Just trying to stay caught up!

Wow so much as happened since my last post that this might be a very long blog. So feel free to stop whenever you want. It's hard to get to the school or an internet café, but hopefully once school starts up I can just go in the morning before class!

Wednesday the 27th we finally started our orientations. We met at one of the two schools and saw the kitchen, where we will be spending most of our time the next few weeks, and recieved our Chef jackets, knives, cellphones, and met the infamous Andrea, the Italian Chef who will be teaching us the culinary arts for the next month! Though the meeting was prtty basic, the food was delicious, and Rylie and I even took some chocolate cookies (what we think our like spritz) home with us!

Earlier that day, myself and two of the other girls, had spent the afternoon taking a 4 hour walk around the town, seeing the sites such as the Santa Maria Novella, and enjoying the weather. We also met with Chef to see the market, along the way discovering the Eurostore, which will be are amazing for basic needs we don't want to spend money on! Most the group sat in the kitchen hanging out and talking before the orientation in the evening, which was a nice break for our feet!

After the orientation, a few of us walked around Firenze to see the town at night and enjoy a nice cup of gelato. After trying 4 different samples, I settled on Nutella and Stracchetela, and we asked the man working for directions. This is how we met Meimo! He told us some good sites to see and we ended up talking to him for close to 30 minutes! We then went on our way, ending our night at the Ponte Vecchio and enjoying the night tour that was going on close by!

With the weather cooling down, the bugs are starting to bite, and though they aren't mosquitoes, the reaction is the same. This means we have to keep our balcony doors closed because we spent the night throwing shoes at them in attempt to kill all 50 that were swarming above our door!

I also discovered a thing called a bedai (not sure on the spelling), and though we like to use it to wash our diry feet 3 times a day, there are some people in the house who like to use it for it's real purpose! Kind of gross!

The next day ( the 28th), we had a 3 hour orientation in the morning to go over the rules and regulations for our classes. This was then followed by a walking tour of Firenze, where we saw the infamous statue of the David by Michaelangelo and the Duoma! Our tour guide, Marcello, was not only hilarious but really knew his stuff and kept us entertained for the whole 4 hours!

Afterwards, we went to a dinner consisting of our whole group, including Chef, which lasted close to 3 hours. The dinner was delicious, which included 2 different pastas (one being peach raviolli) and 2 types of salad, 4 bottles of wine and an amazing chocolate soufflé! Talking and hanging out past the time and even though dinner ended around 11pm, some of us weren't ready to go home. Therefore, we walked the town and enjoyed the sites for several hours.

After finally going home, Rylie and I stayed up talking, both too scared to fall asleep when we realized our fear of clowns and the stories we told!

There is still much more to tell but my time on the internat has ran out so you will just have to wait until tomorrow!

Ciao for now!

Firenze is here!!!

We finally made it to Firenze and I am already in love with this town! Our apartment is beyond amazing. I don't think I could even describe in words what it's like. We all expected to be separated and placed in these small apartments, only containing the necessities. But no, all 10 of us are in one apartment. Sounds crazy right? But I love it. And the place is huge! Rylie and I both were reminded of the Real World because 10 strangers are coming together in this amazing house, in a foreign place! There are 4 double bedrooms and 2 singles. Rylie and I are sharing a room and lucky for us we were one of the first to arrive so we got the best room. We are the only ones with a balcony in our room! Can you believe I have a balcony in my room? And not just any balcony, but the kind with the tall skinny doors like you see in Italian movies. We wake up in the morning and just want to open up the doors in a drastic motion and shout, "Bonjourno Frienze!" and start singing in Italian! Actually, that's what we did this morning!! 

Rylie, Lexi, Alicia, and I were the first to arrive and with the others not coming until later, we set out to find some food and water. We wondered the town and found a cute little sandwhich shop to satisfy our hunger. This of course was after we bought huge water bottles to rehydrate our bodies! I'm pretty sure it reached close to 40 degrees Celsius, if not more, so we were sweating like crazy! We wondered to the market where we found many purses, jewelry and clothes, just waiting to be bought and eventually started to head back to our apartment where we ran into Chef. While outside talking, the rest of the group showed up and we all settled into our apartment, wiping the sweat off our face before dinner. 

The walk to the restaurant was incredible! Seeing all the old buildings put me in awe but when we walked by the ponte vecchio I could not believe my eyes. The water was as still as could be, which created an amazing cast of shadows. The scenery is something you cannot even describe because with the bridges crossing over the water, and the historical buildings in the background, it is something you just need to see for yourself! After stopping and taking numerous photographs, we continued on our way to the restaurant.

