Happy 1 month, Firenze!

Maybe I'll actually start doing this updating my blog twice a week thing...or maybe this will be the only time that happens. We'll see. :)

Monday was the second week of clubs- I signed up for Pilates, which Liz happened to also be in! Also, coincidentally the instructor for the Pilates club is the same man that teaches my wine tasting class. He always wears a hat and I'm wondering if I will ever see his hair before I leave Florence. I't's nice to get back into Pilates; I think I missed it more than I thought I did. I'm planning to buy a yoga mat so I can practice some on my own here in the apartment.

That night at dinner I was just about to excuse myself to go finish homework and go to sleep, when Francesca brought out a special treat- homemade tiramisu! I was already full, but it's a known fact that you can't say no to tiramisu; especially the homemade Italian kind. Francesca also said that she would be willing to teach Jackie and I how to make it- which is excellent news because that means more tiramisu!

I don't remember if I've described breakfast here or not, so I'll just do that again. Basically every morning I have corn flakes with warm milk heated on the stove (SO much better than cold; we're doing it wrong in the US), espresso (with the equal or greater amount of milk), and plain yogurt with a small amount of either strawberry or orange jam mixed in. Occasionally we also have some sort of dessert-like food or sweet cake, like panettone-- a traditional Italian Christmas bread that evidently is made throughout the year in various other forms. In general, the Italians tend to eat a lot of sweets and desserts for breakfast, which I would think is probably better for you than eating them at night because this way you have all day for your body to burn off the calories!

Starting Tuesday night I caught some sort of sickness and I'm still trying to fight that off. Nothing too serious- mostly my throat hurts and my nose is stuffy- but enough to make me wish I was home with medicine I can read the directions of and a familiar house/kitchen to make tea or chicken noodle soup in. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, right?

On Wednesday, we had crepes for breakfast! I do love the standard breakfast I've gotten accustomed to here, but I must admit it was nice to have a change. Plus, who can eat cereal when the alternative is a crepe with melted nutella inside? Answer: no one.

For my wine tasting class on Thursday, I was required to buy and bring a bottle of wine to class so we could learn the "correct" way to open wine bottles using corkscrews. However, we still had our 4 glasses of other wines to taste, so I ended up returning with an almost completely full bottle of wine. Since I'm going away this weekend, and because the Ricci's are such excellent hosts I decided to share the wine with everyone (except the kids) at dinner that night.

So now I'm procrastinating packing for my trip to Bologna and Modena, but I should probably actually do that now. It's still weird to comprehend that I can leave every weekend (if I chose) and go somewhere amazing for not too much time or money. Basically studying abroad is kind of the best.

The Duomo, looking especially pretty in the early morning sunlight.