feel like i'm living a teenage dream

day 24: monday

- woke up at 6:45 after less than 3 hours of sleep… whoopsie!

- had breakfast, did a last sweep of our lovely apartment in roma and headed out to take the bus to termini with caryn, chris, alex, brian, banda, mike, and don

- met up with petrie and the rest of our group and fortified our encampment while we waited for the lady from ACCENT who had our train tickets. it was obvious petrie usually does the study abroad in Greece – he kept moving our purses into the middle of the circle and making sure people were being constantly vigilant for pickpockets… it was all good fun, but it was also obvious he was completely serious, a side of petrie that is rare to see

- napped the entire way to Florence

view from our kitchen

- were greeted by the ACCENT Florence people and got our apartment assignments. I now live with breanne, sarah and caryn in an apartment across the hall from mike, david, alex, chris, andrew, and don. We were really sad to lose kari… she lives with kelly and amanda in an apartment right around the corner from us. brandon, dylan, joe, brad and brian ended up in an apartment all the way across town from us. the rest of us are right in the middle of the ritzy shopping district next to the duomo while they are up in the residential area. luckily Florence isn’t too large so the walk isn’t awful.

- rushed out to a quick lunch with caryn, breanne, sarah, chris, alex, mike, don, andrew and david before heading to the duomo for the beginning of our Florence orientation

- “practical” walking tour of our area of the city which wasn’t very practical at all. I know about 24 hour pharmacies & doctors, but I still don’t know where the grocery store is… heh.

- ACCENT orientation for Florence, which was almost exactly the same as rome and boiled down to: don’t trust friendly Italians! we did get a pass that lets us into all the state museums in the city for free, which is such a great opportunity

- went back to the apartment to finally relax and unpack! our apartments are equipped with wireless… or so they say. our router works, but there is no internet coming out of the wall. the boys’ internet comes in such random (and pathetic) surges that it is only occasionally possible to load a webpage, if one is extremely patient. after a couple hours I was quite pleased that I successfully read my one email and sent one to my family. playing the “how much can I get done before the internet dies again” game is definitely going to be our primary form of procrastination for the next 3 weeks

- caryn, mike, david and I met up with kari, kelly, amanda, brandon, joe, brad and dylan for dinner at a pizzeria a few streets over… it was pretty good and the price (at least compared to rome) was very reasonable

- went on a mission to find a grocery store with kari, kelly and caryn. we managed to find a little shop with a very limited selection and bought all the supplies we will need to survive for the next couple of days. once we get used to the city we will need to find a proper supermarket though!

- got gelato on our walk home... i finally found somewhere with raspberry flavor and it was sooo good :)

- came back to the apartment, showered, read and even managed to post a facebook status and send a couple emails!