First Impressions

Family and friends,

We’ve arrived safely in Florence after the 8-hour flight over the Atlantic, only barely making it through passport check and security lines to our connection in Frankfurt, Germany, and waiting an hour and a half at the Florence airport to report my (Cody’s) missing luggage and for our shuttle to arrive and take us to the Study Abroad Italy housing office and student center in central Florence. After we got a welcome bag, filled with much-needed water bottles and orientation information, we got on another shuttle, which careened through narrow cobblestone back streets and dropped us off on the curb at the end of Via dei Federighi, the street where our apartment is located.

We found our door, managed to figure out how the strange keys worked, and moved into our new apartment. We both expected something a lot smaller and a lot simpler and much less private; our apartment is really quite large. The front door opens into the entryway, with closets and coat rack, and then a narrow lounge and hallway straight into the dining room, with the bedroom on the left side of the hallway and the toilet on the right side of the hallway. The dining room exits on the right to the kitchen, then washroom. We have our own washing machine, which I didn’t expect, as well as a full stove and microwave oven. It’s clean, and (so far) mosquito free. There were a couple drawbacks that we had to overcome. First we walked into the bedroom and realized there were 3 twin beds… so we pushed two of them together and it seems ok. Next we found it odd that the toilet has a room of it’s own on the opposite side of the apartment from the room with the sink and shower… oh well. Other than the fact we are in need of some air freshener and possibly a fan, it’s a pretty pleasant apartment.

Kait here! The weather has been quite warm here so far, which makes me happy. Though I dealt with some serious jet lag today. For some reason I got very ill (3 times) after eating ½ a granola bar for breakfast. Making orientation meetings a bit unbearable. I spent the larger part of one outside the room on a couch. But I’m feeling much better. We had a really cool social/ meet & greet tonight. It was at an old mansion-like building that used to belong to a rich family. Unfortunately, we didn’t have our camera on us, so you’ll have to picture the big open corridors lined with torches and the great ballroom-like dining room we ate in: picture the private ballroom where Darcy and Elizabeth dance in Pride and Prejudice ;) Beautiful. We ate some great Italian Antipasti (appetizers) from uniformed gentlemen behind a buffet table. Then we were invited to fill a wine glass with water, soda, etc at a beverage table. Then we stood around small, tall, round tables and mingled. Really fancy. Then, THEN, they brought out super-amazing Tiramisu!! :D so good. This was accompanied by champagne and we were all ordered to grab a glass to receive a toast for the semester experience from our orientation coordinator (Marcello) and our study abroad advisor (Camilla). Yeah, we’re spoiled. We met some fun people tonight, it was a lot easier when feeling better.

But we’re still trying to figure some things out. Like where to shop for food and other necessities. But we’ll figure it out soon enough. We seriously only live a block from the Arno (scenic river). And we’ve already happened upon two very important historical art attractions. All of a sudden they were just right there, and now I’m wishing I had brought my huge art history book b/c I’m standing there with jaw dropped and not remembering the true significance of what I’m seeing. I’ll get back to you on those…

Meeting people and making new friends will become easier when classes begin on Monday. We are really looking forward to the start of classes.

Interesting cultural differences:

• It’s not just the Jr. High kids that drive the mopeds. They are EVERYWHERE. We see rows and rows of them parked along the streets we walk down and they park them immediately next to each other. Drivers of all ages use them and we even saw two men riding together today. Ok.

• There is little regard for distance between pedestrians and motor vehicles and bikes. All drivers careen down the narrow streets and some sidewalks are barely wide enough for one person to walk on but they are always full of people. I’ve never been so close to so many moving vehicles as they passed me. What’s more people just walk straight out in front of them all the time, but it’s nice because they often actually do slow down for you.

• BUT Italians know how to use their car horns. Making it pretty noisy sometimes.

• Unfortunately, despite all the amazing sights around me, I spend a great deal of time staring at the ground as we walk to school and meetings. It’s a wonder women survive walking these sidewalks in heels! But they do. All the streets and sidewalks are sort of cobblestone/brick so you have to watch your steps below as well as the traffic around you.

• Italians are all about food right? But where do they get it? We’ve found some small grocery stores and some specialty bakery and meat lockers but no supermarket grocery stores with endless selection. Hmmm. We have yet to experience the open market but we hope to soon.

• BUT there are tons of restaurants in our area and you can find a Gelataria anywhere. Oh, yeah, we did that today too. SO GOOD. ;D And apparently helps cure jet lag. We ordered strawberry and I felt much better after that. Which reminds me, portions are much different than in America. Cody points out that a medium ice cream at Cold Stone could last you 3 meals. A small gelato here is literally the size of a shot glass.

• We were prepared for this but bottled water costs $3 for a small bottle at restaurants. To our huge disappointment we found out today that we shouldn’t drink the water in our apartments unfiltered. So we were trying to decide if we should try to find a Brita pitcher or request the one we just bought to be sent to us from home, because we were assuming buying bottled water all semester would become outrageous. Then we went to one of the small grocery stores to find something for lunch and noticed you could buy a six pack of 1.5 L bottles for about 50 cents. SWEET.

• They say Americans are loud, but in our experience so far, Italians love to show off their vibrant spirits through loud conversation and laughter. So much so that conversation tends to sound like argument. The family who lives below us and always keep their outside door open love to engage in this activity, making it hard to keep our window open.

Well that was a super long post, but we feel quite out of touch with all of you and wanted you to know we’re alive and learning!

Love Always,

Cody & Kait