Weekly update

Ciao ciao,
So onto the weekly update.....Classes are going really good. I am still liking them which is good. I have already been here for a month which is strange because it seems shorter. I am deciding that I will def. be back to visit and maybe live florence for a little.

This week I have been pretty busy with school work and finalizing my plan for spring break and managing my moneys. I have selected my spring break trip and it goes as this:

Friday March 20: Florence to Brussels

Saturday March 21 Brussels

Sunday March 22 Brussels to Glasgow

Monday March 23 Glasgow

Tuesday March 24 Glasgow to London

Wednesday March 25 London

Thursday March 26 London

Friday March 27-London to Barcelona

Saturday March 28 Barcelona

Sunday March 29 Barcelona to Florence.

So I know pretty fun spring break right? haha yes. and the good thing is that here you can find plane rides for dirt cheap. So far I have spent less on my spring break plane rides combined then I would to go from Cali to Virginia. Which is pretty sad. But exciting for me.

I will keep you guys updated as the trip gets closer but I am stoked.Let's see what else....Well today Sunday I got an email from my Big!! So I was super pumped for that because I miss him and my littles more than life right now. But it was nice reading his email. Also last night( mom you will be proud) I went out to dinner at a mediterranean ristorante. It was molto bene(very good). I have been meeting so many new people and It has been so fun. Everyone here has been super nice. I am also learning more italian which is good. I hope that before I leave I will be able to speak it pretty good. we shall see.

I also got a package from mi mamma which I am picking up tomorrow. the sad thing is that it cost money just to get the package, a womping 50 euro which is probably 56 or so US dollars. Its alright I feel that it will be a very good package.

Well I am alive still and doing great and loving Florence!!! I hope that the next post wont take too long to write so I can keep you guys in the loop here.

Until next time.

Ciao ciao

Venice/ Weekly update!!

Ciao Ciao mi famiglia e amici. come sta? io sono molto bene. Haha I know you liked the Italian.

So sorry it has taken so long this week to do a post. That just means I have been doing stuff so I don't always have a lot of time.

Well I went to Venice last weekend on a school trip and It was very fun. It was the beginning of carnivale ( carnival) and It was insane. I have never seen so many people in one area before in my life. So we left on a Saturday to go to venice...Yeah on Vday so thats where I was. and we had to meet at 4:45am which is super early and It got even better because I didn't get home until 3ish. So i got a total of 45 minutes of sleep before I left. Don't worry( mainly my mom I got more sleep on the bus) The bus ride was a nice 4 hours, which i spent knocked out on the bus.

I did managed to take some amazing pictures which are on my mac which is currently not working right now. But as soon as i get that fixed I will start uploading my pics to a photobucket account and I will post the link on here so yall can look at all my wonderful pictures.

Back to Venice...we got there and It was friggin freezing... I mean probably 30 or so degreees which was the only bad thing. I just know now that I am totally californianized therefore anything below 60 is freezing so i was not such a happy camper with the weather. Once we got to venice we had a jam packed day so we started with taking a boat ride to the islands of murano and burano. Now Burano you guys can see when I post the pics is a very colorful place...which I loved because I love bright colors. But seriously every house was a different color and the town was really cute and small. Not a place where I could live( although we did see first hand that the people of burano have really bright whites.)

Then after Burano, we headed to murano. Now if you have not heard of murano it is a wonderful little island where they make wonderful glass products. So we got a tour of one of the glass factory where we got to see where they make/and how they make their glass. It was very interesting to see the cute little islands.

After that we went to the big island of Venice where the town center is and the first day there were a good amount of people but still I was able to walk. So we hung out there for the day and explored and I bought a mask for carnivale...which is pretty bomb might I add. That night we had a traditional italian dinner. I think it included 4 or 5 courses and also a desert course. Now as many as you know I am somewhat picky and usually I do not try that many new food.(which I am working on) but thanks to my table mates I managed to taste everything that we had for the night. Which included a cooked turkey like meat, a cooked beef thing, salad dish and some other things. I took pictures of each course,haha. It was an interesting expereince and i think i only ate two of the courses fully one of those being the desert course but I had some good wine with the meal so I would say it was a good meal.

Finally our last day of venice was jam packed as well. We saw the guggenheim which was amazing and we visited the dukes palace. So overall the weekend was very nice and I was happy to go back home to firenze. Well imma do my weekly update on another post so this isn't too long. until next time.
Ciao

Update on Firenze

Well hello....Update time
So I last left of talking about the journey into Florence, now I am going to recap the firts week here and give first impressions...

First impression of florence when I actually got to walk around was aww, The city is so beautiful and historic which I really liked. Also very confusing at first to get around because the streets end and begin at weird points. But once you get used to it then its alright, though I still get lost every once in a while. It is a tad bit colder, but when you live in a place like southern california I think its cold if it hits 60 haha, but you get used to it. Lately its been a little warmer to not wear jackets( but still long sleeve) out.

The Food..... Now when I first thought of Florence I was like oooo food food food. The food has beeen really good. I am trying to step out of comfort level as in with food( Because I am so damn picky-ask my mom for a reference lol) But I have been trying to challenge myself. I have had a lot of pasta!!! yum yum. Some places are fantatsic and some places that i have gone are good. The Tiramusi is soooo good. I seriously love it and since i have a sweet tooth I feel like I will be getting that a lot. ohh and GELATO mmmm who needs ice cream.. seriously its that good. The other day I got a gelato sandwhich( which consists of two waffels circles, gelato in between and chocloate sauce poured on top.) It was so good and I was only one to finish mine( in record time I may add.) The pizza is a lot different from what we have in the states for sure but It is good, I am still trying to decide if its better but not at the moment but its very good. The only thing is that they dont have pepperoni here instead its salami or something which was a little different.

