In Firenze

I have been in Florence (Firenze) for about 65 hours (3 full days and 3 full nights) and already feel like I have been here for weeks. I just got internet in the apartment, which houses three girls including myself. Apparently I have one of the nicer apartments that students were assigned to (I have included some photos). One of the main differences is we share an entrance way with 5 guys who have their own apartment across the hall. It is almost like living in the dorms again, except we have our own apartments. We so far all (8 of us) get along pretty well and have spent time exploring together.

The weather has been cool and breezy, but sunny. We have had orientation everyday, each day in a different place, which has been somewhat of an adventure trying to orient ourselves around the city. So far in our free time we have just explored the streets getting lost, going out meeting people and buying / eating food all over the place. I have learned that I live about 15-20 min away from the majority of my classes and less than a 5 min walk from the Duomo. I also feel a little more confident that I can find my way back home after being out.

Getting Ready

I just got back from a week in the wonderful Pacific Northwest (Portland) visiting and catching up with some good friends before taking off for my European adventure. As always we had a great time. I am currently in the long process of packing and trying to figure out what is a necessity to carry across the world. I was ready to go with just one suitcase to check in and carry on my backpack and laptop bag. Unfortunately plans changed when my bag weighed over 50lbs. Julia helped me re-arrange everything to try and bring down the weight (carry more on in my pack), but again this didn't work. We then realized it was cheaper for me to take another bag instead of paying for an overweight one, so now I have multiple bags going. It still hasn't really hit me that I am going to be gone.