Una tempesta.

The title means, "a storm", which is kind of what the memory of the past few days have been like. I've been really busy doing stuff with classes, with the first-years, getting involved, planning trips, getting stuff squared away still. So basically, it's all just a blur. I don't mean storm in the negative sense, just that it's crazy!

I don't have any real substantial things to update you on except my trips for this weekend and next. I leave in three hours or so for Chiavari in Genoa, Italy. It's about 3 and a half hours from here. It's the town where some of my family lives and hopefully I will be able to make contact with them. I am going up there with six of the first-years and Kate, one of the other mentors. Next weekend I will be traveling to Vallodolid, Spain which is about two hours south of Madrid to visit Juan!! For those of you who are not in the know about my buddy from Spagna, he stayed at my house in Smithfield at the beginning of my junior year of high school with the LaSallian exchange program. It will be roughly four years since the last time I saw him - I absolutely cannot wait.

Classes went well this first week. Lots of work but I'm staying on top of it so far. I'm looking forward to the site visits with FIA 313/ARC 300, The Mediterranean City and the acting and laughter from DRA300, Comedy in Italy.

Other than that, I think that I'll say a few things about the culture here as opposed to the mundane goings-on of my day to day activities.

I am clearly an American. I stick out like a sore thumb around here. We all do. It's not so much the fact that we stick out either, it's the fact that the Italians make sure we KNOW we stick out. The staring down, the more than blatant judging and the talking about us right while we're walking past them. It is quite uncomfortable at times. But the Italians, like most people just judge before really taking the chance to know. I have become quite friendly with the people who own Il Masaccio - the best sandwich place in town - because of my rather frequent visits to their place of business. The first few times I went in there, I had to wait an excessive amount of time to be recognized whereas today I walked in and was greeted with, "Ciao, bambina!" (translated - Hello, little one(feminine)!)

Walking into shops and trying to business is the most difficult. I see it as even harder for those of us who speak a little bit of Italian. We try to utilize our knowledge of the language and are scoffed at sometimes when we try and use it. What do they want from us? Be real tourists or actually try and appreciate the language? It's baffling.

Clearly, American style of dress (and my "look") in particular are quite different. I dress comfortably and in what I wear in the States. The Italians live by what is known as the Bella Figura. They always dress as if it was a special day; no dress down days or even comfy casual for that matter. We're all overshadowed by this. I tried wearing a hat the other day - even with my hair down - and got so many weird looks by the time I hit the piazza (about a two minute walk) that I just put the hat in the backpack for the rest of the day. It's so tough trying to live here knowing that ultimately, the way you dress is going to affect the type of treatment you receive. Needless to say, I'm not changing a thing about my wardrobe.

Anyhow, just some food for thought.

Spero che questo blog e vi trovando bene.

(I hope that this blog finds you well.)

Slushies?

So yesterday after my last post I basically just hung around campus and did nothing for a while. I met up with both groups of people I've been hanging out with (the kids from the Greece trip and the freshies :]) to figure out trips out of the country and within the country alike. We hardly got anything done because everyone is just all over the place.

At 4:30, Kate and I took the first years to the Paperback Exchange to buy books. They're a really, really, really awesome group of kids. We had a fun trip down to il Centro and back. I took a few of them to the volunteer meeting and Kate took the other half to get notebooks and stuff. On the way back, Dimitri was insisting that we stop to get slushies. Upon realizing how expensive it was, everyone but him dropped out. He got the orange one because he's from Syracuse (they learn fast!). We goofed off the entire way back and it was just a fun time overall.

The volunteer meeting went well. I'm glad I'm going to get to do community service while I'm here as well as my work study, classes, and everything else. Jenna and I headed back home for dinner after the meeting. I played some calcittone (foosball) with Tori and Franco for a bit and was able to beat them both which was quite the feat. I had a really good conversation with Barbara and Franco which tells me my Italian is coming back. We played a game at dinner to help Jenna and I with our vocabulary. Essentially, there is a letter of the night and we need to go around in a circle listing off words that begin with that letter. For example : attenzione, ascoltare, anche, angelo, aranciata (orange!!), aeroporto, etc... It was really great and a lot of fun.

