Salad?

The first lunch I had in Florence was at a small spaghetteria near our apartment building that is located is a less touristy area in Florence.  We walked into the restaurant and explained to the waitress that we wanted a table for 7 in a mixture of English and Italian.  When we opened the menu, everything was written in Italian, although some words were easily recognizable like pizza and spaghetti.  However, most of our group did not want a warm lunch, so we asked the waiter if they had salad.  He pointed to a place on the menu and we ordered "salad."  Several minutes later, the waiter brought us a big plate of spinach.  I don't mean fresh spinach that you would have in a spinach salad.  This was frozen spinach that was warmed up and piled on a plate (I tried it, and it wasn't even seasoned).  The faces of the members of the group must have tipped off the waiter that something was wrong, and we explained what we thought we had ordered.  He was very kind, and brought us a mixture of vegetables.    As awkward as I felt at the time, it was a very funny experience that I'll carry with me for quite sometime.  I'm looking forward to learning Italian so I can know what I am ordering. 

So It Begins

One of the reasons I wanted to study abroad was to get a change from my education classes.  This past year I did not take any courses outside of Peabody, and next year will be similar.  I love all of my classes, but I was definitely looking forward to exploring a different area of study.  This summer I am taking and introductory Italian language course, a course on Italian culture entitled Italian Cultural History, and a course in renaissance art and architecture.  My Italian Language course is very practical, I’ve already learned a lot.  Although I wish we had it more than twice a week. It is hard to learn a language in only a couple of weeks, but we are already learning a lot of vocabulary and grammar.  My Italian Culture course is challenging me to think differently about how you perceive culture, and I will have to describe the contents of this course in more detail in a later post.  Finally, my art history class is like getting a private tour of the different churches and museums around the city.  My professor is very intelligent and presents art history in the form of stories making it both entertaining and much easier to remember.  All of my art history classes except for test days are onsite so we can look at the actual painting/sculpture/building while we are hearing about it.  The picture above is of our professor, Peter, who guides us around the city on his bike.  I look forward to learning more about Florence and Italy through these classes and I believe they will definitely provide me with more insight into where I am living than if I were just visiting.  

Buongiorno!

Due to some technical difficulties, I am starting to write this blog much later than I would have liked.  Therefore, my first few posts will be a look back in time to a couple of weeks ago at the events that happened since my departure.  I am excited to keep you all updated on my adventures as I study here in Florence during the week, and travel to other cities in Italy.