School starting!

Mary Shannon: Hello everyone! Sorry it has been a couple of days, we have been SO busy! School started yesterday and somehow it seems like weeks have passed since this weekend. Yesterday I had my first class at 9am-ouch! It was so cold! But once again, you can't complain about the walk when you are walking past cafe after cafe down the Ponte Vecchio or Ponte Santa Trinita and century old buildings to class. The mornings here are so much busier than the rest of the day, people are on mopeds and bicycles and buses and tiny 'gerbal' electric cars. I had beginning Italian on Monday and learned how to pronounce some vowels: Ci sounds like 'ch' and chi sounds like 'key'... Then I went to Cafe Santo Spirito outside my apartment and got a danish type breakfast and capaccino!mmmmm. Last night we also made PBJs for dinner!! It so good-and cheap! Kelsi and I also went shopping, where I found a cute pair of brown leather boots (flats) for £30!! (By the way, that is the style here, big scarves, sweaters tight jeans, and flat tall boots with jeans tucked in). Its comfortable and warm, so I like the fashion here haha. I also found some cute jeans for £30 too! There is soooo much shopping here, but it is all really expensive, so to find good deals you have to walk in EVERY store to get good deals. Also, the main street closest to us is the 'Rodeo Drive'. Bad news parents with kids over here! Its all Puccini, Gucci, Prada, Ferregamo, Armani, Versace, etc! Kelsi and I window shopped as if we were looking for a pet puppy that our mothers had warned us never never to buy unless we were going to pay for it and take care of it haha. We also had gelato stacked on warm waffles, and it was GREAT!! (All the walking here keeps any sort of dietary guilt far away!) Last night, we met a guy from Jessieville, right outside of Hot Springs, and some guys from Georgia. I love running into other southerners! (I accidently figured out that a lot of people get offended by being called 'yankees'-oops!) Today we bought croissants on the way to class, Intro to Conflict Management, where my Italian woman teacher told us how she had had a law degree but didn't like being an Italian lawyer. So she quit and moved and began working for the UN helping with international rghts. Now shes back in Italy teaching, and the volunteer director of the Buddhist Centre of Florence where she books the Dali Lama (however you spell it) to come speak. In her words, 'He's a very nice man to be around, to have next to you.' Somehow I'm not surprised...
Things I've noticed lately: A lot of Graffiti, the same old woman everyday on the Ponte Vecchio saying 'grazie, grazie' over and over holding out a can for change, shops pretty much open whenever they feel like it day or night, weekday or weeknight, gnocchi is potato pasta and it is so good, staff at the non-tourist restaurants can be pretty snotty if you dont use Italian... Love you all, miss you all. -Im doing good :)

Kelsi K : Hey again.... So today me and Mary Shannon sletp our lives away. Last night we met up with Paul Waddell who goes to school with us in Fayetteville. We hung out with Paul and his brother Frank and had alot of fun. Paul was sharing with us how he has been mugged like 4 different times. Of course we were all laughing and so was he considering we haven't been yet and we are girls and he is a guy. Neways they introduced us to these 3 guys from Sweden who are also studying here in Florence and they were really kool! One of the guys who was a fashion science major taught me to count to ten in Swedish!! Yep yall heard it right I can count in Swedish!! Pretty sweet huh!! haha neways we hung out with all them for awhile and then came home and slept alot today. We got ready and went to church at the Duomo!! WOW amazing!! When you walked in everything was just so massive. The priest was great!! It was kind of hard to pay attention cuz we were just so amazed by everything and kept looking around but we will get use to it eventually when we go there every Sunday and get in a routine of it. We felt so holy when we were there haha it was awesome. We went with our 3 guy friends Nick (Ohio), Joe(Wisconsin), and John (Wisconsin). They are all catholic as well so it was a pretty cool experience. Oh yea when we were walking to church we walked past this guy who was yelling in a microphone with other ppl surrounding him with signs and police everywhere. I think they were yelling at a person in a hotel like must be some important polical person or something. We thought it was kind of cool that we witnessed that! Um.. well i think that about covers everything so i'll talk to you all soon!! Love yall!!

