9/30 - 10/6: Wait, what's my schedule?

Note: dear all, thank you for the kind comments :) It really does make my day to see them. While I've been not blogging (whoops), I've been planning a few future posts, like "a packing list that actually covers the random stuff you'll need," "my favorite gelaterias" (because that's necessary), and maybe a glossary of helpful Italian terms! Keep an eye out for those but in the meantime, here's how last week went.

Sunday, September 30:
Sundays have become my catch-up days; I catch up on sleep, schoolwork, and chat with my friends and family back at home. It's quite nice. Today was no different. I'm doing an oral presentation in class tomorrow (or at least one half of my oral presentation...) so I spent the day preparing for that, which meant reading the two articles, writing up my summary, and figuring out what I was going to say about this painting. This took up much of my day. Thankfully, Gretchen saved me from myself. After I finished typing like a madwoman, we took a walk and got gelato at a place down the street. Afterwards, I skyped some friends, ate some dinner (pasta, beef stew, stewed cauliflower, bread, and grapes), gave Nonna some crazy looks (she was both baby-talking and singing to the dog), and then skyped my parents. I also discovered that eating half a head of cauliflower is probably not a wise decision, as you will likely feel a little sick afterwards. Now you know.

Monday, October 1:
Not only was today the first day of the month, it was also the first official day of classes! My first class (Power, Protection, and Commerce or PPC) visited Santa Maria Maggiore, one of the oldest churches in Florence, and Santa Reparata, which was the original city cathedral and whose ruins are now below the Duomo. That's right. Been here a month now and finally got into the Duomo. It is, in a word, vast. The dome is hugely impressive. From the outside, you are aware that is big. From the inside, standing right below it, you are aware that it is massive. According to Gail, the frescoes on the inside of the dome take up more square-footage than the Sistine Chapel (take that, Rome!). If that's not impressive, I don't know what is. After class, I headed back to Linguaviva for lunch and then our new Italian class. Luigi, unfortunately, is no longer my teacher (my whole class was crushed); now we've got Stefano, who, we have all agreed, appears to have come straight out of the Italian version of Seinfeld. It's kind of awesome. However, class was super intimidating today as all of five words of English were spoken. In the immortal words of Scooby-Doo, "ruh-roh." After class, I sat down and read some articles for class. People were in and out of the classroom, checking their emails, attempting to read, and prepping for day one of their drawing class. I'm not signed up for the drawing class (my stick-figures are quite good already, thank you very much) and felt quite validated in this decision when it started to rain just before people had to head over to the studio. Sarah and I both got to wait out the downpour in the comfort of the Linguaviva classrooms and by the time we were ready to leave, the rain had all stopped. Lucky us! We walked back to the apartment, snacking on pretzels and talking. Dinner consisted of gluten-free pasta topped with oil and cheese (which Nonna told us she didn't like, which was hilarious), fish, carrots and zucchini, and plums. I am a huge fan of the zucchini here. Like ridiculously so. My host mom, Anna, asked us if we were spending the night studying again and when we said yes, she teased us that we never go out like the girls she hosts normally do. We told her we're boring, which is fine with us! Instead of going out, Sarah and I had lovely night of reading and sleep.

Tuesday, October 2:
Things that happen in Florence: bus strikes. They are a minor inconvenience, however they are well-publicized, so it's pretty easy to plan around them. In this case, the bus strike meant that I walked to school this morning. Because of some issues in class (where people aren't paying attention and are instead complaining about the class), I reached my "done with people" point by 11am. A new record! That being said, I decided that it would be best for everyone if I just plug into my iPod during lunch and then spend the rest of my time getting ahead on some readings for Gail. After lunch, Ian and I walked to Gelateria Vivoli for life chats and some much needed chocolate gelato before meeting Jodie at Santa Croce for class. Santa Croce was amazingly beautiful. My initial reaction was that I liked it more than the Duomo and wanted to go back. After class, I booked it back to Linguaviva for a quick choir rehearsal in preparation for the Venice trip. After rehearsal, we packed the entire ACM group into one classroom for our Venice orientation, which was really just Jodie explaining some of what we'd be seeing. I walked back to the apartment with Gretchen and Sammy, where I then did some work until dinner (which was meal soup - we think it was like couscous? -, chicken burgers, tomato salad, and plums and apples). After dinner, I did my Italian homework and read the mail I got today (a postcard from Kayla!). Exciting stuff here in Florence.

Wednesday, October 3:
Wednesday may well become my favorite day of the week. I don't have class until Italian, which means I get to sleep in. When sleeping in is involved, I am happy. Plus I actually took the time to make myself look presentable - what? I walked to Linguaviva, did my massive file transfer (this is something that we all had to do. All the readings for all the classes are on a flashdrive, so we had to transfer them to our individual computers today.), ate lunch, and had the most silent Italian class ever. We're not really sure what's going on in class right now, so the solution we came up with (without ever discussing it) was to just not talk and try to soak all the information in. Probably not the best idea in a conversation-based language class. After Italian, I headed over to the Duomo for class with Gail, where we were in touching distance of the relics of St. Zenobius (the first Bishop of Florence). Not that we actually touched them... they frown on that. After a quick gelato, I went back to the apartment for a pretty chill evening, with an early dinner because Anna was going out with friends (she proudly told us she was seeing a documentary on Sir Francis Bacon). Dinner was delicious: shell pasta with tomato sauce, homemade fish sticks, salad, and the juiciest pear I've had in quite a while. Yum. And perfect because I was jonesing for pasta all day.

