Monday, January 31, 2011

1st day of classe!

So today was my first day of classes! I woke up around 11 am and relaxed around the apt for a bit. Then Rachel and I went grocery shopping and bought a hair straightener (finally). Then we made our way over to Corso Tintori for our first class : Chemistry and the Visual Arts! To be honest, I was so nervous about this class. 1- because it technically was my first as an international student, which is enough to make any American student shake but mostly 2- it's chemistry, and I am, have always been and always will be, the most inept science student ever. ANYWAYS we got to class in this beautiful building and met our teacher. He's from New Zealand, wears black and only black and will not respond to anything except Ted (aka Dr., Mr., etc). 
So we pretty much spent two and a half hours going over his syllabus. I know this sounds super boring, and it kinda was, but it definitely comforted my fear of taking a chem class and actually, surprisingly, made me excited for the class. Instead of focusing on balancing equations and concocting fizzy chemical mixtures, Ted will be teaching us the chemistry in art restoration, photography and photo development! We will also be going on four different museum trips (on Wednesday mornings) which I love!
After chem, I walked about three blocks to my Italian Intermediate class (eeeeek). The teacher walked in, she had to be about 25 years old and surprise, surprise, she does NOT speak english. Yep, the entire class will be held in Italian.. oh god. It wasn't too bad except for the girl who definitely already speaks Italian who answered a lot of questions that I struggled to understand. It's going to be an interesting class, that I'll probably end up taking pass/fail and hopefully come out fluent! We'll see... 

Sunday, January 30, 2011

leaning with the tower

So I just returned from Pisa, Italia! 
Rach and I in front of the tower!


We had a orientation field trip today that took us from Florence to the IKEA superstore and then to the town of Pisa (only about an hour away) to see the famous leaning tower! IKEA was exactly the same as the IKEA at home, so nothing really to report there. We spent about 10 mins walking around and then walked down the street to the Italian McDonald's to satisfy some American cravings. Surprisingly, the Italian Mickey D's is wicked nice. There was a completely separate section for McCafe that served espresso and a variety of pastries. I got a cheeseburger and fries and they all tasted exactly the same as home. There were some pretty funny things on the menu, but I was to unsure to order them.


After IKEA, we went straight to Pisa. I was a little disappointed, because it was so rainy and gloomy out but I think I took some good pictures. Then Rachel, Meg, Nathalie and I wandered around the street vendors and eventually made our way back to ANOTHER McDonald's where we just chilled until the bus left. Driving around, looking at all the scenery made me so excited to start my travels outside of Florence! 
Next week, Perugia and Azzizi and then Prague and Switzerland the two weekends after!


Well, nothing else to report right now. Classes start tomorrow! I have Chemistry and the Visual Arts tomorrow at 3:00 PM and then Italian from 6-7:15 PM. Wish me luck!

Saturday, January 29, 2011

fare la spesa, arrivederci soldi!

Today was a very expensive day, my favorite kind of day of course! I woke up around 12:30 since Rachel, Meg, Nathalie & Ryann were out until 3:30 AM doing our own, makeshift pub crawl! (I tried my first Sangria and I LOVED it, I want to drink it everyday). So anyway, I woke up a little after noon and showered and got ready. Then Rachel and I decided we should book some trips.. so we consulted our tentative calendar, went on www.bus2alps.com and booked THREE trips!


As of now (we still plan on booking at least two more), we will be going to Prague on Fed 10th-13th and Switzerland on Feb 17th-20th! Then at the end of April we will be going on a beachy, sunshine-filled weekend trip to Croatia, which is supposed to be amazing and I've heard from multiple people that it's truly the up & coming, secret gem of Europe! So that was pretty expensive (even though we saved about 100 euros by using a promotional code and booking three trips at once), but so totally worth every penny. 


Then we met Meg and Nathalie at Pino's Panini Shop and ate the most delicious sandwiches ever. I ordered "The Beegs" which had proscuitto, salami, sundried tomatoes and yellow peppers all with a spicy hot sauce. O. M. G. AMAZING. Then we decided to hit up the saldis :) I needed a new pair of boots since I've been wearing the same pair everyday and they are slowly getting worn down. I found a nice black pair on saldi and got those. We then wandered around and ended up all going different directions. I re-found this boutique near my apt and purchased a brown, poofy, shiny jacket on saldi (they seem to be all the rage here) that I can definitely wear in Switzerland! I also found this local artisan and purchased some gifts for people back home (I'm keeping this one vague so no one will know what they're getting! ha ha). 


