Yesterday I had classes, which nothing major happened at. It's not much different than being in Kent, except for the Italian accents my teachers have. I really enjoy listening to them talk to each other in Italian. It's such a beautiful language. I really wish I was fluent in another language, and I wish I could just switch it just like that. My poor children. I'm making them start when they're seven years old or so with another language. I think it's so important to be fluent in something other than English. English is the dominating language around the world, but I'd still like to know something else.
Last night I went over to my friend Carolyn's apartment for dinner. She's over here with the architecture program, which has been in Florence for over 40 years. The journalism school just started coming here two years ago.
Anyways, I've been friends with her since freshman year. She lived across the hall from me, and we lived across the hall sophomore year too. Last night I met her roommates who are also in architecture and her other friends in architecture who came over for dinner.
Carolyn cooked a fantastic chicken meal with vegetables. That with a few glasses of wine made the night a lot of fun. I feel like all we did was laugh. Afterwards her roommate, Carolyn and I went out to an Irish Pub with more architecture students. It was a lot of fun and nice to meet other people. I've never been out on a Monday night and Carolyn and I kept saying we couldn't believe we were out on a school night. But hey, you're only studying abroad once! It's not like I'm making it a weekly thing.
Today I had classes and the day went by decently fast, which surprised me. Since Tuesdays are my long days, I dread them when my alarm goes off. However, it was a good day. In my European Practicum class my teacher took us to one of the spots where we can choose to make a video.
For the class we have to make a five minute or so documentary on a topic we choose that they give us. The choices are jewelry making, leather making or mosaic making. Today we went to a shop for the mosaic makers.
I have never seen anything like it before. This is a type of art where they use all natural stones they find to create pieces of art. The owner of the store has been working at the store for 60 years, starting at eight years old. This art has been around since the Renaissance, and these artisans make all of these artwork pieces the same way they did back then: by hand.
The owner's shop we visited is family owned and has been since it first opened in 1852. He said this type of art is something you learn as a child growing up and a skill you have to obtain rather than be gifted it. He said there are only four shops left in Florence.
While we were there our teacher had to translate for us because he and his son did not speak a lick of English. When he would say words I know I would kind of understand what he was saying, but at the same time he was talking really fast — like I do in English.
But it was interesting because I could follow what he was kind of thinking or saying by his facial expressions. For instance, when someone in my group would ask him a question he thought was funny he would laugh or if he told us a joke. Even without the actual words used to communicate I could grasp what he was trying to get to.
Another wonderful experience I got to have tonight was a free cooking class. Now when I say free, I'm sure it came out of my tuition somehow, someway. Kent State books activities for students to sign up for while here and they are all free. For instance there is the opera, a tour of the gucci museum, etc. All of which I plan to do. But tonight I went on the cooking trip to "In Tavola."
We all met at the school and Petra, the person in charge of organizing the event, led us across the Ponte Vecchio, a well-known bridge in Florence, about 10 minutes away to a cooking class. There were 29 of us and we split up into different groups. There were about 9 of us in my group in one kitchen.
From there we made vegetable millefoglie as appetizers, homemade noodles, homemade ragu'alla bolognese sauce, homemade tomato and garlic pasta sauce, and homemade tiramisu.
Oh.my.lanta. It was all so delicious. I know I had helping hands, but I never thought I would or could contribute to something so tasty. Making the noodles was so cool. All it was, was flour, egg and a little salt and voila! You have noodles.
Afterwards the group of 29 went downstairs and ate our delicious three-course meal.
Sidenote: I wrote this blog Tuesday night, but I'm posting it Wednesday because I got distracted last night. A.D.D. much?
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