The last 3 months all summed up...

As we already know, I am the worst person to be keeping a blog -- which is why I'm summing up the past three months in one post.

So...I last left off mentioning that I had begun classes and was enjoying all of my free time to explore the city.  It sure was a relaxing semester.  All of my classes were very interesting though and I feel like I learned a lot about subjects that I never would've been interested in, such as Renaissance art, philosophy, Italian history and government, etc.  And to top it all off, I'm very satisfied with my level of Italian at this point; my goal in studying abroad was to come back fluent in Italian.  I've really enjoyed my time in Florence, especially thanks to all of the great friends that I've made.  Today, I left Florence for good and said goodbye to a lot of people who have done a lot for me, including my host mom, Anna, and her daughter, Claudia.  It was very sad saying goodbye to Anna since we've gotten very close over the past few months, almost as if she were my grandmother.  She even told me that I felt like a son to her -- that meant a lot to me.  But fortunately, next time I return to Florence I'll have someone to visit and a place to stay.

In the past three months I've also traveled a lot, around Europe and around Italy.  The weekend after Paris (which was amazing and beautiful, but ridiculously expensive) we went to Venice for the opening of Carnival.  The costumes were so creative and original and Venice is just awesome.  We also spent a few days in Holland (with my uncle, aunt, and cousin) where we road bikes through the countryside.  Then, we made our way over to London for three days.  London wasn't my favorite place...it kind of felt like another version of America.  But then we hopped on over to Dublin, where everything's extra green and little old men that look like Leprechauns roam the streets.  While in Dublin, we also visit the surrounding countryside...some of the most beautiful nature that I've seen since Alaska!  I loved it!  And the Irish are very friendly (which was a nice break from the rude Florentines).  The next weekend, we went on a school-organized trip to Verona (the city of Romeo and Juliet) and the Garda Lake, and then spent a day hiking the Alps.  For our next "vacation" we went to Naples, Capri, and Pompeii where we saw a whole different side of Italy.  And the pizza in Napoli was soooo good!  For Easter weekend I went to visit my cousin Nadine who was studying abroad in Nice, France.  Nice is a classy beach city along the Mediterranean where the water is the clear turquoise...we had a really good time there.  Our second to last destination was Barcelona, where I fell in love with just about everything!  Finally, we took a day trip to the Cinque Terre where we kayaked, hiked, and road trains between the five finger towns.  That was my last trip of the semester, but not my last trip in Europe.  I spent the last two weeks (after finishing school on May 13th) in Granada, Spain and Faro and Lagos, Portugal.  I'm just in love with Spain right now...hopefully I'll live there some day.  Portugal, on the other hand, is a little secret getaway in Europe with not much to it but some beautiful beaches.  We spent a week in Lagos (on the Atlantic Ocean) where the water is translucent green -- definitely the most beautiful beach I've ever been to.  It felt like a paradise.  Anyways, now I'm done vacationing.  I'm "stationed" in Malta doing research right now until I hop over to Sardinia on June 10th.

It's sad to think that my semester abroad is already over...it seems like a just got to Florence yesterday.  I'm gonna miss that city (a little, haha) even though several things about it thoroughly annoyed me on a day to day basis.  Ciao, Firenze!

Me and Anna

Capri

Florence

Venice - Burano

Monaco

Capri

Notre Dame de Paris

Eiffel Tower

Monaco

Waterfall in the Alps

Carnevale in Venice

Hiking through the Alps

Breakfast in Holland

Carnevale in Venice

Le Louvre

Barcelona Stadium

Biking through Holland

Sagrada Familia - Barcelona

Holland's windmills (my aunt, Julia, me)

Cinque Terre

Cinque Terre

The London Eye

The Duomo - Florence

The Irish countryside

I'm a Terrible Procrastinator

I've now been in Florence for 1 month and 3 days, and every day that I've been here I've continually reminded myself to update my blog...but never did it because I'm too lazy.  Oops.  Well, now I'm doing it.