After my shopping I came home and attempted to do laundry but I couldn't figure out the Italian washing machine (I'm convinced it's broken but I'm probably just inept). Then Steph & Shira came home and we made our first, real Italian meal. Well, more like Shira made the meal and Steph and I helped/watched/did dishes. We made lasagna! So delicious! 

Friday, January 28, 2011

pizzzaa

Ciao Tutti!
So the wine bar I mentioned last night ended up being a no-go. We arrived at 7:48 PM and there was a line of 20-30 young Italians all waiting outside to get in. Soo we decided to save it for another time and plan on getting there MUCH earlier. 
Instead, we went to Yellow Bar on the end of our street to get pizza. I decided to pick a random pizza (since the menu was basically all in Italian and the only one I was familiar with was Margherita) and order it! I chose Pizza del'orolatano (or something similar to that) on a complete whim. 


IT WAS DELICIOUS. Mine is the one the tomatoes and argula! 


Even though we were stuffed after each finishing our own personal pizza, we decided tonight was the night to try our first gelato! So we went to GROM gelaterie and all ordered different flavors. I ordered the Pistachio which actually tasted like frozen, creamy pistachios (soo wonderful). We then came back to our apartment for some R&R since we were all so exhausted.


Rach and I started to look into planning some weekend excursions. So far we've planning on going Prague, Carnevale in Venice and Switzerland in February, Spain for spring break in March, Vienna, Salzberg and Croatia in April. We're hoping to plan a trip down to the Cinque Terre to go hiking but we haven't set a definite date yet.


Today, Rachel and I FINALLY went to the Ponte Vecchio to check out all the jewelry! We decided not to buy anything yet but just to pick out our favorites to keep in mind. I found these amazing gold pendants with colorful designs for about 150 euros that I think I may splurge on in my last few days here (depending on how much money I have left, haha). We also walked around and ending up finding H&M which was massive and wonderful! I got a nice winter jacket for only 20 euros and a sweater since our apt gets a bit chilly at night.
(here's a picture of the Ponte Vecchio bridge, famous for all the beautiful jewelry merchants all the way across)


Now, I'm just relaxing in the apt. Robin is in Florence and I just saw her on her way to the Ponte Vecchio. We're planning on getting lunch tomorrow and going out together tonight, so I'm very excited about that! Anyway, I'm about to head off on another walking tour but I'll update you all tomorrow!

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Firenze Living

Ciao compagni e famiglia!


I'll start this off by saying I'm realllly trying to get better at Italian so I may throw a few words d'italiano in once in a while! I passed my placement exam into Italian 2 yesterday at our orientation, so I feel like a pro :)





So for the past two days all I have been doing is exploring! Yesterday, I woke up around 9 AM (3 AM at home, still sooo weird to think about) and Rachel and I decided to do some exploring. The weather was pretty warm so we walked a few blocks to the Duomo, which as I've already told you, is still breathtaking every time I see it. Since we had some time to kill, we went inside. The inside is absolutely MASSIVE and so silent!
I lit a candle for Grandpa in the center, I knew that would be something he would love to hear!


Afterwards we decided to take our program advisors advice and "get lost... with a map." We ended up wandering around for a good two hours, just enjoying the city, shops and cafes. We stopped at a small cafe to have lunch. I ordered a panino al salame e fromaggio (salami sandwich), which was very tasty and Rachel ordered ciccolata caldo (hot chocolate), which was incredibly dark and creamy. 


We then made our way over to the university headquarters to sit through more orientation nonsense for a few hours. Afterward, we met Shira and Steph and went grocery shopping at the supermercato and the 99 cent store. We bought 4 bottles (for only 10 euro!) of wine at our corner store and came home and made pasta!! Then we went out to the Lion's Fountain, definitely an experience but it was completely packed with American students, so I'm not sure if I'll want to go there again. If I wanted to see a bar filled with drunken American people, I could have stayed at PC. 


Today, Steph, Shira and I went to the Mercato Centrale which is a HUGE market indoors to find some fresh fruits and veges. We ended up getting a late start and the only thing I had time enough to buy were these delicious apples that I'll be munching on with Nutella very soon. We then met up with one of the Italian students at the Santa Croce for our neighborhood tour. Leonardo showed us around the neighborhood where our apt is located, but we had already scoped it out so it was just fun to pick his brain about good restaurants and gelateries!


