Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Day 5 and 6 La Scuola
Ciao
So I did not have time to write yesterday because I spent most of the day at school and then the rest eating dinner and passing out. But to briefly recap, we had orientation for school at 2 p.m. yesterday. That lasted about 4 hours and then we made our way back home for dinner around 8. Again, a delicious meal consisting of three courses and for dessert, we actually made "Italian s'mores" because Kelly brought a bag of marshmellows from the states for our host family since apparently, marshmellows are fairly uncommon here. Anyway, we taught Andrea and Barbara how to roast the marshmellow over the open flame of the stove and then we covered the marshmellow in Nutella and sandwiched them between two crackers. Overall, our creation was delicious and I think they enjoyed their first s'more experience.
This morning was the placement test for Italian. It started at 830 and ran until 1030. It was about 17 pages long and VERY comprehensive.. after it was over I thought I would be placed back in Italian 1 for sure, but surprisingly, after a short oral part, I was placed into Italian 3! There are officially levels 1,3,4 and 5. I am not sure why there is no 2, but oh well. Kelly, my roommate, was placed into italian 5. She is really good with speaking and I am learning slowly but surely just listening to her. Tomorrow is our first day of class officially. I will be in class from 9 to 330 on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and from 9 to 1230 on Mondays and Wednesdays. The language programs are VERY intensive and I am little bit nervous about starting in a level up from what I expected, but hopefully it won't be too bad!
I will keep you all updated about how my classes are going/ what trips I decide to go on!!
Buona sera!
Sarah
So I did not have time to write yesterday because I spent most of the day at school and then the rest eating dinner and passing out. But to briefly recap, we had orientation for school at 2 p.m. yesterday. That lasted about 4 hours and then we made our way back home for dinner around 8. Again, a delicious meal consisting of three courses and for dessert, we actually made "Italian s'mores" because Kelly brought a bag of marshmellows from the states for our host family since apparently, marshmellows are fairly uncommon here. Anyway, we taught Andrea and Barbara how to roast the marshmellow over the open flame of the stove and then we covered the marshmellow in Nutella and sandwiched them between two crackers. Overall, our creation was delicious and I think they enjoyed their first s'more experience.
This morning was the placement test for Italian. It started at 830 and ran until 1030. It was about 17 pages long and VERY comprehensive.. after it was over I thought I would be placed back in Italian 1 for sure, but surprisingly, after a short oral part, I was placed into Italian 3! There are officially levels 1,3,4 and 5. I am not sure why there is no 2, but oh well. Kelly, my roommate, was placed into italian 5. She is really good with speaking and I am learning slowly but surely just listening to her. Tomorrow is our first day of class officially. I will be in class from 9 to 330 on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and from 9 to 1230 on Mondays and Wednesdays. The language programs are VERY intensive and I am little bit nervous about starting in a level up from what I expected, but hopefully it won't be too bad!
I will keep you all updated about how my classes are going/ what trips I decide to go on!!
Buona sera!
Sarah
Monday, August 29, 2011
Day 4- La Mia Nuova Famiglia!
Ciao!
I have finally made it to my home stay!! It's official, I have an Italian family :). For the next 14 weeks I will be living with my house mom, Barbara, her two sons, Tomasso (28) and Andrea (16), Megan the dog, Stella the cat, and my housemate, Kelly from UC Berkeley. The apartment is AMAZING. For those unfamiliar with Florence, I live on the south side of the Arno (the river that runs through Florence) in a residential area. This side of Florence is very beautiful, quiet, and clean compared to the center of the city. I showed up at the apartment around 1 p.m. and was greeted by Megan, Andrea, and Barbara. Andrea speaks the most English of the three, but not very much. Barbara knows some broken English and Tomasso barely knows any. It has been somewhat challenging trying to communicate with them but also kind of fun. Kelly is HUGE help, she is ten times better at Italian than me and is able to translate most of what I need to say, but I still plan on speaking with them in Italian by the time I leave here. It would be nice if I could wake up tomorrow knowing the language but I suppose it will just have to be a process!
After Kelly showed up, Barbara offered to take us into town to see the bus route. Unfortunately, my school is about 25 minutes on the bus, but I'm hoping to get my hands on a used bike so that I can take the bike path to school instead. After she showed us the bus stop, we decided to walk back into the city to meet up with Kelly's mom and get food. At this point, I had only eaten 2 fruit leathers, an espresso, and some water all day so I was STARVING. After we met up with her mom at a caffe near the Duomo, we went to find Ana's apartment. She is staying in an apartment that overlooks the Arno with three other girls from UCSB. Her apartment is really nice and very old fashioned. I wouldn't mind living closer to school, but I am overall very happy with my homestay so far.