When I first arrived in Italy (at the Rome airport), everything was exactly as I remembered from this past summer.  The Rome airport was just as packed and disorganized as before, and the airport staff were as rude as usual.  I guess it was a good sign that nothing had changed.  An hour later, I was on my next and final flight to Florence.  Lucky enough, I had a window seat on the plane looking east over all of Italy as we flew north.  I sat there with my head stuck to the window for the entire plane ride...it was by far the most beautiful scenery that I have ever seen from a plane.  Looking down, I saw continuous mountains in the distance - capped in snow - and in the foreground there were endless rolling hills with random lakes and rivers every so often.  Sadly though, I didn't take any pictures so I can't show anyone what I saw :(


Arriving in Florence, I remember thinking how small and cramped the city seemed to be.  It is a relatively small city, and I guess it just seems cramped because no matter where you turn there are buildings all around you...definitely not as spread out as Rome.  I arrived at my host mom's apartment in the early afternoon on Thursday, January 13.  As soon as I walked through the door I found a cute old woman with blond hair and a very tall, brunette, much younger woman.  The older woman is my host mom, Anna, basically my Italian grandma :)  and the younger woman was one of her daughters, Claudia.  Anna lives alone in the apartment (her two daughters live outside of the city).  Surprisingly though, as soon as I entered the apartment, I began speaking Italian better than I ever have before...I was very impressed with myself.  And Anna and Claudia were shocked to hear me speak Italian (since about 99% of Anna's host students never speak any Italian when they arrive in Italy).  Anyways, Anna immediately made me feel at home.  For the first 2 weeks of my stay, I was the only student living with her (the rest of my roommates arrived at the end of January.)  Anna and I talked a lot, about everything, during breakfast and dinner.  She definitely loves to talk, but I also enjoy listening to her stories.  She's 73 years old, a grandma of three young boys, an amazing cook, a lover of Italy, and she's basically traveled the entire world....so we bond a lot when we talk about traveling.  Every so often, when I would come home late at night I would find a plate of desserts sitting on my bed.  She's a very sweet old lady who loves me a lot (probably because I can actually communicate with her and keep her company).  It's been about 2 weeks now since my roommates arrived, there's four of them, so five of us total...yea, it's a lot.  I get to practice my Italian even more now since I constantly have to translate back and forth between them and Anna.  But I do miss the special treatment that I had when it was just me in the house.


Since I'm here to "study abroad" I guess I should at least mention school.  I started school on January 31st, so I'm in my third week now.  Before the start of classes, I was enrolled in a two-week intensive Italian course for about 3 1/2 hours a day Monday through Friday.  It was a very helpful course with just four students total.  I'm now enrolled in an advanced course for 1 hour a day Monday through Thursday, but my class still has just four students.  Besides Italian, I'm taking a digital photography course, a Renaissance art history course, and a course called "Italian Renaissance Civilization and Culture."  I love all of my classes, except the art history one.  I have photography every Monday for 5 hours, during which we normally roam the city for a few hours taking pictures of random things.  But the best part about school here is that I have no more than 45 minutes of homework every night...and no Friday classes!  So, for the first time ever I actually don't hate school :)  I have a lot of free time every day, which is great because it allows us to roam the city and absorb life in Florence.  It's definitely a very relaxing semester...I just hope it doesn't get much harder.


Now, time for me to talk about traveling since I am in Europe.  So far, I've only traveled in Italy, more specifically in and around Florence.  I've been to Pisa, Siena (which was beautiful), and Lucca (which was also very nice).  There's nothing to see in Pisa except for the tower.  Florence has a lot to see though...there are some very nice locations around the city and along the river where you can see some amazing views.  There's also a small village on a hill called Fiesole, only about 7 km outside of Florence, but it has the most beautiful views of Florence and the surrounding country side.  Anyways, tomorrow evening I will be on my way to Paris for 3 days.  The next weekend, I will be in Venice for two days (I'll be there for the start of Carnival).  I haven't planned much beyond that, but there's definitely a lot more traveling to be done :)


Last thing for me to talk about is the food of course.  I've never been in a place where I've been so tempted to keep eating.  Every shop window has the most delicious looking desserts and sandwiches, and about 98% of the time they are as delicious as they look!  I feel like I spend so much money every day buying panini, croissants filled with Nutella, and other snacks.  But luckily, I get to return home every night to a delicious, home-cooked, 3-course meal.  I love it!  And of course, as much as I eat, I've still gained no weight at all...but what's new.