School is underway!

Hi Everyone!
Sorry it has been a while since I last wrote! I have been so busy getting settled into my apartment, exploring around Florence, and starting classes! Last week, the day after we arrived, we started our orientation program. The first day of orientation took place in this little Etruscan village set in the hills north of Florence called Fiesole. Fiesole offers one of the most beautiful views of Florence! It was breathtaking.

My roomates and I got back from orientation that afternoon and decided to do some grocery shopping. We ended up finding these two hole in the wall stores; one specializing in chinese foods, the other specializing in nothing. My first thought was, oh my god, I am going to starve for 4 MONTHS! I mean come on, one place had fish balls in their "frozen foods" section, AWESOME! Luckily, the next day I went to visit my friend Caitlin and see her apartment, and on the way, we passed by this really nice market called La Stanza. It's very big for a city market and has everything I can get at most American stores, but the food is of much better quality, Everything tastes better and fresher. I think it's becuase they have stricter laws on the use of preservatives and genetic engineering than we have in the US.

The first couple of days I did some exploring, sometimes with friends, other times by myself. It's so cool to walk around alone and soak it all in and find your own way around a new place (don't worry mom, I never walk alone at night). I think the coolest thing is being able to actually see the buildings and monuments I have been learning about in school for years! The duomo, Santa Maria Novella, the Ponte Vecchio, the Palazzo Pitti, even my own school building, the Palazzo Rucelai, is a building I have studied in my classes. feel like I have seen everything in Florence, but I know that there is much more to explore and see.

As I mentioned the food is great, expecially the desserts! Nutella. One of my new favorite sweets, it has the consistency of peanut butter, but in a chocolate form. And it is DELICIOUS! I had a Nutella Crepe the other day and it was AWESOME! I am also in love with Gelato, I have lowered myself to getting it once every two days which is pretty good. My favorite flavor is Pistachio, but I have been exploring my options. There is actually Nutella flavored gelato, which comes in at a close second to pistachio.

On Sunday, my friends and I went to Viareggio, a beach town just north of Pisa and around an hour and a half away from Florence by train. Viareggio is gorgeous! The water was beautiful, and the backdrop was breathtaking; huge snowcapped mountains! I had never seen anything like it. I mean, here I am, 90 degrees down at the beach, and I see Mountains with snow on top of them right behind me! It was so cool!

I have also started my classes; Monday was the first day! My courses for the semester are Italian I, Villa and the Garden, Architecture in Context, and Advanced Studio. So far they are all going really well! I really like all of my professors and I think it's going to be a really great semester!

I guess that is all for now! This weekend, I am going to Chianti, where I will get to do some wine tasting, and I am also going to Pisa and Lucca! I also have plans in the works with some of my friends to go up to Munich, Germany for Oktoberfest during the last weekend in September!

Ciao for now!

Brian