Destination: Florence, Italy

So after 21 hours in airports or planes, I have arrived in Florence! I'm blogging till today because the hotels internet was down the 1st night and yesterday and today, I have been walking in downtown Florence. So let me tell you what happened after I left Boston.

I noticed my flight said London/Brussels and I was very confused about that. So when I got on the plane, it was heading to London! My itinerary never said I would stop there! GREAT! I expected a HUGE plane with comfy seats - DIDN'T HAPPEN! It was a small old AA plane. It only had 2 seats - 3 seats - 2 seats rows. Even though it had tv, they showed the stupidest movie ever about a little boy with weird friends and how his booger tried to eat them. WHAT THE HELL?! so obviously I HAD TO TRY TO SLEEP - mind you, I can't sleep on planes and worst of all, the freaking seat didn't lean back at all! Ok, maybe like an inch! SERIOUSLY! however, eventually they played The Office, which was hilarious! Anyways, I arrived to London at 6am which in my time was about 12 am or 1am, I think. There at London I met a girl, also coming in from the Boston connection called Anne, who coincidentally is also going to Florence but for an Italian language and experience program. - Cutting the flying story short, I was in Brussels for 2 hours (waiting) and then I arrived in Florence! All so tedious but hey! I paid $530 to get here from Miami. VERY CHEAP!

Once I was in Florence, I took a cab to my hotel. Unfortunately, their internet was down for the day. So I walked to a convenience store to find an international calling card and then I had to find a telephone cab to call my family and tell them I was ok! After that I needed a shower! and guess what happens now - NO HOT WATER! I had to wait like 2 hours for their maintenance guy to fix it! During that time, I HAD to watch tv. Every channel is in Italian, so I watched Buffy the Vampire Slayer in Italian LOL random! After showering, I was completely bored and since my euro plug converters didn't seem to work, I went downstairs and hung out with the receptionist and watched Brothers on his laptop (very good movie btw). He told me, the do's and don'ts of apartment searching and talked about Italy. He was nice, a little arrogant and bitchy at moments but I had to be nice cause I was bored!

Anyways, Day 1 was good. I went next store (electrical appliance shop) and figured out the problem to my plug converter. Then my receptionist gave me the directions on the map to a "centro comercial" which was 15 minutes away. However, I got lost for 3 hours looking for it! Once I found it, it was literally 15 mins away like he had said. o0oh and while I was lost it was non-stop raining and my umbrella inverted with the wind and completely broke! At the centro comercial, I got my sim card at Media Store (kinda like Best Buy) and some groceries at the supermarket. The supermarket was insane! So much prosciutto, pasta, pasta sauces, and wine! So I got some 3 euro wine and lunch snacks. The people at the store were crazy! It looked like the supermarket was having a super sale or closing out sale - I was pushed a lot! After this, I went back to my hotel to eat my snacks and rest from all the walking. Eventually, my new friend, Anne, contacted me and invited me to a walking tour of downtown Florence. I rode the bus on my own and met her counselor at the Duomo. Florence is BEAU-TI-FUL at night! I also learned a lot since Anne had her own tour guide. After the tour, we had some hot chocolate and we were invited to a delicious italian dinner by her counselor. OMG soo good! I had linguini dello scoglio, which is with seafood and we all shared a Tagliare appetizer which had prosciutto, other cold cuts, pate, and bruscetta. Day 1 was great! and Night 1 was good too, all the walking made me very tired.

Today, I had to meet some girls from the school for brunch, however I got lost again for over an hour and missed it. By the time I arrived, they were leaving out the door! However, Anne stayed with me! :) Trust me! It was very complicated to get there! It was an american style restaurant with american type food. All we did after was walk around downtown Florence again. My legs are so tired! They aren't use to it all! LOL

Well tomorrow will be a good day, because its Orientation day! WOOOOHOOOO! I'll keep you posted ;) XoXo

P.S. Florence is alrite. I'm mostly here for Polimoda, I hope my hopes aren't too high like they were for the city.