So far Firenze has been everything I expected and more! I would love to tell you all in detail everything that has happened, but that would take another 3 weeks to write. So I will give you the best shortened version of Firenze thus far.
The first week has become of blur of orientation meetings, sight seeing, grocery shopping, getting lost, and total awe at the city I now call home. My six roommates and I adventured around town allowing ourselves to act like typical tourists with cameras strapped around our necks. Everything from the Duomo to the little old man walking down the street who just looked Italian needed a picture. After getting over that initial awestruck feeling of living in such an beautiful place, things started settling down. Classes started at the end of January and a normal routine fell into place. However, I don't think that walking on the Ponte Vechio to class or waiting for a friend on the steps of the Duomo everyday could ever be classified as normal. Incredible yes. Definitely not normal because that implies average, and thus far this experience has been anything but that.
My classes are absolutely wonderful! I didn't know what to expect from them, but I love them. I am taking:
Digital Graphic Illustration
Printmaking Beginner
Landscape and Architecture Photography
Italian Beginner I
By far my favorite class is my photo class. It involves two of my favorite things set amongst the gorgeous backdrop of Florence. What more could I ask for? I also really like my teacher. He's everything I would've expected of an Italian professor. He's completely passionate about the subject (he spent an hour and a half the first class explaining what "photography" was) and every other thing that he sprouts is from some French/Italian/British author/poet/photographer/artist quote that somehow relates back to photography. I've only been to two classes (that last five hours each!), but have learned so much. My other classes are also really fun. I've never done any kind of printmaking, but have found that I really like it. Here's a quick photo of my current project:
My Italian class is... well it's going! I don't know if I will ever call myself fluent, but I'm starting to (sort of) get it. I do know the the definite and infinitive article for a lot of words (un cappuccino per favore!). On the plus side, I at least look Italian-- I've been asked for directions by a few tourists who thought I was a native! Soon I will also be starting an internship. I have an interview next week, and hopefully will start the week after that. I will let you all know how that goes.
In other news (and part of the reason I haven't updated much) I've been traveling a lot on weekends :) I've gone all over Florence to see a lot of the main attractions (Duomo, Santa Croce, Ponte Vecchio, Pizzale Michelangelo), but I've also gone on two out of town trips. The first weekend here I went to Verona and the town of Sirmione on the coast of Lake Garda. Although a little chilly and overcast, it was still a nice trip. I really liked walking around Verona and getting some history of the city, other than the fact that it was Juliet's hometown. However, I will admit I was really excited about visiting the famous balcony and leaving a letter for Juliet, just like the movie (Letters to Juliet). It was sad to know you can't leave her a letter at the wall, but you can buy a lock for 5 euro from the gift shop to lock on the gate and then walk across the street to actually write a letter. Needless to say I did walk across the street to visit Juliet's Club and write a letter, but I saved my 5 euro. Later in the day we traveled to Sirmione, which is a really small town. It was mostly deserted and very quiet, but you could tell by the abundant number of hotels in area that in the summer it must be very busy. The best part about the town was the real Medieval castle with moat and gate! We didn't get to go inside, but it was still beautiful from the outside. The weekend was cold, but the worst part was on the trip home. We passed through a real blizzard. I have never seen so much snow in my life. Trees' branches were hanging low with about a foot of snow and at least another 3-4 feet of snow on the ground in addition to the still falling snow. The best part though? We really did just drive through the blizzard and I never had to step out of the bus into the cold :) But I did get a few pics:
This past weekend, I went to Prague in the Czech Republic! And though I didn't have to step off the bus the previous weekend, I did have to brave the 7 degree (F) weather to walk through the city in Prague. Needless to say I looked like a marshmallow all weekend because of the multiple layers I needed to keep warm. Regardless of the fact that it was the coldest weekend I have ever endured, Prague was absolutely gorgeous! It really is one of my favorite cities I have ever visited. The architecture and history behind the city is mesmerizing. You can find just about every style of architecture within the city limits often making the streets look like something out of a fairy tale book. I didn't get do much while in Prague, mainly because of the cold, but I did visit Old Town, New Town, and the Jewish Quarter on the first day there. The Old Town square is one of the best I have seen in Europe so far. There's a gothic church (Our Lady Before Tyn) amongst a multiple pastel colored buildings. Even covered in a foot of snow, I still loved it. While in the Old Town I also saw the famous astronomical clock. Later that day I also went to the Holocaust Museum in the Jewish Quarter which was incredible. That was the closest I've ever been to anything connected with the Holocaust and it was crazy to be so close to it. One of my favorite parts of the museum was the memorial they had for the victims of Prague. It was an exhibition that consisted of 4-6 rooms. The rooms were all empty and had white walls, but on the walls were some 80,000+ handwritten names of Holocaust victims. I was completely blown away by the magnitude of it all. My roommates and I ended the day at a traditional Czech restaurant were we tried goulash with bread and potato pancakes. We really went all out on this meal, check out the receipt:
Well maybe not all out considering it was in Czech, not American dollars ($1 US dollar= $18 Czech).
The second day in Prague was spent mainly sight seeing in the morning. I went to the Charles Bridge, John Lennon Wall, Kafka Museum, and Rudolfinum (home of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra). In the afternoon I went on a three our tour of the Prague Castle. Does anyone know the difference between a palace and a castle? I didn't until last weekend. A palace is just a single building for a royal family, where as a castle is a fortified city that can sustain itself if attacked. So yes that is why it took three hours to tour, because we walked around the entire castle grounds. Even though it was long, it was worth it. I learned so much and got some awesome views overlooking the city of Prague.
Overall Prague was amazing! I am determined to visit again, preferably when the weather does not drop into single digits and flowers are in bloom. Pictures are coming soon to facebook, so check them out of you want to see what Prague is all about. Also a new blog post should be coming sometime soon about the Chocolate Festival in Firenze and the Venice Carnivale.
Arrivederci!
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