The gypsies can't ruin my eurofun

Hi all!

I've been in Italy for almost one week now, and I haven't posted on my blog once. Most of you know why this is, so I won't get into the details about the gypsies stealing my backpack from LdM. I have never in my life felt so helpless and taken advantage of. Luckily, everything (besides my pictures and music) was replaceable. My mom has been up all hours of the night due to the time difference dealing with Apple and bank accounts and everything else you could name. Also, my advisor Laura is a saint (and an American!) If it wasn't for her I probably would have been back in the US by now. She took me to the pharmacy to get my medicine, the police department to file my report, talked on the phone with the uncooperative credit card customer service reps, and dealt with my sobbing antics for three days straight. But that is all I have to say about my frightening experience. If anything, I have learned that the gypsies are REAL, that things are just "things," and that I'm lucky I have people in my life who care enough about me to help me through this complicated process. Now I'm ready to enjoy this BEAUTIFUL city that I live in, and tell you about all of the great parts of my last six days!

Day One - Tuesday/Wednesday
I had a great flight out of Newark. I was so excited that it was hard to fall asleep, so I watched Eat Pray Love to get myself in the right mindset for adventure. I had an entire row on the plane to myself to stretch out :) The only bad part was the ridiculous amount of screaming children. I landed in Frankfurt, Germany and was SO lost. Whoever told me that was an easy airport (Ahem, Uncle Pat!) was wrong. I asked some German lady where to go, and she barely spoke English so I started following other students. In line for security I met a guy from Basking Ridge, and when we got through security we realized our flight was cancelled. After asking five different airport employees what we should do, we set off on a 20 minute journey of getting lost trying to find the Lufthansa ticketing desk. We had to get tickets to Bologna, and the airline was going to provide us with bus transportation to Firenze. In the meantime, we met four girls from Indiana University, so we got a few beers and sat at our gate with our very first European beverages. At this point, it was about 5:00 am in America. Healthy breakfast! Our flight to Bologna went smoothly, and on the bus ride I was fairly convinced that we were going to drive straight off of a cliff. I took some great pictures of the mountains which I hope the gypsies are enjoying...Then I got a cab from the Florence airport to housing check-in. This is obviously where things go awry, so I'm going to skip over the big mess.

Day Two - Thursday
I was very jet-lagged and barely slept the night before, so once I heard people around the apartment I got up to meet my roommates in a more composed state, and to really see our apartment! I live with four other girls: Amy (San Francisco) who is my actual roommate, Jacqueline (Brooklyn), Megan (Boston), and Alana (Pittsburgh/Clemson!). Our apartment has three bedrooms, one bathroom that looks like a long skinny hallway (complete with a bidet!), a nice-sized kitchen, and a dining room that also has a couch and tv crammed in the corner of it. By my room, there is also an awkward storage hallway with a love seat, all of our suitcases, and no light. It reminds me of the phone booth confessional rooms on the Real World. Here are a few pictures stolen from my roommate Megan:

We had orientation early in the morning, so we all made our way to the Odeon Theater looking like typical American study-abroaders carrying LdM maps. We sat through a long orientation about safety (which is something I already learned my lesson about...) and then had a break for lunch. My roommates and I just started to wander and found ourselves right by the Santa Maria Novella train station. We were starving and running out of time, so we walked into the closest place we saw. There was a nice Italian man behind the counter, and we all got a slice of pizza. Unfortunately, this was the worst pizza I've ever had. It was luke warm and the cheese was rubbery! Our mistake for getting pizza by the train station. Clearly no real Italians eat at this place! We took it for "take away" as the Italian's call it, because we didn't want to be rude. We went back to the second half of orientation, and then I spent the rest of the day taking care of business at the advising office. That night, we decided to explore and find a place to eat dinner. We stumbled upon the Marcato Centrale (at night, being disassembled) and had our first experience being hassled by creepy Italian men. Sick of walking in dark circles, we stopped into the first place we saw with reasonable prices. It was this quaint trattoria where the servers barely spoke a word of English, and every other customer was a local. I got pesto gnocchi (plus delicious free bread and lots of wine!) We then headed in for the night and had a girls night drinking wine at our dining room table. It was interesting learning about each others lives, since I've definitely never befriended such "city people" before. I'm definitely not in Clemson anymore! 

