We woke up to a rainy last day in Florence =/ Thankfully, we planned on going to the museum most of the day, AND Jonathan is awesome and lent Yih and I an umbrella =)

We headed over to the Uffizi to meet up with Debbie and Melissa… only a half hour late… =/ I underestimated how long it would take Yih to eat breakfast at the hostel… We got there and hopped into line with Debbie and Melissa. It took us almost TWO HOURS to get in!!!!!!! We should have paid for reserved tickets the day before, but we were too set on only spending 3.25 per ticket and didn’t want to pay the reservation fee.

Thankfully, while in line, Melissa taught us a game called “Password” which helped us pass the time. SO much fun haha.

The Uffizi wasn’t exactly what I expected… I thought it would be larger and more neatly organized like the museums back home. Oh well! We got to see a ton of artwork that we’ve seen in our art history classes which was soooo exciting!

After our long morning, we thought we should treat ourselves… soooooo we went back to the diner. I got the most delicious banana pancakes! =D I realize that going to the diner meant I was breaking two of my  rules: 1) never eat at the same place twice on vacation; and 2) “when in Rome”.. eat as the Romans, BUT I’m going to be in Italy for several months and may not see another place that sells SUCH delicious pancakes and milkshakes until I come back home.

Debbie had to catch her train after that, and with the few hours Melissa, Yih, and I had, we decided to go across the river to hike up to Piazzale Michelangelo. Melissa warned us that the stairs might be brutal, but compared to the Duomo, it was nothing. Even though it started to rain a little, the view of Florence was gorgeous =)

When we were about done - in an amazingly appropriately timed fashion - we met the rest of our group for 1 euro gelato and headed back towards our hostel.

When we all got back, we found out we were supposed to check out earlier =/ oops. So even though we had 2 hours before our train, we booked it outta there. To kill some time (and get some late dinner) we grabbed a sandwich to go from the pub down the road - the place from the first night.

The sandwich much better this time: bresaolo (a less salty cured meat), cheese, artichoke, mushroom spread, tomatoes.  I ate the first half immediately after I got on the train, and then ended up saving the 2nd half for my lunch on Monday =)

On the train ride home Melissa and I started watching 10 Things I Hate About You. (I will never get sick of that movie.. haha). Unfortunately our train pulled in 5 minutes before the movie ended!

It was a long walk home from the train station after a long weekend. We didn’t get back the apartment til after 1 am… 8 hours of class on Monday! Woohoo!

Saw David in the morning. It was sooo cool to see it in person! You aren’t suppose to take photos… but I did anyways =)

After seeing the David all of us and Melissa’s friend climbed all 400 or so steps up to the top of the Duomo. This is when I truly realized my fear of heights and my claustrophobia… It was an awesome experience!! But not the best time of my life.

After that we split up: some went shopping while we went to check out the Uffizi to see if it was open. On the way… I ran into two girls from my high school!!!!!!!!!!!! =D I wasn’t the best of friends with them, but it was sooo cool randomly bumping into them in Florence!

Anywho. the Uffizi was only open for another 2 hours, so we decided to go back tomorrow and go on a little adventure instead =D We went to the other side of the river and climbed up sooooo many hills. (My legs were soooo mad at me…)

After our little adventure, we planned on going to this restaurant that apparently serves the most amazing steak with a blueberry reduction but that wasn’t open… SO we went to this “American” Diner. It was awesome! I ordered a milkshake and a burger and everything was so yummy and a nice taste of home.

We talked about going out later, but we were all soooo tired. Too pooped. =/

Art history today! It was so interesting but such a long day… 9:30-5 =/

While at one of the art history sites, we saw the chocolate fair, and obviously unanimously decided to go back after art history.. IT WAS DELICIOUS!

After the chocolate fair, we went back to our hostel to change for dinner/going out. We ended up going to a restaurant that Melissa’s friend recommended and it was soooo amazing. Best meal I’ve had all trip! It was pasta with squid, octopus, and broccoli… =)

Right after dinner, we met up with Melissa’s friends to go out. We only went to one club: Twice. We ended up just dancing with each other for the most part, because all of the guys there seemed a little creepy. As they say, “Never go back TWICE.”

Though everyone (including myself) was exhausted and in pain from the long day, we ended up following Melissa’s friends on a wild goose chase to the “secret bakery.” Apparently there is some rule that bakeries cannot sell their goods after midnight, so this one place does it under the radar behind the shop. There was a bit of a crowd gathering, which lead to a bit more noise than the residents next door could handle, so before we knew it.. a bucket of water was tossed onto our heads… It was a bit of a set back, but I still got my sugary doughnut and it hit the spot =)

Only had book arts since we would be in Florence tomorrow for art history. I was soooo anxious to get out of class and get on our train to Florence!

