I don't think blogging could be my profession...

Hello again!
I know I am terrible at updating this. Half the time I find I have a hard time trying to think of things to write about and the other half I want to give myself more time to write about what I have experienced. Either way, I'm way past due for an entry and I have enough things to write about now, so it seems like a good time.

This past Tuesday (28th) I got back from a 5 night 6 day trip to London, England! What an experience that was! London was exactly what I thought it would be and more. It reminded me of home so much, but at the same time had a very different cultural vibe to it. It was amazing! Here is a recap of my trip:

Thursday: We (Amy, John, and I) leave Florence and take a train to Pisa. Our flight left at 10:10am, so we were up very early in order to give us enough travel time. This was my 2nd time on a plane and we flew through Ryan Air. (I recommend Ryan Air to any student traveling in Europe! It is cheap and not at all sketchy like I thought it would be!) We arrived in London and then had to do some major time on public transportation. We took a train from Stanstead into the city and then bought an Oyster Card and a 7 day tube pass (24 pounds) --> transportation in London is expensive, as is everything else! We took the tube to Kensington where our friend Justin from SNC is staying. His apartment is right across from Hyde Park (where Princess Diana lived) so the first thing we did was explore Hyde and St. James Park. This was the best thing for me! I was craving a bit of the Midwest Fall atmosphere. Between the trees, falling leaves, and crisp autumn weather, these parks really made me feel at home! They were gorgeous too! Then, before dinner, Amy, Justin, his roommate Tom, and I went to a wine tasting at Whole Foods. After Justin made us dinner and then took us around London to see the sights at night. We saw Westminster, Parliment, Big Ben, The London Eye, and much more. It was so beautiful! After all that, Amy and I happily climbed into our shared twin bed at Justin's place! (What can I say, we tried to travel cheap!)

Friday: Friday our friend Billy from SNC (and John's roommate in Rome) met us in London. Justin took us around London yet again. We saw all of the sights mentioned above in the day time, plus the Buckingham Palace, and the house of the horse guards! Then we went to see the London and Tower Bridge. We did some more exploring that day and then headed back to take a break. Before dinner, we headed down High St. Kensington to do some shopping. When we got back Justin had made us a wonderful dinner and then we headed out to a pub for a night out on the town! Fun times!

Saturday: Saturday we headed to Camden Market! This was by far the BEST experience I had in London! This market was full of everything you could think of! Food from all around the world, clothes from alll over and in every style imaginable, jewelry, bags, etc. It was giant! We found some very cool vintage stores in there which we spent a great deal of time at! :) We spent most of the day here and then traveled back to Kensington to get our things together. On Saturday for dinner we met up with Magda (a friend/coworker from SNC who is know going to grad school in London) and Michael (SNC studying in London), Michael (SNC studying in Valencia, Spain), and Katie (a friend of Michael's who gave us housing in London!) for dinner! We ate a small pub and had, you guessed it, fish and chips! :) Very fitting, I know! It was a great dinner and so nice to catch up with Magda and the others! After we went back to Justin's placed, said our goodbyes to his roommates, and took our stuff to our new home in New Cross. Once we got there we talked with Katie and the Michaels for awhile and then headed to bed.

Sunday: John left us today to get back to Rome for school. Amy, Billy, and I went into the city by ourselves on Sunday and saw Picadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square, and other London City things. Amy and I set out towards the Globe Theatre then and, although we did not go in to see it because it cost 11 pounds, we explored that part of London. Then the three of us met up and ate a very American dinner at Pizza Hut (What? We had to take the opportunity!).

Monday: Today Billy, Amy and I headed into the city to do some shopping, something that we hadn't really experienced yet and some of us wanted to see if there was anything cheap enough to get for Christmas presents! On the way, we spotted a cheap hair salon and decided to take the opportunity to get our hair cut! I know! Ridiculous! But a hair cut (even just a trim) in Florence/Rome costs about 45 euro! After, I met up with an old friend from high school, Rob, who is currently studying at Oxford University! (It's not a big deal that he hangs out with Emma Watson (Hermoine) on the weekends, right?) We all went to dinner at Wagamama, a very popular restaurant in London. Then we went and saw The Phantom of the Opera at Her Majesty's Theatre!!!!!!!! It was fantastic! What a good night!