Day 3 - Friday 

I had to get up early today to go to the US consulate. All I knew was that it was near the river, so I ventured out alone at 9:00 am to find it. I managed to only stop once to ask for directions! "Dove arno?" I know that is terrible grammar, but it got me where I needed to be. Unfortunately once I got there I was stopped by scary Italian cops, and the US consulate was blocked off. They couldn't help me get what I needed, AT ALL. I asked them for directions back to Santa Maria Novella (since I like to find two different routes to get everywhere) but I got SO lost! I asked four or five different people until I found a nice English-speaking man inside of a fancy hotel. I finally made it back alive after wandering for over 30 minutes, and then got ready to explore the city for the day with my roommates. We walked to the Arno (where I had just been this morning), and took pictures in front of the Ponte Vecchio! Looking at that view was the first time it hit me that I'm living in such a beautiful place. I had been so overwhelmed the past few days I barely got the chance to look around and appreciate it all. We walked along the bridge and then found our way back to the center of the city. In a few short days, I was already really confident with my directional abilities. Having to run all over the city to take care of my "situation" definitely forced me to navigate it on my own, and I have become the go-to girl for directions amongst my roommates (who would've thought that would ever happen!?) After heading back to our apartment I was back at the advising office (again). I think I spent more time there than in my actual apartment for those first three days. Once I got home we all "ate dinner" which consisted of a strange array of whatever we found at the grocery store. All I bought was Special K (peach flavored!) and milk. Then we had some wine and ventured off to find a bar. We went to a place called Cafe Bigallo that was filled with only American students. They had a 3 drinks for 10 euro special, so I got a Tequila Sunrise and a Sex on the Beach. I saved my third drink for another night, and Megan chatted with the bartender to get us some free shots. After a while we decided to head home (since we didn't know where anything else was!) and on our way we passed a place called the Dublin Pub. It's on our street, right by the school. We wandered in to find ourselves in a cute little Irish place filled with all Italians! The bartender made us some (very bad) pizza and we had a few beers. From there we took a short walk down the street to our cozy apartment and went to sleep.

Day 4 - Saturday

Saturday Alana, Amy and I woke up and went to the Marcato Centrale. It is the central market in Florence that is full of tons of delicious fresh food, with leather vendors lining the streets around it. It reminds me a lot of the market in Philadelphia (only a lot yummier!) It is only two blocks from our apartment. All of my Florentine expert family members have warned me about "not touching the vegetables." I stood there for a while staring at the vegetables, and then staring at the man, and then staring back at the vegetables. Eventually, he came up to me, handed me a bag and said "self-serve." So much for that rule! Much to my surprise, I was able to touch the produce everywhere I went. I got green beans, bananas, apples, and zucchini. I also picked up some black olives (my favorite), pesto, homemade pasta and fresh asiago cheese. I decided it was best for me to avoid the meat section for now, and there were too many lines for bread so I skipped on that. Outside at the leather market, I bought myself dark pink leather wallet, made in Firenze, of course. It's tiny and perfectly fits inside my little purse. We went back to our apartment to put away our groceries, and then walked down towards the Duomo to shop. Alana and Amy were looking for clothes, so I eventually ventured off on my own since I had several other missions to accomplish. My first stop was a leather store we had passed on the way. They had gorgeous leather bags for only 49 euro (originally 98 euro!) I needed something to hold my books and laptop (definitely NOT a backpack) and I found a huge chocolate brown bag with a cross-body strap and BOTH zipper and button closure. After my experiences, the main quality I look for in a purse is how inaccessible it is to gypsies. The woman at the store told me all about how it is leather made here in Florence, and that it only goes on sale in January and August. Perfect timing! From there I went to a camera store I had seen a few days earlier. Unfortunately it was by the Duomo and was a complete tourist trap. The same camera I used to have costed over 250 euro! That's almost 400 dollars! Instead I bought an overpriced memory card to put in my old, back-up camera. Genius me bought the wrong size. I am trying to figure out a way to talk the nice Italian man into letting me return it even though it was already opened. From there I went to a store that sold flat irons. I had been wearing my hair curly for 4 days and could not deal with it much longer. Unfortunately, the store I found was an "electronics store." In Italian, an "electronics store" is a store that sells any oddity that involves an electrical plug. Lamps, toasters, flat irons, etc. Very strange. The flat irons were very inexpensive, and they looked it. I decided there was no use wasting 30 euro on something that wouldn't work on the 'fro. Afterwards, I went to the super market to get some basic things like olive oil (it was too expensive at the market), bread, nutella, and tomato sauce. Also, lots of bottled water. Every few days I have to go stock up on two giant bottles of water since the tap water isn't good, and they obviously don't sell 24-packs of Poland Spring here. Even though we all just stocked up on food, we decided to go out to dinner. We thankfully decided on ZaZa's, the one place I have been dying to go since I arrived. It definitely lived up to its expectations! We got to sit in the basement, which was a beautiful room with chandeliers. I got a margherita pizza and a side of sauteed spinach (just as my mom recommended). It was DELICIOUS. Definitely the best meal I've had so far here, and it was even reasonably priced. I ate almost the entire pizza! I think it was well deserved since I barely ate my first few days here. After two bottles of wine at ZaZa's, we headed out to a bar called The Astor for a pub crawl held by one of the travel agencies. It was a very euro-trendy place. Not exactly the comfort or feel of Loose Change or TD's. They were selling giant pitchers of "sangria" which actually tasted like frat party PJ minus the Everclear. They thought they could trick all of the silly American girls. Noticing how much they were ripping us off, one of my roommates went up to the bar and demanded that they add vodka to our pitcher. Half a bottle of vodka in our pitcher later, and everyone was having a pretty good time. I didn't drink very much, since I was still too nervous about being robbed or kidnapped. It didn't hit me until I got here that this is the first time in my life I'm living in a city. It is going to take some getting used to. We moved from the Astor to the Red Garter. It was a bar that connected to a club, and with the pub crawl we got a few free shots there. I wandered around socializing for a while, obviously scouting out anyone I could find who looked remotely Southern. I didn't have very much luck. Looks like I'm going to have to turn on the Jersey Girl inside of me to meet people around here! The rest of the night is a tale for another time, but we all got home safe and went to sleep. 

