Beginning to Feel Like Home.

I heard that week 8 would be the magical one, where everything would finally feel right and now I am a believer. Before fall break I was definitely emotional about my decision to be here all year and beginning to wonder whether I could handle being away for so long in a completely new world. Going to Sweden over break was like therapy, it was wonderful to spend time with family and to get away, and even more amazing to realize that coming back to Florence felt like coming home.

This week I felt I took complete advantage of living here and finally found a rhythm for my daily life. I’ve started running every morning that I don’t have class early either along the Arno or in a park near my house called the Cascine. It is really beautiful even though it too is under construction and one of the very few parks around here so I feel lucky to have it within running distance. I also went out three nights this week, my friends and I have been looking for different places to hang out at night and we definitely found some that were a lot of fun this week. Friday we celebrated my friend Linda’s birthday and we went out to a really fun restaurant that had been recommended to me by a friend who studied here last year. The food and wine was incredible, and the restaurant is completely authentic with a really fun, loud Italian atmosphere. There were ten of us altogether and we enjoyed a real multiple course Italian dinner that lasted several hours. I documented that day fairly thoroughly and will post some pictures from it, since I’ve realized I haven’t been putting up very many taken actually in Florence.

This week I also went to my first University of Florence class. It was quite the adventure finding a class that I had no idea where it was, that had already started 3 weeks before, full of Italian students in a University setting that I have never experienced. The class I decided to audit is called “Teoria e Tecnica della Communicazione di Massa” or “Theory and technique of Mass Communication.” Since I am unable to take communication courses at Smith and that is the field of work I eventually intend to end up in, the class was amazing. I found the professor brilliant, and I understood nearly everything, I even had a short conversation with the girl next to me before class and I felt like the University of Florence will definitely be an asset to me in meeting my Italian peers.

This weekend I have quite a bit of homework from my other classes, so I’ll need to get started on that after I have an afternoon coffee and pastry that I have come to cherish. Florence is becoming easier for me to navigate while still retaining its beauty and magnificence that I first fell in love with. It is incredibly hard for me to believe my family will be here for Christmas break in just over a month already, I can’t wait to show them my new world.

Feel free to look at all of my pictures if you’d like, here’s the link to my latest album:
http://picasaweb.google.com/maggie.mertens/UnGiorno