sono pigra

I am lazy. & traveling 5000+ miles away from home doesn't change that. Trying to find the motivation to finish my homework or rather compito. 

i sort of love this city.

Yesterday Florence was simply crazy. With riots and chocolate festivals and people everywhere, this city was hoppin. I can't explain it very well but the city just felt so charged. I thought I was just imagining it, but when I discussed it with Erin (a family friend who is also in Florence right now) she agreed that there was something about yesterday. Just a feeling.

Well enough with abstract thoughts about the European city life. 

1. Chocolate Festivals = awesome. trying samples of quality chocolate is amazing. and this chocolate festival is going on for another week or so! YESSS! Me and Lauren went on both friday and saturday. and I'm tempted to go again tomorrow. But man was it packed. People everywhere speaking different languages, but all driven by their love of chocolate. what a beautiful thing to unite people. and it smelled soo good too.
Pictured to the left is Lauren and her chocolate!

2. Communist Demonstration = awesome. in its own way. Let me preface this by saying I'm not communist or anything, I just love how many people were a part of the demonstration. I have never been a fan of politics but it was inspiring to me to see a demonstration first hand. All these people caring enough to actually do something about it. I guess its the apathetic part of me that was inspired yesterday.

ooop and there are the italian police. gotta love a man in a uniform.

3. I didn't see this personally but yesterday my friend Erin stumbled upon an anti-Berlusconi
 riot that also stood for women's rights here in Italy. Berlusconi is the current prime minister of Italy and is pretty much sketchy to put it simply. There are often many stories of him being with young women or prostitutes. As a leader his actions encourage the objectification of women. Its surprising to me that Italy still has so far to go for equality. This country has made me so thankful for all my opportunities and the way I am treated in America as a woman.

4. Yesterday at an Irish pub in Italy I saw a Butler County Community College shirt hanging up on the ceiling. for reals. I couldn't believe it either. I made my roommate Lauren take a pic. so i will have to get that from her and post it. so ridiculous.

-Rebekah

i'grullo (a good kind of crazy)

i'grullo is the name of a restaurant close to where I live here in Italy. The waiter told me and Lauren that it means "A good kind of crazy!" Which is the kind of crazy I love and I would say the past week or so can be summed up as a good kind of crazy.

Last Tuesday afternoon when leaving America was one of the weirdest experiences of my life. I have never had less of a clue of what I was walking into than in that moment but I was pretty relaxed about it. Flying went pretty well until I landed in Frankfurt, Germany. The airport there got the best of me as I was running on 30 minutes of sleep and it was about 3 am back in Kansas. When I finally found my terminal after somehow getting my passport stamped twice and going through security twice, my friend and current roommate informed me that our flight from Germany to Florence was canceled. I just laughed, but everything went a lot better than I thought it would. They ended up booking us a flight from Germany to Bologna and then we took a bus from Bologna to Florence.

Once we got to Florence we took a taxi to a school location to get our apartment keys and then took another taxi to our apartment. It was so difficult getting our ridiculous amount of luggage into our apartment. But such a relief when we FINALLY got into our apartment. It felt like a small victory to still be alive, safe, and have made it with all my luggage.

The very next day we went to orientation. What can I say other than apparently orientation is boring no matter what country you are in.

Our first weekend in Italy we went with a group from our school to Rome! and we saw all the major sites and it was simply amazing. I can't even pick a favorite part because everything was so cool.

This week we started school and that has been crazy. I really like my professors and they all seem so passionate about teaching.

My favorite part about being here has been random exchanges with all different kinds of people:
1. Learning from my Italian professors.
2. Hanging out with our neighbors from Maryland.
3. Eating dinner next to the coolest couple from Australia and talking to them about everything from Tornadoes in Kansas, why we were in Italy, schooling in the states compared to Australia, and the fact that we don't use pumpkins as much as Australians while cooking.
4. Sitting in class next to a girl from Mexico City.
5. Sitting in class next to a girl from the Netherlands.
6. Eating with our neighbors one night we were next to two elderly men from America who were traveling in Italy. We discussed everything from classic poets to President Obama to how we like how Italian waiters don't pester the crap out of you like they do in America.
7. Running into and creepily recognizing the girl whose sister was a friend of my sister-in-laws at Baylor University.
8. Realizing that even though I don't speak the same language as someone, there is still a certain level we can connect on and through an unspoken language we can often understand each other.

I had to buy the book the alchemist for a class and I already finished it. I'm such a nerd haha. anyways I really liked this quote "When each day is the same as the next, it's because people fail to recognize the good things that happen in their lives every day that the sun rises."

So thankful to be here and I hope all is well with my friends and family who are stateside,
Rebekah

16 days!

I leave for Italy in 16 days. I am pretty ready to leave just not looking forward to packing.....