Kelly and I came back to the apartment around 6:30 with her mom so that she could meet the family and then Barbara began to prepare our "feast" which is just normal dinner to them. We ate around 8:30 and we had a great time talking about everything from surfing to CSI. Andrea is a typical teenage boy and went straight to playing video games on the couch as soon as he was released from the table. Since I noticed they had a Wii, I decided to challenge him to a couple games and we played for a while. After that, I finally took a shower/bath, Kelly and I share a bathroom that has a tub with a shower nozel but no shower curtain... so basically you have to sit down in order to not get water everywhere. But now I am just trying to wind down for the night and beat my jet lag. Tomorrow is orientation back at school. I think I finally find out when I have class!
And last but not least, here is my address! (Hint, hint) :) In case any of your feel like you want to send me something. Thanks for reading!
Via Kyoto, 2
50126, Firenze FI
Italy
Ciao!
I have finally made it to my home stay!! It's official, I have an Italian family :). For the next 14 weeks I will be living with my house mom, Barbara, her two sons, Tomasso (28) and Andrea (16), Megan the dog, Stella the cat, and my housemate, Kelly from UC Berkeley. The apartment is AMAZING. For those unfamiliar with Florence, I live on the south side of the Arno (the river that runs through Florence) in a residential area. This side of Florence is very beautiful, quiet, and clean compared to the center of the city. I showed up at the apartment around 1 p.m. and was greeted by Megan, Andrea, and Barbara. Andrea speaks the most English of the three, but not very much. Barbara knows some broken English and Tomasso barely knows any. It has been somewhat challenging trying to communicate with them but also kind of fun. Kelly is HUGE help, she is ten times better at Italian than me and is able to translate most of what I need to say, but I still plan on speaking with them in Italian by the time I leave here. It would be nice if I could wake up tomorrow knowing the language but I suppose it will just have to be a process!
After Kelly showed up, Barbara offered to take us into town to see the bus route. Unfortunately, my school is about 25 minutes on the bus, but I'm hoping to get my hands on a used bike so that I can take the bike path to school instead. After she showed us the bus stop, we decided to walk back into the city to meet up with Kelly's mom and get food. At this point, I had only eaten 2 fruit leathers, an espresso, and some water all day so I was STARVING. After we met up with her mom at a caffe near the Duomo, we went to find Ana's apartment. She is staying in an apartment that overlooks the Arno with three other girls from UCSB. Her apartment is really nice and very old fashioned. I wouldn't mind living closer to school, but I am overall very happy with my homestay so far.
Kelly and I came back to the apartment around 6:30 with her mom so that she could meet the family and then Barbara began to prepare our "feast" which is just normal dinner to them. We ate around 8:30 and we had a great time talking about everything from surfing to CSI. Andrea is a typical teenage boy and went straight to playing video games on the couch as soon as he was released from the table. Since I noticed they had a Wii, I decided to challenge him to a couple games and we played for a while. After that, I finally took a shower/bath, Kelly and I share a bathroom that has a tub with a shower nozel but no shower curtain... so basically you have to sit down in order to not get water everywhere. But now I am just trying to wind down for the night and beat my jet lag. Tomorrow is orientation back at school. I think I finally find out when I have class!
And last but not least, here is my address! (Hint, hint) :) In case any of your feel like you want to send me something. Thanks for reading!
Via Kyoto, 2
50126, Firenze FI
Italy
Ciao!
Sunday, August 28, 2011
Day 3- Gelato
The jet lag finally hit me last night. I thought I had gotten away without having any but unfortunately, I woke up at 1:30 a.m. and could not fall back asleep until 3:30 when I gave up and decided to take half a Benadryl. After that, I slept in until around 11:30 (both of us missed our 8 a.m. alarm) and even then felt exhausted, so we both slept for another hour. When we finally got up at 1, we decided to take the bus down to the Duomo again since that is the only place we know how to get to so far. Yesterday we met a man at a caffe near the Duomo who fell "in love with my eyes" when we stopped in to look at their wine selection. He invited us back for a discount on the the food, so we decided to take him up on the offer. Since it was about 90 degrees out, the only appealing thing was the macedonia (basically a fruit bowl). So we ordered one to share. After dealing with the constant space bubble preach from our overly friendly waiter, we decided to explore the city further.
Around six, we decided to stop for dinner and found a caffe with a dinner special, 9 euro for salad, bruschetta, lasagna, and a glass of wine. The food was delicious but since I saved room for dessert (as always) we went on the hunt for "cheap" gelato. After scouring the city for about an hour. taking our fair share of shopping breaks in between, we settled for a Gelatoria next to the Duomo. I ordered a small mint gelato, and Ana a limone sorbetto. The woman behind the counter stuffed each of our smalls with a huge amount of gelato and I'm thinking, what a great deal for 2 euro each! As we went to pay, the woman asked for 9 euro... EACH!! We couldn't believe that we decided on a "cheap" place that ended up being even more expensive than we thought. Anyway, c'e la vie I suppose. We ate our golden gelato as we walked to the bus stop.