Day 5 - Sunday

Sunday was very Sunday-like. Rainy, gloomy, and no one wanted to get out of bed. After lounging around our apartment for a while, we decided to brave the weather. Alana, Jacqueline, Megan and I walked to the Uffizzi to buy our student museum passes. After much confusion, we realized the office was not open on Sundays. Bummer. Even though it was freezing and raining, we stopped for overpriced gelatto near the Duomo. It was the best gelatto I've tasted so far (banana flavored). We wandered around for a while and went inside of another museum (the name of which I can't remember). We stood in an atrium type of place and took a few pictures just to get out of the rain. After that, I stopped to buy a pair of gloves since my hands were freezing. We went inside of the Duomo and my roommates took a few pictures. I lit a candle for Grandpa, and decided that I'm going to come to mass here next Saturday (they have it in English every week). Looking at the Duomo (even in the rain) shocks me every time I walk by. It is the most beautiful, intricate building I've ever seen. I think that on May 14th I will still walk by it, look the sky like a tourist, and say "WOW."We got pretty cold so we headed back to our apartment and relaxed for the rest of the night. I cooked up some vegetables and pasta, and wrote in my journal. I went to bed fairly early since I ran out of things to do (and still didn't have a computer). 

Day 6 - Monday

First day of classes as an international student! I got up extra early to go out and buy a notebook, but then I realized that nothing opens until around 9:30 or 10:00 am! Italians have a great perspective on life. No one should ever be up earlier than that. My class was on my street, Via Faenza, so I stopped in to see my advisor, Laura, and then got to class early. It was in a very old building with brand new flat screen TVs on the walls. Kind of funny. I met two girls from Boston and a guy from UGA (yay, Southerner!) I also sat next to a girl from Canada who goes to school here full time and told me where to find a store that sells apple products. Now I just need to find it to get a case for my new computer. This class was a 9:00 am Social Psychology class. I think I'm going to really enjoy it! My professor is American, and she went to grad school at South Carolina. My only complaint about this class was that the room was freezing! My body has not adjusted to these poorly-insulated buildings yet. Next, I walked to Piazza Strozzi, on the other side of the Duomo for my International Marketing class at 12:00. Yes, classes are 2.5 hours long here. That is going to be a big adjustment. I got a little lost finding the building, but once I got there I had to walk up three flights of stairs (which really means six) to find my classroom. My professor was the epitome of a small Italian man who wears Armani suits, except that he has a British accent. He mumbles a lot and is kind of hard to understand, but he has a lot of real world experience and we get to do a project that seems really fun. After classes, I was running around the area printing things, picking up my laptop (!!!!) at the student post office, and buying notebooks. When I was done running around, Laura took me to the police station to file my police report. The man in charge did not speak an ounce of English, so Laura acted as our translator. She is literally the greatest school advisor I have ever had and gave me so much great advice about living in Italy. I got home from the police station and set up my computer while we waited for a few of my roommates to get home. Then we all went together to the free LdM Welcome Dinner. It was in this BEAUTIFUL building that made me feel like I was on the Titanic. The food wasn't the greatest, but we met a lot of people and then decided to go out to meet up with them. We ended up going out kind of late (around 12:00am...on a Monday) since I got too carried away on skype and my roommates were taking a while to get ready. We went to Cafe Bigallo again to use our free drink cards, and there we ran into three students from Syracuse. The one girl was an Alpha Chi there! We were SO excited, and realizing how comforted it made me to see a sister who I don't even know made me appreciate sisterhood so much. We decided to leave Bigallo (since we were the only ones there) and to head to a place called the Lion's Fountain to meet the people we had met at the LdM dinner. We got very, very lost, and by the time we found it it was closing. We hung out outside for a while and ended up walking back to Faenza with a group of crazy Dutch girls who told us stories about their experiences here so far. 

