First Few Days

Hello all,

I wanted to update everyone on my first few days in Italia, but this also helps me to recount everything that has happened for my blog and my journal.

There have been a whirlwind of events…It seems as if I’ve hardly had a minute to myself, but it is currently 5:15pm on Monday, and I’ve got my 3-person room all to myself, so I’m taking advantage of it. Listening to music, writing this e-mail, and letting it sink in that I’m really here for three months, which is making me a little sad, but more giddy. (I’m still not fully grasping the fact that I will be here for so long, it’s very surreal, to the point that I feel as if I haven’t really acknowledged it.)

I guess I’ll start off with my first day- Friday, Jan. 30:
My flight from Atlanta took off late due to someone’s medical emergency, they were taken from the plane to the hospital, so Friday night we took off an hour after schedule. We (and I say we because there was another girl from Elon on the same flight), arrived in Frankfurt a little after 9am, went through security and met up with other students from Elon at our gate. Our flight to Florence went off without a hitch, however we were on a tiny plane- 6 people per row. We collected our baggage and were taken to our apartments. Both of the girl’s apartments are in the same building and share the same hall; after you make it through the massive front door and up two large flights of stairs, you come to a landing with doors leading off, our door leads to a hallway with two other doors, one being to each of the girl’s apartments.
My apartment is nice, a bit unconventional by American standards, but I’m in Italy, not too much to complain about. There is a tiny staircase that leads to a two-bedroom room, which has a bathroom off of it. Downstairs is a very large kitchen with a dining table and a bathroom off of it. The next room is a living room, with a couch, a dining table, a closet that is divided into three sections, and a television. The last room in the apartment is my bedroom, which contains three beds and little else…haha We have a small shelving unit with three shelves, two drawers, and then everyone has a night stand/table.
After being shown how our keys worked and how to turn on the heat, gas for the stove, washing machine, etc… We were allowed to do whatever until 8pm when we had a group dinner. In the interim I unpacked all of my clothing and attempted to get settled in the apartment. I showered in our nice little rotunda of a shower, which is not separated from the rest of the bathroom, and in no time we left for dinner. Dinner was good, not the best Italian food I have experienced, but seeing as how I had skipped lunch, it was satisfying. After dinner, it was around 10:30, I headed back to the apartment and went to bed.

Saturday, Jan. 31
We had another “orientation” at 11am, so a few of the girls and I decided to get up early and explore a little, grab breakfast, and then head to the school (Accademia Europea di Firenze). My school is about a block away from the Duomo, very close, and from some of the classrooms and offices- you have a direct view of the Duomo, welcome to Italy. We stopped at a bar-which in Italy is not like an American bar, it’s more of a café, but you don’t necessarily have to sit down…and got pastries, cappuccino, and water- all for 2.60 euros. We then made our way to the accademia, where we met with the professor from Elon who came to Italy with us and the main person from our school. We were given a walking tour around Florence and shown places to eat for cheap, gelato shops, libraries, etc… We had a break between our tour and meeting our professors, so a few of us went to the Ponte Vecchio to take pictures and explore. After meeting some of our professors, I wont meet my political science professor until tomorrow; we had the afternoon to do what we liked. Some of us walked to a grocery store that the boys had found across the bridge, which is about a 5 minute walk from our apartment. I then came back to the apartment and rested until we all decided to meet up with the boys for dinner. My dinner experience wasn’t so great since I didn’t and don’t fully know all things that can be included on an Italian menu. I accidentally ordered some type of beef with porcini mushrooms-hey at least I got the mushrooms part right. However, one of the guys was nice enough to switch with me- I think my meal looked more appetizing to him, so I ended up with a tri-meal; I had a chick pea soup with porcini mushrooms, a tomato risotto, and something with zucchini, all very delectable. While the plan had been to venture out on the town afterwards, I decided that sleep would be much more beneficial.

Sunday, Feb. 1
Ten hours of sleep was all I thought I needed, but jet lagged proved me otherwise later in the day. I awoke to a rainy and gray sky, but I still decided to venture out in order to time the walk to the school, since our first day of class was Monday. We walked to and from the school, timing our travel each way. After such a big adventure-ha, I took a three-hour nap, so I’m presuming that’s when the jet lag decided to really kick in. I didn’t do much the rest of the day, found a grocery store one street down from our apartment and that was about it. I made myself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for dinner-I think my family will be the only people who get why this is significant.

Monday, Feb. 2
Today was the first day of class! Unfortunately it was still rainy and nasty, like it has been predicted for the entire week, at least until Thursday. I woke up, poured a bowl of cereal, made myself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich to take to school so I wouldn’t have to buy my lunch, and then preceded to get ready for class. When I arrived at the school I took a placement test to determine what level of Italian I would be placed into. The test was an absolute joke- I knew the first of six pages and just sat there for a few minutes wondering if I should even attempt the rest-don’t get me wrong, it was very hard. So I handed in my test and was placed into an “advanced beginners level” course of Italian. What the two other Elon students and I who were placed into this class think it means is that we are moving at a faster pace, which is true when we compared what we had discussed with that of our other Elon peers, and that our class involves more Italian spoken- which we were told would begin tomorrow with the professor only speaking Italian. Woo!
The Italian class that I’m in has three American students, including myself, who are all from Elon, two people from South Africa, three people from Australia, and one from Brazil. One of the girls from South Africa is actually related to Dave Matthews from DMB. She was introducing herself and said- have you heard of DMB, my dad is his cousin. No biggie. We have Italian class every day of the week, with an hour and a half of grammar and an hour and a half of conversation; the two sections are split up by a thirty-minute break. The classes start at 9am.
My other Monday class is my upper level GST (general studies), which is based on sexuality and women in the Renaissance. It seems like it will be a really interesting class but the teacher has already informed us that she rarely gives A’s and that it’s going to be extremely intense; which I dislike for two reasons- 1. Being the fact that I hate teachers who go into a course telling people that they’re not going to make an A, it discourages people from trying hard and 2. Because we’re abroad, if I wanted to stay in my room all the time and study then I would have stayed at Elon and taken her class. I guess I’ll just have to see how it pans out. The GST is Monday and Thursday from two until 3:45.
Tonight was the first night that I cooked my own food, I made pasta. I haven’t found any sauce other than tomato and pesto, but as I had been forewarned about, the tomato sauce is nothing to brag about-it’s very bland. It was nice to be able to make my own dinner and not have to spend more money and two hours going out to eat, but I think I’ll buy pesto after I have finished my tomato sauce, hopefully it will taste better.
Tomorrow I have Italian in the morning and then a meeting with my political science professor in the afternoon to figure out when we will be meeting etc… I am the only one taking the POL class, but since it’s my minor they luckily didn’t cancel it.

More adventure updates to come as they occur. Hope everyone is well.