week one

ciao!

i decided to create a blog for while i'm in italy. we'll see how this goes.

the first week has been a little hectic, to say the least. we nearly missed our plane from paris to pisa and about half of the luggage got left in paris. including mine. so needless to say, the first three days were a little rough. we only had drawing class, because all of our paints/collaging materials were still days behind us.

i tried to wash my clothes after the second day sans luggage, and then i couldn't get the washer open when i thought the clothes were done. we don't have a dryer, just a clothesline. dryers aren't really very common. and so we had to get our neighbor, maria to help with the washing machine. which happens to be all in italian. some background on maria: she is a wonderful old italian woman who speaks absolutely no english and she just speaks to us in italian and we just sort of look at each other and smile and shrug. we learned a little italian before we left, and we're picking up on more, but interactions with maria are always so silly. so she attempts to fiddle with the washing machine and we end up hanging my clothes up to dry even though they were soaking wet. and of course they weren't dry the next day. oy. it was so frustrating.

regardless of air france's mishaps, we began to take in our surroundings. this city is absolutely gorgeous. and now that clean clothes and art materials are safe in our adorable apartment, i do not want to leave! everything about the city is beautiful. our apartment is on the south side of the city, across the river. we live in a nice little neighborhood a block or two away from the boboli gardens.

we've had classes at the ponte vecchio, some etruscan and roman ruins in fiesole and in some piazas that i don't remember the name of right now. hah there are always people that come up behind us and watch us work. it's kind of cool.

also, italian boys are so ridiculous. it's a normal part of the culture for them to make comments towards women or just watch their butts as they walk past. a lot of times, boys will come up to us in markets and while we're in class and try to talk to us, but sometimes you just kind of have to ignore them.

the food is incredible! i'm happy to be in a vegetarian friendly country and i'm not sure i'll ever get sick of eating panini with tomatoes and mozzarella. all the vegetables are so fresh and they kind of put american vegetables to shame. oh well.

this weekend we checked out some incredible churches with amazing art that i've only seen in art history books. it's unreal to see them in person.

okay, this has been pretty long. so i think i'll wrap it up and save some more adventures for another post.

arrivederci!