Goodbye London, Hello Florence!

So much has happened since the last post!


Les Mis was awesome, very well done. We had sub-par seats, but you get what you pay for I guess. It was still good enough. We left London around 5 am on Friday, and drove about an hour to Gatwick airport. We travelled in a huge group, 97 of us. This made things difficult in the airport to make sure everyone was through security, and such. We had a while until our flight, so Jackie (friend I made on the trip), and Lizzie (roomate from UVM) walked around the airport, got some food and waited. Our flight was delayed due to transmission problems, or something liek taht.

The flight took a little over 2 hours, and I slept for most of it. I sat next to two girls, one from California, one from Minnesota, who were both amazed I was from Vermont.. neither had ever been to the east coast! While sleeping, I missed a great view of teh Alps I hear! Next time I guess....


We arrived in Pisa and hopped on a bus to our hotel. The drive took abuot an hour and we drove through gorgeous small towns with beautiful scenery. Once we approached Florence, the traffic picked up. Italians are crazy drivers!

At the hotel, I moved into my new room, and its huge! My roomate and I must have the honeymoon suite or something, we really lucked out. Jackie is once again next door to me, its worked out well! My new roomate, Jen, is from Mass, and attends UMass Lowell. The first afternoon, Lizzie, Jackie, and I spent the afternoon walking around Florence. We explored for a while, we just wanted to orient ourselves to the new city. That night, we were served a 3-course meal, everything was so good! That ngiht, everyone aws pretty tired, so we went and got gelatto and went back to the hotel.

Saturday was full of administrative stuff for the program. We had ice breaking activities to get to know the other kids in teh program at some palace in Florence. I dont have my itinerary sheet near me, and I dont'remember the name! We had about 2 hours of ice breaking activities. This was followed by a 3 course lunch consisting of a pesto lasagna, then roasted chicken with cheese, tomato, potatoes and cooked spinach, then some sort of dessert cake. It was all fabulous. After lunch, an italian cop spoke to us for about an hour tellign us things to be aware of, watch out for, etc.

I spent the late afternoon/early evening resting, I still haven't hada full nights sleep here yet! I've been catnapping since we landed in London and running off of adrenaline, so much to see and do! The hotel served us another 3-course meal (if I come back fat, I blame the Italian cooking). After dinner, a few of us decided to check out the nightlife in Florence, and went to a discotech last night, had lots of fun!

Today, Sunday, I finally got to sleep in. Jackie and I went to a little cafe around teh corner for lunch. There, we met a couple that lived in Florence, the woman was from Texas, the man from Italy, who were so friendly and helpful. They gave us lots of ideas and things to do in Florence. Can't wait to do them all!!

We had a practical walking tour of the city this afternoon, learned where teh school was, post office, pharmacy, etc. After, walked through San Lorenzo market. You can pretty much buy anything out of leather.

I only have 2 minuets left at the cafe! More to come later! Pics are coming soon I promise!!!