First Weekend

Mary Shannon: Last night we met up with a friend from Arkansas who is backpacking through Europe with his brother for the next four months. It was so NICE to see other Arkansans. We also discussed maybe meeting up one weekend and going to see our friends in Greece together, or meeting in Switzerland. They have already been to Paris, Naples, Venice and some other places. They said Venice was so far their favorite. We also just met up with our Wisconsin friends and went to English mass at the Duomo. It was absolutely breath-taking! The priest was really good and discussed love, faith, hope, and using those things to appreciate our time here and really get close to God. The mass also seemed very holy, with more time to reflect, and a very humble prayer by the priest to prepare him and us for receiving the Eucharist. The main dome was covered in one huge portrait of what seemed to be hell, purgatory, then heaven. At the top point of the Dome, it looked as if these men were looking down on us with their feet dangling down. We also signed up with some other American students to maybe go on a pilgrimage to Rome and Asisi(?) with two brothers studying to be priests in Rome. Also maybe a 3-on-3 basketball tournament haha! Wish us luck. love you all

Hey again... Well Me and Mary Shannon are getting a little more settled now. We went to the supermarket yesterday which was quite an experience let me say!! Nothing obviously is in english so shopping was a little hard. We just kind of looked at the pictures and the packaging and went from there!! haha if it looked good we got it! The store is so small and everyone is just running into each other like crazy! We also had an experience with a pick pocketer who was really weird looking. This undercover police guy came in and told a woman to hold onto her purse because of this guy well we overheard and so we got a little nervous. Of course me and having bad luck I was in the back by myself why the girls were checking out and I see this same guy looking at me through the frozen food section glass window. Well it was a huge adrenaline rush to say the least because you know he is not going to hurt you in the store with everyone there but that he is going to try and steal from me!! Well after about 10 minutes of watching and following me I guess you could say my dad's side in me came out and I wasn't scared and I just turned around to him smiled and shook my head, patted my purse and said nope then turned away and walked off!! haha I tend to sometimes feel that i am invincible when I know i'm not! haha But he left me alone and we all got our stuff and left. It has been raining cats and dogs here and we wanted to go out with these girls that we had met, all yankees, haha so we met up with them and headed out to go to a bar however it ended up being an adventure we would rather not be apart of. I bet you we walked in circles for an hour and a half in the pouring rain, dripping wet from head to toe. We finally found it and when we went in it was such a quite more conservative place and here we are dripping wet not looking cute in the least bit. I guess you could say we were ready to leave as soon as we got there. That wasn't such a good night but then last night we met up with some more yankees and went and ate and went to this other place that had american music playing and it was awesome!!! We all had a blast. Yeah i'm pretty sure that me and Mary Shannon are the only southern girls here while everyone else is yankees. There is alot of differences like when we were eating i guess you could say me and Mary Shannon are pretty loud and of course get excited about telling stories and things like that. Well the place that we went and ate at was a very quite place and so you know us our voices were so loud and all the italian waiters got a kick out of that! I know mom you wouldn't be very excited about me telling this story cuz you have taught me better (luv ya)... haha but me and Mary Shannon ordered a pizza along with everyone else however when we got it we were eating it with our hands and EVERYONE else had silverware in their hands. hahah I guess you could say it was a little awkward but of course we just all laughed!!! Oh yea we also went to orientation which lasted a lifetime!! The best story is at coffee break. We all went downstairs to drink coffee well me and Mary Shannon didn't we were just trying to find a coke which never happened! So we were just standing around and Mary Shannon decides to get something to eat so she turns and gets a cookie and starts to eat it.... keep in mind the place we were in was beautiful and has been there hundreds of years... ok so she is eating this cookie and it starts crumbling everywhere well she doesn't reach for a napkin and doesn't block it with her hand she leans over and lets it go all over the floor!!! haha She was like I didn't want to get it on my Noth Face!!! OK so you can see us in the middle of the room dying laughing. Hey me and Mary Shannon never have a dull moment. Then we were heading back upstairs when we see this girl tumbling down the stairs omg ok we lost it. That was just one of those things you couldn't quit laughing but Mary Shannon helped her up and she was ok and then we just all laughed. At this point even the slightest thing is hilarious to us I mean hey when your sitting in a chair listening to these ppl talk you find ways to entertain yourself and i guess you could say we definately did!! haha. Oh but on a serious note the guy talking to us told us that we americans always think we are sick and need medicine and then he went on saying that 8 to 10 ppl spent time in the hospital here in Florence. Well of course what do you think it was from??? KIDNEY STONES!! Ok been there had that... the most painful thing ever and I actually still have 5 in me so I'm of course freaking out... just my luck get over here and then decide to pass them!!!! Pray for me that I don't!!! Today we actually got up early and went to go get me a straightner! oh yea reminds me of another story ok so my straightner doesn't work so i decide to iron my hair yes with a real iron. Desperate times call for desperate measures!! Mary Shannon put my hair on the table and took a iron to it!! If yall no me then yall have to know I have a head full of hair so I HAVE to straighten my hair!! Well it worked and so today I went and bought and straightner so we are all good now!!! We also walked pass the the Duomo today which was breath taking!! It was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen!! We even get to go to church there tomorrow at 5 so i'm pumped about that!! I'll let you know how it turns out!!! Talk to ya soon!!! LOVE YALL!!