Chef took us out to a gorgeous pizzeria, he "treated", and we enjoyed a nice two in a half hour dinner getting to know one another! The appetizers, pizza and wine was delicious, and once we finished our meal we walked to find some gelato! My first experience having gelato was a success and I am pretty sure I will eat it everyday while I am here! While eating, we stopped to enjoy the cool breeze with the sound of opera in the background. A nearby theatre performance was going on and as the crowd was gathered together, I could not help but to people watch and get a taste of the Italian people (okay so maybe some were tourists). 

The night was perfect and I am so excited for what is to come! Watching for crazy cops to fly by though without even thinking twice if some one is in the road, the never ending dirty feet, or having a line of people try to sell you illegal purses on the corner and then watch them run to a nearby alley if a cop comes by, are all things I will have to get use to! But I think I will be able to handle the small price for living such an incredible summer!

Ciao!

The last day in Zürich :(

Well, my final day in Zürich has almost come to an end :( 

Rylie and I decided to spend the day walking around the town and just seeing the sites. We were much more energized today and instead of taking our energy, the sun made us feel happy and realxed! We started off by walking to a local market called the Coop, and bought some bread, cheese, apples, and water. The cashier spoke to us in Swiss, and though she quickly learned we did not understand, we couldn't help but feel good that we looked as though we fit in! We took are fresh foods across the way to a nearby bench where we just sat and ate our meal as we enjoyed watching the locals interact with one another. With so many people out and about, we asked ourselves how often people here work, and were still impressed with how much time they spend just socializing. As we sat and watched, there were constantly people on bicycles, mopeds, and with strollers going by. People were out with their children spending time with family and always seeing some one they knew pass by! I took a drink of my bottled water and got a huge shock when I realized it was not just any normal water, but carbonated! This did not quench our thirst like we had hoped and we spent the next couple hours in search for a place to refill our bottles.

We took the Tram to Bahnhofstrasse (aka Rodeo Dr. in USA terms) and ended up walking to the end of the road by the docks. There, we met up with Lake Zürich where we could see the mountains in the distance and the amazing landscape on either side! An old Swiss lady said something to us, either along the lines of 'you guys were taking a lot of pictures' or ' you were taking pretty pictures'. We never did figure it out but just mentioned how we loved the landscape and how georgous it was, smiled and kept on going!

We walked Bahnhofstrasse from one end to the next, taking in the architecure of each building and the beauty it holds. We certainly felt like tourists since we were constantly taking pictures and saying over and over how much we loved everything! We thought of talking in a foreign language to fit in more, maybe not even in the same language, but soon decided that was a bad idea since they can speak both spanish and french (the only two languages we know)! 

Whenever someone spoke to us in another language, we couldn't help but smile and feel welcomed, thinking we looked Swiss too! We came across a chocolate shop and our temptations got the better of us. After looking very suspicious, looking around for a long time and whispering about taking a picture of the display, a lady finally asked if we needed any help. We asked her what she recommened and agreed with her thoughts on the Champagne chocolate. We got a hazlenut milk chocolate as well and took them outside to enjoy! Every European country says they have the best chocolate so I guess now is my time to compare! 

We couldn't help but notice how many people were eating ice cream, and loved the concept of having ice cream on a daily basis without feeling fat! We decided to get some of that as well and tried a Magnum (something Rylie's friend suggested). We approved and went on our way.

We came across a river in the middle of the city and went down to enjoy a nice refreshing break by dipping our feet in the river and just sitting and realxing. A drawing class was going on nearby and we wondered if we made it into any of their pictures!

We went back to the apartment, in hopes of finding Rafael there, but he was no where to be found and so we went back out on the town and ended up at Coop once again. We soon found people watching to be one of our favorite activities, and sat there for at least an hour, soaking up every move the people did. One lady asked us for a pen (which took some time to understand) and we found ourselves watching her two little girls enjoy our pens and post-it notes, drawing and laughing as they were entertained by such simple items! 

We soon noticed a cute,little blonde, curly-haired boy all by himself, standing gaurd of his mamma's stroller and bags. We could see he was getting bored and yet could not stop laughing as he proceeded to climb on top of the bench he was sitting on, and literally pace back and forth as he waited! After waiting about a total of 20 minutes, he ran inside as soon as he saw her in the check out line and we felt a bit of relief knowing he was safe. 

