Scusi, é questo treno per Firenze?

So much to tell. I’ll start with one of my favorite things we have done this past week- cook. We have pre-session Italian for two weeks and during this time LDM offers us fun little programs to do after school. Some are kinda lame, but this Wednesday they offered a cooking class. Most of us went expecting a short lesson on Italian cooking and maybe a free pastry. Italians like to cook and eat- they are my kind of people. We were split into two groups and given jobs. Hil and I were in charge of the homemade dough for these little veggie wrap/pasta things. We had to knead it, roll it out, and make it into the pasta strips! The other group was working on pesto and spinach ravioli, some kind of yummy spinach “torta”, and apple tarts. After cooking for around an hour we all sat down and had one of the best meals I have had in Italy! It was sooo great, and made me SUPER pumped for my cooking class that starts in February. The man teaching us is also a teacher for many of LDM’s cooking classes, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed I get him (he was great)!

This past week has been a lot of Italian. A LOT! Although I would LOVE to know Italian, I just really have a hard time with foreign language. Not one of my many gifts. We went to the University of Firenze on Friday with our class, don’t worry Hil and I maybe said 5 words. Our class is made up of kids who have taken all different levels of Italian, and we are def. at the very bottom. Some of them are basically fluent. It’s rough, but the more I hear the more I understand. I just need some confidence in my speaking ability. On a happier note, I got mistaken for a legitimate Italian yesterday. A woman asked ME for directions in Italian- HA. After class on Friday the girls went to go explore Boboli gardens but I was napping so I stayed back. After waking up I decided to explore by myself for a bit. It felt so weird being alone for the first time in a week. I have literally had someone with me 24/7, and while I have loved every minute of it, being alone made me realize how much I depend on others to lead me. I explored the Ponte Vecchio with all its cool jewelry, and then poked around the Uffizi museum. I enjoyed the Uffizi and am excited to go back once I know a little bit more about what I’m looking at. On the way home I managed to follow the map to “the best” gelato shop but lo’ it was closed. But I found it, and will find it again. I really like the area around Santa Croce which is extremely close to our apartment. Next week I will explore further.

Today (Saturday) we went on our first train trip. First of many. All the kids in our program day tripped to Pisa and Lucca. The trip was about an hour from Florence and extremely easy (well at least getting there). We got to Pisa around 11 and explored. Pisa is a neat town but really the only thing it is known for is….the leaning tower! The area around the leaning tower was beautiful and it was extremely odd to actually be looking at “the leaning tower of Pisa”. We had a yummy sandwich for lunch and took about 1000 pictures with the leaning tower. We left for Lucca around 2:30. I LOVED Lucca! Everything about Lucca was quaint and fun. From the streets filled with shops and people, to the yummy pastries we ate, Lucca is defiantly worth retuning to! My favorite part of Lucca was biking! My handy dandy Italy book told us that Lucca was known for its biking. It advised us to rent cheap bikes and ride around the outer walls that surround the city. I’m so glad we listened to the Italy book! We rode around the walls in the late afternoon and I felt like we were in a movie. Our bikes even had little bells! We had such a good time riding around and laughing at Melissa and Monique on the tandem. Can’t wait to go back and ride bikes in the spring!


Ok now for the truly funny story of the day. We (the 7 girls that went biking) made it back to the train station. We got our return ticket for Firenze and waited for our 6:25 train home. Long story short we accidently got on the wrong train. We got on the train that was at our platform but it was too early, so we ended up going towards the mountains. We would NEVER have realized this unless another random American girl heard us talking and asked me if we were going to Florence. She informed us that we had all gotten on the wrong train (her group had gotten confused too). Thank goodness for nice Americans. I’m not joking we would still be on some sketchy train in the Italian hills, listening to our ipods and asleep. We almost got off at a deserted train station, jumped back on, and then got off at another sketchy train station with our new friends from Michigan. Thank you Michigan friends. We finally made it back to Lucca, sprinted to the next platform and barely caught the next train to Florence! It was quite the adventure, but hey we made new friends and learned a lesson! Our first day traveling was wonderful and I don’t think I would even change us getting lost on the train, it just added to the day! Next weekend = Sienna.

All my love from “the cage” in Italia,
Bec

*Make sure you always validate your train ticket at the yellow boxes before getting on the train.
*PDA is very common in Italy. We still don't know how we feel about that...

“My eyes are small but they have seen the beauty of enormous things…”