Una lunga settimana... ( A long week...)

It has been one week in Europe and I feel as though I have been here forever. Literally. Everything is different, and at first, everything is horrifying. But every time I do something once, I am less afraid. And I have done some AMAZING things in the last week, things I could not have imagined before coming here. Get ready for a week's worth of updates:

It all began in London. Day one was the longest day of my life. I had no idea what time it was. Ever. But it was still fun. I was sick from the plane, so as soon as we arrived at our bed & breakfast, I napped. Then I joined a group of explorers, and we wandered around the beautiful city. Our bed & breakfast is a block away from Hyde Park, which is equivalent to NYC's central park, but not nearly as large. We walked around there looking for what was called the "Princess Diana Memorial" on our map, but instead we stumbled upon a playground...a playground which is actually the Princess Diana Memorial, but they wouldn't let us in because we didn't have children. So, then we checked out some museums, science and natural history. Pretty interesting stuff. Down the street from there was the famous Harrod's department store. This place was intense. There was practically a food court inside. That night in the apartment we had a welcome "drink"/social. After this, starving and exhausted, we found ourselves a pub and tried the local cuisine of fish and chips, which is apparently very bland in England. Then we called it an early night after drinking a beer at another pub, called the Black Lion.

Day Two we had a bus tour of London, led by scottish Sean, who claimed to be a direct relative of Sean Connery. We saw all the major sites: Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, St. Paul's Cathedral, London Bridge and Tower Bridge (which, according to Sean are often confused - just a fun fact). After the bus tour, we went off on our own in a group of six or so, which due to different lunch preferences quickly became a group of two, myself and one other girl, when we went to find ourselves some asian food and forgot to pick a meeting place for the rest of the group. No worries, though. It was a great bonding experience, and we saw so much...Platform 9 and 3/4, enjoyed street performers who begged us for money after the show in Covent Gardens, toured the Globe Theater, where I learned a lot about theater in London during the time of Shakespeare, the Tate Modern, and we walked across the millenium bridge at night: absolutely gorgeous. Last event of the night was the "broadway" show, Blood Brothers, starring sporty spice. True story. It was pretty good, but definitely weird. Those brits...

After London, we had another long travel day to Pisa, and from Pisa to Florence. We were thrust into Italian-speaking everyone and Italian-written everything. I was pumped. I jumped right in and started trying it out. I'm no where near good at speaking it, but I hope by the end of this I will be a master. The important thing is that I can get my way through any given day here. We just started language classes yesterday, and I tested into the highest level. So far, it's not too bad. I have some trouble understanding what is being said sometimes, and thus, I have trouble responding sometimes, but all-in-all, it's not too bad.

Florence has been a lot of fun. Our Hotel is called the Hotel Anglo-American, and it has the most elaborate rooms. I don't mean it's fancy - but every room is different. Some actually have staircases IN them. It's sweet. We also get breakfast and dinner at the hotel, and let me tell you, Italians like to eat. A lot. All the time. Get ready, friends and family, because I will be coming back at least 30 pounds heavier.

The first night here we went out to a bar called the Fish Pub, or something along those lines. It was a distinctly American bar. 5 shots for 5 euro. It was a lot of fun. The next day we had orientation. Playing those fun games that we all do at student leader training, you know...build a tower with balloons, grab a nametag out of a bucket and go find that person, human knot, all the good ones. Of course, it was actually heartbreaking when no one was as excited as I was. Oh well. I'll just save my ice breaker enthusiasm for when I'm back at Assumption. Also during orientation, we were explained the safety precautions we should take against the evils of Italian pickpocketers and men, in general. I'm pretty sure 70% of the listening group were slightly distracted by the gorgeous Italian cop giving the presentation. All of our eyes went to his left ring finger. Fail.

The next day, we took a walking tour of the beautiful Florence and at night, I went to mass in the Duomo. It was amazing...the mass was in Italian. Before the mass, the priest walked up to us and just said "USA?" We must havebeen given away what with all staring up, with our mouths wide open. It was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen, and by far the most beautiful cathedral. That night I found an internet cafe for only one euro per hour. I got to see my parents and brother, and matt. And almost Carleigh, but not so much. So yesterday we fixed that problem and I got to see her. After skyping and beginning this post, I went on an art tour of Florence with an adorable English-speaking Italain man who made fun of the security guard at one of the cathedrals we entered, who interrupted him and told him "sotto voce" - to lower his voice. "He disturbs me," he said in his little Italian accent.

After the tour, we met the whole group (all 100 of us students) at a bar and got a free drink. All the girls ordered this drink with a silly name and too many ingredients to count: lime, brown sugar, strawberry, grenadine, and too much smirnoff vodka. It was a nice pink color. We felt bad for the bar tender, as he literally made about 50 of these, and the process requires smashing the limes in the glass with a twisting motion. We didn't feel too bad though - watching the smoking hot bartender flex those arms muscles, we really couldn't complain.

For the next two weeks we will be in Florence, we have class 4 hours a day and extravagant trips planned:Venice for the weekend, day trips to Pisa and Siena, and a wine tour in Tuscany, just to name a few. I'm having a lot of fun, despite various instances of homesickness. I miss everyone so much. Pictures to come to facebook soon!