it's about time.

ciao amici!

so i'm pretty angry with myself, because i used to be WAY into this blogging thing (we're talking every day, sometimes multiple times a day, throughout all of high school) and now, during perhaps one of the most interesting periods of my life (more interesting than high school, at the very least) i'm wimping out. LAME SAUCE.

i couldn't decide whether or not to actually start this, because a good month has passed since i arrived in florence and it will probably be hard to catch up on everything, but i finally decided better late than never. plus, i don't want to forget any of this, so i need to start writing it down somewhere! i still have a solid 2.5 months to go, and i'm sure at least SOME of that will be worth recording.

i'm going to try and re-cap january as concisely as possible (obv this means bullet points):

- kathleen (my roommate/partner in crime) and i arrived in florence on january 13th (after a particularly enjoyable flight - free drinks, TONS of food, and people just hanging out/talking/singing in the aisles), stayed in a hotel for two nights, and then moved in with our FABULOUS host family. that whole first week was pretty much a jet-lagged haze during which i mainly napped and chased down various syracuse administrators in an attempt to solidify my class schedule (read: MAJOR HEADACHE). honestly, the first two weeks weren't all that exciting. we kind of just soaked in the scenery, watched a lot of OC, and tried to adjust to our surroundings (which are so beautiful that most of the time i still don't believe i'm really here).

- my class schedule is as follows:
mon: italian I 8:45 - 10:45; creative writing: prose 3:05 - 4:35; italian cinema screening 5:00 - 7:00
tues: italian I 8:45 - 10:45; classical mythology 3:05 - 4:35
wed: italian I 8:45 - 10:45; italian cinema 1945 - present 3:10 - 6:10
thurs: italian I 8:45 - 10:45; classical mythology 3:05 - 4:35
fri: FREE :)

the 8:45 italian was a total bummer at first, but my professor is really sweet and an excellent teacher, so that makes it slightly more bearable. my creative writing professor is this fabulous sarcastic british woman who i totally adore. my other two professors (cinema and myth) are OK - nothing too special. cinema is the kind of class that isn't exactly enjoyable, but i know i'll learn a lot... and we watch some totally bizarre films. myth alternates between interesting and dull depending on my mood (i.e. if i feel like learning; if it's gorgeous out and i want to skip class and go for a gelato).

- our host family is TOTALLY AWESOME. we have a host mom and dad, marilena and giancarlo, a host brother named giulio who is 18 (and who i walked into a door in front of on our first day here. typical.), and a nonna. giancarlo and giulio speak english fairly well, but marilena and nonna don't at all, so that's sometimes hilarious. last night, for example, we told marilena we vacuumed our room; she thought we said we wanted to iron our clothes and told us we could borrow the iron whenever; we, however, thought she told us we could drive their smart car whenever. oops? giulio's favorite past times seem to include going to discos, watching soccer on TV (pronounced TEE VU) and posting videos of himself lip-syncing cyndi lauper on youtube. nonna always tells us we are "bella" and cooks the best desserts i've ever had. giancarlo always tells me "you are disaster" (NOT TRUE... only when i try to speak italian.) and marilena comes to my defense. marilena and nonna love soap operas.

- during these first few weeks we learned that it's best to seek out bars with primarily american students. italian men = totally sketch (though often quite attractive. it's really a shame.) on our first night, we found ourselves (read: i found myself) initially smitten by the locals (read: he told me he was a calvin klein model?) until we realized that they were probably lying ("katie, that is such a line") and abandoned the scene for more promising horizons.

- we spent our first two weekends in florence exploring the city and, more importantly, SHOPPING. the shopping in florence is incredible - it's like nothing i've ever experienced. i am truly like a kid in a candy store. (actually, this could also be taken literally as on our second weekend there was a HUGE CHOCOLATE FESTIVAL two blocks from our house). you would think after a month here i would be desensitized by all of the fabulous shoes and bags and jackets that litter the shops' windows but i'm not. i think i probably annoy everyone by my incessant need to go in EVERY SINGLE STORE, but really, you never know! that perfect pair of boots might be lurking just one store away!

favorite purchases so far: tweed-ish winter jacket that i wear every day; grey suede ankle boots; brown leather boots; silver semi-sparkly post earrings; brown leather jacket; black turtleneck with built-in cinching belt

currently on the prowl for: the perfect handbag; lightweight spring jacket

- though the shopping in florence is incredible, i guess the historical aspects of the city are pretty cool too. so far i've been to the duomo (and climbed to the top!), the ponte vecchio (a mixture of history AND shopping :)) and the pitti palace; i've yet to frequent a museum but there's plenty of time left so i'm not too concerned. also, because we're students we have free access to basically all the museums in florence!

