I am more than half way done with my time over here. It’s pretty crazy.
I am loving my time here, I am really enjoying the culture. I can understand Italian more than I can speak it still, but I hope with my internship only speaking Italian, I will learn to speak more. Also, it’s really great that everything is in walking distance, seriously. I know I have said that before but I really enjoy it. The pub everyone goes to is literally a 3 minute walk from my apartment. Mostly I am meeting amazing people. Each one brings a different dynamic to the group. Some I have become very close to, and sadly a lot of them have already left. Each time it’s just getting harder and harder. When it comes to leave this country, I know it will be the hardest goodbye. The ones that have left already I will see in July, so that makes me extremely comforted. The others that are still here and have to say goodbye to sooner or later, I really hope I see again.
Now for the things I am missing…
1: My Family
2: Friends
3: “Free food”
4: Home cooked food
5: Not doing dishes
6: Not having to dust every two seconds (for some reason my apartment makes dust bunnies on an assembly line)
7: My queen sized bed
8: Having all my clothes
9: Not doing laundry
10: Having my laundry come out the same color it went in
11: Not grocery shopping
12: Working (Hate retail, but man I really don’t like seeing my account just go down all the time, I want money)
13: My car (With it being cold all the time, I wish I had heated transportation)
14: Having the heat on without feeling like I will get yelled at
15: Shower head that is on the wall
16: Shower that has a higher ceiling
…That is really it actually. When I look back at it, they are all trivial things. I am making out pretty well then.
Day 32-34:
In the afternoon, I met with a good friend for some Asian food and met her mom. Her mom is the sweetest person ever. I will be staying at her house with her daughter (my friend) in July and she was already saying what she was going to make me. I have to think of something to bring to her for letting me stay in her house and just because she is an amazing lady.
But YAY! Weekend away. So this weekend me and my friends went to a little mountain getaway. We went to a town called Faidello. We left from the Florence train station at 4:30 in the afternoon. We had to take a train then a bus. In total it was about two and half hours from Florence. We rented an affordable chalet for 9 people. The transportation was very cheap too. It cost 3.70 euro for a train and 4.30 euro for a bus. After we were on the bus for awhile we found out we took the wrong bus. The bus that was supposed to go to our chalet was not running due to the bad weather. When we got to Abetone (a few miles away from our chalet), there was a bar we could go to in to get warm and figure out what the heck we were going to do. I got a bit nervous since I really did not want to spend the night in a bar, and could not afford night in a hotel too. The snow was falling hard and the bar called Lupo Bianco (White Wolf) was really really nice. We sat around drank and ate. The two girls who were really good at Italian started to find taxis for us. The staff gave us some small sandwiches and things to munch on while we waited. Eventually a taxi was willing to take us through the snow. While some people grabbed drinks, we realized the man who owned the place we were staying at was there! He was such a nice guy and once we got to the chalet he even built us a fire in a wonderful fireplace we had. We made some food from what we had come with and the rest of the night we drank wine, played some card games, and sat by the fire. My bed I slept in was a bit awkward… It was too short for me and the middle part was dented in… so you can say I had a hard time falling asleep.
When I woke up I ate some wonderful breakfast by our own personal chef (a.k.a. our friend who is a cook). The weather was not good enough for skiing so we decided to go for a walk into town. After layering up A LOT, we headed out. We looked at the scenery, took photos, and had a snowball fight (of course). We found a ski shop that told us prices for rentals and lift ticket, it was sooo cheap!! Once we got back to the chalet we cooked chicken over the fire, and played cards again. I had a tendency this weekend to just sit in a chair by the fire and fall asleep. I loved the smell. It was interesting though: the upstairs was an inferno and the downstairs just comfy. I stupidly wore all my running gear to bed and woke up in the middle of the night in a sweat. The next day we couldn’t go skiing again because of the weather, so we just cooked some more and sat by the fire. Eventually we had to leave. It was really sad. I was just a nice relaxing weekend away. The people I spent the weekend were just as wonderful. The only draw back from this weekend was that everyone got sick….
Day 35
Chocolate festival week!
This place is just amazing. It is just stands of chocolate everything. I loved it. Pretty much spent the afternoon there. Best thing I had was a strawberry kabob covered in chocolate. 
Day 36
Night out for a friends birthday! Dinner out at an aperitivo, which was amazing. The food was sooo good and was only 10 euro and then to her apartment for some wonderful cake and drinks
Day 40
Today I went to Chianti! It was soooo beautiful. We took a walk through the vineyards and then went to see the cellar where the wine is made. We eventually made our way into the wine makers house, where we had different courses of food with wine. I loved every moment of the day… except I was freezing every moment. I dressed for the weather in Florence, not for this area.
Day 41
I woke up with a cold… Fantastic! I went to an American brunch though with my friends. I ordered blueberry pancakes and bacon. It was amazing! Then after went home, did a few things around the apartment, then went out to the movies with some friends. We saw “The Descendants.” It was so good, but also sad..
Day 42
Went to the store, and did laundry. I was invited out for dinner, but decided not to. Need to save money and plus, this cold is making me feel soooooo lazy. Anyways tomorrow… finally… starts my internship!!!!!! Also in a few days… Saturday is my birthday. It’s actually quite depressing for me. 25 years? What happened???????