Afterward we wandered back to the Duomo to meet up with Irene (pronounced I-ray-nay) for the walking Art History tour. She took us all around the city, down to the Piazza Signora which has all the famous sculptures in the plaza, even the "David." Not the real David but a life-size replica. She then took us across the Ponte Vecchio (the famous bridge that is jam-packed with jewelry stores) which I definitely need to revisit and spend time (money) on. She brought us around the other side of the river but the wind was so nippy that we came home shortly after. 


                                                         (view of the Ponte Vecchio)


Right now, we're about to head out to a wine bar down the street that has "Apertivo," very similar to Happy Hour in America. If you order one drink, you can eat off of their antipasto bar for free! So we're heading there now! More to come soon!!

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Orientation Day Uno


So I seem to be updating this a lot, maybe it’s because I am sitting in my hotel room exhausted from a full day of lectures on safety, security, rules, regulations and guidelines. Also, it might be due to the fact that I don’t have internet yet and this blog is tricking my mind into thinking I’m updating you all at home- but I’m not… yet.

So, as I said, today we spent all our time in the hotel conference room, finalizing paperwork and listening to a MILLION lectures and presentations.

I did get to meet my other two apartment mates! They’re both from Muhlenberg College (in PA), whose students actually compose the majority of Fairfield in Florence (well, maybe not the majority but it seems like every time I talk to someone new, they’re from Muhlenberg). Anyways, their names are Shira and Stephanie and they both seem really nice. Weirdly enough, Rachel and I actually met and spoke with them twice before we realized we were all roommates! We took the elevator down with them to the lobby this morning and we chatted with them while signing up for Italian phones! Oh, before I forgot- I got an Italian cell phone today. It’s wicked small (even smaller than yours, Dad) and is totally a throwback to the old, rectangular Nokias. I got it mostly to use for calling, since the Blackberry charges me $1 per minute to call. My Italian phone actually allows me to receive calls for FREE and make calls for less than 50 cents a minute. Sooo everybody (do this right now, maybe simultaneously while you’re reading this) I want you to find out how much it costs for you to make international phone calls from your cell phone. I’m pretty sure Verizon and AT&T offer free international calling or maybe even cheap calling and if they doooo, call me ANYTIME at +39 3771682444! Make sure you dial the +39 because that’s the Italian country code.

Let’s see, what else, what else? The weather isn’t as nice today, it’s raining. But I’m hoping it stops in the next hour or so, so I can walk around my new neighborhood! We’re on our own (FINALLY) for dinner tonight and it just so happens that my Muhlenberg roommates are friends with Meg Whyland and Natalie Coughlin’s roommates so we’re going to try to all go out to dinner/drinks tonight!

At lunch, I was talking to one of the Italian students who are in the program to help facilitate our assimilation into Italian culture and city living. She told me about all the great shopping only a few blocks from my apt. There’s apparently a HUGE H&M and a Zara only five minutes away, along with a ton of smaller boutique-like shops. I was so grateful to hear this because I think I might be the only person in my program that only brought one suitcase of clothing (everyone else brought at least two bags!) so I definitely need to go clothing shopping ASAP. And I would love to see what Italian H&M offers because their stock varies so much depending on location and I want to start dressing like an Italian. The Italian student, Irene, is getting her Art History Masters and wants to move to New York after to work in a gallery. It was really fun to be able to tell her about NYC since she’s never been there before. She’s also hosting a walking Art History tour tomorrow that Rachel and I signed up for immediately.

Hmm, I guess that’s all for now. Hopefully I can actually post this soon so you can all read it but I’m not sure what the internet situation in my apartment is yet. In the meantime I hope you all keep bbm-img and whatsapp-ing me (that’s for you, Bren). I miss you alllll, xoxo.

Part Due: il pomeriggio e l’apartemento

It’s 12:04 AM and I just returned to my very own FIRENZE APARTEMENTO! This afternoon was a complete whirlwind of excitement. We left the hotel in a shuttle with our new roomies and drove through many a’ small, twisty street until we reached Via Ghibellina 113. We were welcomed by a dark green, tall, double door with gold knobs and we were home! We walked into a stone hallway and even though we were told we were living on the first floor, we had to lug our suitcases up two flights of stairs until we reached our apartment. Our ADORABLE older, Italian landlord and his wife greeted us and showed us our room (and were very excited when I attempted to speak Italian to them).

