Amo Italia

It goes without saying that I love this country. Firenze is incredible and it seems that everyday I have something new and exciting happen to me and I fall more and more in love with it. This morning I got up at 7 15, took a shower and walked to class. I stopped for un espresso but it took me 40 minutes to get up to school. I walked way too fast because I was afraid I would be late but ended up being 20 minutes early and super hot from walking. It was well worth it because I love my 9am class. I'm taking Early Masters of Italian Renaissance Painting and it's so interesting. The professor is really good and he seems to know a whole lot about Firenze. I found out in class that the street we live on is one of the oldest streets in the city! For the class we're going to have a lot of site visits in the centro and in early October we're going to take a overnight to Padua, Mantua and Verona. It's going to be really fun to see different places with a Professor there to talk to us about what we're looking at. After class I had a break where I ate lunch and read for a course. Italian was right after and that went well again. My last class of the day was Introduction to Painting. I thought it was suppose to be from 3-7 but it turns out that the schedule was wrong and it's only suppose to be a 3 hour course! I was so relieved when I heard this. Plus, for today's class we didn't have any art supplies so the Professoressa got taxis for us to go downtown and buy our art supplies. I was out of class at 3:45 instead of 6. It was bellilssimo!
After class I met up with my roommate Nami and we wandered around the mercato centrale, she was looking for a purse, I was looking for shoes. Because we're in Italy and we're allowed, we bought mini bottles of vino rosso to accompany us on our shopping excursion. We were both successful! I bought a pair of handmade leather shoes from a shop near our house. The guy who worked there was so nice (like all Florentines, it seems) and he was helping us with our Italian. Everyone keeps saying that we'll be fluent by the end of the semester and I hope they're right! I love going out in the city speaking Italian to all the locals. It's really challenging but for some reason I'm not all that intimdated. Everyone is so friendly and willing to teach.
For dinner I just ate another panino from the same place as last night (another guy who works there was there tonight and his name is also Andrea...we thought he was pulling our leg but apparently there are two Andreas at this tiny panino store).Both Andreas a good panini makers....it must be an Andrea thing.
Tomorrow I only have Italian at 1:30 which will be so nice. Saturday we're going to Siena! NYU is having a day trip there for only 10 euros so my friends and I bounced on the opportunity! I can't wait to start travelling around Italy...I need to make a list of places I want to go! So many places, so little time...