First Day of Work

Today I got a text from Tony, the guy who owns the wine shop, asking me if I could come in for a couple of hours and work.  Since I didnt have class until 6 I jumped on the opportunity to actually make some money while I am here. I spent most of the day putting new lables on boxes so that he could send them out to various resturants in the US. Normally this would be pretty boring but throughout the 2 hours different groups of people would come in to do a wine tasting.  After listening to Tony a few times he sent me out with the bottle of wine and had me describe the kinds of grapes that it was made from and what the wine would go best with.  I am not going to lie I was pretty terrible at this because he talked really fast and I couldnt understand what he was saying a lot of the time but, I made stuff up and people nodded their heads and agreed with me. But, the most exciting part of the day was when he told me that he had a daughter who was four years old and asked if I liked to babysit.  I of course said that I would love to and that he should call me anytime that him and his wife would like a night out.  On top of that he is really easy to hold a conversation with so I had someone to talk to while I did the labeling.  Since then I have worked for him a couple more times and everything has gone just as smoothly.  I love being able to put money back into my portofoglio (thats wallet in Italian) :)

Beach Day!

My roommates and I woke up on Friday morning and had no plans for the upcoming day.  It looked like it was going to be a nice day so we decided to put on our suits and head to the beach.  The closest city we know is Viariggio and is only about and hour and a half train ride away.  Well by the time we got there the clouds had rolled in but we were determined to have our day on the beach. So after a couple hours of talking and teeth chatering we decided to cuddle up on two of the towels and use the other one to cover us up.  The three of us fell asleep spooning on the beach for a good hour. Even though the sun wasnt out it was nice to get out of the city and have a change of scenery.

Roommates broken foot

Tonight started out great. Two of my roommates and I decided we wanted to get all dressed up and go to one of our favorite bars the Old Stove.  There are a couple of reasons why this is one of our favorite places to go.  One, a bartender that works there has a thing for my roommate so we get our drinks for basically nothing and two, they serve Strongbow.  We stayed at this place for a couple of hours talking, laughing and having a great time.  When we started to become too obnoxious we decided to move on to the next place to make sure we would still be welcomed back.  On our way through the city my roommate Lauren, who was also a former gymnasts, decided she wanted to do a cartwheel.  Watching her inspired not only me but my other roommate Selin to attempt one also. Mine went wonderfully with pointed toes and a stuck landing but Selins was a little less gracefull.  Lets just say after a half hour of trying to "walk it off" we decided to take her to the hospital.  We left a few hours later with Selin, her two broken bones in her foot and a full leg cast.  Had this happened to anyone else they would have cried and been depressed about the thought of 40 minute walk to class on crutches but Selin is an opptomist.  She has arranged a deal with a taxi company in Florence to take her to and from class and hobbles around everywhere else.  All and all we still had a great night with a lot of memories.

One of the Best days of my life!

My roommates and I live very close to a place that is called "Florence by Bike."  We figured since we have lived here for almost three weeks that doing the tour that they offer would be a great way to appreciate the city that we live in.  Two of my roommates, another friend, our British speaking tour guide and I started our tour at about 9:30 this morning.  We started off the tour by going through the busy streets of Florence but soon left for the outskirts of town.  Some of the hills were very steep but since we were all friends and our guide had a great time laughing at our struggles, the hard parts were more of an entertainment than a frustration.  I could not believe how beautiful places were that were only minutes out of the city.  We biked through small towns filled with vinyards, olive trees, bamboo, laurel which all made for a breathtaking view.  After we had been biking for about 32 kilometers it started to drizzle so we stopped at a house that was close to the restaurant we would be eating lunch at.  We soon found out that the house was that of our tour guides and the "restaurant" was actually his mother-in-laws house that overlooked the city.  The food that was served consisted of fresh figs that were picked from the trees surrounding her house, prosciutto, tomato with mozzerella, pesto pasta, wine, and cafe.  Since we were at more of a house than a restaurant we were joined by the tour guides beautiful wife and kids.  Since we were so enthrauled with how good the food was the tour guides wife invited us back to do a cooking lesson.  She gave us her card and said that we can come any day. We would spend the whole afternoon cooking and then stay for dinner to eat.  I couldn't imagine tha the day could get any better but then we got to ride back down to the city.  Since we had spent most of the afternoon biking up hill it was mostly down on the way home.  Again the sights were amazing but this time we really got to enjoy them without thinking that we might pass out.  When we got back down to Florence we went to a private wine tasting.  We then learned not only the different types of wine and which goes better with what food but also learned why. The guy that was instructing the wine tasting must have liked us becuase he offered us all a job to come and serve wine to people when they come for tastings. We have our first gig starting sunday. We will be paid and im sure we will be bringing home some great wine.  Words cant even begin to describe what an amazing day I had. I am so thankful :)

