I know it's been a while since an actual update, but it's going to be a little longer. Right now I'm in Copenhagen, Denmark visiting my friend Rachel from my sorority! I will do an entire entry on this trip, but for now I am just going to talk about Florence. (I was when I typed this. Now I'm back in Italy and am finishing the entry)
I was supposed to go to Spain to visit Lindsay Martin, but it got complicated with my school and I had to cancel, which SUCKED! But, my friend Marisa came to visit that weekend and otherwise I wouldn't have seen her all semester! It was a blast. My roommate, Laura, had a friend visiting then too, so we had some joint-hosting sessions. I ate at this incredible restaurant called Club Paradiso. It's 15€ for an appetizer, a pasta course, a meat course and a side vegetable dish. Plus wine was 5€ a bottle! We had a blast! This Italian man, around my father's age, bought all 4 of us roses. He kept yelling "Cin! Cin!" from across the restaurant. It means "cheers!" Then he insisted that I dance with him. After him buying me a rose and me splitting 3 bottles of red wine, it sounded fun! So that meal was long, fun, and LOUD! Our table was loud, our new-found Italian best friends were loud. It was so fun!
We left and wandered towards the Duomo, which is the center of town. On the way I decided it was a great idea to call Ann, my Alabama buddy in Florence also, and see what she was doing! She just so happened to be a couple bridges over from where I was, so we met up and took her and her friend along with us to the bar. From that bar we went to another bar where i finally met up with Marisa! It was such a fun night! Marisa and I spent the next day together and spent money and quality time catching up. It was so nice to have someone from back home who understands what I'm going through. I think the people who have never studied abroad don't realize how lonely it can get. I sent out pathetic emails to my sorority begging for more mail and have received maybe 2 letters since. It just can get lonely and lead to more homesickness. So, anyway, Marisa and I were on the same page about that and various other topics.
I took her to get my favorite gelato (it's technical name is La Carraia, but I call it One Euro Gelato because that's how much it costs!) and as we were enjoying it on the bridge, we looked into the Arno River and saw a guy floating on an overturned kayak. All his friends were laughing and paddling off. One even came back and paddled near him and then left. Marisa and I dubbed him the "Beached Whale." It has nothing to do with size. It was because of his helplessness. We just stared. You all know my laugh (LOUD!!!!), well, I laughed really hard and full volume and the water made it echo. He heard it, obviously, and looked up at me. I felt so bad, but at the same time, that is totally something that would happen to me. Finally, after about 10 minutes of side-splitting entertainment, a guy in a motor boat can to get him and flip over the kayak. To give the guy (who was a kid, by the way. yes, I'm horrible) some credit, the oars were attached to the kayak, creating a cross-like formation that is understandably difficult to flip back over.
the first picture is my friend Marisa and me! The second is me, with rose in mouth, trying to navigate our way to the bar where we were supposed to meet friends. The last is with me and my biggest fan, dancing.
No comments:
Post a Comment