Sunday, August 29, 2010

One week down, several more to go!

So, it's a gorgeous day in Florence and the heat is actually not terrible for once!  I'm once again sitting at Lion's Fountain Irish Pub because I get free Internet here and there's hardly ever anyone here, so I don't feel bad about sitting here for hours if need be.  In fact, yesterday there was a soccer match and I just slipped in and sat down and waited for someone to take my drink order for about 2 hours, but no one did, so I had like 2 hours free Internet.  Alas...

As I've been writing this I've been catching up with a friend that lives here and friend from Belle Ile and now it actually is getting hot out.  Not terrible though.  I don't think I've talked about my frustration with how this is such a touristy city.  When I was in Lucca, I don't know what it was, but I apparently looked the part of an Italian and people would speak to me in Italian, but I guess since there are so many tourists here that I just look like another American and everyone just speaks to me in English.  Even if I speak in Italian they speak to me in English.  And thus my Italian is becoming slower and slower and harder to use.  So, I think I'll steal a trick from someone at the music festival I just left.  One day someone was speaking to him in English instead of French, so he said he was Spanish and didn't understand English.  So I think I'll start saying that I'm French and don't understand English.  I may get busted, but I think I speak enough French now that I'll slip by.  And if nothing else I'll get to keep my French up.

I guess there's really not much more happening.  It's their vacation time here, so there really aren't that many Florentines around.  I haven't seen my host since my first day here.  I've only talked to him once since then just to let him know I found a place to live.  The first Rotary meeting here will be September 7th at 8 p.m., so I'll be going to that.  I'm hoping I have all my supplies I need by then, but who knows.  I don't even really know my address here yet.  I don't think I even have a mailbox at my apartment.  I feel like it will be the kind of thing where stuff is just slipped under my door or just left outside of it.  The biggest thing I want is my bike. It would make it so much easier getting around I think, plus I've been seeing lots of cyclists out in the mornings.  I also found this site http://www.ibikeitaly.com/ that seems really cool.  I may try it this week or next weekend just to get on a bike again.  I really hope I meet some Rotarians who are into cycling and maybe I can go on some rides with them.

Well, I thought I had more to write about, but I guess I don't yet!  Hopefully I'll start meeting more people this week as I think most people should start arriving for school.  A presto!

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