Celebrate the weekend!

This weekend has been so much fun! I had another cooking class Friday morning. Not going to lie: I’m bored with making pasta already. Although my nutrition class went to a professional cooking school for this particular lesson, I did not enjoy it as much as the one Wednesday night. The super clean, non-personal feel the room gave off was not appealing to me. When we were in the schools tiny kitchen with too many people in it, it felt more like a home cooked meal. It also tasted better probably because it was made in love (yes, I like cheesy!) I enjoyed our instructors more also. On Wednesday night, we had an Italian man and his wife. They were so sweet and king. Friday, we had an instructor from the school we were at. We made the same ravioli I made on Wednesday as well. It is a signature dish of Tuscany thus holds much importants.
That “home” feel is something I still struggle to get in my life right now. In several conversations I have had with multiple people recently, either they or I have mentioned it is a different kind of lonely here. I can’t put my finger on why it is different and neither can they. College in general is a very lonely time. Although students are surrounded by people, he or she is totally on their own with no one honestly looking out for them and no one to come home to at night. Here, I am also surrounded by people, including my host family. So in theory, it should feel a little less lonely since people are actually looking out for me (my family), but it just doesn’t. It isn’t something I can explain to someone who hasn’t been through this process, it’s just different.

Friday afternoon, a friend and I toured the Duomo. Although I find the exterior more architecturally interesting, the interior is nice as well. I particularly loved the dome. The artwork throughout the structure was gorgeous though! The white, green and rose marble which basically makes up the whole church,  completely amazed me. It is everywhere! Continuing my love of the dome, we climbed the many, many steps up to the tip top of the dome. What an amazing view. I can’t even describe how gorgeous it was. All the major sites in Italy could be seen from the top looking out, including all the churches, museums, and markets. I got so confused looking at everything. I have yet to completely distinguish the churches from one another, so walking the circle of the dome was a little confusing. We met a wonderful English man and his wife at the top though. We had a very lively conversation about us living in Florence and his recent arrival the day before. It felt good to be able to respond with an honest answer when he asked where the best places to visit were and any advice in general. I have honestly met some of the nicest people here!

Saturday was Ravenna with other students from school. This is a must see for anyone that loves art! The town has a fascinating history. It was once the leading city in Italy around the 6th century (give or take a century). The churches we saw were built just before the fall of the Roman Empire and barbarian invasion ( a little history lesson there).  Our focus on this particular visit was the mosaics (small pieces of colored glass, about the size of a fingernail, put together to create an image from farther away). They are designed to catch the light and reflect it off to illuminate the room. I have never seen anything like it! (I’m putting pics up on facebook, but they don’t do it justice AT ALL!).  The golds and patterns, just to think about the fact that someone has talent enough to take little pieces of broken glass and put it together with many other tiny pieces to cover and entire walls and ceilings is mind blowing! Just little detail to make something so…I can’t even find the word. It simply is just that amazing! It can’t be described and a photograph can’t do it justice. One chuch sticks out to me especially, San Vitale. One of the lavish mosaics depicted by favorite story from the Old Testament which definitely helped it’s ranking in my opinion, but the architecture inside was as impressive to me as the more popular mosaics. However, by the end of the afternoon we had seen around 5 churches all covered with these pits of glass, so at the last church I was use to seeing them and fairly unimpressed. Over stimulated.

Sunday I was in Fiesole which is a hillside town about 15 minutes from Florence by bus. I was not too impressed with the small town until we toured ancient Roman ruins. The amphitheater is still used by locals and dates from the 1st century B.C. (wow!). Even though it said “no climbing” of course that didn’t apply to me. I romped all over those things. With the type of plants and lizards that surrounded the ancient baths, temple, and amphitheater I felt like I was in Greece exploring. Even those few minutes of  climbing and being so fearless while adventuring has been my favorite weekend trip since arriving. It surprised me that I felt that way, but literally I was fearless climbing all over the crumbling and somewhat unstable stones. They were huge, and only a tiny part of the base was left of the temple especially. It’s crazy, but here in Italy, I tend to be fearless. People actually tell me to be careful, indicating at least some degree of danger. At home, I tend to be fairly safe. I’ve been told by several people at various times they like my sense of adventure here as I try to get lost and go down that sketch ally, which usually always finds us the coolest places.  I love that feeling! Summarizing, those ruins have been my favorite thing yet. Fiesole was a good town also. It seems to be a wealthy village with a lot of stereotypical villas with vineyards surrounding it, thus it was pretty. We got lucky because there just happened to be a large outdoor market happening, which only happens a couple times a year! Score!

So the 4th week slump is majorly getting to me. I am so hungry for a chicken breast, fries, and potato chips. I don’t even really eat fries or chips at home so it’s kind of surprising. I went to the American Diner near the duomo last night with a couple people. My expectations were not met. I wanted to put some MSG in my chicken sandwich. It was a fail, but no one can ruin pancakes though, right? I still have faith in them. I’m told the getting annoyed with the good Italian food and the horrible water (that my hair hates!!!!) and such will go away soon. Falling into a routine has really helped and finding several different core friend groups to be with has also. I have finally found people from a different program, and graduate school students, who actually like getting coffee and talking about deeper stuff and not how many Chanel shoes I have (not judging). That is something I have probably missed the most. Having conversations about trivial stuff for 4 weeks straight has had a bigger effect on me that I would like to admit, but all the people I am with are wonderful in their own way. It feels good to actually talk about emotions and genuinely analyze ideas with people though!

The weather is getting cold here. It hasn’t started raining yet and probably won’t until November, although it does rain about every other day or so. I am told come November, it will start raining and not stop which announces winter has started.

Sarah