It's amazing what you can find accidentally

Well, I'm just finishing up my sixth day in Florence, and let me tell you it feels in some ways like I've been here forever and in others, I can't believe it's been almost a week. Some things already seem totally normal that scared me at first, and others that seemed totally normal are starting to be a little weird. For instance, it's weird to have been here for a week but have had little to no direction about school or what we are supposed to be doing. It's weird that many of the letters on this Italian keyboard have been shifted around, so especially when looking for punctuation, I have lots of trouble typing. It's weird to think about what time it is in the states, since I'm finally getting settled on this time zone. It's strange to try and think about what I'd be doing back home if I never decided to go to Italy.

What is fun, however, is wandering. I have felt for the last few days that I am wasting my life if I'm not out seeing all of the sights and soaking it up completely, because it has always seemed on Europe trips in the past that if you don't see it all and run yourself ragged and see it fast, you'll regret it for the rest of your life. I've just realized today that I don't need to get myself in such a hurry. It's okay that I haven't been in any of the museums yet because the place to get the pass to see them all hasn't been open. It's okay to just go for a walk without having an intention of ending up at a certain place at a certain time. It's even okay to spend an afternoon in the pensione reading if I'm wiped out from the days before. Thus, though I've had tons of fun seeing everything and walking everywhere, I'm now having a lot more fun just aimlessly wandering and seeing where my feet take me.

Today was a holiday in Florence. I think it's Epiphany, or the Annunciation, we've heard both. We haven't gotten too much information except to expect that (a) everything will be closed, and (b) children are delivered presents by a witch who brings them either a lump of coal or a block of sugar disguised as a lump of coal. This appears to be separate from Christmas, as they still do the Santa Claus thing as well. Lucky ducks. They seem to exchange presents either today instead or today also, because I've seen lots of Italians walking around and waiting to be let in to apartment buildings with bags of presents. Anyway, we decided to take the day off as well and just be lazy, sleep in, stay in bed, read, etc., since there was bound to be nothing to do. At about three though we got a little stir crazy and decided to get out and walk around a bit. I'm so glad we did!! There were festivals and parades, lots of things were open, and the crowd that was out was distinctly more Italian and less touristy. It was a warmer day, less sunny, but very ... cozy. I think I'm really starting to feel more comfortable here, and it feels really nice.

Tomorrow, we're going to get our Uffizi passes that get us in to all the museums in town for €40 for a whole year, and with the exception of a meeting at school in the afternoon, I plan on wandering through them all and seeing what I can see. It will be nice to know that I can come back whenever I want, so if something is busy, I don't have to wait in line but can move on. It will also be nice to have several indoor places in the city to stop and rest while you're out -- Florence is rather short on free resting points with heat. Actually, Florence is rather short on heat in general. ALSO, tomorrow the after-Christmas sales start! I'm in the market for some leather boots, so we'll see how that goes.

Thursday, finally, school starts. I can't wait! Friday the dean is leading a trip up to Fiesole, now a suburb of Florence up on the hill but it used to be its own little town, so it's supposedly got its own flavor. Then this weekend, I think we'll hop on the train and take some day trips through Tuscany. I've heard Sienna is beautiful. We'll see! I'm just glad to finally be getting acclimated and feeling good about where I'm at and where we're going. It will be nice to have a routine soon so that we can start making plans for travel too!

Anyway, I've got to make it home for dinner. The food at the pensione is delicious (we really lucked out, since supposedly our food is the best out of all the pensione. It makes up for how spartan and cold it is there. Plus, the owners are wonderful.). Anyway, I don't want to miss it, so for now, ciao!