Florence: Week 1

London pictures are up!! On the right hand side of the blog there should be a slideshow of pictures showing. If you click on a picture, it should open up to a slideshow and you can view them on a larger scale. The internet is relatively slow, it takes a while to upload photos, I'll be working on Florence ones this weekend.

Another note, my friend Jackie is also writing a blog for our trip abroad. You may want to check it out, she probably has things that I have forgotten, we've been doing pretty much everything together! http://jackieinitaly.shutterfly.com/

We started school on Monday. We are attending Eurocentres in Florence, a school for international students to study the Italian language. We have class daily from 9:30 am to 1pm with a 15 minute break. The early session is for grammar and the 2nd session is to work on our conversation skills. I am in a class solely with kids from my study abroad program, but there other classes that have international students from Switzerland, Japan, Portugal, etc. in them. In those classes the only common language is Italian, so it makes for good practice! I've been picking the language up relatively easily, it has helped immensely that I have a background in French. Many of the words are similar and sentence structures are the same. I did make a big mistake today though. We were asked to present a paragraph in front of the class to describe ourselves. For part of my description, I said "Sono bruto" which I thought meant brunette, but it actually means ugly! The teacher laughed and corrected me.

AIFS (my study abroad program) has activities planned for the students nearly every afternoon while we are in Florence.

Monday afternoon we had a meeting on our housing in Rome. I am staying very close to the school, near Campo di Fiori. I was placed with my friend Jackie, which is too good to be true! We will have 2 other roommates as well. Monday evening a local restaurant held a welcome cocktail social for our group. I'm still meeting new people everyday, there are so many of us!

Tuesday after class, I participated in a walking art tour of Florence. Our guide is a local art historian from Holland who was very knowledgable. We first walked to Piazza Pitti, which was the first Medici palace. There the Medici family began constructing their 'corridor' above the city. There is a hallway of sorts that was built over the city of Florence strictly for use by the Medici family. This corridor passes through their church, where they sat above the rest of the congregation, above the Ponte Vecchio, and finishes at their newer palace. With this corridor they didn't have to walk on the streets, they were able to have private links to the main parts of the city. We followed along the corridor throughout this art tour, stopping by churches, the Ponte Vecchio, and then continued on to the Duomo. It was cold, and getting late, and I was tired, but I learned a lot of Florentine history!

Tuesday was also Barack Obama's inauguration. Italians seem to love Obama, and there were several people with signs in public squares praising the new president. I didnt realize the international influence that this day would have! Nearly every channel on our television was playing the inauguration, translating it into Italian.

Wednesday afternoon, we had the opportunity to see Michelangelo's David at the Accademia Gallery. This gallery was relatively small, contained maybe 3 rooms of paintings, then a hallway filled with unfinished sculptures by Michelangelo, leading to the David. We were accompanied by the same art historian from Tuesday. I learned that despite most people's thought, David's hands ARE in proportion to the rest of his body. Experts have measured the sculpture, and David is in exact proportion to what a 25 year old man should be. Fun fact to know!

Today, Thursday, I have the afternoon free. I'm finally responding to all my emails, and updating this blog! I have a busy weekend already planned. Tomorrow we are spending the afternoon at a wine tasting event. Aileen and Craig - I'll be sure to try all the different red wines for you!! Sunday our group is going to a local semi-pro soccer game. Can't wait!