Via Ghibellina, 57, Apt. B

That, my family and friends, is the place I now call home :) We moved into our apartments today, and there are about 40 students living in my building. Everyone is spread our throughout the city, and we'll all have about 15-20 walking minutes to school. One of our guides yesterday was saying that Florence is a small city, and I thought to myself, "False." but, the more we walk around, the more familiar streets become and I'm realizing that it's really not as big and intimidating as I thought it would be, which I like! Our apartments have three bedrooms, two bathrooms and a fully furnished kitchen, so we can cook! I turned on Jack Johnson first thing when I got settled in the room and listened to "Bella," which totally put me in the Italian mood :) We walked around our neighborhood, and it can be said that we have found our trusty Gelateria (gelato place to the non-Italian) and Panini shop. The Italians that work there are so cute and love to help us with our Italian. One of my favorite things to say is "Ciao!" or "Buongiorno!" because even if you can't speak Italian, or really even understand it, it makes you feel a little more part of the city. So I'm like pretty much Italian ;) After touring our neighborhood, we had a cooking class and our instructors name was Fabrizio, so fun. We made from scratch, tiramisu, caprese salad, and potato gnocchi which was AMAZING! They gave us the recipe, so I will definitely be making these meals when I get back to the states, in four months. On the way to the cooking class, my roommate Roxanne and I were walking the cobblestone roads, and this Italian man walked by and said, "Yesss, madame, I am here, I loooooovvve youuuu." Haha it was very funny, but unfortunately, he was undesirable. It can also be said that I am one of the only mid-westerners on the trip. All of my roommates go to school and are from the east coast, along with the rest of the people from the trip. But I don't mind because I love talking about good old Minny. Tomorrow we have more "survival tours" as they call it here, so we'll be learning more about our neighborhood and we'll meet our landlord. More time to learn and explore, can't wait!