The Adventures in Florence Continue...

Ok, New year’s resolution: write on this more (don't pull a Matt Doyle, to who this blog's URL is an homage)

SOOO Orientation Week is over and classes have begun. The schedule: Monday: Holy People Holy Place 1:30-4-15p, Tuesday: Principles of Financial Accounting, 3:00-5:45 p, Wednesday: Intro to Marketing, 9:00-11:45 a, and Intensive Elementary Italian, 6:00-7:15 p on MTW and R. Good times. It’s nice having class only once a week but the 2 hour and 45 minute thing can be mucho grande grueling and since there’s such a huge gap between classes, the homework like to pile up. But bringing my lap top to class helps (for example, I am in Accounting class now)

Florence is a gorgeous city. It’s been gross and rainy the past few days but the sun finally decided to push its head through the clouds today. Florentine sunsets are absolutely gorgeous… about 5 different colors spew from the horizon as the city is painted red-orange. The shudders on the window in my classroom refuse to close, and the sunlight is pouring through the crack down the middle. It’s absolutely breathtaking.

A little over a week ago we did a bit of touring through the city. It’s hard to walk more than 10 feet without smelling newly cooked waffles, waiting for nutella to be spread across them. Most of the little gelato shops on the side of the streets sell them, with gelato as topping. The gelato melts on the warm waffle, looking and smelling like absolute torture to anyone walking past. We haven’t had to opportunity to try it, but we certainly will before we leave.

The main street by Florence with all the stores has lots of cute Italian stores, but also plays home to a lot of familiar names too, such as United Colors, The Disney Store, and H&M. I am on a desperate quest for a peacoat (I lost my coat at the Paris airport) and have yet to succeed.

(Sidenote: the sidebar of Facebook is offering me a chance to win a trip to Italy)

Silly story: we were walking down the street and outside a café, a cute guy was standing outside and looking at us. He smiled and said hello. We eventually walked around and ended up outside his store, and he smiled and said hello again. We walked away again, got gelato, and then walked back,,, he was still standing outside. He smiled at me and said, “Does that taste good?” and winked. YEE YEE. We walked away from his store and, as I turned back, he was still looking at us. He waved, I giggled and waved back; he saw my wave and hand gestured us over. Super stoked. So we walk over and say hello. He points to me and Jess and ask “Are you two brother and sister?” That’s a question that makes sense with Jess and Marianne… not me and Jess. Silly. Anyways, lies—he was TOTALLY into her. He was glaring into her eyes and fawning over here, much like a baby deer. In her words:

italian man that is still of relative gorgeousness upon closer viewing: "what are your names?"
ryan: "ryan."
italian man: "ah, bryan. and yours?"
jess: "jessica."
italian man: "OH JESSICA." (LOOKS DIRECTLY INTO MY EYES)

It was then I realized that my gaydar would be out of order throughout the duration of my stay in Europe.

Also in our first week we had a lovely night out. We went to a bar sort of place and ordered drinks called invisibles, which comprised of 5 shots, one from like 5 different clear liquids, topped off with a little fragola. It was… well, it was quite silly. The color alteration effects on my face are documented on Facebook. After we went to a Discotecha (hehehe). Italians dance quite differently here… first it is not sexual; they mainly dance to themselves, flailing their arms and- gasp!- moving to the rhythm. The place we went to blasted crazy techno music that was in sync with seizure ending lights. It constantly felt like my head was going to split in two.

This past weekend, a group of us took a day trip to Lucca. It was cold, freezing… absolutely miserable. I believe Jess and I captured the general feeling of the group when we groaned, “This is the absolute worst day of my entire life.” It was a very pretty city; the food was good, and I had a white chocolate pistachio hot chocolate that was so rich I had to eat it with a spoon… but the rain, cold, emptiness of the city, and mildly psycho tour guide (“This is a starture. It represents a man.” Silence)

Accounting just ended. To be continued.