Jenna and I then came back to school to do some more trip planning but it turned into me, Kate, Mary, Jenna, Rosa, and Maggie just watching YouTube videos. Haha. We went to Piazza Savonarolla afterwards to just hang out. A bunch of the architecture kids were there. I got to see Tony again which was nice. We got back and I skyped Maggie and talked to Bags and Brian for a bit. It was a good end to the night.

Woke up late this morning and scurried around trying to get here on time. Italian was painfully boring and I had my first Literary Travels class. It seems interesting. I'm sitting right now waiting for Comedy to start. I'm pumped about this one. We have a Student Activities and Housing Zone 2 dinner tonight.

Not much else to report - hope you're all doing well!

Domani!

"Excuse me - Hello! I speak English!"

Here's a little tid bit of quirky info for you - an English speaker was not the quotee of this post title. I'll explain in a little bit.

Alright so last I told you I was off to a transportation meeting. That was cool. Got to really hang out with Maggie, Aviva, Jenna, Liz, and Mary. After that, Jenna and I headed home I'm pretty sure. We had some dinner with the fam and then went out with Maggie, Aviva, Jenna, and Kate. We got some drinks in Piazza Savonarolla and then decided to head down to the Duomo and just walk around. We stopped for some pizza and just people watched after that. It was fun - but crazy expensive. To finish off the night we had to set Aviva up with a cab which is no easy feat in Florence let me tell you. Finally, at about 2 she got picked up and everyone headed home.

We made plans to meet in front of school at 11 to go shopping in Piazza di Lorenzo. It's just your typcial market. There were so many vendors it was ridiculous. I bought a new wallet (to replace the velcro Billabong one that I have held dear since I was 12) and an Italian National Team jersey to represent Totti in honor the game that night against Georgia.

So we keep on walking along and Maggie stops to try on a leather jacket and we all kind of just lingered in the street for a bit. I went to go find her and was sidetracked by this guy telling me I dropped something. I turned around and he said, "Hello!! You must be Irish and Italian. I like your style. Where are you from? I have a free jacket just for you because I like your style." I have enough confidence in myself that I followed him into the store. I can definitely hold my own against a lanky Italian store owner. So he has me try on this jacket that fits me perfectly and tells me that he will give it to me for a special price. Now, I don't really ever picture myself as a leather person, so I was a little skeptical from the start. But I kinda rocked it. It was strange. The price of the jacket was 320 euro. He told me that he would give it to me for 110 - still a ton of money. I told him I wasn't sure and would come back later. By the way, during the course of all of this pedaling, we got to talk about Italian stuff. He told me he was from Sicily originally and I told him I was too so he freaked out and started going off about how we were cousins and stuff. Really funny. We also introduced ourselves - a little late into the conversation but it happened nonetheless. Angelo was a really nice guy and so I promised him I would come back with the girls.

When I came back he was ECSTATIC that I had brought friends. He set up each one of us with a jacket that honestly fit us all perfectly - it was crazy. He was pretty convincing in the manner in which he was soliciting us. Jenna decided not to go through with the jacket so Angelo told us that he would give me and Maggie our jackets for 100 and Aviva and Kate theirs for 120. Just for number purposes, please note that two of the jackets were originally 320 and the others about 370 and 380. Insanity. Maggie dropped out and went next door to see if she could get a better price.

She got it. 95. Angelo freaked and decided to give us all our jackets even more discounted. I got mine for 90 and Aviva and Kate got theirs for 110. Dang good deal. Angelo had gotten us drinks and stuff and treated us like queens. He engaged us in conversation as well as selling stuff. His tagline was the title of this post. He spoke English quite well. His boss Rino also befriended me and offer me more deals. I had to turn him down because let's face it, 90 euro still isn't cheap. The three of us exchanged business cards and chatted some more. They invited us back whenever if we ever needed anything. Maggie ended up returning her jacket and buying a bag and jacket from Angelo. He set us up with a good place for lunch then we all went off in separate directions. It was a good day.

Dinner was nice and we all watched the soccer game as well. Italy won over Georgia 2-0 but a Georgia player who actually plays for Milano as well scored both goals for Italy - irony.

