus system to us I'm pretty sure said "Yeh so you have to go to station. it's in the center. and you have to stop it yourself. So you have to, Yeh." Oh yeah, right, I get it.

-other parts of check-in were annoying too, but i must admit the only reason i was annoyed was because i looked like crap. So many girls arrive looking perfectly I just don't get it. With their perfectly straight hair and vera bradley duffle bags and layers of makeup and dresses and boots. I looked like someone had messed up my hair on purpose to the point of no return and was wearing an ace hardware tshirt on. what. ever.

Via Ricasoli, 46, first floor

This man takes me and three other girls to our apartment for the next four months and gets lost twice. He doesn't speak a word of english and since i'm riding shotgun i try to make generous and comforting noises haha. Florence is gorgeous without even trying. Way older-looking than London or Paris and there are green shutters everywhere. I can see the Duomo wall if I walk out of my apartment and look down my street to the left. Anyway, while lost I try to tell him Che Bella and giggle when he makes a frustrated noise about turning around. So far, italians are very sweet.

We get to the apartment. One girl has heard a rumor that Via Ricasoli had just been renovated but I'm not holding my breath. We help each other get in because all of our keys are weird (big and long!) and all of our suitcases are 60 pounds. We make it in. the First floor is up two flights of stairs (dang). two of the girls are on the third floor, so we peace from them and manage to break into our own apartment (Linda)............

It's absolutely gorgeous. the floor is made of bricks, the kitchen is HUGE with stainless steel appliances, there's a living room with an adorable couch and really cool artwork on the wall. the main area has two wings that come off of it with rooms, mostly doubles. there are two singles on my end. I'm jealous of the other girl's room because she has one more bookshelf than I do, but Ill get over it. Everything is spotlessly clean and brand-new. I want to cry from joy, which is quite different than what I was preparing myself for, but I'm just so excited to check out my room and move in that I forget to.

My room is probably the size of a belltower or keohane single. maybe two times as big as the room in Langton Close. walls are white (but I'm going to cover them with pictures after Im done with this). I have a huge wardrobe/closet. a narrow and tall bookcase. a hook rack that I've hung purses, scarves, and hats on. a desk with two drawers and one cabinet complete with red chair and matching red desk lamp and trashcan. I have a nightstand with two drawers and an adorable nightstand lamp that I might consider stealing at the end of the semester (just kidding). my bed is ridiculously comfy and has two huge drawers coming out at the bottom of it for clothes. To be frank it's perfect. My window isn't on the street side, which is good, but also means there's not much view except the building behind it. the bathroom is right next to me and gorgeous. People clean our rooms twice a week and change our sheets weekly.

pretty much incredible. i need hangers and a mirror for my room and maybe some more artwork/posters. a fuzzy rug for the cold brick floor would be ideal, but ill get over it. when it's all done of course ill take a picture of it, but im stoked to call this home for the next semester and still confused as to why florence italy can figure out better housing for students than duke can.

tomorrow i have a loaded day of orientation starting at a cinema somewhere downtown. i'm very nervous because i dont get the bus system and there's no time during orientation to try and find groceries etc, get a bus pass, check out the dang-awesome-Duomo and David, but i know i'll get to those things eventually.

game plan tonight: put pictures up, shower, meet the other girls in my flat, maybe find catherine, and go through all the orientation paperwork they gave us, whcih is about an encyclopedia's worth. but i love doing stuff like that so im STOOOOKED.

i'm also way blessed. wayyy blessed. i was preparing myself for the worst and got the best. i just wish everyone was here with me.

buona notte! arrivederci! :) hehe