- our third weekend here (i think) kathleen, megan and i went to PARIS and met up with tommy, matt, and kara! i wasn't sure we would make it there alive (ryan air = somewhat terrifying. turbulence, barrel rolls, & delayed departures are always good for the flying-phobic) but, thanks to the "priority boarding," that i was tricked into purchasing on the ryan air site (for future reference: make sure to uncheck ALL pre-checked boxes) we at least had extra leg room? on our first day, we walked along the champs elysses (drool worthy shopping), climbed to the top of the eiffel tower, and participated in my first (and maybe last, if this is what all pub crawls are like) pub crawl led by an ex-reality-televison-star with a pink mohawk. the crawl featured four bars plus free entrance into "paris' hottest night club." kathleen, megan, and i went back to our hostel after the fourth bar, cold and cranky. i think we probably spent more time outside walking than actually hanging out IN the bars. on a positive note, however, this crawl DID lead us to the best crepes with nutella we have ever experienced in our lives. the second day we hit to the louve and the musee d'orsay (which i LOVED) before our return flight. also, on the first day i had my first starbucks in europe (starbucks does not exist in italy).

- after paris, we spent the next two weekends in florence. the first weekend we did a day trip to assisi (where st. francis is buried) which was this adorable town on the side of a hill with a GORGEOUS view of the countryside. last weekend we went to ravenna (where dante of the inferno is buried), a former capital of the roman empire, to see some ancient mosaics. we also went to a wine tasting, where we tried four different kinds of wine (mmmmm) and then stayed after for an appertivo, which is where you buy one drink and then get tons of free appetizer-like food. ours had sushi (!!!) and, as you can imagine, i was thrilled. :)

i think this brings me to the present? this weekend we're going to ROMA friday - saturday with school and i'm really excited, despite the fact that my nose is a faucet and i've gone through 10 mini tissue packs in the past two days. to be honest, i'm just surprised i made it a whole month without getting sick.

what else?
oh. the food. i can't believe i haven't mentioned it yet. the food is probably my favorite part about italy. everything is incredible, even the "mediocre" stuff. i eat 1.5 to 2 x as much as i do in the U.S. but i don't care! whatever weight i gain will be so worth it. my and kathleen's apartment (besides being located right in the center of town :)) is exactly 1 block away from the oldest & best gelateria in all of florence, vivoli. i think my favorite combo so far is straciatella (vanilla/cream-ish with chocolate chips) and hazlenut. our other favorite gelaterias are grom and serafina.

in an average day, i usually eat:
1 cappuccino or caffelatte
1 pasta (i.e. breakfast pastry), usually chocolate or rice
1 panino (sandwich), usually caldo (hot) with proscuitto and formaggio
1 apple-pear hybrid fruit thing they have here at school that i've never seen in the U.S.
1 cioccolata calda (hot chocolate)

and then there's dinner. dinner is always EPIC, usually with a huge bowl of pasta to start us off, a main course, a vegetable, ham & cheese, bread with oil, and dessert of some sort.

sidenote: two weekends ago, i had the best mexican i've ever had in my life at a restaurant called tijuana which is, conveniently, right across the street from my apartment.

i think the only other thing i haven't touched on is the nightlife? usually, we buy these little bottles of wine at the shop across the street from our house and walk around drinking them (often on the steps of the duomo) until we decide where to go. sometimes we'll start at eby's, this mexican place near our house that has delicious sangria. (all too often we also END at eby's for drunk snacks like nachos or mini burritos) other places we can usually be found are:

1. the lion's fountain, an irish pub right by eby's
2. jj's cathedral, another irish pub by the duomo (do you see a pattern here?) -- this is where i discovered the snake bite, a beer cocktail that is 1/2 lager, 1/2 cider, and raspberry syrup, AKA incredible.
3. space electronica, una discoteca that has futuristic (think neon, think spaceship) decor, and plays techno and U.S. pop from like, the 90s
4. astor, a trendy lounge by the duomo
5. be bop, a retro bar that has a BEATLES COVER BAND every tuesday night (!!!)

we still have a lot more exploring to do, though. generally, i go out with kathleen and a few other girlfriends. we haven't met many guys at school yet and, as i mentioned, the local dudes are pretty sketch. beeooo.

OK, i think that's everything! if anyone actually read all of this, i'm seriously impressed. from now on the updates should be MUCH shorter and MUCH more frequent!

ciao ciao :)