Sleepville... Day 3

Today was exhausting! The time change, over eating of carbs and endless walks started to catch up with everyone. It was all about orientation and learning to adjust to Florence which consisted of several lectures from professors, psychologists, and inspectors educating us from 9am to 6pm. It was all great information but a little redundant and too many hours of sitting in extremely uncomfortable chairs. What we loved most about the day was the free food. Of course Taylor, Amanda, Olivia, and I were the first to realize that our "cafe break" meant there would be expresso, croissants, and cookies in the break room. During our lunch break we ventured out to find food and of course settled on the repetitive sandwich of mozzarella, tomatoes, and oil. We sat and ate our food outside as we basked in the beautiful Italian sun. When we realized we had about two more hours of lunch break we decided to take care of our Italian cell phones. After walking into a few mobile phone stores we ended up with a decently cheap phone plan and some banging 6th grade samsung phones. The day than lead us to more orientation and yet another reception of free food. Amanda has definitely been keeping our budget and hunger in check by taking some sandwiches to go in her purse. We're very lucky to have such a smart and economical roommate! We realized today how much money we had been spending on food and that we really needed to stop eating out and hit up the supermarkets. We found a fresh fruit and veggie stand where we bought one eggplant, olive oil and eggs....so obviously we're really good at this whole food shopping thing. We walked back to our apartment which felt like years away with a bunch of girls who live just a few apartments down. It is at least a 25 minute walk! After relaxing in the apartment and booking a trip to Chianti, we headed over to Jaron, Greg, and Mike's apartment for a nice pesto pasta meal cooked by the boys. We had planned on brining the eggplant but that idea got shut down really quick! The pesto was amazing and we were some happy campers getting yet another free meal. The craving for gelato and the need to find H&M creeped up on us as we hungout after our delicious meal. So out we went again exploring the streets of Florence and got a nice big scoop of gelato. We continued to walk around catching a glimpse of the Ponte Vecchio at night which was amazing and joking around about dressing up for the non existing Halloween in Europe! We walked in and out of streets we had never been through and came across a sign that said 9 3/4!! Of course Taylor and I freaked out and made a scene over it! The night ended with an IOU to the boys for an amazing dinner and another trek back to the apartment. It is incredible how everyday is a new experience!
Ciao for now!


Our fancy new phones...

building with US $1 bills all over it...

walking around Ponte te Vecchio.....