Our room is... molto bello!! It looks like it was last decorated in the Italian 70s, with mismatched patterns and brightly colored artwork- but it’s incredibly spacious and very accommodating. Rachel and I flipped a coin with our apartment mates and somehow got the bigger room (which has an awkward painting of a naked woman’s behind- Botticelli style) above our beds. There’s a decently sized bathroom with a bath and a bidet. In our retro kitchen we have a bright red table and a mini washing machine. Since we do not have a dryer, our kitchen opens up to a small, gated patio complete with a retractable clothesline (exactly what you’d expect from an Italian apartment) that hangs over the alleyway besides our building.

The view from our kitchen into the sitting room. 


Our landlord will be providing us with Internet but we have to wait until tomorrow to get it activated (sorrrrry). We also heard that he’s the best ever because his family will often invite us over for dinner. We haven’t gotten the invitation yet, but we’re hoping it comes soon (mostly because I blow at cooking, although the previous residents left behind two Rachel Ray cookbooks which I plan on referencing every time I try to boil water).

After we unpacked, we met up with Meg, Natalie and their roommates, Maya and Carla and went down the block to a restaurant named Gatto e Volpe (or something like that). Natalie and I both ordered Margherita pizzas, which were (sorry PC) 100 times better than 412 could ever dream of. We also decided to all split two bottles of their house wine. It was red wine, which I normally can’t handle but it was incredibly light and tasty!



We then decided to try and find a bar to get a drink at but ended up wandering around Florence for about an hour. We saw the Duomo, which was UNreal. It was so enormous that it looked like a backdrop of a movie setting. I can’t wait to go back in the daylight and take pictures! As we were walking we saw that ALL the stores had “Saldi 50-70%” posted on their windows. We quickly came to find out, being the shopaholics that we are; that the next two weeks are the Firenze sales and every store is having blowouts. Aka shopping tomorrow. 
Daytime view of the Duomo.
 
We ended the night by going to this bar/restaurant down the street from our room called Oibo. They didn’t really serve wine or beer so I got a Pina Colada (complete with the slice of pineapple, ananas) that was delicious, but not delicious enough to make me stay. We all went back to our room and decided to call it a night since we have orientation round due tomorrow morning. Rachel and I even get to take our Italian placement exams too! Sooo exciting! Talk to you soon. 

Welcome to Florence!


Hey everyone! I am safe and sound in my hotel room in Florence! I have officially been awake for 32 hours (peppered with a few short naps) and I’m about to crash… hard, but I wanted to write this to you all before I fall asleep, even though I won’t be able to post it until tomorrow since I have no wifi here. 

My plane took off from JFK at 5:45 PM on Sunday, January 23rd.  I somehow managed to score a window seat on BOTH my flight to Munich and the connecting flight to Florence, so I was pumped. For my first flight, the window seat did nothing since we were flying into midnight, but it was really awesome to look out the window as see how close the stars looked, as if we were parallel to them (airplanes in the night sky are like shooting stars, tehe). I sat behind my new fraannd Erica (Erica, if you read this, I know you’ll chuckle as a fellow-blogger) that was nice since we chatted for a while before takeoff. I also sat next to this very nice German gentleman who seemed to be so flustered at the amount of American students on the flight that he took two sleeping pills and zonked out before we even took off.

The plane was wicked nice; it had monitors on the back of every seat so my in-flight insomnia was cured by a plethora of movies and TV shows. First I watched “Eat, Pray, Love” to assuage my nerves about moving to a foreign country and reawaken my love of exploring new cultures. The segment on Italy got me very excited to be flying there and inspired me to order my first, officially LEGAL alcoholic beverage from the flight attendant. Technically, since we were over international waters, the drinking age drops down to 18 and when Erica ordered hers with not so much as a bat-of-the-eye from the flight attendant, I took it upon myself to order a glass a white wine, and it was delicious.

Sadly enough, the two glasses of wine (which went along perfectly with the cheese and grape platter I bought at JFK) didn’t put me to sleep no matter how hard I tried. So, I watched “Easy A” which was odd but slightly funny, a rerun of 30 rock, Glee and Modern Family. And finally, since I was missing Brendan a little, I watched “The Town.” I really enjoyed this movie and put a solid two hours into watching it right before landing. Then, as soon as the climax was coming up- the pilot announced we should turn our monitors off, and I missed the entire ending. What annoyed me the most was the fact that my sleepy, German seatmate was so delirious that he never even turned his TV off and continued watching “Cats and Dogs II” (with Japanese subtitles) until we landed. Bastardo!

