Exhaustion

September 1, 2011

Well it’s finally September! It feels like it’s been September for a while now but I guess that’s because I started school already. It’s weird to hear from everyone back at St. Olaf getting to school and starting soon. I miss all of you guys! Have a wonderful first semester and I will definitely come visit when I get home in December. And to everyone else in school or starting soon as well, of course! I’m excited to begin our other three classes at the end of this month. It will be a lot more work, for sure, but it will be nice and very interesting, of course. I have my first Italian quiz tomorrow so I have to make this shorter so I can get to studying and then to bed. I am exhausted after a long day and that silly jetlag still won’t let me be. I’m definitely starting to get on the right track though, so that’s good.

This morning we got up around the same time, got ready, had breakfast, and managed to catch the earlier bus. We got to class about twenty minutes early so I was able to post my blog from yesterday before class started. Today in Italian class we focused mostly on review for the test tomorrow as well as some new irregular verbs. We’re definitely speeding through everything. It’s nice that it’s such a crash course in Italian so we can get along in Italy more quickly. However, that also includes a lot of studying and staying on top of things both in class and out. After class, I went to the market with Willi and we got fresh baguettes, cheese and peaches. After lunch and for the remaining time we had until a meeting with our group, we headed back to the classroom to use the Internet. At 2:15 we met with a post office official about our permits of stay. We also got our radio guides for the trip, which are the little radio things with headphones that a lot of tour groups have. Our professor will have a microphone and then we can here her no matter if we are near or far from her. They are very nice, actually. After our meeting, Franzi and I took the bus home to drop off our backpacks and then headed back downtown. First, we found a stationary shop to get international envelopes and then we went on an adventure to find the post office. It took us quite a while but we eventually found it and bought a few stamps. HOWEVER, stamps to the U.S. are pretty expensive so I am afraid I won’t be sending as many postcards as planned. However, I WILL send a few as well as buy a bunch and write them, to send when I am back in the states.

At 5:00, we met our entire group at the entrance to Linguaviva and took the bus to the top of the hill above Florence to the Chiesa di San Miniato al Monte for our walking tour of Florence. The view from the top of the hill was stunning, you could see the entire city of Florence as well as beyond to the foothills. The church was gorgeous as well and we were there during evening mass so we could hear the chanting reverberating throughout. As we walked down the hill into the city, the sun was setting and it was absolutely beautiful. We walked by the river and across Ponte Vecchio, which is the bridge with all of the shops on it. It was so gorgeous and that whole area is one that I definitely want to go back to a lot. We saw many of the main sights of Florence and kind of got our bearings and figured out the layout of the city. It was nice to see where things were relative to each other.

We caught the bus home around 7:30. We sat down to dinner at 8:00, very hungry and exhausted. I thought I would fall asleep at the table. I made it through, however. Andrea had to stay late at work tonight so it was just Daniella and us. We started with pasta with oil and garlic and bread. Our second course was a potato omelet as well as carrots with mint. Very delicious. For our dessert or fruit, we had fresh cantaloupe, which was very sweet and yummy. Dinner only lasted about 45 minutes this evening, which was good because, as I said, I was about to fall asleep.

Of course, I wrote a long blog even though I said I was going to make it short. Oh well, it will be nice to have. And hopefully some of you enjoy it or at least enjoy skimming it ;) Now I must study for my quiz so I can try to get to bed by ten. I don’t want to be so tired in class tomorrow. We have the afternoon off tomorrow so Franzi and I are planning on going to the Boboli Gardens to do some journaling, letter writing, and/or reading. It’s still in the mid-nineties here and we don’t want to overdo it. So hopefully it will be a beautiful, relaxing way to spend our afternoon. And, of course, we’ll get gelato on the way! Then, on Saturday morning, we’re heading (as a group) to Pisa where we’ll spend the first half of the day. Then, in the afternoon a group of us are heading to Monterroso al Mare, which is one of the five cities of Cinque Terra on the coast. As of now it’s supposed to rain but hopefully it won’t. It will still be fun though, I’m sure. Then we’re headed back to Florence Sunday evening. So, after Friday (the day on which I will post this), I will not have Internet again until probably Monday. I will try to write a blog post in my journal about the weekend that I can post Monday. We’ll see!

Okay, I really must get to studying. Wish me luck on my first quiz! Love to all of you!

xoxo Kari

 Florence from above