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