Gauri's Adventures

Today we had to be at the bus stop around 8:20 to meet Chiara. We got there around 8:15 and took a bus to our school. The buses are driven crazily here and we were sliding around all over the seats! However, we have a bus pass so we will be able to ride our bus whenever we want unlimited. When we got to the school, we had to take a placement test for deciding what class we were to be in. I already knew I needed to be in the elementary class, but I still had to take the test. I thought the test was pretty hard, but I could figure out some of the words that were on it which was good. After the test, which only took all of us around 20 minutes to finish, Chiara explained the timetables to us. The culture classes are really good because they are only once or twice a week so we can go to whichever ones we want to out of about 7 or 8. At the end of the quarter, if we feel comfortable, we can take the final exam and possibly get credit for it. I really liked that idea because then you aren’t forced to take a test and fail it. After the test, we went and walked from the school to the center of the city near the Duomo. We walked through Piazza San Marco and I had a ciambella (donut) at Café San Marco. The cafés are great here because you can stand at a counter instead of sitting down and things are a lot cheaper that way. We continued walking to the center of the city and while Kristi, Katie and Alexia headed back to the apartment, Morgan, Crystal and I found a 99 cent shop! We bought candles (for our Grey’s Anatomy/wine night) and a drink shaker. We walked toward the Duomo to head home and saw some fun shops we want to go back and find. I bought some postcards to send back home because we are going to the post office tomorrow so I can get some stamps. On the way home, I bought a key chain for my apartment keys that is yellow leather with a fleur de lis and Firenze, Italia on it. We came home and I had a grilled cheese for lunch. The weather was so nice that we left the windows and balcony door open and just sat around reading gossip magazines. I took a nap around 4 and woke up around 6:30 to go to dinner. We had dinner in Piazza del Republica and to meet Randi from the other group for a movie. I had roasted chicken and French fries for dinner. I was proud of myself for eating the chicken because it had a bone it in, but it was still excellent, and so were the French fries of course! After dinner, we went to see the movie “300” about Sparta. It was good, but kind of bloody for me. The movie theatre was beautiful though and looked like what a real theatre for live performances would be back home. We walked back towards the Arno to come back to the apartment and stopped to take some pictures closer to the water. Florence is a beautiful city especially at night. We have to go to bed early because tomorrow is the first day of school, and I am both excited and nervous!