Tuesday: We had high hopes for the few things we wanted to smash in before we had to catch our flights and, unfortunately, only got to do 1 of the 3 things we wanted. We were hoping to explore the Tate Modern Art Museum (which is one of the things I regret not doing...), go to Kingscross where they have the cart stuck in the wall as a tribute to Harry Potter, and go to Abbey Road. We headed to Abbey Road first (obviously the most important!!) and had a great deal of trouble finding it! It seemed like everyone we asked for directions never gave us the same directions as the last person! Finally, we found it. We took some great shots of us crossing the crosswalk and then signed the walls waiting there. By that time, we knew that if we didn't start heading back we would be cutting it extremely close with our planes, so we got our things and traveled to Stanstead and got on our planes.

Our trip was overall very successful and taking into account how ridiculously expensive London is - very cheap! (Although we did sleep on a concrete floor for 3 nights which we made a bit more comfortable by folding our clothes to make some sort of bedspread to lay on and shared a twin bed the other 2!) At the end I was so happy to get back to Florence out of the cold and rainy weather and back into my warm and comfortable bed! For the rest of the break I will be resting, catching up on homework, and then playing host to some Londonites visiting Italy! :)

I am now officially less than 2 months away till I leave here. I don't know how it has gone by this fast and slow at the same time. Half of me wishes time would speed by even faster than it is so I can be back in DePere with my family and friends and the other half of me hopes this time crawls by. I can tell already that this experience will be one of the best I will ever have in my life. The things I have already learned from being away from home, on my own, in a different country with a different culture shocks me. So many things here will make me miss Italy so much when I finally have to leave - especially my roommates. Throughout my whole college experience, I have been blessed with some of the most amazing roommates ever! I have been given friends who go far and beyond what a friend typically is and make me so happy to have met them. These girls that I live with in Italy can only add to that list. I am so happy I chose to study abroad. As much as my homesickness gets the best of me and there are people I love so much back in DePere who I just want to be with, I do not regret coming.
Ciao for now!

Definitely Due for Another Post...

Hello all!
I am trying to be more prompt with my posts - and I figure I have enough events to write about that this post won't be weak - so here we go.

This past weekend Jenn, Autumn, and Amy (another girl from SNC who is studying abroad in Toledo, SPain) came and visited Florence. After me and Amy (my roommate) and I met them at the airport and cried like babies when we saw them, we brought them back to our apartment. Their plane got in at 7pm - so on Friday there really wasn't much we could do/show them for the touristy things. Our plan from the beginning was that on Friday we would go out dancing. At SNC, Amy, Jenn and I are in LOVE with dancing and any time a dance happens on campus we really try to go and since Jenn and Autumn really hadn't been dancing in Spain yet, we thought it would be fun to take them out here :) We went to our normal dance club, Twice, but it wasn't as fun as it was the night before. (The night before was Amy's birthday -- we took her to Twice where the owner gave her a VIP table and a huge bottle of champagne!) So needless to say we didn't stay at Twice long. We got back to our apartment and went to bed - everyone was quite exhausted.
Saturday we did some touristy things with our Spaniards. We took them to the Germanfest behind us were they got to eat some "normal" food - brats, fries, chocolate, pretzels, etc. They loved it there! Then we took them to Piazza Vecchio is to see the fake David. They really wanted to go to the Academia to see the real thing - but its 20 euro to get in and it would probably take up a good 2 hours of their day. Since they were leaving bright and early Sunday morning, they wanted to spend as much time as they could with us! How sweet! :) So then we just kinda walked around and showed them Florence. That night our friends from Rome (Billy, Jake, and John) came to visit and persuaded us to go out and dance with them again! 3 nights in a row for me - OUCH! But it was quite fun and the girls from Spain had a good time. When they got back they decided it was best to not go to bed cause the taxi was coming at 5 in the morning anyway. So we stayed up and caught up with them while they waited.
Sunday was catch up day - a lot of homework I neglected the rest of the weekend to do more entertaining things! My fault for procrastinating. Whoops.
This week I had a lot of homework/test due. On Monday I had a rough draft of my mid-term for creative writing due, Tuesday I had my first History of the Mafia test (OUCH), and a bible study to turn in for Women and Religion. Tuesday night I could not fall asleep till very late and ended up sleeping through my classes. I am surprised that my sleep schedule hasn't conformed yet - but in some ways I still feel like I am on the same time as Wisconsin haha.

