pisa

For PISA pictures go to this website:

http://www.kodakgallery.com/BrowsePhotos.jsp?&collid=38937481806.740658015306.1200862933198&page=1

CIAO!

Hi everyone,

So sorry that I haven't posted until now! I hope everyone is doing well. Things are great here. I have a little sore throat...but I'm fine. I actually went into the pharmacy and said to them... my throat hurts and then they just gave me antibiotics! I love it. And they were like 5 euros! haha.

Well, I am getting settled in. I just finished my 2nd week of school. It is great. First off, all the people are amazing. I am in class with 24 people from: america, spain, france, sweden, norway, bulgaria, italy, austria, china, taiwan, thailand, holland, mexico, india,dubai, lebanon and the list goes on. It is so great to learn from them! I think I am actually learning more from them than I am in school. Haha!!! They are all so amazing and we have so much fun together.

As for school, we have already done 2 trips! We went last week to Pitti Uomo (which is the men's fashion fair for fall trends). It was amazing... quite a mess, but amazing. People running around. But it was great to see all the fashions and the cute italian men! Haha. All the girls were saying how we could write a better paper on the pitti people then the pitti fashion! Oh man! Then this past Thursday we went to Vicenza- a small town close to venice. It is where one of the biggest jewelry exhibits is held. There were over 1600 exhibitors and there was over 1 billion dollars in jewels there! It was crazy. We saw some of the most beautiful things. I happened to stumble upon a beautiful yellow diamond.. and decided i had to have it. I think I went back to look at it like 10 times! HA. The only bummer about the trip was that we had to take a bus 4 hours there at 6 am and then 4 hours home!

All in all, school is great, very laid back, but I think its just italian! Anyways, enough about school.

Lets talk about the fun stuff. I have made such good friends here in florence. I have been hanging out with some guys that I met through Neiman’s. They are Stefano Ricci’s (the menswear designer) sons. They are so so great. They really have made me feel welcome. They take me to dinner and we go out dancing. I am really thankful to have met them. It has been beyond fun!

I have so much to say….! Yesterday, I took my first trip. I went to Pisa to see the leaning tower with my friend Kirstin. It was so much fun. We took the train there in the morning and then we ate lunch and climbed the tower! It was so crazy. It was like a fun house. The stairs were all warped and at times your holding onto the wall because your being tilted (obviously). It was so much fun. Kind of high! But a blast. Check out my picture.!!! It was really tiring holding it up, but someone had to do it! Hahah

Well, Lastly, I wanted to tell everyone that I have a job! I started last night. I am only working one day a week, maybe 2. But its great. It is at a small resturant/bar called Naima. It is really laid back and we serve breakfast, lunch and apperitivo (you buy a drink and you can eat from a small buffet). It was so much fun. All of my friends came and hung out! It was very challenging though. I mean, I have never done anything like this in my life. And to learn it with all italian machines and ways of doing things! I was so confused. Haha! But my boss said I did great! And I even made some tips! Yeah!

Anyways, Im starting to get settled in here. Its been like a big vacation for the past week. Going out till 4.5… even 6 am! Haha, But Im starting to get settled in and I am absolutly loving every minute here!

I hope some of you come and visit me! I would love to have some visitors!

Love you all
Sarah

I am putting my photos up on ofoto! I don't know why its not working! I will attach the link in the next post.

Monday Jan.7

Ciao,

How is everyone! I got internet, yeah! So I spoke with a few of you over skype tonight and it was so great to hear your voices! Its now 11:00 at night, and today was my first day at school. It was great. This morning at 8:45 I met up with Kirstin (from austria) and Pep (from Barcelona) and we went to school together. We figured that if we were going to get lost, we might as well get lost together. Anyways, we went to school and we had orientation this morning. After that Pep and I came into the city to have lunch and a coffee of course! Then we had our first class, luxury merchandising at 3. It was great. Our teacher was so great. She used to be the vp for federated international stores for almost 40 years. We are going to get to go on so many great field trips. I already know what most will be, but I will wait to tell you them until I go on them! surprise surprise! haha! Anyways, so all in all it was a great first day. My schedule is great. I go to school at 3pm on mondays for only 3 hours and then, tuesdays at 8:30-11:30... so most days I only have school for 3 hours or so. Its awesome. But this week our schedule is a little different because the fashion shows are in FLORENCE!!! Yeah. On wednesday, we have our first assignment... go to PITTI UOMO (the name of the mens shows) and then take notes and pictures of all the trends. Then we have to present them to the class on tuesday. I am so excited.

