Florence, Day 6

As of today, I have officially used the Florentine bus system on my own, without the aid of a professor. And it was a success. It's actually really easy, Sarah and I just had to figure out the real names of the stops we needed going to and coming from Linguaviva.

Italian class went well once more and Gretchen, Isa, Ian, Stacy, and I spent our lunch break at the open market, eating anything that looked good and getting free fruit from our new friend the fruit vendor, Maria. Maria seems to love us (and is totally charmed by the fact that we attempt to use Italian when speaking with her); she is always pushing more fruit into our hands, giving us slices of fresh figs and the biggest grapes I've ever seen.

Back at Linguaviva, we begin our afternoon with a celebration of Gretchen's birthday. Jodi brought in a cookie platter full of traditional Italian cookies for all 29 of us and we sang "happy birthday" before our lecture for the day. While we were eating, Jodi gave a presentation on Florence's history (abridged), which was pretty cool.

Afterwards, Ian, Isa, Gretchen, and I walked over to the travel agency that has worked with ACM students before, to pick up train tickets for a trip to the beach in Cecina on Sunday. We decided we wanted to visit the Mediterranean, so by golly we're going to do it. Random shopping follows our travel agency excursion - mostly we just walk around exploring. (Note: the € .99 store is amazing.) I had my daily gelato (chocolate and banana this time) and then Ian, Isa, and I walked over to a small park and just sat on a bench in the sun, enjoying the breeze and talking. We sat there for almost an hour, planning our imaginary radio show (titled "daily gelato time with Isa, Anna, and Ian") and having a grand old time.

Eventually we all went our separate ways, since it was time to head back to our respective host families and get ready for dinner. My host mom made us butterfly pasta with tomato sauce, baked fish, steamed zucchini (which I'm trying to get the recipe for), and fresh fruit in syrup. Our dinner conversation was trilingual - one of Anna's previous foreign exchange students came over for dinner (Janet, from Mexico City). Janet was really sweet - and a Linguaviva student! - and so we had Spanish, English, and Italian going at dinner. It was pretty fun to see how we all could still manage to communicate, despite not really speaking each other's languages. We cobbled together a language of our own that served us quite well. It was cool to be reminded that there are certain things that transcend language, like smiles, laughter, and food.

Later on after dinner, I finished up my Italian homework (conjugating verbs - woo!) and had an unexpected facebook chat session with my parents. It was really good to talk with them... and we set up a skype date! I think that's what I miss most right now, talking with my parents whenever I want. While I'm at Coe, I text my parents pretty often, telling them about random happenings in my day, jokes from class, and more. Here, I can't really do that. We still talk, but it's very different. I'm having fun with new people and new places, but I do miss the closeness that I have with my parents when I'm at college in the States (even though I'm five hours away in Iowa!). Oh well. Skyping will be nice.

Florence, Day 5

Packing last night meant that I got to sleep in today. Hurrah! After our last breakfast in the hotel, we headed upstairs once more for class. Italian class day 2 went relatively well. I discovered that my knowledge of Latin will make Italian grammar and reading comprehension much easier but I also discovered that I struggle with remembering vocabulary and conversation.

After class a few of us went out to explore the covered market (which is like a daily farmers market) and hunt down our lunch. I amazed everyone by consuming a full bag of dried apricots all on my own in a ridiculously short period of time - in my defense, apricots (albiocche, I learned today) are delicious and I was hungry.

Back at Linguaviva, we had another round of paperwork (this time some of our residency paperwork) and then we were handed our housing assignments and then shipped out in taxis to meet our host families. My roommate, Sarah, and I are with an older woman named (wait for it) Anna and, it turns out, her mother, Maria. Maria, who we are told to call Nonne, speaks no English while Anna speaks very little. The three of us (Anna, Sarah, and me) very slowly get the details on the apartment, asking about buses, electricity, room in the fridge, and more, relying heavily on hand gestures to get meanings across to each other.

