"I hate Americans" and other European madness

Let me just tell you that life has been crazy for the last few days. If the next four months go at this pace, I'm going to have to sleep all summer to make up for it. Actually, it's not so much that I haven't been sleeping enough, but just that the days have been so full. There's really nowhere to take a break and get your bearings, but I'm going to have to find a way to try, I suppose.

I didn't realize that when the pensione stopped feeding us for the weekend, that really meant that you basically have to go out for EVERY meal, because they won't let us in the kitchen, and there's not really much of a refrigerator available. I'm not sick of Italian food, but I am sick of eating out. The having to find somewhere, the waiting, the paying for water and trying to ration it out through your meal, the non-refillable soda that's 4 euro for a glass (that's five dollars!). Yeah, I just wish I could make my own one dollar spaghetti every now and again. Or that I could make a sandwich or something. I'll have to find a way, because this is getting old.

In other news though, school started! Well, kind of. Thursday we had class, but we don't have it again until Monday. I had Renaissance Europe, a history class which looks like it's going to be pretty interesting, and Italian, which also looks like it will be fun. Our Italian professor looks a bit like a female Yoda, and she talks just about as strangely and as convoluted. It's going to be a very interesting semester, but I feel like I'll be learning, at least. My other classes are each in three hour blocks on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, and they are 18th Century Romanticism (a music history class), Sociology of Italian Culture (which I am very excited for), and either The Writing Traveller or Painting (I can't decide which yet). I'm really looking forward to them. I'll also be taking voice lessons, when the professor gets back. We called her the other day, and she's in Miami until the 17th. Strange. Everyone keeps saying that here class is a joke and basically all you have to do is mostly show up and you get an A, but I hope they're at least challenging and interesting enough that I learn something. I won't complain about the padded GPA though.

Today we went up to Fiesole with Peter, our student life travel coordinator from Austria, and Dr. Burke, the dean of Gonzaga-in-Florence, as well as a bunch of the other spring only students. It was so beautiful! It's up in the northern hills above Florence, and so we got lovely views as well as a bit of history as well. We walked around and saw ancient Etruscan temple ruins, as well as a Roman ampitheater and the ruins of one of their bath houses. We also saw the villa that houses the Georgetown Florence study abroad program, which is the old Medici villa inn Fiesole and is BEAUTIFUL. I was so jealous, although Rob pointed out that we are lucky in that we are walking distance from everything. They get the views and the cozy little-town feeling, but do they have the David within walking distance? A million restaurants? Rude Italians pushing you off sidewalks? No. I guess we're both lucky in our own way.

Last night was the first night Rob and I felt up to actually going out and experiencing the Italian night life, and it was a really fun but crazy experience. It was one of the guys in our pensione's birthday, so we all went out to eat at, so far, my favorite restaurant - Il Gato e la Volpe (I think I've mentioned it before -- wonderful because of the salted bread, decent prices, hilarious staff, and cozy atmosphere). We then came back and mingled around at our pensione for a while, then went to Finnegan (the Irish pub) and met some of the other GIF (Gonzaga-in-Florence) students we hadn't met before. We shared a beer and just talked to some of the other students there, so we stayed mostly sober, while most of the other students did not though :P. From there, we walked with the very large, mostly drunk group of students to Twenty-One, an Italian club in downtown Florence. On the way there, an Italian man walked by us going the other way, looked straight at Rob, and yelled "I hate Americans." We were both so shocked. So far people here haven't been particularly friendly, but no one has been that outright rude. Rob said, "Well, I'm sorry," and I apologized as well in both Italian and Spanish. Luckily he walked away and nothing else happened, but it was still a ridiculous situation. Speaking of ridiculous situations, so was the club. It was packed and crazy and full of creepy Italian men and strobe lights, but it was really fun to be out dancing. There were a lot of GIF students there as well, so all the guys kept all the girls safe, and nothing bad happened. I don't really go out much at home, but I think if all the nights were as safe and fun as that one, I could see myself going dancing more often.

Tonight, I think we're going to cave and go to McDonalds. Both Rob and I have been really sick because of all the rich food, and not like McDonalds will really be much better for us, but hopefully at least it will be familiar. Then we'll probably go to bed early, get up early, and the plan is to head to Siena, a little town about an hour outside of Florence. I'm looking forward to getting out of the city and seeing a little bit more of Tuscany. I also wouldn't complain if I found some cute leather boots - everyone seems to have a pair, and lots of girls got theirs in Siena earlier this year.

Well, I'm going to go drag Rob out before all the restaurants close (though I doubt McDonalds does, but I'd hate to go hungry). Sorry again for such a long post. Also, if anyone wants to leave a comment/question/whatever, I'm pretty sure it's open to the public, whether you have an account or not. I'd love to see who's reading. Hope you all are well. Ciao!