Lorenzo de' Medici

So classes have begun. Monday I had my ceramics class. We actually went thru the full 5 hours (2.5 hours, half an hour break, then another 2.5 hours). But it was good. Theres only 8 people in the class, so we get to do a lot. We finished 3 pots already, and are in the process of working on our fourth. The professor is really cool. And there is one girl from peru, and another from new zealand, so thats cool. 3 other people dont talk, so i made friends with the remaining two. ones a double major in studio art (concentration in painting so shes never done ceramics) and teaching - from long island, goes to school about an hour away from marist. nice girl. and then this kid. computer science from illinois. lol. he really had no clue what was going on.

So my italian class is pretty sweet. Its a lot of the same people that were in my intensive language and culture class in tuscania, lot of marist people. but its small and its hard, but the professor - i love her. she's really cool. I had that yesterday morning, this morning and i have it tomorrow morning. 8-8:50. Then today I had photography - LOVE IT! We have to take at least one 36 exposure role of film a week. and we're doing everything manually..focus, aperture, and oh my goodness. i cant remember what its called. but the one dealing with the timing of the shot. it will come to me eventually. the professor had to help me figure out my camera though, and i thought she was going to tell me i had to buy a new one, so i was like, um, my sister used this here. and then she was like, i had your sister?! cuz apparently shes the only professor and has been here forever, so she wrote down her name and is going to look her up in her records. lol but i think im really gonna like that class.

so tomorrow I just have italian in the morning, some errands to run, and art history in the afternoon. I'm excited about it. yea yea yea, i know im a nerd. So friday I am just going to go to a museum to take notes and do some sketches for my ceramics class and hang out and do homework because saturday at 5:45, we have to meet the bus to leave for Venice! yay Carnivale!

Anyway, life in Florence is pretty sweet. We still dont have hot water in our bathroom, but we did figure out how to get the toilet to flush more than twice (thank God we have two bathrooms! lol) and we think we've figured out how to get the heat to work in the bathroom cuz its pretty brisk in there in the morning. lol.

so anyway, we had a welcome dinner on monday. I had a cold and couldnt really taste the food, but everybody said it was delicious. so be jealous i guess. lol.....um, Kim and I ran in to just take a quick look in the duomo yesterday, just cuz we can. lol. and we found out the times of the services....cuz we think itd be pretty sweet to go to church there....um, I also went to the food market yesterday. Its insane! well, the first floor is the nastiest thing Ive ever seen. Theres like all meat stands. and there was this whole head of a pig or boar or somethign with a roll stuffed in its mouth. D-sgusting. (we did get some ground beef to make burgers for dinner tonight, but Kim went to buy it cuz I couldnt handle it lol) But upstairs, its all fruits and vegetables. a whole head of lettuce, 2 carrots, 3 mushrooms, and a cucumber for 1.70 euro. So we went crazy. bought bananas, apples, avocado, cantalope. good stuff man. good stuff. AND, I bought the cutest coat ever last night. Its brown and tan - totally me - and its plaid! I love it. Its long with three buttons and belt. Bella!

Not much else is new though....still getting adjusted to life here and classes and everything. but its all good man. va bene.