The Sights....So far I have been to the Duomo which is a beautiful church in the center of the city. We walked all the way to the top( 4 hundred in some stairs) wow talk about a workout. I mean seriously if I do that a couple of times a week I could lose some serious weight.haha but halfway through you can look up and see the painted ceiling. Wow very nice and you should def. see. Then you get to the top after gasping for breath( which I was not) and it is a beautiful view of the city. We took some photos of the group which i will get and put up soon. Also so far I have gone to galleria academia which is where none other then the beautiful man named David is kept. The museum itself was very interesting with the different paintings and sculptures. But of course when you see the David it is mesmorizing. I mean seriously he is most gorgeous man I have ever seen minus the color and he is stone but the sculture was very detailed like it was a real person. Molto Bene!!!

School...ehhh forget school. Just playing I have finished my first week of school and it was very nice.
My clases: Fashion Marketing, Italian, Wines of Italy( best class offered at a school), Anthropology-Fashion and desirability, Intro to Jazz.

Classes are very good so far. I like my jazz class and had it today for the start of the second week. My schecdule is soo good. I have one class monday, Tues-2 Italian and Anthropology, Wed-2 Jazz and Fashion Marketing, Thurs-2 Italian and Wines of Italy, and no class on Fridays!!!! so my schedule is looking pretty nice.

My apartment=Love. My apartment is like a modern Ikea inspired apartment is fully furnished. I live three other guys.It is colorful( my room is the blue room, the other bedroom is orange) The living room is red, kinda makes me think of my moms house because she was crazy and painted every room in our house.ha but It is nice to make that connection with your childhood home. My bathroom is the best part. We have a nice shower with one of the big shower heads.oooo be jealous. We have a washer machine and for drying( which I have done two loads since I have been here) we result to putting then our heaters trust me it works to dry. The only downside is that when you watch a towel and dont dry it becomes a crunchy towel but its not that bad to use just right after. We have lots of storage space and shelves. The apartment is a nice 20-25 minute walk but its nice that I get so much exercize. Well that is pretty much it. I would add nightlife but I need something for the next blog entry.

Also I am going to Venice This week on a trip so I am very excited, so I will update you very soon. Until next time!
Ciao!!!

First Two days....

So I want to just give everyone my first impressions of Italy...

First off I had to leave LA about 5am or so and barley made it because I accidentally had a later time in mind. Luckily I was up really late hanging with the little bro. I checked my itinerary one last time before I hit the bed at 3:30 or so and noticed I had to leave in like an hour haha. I had my two angels with me;Andrea and Melissa Rubelke with me to drive me to the airport. I got there and had an hour to check it and board the plane and I made it....barely.

Then From LA we flew 5 or so hours back to the VA( my birthplace) for a layover. It was alright I just basically slept which was much needed as I only slept for an hour the night before. I stayed in Va for a couple of hours and then I flew to Rome..

NOW ROME.......
I loved the plane ride over because I was on this monstorus plane and I had my row to myself. Lucky me I know. I was knocked out for a majority of the flight, But I did managed to watch a couple of movies( Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2, and Diary of Mad Black woman.) I finally arrived in Rome or Roma around 7 in the morning(Which means my body was still 8 hours behind cali time.) I got off the Plane and of course I did the one thing I was told in orientation not to do which was stand out. Well one being one of the few black people was a great start. Two I was wearing my new pair of letters which are pretty bright and last but not least Flip Flops.

I went and picked up my luggage to find out that on my biggest suitcase( which was huge) that one of the wheels had completely broken off so in addition to my loud appearence I sounded like a screeching train as I dragged my suitcase plus two other ones around. After that i am afraid for a little it only got worse. I got lost(typical) and needed to find the train station and could not. I tried to ask around but no one really spoke english and my italian was weak so it was challenging. After walking around for a half and hour I just sat fustrated on a bench. Shortly after that I talked to a guy that spoke very little english but I was able to locate the train terminal.

Now in Rome...TIP #1- Always travel with someone. TIP #2 the train station at the airport is upstairs on the top level of the airport and you have to walk seriously like a mile. TIP #3 if you are looking to get to Florence from rome remeber that you have to take a train from rome to another terminal I am guessing the main terminal and then you wait to take the real train to Florence. TIP#4 If you are direction challeneged allow yourself a little more time to get to the main train station which takes about 20-30 minutes from the airport to catch your train(which i missed my first one)

Suprizingly I met this wako but really funny American woman. She was a gem with her son in a stroller and her velor Track suit on.(priceless) I made quick friends with her and ended up hanging with her until the next train to florence which she was also going on. After freezing our tails off waiting for the train because the station is outside and lets say that the temperature wasnt the typical cali weather I was used to. We finally got on the train and sat down.

TIP#5 If you want to be put in ackward sitauations ride the train because they have two seats facing two seats so you can pretty much stare at the person across from you the whole ride. Which at first I sat across from a nun which was classic.

The american lady and here son and I got off of the train and got into our respective taxis and went our seperate ways right after she asked me if I wanted to ride in the taxi with her and go to her hotel(haha)

I got to my hotel and was surprized that it was actually nice and kind of cheap. I settled in and was exhausted and after traveling All I wanted to do was sleep which I did around 5pm.

Well that was the first two days imagine what a semester in the life of a boy in flornce will be. Until next time,
Ciao

FIrst Thoughts!!!

Well Guys...

This first post is going to be short because I have to run to class in a little. But I just wanted to say thanks for checking out the blog and stay tuned.

Ciao 

James