Salamanca and the rain

Woke up this morning with a cruddy and sore throat, so I spent the day mostly lounging in bed except for making a bus trip to school to check on a class schedule and then stopping by Coop, the local supermarket. I love the aisle signs - some roughly translated in English for foreigners:

need a chiropractor? see backery, aisle 19


yest: part of a balanced diet


umm, does that mean bandages? I have no idea


What's also interesting about Coop is when the checkout person starts charging your items, they look at you blankly. I've learned this means, "Do you need a bag?" Many people bring their own bags and so do not need plastic ones to be supplied. Usually I have my backpack with me, but I didn't today, so I smiled meekly and simply said, "Yes, bag." So for all my items, 20 euros worth, I got one bag. I awkwardly filled it to the max and was dismayed to see a tear in the bag. I gestured and it and look pitiful, and the lady was kind enough to give me another bag. With both arms supporting the load, I made my way outside to the bus stop, and it was pouring rain. A huge lightning bolt on the horizon greeted me when I walked outside. Luckily, I just happened to be wearing my floppy sun hat, so it acted as a bit of an umbrella. Walking the last few yards from bus stop to apartment, two older Italian men spotted me, grinned, pointed to their heads, and said "Yes, umbrella hat nice!" It made me grin also.

After drying off a bit, I scarfed down some multivitamin juice, salmon deli-slices and oranges and felt immensely better. That was the extent of the day so far, but last night, well that was much fun also!

Upon being invited out by my classmate Dylan, who has been here in Florence for a year so far, I found a small Spanish/Brazilian club called Salamanca. And when I mean small, I mean the bar took up most of the space in a room that could have imaginably been an apartment's living room. There was one small side room also where people could sit and actually hear one another talk. It was amusing to hear the Macarana being played loudly and no one giggling or attempting to make fun of the dance. Lots of 90s American radio music being played, but there was also some Spanish reggaeton, which I was surprised to recognize. What impressed me most was the tiny area that was the "dance floor." Two things made it very European: a fog machine and green lazer-line projection machine. Oh, and also a strobe light but that's a default. Walking through that small area was surprisingly intense. I don't even see why people are interested in taking drugs to enhance effects like that. I had a hard enough time walking a straight line, and I hadn't even ingested a drop of alcohol. Whoa. Fun though. See for yourself:


Looking to conserve my euros once again, I decided to try just one specialty drink, a Mojito, thinking that a little Spanish bar might make an awesome one. But of course, as with many places looking for profit, I was dismayed to see the bartender fill the glass to the brim with ice. So for the little Mojito I actually had, it was great! As I ordered it, I had a glance at the bartender then also at his coworker who was serving people at the opposite side of the bar. I had a double-take. "Oh wait, are you guys...twins?" He flashed a grin, handed me my drink then winked with a nod. I thought it was pretty neat to have a twin pair of very laid back and personable bartenders (Marco and Paolo) at a little dance club, and at the end of the night, they were kind enough to pose for a quick photo behind the bar.


I really enjoyed the bar also because it had no cover-charge and was not on the drink-card system that I've read is common to many Florence nightclubs. With that system, you are assigned a small card when you enter, and each time you order a drink, they stamp it. When you leave, the stamps are tallied up and you pay then. The catch is though that if you lose this little unassuming card, it takes about 50 euros to make up for it. More on that once I finally run into that situation.

So for tonight, I'll keep sipping my vitamin C juices and take it easy. Perhaps if I feel better in a few hours, I'll explore again.

And I'm not sure just how many of my friends are actually following these daily musings of mine, so please, if you stop by here, leave a note! I'd love to hear your thoughts. :) Click "comments" right below.

<3 Britt

Thursday is the new Friday

Last classes of week were today, so it's a three day weekend for me! Now...what to do with myself? I don't feel like shipping off to some remote location by train yet. I still feel like there's much to do in this city - I just need to find things. I definitely should do more of what I did after class this afternoon: window-people watch. It's quite hilarious! Where else but Italy would a male go to a very chic salon to get his nails done?

When I got out of class at 5:30pm, I was absolutely famished but wanted to conserve my euros, so I found a little Chinese takeout place. It's disheartening when even a Chinese man can speak Italian, and I can't. After much gesturing and pointing, I settled with some lo mein and rice. The man didn't understand me saying "lo mein". How can he not know lo mein? I thought that was Chinese. :( I decided to not go with the literal "fried fish"....

The little fishies were smiling at me. Slightly disturbing.

I did meet some new people today in my Intercultural Communication class today, which I most likely will be spending time with tonight. I haven't really gone anything at night yet. But I did hear of another student at my school that went to a club, and foolishly took an inhale of a "cigar" that was being passed by friends of the performing musical artist. Ends up this seemingly normal cigar held something other than tobacco because the guy ended up wandering mindlessly for 6 hours and his friends found him 4 miles away from his apartment in the wee hours of the morning. What a way to start the semester. Hopefully it was a learning experience for him. Scary.

Other than class, the days have been uneventful for me. Although I've been doing the 20min bike ride to and from campus for the last 4 days, I wanted to change things up a bit today so I took the bus. Here's a shot off the bus windows as it was pulling up to the stop:


Last night, my school held a free dinner for students that consisted of little pastries, little bread pieces, and deli meats. Pretty adorable and very Italian. Oh, and there was cheap wine also. :) Couldn't argue with the setting though - right on the grassy edge of the Arno River right near a beautiful old bridge, the Ponte Vecchio, that was built in its current form in 1345. I believe the dinner area is actually a private club for rowers and their boats were stationed right near by. We were tempted to take one out for a spin but decided to be good (would be a shame to get in trouble so early in semester!).

First day, then a break

my favorite poster graffiti on a wall near my school

First day of school on Monday went very smoothly. Started class at noon, and except for a few breaks, I had class until 8:30pm. Very weird to walk out of class and into the night, in the middle of a busy city with multicolored lights and people relaxing outside small cafes. Web Design class lasted 2.5hrs, but went by in no time. Very modern Mac desktops with Photoshop CS3 and Fireworks and Dreamweaver, just like at my college at home. I had to take a photo of myself through the computer's webcam for the professor, and that is now my profile picture on here. Today, strangely enough, was a free day with no classes, so I wandered through the streets and struck up conversion with street vendors. One was from Sicily and another from Romania. Both had fascinating little stories to tell and were very friendly and welcoming. I also achieved my goal of wanting to buy some Italian indoor soccer shoes - both for playing in school soccer leagues here and for wearing around. It took ages to find some that were affordable. Things, especially shoes, are extremely expensive here. Everyone wears fashion bling-bling. So many gold shoes, it's very weird. More fun stories to come tomorrow, I'm sure. :)


a man steers his boats to a dock on the Arno

nothing more refreshing than a beautiful morning bike ride - the Duomo is the large dome

Florence at night

After having dinner at a small pizzeria, I biked a bit along the Arno River for awhile to celebrate the night right before school starts tomorrow. I came across a large group of people standing in the street and leaning against stone columns near one of the bridges while listening to pumping music. Turns out it was a club that is very popular on Sunday - yet another radical change from Georgia. It's too hot for people to cram inside the club, so everyone just takes their drinks out into the street. I hopped up onto a stone fence and enjoyed the river breezes while I sketched out a picture of the people and the reflection of the lights off the water. Here's to a great school semester starting tomorrow.