Bidets, Tiny Cars, and Delivery Pizza

Well, after much persuasion from my roommate, who is within 10 feet of me 90% of the time, I have finally decided to start blogging. I guess it's to educate those of you who are interested in my experience in another world...well country.

To start off, I suppose I should inform you that I am Florence, Italy for a semester of school. Hopefully if you're reading this you already know...! I got here September 1st and will be returning back to good ole' Iowa on December 21st, just in time for all of you to give me Christmas presents. I'm not going to go into every detail of the past nearly two weeks. You will have to create your own version of what it's like entering a country where the only things you know in there language is "hello", "good-bye", and "do you speak English". However; I have managed to get by, and have already started to learn more words and phrases.

I was able to move into my apartment as soon as I got into Florence. I live with 3 other students from Iowa State. Kind of feels like Ames in the middle of Italy. Actually it doesn't at all since I knew none of them prior to coming here.

Here are some pictures of the place.

The living room, we made the boys wearing only there underwear get off of the way to take a picture.

This is our bidet. We use it to wash our feet. So if you ever stop by, please don't stick your butt in our bidet.

The first week was pretty stressful. Adjusting to a new country was more difficult than I anticipated. Once again, I won't get into the details, but I will run by the highlites.
-Walked to the closest thing to Hy-Vee (there are only two of these stores in Florence, and they are nothing like a Hy-Vee). Stocked up on all basic items to fill an empty kitchen. We discovered we had way too much stuff to make the mile walk back to our apartment, so we decided it would be the perfect time to figure out the bus system. We waited nearly fifteen minutes for the bus to arrive. The bus gets there, we gather up our bags and bags of groceries. Two different groups of people get on, but as we head to the steps of the bus the door is slammed in our faces and the bus takes off. Don't worry we made it home.
-After walking two miles in 90 degree weather, we finally made it to the cell phone store only to find that they had just closed for siesta. Siesta is two hours long. Oh how I love the laid back Italians.
-It would be my luck to get tonsilitis within the first week of being in Italy. Third time this year! While everyone was celebrating the last weekend of summer, I was laying in bed with a 101 degree temperature.

Classes started on Tuesday. I'm taking Italian, Industrial Knitwear, Jewerly-making, Batiking, and Art History. I know it kind of sounds like I'm taking a semester off to go to summer camp. Each class meets for three hours once a week, except for Spanish...I mean Italian (cough McKenzie). We have Italian two hours a day for four days a week. Thats going to be the most intense class. I've already learned some stuff. I can now ask people who speak Italian where they're from (note these people are usually from Italy). Its pretty convenient.

This is my school. There is one door, and three floors. Definitely different than I'm used to but I've liked it so far.

A view from one of classrooms. Its a little different from looking out a window in LeBaron.

This is the Pitti Palace. Its right across the street from our school. Once the Palace of the Pitti family and then the Medici family, now it is a museum, gallery, and garden for tourists.

Also across from our school is a lovely fruit market where this man sells coconuts to passer-byers. McKenzie was kind of diggin' him, so she hopped in to get a picture with him.

A very normal size for a car around here...this is my color choice.

Apparently the steps of the Duomo is the place to hang out at night. We've met many interesting characters here. All the boys are in love with American girls. I had one boy sing to me in Italian and had no idea what the words meant. Later someone told me that the song meant he would never love anyone like he loves me...I don't think he even knew my name.

Maryn posing with the pizza once it finally arrived. Pizza delivery is not quite as quick as it is in the States. It took an hour and a half for them to deliver our pizza!

Well that is all for now! My goal is to keep this updated every couple of days, but my track record for keeping a journal is pretty poor. Love, love, love you all!!