italee: Florence aka Firenze

Like I said Florence has been amazing; what started off as surreal has finally started to feel like my reality. Life has been crazy, chaotic at times, overwhelming, and yet a great adventure! I realize now that I have yet to fill you people in on what Florence itself is actually like. It's AWESOME.

Here we have a pretty sweet apartment that I share with 3 other girls. I have my own room which is great, we have a loft, and we're right in the heart of Florence. Only a 5 minute walk from the Duomo and right by all the night life. We live on the 3rd floor (not the same as 3 floors in the States FYI) so multiple times a day I climb 72 stairs. Don't worry I counted again this morning and the number still hasn't changed. I walk everywhere, and have come to understand that it's the reason why not many Italians are overweight. Most my friends apartments are about 15 minutes away as well as school which is on the other side of the Ponte Vecchio.

On my way to school I pass by all the big tourist attractions meaning that I have to wind my way constantly through groups of people with headphones in and following someone with a flag or something. My mission is to one day walk around holding up a random object just to see if people will follow me, I think there's a good chance of it working. My classes here are great, minus the fact that they have this odd expectation that we'll do homework…. Just kidding mom and dad! I'm taking an international economics class which is not my thing yet I still find it fascinating. There's only 7 of us in that class so she's quick to notice when someone isn't paying attention. The professor for that class speaks Arabic (native tongue), Italian, and English. For my painting class my professor speaks Dutch (native language), German, Italian and English. I'm impressed by these people! So far I have yet to be in the studio for a painting class because we have spent every class outside painting different things. The first week and a half we were in a Plaza painting a church and fountain and now we're painting a view of the Duomo and baptistry from the Boboli Gardens. It's odd painting outside because all the people passing by stop to look, some taking pictures and trying to give us pointers too. Very intimidating/awkward and takes a lot of work to just focus on the painting. My favorite class so far is an art history class called Leonardo di Vinci where we study all about Leonardo's life, teachers, competitors, works, and surroundings. It's fascinating. We have class sometimes in a classroom but have also been to several churches/museums to view works of art or certain pieces/installations/sculptures. The professor is a source of entertainment too. She snorts, laughs incredibly loudly and at herself a lot, slaps things (not people), is more animated than anyone I know and is incredibly passionate about art history. I don't think it's possible for anyone not to love her or the class. Finally there's my Italian class. Because I don't need any more language credit I'm taking the basic one (remember though that I had an intense 2 week course for orientation, just so you don't think I'm slacking off) which I'll admit is incredibly boring. Luckily it doesn't take up too much of my time. Overall I can't complain about school; I mean I am in Italy so it doesn't get much better than that.

People here are pretty great overall with some peculiar ones scattered in. Our program has students from all over the States. I've been hanging out with some from California, Washington D.C, Washington and ones all over the east coast. That in and of itself is an experience, one which I hadn't even thought about before coming here. I find it interesting how all of us have different expectations for what we want this trip to be. Some came here to see Italy but mainly travel all over, some here to party like they won't remember any of it, some to really see the art, some to learn the language and culture, and some who have no idea what they want of it yet.

I fall into the category that really wants to get to know Italy, and not necessarily the parts that all the guide books talk about. So far I think I'm accomplishing that. Some of my main goals while being abroad consist of:

Horseback riding in Italy (I think this is going to happen in the next week or two)
Wine tasting
Renting a Moped for a day to go exploring, you have no idea how exited I am for this
Checking out Greece and maybe another place
Making some great Italian friends
Not taking anything for granted

I think I'm on track or have a plan for most of these! While I'm excited for everything here there are days that it's rough. I miss both places I call home and all the people there. I think one thing that caught me off guard was how life goes on when you're not there. Not that I expected everything to freeze but in someway I did :) Hearing from people about big changes is a blast but also makes me wish I was there for some of them. I've gotten use to the time change, general layout of the city, the food/schedule. I'm working on getting used to the streets smelling all the time, the constant noise/echoing, hearing the language, and having to walk around the tourists 24/7 (which is funny because I don't feel like a tourist anymore). I don't know if I'll be able to get used to not seeing grass or natural trees, having to search to find American sports (some success), dealing with issues and not being able to convey the problem because of the language barrier, not having all family and friends be a simple phone call away that doesn’t need scheduling, struggling with making coffee every morning, and not sleeping with a fan at night : )

Overall life and God are good, actually they're great! I am constantly reminded of how different God made everyone and amazed by it. Back home I saw beauty in nature and creations, here I see it in works of art and buildings. Funny how what life is for one person is so drastically different for someone else. God works in incredible ways and I hope that someday everyone gets to see it in a different placed and a different sort of world.

Until the next blog,

Ciao!

P.S. Brad and Janelle are engaged!! (that's my brother fyi)