Sunday we went to Mass at La Basilica della Croce - one of the more famous basilicas in Italy. Sat right in the front row, of course. After Mass, Franco took us up to Fiesole. The views from up there were incredible. I can't explain it. It reminded me a little bit of Anacapri. We walked around for a bit and then headed back for lunch. We had a nice lunch and then got ready to go to the Monastery just outside the city. It was really ancient and had some cool views. On the way back, we stopped in Piazza di Michelangelo which is where a lot of the pictures and paintings of Florence are done from. Magnificent. I wasn't really feelign well so I stayed back while Jenna went to the park with Tori and Frankie. We had dinner when they got back which was smaller than normal because we did a big lunch. Jenna and I went over our itineraries for the semester with Franco and Barbara and then called it a night.

The first day of classes was today. I had Meditteranean City which is basically architecture. It'll be awesome. Italian was the second and last class. The level I chose was too easy so I have to move up a few. Agh. Anyhow, I'm sitting in the courtyard on campus and going to grab a sandwich before heading home.

I'm thinking about going to see Justin this weekend and meeting him in Paris? Gotta travel.

Buona giornata.

"Sono andato! Non sono venuto!"

Things have definitely taken an awesome upward turn in the past day and a half. It is about 2:30 here in Florence and today has been fantabulous. Yesterday I'm not even quite sure what was up to most of the day. I basically just got all of my meetings and stuff out of the way then went and chilled with Emily. We got some gelato and then I went to get the present for my family, the Maceras. My buddy, Nicole Stanek, and another girl Kate Gieser have stayed with the family before so as their welcoming gift, I gave them a picture of the three of us in a frame.
Tori is my little 8 year old host sister. She is adorable she is a stickler about Italian grammar and won't let me get away with anything, hence the title of this post! Barbara is actually from Seattle but is insistent upon using Italian in the house. Franco is beyond awesome. They have a 24 year old son named Frankie who is in the Carabinieri (military police) in un altro parte d'Italia. I will meet him tonight. He comes home every other weekend.

My roommate's name is Jenna and she is from University of Denver in Colorado. She lives in Colorado Springs. We are both clean people and really organized. She is down to Earth and super cool. I'm really lucky. She went on the pre-trip to Greece so already has a lot of friends on this trip and in turn has asked me to start hanging out with them. They are actually really cool. I think only two of them are from SU though and one is actually from RI! Woo! We stayed up and talked last night for a while and got to know each other.

We both slept well despite the awful heat and humidity during the night. We got up early this morning, had some breakfast and hit the road for school. It's only about a ten minute walk - super easy to navigate. I registered for classes, turned in my work study app, hung out in the Student Life Office, and went to my safety and security meeting. After that, Jenna called me and I went to go meet all her friends and we got lunch at Il Masachio which has PHENOMENAL paninis. I got ham, with spinach, and cheese - toasted. It was fantastic.

I went back up the SL Office to chill with Beth because the girls had a meeting. Since then, I've been down here in the Skype room talking to Katie and also messaging a few other people. I'm off to a transportation meeting now so that I can learn how to use the buses and stuff around here.

I'm definitely having a great day and hope you are too!!

Thinking of you, Mom and Dad.

Aveste un buon giorno tutti!

We were where?!

Okay. Got some paperwork stuff done, took my Italian placement exam, and some other things here yesterday before I headed out for the day. I decided that it would be nice to go explore yesterday since I had a bunch of time before dinner.

4:45pm - depart from SU.

I proceeded to walk towards the Duomo and explore the center of town. I got myself a Panna Cotta gelato and just wandered through the street not necessarily keeping track of where I was going. It was great people watching for sure.

~6pm - decide to start heading back to the hotel.

I went in the direction that I had assumed to be towards Il Fiume Arno (The Arno River) because my hotel was right next to it. As I kept walking things started to get quieter and quieter. It was still light out so there was nothing to be afraid of. I came across a piazza that looked oddly familiar. Upon closer examination I realized that I had been there roughly 20 minutes beforehand.

~6:25pm - decide that it is time to take out the map.

