Day 2 of Florence -- Orientation

Day 1 of orientation and Day 2 of Florence mainly consisted of being talked at by the glorious Syracuse administration. I know they have to do this—as I live with my mom who is charge of this torment at SU Law. But, I honestly can’t remember anything they said in the morning because it was all basically common sense/information I had already read about. Probably most exciting was hearing a few professors speak about their classes. It really reminded me how much I enjoy learning because of how anxious I was getting for these classes! I am most excited for the site visits and the in-class trips to different places. I register on Friday and I’m planning on signing up for two art history classes, an art class, and Italian (of course).

Then we were bused to the main campus, Villa Rosa. We had a buffet lunch which naturally contained pasta, bread, cheese, and salad. Second meal in Italy…dreadful. Again with the buffets, I know it’s really not there fault and anyway this is much, much better than Bon Appetit would do. And these meals are pretty much the equivalent of Syracuses’ Bon Appetit. (For any of you who do not know, Bon Appetit is the company used for preparing food at Whitman and many other colleges).

We were in charge of getting back to the hotel on our own (the hotel was only about 1.5 miles away). I decided that I should get back on my own…because prior I had been relying on other people and I’m here in Italy to grow, get out of my comfort zone, and all that. Look how well I am trying to pursue my goals? So anyway, of course I got lost…I found the street I was supposed to be on but then walked down it the wrong way because I couldn’t find any of the cross streets. Then, when I was getting desperate, I tried to consult David (my GPS) but he had know idea where we were—still thought we were in Tacoma but he caught on eventually. Anyway, I made it back fine…it just took about 90 minutes.

We had a pretty uneventful meal that was similar to our first night in the hotel (otherwise known as dreadful), but I had great conversation! After dinner, I walked around with my new group of friends. There are three guys from Gettysburg, and girls from Mt. Holyoke, Bowdoin, Spelman, and Bates. I have two mutal friends from high school with Katie from Mt. Holyoke and Alyssa from Bowdoin, and one mutual friend from college with Becca from Spelman. Such a small world!
Katie, Elyssa, and Becca while we are on our way to the Duomo

We walked to Santa Croce then split a bottle of Champagne and bought some sangria. Light drinking—just like the Italians. I finally met another wine snob! His name is Sebastian—I only mention that because even his name sounds like a wine connoisseur. He was quite impressed when I spouted my knowledge about Pinot Noir. Also, one of my friend is from outside of Philadelphia and we chatted about the Willamette Valley. Later, we went to this “club” because someone had to use the bathroom and it was disgustingly American—everyone was speaking English and there were many blatantly drunk people. When we walked in the Pussycat Dolls were playing in the front and there was a band singing “Relax” in the back. I was glad to be with my new friends because I think if I was feeling uncomfortable/alone here I would have been very happy in this American setting, but instead, we just joked about how silly it was to be in Florence but act like you were in America and how we wanted to find real Italian bars!

I woke up in the middle of the night because I was really anxious about getting our host family (we were to be informed tomorrow). I had some awful nightmare that no one wanted me or something. I requested a Mama who two of my Kappa sisters from Whitman stayed with but was trying not to get my hopes up. Then I got a bloody nose, strange—I know.