adventures in florence

aha! as if i didn't already struggle enough trying to figure out how to upload pictures and add new blogs, now when i sign up it's all in frikkin' italian...doh! hehe...oh well, we'll see how this works. Firenze has been a blast so far. I started my adventure last week crying my pants off after leaving ronaldinho and pedro in chicago, flew to philadelphia, met a guy on the plane from north carolina but who lives in italy and gave me a bunch of advice, then i arrived in Rome, picked up my two huge bags and stumbled around on the train to florence, but arrived finally at my apartment and my landlord/flatmate Paolo was here and showed me around the flat (if i knew what all these blog options meant in italian i'd try to upload pictures of the appartment here:) Paolo then took me to the grocery store, we came back, went for a 5 mile run to Parque de la Cascine (because i lied and told him i was a runner), came back, he made some delicious pasta, we ate it and i drank some wine (first time i've had it withough puking after i think hehe) and then finally i went to bed. So anyway, since then, I've hung out with Paolo and his friends Imanuele, Maurizio, Maurizio II, Luka and Alberto. They're a lot of fun and have shown me some of the main touristy places but also where the Fiorentini (locals) hang out. We watched the Italy-France soccer match and ate some pizza then went out to bar zoe and yesterday we went to forte Belvedere (which literally means good view) but it was chiuso (closed) so we went and drank wine instead heheh...and i also ate delicious gelato...mmm.
today Jacqueline (my other roomate) showed me how to take a bus to the center of the city (i've been walking the 3 miles there everyday..but it hasn't been bad). We went to my school so i could sign up for orientation tomorrow, and lucky me i did see a redhead sign up for classes too...wahoo! Jacqueline and I then went to eat some pizza/lunch and she showed me all her favorite shoe/purse/clothes shops. It was fun, I actually might have to buy a pair of jeans here, I like their style, they like to wear 'em baggy like me..not tight in the @ss like the US. anywho, my last roommate arrived tonight Ibolya from Hungary, and she already has studied a semester at the school and gave me a lot of advice..so yeah, it's been a lot of fun and i'll try to keep this thing updated with any new fun adventures, now if i could only figure out how to upload pictures..hmmm