First Day of Classes

Well, I guess my semester had to start at some point. January 31st until May 12th sounds like a pretty good deal to me though. Today I only had Italian class, a much needed class at this point. I've been butchering the language like its my job. My professor is Mariangela, this precious little woman who gets way too enthusiastic. She'll definitley be able to keep me awake during class though, so that's a good thing. My homework for that class is a simple two sided work sheet that any four year old here could easily finish within a minute. I however have been working on it for 20 and I'm almost done with it. Yikes.
Knowing a little bit of Spanish actually makes it harder to learn Italian, in case you were curious.

Other fun events of the day I decided I want to share:
I pass this one vendor on a daily basis and he always sings to me as I walk by. The four songs he has sung to me? "I kissed a girl and I liked it", "Sexy and I Know It", "I love you, I love you, I love youuuuu", and his own little song that went something like this: "it's snowing! it's snowing! so drink wine and have sex because it's snowing!" ..... this man must listen to quite a lovely radio station. He sells umbrellas and hats for anyone who was wondering.

Italians also like to walk past me and tell me "I love America" ... cool bro. I don't care. Don't talk to me.
Fun Fact: Apparently here if you make eye contact and smile at someone while walking past them (like most people do in America) it's basically a come hither type of look. So I stare at my feet now...

Also! (My mother will love this) I decided that while I'm in Italy I'm going to go by Breanna rather than Bre. I just LOVE the way Breanna sounds in an Italian accent. Much cooler than Bre does. Plus they know food way too well, I feel like Brie cheese would be an issue here...

And to add something my dad will really like, it has been over a week since I have sent a text. I am miraculously not going through with drawl. I have a phone here, but I only use it to call my land lord Martha (not a very helpful woman by the way. Very nice though.) and I've only called her once... It's kinda pointless for me to have a phone actually.

Last three things:
1. It hasn't snowed in years in Florence, and it is supposed to snow today and tomorrow! What is this?? I didn't think it was possible for the Chicago weather to follow me here. I dislike snow very much. Rawr.
2. For all the Gams reading this: Julie either followed me or has Italian relatives. Either way, she needs to quit it.
3. This song plays constantly here! The only TV shows in English here are music videos or Jersey Shore (figures) so while watching English music videos this song comes on in between them. It's also on all their radios. I think this is their version of Eminem... sad sad Italia. But if you wanted to listen to Italian culture, or want a laugh, I decided to include this song. And just know, it sadly gets stuck in my head. No idea what he says in it either. When it's stuck in my head, I just make random sounds that I think pass for Italian... Click here for the song

Tourist to the Max

So for the past three days I decided to become the biggest tourist in Florence because let's be real, even if I try to blend in in Italy, no one will ever think, "oh look at that blonde girl. She's totally Italian and lives here!" So my new philosophy has been go big or go home doing the dorkiest tourist things possible. I've taken pictures at the Duomo, lite candles inside of it, gone to the Pointe Vecchio multiple times still awed by the beautiful jewelry, bought and took pictures with some gelato, posed in front of the Santa Croce, seen the fake David at the Piazza della Signoria, and ventured everywhere in between. It's been a ton of walking and my feet are killing me. Today alone Kendall and I decided to "get lost" in Florence. We wandered around the city for roughly 3 hours without stopping. I couldn't even tell you where we ended up but we always know how to find our way home once we reach the river. At the Piazza della Signoria we saw this little boy walking with his dog, which wouldn't be too unusual if he A. was with parents and B. wasn't dressed as a panda! It was adorable! I had to take a picture of him. However, I realized it could have been a way pick-pocketers distract tourists such as myself so, don't worry Mom, I made sure my purse was in front of me with my hand on it and it has the lock around the zippers so it's hard to open. I'm a smart cookie :)

After that we came home to cook, yes... cook (I apparently cook now), lunch and then set out again to find potential shops to buy from.. Everything in Florence is on sale right now and they offer study abroad students even more discounts! This one leather shop got my hopes up because they had beautiful Italian leather jackets for 75% off. But when the original price is 750 Euro the discount doesn't really do me much good. It was nice to dream though. Then I went to figure out which buildings my classes were in, walked home, and now it is only 4:30 PM here, or 16:30 as the Italian clocks would say, it's been a crazy long day already.

I was hoping to add pictures into this entry but my internet still hasn't been fixed so my computer can't handle that right now. They say it will be done by Tuesday, but we'll see if that happens. For now, you are all (and by all I mean the three people that probably read this blog) just stuck with reading text. Sono spiacente.

And so it begins

Finally got my internet set up! Thank God!! I was feeling so disconnected from the world. No internet and no phone when you're in a foreign country is terrifying. But I managed to get through it, somehow. I still have crazy jet lag that has me awake at 3 AM here but hopefully that will go away soon!

So given that I never really traveled much before and just a few days ago I managed to go to 4 countries in 14 hours, I learned a few things that I thought were interesting:

1. I am able to function surprisingly well after 3 plane rides and more than 30 hours of no sleep
2. Seeing british people driving on the left side of the road makes me laugh, especially watching it from an aerial view.
3. The UK really does have a TON of Double Decker Buses... those also made me smile. 
4. Switzerland charges way too much for a salami sandwich and sprite. 13 Euro... ridiculous. 
5. Switzerland also has weird advertisement, including cows mooing on a train through the air port...
6. Italian drivers are CRAZY ... I honestly thought the taxi driver was going to kill us. My mother would have had a panic attack ;)
7. Apparently in Italy, if you drive a scooter or motorcycle, you don't have to follow the rules of the road.
8. Also, electric cars are silent, and sneak up on you on these tiny roads.
9. European men openly pick their nose in public.
10. In general, Italians think of American women as "noisy" and "easy" while they consider American men to be "the enemy"
11. Also, Italy's road have got to be the hardest maze I have ever tried to maneuver. But I have the basics down. So it's a start. 

So other than that, I've just been going to orientations and trying to fix my jet lag (unsuccessfully I might add). Hopefully this blog will become more interesting as I start to actually roam (punny) around Florence and start traveling!

Still in Good Ole' Action Heights

I'm incredibly bored and decided to set up my blog for Italy! Basically just writing this post to test out how it works. Can't wait to leave!!