We attempted to find a cheap place to eat, and after about a 30 minute search, we settled for a nearby pizzeria and orderd a margherita pizza. When they left a fork behind and brought out a knife, I figured it meant we needed to use our utensils to eat the pizza. Rylie quickly gave up and grabbed the slice with her hands, but me however, I think I'm a natural! After forcing the last slice down, we sat and waited patiently for the bill to arrive. The waitress must have mistook our waiting as a sign of hunger, because she then brought us out a basket of bread. After a few minutes of laughter, we each grabbed a piece so as not to appear rude. Wanting to leave some leftover so they didn't think we were still hungry, we once again waited for the check. It didn't take long for us wonder if we needed to ask her for the check since the Swiss tend to take their time while eating meals and don't want to feel rushed! Once teaching Rylie the proper way to place her utensils to show she is done eating, the check was quickly brought to us. It is my belief that this was the reason we weren't brought the check the first time!  After a little adventure of a eating in a foreign restaurant on our own, we decided to use our last 2 francs on another ice cream!

Now all that's left is figuring out how to repack everything in my suitcase before our train to Florence at 7am! 

Ciao!

P.S. Once I figure out how to load pictures I will. Words cannot describe the beauty this place holds and pictures could do much more justice!

Already in love with the Swiss!!

Well we made it! Switzerland is amazing! The 16 hours of travel time, 13 of which were in air, were not as bad as we expected them to be! I was in the middle of watching HSM3 when I got interrupted by a 5 year old girl sitting in front of me. She was wanting to be entertained and I was happy to help. I found out she spoke 4 different languages fluently and then french only a little. All at age 5! Is that not crazy?

While waiting in line to get our passports stamped, we soon noticed how quite everyone was and made us realize why they think Americans are so loud. It was not like people were not talking. They are just much more quiet about it. Other than the many different languages spoken on the plane from Atlanta to Zurich, this was probably are first encounter with cultural differences.

We proceed to make reaservations for our train trip to Florence, and thinking it was too easy, we then found difficulty figuring out the pay phone! No one seemed to know, and after spending 7 francs on one phone call, we went to get a train to Heardbrüg (not sure on the spelling). The machine would not take Rylie's credit card and after everyone behind us was trying to help us out, we finally gave up and went to an actual person to get our train tickets. The train was not as compicated as we had imagined and we made it to our desitination easier than planned!

Rylie and I soon met up with Rafael, the nice man who is taking us up for our couple nights in Zurich and it did not take long for us to see just how hospitable the Swiss can be! Knowing he would have other plans, we both assumed we would schedule are plans around his and his girlfriend. But neither one of us figured he would give us a key to his apartment so we could come and go as we pleased! He just met us. Can you imagine doing that in America? We joined him, his girlfriend, his sister (who we later found out was his step-sister) and his brother (whom we later found out was not his brother at all) for some Sunday brunch! The restaurant was so different from what you see in the US. Open doors on both sides to let the nice breeze flow in, couches everywhere, and people sitting and enjoying their meal for hours, just talking and hanging out! It was so nice to not be rushed for a meal but really enjoy it! And the cheese stick things we got (I could not tell you what they are called) were delicious!

We soon found out that Rafeal takes his sister and brother from his dad and stepmom for the weekend so they can have some time to themselves. This just amazed me! I loved this idea of spending time with his syblings. He loved hanging out with them and you could see it as they spent to day together just how much they cared for one another!

Rylie and I set off to take an adventure riding the Tram, and after about 15 minutes of tring to figure it out and asking people on the street to help, we finally got out day passes and rode to the lake! Lake Zurich was georgeous! In the far distance you could see the Alps and across the way was the pretty scenery of houses and hills. Not too different from Washington! The nice refreshing lake, the amazing scenery and people who are almost too comfortable with themselves, made for a very relaxing afternoon in the blistering heat! I am sure to get a nice tan by the end of this trip! We started to walk back, and realizing how tired we were, ended up falling asleep for a few hours until Rafeal and his girlfriend arrived. They put in a movie for us (in English) and we sat in his theatre room to enjoy the film! We then decided to call it a night and prayed we would fall asleep to avoid jet lag!

The atmosphere here is so different and the fresh air, quiet roads, and amazing company, just make me love Switzerland! We are now about to walk to town and see what amazing thing we will find next!

So Ciao for now!

The time is almost here!

I can't believe I am leaving in 16 hours for Switzerland! I am so stoked and yet so nervous! New classes make me nervous as it, let alone new classes in Italy with Italian professors! At least we have the first week off to play tourist and see the sites, meet with amazing chefs, and get to know one another! This should be the trip of a lifetime! Can you believe I will be there in just a few days??

Ciao until next time :)