Week One

As of today, I’ve been in Florence for one week! What a week it has been…

I’m exhausted!

I’m realizing it requires a lot of energy to be learning all the time. So many of the things I do at home and at school are second nature and don’t require much thought because they’ve become habits. However, here, I’m creating new habits in a place that has a different language, time-zone, and culture.

That being said, I know once the habits have formed and my routine is more familiar, I will be able to relax a little bit more.

When I was blogging in Oxford, I talked about triumphs, surprises, and struggles, so I’ll do three of each for Florence too!

(Inside Pitti Palace)

Triumphs:

– realizing how happy the food here makes me and how excited I am for classes to start

– doing my first load of laundry!!! (it’s harder than you think when all the buttons are in Italian)

-scheduling some amazing weekend trips (more info to come on those later)

(My roommates and I on the way to cooking class)

Surprises:

-how seamlessly my apartment-mates all get along- we do almost everything together!

-how incredibly real the threat of being run down by an angry Vespa driver is (or horse/carriage, or bike, etc.) The streets are intense…

-how important learning Italian numbers is! Going to the farmer’s market is incredibly difficult when you aren’t sure if you’re saying two cucumbers or twenty…

(Also inside Pitti Palace- what a great visual for struggles, haha)

Struggles:

-the time change has been an adjustment for all of us- between the heat and the time difference between Italy and the U.S., we all nap frequently!

-training myself to be especially alert and cautious when walking in the city! For some reason, before I came, I didn’t expect Florence to be such a city. Between knowing where you’re going (usually we don’t) and avoiding being hit by taxis that pop out of nowhere, I’m working on perfecting my “alert city-stroll”.

-ignoring the occasional derogatory comment about that fact that we are either young, study abroad students or American. These comments get to me sometimes, but we are all learning to ignore them.

Overall I’m doing well and am extremely thankful for both my living space and those I share it with!

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