week 2&3 of this whole "study" abroad thing

The week that classes start, the real reason I’m here. Putting the “study” part in “Study abroad.”  I’m taking 19 credits on the semester schedule.  I don’t do well with the whole sitting in front of a professor listening to them lecture. I need some sort of activity or movement.  I have 1 three hour class and that is just a lot to handle. 

            Besides school I went to Assisi last Friday with some friends. Saint Francis is from Assisi and that’s who the current Pope takes his name from.  The town was absolutely gorgeous.  The fortress Rocca Magerino that we used as our playground is from the year 1164! The town’s motto is “pace e bene” (peace and well).  It was definitely peaceful.  The church of Francis was one of my favorite churches I’ve ever been in. It was stunning with different churches inside the whole basilica.  Francis’ tomb was there too.  The nice 2:45 train ride (30euro) through Tuscany was pretty. 

            We’ve all continued eating our way through Italy. Everyone said the food in Italy was guaranteed to be better than it was in Chile and that has been true (although there are a few foods I miss like avocado).  This place called “Gusta Pizza” came highly recommended by every one of my friends who have studied in Florence.  It is divine. Thick crust on the outside but thin everywhere else. Fire grilled for only a few minutes and you have perfection. I recommend adding pesto to anything! Saturday we went to Tijuana.  Nope it’s not Italian but rather Mexican! I was so happy to eat avocado again after not having it for a month. It was a really good Mexican restaurant complete with a lady walking around serenading everyone.  I got to practice my Spanish too.

            Saturday my friend and I wound up at service at the local synagogue. Neither of us is Jewish, but we wanted to see the synagogue and this way we didn’t have to pay to tour it. I have taken a Judaism class and been to 2 reform services but this was something else. All the women sat behind a lattice gate separated from the men and the rest of the service. It was more of a social event with the women as they conversed the whole time.  The service was completely in Hebrew and that’s a language I know none of. 

            I climbed the Duomo in Florence this week and the tower. In total up and back for both the climbs it was over 1700 steps! Beautiful views of Florence though. I also hung out with David for awhile. David being the real life Statue of David. Michelangelo’s famous piece from the 1500’s. He’s quite impressive standing 20 feet tall. Apparently proof is in the pictures and since I’m a rule follower I didn’t take any pictures because that’s against the rules. Maybe, just maybe, next time I’ll be rebellious and try and snag a picture.

            Yesterday a few of us girls went to Lucca for the day. Everyone said the town was pretty dead, but we found it quite alive. We rented bikes for an hour (3euro) and rode the 2.5 miles of the city walls. I highly recommend visiting Lucca. The trip was much needed to get to some open space and greenery.

          

I think I miss South America more than the US. It’s kind of funny, because I was definitely ready to leave when I did in December but I find myself missing it and the people. Don’t get me wrong Italy is beautiful, but there’s just some sort of adventure that goes along with South America. It’s a sense of adventure when you buy a round trip bus ticket for only 40USD and you hop on with people and all their animals, food products and huge suitcases. It’s an adventure when there was never any toilet paper around. It’s an adventure with all the haggling by street vendors. I miss all it’s chaos.  Every time I walk on the cobblestone streets here I’m amazed by the beauty all around me, but I’m also reminded that I’m a mountain girl who needs fresh air, green grass and mountains. Or at least some sort of open space where I can see the horizon like the ocean I had in Chile.