Once again it has been a while since my last post, but I can assure you that most of that time was filled with studying, sleeping, or going to class. It has been a tough couple of weeks schoolwise but things are finally settling back down a little, so hopefully it will all get a little less stressful as well. Not much eventful happened during the week this week. I have been sick and stressed so a lot of my free time was spent in bed. I got an A on two out of my three midterms and have not gotten the third once back yet, so we will see about that one! It's art history, which is actually a pretty difficult class (understandably if you consider how much art and history there is in Italy and especially Florence where we are living!) and has a lot of dates and names and even concepts. I'm a little nervous to get it back but hopefully I did alright!
This weekend, we put schoolwork on the backburner and had some really cool opportunities. On Friday, we went to Siena and San Gimignano, two cities about 90 minutes south of Florence. Both were absolutely beautiful and so different from Florence! In Siena we had a guided tour and then some free time during which we got quick lunch and just relaxed in the sun. It was actually a lot warmer than Florence is right now and I was out in a t-shirt which was a drastic and welcome change from late October back home! Then we moved on to San Gimignano where we had all the time to ourselves to explore and shop. I wish we had waited to eat there because it smelled absolutely delicious and we saw so much pizza that looked amazing! Northern Italy is not exactly known for having the best pizza, but as we were a little farther south than normal, the pizza looked completely different and combined with the smell it was absolutely mouthwatering. We did get gelato at the "world's best gelato place" which actually has won the worldwide gelato competition for a few years. It was delicious and definitely the best I have had. Both cities had beautiful ceramics and silver jewelry and a lot of souvenir shops. We saw the duomos in both cities and came across many other interesting buildings and shops. It was an awesome day and we got to spend it with some of the people from the Oregon group that is also here with AIFS so it was really nice to get to know them better. We got home around 7 and I passed out around 8, exhausted from such a long and eventful day. I absolutely loved San Gimignano and really want to go back! It's such an adorable city and the views were absolutely amazing. I took a lot of pictures which I will put on facebook soon.
Then Saturday night we went to a professional soccer game between our home team Fiorentina and another Italian team called Bari. Although Fiorentina does not have a great record so far this year, they won the match and it was an amazing and exciting experience. I am not much of a soccer fan but as we were saying all night, "This is not SOCCER. This is FUTBOL!" It was crazy. There were so many people and the fans were wild. It was definitely an awesome time and I am so glad I had that opportunity. I wish we could go see another game! It was so much fun. After the game we went out to the club and I had a great night with some of the girls from the group. Overall it was an extremely fun weekend and I am grateful for it, as the weekends remaining are running short!
I have spent today relaxing and trying to catch up with some friends from back home. I got wallposts last night from my two best friends saying they needed me and another of my best friends saying she wanted to skype soon. It's really good to hear that I am missed by them back home as much as I am missing them here, but it makes me wish I could be there for them when they need me instead of across the ocean! I do what I can from here but I really wish I could be at home supporting them. Hang in there girls, I'll be back before you know it and we'll have as much quality best friend time as we can possibly handle. I love you all!
My highschool cheerleading team is also competiting in this year's first competition today which makes me miss it and all of them so much! Not to mention the football games... I can't wait to see a video of your routine, girls! I know they rocked it. That's how we do it <3 BGVC
We ordered our Harry Potter tickets today! We're fairly certain that midnight shows do not exist in Europe, which is a huge bummer, but we are seeing it the next morning at 9:30 so that is still very early after it comes out. I CANNOT WAIT to see it or for my trip to London in general! It's going to be amazing and I could not have picked a better group of people to be going with.
Now I'm off to skype my momma because I haven't talked to her for a few days and I miss her! Love you mommy!
Ciao ;)
