Week 2

This week was our first week of classes. I was lucky not to have any class on Monday so I sat home all day and didn't really do much. Ashley and I later got dinner at Osterio de Benci near the Santa Croce. I got spaghetti carbonara again (just sooo good!) and Ashley got this drunken spaghetti noodles dish with red wine sauce and peppers. Later, we bought 4 bottles of wine for 10 euro (great deal) and the three of us had a couple of glasses before Ashley and I went out to Lion's Fountain and then to YAB. Except we ended up having quite an adventure getting to YAB from Lion's Fountain (or is it Lion's Den- people call it both names) and then ended up getting lost (again) on our way home. But we found the L'Arno (the river) and then knew how to get home after that... at 5 am. YAB was fun, I just didn't like that we had to pay a 10 euro cover charge.

So getting home at 5 am isn't such a great idea when it's the night before your first day of classes... I had World Religion at noon, which was actually really interesting. It's a two and a half hour class so I got pretty sleepy at one point, but our professor gave us a 10 minute break. We just started learning about Christianity which I actually didn't know anything about, and I have reading and homework already due next week. My second class, Beginners Italian, was at 3:00 and it's pretty close.. only 15 minutes away. Katie is in my class which is nice but our professor, Cosimo does not speak English!!!! It's absurd because this is BEGINNERS Italian! and half the class really doesn't know anything! I'm just so glad I have taken Italian for two semesters because I at least know a bit of what he's saying.. I definitely have to concentrate to listen to him speak in order to catch what he's trying to have us do. Only one other girl in my class has had more experience- she's taken 7 years of Italian but doesn't want to take a harder class and claims "she doesn't really remember much." So I think she must be trying to play down her Italian speaking skills because she still says she doesn't know what things are and mispronounces words.. weird.

After class, we had to restock our fridge a bit at the Billa (grocery store) 5 minutes away from us. But we didn't buy more nutella which was unfortunate because that night we ran out! (sort of my fault..)
The supermarkets are different in that they make you pay 2 euro for a shopping cart, and you pay extra for plastic bags, and the baskets for your food actually have a long handle you can extend to roll it around the supermarket which is convenient.

My Wednesday started out with Wine Appreciation from 12-2:30... it was a 20 minute walk and then I had Art History from 2:30-5:30 which is also a 20 minute walk in the opposite direction... at least it's a good workout.. Wine Appreciation is not going to be easy though, let me just tell you. We were taught how to properly open a wine bottle which I definitely need to practice because we'll probably get tested on opening and pouring a glass. And we also tasted and analyzed our first three wines. One white and two reds.. forgot what they were called but first we had to analyze the color, and then we had to smell it and describe the smell, and thirdly we had to taste it and describe the "sensation" except he didn't give us any official terms and this one girl said it tasted like "prosciutto" haha.

Art History seems like it'll be good too, we didn't really do much in class besides going over the syllabus and took us on a quick walking tour to Santa Croce, the Duomo, and Palazzo Vecchio (where the Medici family lived). Except it was freezing so it was really hard to stand there, especially because it gets so windy by the Duomo. I had been up really late Tuesday night so after I got home I picked up a sandwich from Pino's on Via Verdi (SO GOOD- turkey, smoked cheese, spinach, olive oil, on a panini) and then took a 3 hour nap... I woke up at 10:30 to Ashley and Katie making dinner... Katie helped me cook some left over pasta and then the two of them walked to the gelatto shop on Via Neri and got me the strawberry and cookies and cream combination again. We ended up not going out last night which was good because I had class at 9:00 this morning. I had my Food, Culture, and Society cooking class and we tried 4 types of honey, 3 types of (expensive) balsamic vinegar, and some olive oil. Afterwards, I had time to kill so I went to three different bookstores to pick up my books. I got back at 12:30 and I cleaned up the apartment a bit with Ashley and we started planning our trips. Unfortunately, I had Italian again at 3:00 so I couldn't really relax.

But now my first week of classes is over! Starting off the night at Pizzaiolo, the restuarant we went to on our first night last Tuesday! Can't wait! :)