Nuovi Amici

One major problem with living with 10 girls is getting peer pressured into going out. That's a lie I definitely wanted to go out we had a lot of fun BUT I would have been totally fine writing my blog and chilling out here too. Tonight the girls (my 9 roommates and I) went to Naima...probably our favorite bar here. It's this cute bar that's nice...not very American and pretty classy. And they have a fabulous drink special - happy hour from 9-11 where all mixed drinks are only 3 euro and all beers/shots are 2 euro. If you wanna check it out here's the link!! (http://www.naimafirenze.it/). The bartender/owner named Sergio friended my roommate Jess on facebook and they've been talking via facebook chat but the past two nights that we've been at Naima Jess has been too embarassed and awkward to introduce herself and say that they've been speaking. So tonight I finally tricked her into letting Sergio know she exists. It was entertaining. There's this club called YAB (http://www.yab.it/), which stands for You Are Beautiful, that is a pretty classy club here. Supposedly all the guys wear suits and you're let in based on how good you look. A bunch of our friends went to YAB but we ended up being too tired and too eager to blog to meet them there. Guess we'll save it for another time!!

OKAY i have two days to blog about so HERE GOES.

SUNDAY:
As I wrote Sunday morning, SPACE was cuh ray zee. For those who want to see just what I was dealing with you can check their website at http://www.spaceelectronic.net/ ORRR check out my 30 second video of craziness on my facebook at http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1407412510044.  It was crazy fun but me, Christine and Kristie came home earlier than everyone else because I was a leeeeeeeetle sad (HINT HINT TO YOU...you know who you are). It was a great time though and I can't wait to go back. They have a hanging spaceship that is the coolest thing EVA.

Christine and I woke up on Sunday thinking it was 5am and ready to go back to bed but then realizing it was already noon. I woke up really craving eggs (and really sad that they don't sell real eggs in this country). Legitimately all I wanted was a breakfast sandwich. THAT'S ALL. We have a McDonald right down the street from us that Christine suggested but don't worry! I haven't caved into fast food just yet. Instead I pulled up trusty Google and typed "Do they sell eggs in Florence?" My answer? YES. I found this amazing little real American diner smack in the middle of some random alley in Florence only 10 minutes from my apartment. The best part? THEY SERVE BRUNCH ALL DAY AND HAVE REAL AMERICAN EGG DISHES. You can imagine my excitement. We woke up, got the rest of the apartment up and headed out. Easily enough it was just called "The Diner" and truly great.

just smack dab in the middle of nowhere!!

On the review site it said they were renowned for their eggs and their burgers which posed a significant problem because I can't resist a good burger but I really had been craving eggs. I ended up splitting eggs benedict and a bacon cheeseburger with my roommate Christine. Who said you can't have the best of both worlds?! PS: You didn't have to pay for water at the diner. So it really WAS like America!!! We lasted five days without American food before we caved. oops.

mMmMmMmM

 After the Diner we embarked on our FIRST OFFICIAL WALKING TOUR LED BY YOURS TRULY. For those of you who know my family...and know even better Virginia...you know how much my family loves them walking tours. Virginny always buys those little touring books with 15 walking tours each showing every crazy part of the certain town that we're visiting. Obviously Viriginia bought me one of Florence/Tuscany.  The tour took us four hours and we visited 11 spots. It was a tour entitled: Centro Storico...aka the historical center of Florence. TOTALLY FAB. This is what it included...

1. Ponte Vecchio
2. Piazza della Signoria
3. Palazzo Vecchio
4. Rivoire
5. Basilica di Santa Croce
6. Vivoli
7. Museo Nazionale del Bargello
8. Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore
9. Campanile di Giotto
10. Battistero San Giovanni
11. Basilica di San Lorenzo

I was a FABULOUS tour guide...as anyone who knows me might imagine. Thanks for teaching me all your ways, mom! We learned a lot and every single place on the tour was incredible. Just beautiful. We had to stop and just sit and look around at times because it was so crazy and how intense the art and beauty was. Hmmmmm I think that was all for Sunday.

PSU girls making our own lion shrine at Palazzo Vecchio in Florence! (#1 rule don't touch the statues...woops)

best tour guide 2011

MONDAY: 

FIRST DAY OF CLASSES!!! I wrote about my classes yesterday morning but just to recap them they 

were great!! I only had Italian and History of Food and Culture on Monday but they were fab. My Italian teacher is named David...not DAY-vid....DAH-veed. He will not respond if you call him DAY-vid. This is what I learned in Italian today.
"Buongiorno, come ti chiami? Mi chiamo Emily, e tu? Di dove sei? Sono Americano, di New York." BENE!
History and Culture of Food was pretty interesting too. My teacher is a German man who has a PhD in Nuclear Politics (what a switch in interests!). We didn't really do anything besides go over the syllabus but it looks interesting. I also have a few friends in the class so it should be fun.

After class  Christine, Jess and I decided to go find the market and buy some food for lunch. We finally stumbled onto it and then set out to conquer making transactions in Italian for the first time. Here is the end result:
1/2 kg DELICIOUS CRUSTY bread (4 euro)
2 balls of the most fresh and amazing mozzarella ever (4 euro)
1/2 kg of fresh sliced prosciutto (6 euro)
We went home and made sandwiches with olive oil which actually turned out to be incredible AS WELL AS our first home made meal (sort of...if you count sandwiches as home-made meals.)
Then we went back out and explored a little...ending up in the ghetto which happens to be conveniently right next to our apartment...and filled with the most African Americans I've seen at once in this country since arriving. Then my day got pretty uneventful...I took a nap that was supposed to only be an hour but Christine forgot to wake me up so it ended up being 2.5 hours. woops.

OH. then we made an amazing dinner. we made a tomato sauce with prosciutto and garlic and onions and put it over pasta. it was PHENOM! I  actually felt like my stomach was going to explode after...i'll have to cut back on those portion sizes if I don't want to come back obese....plus this country is made for baby sized people and I'm pretty sure if I gain 10 pounds I won't be able to fit in the shower...take a look...

these showers are made for legit babies.

Here is where we decided to go to Naima so that's basically a wrap up of my past two days!! Gotsta go to sleeeeeeeeep PZ OUT AMERICA.