We made our train with plenty of time, and I slept the whole 2 hour train ride =)

We got to Florence around 5:30pm. When we got out of the station the sky and trees were FULL of birds! (The pictures don’t do the situation justice)

After that interesting welcome, we headed towards our hostel which was on the northern outskirts of the city. It didn’t look promising at first glance… the only indication of the hostel was the address and a tiny name near the buzzer that says “DANY HOUSE,” and after opening the door, the vestibule was musty and damp. BUT opening the door into the hostel made everything better =) It was clean and the owner Jonathan was so welcoming! He greeted us with wine and chips and start outlining a map with places to go.

After getting a bit settled in, we walked around basically the entire city on the way to picking up Karen and Yih from the train station. Though it was pretty late, we ended up heading down the street to a pub for some sandwiches, thanks to Jonathan’s recommendation. Yih and I split a brie and prosciutto sandwich.. sooo rich and salty… not my favorite.

Art history tomorrow!

What a LAZY day… We didn’t have class today, so I planned on being productive - didn’t happen.

Woke up at around 10… didn’t leave the house til 12:30. Melissa and I went to the school to work since we had a meeting at 2 with Kaitlin. I didn’t do much at school, tho. I basically just printed pictures for my scroll (book arts project).

Kaitlin didn’t have much to say. She talked about our immigration meeting in a few weeks, and then she addressed all of the issues involving our living situation… Basically a bunch of people from our apartment have been finding things that they don’t like and then complaining about it to their parents, causing parents to complain about it to Kaitlin and the school. Big mess… Thankfully, our apartment is livable and a little paint chipping here or tiles falling there doesn’t faze us. Thus, the third floor continues to be in the good graces Kaitlin and Lorenzo haha.

This good standing was solidified when Lorenzo came up to Melissa and me while we were printing. He started venting to us about all the trouble some of the girls caused over nothing by calling their parents and such. Apparently Kaitlin also vented to Melissa a bit about how this kind of stuff has never happened before. They are really amazing and helpful people, so it sucks that they have to deal with this =/

On the way back, finally bought a backpack… one of the only productive things I did all day. But now I have a backpack just in time for Florence! Woohoo!

Nothing special happened after I got home: did some work for Mugar… napped… made dinner… spent time on the computer. Highlight of the night was sitting in one the IEY GM =D it was so nice to see how things are going!

Well I should definitely go pack for Florence. We leave straight from class. Woohoo!

Tuesdays are always… interesting. And SO long. We have art history at 9:30 then go straight to book making with no break (thankfully our teacher is awesome and let’s us eat lunch at the beginning), and finally photography right after book arts until roughly 6pm. 

This morning was SO cool! (in both senses) There was this intense fog everywhere! Walking into San Marco was sooo bizarre looking bc you couldn’t see more than 10 feet in front of you! (photos below) Unfortunately, this cool effect made the air 10 times damper.. meaning 10 times colder.

Book arts was fun as usual =) But then… there was photography. We started out discussing the reading (that I didn’t do). The discusions she led still have very little to do with photography: “How would you structure an expriential learning environment?” “Are tools good?” “What is a medium?” (and no the answer was not oil paints or television… it was EVERYTHING! Our hands our a medium…)

After that we actually looked at our photos and found out what we were REALLY supposed to do for the “expression/description” assignment. In addition to re-doing that for homework, we received a new weekly assignment: reading/reporting about philosphy from books she chose for us. I don’t have a book yet, because she said there was a better one for me at her house.

The third section of class involved reading random excerpts from the book and discussin. These excerpts ranged from the idea of comparison and happiness to a study about the habits of pregnant rats (I read that excerpt…) This class will be…  interesting. At least I’m starting to gel with the other girls better.  I never hang out with the 3 of them (since they don’t live on my floor haha) and I didn’t have the best first impression of some of them.. But I’m starting to seem them in a new light.

The one simple pleasure about Tuesday is that I get home an hour before the rest of the apartment so I can have the dining room and kitchen (most importantly) to myself.

After everyone came back, I went for a run. It was still extremely foggy. While runnin along the southern coast, you couldn’t see the bridge across the canal until you were about to cross haha. The only rough part was the cold. That dampness really gets to you after a while. 15 minutes into my run, I thought my fingers were going to fall off because they hurt so bad from the cold! But then I remembered that my zip-up had pockets =)

That was the only productive thing I did tonight haha. Tomorrow is going to be a day devoted to homework and errands! (I hope)