CIAO BAMBINO

HELLO ALL!!!!

well, i've decided to create this blog for a few reasons....

a. i'm in italy for 5 months and what better way to share my experiences than an online diary?!?!

b. this is a perfect way to keep my humungous family updated on my fabulously adventurous life without forgetting to respond to facebook posts or emailing individuals. Here you guys can just follow along with me on my journey!!

c. it's so chic now, don't you think? I made a twitter yesterday and then was informed by one of my new italian roommates that twitter isn't the extent of the online generation...if you want to be truly fashionable in this computerized world you must must MUST have a blog...so here's mine!

For all those still wondering about my safety and possible abandonment in a european airport...no worries! I've arrived safely in Firenze and let me just tell you, it is b-e-a-UTIFUL. The commute here was a leeeeetle tough. My flight started from jfk to Zurich, Switzerland (7 hours). My mom, dad, and David (<3333) took me to the airport and waved me off. For being such a worldly traveler I must say this was my very first time flying ANYWHERE by myself. It was a hectic experience to say the least. I must have checked the location of my passport every 5 minutes for the first 12 or so hours. I'm so used to just following my parents around the airport that doing it myself for the first time (whilst being pretty worked up and upset at leaving my family and home for 5 months) was pretty overwhelming. I made it through though! 

I knew three girls on my flight so once reaching the gate i texted them (the sole purpose of bringing my american EnV3 with me on my trip). There were actually four girls on my actual flight out of JFK. All very nice and all from Penn State. It was fabulous having people to bond with during the layover in Zurich and I've seen them since arriving here so it was a great start to getting to know everyone!! Once  in Zurich we met a bunch of other kids from Penn State on our program which was pretty cool. THEN on the one hour flight from Zurich to Florence I was sitting in my window seat (thanks dad!!) and this 30 something year old man sat down next to me. Wary of those "very forward European men" as both my grandmas put it, I ignored him while he tried to start conversation using "do you mind if I turn on the air?" and "the view is beautiful, don't you think?" He finally roped me into conversation and thank GOD because he was fabulous. We had a wonderful conversation about traveling and life. He was from Denmark, well dressed, and as I found out in the last ten minutes of the flight, VERY HIGH UP IN A LITTLE FASHION COMPANY CALLED HUGO BOSS. Him and an associate were in Florence for a fabrics fair. How cool?!?! It got even better when he said to look him up if we came to Denmark. 

It got less interesting during the commute to Palazzo Rucellai (the school in Florence where we are studying!) Me and this girl Jess (who ended up being one of my roomates and FABULOUS) were put together in a cab. Our driver, a wonderful ITALIANO who didn't speak any english was completely in love with trying to communicate. As I asked where the best restaurants were he misinterpreted and tried to let us know where we could get drugs. And also to beware of the albanians (missing italian village!!) It was an interesting car ride and very entertaining once we found out everyone else's drivers stayed dead silent and didn't try and speak at all. We arrived at the apartment and saw Christine (my pre-planned roommate and good friend from PSU) standing outside awkwardly with an Italian woman who seemed agitated, to say the least. As we exited the cab we heard raised voices and realized that within the first hour of landing in this wonderful country Christine had already made our Italian neighbor HATE US. Long story short Christine was in a cab alone and her driver dropped her off at the building by herself with no instruction. Not knowing any italian or where we were even living Christine did the logical thing....rang all the doorbells on the wall to see if someone would let her in and help her. Enter: the woman who lives above us who now hates us and threatened to call the cops if we sneezed too loud. Yelling in incomprehensible italian that none of us poor American girls could understand we stood there watching her shout and point at the doorbell as if to signal DON"T EVER RING MY DOORBELL AGAIN IT WILL LITERALLY CAUSE ME PHYSICAL PAIN AND I DON'T WANT TO HELP YOU. Thank god one of the program directors arrived soon after to help smooth things over.