Day 7 - Today! 

If you're still reading this (and you're not my mother) then I give you serious credit. Obviously all of my posts won't be this long, but it has been such a whirlwind of a first week. Today I had my Italian class at 10:30 am at Piazza Strozzi. This time I found it easily. There were only seven people in our class, all girls, and one of which is a girl from Clemson who I met in the advising office the day before. I was glad to have a fellow Tiger in class. Our teacher is the most adorable little Italian lady, and she did a really great job of making us speak out loud. I can now say Mi chiamo Tara! And a few other easy phrases that I would have to reference my notebook to remember. That was the first class of the week that flew by! Mainly because it is only 1 hour and 15 minutes, but also because she kept us speaking and thinking the entire time. I had to rush from there to my next class on the other side of the Duomo, and ended up getting a little lost finding it, even though it was on my side of town! The street numbers here are either red or black, and they mean different things, so it can get confusing. This class was Society of the Catholic Church in Italy. It was NOT what I expected. Our professor had us go around and introduce ourselves, and then share any background we have in history, philosophy, and religion. A lot of the students were REALLY intense history majors. Luckily I wasn't the only one who sounded dumb when I told her I have never taken a college history or religion class, and that I was only taking the class because I am Catholic. I sat next to a very confused biology major who seemed to be just as frightened as I was. I guess I'm officially out of my math-nerd comfort zone. My classes all seem kind of intense, but professors always try to scare their students on the first day. After class, I went to a salon down the street to buy a hair straightener! I haven't tried it out yet, but I am so excited to finally have one. The guy at the salon seemed very knowledgable (and saw what a frizzy mess my hair was) so I trusted his judgement in picking out the right one. I then went back to the advising office one last time to grab the translated police report from Laura. I might have to make a daily stop in there to say ciao since that place has become my second home in the past week. After that, I ventured down a new street to find the "cheap supermarcato with 33 eurocent water bottles" that my roommates had discovered a few days ago. I picked up my cheap waters, and then wandered into a camera shop where a very nice lady sold me a reasonably priced, correctly sized memory card. I stopped at the cafe across the street to get a spinach and mozzarella panini since I hadn't eaten since 8:00 am, and called it a night. Since then, I have been lounging, blogging, facebooking, and perfecting the art of doing nothing. I cooked pasta with pesto sauce and sauteed zucchini, green beans, and black olives. All covered in freshly grated asiago cheese, of course. 

If you're still reading, thanks :) I'm so happy I've had so much support from friends in family in the past week. This place is finally starting to feel like a home, and when I walk the streets I almost feel like a local (even if I don't look like one!) I am very anxious to start planning trips around the rest of Europe, but I need to keep reminding myself to take a chill and remember that I'm in ITALY. Life could not be better. 

Ciao!