This week will also be exciting because the men's buyers from Neiman's are coming... so I am going out to dinner with them on thursday and then back to the shows this weekend! I cannot wait.

This is truly a dream come true. Well, here is one of the pictures!
Love to all!

CIAO CIAO, FINALLY THE WEEKEND!

Well, I am sorry that I didn’t get time until now to put the photos up. I still do not have internet in my apartment, but I loaded them on my usb and have brought them to the internet train (shop) close to my apartment. I realized that in my last post I did not say anything about my apartment. I absolutely love it. It is in a great location close to the center of town and I think in the same building where I live there are maybe 30 other shops. I have my own pizza shop, gelato shop, resturants, pubs, clothing stores, doctors office and gucci! and many more! Its amazing that this building has so many things in it besides apartments. Anyways, so my apartment is on the 2nd floor here, which is the 3rd floor in America. I have a small elevator that is probably 50 years old. But at least I have one. Or I can use the stairs. Oh and there is also a hotel the floor above me. So if a lot of people come and stay you can stay in the same building! Haha. So once I get to my floor there is a big wooden door that I have to open with a different key, then I go inside a small foyer and there is another set of doors, but I use a code on this one. Then once inside, I walk down a long hall to the end where my apartment is and I have 2 small wooden doors that I use another key to open! So many keys. But at least I know that I am safe. I absolutely love my apartment. It has 1 room with the couch/bed, and there is a closet which fits all my clothes… a miracle… and then there is a cabinet for all of my things. There is also a table that can be made into a desk or a big table for eating… you kno all those lavish dinner parties I will be throwing! (with the water that doesn’t boil! Haha). Ok, so then there are 2 separate rooms. The bathroom is so nice, it is all tile and the shower is so clean and warm! You may be thinking… why wouldn’t it be warm… it’s a shower with hot water! Well, in Italy, they tend to not like to put doors on showers or curtains. Last time my shower had only half a door! So I am very very thankful that this shower can keep me warm while I am standing under trickling water! Haha. And the bathroom is twice the size of my bathroom in dallas. Also, it is twice the size of my kitchen… talk about a mix up! That brings me to my kitchen. It is nice, I have all the kitchen supplies I need as well as a microwave and refrigerator. Its great. So I am posting a few pictures that I took of my apartment… with all of my things in it!

So Friday after I posted on my blog, I met up with michela again so she could take me to the grocery store or coop. She walked through all of it with me and explained some things to me. Like all about the different brands and different types of cheeses there are. Man there are so many! Then after I met up with her for a dinner party. We went by scooter again, and we met up with some of her friends (10 girls). It was so much fun. I was definetly the quietest person in the room. But is was fun and great to finally have something to eat for dinner! Haha. They were all so nice. Two of the girls had just come back from NYC. And I got to see all of their pictures. It was so funny, seeing and hearing them talk about things in america… like I speak about things in italy. For instance, they all saw a picture of times square. And they were like ahhhh che bella, how beautiful, many lights! Haha, I tried not to laugh. They also took pictures of very odd things. There were pictures of random signs that didn’t mean anything or like a police car… hahah! But god knows that americans do the same thing when they go to other countries! Haha.

So then we went out to a disco, where one of the girls works. We didn’t even eat dinner that night till 10:30 and we went out at 1:30. The bar doesn’t even get full till 2:30ish and it closes at 5. Haha. All I know is that it was a very italian club, because I smelt like I had been sitting in a box full of cigarette smoke for 10 years and I felt like I had eaten more smoke than food since I have been in italy!

That is definetly one thing that you have to get used to!

Anyways, right now I have so much to say and so much time. But starting next week, I know school will keep me busy.

Oh and today I met a girl that is in school with me. She is from Austria! And she is so so nice. We sat and ate lunch for like 2 hours today and talked. She lives really close to me and I think that we will be great friends. Her mom works for the UN in austria, but she is british. Kirstin speaks really good english so that is nice for me! We are meeting on Monday to go to school together.

Ok… arrividerci!

Ciao sarah
( ok so now that i am here putting the post up... i cannot put photos! sorry! they will have to wait until i get to school!) sorry

A WILD RIDE!!!

Hey everyone,

So, I wrote the last post on Tuesday night when I arrived. And now it is friday and I have done a ton this week.

