Ciao a tutti!

It has been quite a while since my last entry.... oops. Today, I had the urge to update my blog, so here is what I have done since my last post:

1) I finished my study abroad program at the Scuola Lorenzo de' Medici in Florence, Italy.

Me & my wonderful roommates Ashley, Elizabeth & Courtney

2) I graduated in December with my BA in European Humanities from San Diego State.

3) Nick & I got engaged in December. Two exciting things within the same week! 

So these three pictures above pretty much sum up what I have been up to the last few months... now I just need to figure out what exactly I am going to do with my life! I will try to update this on a regular basis for all of my family & friends to follow us as we embark on our new life together. Note: keyword in the previous sentence is "try." We shall see how that goes!

Stay tuned!

Florence: Day One

After arriving in Florence and checking in at my school, I tried to find my way over to my apartment... epic fail. The directions said it should only take 5 minutes to walk to my apartment, but it took me over an hour to find it while lugging around my stuff. whomp whomp! My roommates & I went out to dinner and we had some amazing gnocchi, then went grocery shopping after. We have our orientation tomorrow and should be getting internet at the apartment then. I’m not sure what else we’re doing tomorrow besides that. I think I have an italian exam (which I am totally not prepared for) tomorrow. I was able to order our dinner and my gelato in italian though!

First Entry

Ciao a tutti! I wanted to start this blog to document my experiences while studying abroad in Florence, Italy, as well as share them with my wonderful family & friends!
I guess I should start this by telling you about my student visa fiasco. To make a long story short, after driving across California, my visa application at the Italian Consulate in Los Angeles went missing. I wasn’t expecting to receive my visa in time, but I ended up getting it yesterday afternoon - just in time!
I will be studying for the entire month of July at the Scuola Lorenzo de’ Medici in Florence, Italy. I’m taking two classes which are being counted towards my major at SDSU- the first being an upper division Italian class and an upper division art history class (Hidden Meanings in Italian Renaissance art..... it should be amazing!). I’ll be living on campus in an apartment with two other girls, one from Colorado and two from Texas. I only have class in the afternoon Monday thru Friday, so I hope to have lo˙ts of time to go to museums and do other touristy things on the weekends.
I’m sitting on a plane headed to Philadelphia as I write this. From there I will fly to Frankfurt, and should arrive in Florence tomorrow morning! I have orientation on Friday, as well as an Italian placement exam at some point before classes start. I have no idea what to expect... I will be cramming as much Italian as I can on the plane since I haven’t looked at an Italian book since my Italian final last month... oops. I brought a couple books with me. I wish I could have brought more books & things with me, but my suitcase is stuffed! Hopefully everything will last me a month!
I’ll update this again once I get settled in Florence! Ciao!