1 month check-in.

wow. a whole month has already gone by and midterms are in 2 measly weeks- scary!
people keep asking how i'm doing and i only have one response: alright. it's been alright.
don't get me wrong, walking up the tower of pisa was amazing and watching a clarinet ragtime/swing quartet was so much fun, but i am starting to miss home a little, mainly the people and just the support i get when i'm there-and i'm not the type to get nostalgic...

classes are going well, i like all of my professors here. the walk up the hill to school is one i'm used to now, so i'm getting more acclaimmated, which is nice. i haven't really interacted with any real italians yet (none my age anyways)...so maybe it'll get better when I do?

can't wait to travel! every weekend starting from spring break is basically booked, i'll have many more adventure stories to tell then (hopefully).

i like reading emails or comments, if any of you want to write me one.

what we call, the "valley of death"- what we walk AFTER walking up the treachery hill to campus :( 

happy valentine's day!

woke up with these on my desk :)

what a sight :)

 santa croce museum :)

 taken with a nikon d90 :)

 chocolate festival @ santa croce ! :) DELICIOUS

 me at the festival :)

 THE ARNO AT NIGHT! :)

DELICIOUSSSSS PANINI & HOT CHOCOLATE at a place behind the duomo. yummmmy.

makes your mouth water, doesn't it?

EXCITEDDDDDD!

So, I wasn't really excited about being here for a while...but these past 2 days have been crazy and it's just because of the thought of what I will be doing within the next few weeks!

I just finished planning my spring break! Where I will be in Paris, Barcelona & Brussels! Then 1 1/2 weeks later, i'm heading to London!

This month i'll be going up the tower at Pisa and eating (some hopefully) delicious foooodd in Modena! :)
I do feel a little =/ about the amount of $ I just poured out in 2 days, but hey a round trip ticket to London for $79? I don't think I can pass that up right now!  

If any of you have any suggestions on where to go/what to do in these places, i'm all ears!

and I PROMISE; I WILL BRING MY CAMERA! Unlike the fail I had in Siena :(

Buonanotte!
-jamie

The Chocolate Festival @ Santa Croce! & my first church service in Italy!

Ciao everyone! :)
     So today was an interesting day. Went to my first church service in Italy and it was held by a Methodist church. Now, because my church is non-denominational, it was quite interesting to see how things ran here. It was pretty structured and literally every word that was said was written in their pamphlet...even the message. And the minister was like a powerhouse on her own; she spoke in Italian, translated it herself and even played the piano and led the singing during worship. That was pretty intriguing and "wow." I'm not so sure I really learned a lot..but it was definitely interesting to attend. I'm heading to the evangelical church service at 6:30pm next sunday, so we'll see how that goes.
     Met a group of girls (students studying in Italia from other schools) afterwards and we went to the chocolate festival (which was two blocks away from the church). It was pretty cool! A lot of different kinds of chocolate...the hot chocolate was INSANE. it was like drinking straight up melted chocolate, super thick, my teeth felt a little grimy after. hahah...
     We bought some chocolate with hazelnuts, pepercino chocolate (chocolate with paprika!) and tried a bunch of random stuff, like (all the following infused with the specific oils, all 100% natural):
Green apple chocolate: pretty interesting....
Lavender chocolate: seriously tasted like I ate a flower, it was super bitter
Marijuana?! chocolate: it was strange (it's legal..?!) haha...
Basil Chocolate: omg so strong it was gross
Coconut chocolate: alright tasting, the coconut was strong, but not overpowering
Cinnamon chocolate: it was like eating Big Red gum
*note to everyone, don't try lavender, basil & marijuana chocolate one after the other. I learned the hard way, the outcome is REALLY DISGUSTING and my mouth just tasted like a gigantic, bitter soapy flower, ick.

And then we had some chocolate jam with some kind of fruit...which i did not enjoy at all.

That's the update! The weather is pretty awesome 50s-60s, but when the suns not out, it seriously feels 20 degrees colder.
Siena was beautiful, a lot of towers and kids throwing around confetti during Carnivale (the halloween-like holiday that lasts for the entire month of Feb). It was nice. :)

Hope ya'll are doing well back in the states! I miss chinese food & rice. :(

love,
jamie

ciao!

Ciao!
Mi chiamo Jamie. Sono Americana di New York. Yo abito in Via Ricasoli a Firenze. Ho venti anni. Ho un fratello y una sorella. Studio italiano e musica a all' universita di New York. Mi piace gelato e musica. 