There are a few things I have been quite disappointed with in Italy. One of them has been the fact that the sizes here in stores are extremely small. Most stores only carry XS-L and the Large will fit someone who normally wears a medium. It's been tough because there were a few things a purposely left at home assuming I would be able to pick them up here. So my parents are sending me those. GOOD NEWS though, yesterday I found a department store (something along the lines of target/old navy) that carries a wide range of sizes! :) WOOT WOOT! I was so happy! I honestly feel more comfortable here because I know I have a place to go if I need anything! Thank goodness.
Last night all of the girls in our apartment cooked our first Mexican meal in ITaly. We had fajitas and chips and salsa. It was amazing! And definitely what we need after eating SO much pasta. :) Then, our neighbors (who we didn't know we had) invited us over for a party they were having. We were so excited! Italian people want to be our friends! YES! So we go over there and there are tons of people in this apartment. We meet some of them and realize that these people are all study abroaders as well, but from a different international school. The people in this room were from Switzerland, Germany, Mexico, The Netherlands, America, and many more countries! Although we were disappointed that they weren't Italians - this was so much cooler! :) We hung out for awhile - it was a bit awkward cause we didn't know anyone there - but we ended up going to a club with them called Full Up. It was nice and we met some very cool new friends that I am so excited to hang out with! :) YES!
This weekend seems to be one of relaxation and homework. Mid-terms are not this week but the next and I have papers, test, and presentations I need to start on. So I am going to get a head start on these instead of my normal routine of procrastinating :)!
I will post again soon! :)
MISS YOU ALL!

This one is for Nicole...

Listen Nicole, I don't update that much because I feel like people don't want to know my daily schedule. But I will give you a taste of my ordinary daily life in Florence because you love me so much and I love you too :)

So, in 2 days I will officially have been here for one month. Unbelievable. It honestly feels like yesterday that I arrived here and debated hopping the next plane home! :) Ha ha ha. But, I am so very glad that I stayed here - this place is wonderful and my roommates are great. (SIDENOTE: Nicole - they will never replace your crazy butt - not a day goes by that I don't wish you were here to scream and laugh uncontrollably in serious situations! )

This past weekend was a little lame - I caught a very terrible cough and because of that decided it would be best that I stay in all weekend. On Thursday night though, my roommate Sara's family was friends with a real Italian family! Haha- that's exciting for us! We went out on Thursday night and met Richard, the family's youngest son, who took us around Florence a bit and then dancing. It was wonderful and I enjoyed every bit of it - except for waking up with a barking cough. I could have done without. So, the rest of the weekend, I stayed in, did homework, watched movies, and had some alone time. It was very much needed and very relaxing.

These next two weeks will be a bit hectic - I'm kind of dreading them. Mid-terms are coming up soon and I have a lot of papers/tests to study for. What are mid-terms again? I forget - why can't I just reflect? (Jenn- I bet you miss reflecting as much as I do!) Thursday is Amy's 21st birthday! WOOHOO! For all of you who know Amy and me both you won't automatically assume the outrageousness that normally comes with 21st. Neither of us could handle anything remotely that uncontrollable. It will be a good night though - dinner and dancing - Amy's ideal birthday for sure! :)

AND THE BEST PART! JENN AND AUTUMN! WOOT WOOT Two of mine and Amy's very best friends from St. Norbert who are studying in Toledo, Spain are coming to spend the weekend in Italy for Amy's birthday. I am soooo excited for this. I miss them so much. This will be a good weekend for sure! (And not good because I will not get anything even remotely productive done - the price to pay to see people you care about!)

From here on out, my schedule looks very full. On weekends we are either hosting visitors in our place or are doing traveling ourselves. Which means, I will have to remove myself from my favorite position as procrastinator. Nuts.

Also more exciting news!: My dad and Betsy are visiting the last week in November! We can all give a little shout together because we are all just as excited as I am! :)

My trip plans are constantly changing based on finacial status and feedback from other people on certain destinations. Our for sure trips include: London, Barcelona, Rome (again), and hopefully Paris/Greece. Every other place will have to wait for me to grace it with my presence ;)! Haha.

Me and Amy found the CHEAPEST market today. Most exciting thing ever! We got green/red peppers (4), carrots(4 massive ones), green beans(tons), tomatos(5), potatoes(10), celery(1 bunch), clementines(10), and peaches(4) all for less than 10 euro. YOU TRY AND BEAT THAT! :)
I'm becoming a Florentine. :)
Buenosera my readers!
I miss you all!

We are not on the map.