Day 4

Mary Shannon: Hello again! It is 2:30pm here, and Kelsi and I just got done hunting for a hair dryer and straightner for 2 1\2 hours. Nice. However, the walk was not bad if you consider we had to walk over the Ponte Vecchio (literally 2 min from our apartment) through the Piazzo Della Signoria, Palazzo Vecchio, past all the amazing stores, across the Piazza Del Duomo, the Piazza Della Republica, and around the Santa Maria Novella and train station... Yeah, I guess hunting for things here isn't that bad :) I also just had my first taste of gelato, wow!
The other night, after getting off this computer, we went to the Piazza Santo Spirito behind our building and ate at the Banto antico where I had the Raviolli with spinach and riccota cheese - it was just as good as you are picturing it right now. Kelsi had great spaghetti, while our roommates had pizza and this potato pasta? which was also great. Afterwards, we met up with some other SAI girls Kate (roommate from TX) had met on the plane also living in the Oltarno district. They were from Oregon, California (Orange County!), TX, and New Jersey. We had decided to follow them to meet some friends and ended up walking at least over a mile in POURING rain, we were soaked to the bone by the time we FINALLY found their friends. (Needless to say, we have decided not to hang out with them anymore haha)
Yesterday, we had orientation at a hotel on Via Fiume, near the train station. There were a little over 200? kids there. Everyone we have met is a yankee! They are all from the North, or TX, but we are definately the only true southern girls here! So not only are we dealing with Italians looking at us strangely, but the students here too! We are both so loud together, laughing at everything, up-front, blunt, a little over-the-top, extremely outgoing, and did I mention loud?? The other kids have bombarded us with words to repeat in our 'southern drawl' which we don't necessarily hear. They've also been extremely intrigued by the fact Kelsi is from the 'rice and duck capital of the world' and that my dad is a doctor with cows and a tractor! However, we also think their accents are hilarious, 'Joe' sounds like 'Joel'. Its been great getting to know everyone so far, there are SO many American students here. Last night we met some friends from Ohio-Nick, Seattle-Kellen, and Wisconsin-Joe and John. Kelsi and I split the white cheese pizza!!mmmmm, so much better here! I was eating my pizza and enjoying the conversations when Kelsi started laughing, pointing out that ONLY she and I were eating our pizza with our hands! Everyone here eats pizza with a fork and knife! (Dr. Ford, you might REALLY like visiting here then haha). Once again, Kelsi and I stood out like a sore thumb! We went to the Red Garter too, where they played American music, and danced all night. We had so much fun!
So far, being in Florence hasn't really given us much culture shock, maybe because of the many American students and tourists, or because Italians are really unaffected by us, or because Kelsi and I's room is actually bigger here than it was in the Chi O house...but we've really made it home in just 4 days. I can almost get around even without a map already because everything is very close!
The only things to really know are common sense: I walk with my purse inside my jacket, zip my pockets, lock my backpack (and even going out last night, tho I didn't take my purse off, we put locks on them!) You can never be too careful. Also, we ignore men yelling at us and watch each other's backs for suspicious people eyeing our bags. At the grocery store last night we DID find peanut butter and jelly, but there was also a cop who had to warn us about this pick-pocket who came in there (which Im not even sure he was a real cop...)
Odd things Ive noticed so far: North Face is the international sign for an American student we've decided, the stores go far back but are so skinny, no slices of cheese just mozzarella balls, no slices of turkey or ham :(, everything in general being smaller here than in the U.S. except for churches of course, Duomo is MASSIVE maps do not do it justice, lots of fashionable stores but not a lot of fashionable people, old women with huge fur coats hats and shoes, a lot of the women look like they are wearing wigs and draw on their eyebrows, lots of tours going on around every corner, Hotel Lungarno ('along the Arno') from the Travel Channels Passport to Europe-Florence is right next to where I live...
Love you all, miss you all, keep in touch!

