Life in Florence

Well, we went to Siena and San Gimignano yesterday and then had the welcome social event or all the groups. While I don't mean to diminish those experiences, from the hilly roads of Siena and the chaotic (entropy, Yulia!) architectural plan of the city to the "world's best gelateria" and gorgeous views from atop San Gimignano to the new friends and karaoke (Don't Stop Believin'!) at the bar last night, those are not going to be the focus of this post. I realized that, fourteen days in, I still haven't discussed life here. For some of you (such as Mrs. Laurie Brooks -- hi mom! I miss you!), this culture that I'm experiencing is foreign to you and you may not have even heard much about it! Thus, I want to describe in some disorganized detail what it's like to live here. I'll try my best, and stop me if it gets dull or repetitive.

Living in the apartment is very nice. We have a great view of the piazza in front of the place. It seems to always be busy down there, and there's a great kebab shop right beside our door with a friendly guy who loves to talk to us. Doing laundry gets frustrating, though -- I'm pretty sure our washing machine has about twenty settings, and we have to use about three of them to properly clean our clothes. The kitchen is tiny, but it's good to have one -- the girls on the first floor (remember, the floors are counted starting from the "first floor" above ground level -- so those of you in the states could find me on the fourth level, even though it's the third floor) don't even have an oven! It's a gas stove, too, which makes me really happy! The water is drinkable, but it's got a slightly chlorinated flavour, so I frequently pick up bottled water to have as well.

There is a grocery store right down the road about two minutes. It's a very busy place and there tend to be a lot of Americans who shop there -- probably because it's close to being in town. Despite this, everything is labeled in Italian and the staff doesn't know much English, so it's still good to practice. The food is relatively more expensive, though, so it's usually best to go to the Co-op -- a very big grocery store that's maybe half a mile or more down the road.

Crossing the road is interesting. if you're waiting to cross, people won't notice you, but you really have to push your way out into the street if there's no traffic light and just let the cars stop for you. it's also easy to get distracted by shops on the way -- the ground floor of buildings is reserved for shops and apartments comprise the upper (usually three) floors. the shops are also strange -- to save space, the front is generally narrow (which makes room for many shops in one building) and the store is instead very long. thus, what looks like a miniature specialty shop can be a small store with a few selections of boots or a full-size grocery store that's about six times as long as it is wide. That also means that you can walk down a road and see three liquor stores, five shops selling leather goods, two that have boots, and a grocery store or two -- all in the same strip. you can then turn the corner and find the same thing.

Doing alright so far? don't worry, I'll wrap it up soon.

I was talking to one of our program's staff the other day (Wednesday, it was) about various systems in Italy -- which is probably similar to much of Europe, in fact. Education is nearly free -- you can go to university for about a thousand dollars here, and that's the cost of the textbooks. You also get free medical coverage and prescriptions. Many of these things are already covered. The catch? Taxes here are about 51%. while that sounds crazy, don't scoff at it just yet -- Italy has sixty million people in a space roughly the size of Arizona. For that many people, this is just practical. Regardless of whether I agree with it, there are benefits to this system.

Well, I hope I haven't bored you too much. Especially for those who have been over here before and know this already, feel free to correct anything I mentioned in my comments, assuming you actually read this and didn't just leave. If that's you, great job -- I probably wouldn't have done the same! And sorry, no video this time -- though I may upload another video from the ruins at Fiesole or from Siena.