It is 2:00am here in Firenze, Italia and I just finished up a lovely evening of dinner with a friend and her French roommates.

But before I describe the incredible experiences I had tonight, lets begin with Day 1/2:

Tuesday August 31st, I got to the airport at around 8:30am, met up with Chapman girls and headed through security.  Our first stop was in Chicago.  From Chicago we headed to Zurich, Switzerland landing in Zurich September 1st. This is where things got interesting.  The plane ride from Chicago to Zurich was a nightmare for me considering I was sick the entire 8 hours slash my body can't sleep in a sitting position.  But I met Philip, a guy from Munich, Germany who entertained me the entire plane ride there. He wasn't too bad to look at either :).

Anywho, I think I fell in love with the Zurich airport the minute we landed considering its lavish shopping center.  "Want a Gucci with that latte?" is all I could hear them saying in my head.  It felt like I was walking through the Beverly Center. Who doesn't want to be in Switzerland after that experience?

Once we arrived to Florence, (the airport was a breeze..no CUSTOMS!) we took a taxi to the student point on Via Giglio 4.  We got the keys to our apartment and started lugging half our luggage down the cobble stone streets of Florence while attempting to locate our apartment.  Mind you I'm a girl and I packed about 45lbs and a smaller 35lb worth of clothing . Lugging those suckers was not the most exciting moment of my life.  But we made it. Our apartment is  a street from school and it is located in the center of Florence.

I'm sharing a 3 bedroom, 1 bathroom apartment with 5 lovely roommates: Katie, Lauren, Jessica, Kara



First night, (after unpacking as always) we went to dinner at Ristorante de la Spada. The 4 course meal was AMAZINGGGG. Followed by unlimited wine.  Best wine ever tasted. Side note: Italians drink wine like its water. You drink it with every meal.

Day 3: one word ORIENTATION!
BORING BORING BORING

We got a Free Orientation dinner at The Club House (so American). Dinner was pretty delicious. We headed back to apartment through a Piazza and found a free acoustic band covering Dave Matthews Band.  The guitarists were freaking amazinggggg. Sat right on the ground and just absorbed everything: the air, the music, ITALY!


Day 4:  After waking up (incredibly late of course) met up with a friend and a roommate and decided to explore more of Florence.  We finally went a saw the Duomo.  The thing is freakin massive. Yet incredible considering it is about a 10 minute walk from my apartment.  Words and photos cannot do it justice. Later we decided to do some "window" shopping. BAD IDEA. Italy will deplete my wallet.  Zara in Italia is fantastico! anyhow i refrained from any purchases thank heavens.



Later friday night (or i should say early saturday morning) I met up with my friend's roommates who are from Holland, (blonde locks and all).  Our night began rather late and ended rather early (one hour turned into 5)...lets just say all stereotypes of Italian men are TRUE. A rather interesting yet ENTERTAINING night filled with even more interesting events and we shall leave it at one word: Flo.

OK Sorry for the bore but i wanted to give you a low-down of what my fews days in Florence have been like..I missed many details and could go ON AND ON but you got the gist.  Its crazy to walk down the cobble stone streets and extremely narrow roads with Vespas flying at you left and right (I swear Italians must have really really great breaks on their cars)  and not to think it is all FAKE.  All the buildings, monuments, streets, everything seems like its out of a movie.  Still has yet to hit me that after all the tourists leave, I'll still be living in the CITY!

Tomorrow I will attempt to wake up early to take a run around the city!

Ciao, Buona Notte