Kelsi :) Hey guys!!! Sorry it has taken me so long to update but this has been quite an adjustment that we have had to made. Well I guess I could start with getting on the plane to come over!! Everything went well on the way to Chicago but then we almost missed our flight there. We were the last ones to board because our flight was a little late getting to Chicago so we eventually made it to our next flight!! That's where it all got bad!!! First me and Mary Shannon didn't have seats together so of course me being all emotional already because I was missing my family already started to freak out. I just was determined to make sure that we were sitting beside each other especially because it was a 9 hour flight. So we talked this woman into moving so were good. When I walked back to sit with Mary Shannon she was talking to her dad and she was crying so of course I then got on the phone with Mom and Dad and started to cry! I guess you can say we were a little emotional to say the least. We got it together and decided we were fine but then came the babies crying. We of course were sitting in seats that were by 4 babies crying from every angle. Thank goodness Mary Shannon bought me the headphones that had noise cancelling on it!! So we listened to our ipod and watched the same 4 movies for 9 hours. That was an experience let me say! We were just about to arrive in Germany when I started to get a little sad again, of course everyone who knows me knows that I am a little emotional. I definately get if from my mom who couldn't even say a sentence without crying because I was leaving. Well so Mary Shannon was talking to me and we happened to look to the right where there was one baby and we were so shocked to see what was going on!! There was a European woman right next to us breastfeeding her child out in the open and everything!! My tears quickly turned to laughter!! It's not everyday you see that in public!! Where was I...ok so we land but we have found out that there was a huge delay in our flight before we took off causing us now to miss our flight to Florence!! WOW alot to take in. Well we both calmed each other down and just figured ok so now we will just catch another flight no big deal. Well let's just say it wasn't going to be that easy. Once we got into Germany we went also were told that our luggage was only routed to Munich, Germany where we were and not to Florence where it was suppose to go. So we had to run down to the baggage claim to reclaim our luggage and then check it in all over again and get a ticket to Florence. You could say we were freaking!!! Once we got to the baggage claim all the baggage had been let off and there were like 10 bags sitting off to the side. Well I took 3 bags becuase I was being a baby and wanted my comforter which we were only suppose to take 2 so dad had to pay extra for me!! However I so wish I would have listened to mom because she was more than right about it all being to heavy for me to carry by myself. Mary Shannon had 2 bags but they were both overweight so her dad had to pay for that. I guess you could say we had definately overpacked. Back to my story... we only see 2 of my bags and only 1 of Mary Shannon's bags. I quickly ran up to the guy who of course my luck he could not speak any english! We just sat down and started griping how we were hungry, tired, and ready to just be there and now on top of everything we had missing luggage. Well Mary Shannon went to go and try and track our luggage while I stayed with our bags. Well after about 10 minutes I see this little German guy walking up with our missing bags. Of course I start screaming with excitement and yelling at Mary Shannon who is clear across the airport that we have found our luggage. I thank the man and we get our stuff and are on our way to check it in again. But this was the best part... Me and Mary Shannon with all of our luggage!! I had 2 duffel bags might I mention that 1 of them was a huge camo bag that was my dads!! The 2 duffel bags were tied together with dad's famous bungee chords he uses for everything. I then was also pulling a huge zebra rolling bag as well. This was very interesting watching me pull all of this. I had to walk backwards most of the time with Mary Shannon a little in front of me with 2 bags that were bigger than her!! With everyone staring at us I fall backwards on Mary Shannon's bags causing her to fall as well!! At this point it is either laughter or crying!!! We just laughed!! I have a huge hole in my black duffel bag with some of my shoe sticking out of it. I was so mad!! The airport people are never nice to my luggage. We are on our way to check it in and we walk up to the place and the woman didn't look happy. After explaining to her what all went wrong and why were re checking our luggage she checked it. First she was not going to because of the weight and my 3rd bag, but we were not letting that stop us so we showed her our receipts that stated how we had already paid the extra money and she accepted it. So we were feeling a little better at this time so we went and rescheduled our flight to Florence which was ended up being a much simpler task than we accepted. We then decided to go to sleep in the airport for a couple of hours because we were physically and mentally exhausted!! Well you can guess what happened next... we almost slept through our flight but this guy we had met earlier that was also studying abroad in our program named Kellen walked over to us and woke us up. We were very thankful that he did that... it could have been really bad if he hadn't! So we get on board and everything is going great and it was only an hour long plane ride which was awesome. We arrive in Florence and it is amazing!! We met like 5 people that