oh, the difficulties of european living.

Okay, so I am FINALLY in Florence! We spent the last two nights at this amazing (though slightly echo-y) hotel in the center of Florence doing all kinds of fun (read: repetitive) orientation activities. I have met some cool people so far, but everyone got separated now that we have left the hotel and moved into our apartments which are located around the city.

My apartment is enormous, possibly bigger than my apartment back in America. I do have to share a room, and the bedroom itself is a lot smaller than mine at home, but considering the kind of descriptions they gave us pre-departure, I was expecting something akin to a hovel you would find in a rogue third world nation. I am quite pleased with it.

I am starting to be able to find my way around the city, too. It is incredibly, incredibly beautiful here. Florence is a small city by comparison to places like Rome and NYC, but it is full of historical buildings, sculptures, and it is surrounded by the most gorgeous landscape. I have taken a few pictures, but I am updating from a computer in the Lorenzo de Medici computer lab right now, so I cant upload them (I also cant find the apostrophe on this foreign keyboard, so you will have to excuse me).

Yesterday morning we took a walking tour around the city for about two hours. I was confident in how I had dressed at the start of the tour, but by the end I realized that gloves and a hat were essentials that I had overlooked. It was just a quick tour though, and I am looking forward to getting to know the smaller, more genuinely Italian aspects of the city. I already spotted a little cafe near my apartment where I can get coffee on my way to school, yum. After the tour, I was absolutely EXHAUSTED, since I hadnt slept well the night before, despite ridiculous jet lag, so I napped for a couple of hours until another orientation event.

After orientation, I met up with a girl I met on my flight over and her roommates for aperitivo. This is definitely a concept we need to instigate in America. You go to what is essentially a bar and order a drink and you get an all you can eat light dinner buffet for a flat rate of £8. I ordered an apple martini which was really pretty, but also pretty strong. I drank maybe half of it, but took full advantage of the buffet. The food here is so fresh and everything tastes different, but in a good way.

Anyway, tonight we have our first "cultural activity" with the program, a cooking class. The tomorrow morning we are going on a survival tour of our neighborhood to find out where the markets and drugstores and other essential places are in our vicinity.

I am extremely tired, but loving Italy so far. Everything is too beautiful to believe, and I am still in denial that I am going to be here for the next four months. I should have access to the internet via laptop in the next couple of days, so I will put up some pictures to spice this blog up a bit.

Ciao!