I am officially finished with my first week of class in Florence! Everything has gone very smoothly and I am surprisingly loving all of my classes and am excited every morning I wake up. Well, correction, I am excited for class and seeing people, but I am not excited about the fact that my nose is frozen and I can barely feel my face. If my foot happens to be sticking out of the covers, all hell will break lose.
I actually have an update on the cold room. I have officially packed up my stuff and lugged my mattress into our "living/extra" room next door. I can't even begin to explain how much warmer I was last night. It was a little slice of Heaven, I tell ya. My roommate Anna and I now use our old, dungeon of a room as a rather large walk in closet. We open the door, sprint in, grab the outfits we have already planned out in our heads, sprint back out, close the door to seal the cold air in, and sigh with relief. Thank you room, for being on a corner, and having no protection to keep the heat in. Too bad I won't be here during summer when our room will probably become a refuge.
In my Renaissance History class we are reading Dante's "Inferno", a book I had never given much thought to. My class is full of history majors and literature majors and people who really know their background for this course, so I feel a tiny bit behind. But I am enjoying reading this book and learning from my professor SO MUCH. It's honestly taking me be surprise. A funny thing happened the other day in class when our professor was reading some of "Inferno" aloud. If you know me, you know I absolutely despise participating in class but in this class of only 10 people, I was bound to be called on sooner or later. So my professor pauses in the book when Dante is standing at the gates of Hell. There is a plaque over the gates that warns about Hell and horrible things, so she of course wants a student to read the inscription in their most dangerous, loud, and scary voice. Who does she pick? Little sweet and innocent Michelle, of course. I took a deep breathe and spoke as loudly as I could. At the end of the much-too-long passage I was red in the face, could barely look up, and my professor responded with, "Well that sounded a little more like we were entering Heaven, but good try"! Ahhh so embarassing for me, but at least the class got a kick out of it. I just can't do a mean voice on command.
I have my language class every morning until 12:30pm and a routine is really starting to form. I know have good groceries (we finally found an actual grocery store and I went a little crazy), so I usually come home for lunch and have a couple hours to just relax. Many people go out almost every night and come to class looking horrible the next day. I have decided to opt out of late nights on the nights before class, and I'll save the fun for the weekend instead. I did have my first pub experience and it was a lot more fun than I thought! It's pretty much just a place to hang out and actually talk with people. Luckily people don't go too crazy and the vibe is always calm and friendly. I've gone only once with my new group of friends and I wish so badly I lived closer to them all!!
Exciting news: I am going to Paris the first weekend of February!! Our little group of 7 all booked our flights with Ryanair and will be leaving Thursday after our class! The flight was extremely cheap (60 euros round trip to be exact) and I used a very valuable connection to get us a FREE place to stay all 3 nights! Nannying for billionaire's who own hotels as their hobby really pays off :)
Today after class, Anna and I took a trip to the Boboli Gardens which are literally a 2 minute walk from our apartment. They were INCREDIBLE! Pictures are on facebook if you want to see the beauty of it. I was in awe as we passed through random passageways and tunnels of trees and ornate fountains and 30 foot statues and spectacular views of both the city of Florence and the countryside of Florence. I will be going there a lot since it is FREE for me.
Well I've got to get to bed early because we are leaving no a group trip tomorrow morning at 8am!! Luca and Pisa here I come!
Arrivaderci!
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