So, it's about time that I update my blog, huh? Sorry I am not as prompt as my other St. Norbert pals on this blog thing!

I took my first trip this past weekend to Rome! It was quite an adventure. Looking back on it now, it's probably the most comical trip I have ever taken, but at certain parts when I was there, I found nothing funny about it.
So, my two roommates, Amy and Faith, and I left early Friday morning from the Florence train station for Rome. Our train ride was about 4 hours long. (We looked for the cheapest ticket so we got the longest trip!) When we got to Rome, we got off the train and looked for the closest ticket booth so we could by our tickets back before the weekend started. As we were looking around though we realized something pretty important: we had gotten off at the wrong train station! There are two different Rome stations and we were supposed to get off at the second one! WHOOPS! So, we bought metro tickets and took the subway to the other train station. Once we were there we set out to find bus # 70 that would take us to Piazzale Clodio where our hostel was located. Well, that was not that easy. It was pouring rain and freezing out on Friday and we were running around out in the rain trying to find a bus stop marked # 70. After asking about 10 different people and running around for an hour, we finally found the bus. Thank goodness! We boarded the bus and it took us to Piazzale Clodio. Now we just had to find our hostel! That took a little bit, but soon we found it and got all checked in. Then, we called our friend Billy from St. Norbert who is studying abroad in Rome and started on the journey of finding his apartment. That took awhile - it seemed like he was leading us on a scavenger hunt. ("Ok, call me when you get here. " "Ok, now go here and call me" "Ok, glad you are here, now find this place and call me") Ridiculous. BUT we found it and, completely drenched, went inside to warm up. We had dinner and sat around and hung out for awhile. They boys wanted to go out, but Amy, Faith, and I were unbelievably tired from our escapades so we decided to find a train that would take us back to Piazzale Clodio. This was quarter to 10 at night.
We found a bus that said it was going to our Piazza. So we hoped on, thankful for not having to wait in the cold anymore. Within 45 minutes we started getting worried that we were never going to make it back, not to mention that our driver drove like the bus driver from Harry Potter's night bus! The next thing that happens made us relate to Jenn so much. The bus driver parks the bus at a bus stop that is most definitely not Piazzale Clodio and we are the only people left!! I went and asked the bus driver if this bus goes to Piazzale Clodio but he spoke no English and I speak no Italian - we were a match made in heaven, if you asked me! He was pretty impatient, but at 11:30 at night, I kept on asking. Finally, he understood what I was getting at and told me in hand gestures and broken italian/english that this bus was going to go there! THANK GOD! BUT for the next 20 minutes we sat and waited for the bus driver to finish his cigarette and chat with his pal and then we left. Needless to say, when we got back to the hostel we fell right asleep.
My first impressions of Rome that day were terrible. I was so damn thankful for having chose Florence to study in. Rome (where our hostel was and in the non-touristy parts of the city) was terribly dirty and it was a lot bigger than we expected. Not small and walkable like Florence. During our transportation adventures of that day, Amy, Faith, and I's conversation revolved around how great Florence was and a million ways to pay back Billy for not giving us good directions! haha. Fun.
BUT - the next day was amazing!! We woke up early and left the hostel by 9:30 to start a day full of sight seeing. We first went to St. Peter's Basilica which was gorgeous! We saw the Vatican and the many different shops and sights around there, but did not pay for entrance to the Vatican (4o euro!) because Amy and I have a school trip there at the end of November with that included. After that, we went to the Colloseum and got greeted by some "Gladiators" who were invasive and perverted but made us laugh! We paid 9 euro to get a ticket to the Colloseum, the Roman Forum, and the ruins across the street which was well worth the money. We went to the ruins first which were gorgeous! We spent two hours there because of how beautiful it was! Then we headed over to the Colloseum, which was...the Colloseum. Haha. It's exactly what you picture it to be on the inside and because we didn't have a tour, it was a bit disappointing. BUT the next time I'm there for the class trip I know I will apprecaite it more because I will be learning more about it during the tour instead of just staring at rock. After that, we headed to the Trevi fountain, took a few pictures, tossed a few coins, and then got some well deserved gelato! It was delicious. We went out for our first REAL italian meal that night and then headed back to the hostel for a nap before meeting up with Billy again. We got to Billy's place around 9:30 played some games, hung out, and then headed out in search of a dance club at midnight. The one Billy and his roommates had in mind was not exactly what we wanted. So we left and hung out on the for awhile and left at 2am. The next morning we woke up early and got to the train station by 8. We were back in Florence by 1:30.
Overall, it was an eventful weekend. Rome isn't as terrible as we thought it was - I actually loved it more than anything on Saturday, but I am still glad I am in Florence because of how small it is.
By the end of the weekend, we had mastered every form of transportation possible, with every kind of problem along the way to account for our experience. It was a great weekend though! :)
This week and the next will be very hectic with all of my homework (classes are harder than I expected them to be...sad - very sad), but everything is going so very well.
I still am homesick here and there, and there are times when I just want to be back in DePere at my house and St. Norbert with the people I love, but my roommates are amazing and so is this city! It's a great experience and I am so happy I chose to take advantage of it. (Still, though, visitors are welcome HINT HINT FAMILY!) Ok. I'm done. This has gone on too long. Haha.
Ciao bellas!

