Posterous theme by Cory Watilo

First Week of Classes!

Ciao! 
Well, it has been a solid 2 weeks now on this adventure, and overall things are going quite well. I’ve made some friends, mostly from the southern United States, and have tried a bunch of new foods! I will post about that separately soon enough. I even can navigate around Firenze pretty well now- at least well enough to get to my classes on time. It doesn’t take me longer than 30 minutes to walk any of my normal places, and I am pretty much used to the crazy drivers and narrow streets now. I have bartered in the markets, cooked myself pasta, taken a lot of pictures, and have gotten huge blisters on my feet from walking. Totally worth it though!

As I write this post, my second week of classes is coming to an end. It is good that I now have things too keep my mind off of less desirable things, such as missing home. I really enjoy my classes and each one is interesting to me in a different way. All of the teachers are nice, and although their accents confuse me at times, the 2 and a half hour class periods go pretty fast. I made a change in my schedule recently, dropping my Interior Design class for History of Fashion Design. Interior Design was more about math and architecture than art, and just was not right for me. My new class is fascinating, though, and I am happy with my decision.

My Italian language class seems like it will be fairly easy, for Italian is similar to Spanish (which I have taken classes for in the past). Kim is in that class with me, and it is nice to wake up early and walk through the quiet morning streets with a friend. We walk past the Duomo every day, and each time the building amazes me…especially when a flock of tourists isn’t crowding around the base of it. It has such presence, and the sheer size of the Duomo is incredible.

On Mondays, Kim and I have “Meandering Mondays,” where we take pictures, casually window shop, and try to experience the city without being rushed. Piazza della Signoria is one of my favorite places, with all of its bronze statues and replicas of famous works. Ponte Vecchio, (means “old bridge”) is also pretty cool, since it’s the only bridge with shops on it. Lots of tourists are always there, but in the morning there aren’t too many. The shops are closed but even the wooden doors that cover the shop windows are an interesting sight. We live near Piazza de Pitti, which is a castle of the Medici family I believe (who are apparently a big deal here- need to learn more about them in class) and has a big area in front where people like to sit. A good place to see pigeons, haha.

My photography class, Light of Florence and Tuscany, will be a good experience in my opinion, since we will get to walk around to places that are the best for taking photos. On the first day, we walked up (and I mean straight up the steepest road around) to Piazzale Michelangelo, which boasts the best view in Firenze. My photos there don’t even seem real to me, with all the city in plain view. I truly loved it though! A nice woman even let me take pictures of her pet cat that she brought up there. I can’t imagine how freaked out the cat must have been to be up so high, but like all the city animals here, he took it all in stride. I have been seeing so many breeds of dogs here as well, and I might do my final photo project on the refined city dogs that I see so often.

Introduction to Art History, another class I have, will also take me to places I am so lucky to go, such as art museums and historic churches. There are a lot of people in that class and seating is tight in the class room, but we will be getting out a lot and seeing the art up close and personal. So excited about that! I am also thrilled to have the chance to travel to Pompeii and Herculaneum in my other class, Daily Life in Pompeii. It is sort of a history class that examines the city and reconstructs the past- which is awesome since I have always been interested in the history of Pompeii. Our three day trip to the cities will be in November, and I cannot wait to be able to see the historic place with my own eyes.

My fifth and final class, which I mentioned before, is History of Fashion Design. There are only 6 of us and I think it will be a super interesting class, considering it is all about things that I want to learn about, but never have had the chance to before. Going to the Gucci museum and the silver museum in Pitti Palace will be great, as well!

With classes comes homework of course, but it’s different than at back home. This is all stuff that interests me and I actually want to learn about the city that I live in. Being here to see the art and the culture makes me feel like I could bust out some intellectual insight if I felt like it, haha. Being able to walk around to my classes on my own also gives me a feeling of freedom and responsibility that is refreshing and new. I miss home a lot, especially the people that I’ve left behind, but having the ability to communicate so often with those who I love really helps me handle the separation. As the semester progresses, the schedule I develop will soothe my routine-craving mind and allow me to really enjoy this experience for what it is. There are many opportunities for us students to go on trips and activities, and I wasted no time in signing up for all of the ones that interest me, as long as they are in my budget! Everything is indeed more expensive here, but the school does offer free trips on Fridays to places we wouldn’t be able to go to on our own, so I am thankful for that. I plan to splurge on a trip to Germany at the end of November though, with Kim at my side of course. We might even go to Ireland during our semester break, but other than that I am content with Firenze itself! Just being in Italy is enough for me, and the way I see it, every day is an adventure, no matter where I go. (daww corniness for the win) =]

Until next time, Ciao!

~Gr