You have to understand that the roads here in Florence are clearly marked but they are all so small that cartographers deemed most of them unnecessary to be included in maps of the city. So I kept going until I found an army looking guy and asked him quite simply "Dov'e' siamo??", which means, "Where are we?". He chuckled a little bit and then struggled to figure out where we were on the map, because like I said, the maps here stink. Anyhow he showed me the way (without the map) so I took off. I was convinced I wasn't going in the right direction so I stopped at a gelateria that I was passing and the really nice girl behind the counter started a conversation with me and helped me get home as per way of the map.

6:52pm - arrive at the hotel.

I went right up to bed and collapsed for a few minutes before heading down to dinner. I had dinner with Emily, Brandon, and Vallusi. They're pretty cool. Emily went to a host family Q&A after dinner and I went and slept til 9:45 when she got back. We went and got the boys and headed out to go explore the Ponte Vecchio and surrounding area. Well, that ended up being a three hour and fifteen minute excursion to very southern part of Florence - basically the boundary of the city. It was insane. We walked for so long and saw a lot of stuff but we were basically just wandering aimlessly. It was quite the long night.

Slept like a rock and now I'm at school. We meet the host families in four hours or so - oh the suspense. Hopefully tonight will be nice with the family and stuff. Gotta figure out my way around without getting lost at some point. My rationale is that you can never find anything unless you get lost! So I'll get lost now so that I can really live here in the near future.

Ciao.

Sono arrivato.

Heya,

Travel - done. Got to the airport by one today. Sported my OL polo with pride. Said bye to mom and dad and then indulged in some fine American cuisine before heading inot the international gate: McDonald's. Got through security and all that just fine and scored myself and aisle seat for the trip from NYC to Germany.

So we landed in Munich around 7:45 am Germany time. The flight was so long. I couldn't sleep because I couldn't get comfortable. I didn't get sick from the food this time which was a plus. I've talked to a few of the kids in my flight group, three of which are architecture students. They, like the majority of the group, are travelling with friends. The flight from Munich to Florence at 12:55pm was a tough one. The plane smelled bad and it was very cramped so I solved those issues by sleeping. We arrived at the hotel in Florence around 2:30 and had until three to get settled before we headed out to campus. We walked 25 minutes to campus with our guide so we could scope out important things in the city. We stayed there for a meeting and stuff til about 5 and then I took off to explore the city a little, get myself a phone and some necessaries that I accidentally forgot to pack in my carry on for orientation.

Got back a little while ago and took a much needed shower. Dinner starts in like 15 minutes then I think I am going oto just read and go to bed.

Tomorrow starts at 9am for some info stuff on campus so I have to make sure the jet lag isn't going to completely mess me up. I'm planning on exploring the city by foot tomorrow because I only have 2 meetings. One is at 1:15pm and the other is at 8:30pm so I am hoping to find some cool stuff.

Off to a slow start - I'm hoping classes will make it easier to meet people and make some connections.


Per adesso.

Pre-Departure______?

Choose a word - any word. I could probably substantiate claims that the words anxiety, confusion, numbness, excitement, dread, apprehension, bewilderment, and pondering would all fit perfectly into the title of this post.

I arrived home from Syracuse about three hours ago. It was a really long, difficult ride home. I say that because 5 1/2 hours is a long time to think about stuff. Thoughts of the past two weeks of orientation were rushing around in my head while being mixed together with questions about how things are at home with my parents and puppy and sister now out in California. Not to mention the fact that I was going to be in a different country for four months in under 24 hours.

It's a lot to grapple with. Whatever was happening in my head in the car carried over into finishing up packing and getting my life in order so I can be out of here by 9am. I'm really just blank. I'm exhausted which I'm sure isn't helping much. My room has been hit by some monstrous typhoon and I'm convinced that I am going to leave a vital item in my room when I leave (such as Slapshot, blankie, or one of my obscenely orange shirts).

Amidst all the insanity, I knew that I wanted to get this blog thing underway. I will update it as much as possible in the upcoming months I and hope you will follow it so you don't miss out on what I'll be up to, not only in Florence but all throughout Europe as well.

Arrivederci miei amici.