Our apartment is unbelievable. I'm living with nine other girls. Ten in total. Five from PSU and five from UCONN. It's a two story apartment with 5 bedrooms, four bathrooms, a kitchen and a living room. Absolutely wonderful! and on the prettiest little cobblestone street only 5 minutes from the school! Christine and I got the biggest room because we drew straws and won!! After meeting each other and settling in we walked out as a group to buy some towels. On the way back we bought a few bottles of wine and picked up some dinner to go. We ate dinner in our apartment and bonded over the things girls talk about, of course. Boyfriend status, interests, majors, interesting facts, how excited we are for the next few months, etc etc. I'm happy to report that my roommates are great! No one is weird or antisocial. Everyone gets along and I don't see any true problems developing. Especially since there's so much room in the apartment! 

We went out last night as a group to this bar called the Lion's Fountain...an Irish pub (go figure, first night in Italy and we go to an Irish pub filled with Americans.) EVERYONE from the program was there. Everyone was american and there might have been like six creepy italians suaving themselves around the bar trying to pick up drunk girls along the way. We did Irish car bombs and met a bunch of people before returning home to the apartment. Thank goodness my roommates are good about staying together because me with my terrible sense of direction have no idea where i am at any point in time!!

No one was too drunk. Everyone remembers the walk home and sitting around eating cheez-its and chocolate chip cookies but there is one twenty minute time period that no one can account for once we were back in the apartment. An eventful first night to say the least!!

Today we woke up from one person who luckily set her blackberry (since none of us have phones or alarms!!) We had orientation from 945 to 230 so we picked up breakfast on the way (a croissant with fontina cheese and proscuitto MMMMM) and walked to the meeting place. It was long and boring but here is what stuck out to me....

1) there were 5 reported rapes in the last year and all were drunk american girls (which sounds pretty unlikely but if it's true that's a little terrifying)

2) italians dont like heat because the room was legitimately colder than it was outside

3) italian men catcall at american women and not italian women because italian women are "ice queens" and for american girls to survive here we MUST adopt the ice queen stare that shuts a man down within seconds.

4) if gypsy children approach you (to rob you of everything) simply stick your hand in front of you and yell aggressively "STOP! GET AWAY GYPSY!" any they should leave you alone. 

Afterwards we were treated to a delicious lunch (for free) and went back to the apartment to take a nap. SIDENOTE: all italians eat here are carbs and the women legit have the skinniest legs ever!! I'm determined to find the secret of their existence by the time i return to america in a few months. Also to combat the definite obesity I might be incurring from the delicious food I've been eating I plan on taking the roomiez out for a walking tour (from the trusty walking tour guidebook that my mom gave me!) tomorrow.

We took a nap, met with one of the school representatives to fill out inventory on our apartment, unpacked, went to a DELICIOUS dinner at this cute litte restaurant near the bar we wanted to go to and went out. The restaurant was fantastic. I spent 15 euro for wine, water, a plate of tortellini in a cream sauce with prosciutto and tiramisu. The manager also gave us a bottle of champagne on the house! The bar was a lot of fun too. We made two Italian friends, one named Piedro and one named Cosimo. They're fabulous and our age and not creepy (as of yet) and seem really nice! and then....I met a boy that lives in South Salem (westchester...my home county) and worked for Habitat for Humanity in New Rochelle under Jim Killoran. For those who don't know I was very active in H4H during high school and am very close with Jim Killoran. The guy, whose name is Wyatt, is backpacking through Europe with no agenda and hitchhiked from Barcelona to Florence, arriving today. HOW SMALL A WORLD!!!

Now we're home and I've spent an hour writing my first blog post. I know it's long but I'm three days behind in information!!! I LOVE FIRENZE I LOVE MY ROOMMATES I MISS EVERYONE AT HOME BUT IM HAVING A WONDERFUL TIME!!! stay tuned for the adventures to come!!!