First Two Weeks Back

So I have been such a slacker when it has come to my blog and I hope to rectify that. This is a recounting of my first two weeks back. Well, here I go. So I took a flight out on the 7^th of January and I arrived in Florence on the 8^th. The flight wasn’t too bad, but the movies were horrible and I had no one to sit next to. Other then that it was fine. ;) I got to the villa and within an hour we went out ice-skating at an outdoor rink that was nearby the villa. It was so fun and I was by far one of the greatest skaters out there. :) They gave us a day or two to get adjusted to the time difference and to recoup from the flight. Then over the course of the week we went on a bunch of day trips. I’m not sure I remember exactly where we all went, but there were a lot of places. We visited Assisi and it was really cool. We got to see the tomb of St. Francis, which was inside the Church of St. Francis, and we got to see some really amazing frescoes. We spent the whole day in Assisi, and we did a lot. We climbed to the top of the hill and saw the massive castle, saw the gorgeous view that overlooked the entire Tuscan countryside, we visited St. Claire’s Church, took some amazing photos in the Church of St. Mary, visited a cool monastery and we ate some delicious pizza. Overall it was a great day and I was so ready for bed that night. Then we visited Piensa, which was known for its Pecorino (Sheep) cheese, and right after went to Montelcino, which is known for its Brunello red wine. They were fun, but it was rainy and we were all ready to come back and have dinner at the house. Then we had the weekend to just relax. Some of the newbies decided to go on some day trips to Lucca or Pisa, but I just wanted to relax and prepare myself for a week of Intensive Italian. It was so intense! I forgot how exhausting it is to only speak in another language for a week. I loved being able to speak in English after the six hours of class were over. We went on some cool usciti (outings) during Intensive, including watching the Florence soccer team practice (I actually didn’t get to go, but I was cool with it), CIRS (a day care for mentally handicapped senior citizens), we got to throw and spin flags with a group of sbandieri (traditional flag throwers), of course gelaterias, and we went out to get hot chocolate as well. It was a fun week and I felt like I was speaking better Italian then ever before. I was so proud of myself and I was sure that I was going to win the prize. My friend Sam and I were the best in our class and we were sure that we were going to win the best students and participation awards that they give away in each class. We didn’t and it was lame, but I don’t want to talk about that anymore. ;) On Tuesday of that week we were given the chance to go see an Italian Opera. It was a traditional Opera and it was called Madama Butterfly. It was cool, but it was hard for my tired body to handle for three hours. I'm not going to lie, I wasn't awake the whole time, but I was there the whole time. :) It was cool to experience it though. Anyways, it was a fun time to get to know all of the new students that came this semester and I was able to gain a lot of confidence with my Italian. Overall, it was a great two weeks back. J