Day 6: The Climb

Today I started classes. I was seriously dreading it because first of all it's a 9 a.m. class. Second of all it's 2.5 hours. I started feeling like I was on vacation instead of studying abroad but today quickly brought me back to reality. I don't think the class will be too difficult, it's just getting there four days per week. This Friday we have a day trip for my class to Cinque De Terre which is a small town off of the Italian coast. I googled some pictures and it looks beautiful. Despite it being required for class, I'm really excited to go. ISA is also planning a trip there next weekend so it will be fun to go twice.

After class I went on my first real grocery shopping trip at a supermarket literally 3 minutes from my school. Supermarkets here are called Conads. They look really small but once you step inside, the market goes way back into the building. It wasn't too hard shopping for food. Everything was in Italian and I pretty much had to guess what I was buying but I think it went okay. I bought food to make for dinner but the directions to make it was also in Italian and I also didn't know how to work the stove so I just settled for Ramen. Ramen never disappoints.

Around 4 p.m. we took a "hike" to this beautiful area overlooking the entire city of Florence. I put the word hike in quotation marks because it literally took 10 minutes to get there and I'm used to hikes that take a few hours to get to the top and back. It was really for tourists but I did enjoy it. I got a lot of good pictures and a small workout as well. On the way back we stopped at this new gelato place called Cantina Delgato and it was SO good. I had the strawberry and mango flavors and just thinking about it now is causing my mouth to water.

We just got back from an Irish pub not too long ago. It wasn't my favorite place that I've been so far. They played some major American throwbacks that made me a tad bit nostalgic. The entire place was full of Americans, which was nice, but overall it was kind of boring so we left pretty soon after we got there.

I'm starting to feel a tad bit homesick. I'm really not enjoying this whole walking thing. I feel like everything is such a bigger hassle because I have to walk everywhere. It takes more time to walk to places than it takes to actually be there and enjoy it. I don't know, maybe I'm just hitting a bump and next week I'm going to love walking. I also miss American food. I would kill for a good burger right now. It's just funny to me because it's only been one week tomorrow that I will have been out of the country and I'm already starting to feel this way. Don't get me wrong, I love it here. I think I just miss home a little bit too. I'll be back sooner than I think though and then I'll be wishing I was still in Florence walking 10 miles and eating gelato every single day. I guess we'll have to just wait and see how it goes.

Smooches,
The College Natural