Now back at the hotel, we are watching a movie and getting ready for tomorrow. We finally find out where we are living!! :) I will keep you all posted.
Ciao,
Sarah
Around six, we decided to stop for dinner and found a caffe with a dinner special, 9 euro for salad, bruschetta, lasagna, and a glass of wine. The food was delicious but since I saved room for dessert (as always) we went on the hunt for "cheap" gelato. After scouring the city for about an hour. taking our fair share of shopping breaks in between, we settled for a Gelatoria next to the Duomo. I ordered a small mint gelato, and Ana a limone sorbetto. The woman behind the counter stuffed each of our smalls with a huge amount of gelato and I'm thinking, what a great deal for 2 euro each! As we went to pay, the woman asked for 9 euro... EACH!! We couldn't believe that we decided on a "cheap" place that ended up being even more expensive than we thought. Anyway, c'e la vie I suppose. We ate our golden gelato as we walked to the bus stop.
Now back at the hotel, we are watching a movie and getting ready for tomorrow. We finally find out where we are living!! :) I will keep you all posted.
Ciao,
Sarah
Saturday, August 27, 2011
Day Two: Santa Maria del Fiore
Buonanoche!
Hey everyone,
Today Ana and I went into town and saw the famous Duomo Santa Maria del Fiore. Surprisingly, we got onto the right bus and managed not to get lost. While exploring the city we also came across the piazza that our school is in! That was really nice because now we kind of have an idea of where it is relative to the Duomo. For lunch we had our first real taste of Italian food at a caffe in the Duomo square. Apparently, food costs more when you sit down to eat, they add about two euro onto each entree when you sit down. That got a little confusing when it came to tipping, but other than that, everything has gone smoothly so far. We also bought some cheap phones with pay as you go plans, so we officially have Italian numbers, not that any of you can use them, but we thought it's pretty exciting. We got back to the hotel at around five and decided to try to find this pizzeria that was around the corner. When we started looking for places to eat, we noticed that nothing seemed to be open...Apparently, restaurants here close from around 4 pm to 7 which was very confusing. But eventually, seven came around and we were able to eat! After dinner I had my first italian gelato experience :) I got a biscotti flavored one and it was delicious. While eating our gelato we walked back to the hotel. Now we are just deciding what to do tomorrow and watching the only show in English on tv.... Jersey Shore, of course!
Ciao!
Sarah
Hey everyone,
Today Ana and I went into town and saw the famous Duomo Santa Maria del Fiore. Surprisingly, we got onto the right bus and managed not to get lost. While exploring the city we also came across the piazza that our school is in! That was really nice because now we kind of have an idea of where it is relative to the Duomo. For lunch we had our first real taste of Italian food at a caffe in the Duomo square. Apparently, food costs more when you sit down to eat, they add about two euro onto each entree when you sit down. That got a little confusing when it came to tipping, but other than that, everything has gone smoothly so far. We also bought some cheap phones with pay as you go plans, so we officially have Italian numbers, not that any of you can use them, but we thought it's pretty exciting. We got back to the hotel at around five and decided to try to find this pizzeria that was around the corner. When we started looking for places to eat, we noticed that nothing seemed to be open...Apparently, restaurants here close from around 4 pm to 7 which was very confusing. But eventually, seven came around and we were able to eat! After dinner I had my first italian gelato experience :) I got a biscotti flavored one and it was delicious. While eating our gelato we walked back to the hotel. Now we are just deciding what to do tomorrow and watching the only show in English on tv.... Jersey Shore, of course!
Ciao!
Sarah
Friday, August 26, 2011
Day One- Arrivo!
Ciao!
Ana and I have made it to Firenze! After about 16 hours of traveling non- stop, we are finally here :) Right now it is about 9:30 and 86 degrees out... but the good news it that our hotel has air conditioning. Tomorrow we plan on finding our way into the city to be "tourists" for a few days before school starts. I can't wait to find out who my home stay family is. Only three more days! Anyway, I think we are going to head out and look around a little bit. I will keep you all posted!
Arrivederci!
Sarah
Ana and I have made it to Firenze! After about 16 hours of traveling non- stop, we are finally here :) Right now it is about 9:30 and 86 degrees out... but the good news it that our hotel has air conditioning. Tomorrow we plan on finding our way into the city to be "tourists" for a few days before school starts. I can't wait to find out who my home stay family is. Only three more days! Anyway, I think we are going to head out and look around a little bit. I will keep you all posted!
Arrivederci!
Sarah
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