I arrived in Firenze, Italia on January 8, 2010. I was very excited, scared, and anxious all at the same time. The entire time flying I realized where I was going, but it never hit me. It still hasn't hit me yet. We flew over Ireland, England, and, of course, France - stopping in Paris. I did get to see the land for all of the countries since we were low enough, but I didn't see any particular landmarks. One really nice thing about Air France, we were served free alcohol. Arriving in Paris was an experience, I wanted to look out the window and see the Eiffel Tower or something, but all I saw out the window was farm land, maybe I was on the wrong side of the plane. It was freezing there - much like when we left from Detroit - which I really didn't expect. We left about an hour late out of Detroit, so we literally had to run around the Paris airport, run to the bus to get to the next terminal that our connecting flight was out of, run through security - yes, again - just to make our connection to get to Florence. We even had Air France workers directing us where to go, and the plane was still waiting on us. To say the least, I felt like a dumb American.
I didn't sleep much of the 7 hour 40 minute plane ride. It was so crowded and tight, there was no way I was getting comfortable. Instead, I spent my time watching Sweet Home Alabama on the personalized screen you get from the seat in front of you, playing sudoku, and listening to Italian lessons on my iPod. Although, I did pass out on the flight from Paris to Florence, probably because I had been up for almost a full 24 hours. The flight to Florence was fairly nice, lots of room to spread out. Landing in Florence, I did the same thing as I did in Paris, looked around for the Duomo this time, trying to find something remarkable about Florence. Yet again, I saw nothing. At the airport, members the Kent State, Florence were meeting us to give us money for a taxi and keys to our apartments. Unfortunately, the travel agent that we used put me down as arriving the next day, so they did not have the envelope for me. Luckily, a girl was living right above me in the same building so we went together - me thinking I was just going to stay at her place until my roommates arrived. Our landlord met us at the door to our place and gave me his keys for the apartment, so I was able to get in and see the place.
My apartment is located pretty much in the city center. San Lorenzo - a historic cathedral - just around the corner, and the Duomo - the most famous cathedral in Florence - just a block away. Also, finding out after the next couple of days, the San Lorenzo market and the Central market - the biggest markets of Florence - are also only a 2-5 minute walk. Other really nice features of the place, fairly big in size, huge jacuzzi tub/shower - which by the way is awesome in Italy, all the showers barely fit a person inside - and a view of the Duomo.
After looking around my apartment, I wanted to explore Florence a little. A few of us went over to see the Duomo from street view. It was everything I expected and more. The scale is just extraordinary! Much bigger than I thought it was going to be. It was pretty late by this point, so we grabbed some pizza at a pizzeria by the Duomo, which was really good but pretty expensive. After that, SLEEP! I was so tired from jet lag and not having enough sleep.
The next few days, over the weekend, I toured the city. Saw everything from Ponte Vecchio to museums to fabulous stores. Okay, interruption, everyone that is from Florence is so stylish it's ridiculous! All the stores that I've seen thus far have been outrageously expensive. I also went inside the Duomo, and then went back for mass the next morning. Mass was an awesome experience. Me and a friend, Lucas, were selected to take collection. To get the baskets, we went in this back room that contained these chests that were behind glass - had to have been relics. It was pretty cool to have gone back there. Everything else, well, was in Italian so I couldn't tell you much about it, yet.
I did go to a club on Saturday night, too. It was pretty American though, just a few more flashing lights. Played American music, and I noticed there were a lot of Americans - which you can so easily point out here. Nothing too crazy happened, but I want to get to an Italian club to see what they are like.
Orientation started on Monday. It has just been long and boring talking about things that we were already lectured about before we left. Of course all important stuff, but getting old. I also have been to the market the past couple days. I really wish we had something like that all the time in America, it is awesome! Fresh vegetables, fruit, meat, cheese, bread, wine, everything! Bad thing though, is that it's only open for so long. Like a lot of places here, there is a long lunch break where they close in the middle of the day, so on most days the market is only open till about 12:30 before people start closing up.
Other than that I've just been walking around and trying to adjust myself to the 6 hour time difference. I'll try to keep this updated as the semester passes.
Disappointing moment thus far: EVERYTHING and EVERYWHERE has English underneath. Even when we were in Paris. Yes, it is very nice to know what everything says, but I felt like it was there because of us Americans that don't know squat about any other language. Just about everyone spoke at least two languages, maybe three. Again, another dumb American feeling.
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