Ottembre

Lunch = Pranzo

The beginning of a new month. A new season. A new chapter. Life in Florence could not be any better. I am still amazed by the sights as I walk to and from school. I am so grateful that I can say that I am living in Florence and enjoying life - in a somewhat Italian way.

I usually wake up and take my time to prepare my coffee in the morning. I enjoy every last drop before going back into my room and getting ready for school. I usually wake up an hour and a half or two hours before I have to be in class so that I have enough time to get ready and make it to to the university or Middlebury’s Sede on time. At first I thought that it was going to be a pain to have to walk about 30 minutes to get to school everyday, but now it’s become part of the daily routine. Now, the walk to and from class is never the same. I sometimes change it up a bit and take different routes, depending on if I have to run an errand or just want to kill some time (aka procrastinate) before getting started on my compiti (homework).

The workload hasn’t been to hard, but I don’t want to jinx it. The most stressful (and discouraging) part is that I am still not feeling very comfortable with my Italian. There are (very few) days when I think that I am a genius because I speak almost perfectly. But, then there are days (almost everyday) that I can’t say a simple phrase or comment. I guess that is why I just need to keep trying and force myself to make the mistakes anyways - that’s the only way I am going to learn. Hooray for Middlebury!

Comunque (Anyways), I haven’t done as much traveling but it all has to do with the fact that I took my time to get situated. I think I know my way around pretty well and I think I have finally figured out how the schedules for school and work. I would really like to travel to some of the countries in the North and in the East and also visit my cousin in London. I will, of course, go to France at some point.

About 30 km away from Perugia, Umbria, Italy

I would also like to travel a little more around Italy since there are still so many places that I think I should visit while I am here. For example, I went back to Perugia with my roommate who knew someone from there. The first time I went there was in 2007, when I was studying in Siena, and I went specifically for the Eurochocolate festival. But, now that I went back, I got a “behind-the-scenes” look at the city and the countryside. And, also learned that the prices at Eurochocolate are hiked up ridiculously and that most of the time, the people selling the chocolate are usually using this time to get rid of the stuff they haven’t been able to sell (aka leftovers). Glad I didn’t buy anything.

PS. Halloween in Italy is getting more and more popular every year. I went out with some of my class mates and ended up staying out ‘til dawn. I was in bed at 6:30 am. So far, the tradition has been that once the bars close and there is no place to get food, you go home with a group of friends and cook up some pasta to eat before going to bed. We did just that. I guess I am now a pasta lover.