Thursday, October 4:
My day began with class at the Uffizi Gallery this morning. We did perhaps the speediest of speed tours, so I'll have to go back when I can take some more time in the galleries. My next class of the morning was just down the block at Orsanmichele, which turned out to be the most fun and chill class ever. Since this was the music class, we were less focused on the art itself and more interested in what the art could tell us about music and the instruments of the time. After class, it was back to Linguaviva for lunch and Italian (which I essentially yawned my way through. Class right after lunch is no good!). We're currently learning imperfect verbs, which present a whole load of new things to think about in conversation. After Italian, I had time to hang out with a few people in one of the empty classrooms, just talking and being silly. When everyone else headed out to drawing class, Jessikah and I went to Palazzo Pittti and the Boboli gardens. She went to a concert and I went into the gardens to watch the fish jump in a fountain (seriously, it's pretty great) and do some work on Italian.

This was my view at the gardens!

I had an interesting conversation with the ticket taker/security guard at the entrance to the gardens, who told me I had the most beautiful eyes he had ever seen and asked if he could see them closer (at which point I went, "I HAVE TO GO!"). I met up with Sarah in the gardens and after a while, we left to get gelato at La Carraia - my new favorite place - and catch the bus to the apartment, where I bummed around until dinner (pasta, potato frittatas, salad, and grapes - gotta love frittata night!). After dinner, I packed for Venice, since we're leaving relatively early Friday morning, and then went to bed. Gotta rest up for our Venetian adventure!

Friday, October 5:
Sarah and I are up early and at the train station by 8:00 for our 8:25 train to Venice. The rest of the group slowly filters in, but we impress Jodie by beating even her to the station! Anna packed both of us a lunch of sandwiches, an apple, and the best fruit bars I have ever tasted. Once in Venice, the group grabs a boat to Murano (you know, that place where they make glass? It's kinda famous.) where we see a glass blowing demonstration and I decide to buy more glassware than I probably needed to. Oh well. Christmas is coming?

Glass-blowing demonstration.

After our tour of the glass shop, we had a little time left over in Murano. Isa and I got gelato (of course), and then my day was made when I saw a very special boat sitting in the canal. There was a double-take, a gasp, and pictures were taken. I could hardly contain my excitement. Just what was I so excited about? This.

A gelato boat.

That's right. A gelato boat. Words cannot describe how much I want this boat. Because honestly, how cool would it be to be able to say, "yeah, I own a gelato boat."

We got back on our boat and then checked into the hotel (where I'm in a quad with Isa, Gretchen, and Kara). Once we'd gotten settled, the whole group walked to Piazza San Marco for a tour of the Doge's Palace, the prison, and the Bridge of Sighs. Dramatic sighing was done by all. Well, all the cool people, at least.

San Marco, seen from the piazza.

 After that, Jodie led an optional walking tour to San Zaccaria, which I went on. It was pretty sweet: the crypt was partially underwater, which was super cool! At that point we were free to do our own thing. Ian, Gretchen, Kara, Isa, and I decided to walk around some more and took a leisurely walk down the Grand Canal, all the way down to the public gardens and Architecture museum (aka quite a ways down). Below are an assortment of pictures taken on said walk.

Goofing around on an anchor statue.

The Grand Canal.

Looking back at the Campanile of San Marco and the Grand Canal at sunset.

Dinner back at the hotel was butterfly pasta, roast chicken, french fries, and chocolate tiramisu cake (and I get two helpings. Score.). Dinner is followed by a mini dance party in my room, courtesy of Italian MTV.

Saturday, October 6:
I was up bright and early this morning, eating breakfast in the hotel before the whole group headed out to the Basilica di Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari (aka the Glorious Saint Mary of the Friars). If anyone out there has heard of the painter Titian, you'll enjoy this: the altar piece in Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari was painted by Titian and he's also buried in this church. Homage was paid. After Gloriosa, we walked to the Scuola di Carmine (the School of the Carmelites), which is essentially a seminar for young adults. Hurray for education. After our tour of the Scuola, we were allowed to go off on our own. Gretchen, Isa, Kara, Ian, Megan, Jessikah, and I decided lunch was our first order of business. After some really tasty pizza and wine (plus a bellini for me!), we walked across half the city to the old Jewish ghetto. Talk about awe-inspiring. First of all, Ian and my inner Shakespeare-nerds were satisfied, since this was where The Merchant of Venice was set.

Obligatory Merchant of Venice geek-out photo.

Secondly, they've got an incredible Holocaust memorial in the piazza there. It was really incredible to see the way they've chosen to remember the terrible things that happened during the Holocaust. I can't really describe it and a picture can't do it justice, but I've included two shots of the plaques around the piazza.

After the memorial, we needed a little pick-me-up, so, naturally, gelato was in order. Turns out Grom has two locations in Venice, so we popped in for a treat before heading over to the Peggy Guggenheim Museum, located near our hotel. Turns out Peggy amassed quite a collection of 19th and 20th century masterpieces. Lots of Pollock, lots of Boccioni, lots of Severini. Lots of art.

I spent a fine day with these lovely people!

Peggy's final resting place, with her dogs beside her.

After that, we split into smaller groups. A few people wanted to go back to the hotel and nap before our evening group outing, but Isa, Ian, and I went to sit on a dock, where we ended up talking, waving at cruise ships, and half-dozing in the sun. That evening, we went to Piazza San Marco for our private tour of the cathedral. Talk about amazing. A small group of us got to chant in the church (it was everything I had hoped and dreamed it would be) - I'm still looking for a link that works, but when I find one I'll post it here so that you can see it!

This is a contraband picture. YOLO.

After seeing some pretty fancy relics and reliquaries (which I was pretty excited about), we walked back to the hotel for dinner (spaghetti, schnitzel, and salad, with more tiramisu cake for dessert). Much wine was had by all. More than that was had by others. Eventually my roommates and I made it back to our room and went to bed.

Second Note: Yes, I'm behind on blogging. I'm busy living in Italy!