were with our program so we stuck by them. We got our luggage and of course ppl got a huge kick out of my camo bag I just replied haha can't you tell I'm from Arkansas!! We are loading our luggage outside in the bus to go to the main office when it started raining horribly!!!!! Of course everyone is running back into the airport where as me and Mary Shannon just stood tall and strong by our luggage and just laughed as we were getting beyond soaked!!! We all got in the bus eventually arrived to the main office where we were going to register in and get our apartment keys. As soon as we got there the shuttle bus guy tossed our stuff inside and left. The crazy part was getting out of the bus. The streets in Florence are so small and everyone drives like a crazy person not even awknowledging that there are ppl walking. So it was quite an adventure trying to get out on the street. Once we walked ino the office they asked for Mary Shannon's name and she told them and then they said omg thank goodness is Kelsi Konecny with you. She replied yes and I walked over to her and said it was me and she said ok good. Your dad has called a couple of times to see where you were and if you had made it yet! I was so embarrassed because there were like 20 ppl my age in there and everyone was getting a kick out of that. I was like that would only happen to me!! Gotta love my family!!! Hey but it goes to show how much they love me so I didn't mind it a bit!! After we registered we had to load our stuff back in the bus and we were now on our way to our apartment. Our driver was driving of course fast speeding through what we would call an alley they would to refer to them as streets. Well he decided to go down a one way the wrong way so taht he could take us to our apartments and of course there was a car coming our way. Well they exchanged a few words that we couldn't understand becuase it was in italian but what I got of the conversation wasn't good because our driver spit on the other man's car!!!! It was the craziest thing I have seen!! Once we got into our apartment we could finally settle down except for the fact that there were 3 flights of stairs that we had to climb to get our bags up there. That was one of the hardest things I have had to do!!! The lights on the stairs were automatic so they kept going out leaving us in the dark. After alot of sweating and cussing we made it into our new home!! It was very interesting. The bedrooms are great, the bathroom is definately small, and we have a tiny kitchen!! It is a pretty big apartment though so we were happy. In our bedroom we have a huge window that overlooks the street which is absolutely gorgeous!!! You can open the shutters and see everything that is going on below us. We met our roomates Chrissy and Kate who are so cool we love them to death!! Chrissy is from Pittsburgh and Kate is from Texas. We stayed up awhile just chit chatting and then decided that we were hungry so we set off walking to see if we could find some type of a market that we could get something to eat. Wow we found one alright but we couldn't read any of it and understand what exactly these ppl were eating. I found some Ritz crackers, some peanuts, and chips and that was my supper!! After we ate we went to bed and ended up sleeping until 2 today!!! The noise outside is so loud in the morning you can hear everything and everyone talking in the morning so it's going to be hard to sleep in every morning. Once we got up and moving we took a shower. Ok now that is what's really hard to deal with . We don't get much hot water so we have to as Mary Shannon says rinse, wash, rinse. You have to rinse your body off, turn the water off shampoo your hair, turn the water off, wash your body and condition your hair, turn the water on for one last rinse off. Crazy huh yea that's what I said. Then it came to the part of drying our hair. Well I left something out last night we were trying to plug in our power surge and we blew the circuits. Everything went pitch black. Thank goodness dad gave me a flashlight. My dad had taught me how to turn the circuit back on so me thinking I was such a genuis decided I was going to fix it. Well we couldn't find it in our apartment so I went downstairs to the main circuit part for the whole building and flipped the switch back!! Yea big mistake!! I turned off the electricity for the whole building!!! I quickly turned it back and took off in a dead sprint up the stairs back in our room so no one would know it was me!! haha Well I wasn't done messig with the power box. I guess you can see that I'm to much like my dad and was bound and determined to fix the problem. So I kept looking around our apartment and found it. I was't tall enough to reach it so I got Chrissy to reach up there and power our stuff back on! It worked!! OK so now you know why I was scared to plug in my hair dryer. But luckily it worked fine!! I dried my hair and then came time to straighten my hair, that's another story!!! My chi wouldn't work so I having horrible hair like I do I knew I had to do something so I curled every piece with a curling iron making me right now look like curly sue!!! haha I had to do something!! But everything is working out and we are planning to explore tomorrow. This place is absolutely amazing and I am looking forward to hanging out with everyone I met and learning about all the history that lives in this city!!! Our apartment is even built in the 1500's !!! How crazy is that!!! I am hoping to download pictures on here so that you all can see what I am seeing because it is absolutely beautiful!!! Love everyone and miss you all soooo much!! Please keep in touch and write us on here!!! Wish us luck and we take on the city of Florence!!!! LOVE YALL!!!!!!