On Tuesday Night after I arrived, I met up with Monica, Michela and her husband. It was so great to see them all! It was just like I had never left. It was so great. They made me dinner and we sat around and talked about everything that has happened over the past year and a half. Niente--- they said... nothing, which I find hard to believe! But Monica told me that she is getting too more girls on the 17th. So I will get to meet them and I'm sure I will go and eat dinner with them. YUMMY YUMMY food! Anyways, so that night at Michela's they had a bottle of sparkling wine and we drank some to toast the new year. They were very confused when I said its called a toast... they were like... toast that you eat? They were so confused. There are a few things that monica gets confused about. It is so funny. She told me that many times she rearranges her chicken... but she means kitchen. HA! But she also says "are you (H)Angry when she means to say HUNGRY! and vis-versa! Man have I missed the Italians!

Anyways so then on Thursday, I met up with Michela at 12:45 and we went to the bank, the post office, the police station... I had many things to do once I arrived. But we didn't walk to all of these things! WE RODE ON HER VESPA! It was so much fun... and so scary! She was laughing at me because I was holding onto her so tight... I told her she was my boyfriend for the day! HAHA! We rode all over the city.. and did I mention.. that it was in the pouring rain, it was quite interesting. I think a few times my leg brushed up against a car... and pretty close to a bus! It was so fun...haha. She also took me to my school and I got to see how to get there. It is so beautiful. It is up on a mountain. It is very beautiful!

OK, well I got my Italian cell phone. I will email it out rather than putting it on the blog. I cannot wait to talk to all of you. I hope everyone is doing well!!! Miss everyone.

I am on my way to eat lunch, Im starving.... last night it took 2 hours to boil some water for pasta... which never happened! so no dinner for me! hahah

I will figure it out sooner or later.

CIAO!

PS... I got woken up this morning by the sound of huge churchbells.. that sounded as if they were in my apartment! HA, I will really need to get used to this... or get some earplugs !

I am in FLORENCE!

Ciao,

I have arrived safely in Firenze. I hope everyone had a great New Year’s eve. Mine was an interesting one. On Friday, I flew to Miami from Dallas with all of my suitcases! Check out the picture…. I cannot believe I made it here with all of those bags (they were each 70 pounds!, it was a sight to see). I went to stay with my cousin, his wife and their cute baby!!! It was so much fun.. very relaxing and the weather was incredible. Thank you Mike and Stephanie for having me.

So then I left for Italy. I woke up on Monday morning and went to the airport (4 hours early…lots of fun!), haha, no actually it was great because I got to talk to most of you on the phone. It was so great to be able to say goodbye to everyone individually. So then I boarded my plane and was surrounded by really tan italians that had just vacationed in miami! HAHA, I thought that I was tan… then I saw them! The flight was easy, only about 8 hours. And each seat had their own tv so I got to choose out of 10 different movies and then I also could play video games. I think I played who wants to be a milliionare 1,000 times! And never made it out of the hot seat with more than 1,000 dollars! It was pathetic! Oh, so my new year’s… We had just gotten on the plane and after like 30 minutes it was new years in Italy. So the captian announced “due Minuti, un minuto, trenta secondi, then once he got to 10, 9, 8…. He only counted the even ones! He was like “dieci, otto, sei, quattro, due, HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!” It was so funny. They didn’t have time to give us all drinks, so we all had random drinks. I had a bottle of water and the couple next to me, who didn’t speak any english… tapped me on the shoulder and they were like “ ching ching”. It was interesting! Then a bunch of families pulled out the traditional christmas cake and they were passing it around clapping and screaming!!! Even the captians came and wished everyone happy new year…. But all I was thinking was who is flying the plane! Haha.

Anyways, so I arrived in Milan an 8 am and changed planes to go to florence… I didn’t sleep at all, so im sure I looked just lovely! I then got on my plane and finally made it to florence. I then went straight to my hotel, took a shower and then went to sleep! I didn’t even get a chance to realize that I was in Florence. But, now as im sitting here in my hotel on the first night, I cannot believe that I am here!!!! I went and walked around the city for an hour or so. Everything is just how I remembered it. I guess that’s what things are like here. They havent changed in centuries, so I guess they wouldn’t change in a year and a half.

Well, tonight I have dinner with Monica and Michela (my host mom from last time and her best friend). I am so excited. I get to see them and have a home cooked italian meal on my first night here! I am so thankful that she is here.

Then, tomorrow I am going to meet my landlord LORENZO, and move into my apartment. I know its going to be small, but I think it will be great. The only thing I am worried about is… Im not sure if there is a closet! Haha. I guess we’ll see!

Anyways, hope everyone is well. Email me and keep in touch. I am pretty much hanging out in florence this week, just getting everything organized. But I start school on Monday! I cannot wait. Miss everyone

Baci!