The Night Life

Hello again! I am beginning to feel like a very poor blogger since my co study abroaders seem to be more prompt at updating theres - so, here's one for the kid in the back. (Ha ha)

This weekend I finally got to enjoy the night life in Firenze and, needless to say, I know I am going to enjoy going out here! :) Thursday night was our official first night out. All of my wonderful roommates and I went out for appertivo which is where you go to a bar and order a drink and then get free appetizers with the drink. We went to a classy little bar called Noir thats a little bit past the Ponte Vecchio. It was unbelievably cool in there and we had a great time. Then most of the girls decided we wanted to go dancing. Just around the corner from us is a club called Twice which I'm pretty much in love with now. I will tell you why: There is no cover charge!!! Which is amazing in itself, but also they have a huge dance floor with a DJ that plays a large assortment of music which includes rap, hip hop, and pop. Wonderful for dancing. PLUS you don't have to buy any drinks to stay there (which is good because the average drink costs 8 euro!) Anyway, it was definitely a good time and I am so excited that we found that place!

My friend Billy from St. Norbert and two of his roommates who are studying in Rome this semester came to visit for the weekend. We were all set to play tour guide for these boys, but it has been raining all weekend. So Friday, they wanted to go out and experience the night life as well. So we traveled past the Duomo to a little bar called the Fish Pub, but it wasn't what we were looking for, so we ended up going to our trusty favorite dance place Twice :) haha. Which was a million times more fun than the first night we were there too! Downside, stepped on a piece of glass and my foot bled for 20 minutes...ouch! Luckily Amy's the most amazing person in the world and assumed the roll of doctor for me! We got back pretty late..well early I guess that night but hoped on waking up early and giving the boys a tour of Firenze the next day.
So we woke up and it was pouring again, so they came over and hung out at the apartment all day with my roommates. It was tons of fun! Then we made a huge spaghetti dinner for everyone and since the boys wanted to go out again, we went to. Now, listen. This is not normal for either me or Amy - we were unbelievably tired and weren't exactly stoked to go out again. But we got ready and went and luckily, some unexpected turn of events happened and we came home early! YES! :) Amy and I watched a movie then and I talked with some of my favorite people from back home and went to bed.
Today has been cold, rainy, and very lazy for us. I did homework the whole day and just rested. It was a great Sunday if you ask me! :)

Now - for my feelings about being here away from home (We all love this part - I know):

I am doing good - I haven't cried in like 5 days! You can all be excited for me- I will let you! My apartment is feeling more comfortable to me and my roommates make me super happy so it's easy to have fun here. I still, of course, miss home and hound my family and a certain someone that visiting me is still the best idea in the whole world :)

OK, more homework for me now. I'm still working on the picture posting on here, but it seems to hate me for some reason. Ouch.
Buono sera!

First Week of Classes - complete!

I have just finished my first week of classes! Woohoo! Overall, I'm excited for the content of each class, but a few of them sound a bit more intense than I expected. On Mondays I have my Basic Italian course, which I love. It's wonderful to be able to start learning and speaking the language. Soon I will be able to go to markets and cafes and talk without any English! :) YES! I also have Creative Writing. I am a bit intimidated by this course, actually. The professor loves to discuss and hear our thoughts, which is great, but he also wants us to read all of our work out loud! Since I am one of the only non-English majors in the class and most of my "writing" I do is journaling, this makes me a little nervous. I will hopefully be ok though. On the positive side- we are reading to novels in the class as well which I am soooooo excited for! On Tuesdays I have Women and Religion which I wanted to take because I heard wonderful things about and because I took Women and Literature at St. Norbert and fell in love! But this class is a bit out of my element considering I haven't opened the Bible in forever :/ Then me and Amy have History of the Mafia which, despite the professors thick Italian accent, I am kinda excited for. The first day was a bit intense and very straightforward, but it seems like it will be very interesting. Today, my final day of classes, I had Basic Italian again and then Environment Conservation which can be summed up in one word: boring. It's complete lecture based and two and a half hours long plus the professor isn't the most exciting person in the whole world. Hopefully, it gets better.