The REAL thing

Mary Shannon: Well. First of all, it took me three tries to put in the correct password because the keyboard isnt set up exaxtly the same haha. And, not to make you jealous, but I am sitting at this internet cafe RIGHT next to the River Arno! It is 6:50 at night and one of the most beautiful sites ive ever seen (I cant find the apostrophe)!! Now, about yesterday...the TRAVELLING day from H%£$!! Kelsi and I got to Memphis where they immediately had to put us on another airline because the original one had been delayed. While on this flight Kelsi and I were both pretty relaxed, discussing life and the things we hoped to accomplish while on this adventure. I looked out at the skies over Chicago as we landed (thinking they looked like the overly buttered Country Crock mashed potatoes I would miss so much) listening to Disappearing World by David Gray - but then we landed - and the escapade began! After walking at least a quarter mile to the next terminal, the attendent went one to explain to us our luggage had only been checked to Munich, Germany...NOT to Florence and that upon arrival in Europe we would have to check out, re-claim of luggage, then re-check them all before our flight left in less than an hour! Now frustrated, Kelsi and I got on the plane (after the not-so-patient attendent yelled at us to hurry) to find that our seat request wasnt put through and we were on opposite sides from each other. Fortunately, the lady sitting next to me heard me 'venting' to my dad on the phone and switched with us (God bless you wherever you are Sandra!) With our good luck, we also got to sit next to ALL the babies, and a paralyzed French woman, who by the way happened to be so sweet and if I couldve picked anyone else to sit next to for 9 hours, it wouldve been her. (Im sure Kelsi will also tell you about her French sister breast-feeding right next to us!) When we arrived in Munich, we didnt land until 11am, 10 minutes after our Florence flight had already left! We had to check out through customs, where a nice German airport employee walked with us back through security to the Lufthansa airline desk (which I guess is the major airline in Germany because everything in the airport was in there blue and yellow colors, and everything looked almost futuristic with sliding glass doors and overhead music everywhere!) They gave us new tickets to Florence leaving at 2:30pm but left us on our own to re-claim our luggage. Well, by the time we made it down to the baggage area, our bags were off the rotater being checked as lost luggage. As we searched for ours, Kelsi and I both realized we were MISSING a bag!! So, then we had to find the luggage tracking area, where it took me 15 minutes staring at this ticket-number machine to finally realize how to get an actual number to stand in line. As soon as I got up to the desk, I heard Kelsi yelling from across the airport, "here they are, here they are!" A German airport in all blue came out from the luggage area looking half-scared at us two little American girls running straight at him. (This is where I like think God is laughing out loud, I think he has a very rich sense of humor...) This is where you must use your imagination: two girls carrying almost 200lbs of luggage each, I had two on rollers plus a 40lb bag on my back, Kelsi had three (one a huge CAMO duffle bag strapped with bungee cords and another bag to a metal roller)!!! At the direction of the 'man in blue' who had become our friend even though he spoke absolutely NO English, we headed back out of the terminal to find where we needed to check our bags. I literally think I have two holes in my back, for I have never been stared at the way we were in Munich, Germany! Probably because at this point we were either going to only