Move-in!

Things I need ASAP: WARMER EVERYTHING! It is beyond freezing here in Florence, especially when the sun goes down. I’m currently sitting in our dining room (farthest away from my own room) wearing 2 layers of socks, 2 pants, 2 shirts and 1 jacket, and a hat. We found blankets, thank God, and I’m wrapped in one of those as well. This California girl was definitely not prepared for this Italian cold. Okay just one more complaint about the cold, our room happens to be about 10 degrees colder than the rest of the house. Why, you might ask? No one knows! We had an “apartment inspection” just now and the lady could not believe it was so cold in our room. My roommate, Anna, and I both compared last night to camping, in the winter, with a crappy sleeping bag, and no tent.

I’ll stop talking about the cold now, I just had to vent a little.

So my adventure continues! Kayla and I packed up our luggage in the hostel, took the not-so-scary-looking-anymore elevator down the building, and arrived onto a very crowded and fast paced street looking like complete idiots with huge suitcases and backpacks. We made the slow journey to the ACCENT center (where our classes will be held) and got many wonderful looks from the Italians around. Along the way we ran into fellow students and they helped with our bags (I’m forever thankful). We got all checked in and received envelopes with our keys and a map of how to get to our apartments. I think I have good luck with living situations. My apartment is literally a 1-minute walk from the center! Everyone else’s maps showed long treks across bridges and through confusing streets, but not mine!

Aye, I’m starting to blab too much! I need to learn to make things more concise (a constant problem I have with writing in general).

Okay so finally I arrived at my apartment and I was blown away!! I was picturing some really small, crappy apartment that had very little space but instead I got the opposite. We have two huge shared living spaces (sort of like a dining room and a living room but bigger and with tables and couches in them), a huge kitchen, 2 but sort of 3 bathrooms, and 3 bedrooms total. It is so charming and soooo Italian, and I couldn’t love it more!

I live with four other girls, and everyone is so nice! I first met roommates Christine and Vicky and we all went out and grabbed a panini and a beer (I can legally drink here, by the way, so no one can get mad J ). The Panini was delicious, the beer was not.

Side note about Italian men: they love women. And they love for women to know they love them.

We explored around our part of town some more, and it was of course amazing. Finally we trudged up our 10+ flights of stairs (Santa Cruz hills are nothing compared to these stairs) and then I unpacked and met our other housemates, and my roommate, who had arrived! My roommate, Anna, is so sweet! I think we will get along great.

After a little down time we met up with some other girls, Sam and Robin, and then waited at the center for 15 minutes for more people to show up (no one has phones yet so we kind of just have to hope everyone gets the memo) but no one did, and it was freezing, and our tummies were rumbling and eager for REAL Italian pasta. We then fast-walked (I’ll be doing a lot of that here because it’s so freezing) to the restaurant and had a wonderful time!! (Free wine for students…)

After a wonderful evening of laughs and getting to know each other, I was tired and ready for sleep. Unfortunately, I could not sleep. I don’t know if it was the jet lag or one to many glasses of wine (that I surprisingly loved and used to think I hated) or maybe the arctic-like conditions, but it became impossible and then the mind games started working their magic.

Side note: The heaters just turned on!!!! They take forever to warm a room, but it gives me hope!

So back to not sleeping. Long story short, I didn’t get to sleep until 5am my time and then had to wake up at 9am. I will be a walking zombie today but that’s just part of the adventure!

I am trying to blog as much as possible while I have some down time, but soon classes will start and things will get hectic. I will try my best, though! Thanks for reading!

Ciao! Prego! Grazie! Presto! Dopo! Etc. etc. etc.

(pictures to come later)