Monday. The first day of class.
Today I got up around 9 o'clock and had another typical breakfast. (Yogurt, mini croissants with nutella, and milk.)
After getting ready I decided that I should walk down the street to the grocery store and find some snacks. Depending on the day, my eating schedule changes, and my body isn't completely used to it yet. The Italians will usually have a snack (un spuntino) around 5 or 6pm when they come home, and they usually eat dinner around 8pm. Because of my class schedule I eat lunch between 12 and 1pm, which creates a large gap between lunch and dinner.
So, I went to the store and got a package of Ritz crackers that have individual snack bags as well as some kind of fruit bars. This way if I get hungry while at school or around 5 or 6 I can have un spuntino to hold me over til dinner.
After my trip to the grocery store I packed up my backpack and headed to school.
will be nice on my walk and I can see the sunrise. :)
By this time it was a little after 12 and I was ready for lunch! I leisurely strolled through the streets on my way to school looking for a panino or pizza place. I made it into the Piazza where my school is (Piazza Santo Spirito) and went into the tiniest little panino shop. When I say tiny, I mean tiny! I literally had to walk in side ways and take off my back pack because the door was so narrow. It was crazy! After mulling over the many delicious options I settled on a panino that had mozzarella, cooked turkey, and salad on it. After I received my panino I squeezed back out the shop into the Piazza and sat down with one of my classmates to eat at the fountain outside our school.
While eating we people watched in the Piazza. We are lucky because our school is out of the tourist area so the Piazza is always filled with locals from the neighborhood. Everyday there is a large market that fills up the Piazza where you can find all sorts of things, such as clothes, fruits, vegetables, and other trinkets.
Our neighborhood is known for its artisans history. Gucci actually started in this neighborhood! The Gucci room is right outside our building!
This is the entrance to my school. It's an absolutely beautiful building!
After lunch and people watching, we headed inside and up to our classroom.
Today I had my Literature class (Literary Visions of Florence) which is going to focus on British and American literature written in and about Florence. Our professor described some of the books we will be reading and I'm pretty excited for the class! It will be cool to read about foreigners' experience and view of Florence as we are going through the same thing.
There are 4 people in my class, including myself, and I am the only girl. (yes, you read that right) This will be the smallest class that I have ever been in.
After going through the syllabus our professor informed us that we were going to be taking a field trip for the rest of class. We hopped on the bus and arrived at the English Cemetery. This was one of the first places that non-Catholics and non-Jews could be buried in Florence.
The cemetery is a circle surrounded by traffic, which looked like an island of the dead within the city. This inspired the Isle of the Dead painting that was very popular in the early 20th century.
I'm not sure if you can read the names in the picture, but some of the famous authors buried here are E. Barrett Browning, Arthur Clough, Walter Savage Landor, and The Great Preacher Theodore Parker.
Side note: My goal for this trip is to try everything! Yesterday I had my first cappuccino, and even though I don't like coffee it was pretty good. I don't like pineapple either, but today after a wonderful dinner, my host mother offered me some pineapple, so I decided I would have a piece to be polite. It was DELICIOUS!! I went back for more and more! If only the pineapple in the States tasted so good.
Sounds so fun! Horray for Ritz! Pineapple is good. Just don't eat too much!
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