ANYWAY- we landed in Munich, Germany in a blizzard. Literally, I thought we were still in the clouds as we pulled onto the snow-covered runway. It was so snowy that they not only had to keep us seated on the plane while they plowed the gate but our flight was delayed an hour.  This actually worked to our advantage because we had to go through German security, even though we had just gone through American security in New York. The German security was so ridiculously strict that I almost let the word “Nazi” slip as we were all passing through the metal detector, but realized that may be a sore subject just in time to shut my mouth.

We were all so delirious and drained that we just sat on the floor of the airport until they boarded us. We took a much smaller plane to Florence so we had the honor of trucking through the blizz before boarding (since the plane was too small to board from an indoor gate). Of course, I was one of the last people to board the flight, so when I finally got on I was completely covered in snow. That was yummy and fun.

Luckily I dozed a bit on the flight (which was only an hour) and when I finally came to we were in Florence! When we entered the baggage claim we heard that the flight before us had lost 26 bags, so I started to freak out that my suitcase wouldn’t be there- aka all my clothes, toothpaste, books, shoes. But thankfully it was. One of Erica’s bags was delayed, so I stayed behind to help her notify the airline. I ran into Paige (that one’s for you Nico) flying in from France, which was awesome! But since there were SO MANY lost bags, we ended up missing the first bus to our hotel so we had to wait an hour and a half for the next one. Normally, I would be complaining about this but the Florence weather was BEAUTIFUL! The sun was warm and shining and I think I actually got some color while waiting for that bus.

The bus took us to our hotel where I found Rach already checked into our room. Rach and I were both so exhausted that we chatted for a bit, but fell asleep very quickly and didn’t wake up until we had to go down to fill out paper for our Permesso di Sorgginio (permission to stay in Italy visa). We had dinner after that painstakingly long process and then decided to forgo going out and come back to sleep. We accidently flooded our bathroom while attempting to turn on the shower (oops). But this is where you find me now- 9:38 PM (Florence time, so 3:38 PM your time) on January 24, 2011. I feel like I’ve lost a day but now I want to sleep for a week. Unfortunately, we have a 7 am wakeup call (that’s 1 am for you!) to start our official orientation. Love you all and goodnight! 

Sunday, January 23, 2011

d-day

hi everyone! this will be my last post from america, cause i'll be waking up in florence!! i'm all done packing- one HUGE suitcase, a backpack and my purse- all jampacked with all the essentials. my plane leaves at 545 pm from jfk so i'll be getting on the road in about 2 hrs (eeeek!).


i just wanted to say thank you to all my friends and family for all their wonderful sendoffs! i couldn't ask for better goodbyes (even though i hate saying them). you are all the best and i couldn't ask for anything better.


in other news, here's some yummy contact info;
- i'll have my cell phone, but it's expensive to call or text. so email or skype me and those messages will pop up as texts! my skype name is oohsaraa and my email is ssquegli@friars.providence.edu.
- my address is; (please send me letters, i would loveeee that!)
    Sara Squeglia
    c/o Florence University of the Arts
    Via Magliabechi 1
    50122 Firenze, Italia


hmm what else, i'll be arriving in florence around 4 am (our time) so i'll b extremely jetlagged, send me your love!

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

4 dayz!

todayy: 
  - got a new lightweight suitcase :)
  - went toiletry shopping
  - made lists of all the other things i continue to procrastinate to do, haha




FOUR DAYS! OMG!

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

So...

So I've decided to jump on the bandwagon and create a blog so everyone from home can read about my Italian adventures (and hopefully be so enticed that they wanna come visit me!). Also, I'm currently undergoing cabin-fever in this snowpocalypse and this seemed like the perfect cure! So if nobody feels like reading it, this will hopefully help to alleviate my homesickness, culture shock and share all my love!

Alright, to get started.. I leave in 11 days. ELEVEN DAYS? I honestly can't believe it, where did all this time go? I just got my visa in the mail and everything is getting so official! I haven't even started to pack, or think about packing, or even buying a new suitcase, haha. On the bright side, I did just buy a new winter jacket from Free People. It's white and looks kinda Italian.. hopefully. AHH, I'm getting so excited!

More to come soon :) Hopefully this storm clears up (even though it looks like Guilford is the ONLY shoreline CT town that will be suffering from over two feet of snow), and you won't have to read more scatterbrained thoughts/excitements from me!