Patti Smith in Florence

HI everyone!

So I have been in Italy for a bit more than a week. Everything is still very overwhelming and it is definitely going to take a lot on my part to get used to this new culture.

We started out in Rome for our orientation. We saw all of the sites and I have to say that Rome was just like how I had imagined it. It was smaller than what I thought it would be, but it made things much easier to get to.

We also took some side trips to Pompeii, the Almafi coast, and Siena. Pompeii I am sad to say was not that impressive it could have been that it was really hot and there was no shade. The almafi coast was wonderful, we just took a drive around it and stopped to eat some fruit. The yellow peaches were amazing! Siena is a charming medieval city nothing really special but just a nice place to relax and spend some time walking around.

So we arrived in Florence on Thursday. It was all very overwhelming, because the moving in was not that smooth. There was luggage everywhere and no elevators to carry them up to the fifth floor. My apartment, which I share with four other girls two of which I previously knew from Wells, is located in the heart of the city but compared to the rest of the apartments it is kinda shabby.

Most of my classes are going well so far. There have been some rough times or un-forseen things happen but nothing to challenging.

Okay so to Patti Smith the singer, poet, writer, and painter from the 70's. For my contemporary and modern art class the teacher made us hop on a bus and go to a little tuscan villa outside of florence. To the NYU campus here where Patti Smith was giving a lecture. I am going to sound very ignorant but I did not know who she was until I wikipediad her just now. It was a very informal Q&A.

I finally found out that I did get the internship at a museum, which happens to be right behind my apartment. There is a lot of paper work that has to be done. I will basically be giving tours to English speaking tourists.

Well I will try to keep this up as much as possible but it might be a bit hard since we don't have internet at our apartment.

Until more exciting times!
-Jen