MAY MAY MAY

WOW, I really cannot believe that I have gotten so bad about this blog. I have had numerous complaints and I am terribly sorry. Italy has become my life and it doesn’t really seem like I am just living over in Italy for a few months. I guess that is a good thing!!! It is exactly what I wanted and I am happier than I have ever been!!! This is going to be a long update, but here it goes.

Well, I realized that I never really spoke about my everyday life, the people I meet, the streets I walk, the life I lead! Well, as you all are aware, I moved here on the first of january. I moved into a darling little apartment at the actual center of florence, I mean center! I loved this apartment, but after a few months it became too small and I had a great offer. One of the girls in my class from france… told me that her roomate was moving out and that she needed to find a replacement. I told her, ya I will come by and look at it. When I finally made it over there, I knew that this was the actual house I was supposed to be at! It is in an amazing neighborhood just minutes from my first apartment and it was spacious and beautiful. I had to take it! Plus it was like 400 euros less and 400 square feet bigger! What a deal. Anyways, so I moved in on the 15th of April and I have had such a great time with my roomate, SARA! Hahah We have the same name. Its pretty funny, but we have developed nicknames, thanks to my friend Daniele. I go by Sarina and she is Sareta. It’s the only way! Hahah. So she is from perpinon (sp) in the south of france like 1 hour away from barcelona. She studied in Montreal for the past 4 years and she is in the same program as me. She is 24 and she speaks really good english, I have to be careful, because she is starting to talk like me (very proper english….im sure ! hahah). We have a rule in our house that after 3 times of saying what what what…when we cant understand eachother. After 3 times we give up! It cant be that important! Hahah So about the apartment. It is located in a really old building (hahah whats not) and we are on the 1st floor. When you walk in the door there is a long hallway, where her bedroom is the first room and mine the second. Let me just explain the size difference! My old apartment fit into my bedroom now. I have a great shabby chic, yet italian style bedroom with a great big window that overlooks a church across the street. On nice days I can open up the windows and let the florence air come in. But along with that comes mosquitos!!!! Oh man I thought I got away from those in texas! Then we have a huge kitchen with a pantry and small breakfast table. Then in the living room we have one room that has a dining room as well. Beautiful big couches. Then we also have a nice bathroom and laundry room. Its amazing. The floor is also tile, which can be cold at times, but it gives it the italian feel that we love. It’s a great house for people to come over. A week doesn’t go by where we don’t have a big italian dinner (thanks to daniele) or a nice party… or even 5 of our friends all croweded around my computer to watch the latest south park episode! Haha. Its amazing, exactly the kind of house that I love and have always wanted. It could use a few decorations, but well see when that happens!

I will post some photos of my apartment and my life in florence, where I walk, my school etc. I will add them soon, I promise promise promise.

Well, so as for my life in florence. Week to week it changes, but as I said above we always have dinners at my house as well as a big dinner at francescos (franci). He lives up in the hills over looking florence and I always go up there to have a 5 hour dinner! It is always the best food and full of great company (never less than 10 people). Well on Mondays we all meet (me and a few of my italian boys… niccolo, dani) all meet at a bar that we love Colle Bereto, we have a drink and all meet before we go to the disco club YAB (you are beautiful) yes cheezy, but it is italy! We all meet there and have our designated table for hip hop night. It is pretty hilarious to teach these italians to dance to rap and hip hop! Actually they asked me to give them lessons while we are in the club…like some new dance moves! Then after a few weeks of these moves, they realized that I was teaching them to dance like a girl…. So that has since ceased hhahahahha. Tuesdays, we sometimes go out to francescos club. It is called BE BOP, it has been there since the 60s. its great, its like a hole in the ground but it is a live music bar. On Tuesday nights we listen to a great cover band (THE BEATLES). Its so much fun to see people dress up like the beatles and people dance like they are in the 60s and 70s. it really is a great atmosphere. Wednesday we take it easy hahha, then Thursday it starts up all over again and we normally go out to a club called full up. This also procedes into the weekend. Its great because everywhere we go we see our friends and we can have such a great time all together. With a handful of clubs, we see eachother there or walking in the main piazza having a drink. Its such a great feeling!

So as for my friends. Sara, pehr and pep have continued to be my little family. They are amazing. I love them all so much and Im going to miss them when they go back home! But daniele, he is 24, italian, works at sergio rossi, he has become my best friend here. We have so much fun together. He is the true italian, but better! He really enjoys cooking and wants to open up his own restaurant one day. He is an amazing chef! He is also the kickboxing champion of tuscany! Hahah, I call him the one man band. He does everything. He is great. We have so much fun together, last week we went out to the countryside for lunch and then I got him to watch rush hour 3. It was so funny, Anyways, you will see him in a lot of my photos. He is the tall guy with curly brown hair. Francesco is also one of my good friends. He is the on that has his own winery. That’s who I went to vinitaly with. Dani as well. There is niccolo and filippo as well. Tons of great people. Most are guys, italian girls are not that friendly and actually don’t seem to be too keen on american girls, well foreign girls in general. But I have met a few and those few are great!

The past month a lot has happened. I believe that the last time I wrote I was just leaving for vinitaly… about a month ago. Vinitaly was great, it was in verona (I didn’t get to see the city though) But the fair was so interesting. I worked at the stand. And whenever people came up we gave them a tester and talked to them about the wines. The name is BARONCELLI. It is sold only to the us in nice restaurants, but mostly on the east coast. Its great. Anyways so we went to nice dinners and hung out at the fair all day. It was about a 3 hour drive there. It was fun to go on my first italian road trip, especially with my 2 great friends. It was so nice. Then we came back and I was in florence for a few weeks. We just had school and I switched over my apartment ( a pain in the butt). We went on a few school visits, but nothing to out of the ordinary ( FOR ITALYhahah). Lots of enjoying life and the new apartment. We through a housewarming party for me at my new apartment and we had a ton of mexican food. I made fajitas! It was so much fun. Then on April 25 my parents came. It was so much fun. It was such a different experience to have them come and visit me when I was living on my own. They came to florence and we went to lots of nice dinners and walked around for a few days. I surprised them with a fiat 500 tour of florence, which was the highlight of their trip ( I think!) It was so much fun 4 of us drove around in 2 cars. We took them to the outskirts of florence and they got to see the tuscan countryside. And for my dad, the car nut, it was great! No masarati, but its something fun and new to do! It was great. Then on Monday we went to rome. We did lots of sightseeing (my 2nd or 3rd time) but when does that stuff ever get old. Vatican tour, roman forum, rome at twilight! It was great. I actually met a guy on one of my tours that went to KU! It was the first experience that I have had outside ku around the world where I can bond with a fellow jayhawk! It was great. He was actually good friends with my ex boyfriend’s(mike) brother! Crazy.

We went from there to naples, to the island of capri and then to the penninusla of sorrento. This part of the trip was nice and relaxing. Eating great dinners and laying by the pool and beach. It was a great place to start my summer tan!!!!

It was a great trip over all! Check out the photos.

Well, anyways, so..its the middle of may and I only have 2 weeks of school left.!!! I DO NOT BELIEVE IT. I have a little graduation ceremony and then I begin my 4 month summer project. Its like 2 hours a week and I am working for riva yachts. Lots of fun research., I don’t know that much about how its going to work. I will let u know!!!!

Well I miss u all so much, and I hope that some of you come and visit me. Keep in touch

Love sarah