Week 1 pt 3

Friday we had to wake up early to show our passports in order to get the stamps for our official stay in Italy (Permisso de Sorgiorno I believe it's called) and that literally took us 2 seconds... so we finally had time to walk around at leisure which was great because I had finally found my camera charger and was ready to take pictures of Florence. We walked toward L'Arno, the river in Florence and took some pictures there, although we didn't go all the way down to the Ponte Vecchio. We also walked to see the Santa Croce up close which we hadn't even had time to do even though it is literally behind our apartment.

We then went home and did laundry and cleaned our rooms (mine was such a mess) and then met up with people later to go to this orientation welcome dinner which turned out to be a crowded standing buffet style thing and it didn't seem worth it so we found a restaurant right by the Duomo and ate there. Afterwards, we changed to go to this pub crawl we heard about.. we would go to three pubs and then have free entrance to this club called Space for 15 euro. We went to Astor which was alright but very crowded because it seemed like so many people studying abroad knew about this... after spending almost an hour there, we went to Red Garter, which was fun and we listened to people singing karaoke. Then we went to Lion's Den which was the crowdest of them all...... it was awful! You couldn't move! And when we were walking with the huge group we really stood out as Americans, it was not a pretty sight. We all decided that we wanted to just leave and forget Space and just go to Salamanca for late night food/drinks but then decided to go home.

Saturday we met up with Margo and Meghan and got gelato and took pictures of the Ponte Vecchio. We walked over the bridge and went into this museum and got our free student tickets which let us see the displays of Italian clothing and how it has changed over the centuries, and then walked to the Boboli Gardens which was beautiful! I didn't upload any of these pictures yet, so I don't have any to display.. and afterwards we went to the Piazzale Michelangelo, which we had to walk up a ton of stairs to get to.. but the view was so worth it. Pictures to come. But we had the whole view of the city and it was wonderful. Afterwards, since we had walked so much and it was only 5ish, we decided to head back before going to Gusta Pizza, a famous pizza place. I had some downtime and I Skyped a little bit and had a late snack before we went. Samara was visiting so she was with us too. The food was soo good! And afterwards, I was sooo tired from the whole day of walking and sightseeing but we still ended up going out to Salamanca for a drink and some nachos.

So finally we get to today, which is Sunday the 29th. I can't believe that this time last week I was on a plane heading over to Florence! I feel like I've been here forever! We had to wake up early today to get on a bus with the program.. they took us to IKEA where we bought wine glasses, a shower mat, softer pillows, etc, and then they took us to Pisa where we saw the leaning tower of Pisa and took touristy pictures after getting lunch (spaghetti alla carbonara- delicious!) and we also walked through their Duomo. I slept both ways on the bus since I was so tired. And then all we did after that was cook ourselves more frozen pizza and then walked over to Via di Neri for some gelatto (last time I had Blood Orange, this time I mixed Nutella and Cookies and Cream- both soooo good!)

I am definitely used to the food, except I don't know how much longer I can go with getting my own personal pie for 5 euro, it's too much food for me! Anyway, I will post some pictures of the Garden and Piazzale Michelangelo, and Pisa in a bit. Tomorrow is the first day of classes, but since I don't have any class on Monday I'll have more free time to walk around and relax.