Dinner was... interesting. I wasn't quite sure what to think tonight. We had a very leisurely Italian dinner of homemade squash risotto, roast chicken (at least we think it was chicken), and salad. Delicious, but almost painful in the small-talk department. However Sarah and I were able to cobble together enough Italian to talk a little about ourselves and our families back at home in the States. Sarah has more full sentences than I do, but I have more grammar and can recognize more random words during conversation, so between the two of us we're almost one person with barely passable Italian. Hopefully that gets better.

There's no A/C (which is a little rough in 90+ degree weather), but that's normal for Florentine homes. Anna and Nonne hardly ever open the windows or shutters though, so its a little cooler and my asthma stays under control. Plus there are slightly fewer mosquitos, so that's good. They're pesky little buggers though... they sneak in Lord knows how and bite you only when you're sleeping and can't fight back.

Nonne has a dog (which has made a number of other ACM-ers jealous) named Teo, whom she spoils terribly. Teo's pretty sweet and docile though - and there's no language barrier there. Its kinda nice to have a pet around so far. Sarah and I enjoyed having Anna explain how the dog gets to eat everything that we do because Nonne sneaks him food from the table. Hand motions were again helpful.

So far, it seems Luigi's words of warning about the host families were right: students are placed with families that speak very little English - "it's the Linguaviva trap." But on the bright side, this should do wonders for our Italian language skills!

Florence, Day 4

Today was the first day of classes of my senior year. Wow. I had a bit of an earlier morning than usual, with breakfast in the hotel (bread and jam plus coffee) and then getting upstairs to Linguaviva by the start of class at 9am. Stacy, Isa, and I are in the same Italian class, which means we can do homework together - thank goodness! We meet our teacher, Luigi, who is possibly the coolest person in the world (the entire group has labelled him a badass); Luigi is really funny, telling jokes and silly stories during class. At one point he told us what our personalities were, based on our horoscopes (Isa and I are apparently "forte! forte! Very strong women.") 

After class there was a reception for all the Linguaviva students (where we were meant to mingle and no one did). We ate some snack-y lunch foods (lunch really isn't a big meal around here, which is taking some getting used to) and talked, using the time to get to know the other ACM-ers more. Once lunch is done, Ian, Isa, Gretchen, and I took a walk to a park (just to explore the area surrounding Linguaviva, which is in the same building as Hotel Duca D'Aosta) and got gelato. My record is still going strong - gelato every day since I've gotten to Florence. 

Post-gelato, we headed back to Linguaviva for our group assignments for dinner (more on that later) and a presentation by a Florentine police officer (polizia stata) on safety during our stay here. Once that was finished, Ian, Isa, and I went out to run some errands: I needed cash from the ATM (or bancomat), Isa needed to look for some sandals, and Ian wanted a new wallet. Success on two of three fronts - no new shoes yet :(

We headed back to Linguaviva to talk cell phones: a guy from the WIND store came to sell us phones and SIM cards as well as talk about cell phone plans. I was pretty much set; I brought a phone with me from the U.S., so all I needed was a SIM card. This was MUCH faster than getting a whole new phone, which couldn't be used immediately because of an activation period. 

Our dinner assignment was an exercise in map-reading and working as a group when you're in a group of people that you don't know very well. We drew straws to determine the groups, after which all 5 groups were handed a map, the name of a restaurant, some money, and the instructions "go forth and eat." I was the group leader for group B, which meant that I had the map and was calling all the shots. Funnily enough, I had walked past our restaurant earlier that day, so I knew exactly where it was and didn't really need to use the map.... whoops. Anyway, we succeeded. Dinner consisted of pizza, a bottle of wine, and for me, a dessert called "torta al cioccolata con gelato," which roughly translates to "heaven in the form of chocolate and gelato." But seriously, it was good.

Once we got back from our pizzeria, my night consisted of Italian homework, packing, and reintroducing Gretchen to the music of Whitney Houston (Ian and I were a little upset when she didn't recognize the songs we were playing).

