In all seriousness, this has probably been my favorite week of the trip thus far. Robert and I have both established our own daily schedules- his including playing on the computer, mine consisting of exercising and a very important siesta every afternoon. We have class twice a day. Our morning class is from 9 to 11:30. It sounds like a lot of class time, but we usually spend half of the time actually in class and the other half walking into palaces and imaging ourselves throwing elegant soirees in them (at least, that's what I do). After class, Robert and I usually split up to spend our afternoons in different ways. We meet back up for our night class- the favorite part of my day. The night class starts at 4:30, which is just in time for everyone to start getting hungry for dinner. We have a 30 or so minute lecture about wine, then the class splits up into 3 groups and we each cook a different Italian dish to serve for dinner. There is usually a pasta course, a meat course, and a dessert. The best part is the different glass of wine we get with each course to pair with the dish- always delicious! To top off the perfectly stress free days here, we've had something different and exciting to do each night. We met up with Robert's cousin Jason and his wife Rebekah on Tuesday, had an Auburn reunion with some friends studying with different programs on Wednesday, and I had a girls' night out with my roommates last night. It has seriously been so much fun!
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| Our first dish! |
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| Chef Robert! |
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| Roomie dinner :) |
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| Robert and Jason |
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| Me and Rebekah- so fun! |
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| Beautiful palace we walked by in class! |
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| The inside of a palace we visited in class |
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| The view from the top of the palace! |
Today, Robert and the boys went to the Ferrari factory and I have spent the day catching up on my life outside of Europe- the life that I have pretty much completely forgotten about.... whoops! We are going to Cinque Terre on Sunday and next weekend we are going to CROATIA! I'm really not sure if I'll be able to adapt to real life come August.
Life as a local has brought me even more perspective on Europe and Italian life.
1. I've learned why Italians do not exercise. People say that it's because they walk so much. No. It is because it's pretty much physically impossible to get around through all of the tourist traffic. I will never ever ever in my life again act like a tourist when visiting a new city- they are so obnoxious. The tourists' favorite things to do include walking on the sidewalk and suddenly just stopping in the middle of the pedestrian traffic to consult a map...come on people.
2. I've learned to always carry an umbrella. Apparently mother nature does not feel the need to warn the Florentines about upcoming weather. One minute it will be hot and sunny, the next minute torrential downpour happens and you think that you're going to get swept away to Oz with Dorothy. It's actually really funny every time it happens because nobody has any idea what to do. Robert and I usually just laugh and walk in the rain (or hail).
3. I've learned that the Italians do not believe in syllabus week. One week into class and we've already had a test in both classes! Fortunately, both teachers went quite easy on us and Robert and I both came out okay.
4. I've learned that Italians have impeccible taste in clothing and food. Every day, we walk past the highest of high end fashion stores. Louis Vuitton, Prada, Fendi, Celine, Tiffany- you name it, I've seen it here. They even have an entire museum dedicated to Gucci. As if the fashion wasn't enough, it's combined with a gelato obsession- seriously every other store is a gelato shop. Spoiler alert: I haven't learned to resist the clothes... or the food. I'm halfheartedly trying not to eat gelato every day- yesterday was the first day since we got here that I didn't have any! I'll update on how that ends up working out, haha.
5. I've learned that my love for Europe will always be outweighed by my love for everything Auburn. We were walking from class one day- Robert wearing an Auburn polo, me wearing an orange and blue top, and we got "War Eagled" twice! It was probably the coolest moment in my life. I didn't think my love for the Auburn family could be any greater, but somehow it grew.
The time is passing so quickly now- probably because we're having so much fun. I say this every post I do, but again I'm so, so glad that we decided to take this crazy adventure. After smoothing out all of the differences in European and American culture, I've finally fallen in love with the easygoing lifestyle the Europeans have embraced and perfected. It probably won't stick once we're back home, but until then I'll just have to see.
Ciao!
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