So, those are my classes - some are wonderful others not so much, but thats normally how it is, isn't it? Other than that, Amy and I have been cooking a lot, which is helping us save lots of money! Woohoo. But there is this little pizza place right outside our apartment called Mi Amore Pizza and it is very delicious. For 2 and a half euro a slice, it's been one of the cheapest meals we have found!

Now for the weekend - Tomorrow Amy and I hopefully will travel over the Ponte Vecchio to the other side of Florence to see some greenery (It's not very nature filled on this side of the bridge) and the vineyards. We also have to do some research for some up and coming traveling plans to Rome/London which are getting quite jumbled up lately. Then, one of the nights, we hope to experience our first nightly outing in Florence - we are in the mood for some dancing for sure. (If only my sisters could be here for this one!) And of course, somewhere during the weekend, we will sit down like good students and get all of our homework done. :) How great.

Things are getting a lot more comfortable now - I love my roommates, I truly lucked out with these girls - they are exactly the type of crazy fun loving girls that you need to try and kick homesickness in the behind. Although - I've been missing St. Norbert life and the beautiful girls and boys I am so lucky to call friends there. It's hard to be without people you love to be around.

So, other than the normal boughts of homesickness and wishing I was with a certain someone, Florence is becoming home to me too! I am settling, for sure.

Ok, A Good Post Now

So, after being scolded by my family for my "weak" blog posts, I will now write one that counts!
I have been a Florentine for almost a full week now and it still amazes me to walk outside and realize that I may be in the most beautiful city in the world. It truely is a beautiful place - even the graffiti on the buildings brings out the life and energy of Firenze. It's been hot hot hot outside lately; no days falling below 90 degrees. Try that out Wisconsinites! But because of the heat, it's been hard to motivate our air conditioned butts to go outside - but we have been, no worries! We took a walking tour of florence yesterday that lasted for 3 and a half hours mid-day and I will be posting some pictures from that as soon as I can get time. Today we decided to take a very long stroll following the Arno river to a park where we could read and relax - little did we know that there would be absolutely no thriving grass at this park! Haha - but it was a nice walk anyway.

That is something my roommates and I have definitely been doing a lot of. Since we are all trying to save money, we walk everywhere, so my feet really hate me lately since I don't where proper shoes. Mom would be saying "I told you so!!" right about now. :) Amy and I have also started to cook our own meals - today is the first day that we made all our meals at our apartment! WOOHOO! Our dinner was delicioso! We made stuffed green and yellow peppers - it was by far the best meal I have had here, including the ones we have eaten out! (Possible restaurant opening soon? Ha.) Another first for me was eating the beautiful gelato! Yesterday I tried gelato for the first time and fell in love. Everyone will tell you that when you eat it you can't stop and no one believes them until you have it. - Trust me, these people aren't lying.

Yesterday I also had another huge "first" for me - it was the first day I got through without crying. Yes, I am homesick. I am in the most beautiful city in the world and most days want to get on the next flight to De Pere, Wisconsin. (You can hate me). It has definitely been one tough week for me. BUT I did buy wireless internet for my apartment so I will be able to skype and communicate with my family and others cheaply. It has been really good for me too. I'm not spending all my time on it, but when I need to I can make my homesickness go away by seeing and talking to my family and friends. Best investment so far. I am beginning to feel more settled and comfortable in my apartment and with my roommates though and it's been amazing to have Amy here with me. (Poor her, she has to put up with my sad spells :) What a friend!)

Well, tomorrow is my first day of school and I believe it will help me feel even better in Firenze. I am unbelievably excited for this semester and my classes so I will definitely keep everyone updated on those. For now though, I'm going to do some catching up, and preparing for the first day and then go to bed. I will keep everyone updated on new and interesting things about my trip! Pictures of Firenze and my apartment will follow soon!

Ciao!


Tentative first trip: Venice, Italy - 2 weeks.