cry or laugh. So we had chosen laughter; I twice lost my balance because of the backpack and fell backwards over my luggage, then barely missed a child who ran into me...where her mother came screaming scooping up her child - yikes! By the time we finally reached the check-in the woman walked out from the desk, gave us one look and said, 'Im going to lunch, you'll have to go upstairs.' I must say, Germans are somewhat lacking in the hmm...Southern Charm? Yes. Thats definately the word. We brought our luggage upstairs, amidst the stares, glares, and laughter of those who werent helping us (That's right Mrs. Ford, you better feel sorry for us now!) WhenI finally got my first piece of 60lb luggage on the scale, the German Lufthansa lady looked at me with disdain and preceded to imply that she wasnt stupid, and knew that I knew my bag was 3kg too heavy. I then told her that I did know they were overweight and that I had already paid for them to get to Florence and that in the USofA that was o.k.! She said I would have to take some of it out, and then I quit laughing and released my hypoglycemic, stressed out, sweaty, tired self out on her stating I would be removing nothing and that my bag needed to be checked. Then, after saying something in German to the woman next to her, she became extremely helpful, and even patched up a hole on Kelsis bag. (Guess you must act like a German, to get respect from a German! just kidding haha). Then, after going through German security a second time, we got to our gate and fell asleep, thankfully through the two hour delay the flight to Florence was facing. Thankfully, another SAI student woke us up before boarding since we were the last two in the gate! (Odd things I noticed in Munich: it was snowing on and off, most everything was in English, lots of lingerie and purse shops, very very clean, cold, a German business man in a suit who had to cancel a meeting because of the delay to Florence-he had told me he had to turn around and drive three hours home.) When flying from Munich to Florence, the airplane was small but seemed incredibly more spacious and comfortable than airplanes in America, there was also calming music playing as we boarded. I couldnt sleep the whole way, and just looked out my window...and thats when I saw something out in the distance. Everything was overcast even though we were above the first layer of snow, so I though at first glance it was an island surrounded by water. Then I realized it was the tops of the Alps sticking out of the clouds. I have to say, I was awe-struck by how relaxing this once-in-a-lifetime sight was. It really made all of our frustrations worth it. When we landed we realized that half the plane was filled with other SAI students from all over: Seattle, Texas, Tennessee, Ohio, Florida, Kansas, and more. As soon as we claimed our luggage (which ALL got there, yay) the SAI (Study Abroad Italy) people were there with buses and more students, including one of our roommates from Pittsburgh. While putting our luggage in a bus, me and Kelsi ONLY started getting POURED on with rain...which came out of nowhere! Here-again-we just started laughing while standing there in it! As we travelled from the airport to the school for check-in I had to overt looking out the front window because the traffic was horendous! People were honking everywhere, zooming out in front of one another, barely missing swiping of limbs of walkers on the street, speeding down vasts amounts of alley-sized streets. (I would never ever get behind a wheel here)! Then, the drivers veered onto a sidewalk, dumped our luggage and took off, leaving us for check-in where we got sheets, a cell phone, and a tremendous amount people exclaimin how worried Kelsi and my family were! (The ONLY parents that had