Tomorrow we meet our host families. I'm a little nervous about meeting the host (or hosts, for all I know), but I am curious about which other ACM student I'll be living with. Guess we'll find out tomorrow!

Florence, Day 3

I slept pretty darn well last night and woke up to the best present ever: a free morning. No obligations (except to print out passport photos), no plans (except to print out passport photos), and nowhere to be (except the booth where we could print out passport photos). After a leisurely breakfast, we went over to the Santa Maria Novella train station (SMN), printed out those darn photos, and then split into smaller groups for shopping and sightseeing. Sammy, Gretchen, and I ended up in the market, where I had my first splurge purchase of the trip when Sammy and I bought leather jackets. In my defense, it is both fire and water proof, so it was worth the money. (Edit: I have also worn it pretty much every day since, so it's essentially paying for itself. If only the euros went back into my wallet....)

We grabbed a quick lunch, after which I discovered the greatest cheap-o food item in the world: gelato sticks. Two bites of gelato, covered in chocolate and chopped nuts. Beyond delicious. And from McDonalds. I know, I know, it's weird. 

Back at the hotel, we had another ACM meeting and some more important paperwork before our planned trip to Fiesole (an archeological site just outside the city). The trip ended up being cancelled on account of more rain, so we walked as a group to Palazzo Vecchio instead. We looked around the palace for a while, then climbed the tower and got an amazing view of the city. We also all jumped about three feet in the air when the bells started tolling the hour (and we happened to be blissfully unaware of the fact that we were directly beneath them). A group of us (pictured below) got kicked out of the tower for spending too much time up top (there was a line downstairs that we had no idea existed) and so made our way back to the hotel just in time to drop stuff off and head back to yesterday's restaurant for dinner (penne pasta with zucchini-tomato sauce and roast chicken with the BEST peas ever and more of the house wine). After dinner, Ian, Sammy, Gretchen and I went out to an Irish pub for a little while with a few other students, but ended up heading back to the hotel pretty soon and hanging out in my room (which, yes, is still housing 5 of us girls), watching youtube videos and talking.

(L to R) Gretchen, me, Ian, Sammy, Isa, and Stacy

Successful day? Yeah, I think so.

Florence, Day 2

I am, not surprisingly, still jet-lagged. However dinner last night helped a lot. Breakfast this morning helped even more! The hotel provides a bit of food for us, croissants and freshly baked rolls, with our choice of nutella, jam, or other fruit preserves, plus coffee (or hot chocolate or my new favorite chocolate mocha-chino (which the coffee machine helpfully says is "1/3 chocolate, 1/3 coffee, 1/3 steamed milk" - delicious).

After breakfast, Gretchen, Sammy, Isa, Stacy, (the same girls I went to dinner with earlier) and I went out on the sightseeing tour that I looked up the previous night. We ended up riding the bus up to San Miniato and the Piazza Michelangelo, where we got out to take in the view from a (very crowded) scenic overlook. After some group pictures (you'll see that below), we walked up to the church, saw the end of a wedding, explored a cemetery, and looked around the "farmacia" run by the order of monks that still live and work at this church. Cool.

(L to R) Stacy, Isa, Sammy, Gretchen, and me.

After that, the day got even better. We waited around in the courtyard to see the end of the wedding, and kind of in order to see the church some more, and the moment the bride and groom exited the sanctuary... it started to pour. We're talking buckets and buckets of rain. But we found out that in Italy, a torrential downpour on your wedding isn't a bad thing. "A wet bride is a lucky bride." Take that any way you please.

The five of us (Gretchen, Sammy, Isa, Stacy, and myself) took cover in a smaller, even older church father down the hill where we attempted to wait out the storm, figuring that it would be a relatively short storm and that would be that. Wrong. We finally screwed our courage to the sticking point, hoisted our sopping umbrellas once more, and made it down the hill to the bus stop. Waiting for the bus was an ordeal all its own (where the bus that I was sure would take us on the rest of the tour didn't seem to exist and then the bus we decided to use instead wouldn't let us on because "they were full"), but we made it back to the hotel, checked into our new room (yes, all five of us were put in the same room for the next few days. We're ok with it. Don't judge.), changed out of our wet clothes, and then met up with the ACM people for a first round of paperwork/getting to know each other/orientation followed by dinner at a nice restaurant ristorante. (For those keeping score at home: butterfly pasta with a vegetable sauce and roast pork with sauté spinach and the house wine.) The program director and coordinator (Jodi and Kate, respectively) then took us out for gelato - which I could get used to.