Cinque Terre

Today was another early morning. The bus left at eight in the morning and we were off to our next city.  Cinque Terre mean five cities in Italian and it runs all along the coast.  Again there was an oppstion to either hike or take a train from each stop.  My roommate and I again chose to hike only with another girl we met from California.  We decided to take the train down the the last of the five cities and start in Riomaggiore. From Riomaggiore we went to Manarola, Corniglia and then Vernazza.  Riomaggiore and Manarola were very small so we didnt stay very long.  In Corniglia we decided to stop and rest for a while and get some fruit from a local store.  After we felt reguvinated we decided to contiue to hike to Vernazza which was the second longest and hardest hike of the day.  When we reached Vernazza we stopped at a restaurant on the coast and got some freshly squeezed lemon juice. The last city that we hiked to is called Monterosso.  This hike was the hardest and longest of all the hikes and the sun was getting hot.  The view was still beautiful but a bit hard to consentrate on when I couldnt breath.  By the time we got there we had hiked about 10 miles all together.  The beaches in Monterosso were suppossed to be the biggest and best of the 5 cities so we decided to use the last couple hours of our trip to lay out.  I cant believe how much we did in the past couple of days. If I had to do it again I would stay at least a few days in each of my favorite cities

Portifinio Sept. 4th

Last night I got to bed around 2:30 in the morning and I got up at 5:30 this morning to leave for my trip.  I am pretty sure I am still running on excitement and adrenaline but it happens.  We started the day off by taking a 3 hour bus ride to Saint Margherita.  I could not believe how beautiful it was. The coast in Italy is very different from the city life in Florence.  We only got an hour in this town and it was definitely not enough.  The next town we went to was Camogli.  My roomate and I stopped to eat at a restaurant right on the ledge of the coast.  The wine was great and the view was better.  Camogli was my favorite city of the day and I would love to come back here for a vacation some day.  We spent a few hours here and then took a boat to Saint Fruttuoso.  This city can only be reached by boat or hiking.  We had an option to take a boat to our final city Portifino, or to hike.  Out of the 40+ people that went on this field trip my roomate and I were the only ones that chose the hike.  The hike was breath taking, literally.  The first half hour was pretty much straight up hill but after that it got easy.  The whole thing took us close to two hours and I am so glad we hiked.  From Porofino we took a bus to the town Chavari, which is where we stayed for the night.  I fell asleep early that night

Orientation Sept. 3rd

Maybe making everyone finish whatever wine was left on the table was not the best idea last night. Lets just say orientation came early this morning. Today was filled mostly with the normal, boring rules about things we are not allowed to do but, the things we can do got me really excited.  Before I left the US I signed up for a field trip to hike the alps. What I didnt know is that the school offers eight of these trips.  I did some research and found a couple more of them that I want to do and one of them actually leaves tomorrow.  This field trip takes us to a total of about 10 cities along the coast of Florence!  The other one that I might sign up for is Nice and Monte Carlo.  My other three roommates are all going on this one so that could be a really great time! 

Tonight they had a free dinner for the Lorenzo de Medici student.  One of my roomates and I went early to sign up for the field trip that leaves tommorow so we sat at a table with a few girls that we didnt know.  Two of them were from Holland and one was from France.  I had the most interesting conversations this night.  We talked about our differnt drinking age, laws, holidays ect..  After that the French girl, Charolette, invited us back to her house for a glass of wine.  She set up her study abroad program by herself so was in an apartment with random people from all over.  One of her roomates was an older male who was from Maraco and another girl that was Scottland.  I envy her independance.  All of them were great people and it really made for an interesting night.