called, thats Arkansas for ya). Another shuttle then picked us up, and began dropping off the other students in various places all around Florence, speeding by cafes, clothes stores, hotels that I had seen with my parents on Orbitz, the Duomo, Uffizi, Ponte Vechio, etc. It was still pouring, and when the driver would pull onto a sidewalk, he would literally throw out the suitcases and drive off. These apartments are not like in America, where they are easily recognized...all these buildings are connected to each other, all the same height and color, with similar looking old doors and no signs or postings depicting one building from the next, expect for the number of the address (there are not even door knobs!) So when you get dropped off, there is no way of knowing what the hell you are standing in front of. Our apartment was even more fun to find, its south of the Arno and there a million one-way streets surrounding Via Santo Spirito (where we live). The driver began getting so frustrated he kept pulling down all these one-way street going in the WRONG direction, and fast! The kid in the back with us, and Kelsi and I all kept looking at each other, scared! At one point, he almost hit this car pulling out (who was going the right way) and they stopped the cars and began yelling at each other, and before driving off our driver SPIT on the other car! When we finally got to our apartment, we had to have someone else show us the technique of turning the key and pushing open the huge door. Then! Kelsi and I realized we had to go up 4 flights of steep, old, stone stairs to get our over 200 lbs of luggage to our room! It took us almost an hour, and lots of blisters. But, thankfully, our apartment was worth it. Built in the 1500s, with its original floors, ceilings, walls (and I think furniture haha) it has three bedrooms, one bath, a kitchen with a washing machine, and two breezeways. The best part is Kelsi and I's room because it has a 20foot ceiling with a massive old light blue painting on it, and a HUGE window looking out onto the street. And other than you really can hear EVERYTHING out in the streets, its amazing. We've only blown out the circuit once so far (haha). We also went and bought bread, bad tortilla chips, sprite, and water from a little asian store next to our apartment last night. Today, we thought wed get up early to get some stuff done, but none of us woke up until after 2:30pm! After we leave this cafe, we are going to the Piaza Santo Spirito to have our first real Italian dinner! mmmm! Wish us luck, and I'll put pictures of the apartment on here next time Im here! Love you all, miss you all, please keep in touch.

One week

Via Santo Spirito: street we'll live on!

Now there's only one week until we leave! This past week we received our new cell phone numbers, apartment address, roommates, and a long list of rather scary information about our possibly 700 year old apartment!! We've been warned not to be too loud because our Italian neighbors can hear everything through the thin walls, not to walk around barefoot in the apartment so as not to get bed bugs, and not to expect showers longer than up to ten minutes... However, we also got a long list of amazing cafes, trattorias, museums, pubs, pizza eateries, and fresh markets around our new home! Guess you must adapt to a 'new' way of life to enjoy the AMAZING! Please continue to add us in your prayers daily as we begin to try and pack!

Getting ready!!

"SEC Championship game: Atlanta, GA 2006"

Kelsi and I are getting ready to leave for Florence, Italy in less than two weeks!! We are TRYING to pack, fitting 4 months of our lives into two bags... We also are trying to figure out where we want to travel! So, though overwhelmed, we are excited and ready to head on out!