Feelin the Burn

I cannot believe I have been living in Italy for one month. Thirty days, four weeks, uno mese: it doesn't seem long, but in the past month I have laughed, cried, ate (a lot), drank, loved, hated, and felt emotions that I can't even describe in words. I can speak very broken Italian, which is a lot compared to not being able to say my name prior to coming here. It is crazy how much I have experienced in the past month, yet how much it flew by. I cannot wait for the four months ahead of me and the experiences they will bring. Now onto this week...

Not too much to report this week. It wasn't long into Monday that I was realizing it was going to be a busy week with a few late nights. I had two presentations, a paper, and a test. In my Villa and the Garden class, we visited the Pitti Palace and Boboli gardens. Wow! Despite the fact that nothing was in bloom, the gardens were absolutely gorgeous. You could spend days walking around the cypress lined walkways, marble statues that once spit out water, or just taking in the amazing view of the city and countryside. I have to be honest though, the place wasn't perfect. There are a lot of very steep hills that had my legs burning and my heart racing. Later that day, I got to play soccer with a team from school. It was great to be out playing again, but I was a little rusty. Between the walking everywhere, steep hills of Boboli gardens, and soccer game, I was sore for the next two days. Thursday night we went to the chocolate festival held right in front of the gorgeous Santa Croce cathedral. It had to be a sign from God, right?? The nice part is that it's open until 10pm every night so after dinner Lacey and I checked it out. We methodically walked through once just to "feel it out" and then decided what our treat would be. I had a kebab with strawberries and bananas covered in milk chocolate. It was heaven! After we got a drink at a pub right around the corner. It was pretty early for bar-goers but we liked the relaxed atmosphere. We made new Italian friends too (note to self: bring a blonde anywhere in Italy, you're sure to grab someone's attention). They spoke fairly good English, but Lacey and I tried so hard to speak with them in Italian. I had a great time really practicing speaking the language, it was definitely an "intercultural experience" haha. Apparently, they have a refrigerator company (Lacey snagged their business card) and drive ambulances. It's always good to know a refrigerator guy, right?

We decided to stay  in Florence for the weekend so we could do some things we've been meaning to do, but so far haven't crossed anything off the list. On the list for today the Central Market, walking, grocery shopping, laundry, and reading. Good chance the reading will get postponed :)