Veni, vidi, vici - except instead of coming, seeing, and conquering, I came, I saw, I ate, I talked, and then I went to bed.

Florence, Day 1

The flight from Zurich to Florence was less smooth than the Chicago-Zurich leg, but thankfully, uneventful. The flight was delayed due to mechanical difficulties, but we made it without a problem. Plus we got to board and deplane on the tarmac — exciting. Other good news: the flight attendants kept giving us real Swiss chocolate. Yum. (Swiss airlines, people. The seats were nice and the chocolate was amazing.

The Florence airport is maybe as big as Green Bay's "international" airport (and less pleasant-looking), but I managed to collect all my baggage and go through customs (a hallway marked "nothing to declare" and NO ITALY STAMP IN MY PASSPORT! *upset face*). I hailed a taxi (in very broken Italian, but Italian nonetheless!), rode into town and go to Hotel Duca D'Aosta. After figuring out the elevator (which is like those really old fashioned elevators in the movies, with two sets of doors to close), I finally got my stuff to my room on the 4th floor and proceeded to nap for 2 hours. Hurray for jet-lag. 

After my nap, I hunted down the other 5 ACM students in the hotel and the 6 of us hung out for the rest of the night. We went to dinner at a "Grillo Ristorante Pizzeria" and had margherita pizza and split a bottle of wine, toasting Italy and the semester. 

After dinner, we walked to the Duomo and took pictures, walked around the square and back to the hotel, drooling over gelato all the way.

Now to bed! But here's a stock picture of the Duomo, until such a time when I can add my own.

Update from Zurich!

It is August 31 and I am currently sitting in the waiting area for my terminal at “Flughafen Zuirch” (the Zurich Airport) and feeling pretty worldly-wise for using my “Visit Oslo” pen in Switzerland en route to Italy. Ah, the perks of traveling.

Zurich’s airport is slightly overwhelming — I got off the plane and went through security, an airport train, customs, and then a bit of a hike to get to my current seat in the waiting area. They’ve got it set up so that all passengers for gates 50-60 (or so) are corralled in one waiting area and when their flight is ready to board, you’re supposed to head downstairs to the actual gate. Thankfully, my layover is long enough that I had no problem getting all the way across the airport. The plan was to email Mom and Dad now and let them now I had made it safely to Zurich, however the internet is not free… guess that means people will have to wait to find out if I make it to Florence in one piece.

It was still dark when my flight landed in Zurich, but it’s lightening up now. I can see mountains a little way off, though they’re probably just considered hills (since none are very big).

On the flight here, I was moved from my original seat at the request of a dad traveling with two young kids). Weird story: the seat assignment on my ticket put me next to the dad and separated him from one of his kids. I switched with the kid so that their family could sit together (a no-brainer, in my mind). However the dad decided once I sat down that he was entitled to all four seats in the middle of the plane so that his kids could stretch out and sleep. While that’s fine, I would think that one would then purchase all four seats rather than try to kick someone else out of their rightful seat. But clearly that’s thinking things through too much. So he asked one of the flight attendants if I could switch to a different seat (which I was a little confused about, but if it got me farther away from the crazy, I was willing to go). Thankfully there was a window seat open one row back. I ended up next to a very talkative man on his way to a conference. He wanted to know anything and everything about me (while I was only willing to share a little) and then told me all about himself. Apparently he does bio-medical research at the University of Chicago. I ended up turning my seat’s TV on just to avoid more talking! But that turned out well, since I watched “Brave” and “Hysteria” (which was really quite funny).