What I learned (and have memorized) in 3 days of taking Italian..along with some numbers, and conjugations of some other verbs. haha...it's some progresss!

-jamie :)

okay, more pictures!

hmm, let's see how my day went:

went to visit this church, we originally thought was the duomo, but alas, we realized it was not and was just a brother. haha.

Next off, we went to Ikea (sorry, didn't bring my camera there....haha)

but this is another brother from another mother church at the duomo

one side of campus! we have to go hills and stuff for class- fun times! haha.

sign in school said: "beware of falling pine cones, they may be small, but they hurt!" hahaaa...

                   part of campus!- olive tree garden woo!

                                 the really big clock in the church we visited. it was so cool.

                                                      why yes, that is a tower.

Last- I finally got an adapter that works, hopefully getting a SIM card soon (although, it's pretty nice not having one...) and going off to eat dinner soon. Then possibly going out- it is the last day (free night) before classes! It's been fun. I'm actually excited to start classes. I want to learn Italian so I stop looking like a "stupid American." sighs. :(

ciao!
jamie :)

pitturas! :)

                                                                part of the duomo

                                                              piazza della republica

                                                                    katie & charlie :)

                                                          carousel- random but colorful!

                                                        a thing next to the duomo i believe.

                  yummy yummy dolce place that we passed before we got super lost after dinner tonight.

                                                pasta with spicy tomato! it was delicious! :)

                                       the castle we saw when we realized we were lost.... :(

The Duomo & the first taste of gelato !

Helloo everyone!
     So, this is my first entry in Florence! First thoughts? Honestly, I'm not very impressed yet- or as wowed as I thought I'd be. It really reminds me a lot of La Puebla, Mexico so I think it's really sucking the joy out of seeing everything here. The architecture is very similar, just a lot less colorful. It was raining when we got in yesterday night, so that didn't help at all :( It's very "brown and green" as Katie Hale describes it.
     I saw the Duomo- it's HUGE! and it looks really fake! haha. A lot of it is painted, shutters and all that stuff, so it looks like a painting or drawing to me. eh. But it is really nice. The roomies and I also went scavenging in La Pietra gardens, which is part of our 55 acre campus and it's really nice. I can't wait to see it in the springtime.
     The people here are pretty nice, sorry, but I haven't taken any pictures yet. Mee Young (roomie) did, but i'll be sure to bring my camera out tomorrow or something. There's a lot of little steps and I constantly seem to be falling off and scaring myself to death, I keep looking at the ground when I walk now--which is also quite dangerous. The streets are SUPER NARROW and these vespas and cars zoom by crazy fast. Pedestrians really don't have the "right of way" when walking so if you're not careful, they'll seriously run you over and not be fazed by it, hah.
      mmm, so gelato- I had the stracciatella, which is basically vanilla & chocolate chip ice cream but not, and it was really creamy and delicious! I tried Mee's Tiramisu flavor too, pretty good! And they served it with these cute little clear, plastic and flat spoons, mine was blue :) The cone was really crispy and light, not like the ones from baskin robbins. It was sure tasty. Mee young wants to try all the flavors by the time we leave and I may just do that with her!
      The walk from campus is really about 35-40 minutes which I can probably shorten....just gotta find a better route and memorize it!
       Hmm....soo....I think that's about it for now...other than my adapter not working and the bed being so soft, I felt like I was sleeping on a water bed, oh! and my boots being muddily destroyed already, it's been alright. I hope I'll discover more beauty soon!

Ciao! :)
-Jamie

pre-departure

hello!
   This is my first blog and my first entry ever, I guess this is a momentous occasion for me. haha. As I've told many people, I decided to create this mainly to act as a way to keep all you lovely people updated with my semester abroad in Florence :) So, I hope you enjoy! I plan on getting better at this the more I post!

So, everyone's been asking me how I feel about leaving to Florence, and honestly I have no idea. I've never been to Europe so I don't know what to expect. I know I should be excited (or so I've been told), that it will be best experience of my entire life, but those are just feelings and thoughts I'm anticipating to have before leaving. One thing I don't want to do though, is to leave with expectations on how it's all going to be, so for now here are the facts: I'm leaving in 6 days to travel across the world for 3 1/2 months, with a plan to see as much as I can as possible!
                        How that all goes we'll see with the rest of my entries!


love & blessings,
jamie