My first week!

So it has been one full week since I've moved to Florence, although it really feels like a lot longer than that. It has been such a busy week - full of work, exploring, eating incredible food, unpacking, and traveling. I'm going to try talking about this without being too long, but we'll see how that goes :)

Ok, so Sunday I arrived into Rome and had to get to Florence - it sucked!! Never try to navigate an airport, two trains and two train stations with more than one piece of luggage (I had two huge rolling duffels, a small rolling carry-on, and an overstuffed backpack). Thankfully one of my co-workers was on the flight from Toronto to Rome with me, so we navigated together. It was awful though; it was really hot and sticky, we couldn't move well or quickly, and while we pretty much knew where we were and where we needed to get to, some navigations were a little trickier than others. Mostly just the Roma Termini station - after that it was fine. We were met at our apartment and we had the afternoon to relax and unpack before going out for a terrific meal that night.

I LOVE my apartment - it's so charming and lovely and perfect! It has high ceilings and all of the doors are really tall double French doors! Most of the furniture or finishings are old, but in a way that looks like it has character, not that it needs to be changed. I'm on what is called the second floor, but it's really the third floor (they don't start numbering floors until you've gone up one flight - the lobby is not the first floor). I overlook a park, which is nice. There is no air-conditioning and it has been unbearably hot in Florence, but I hear it's going to cool down soon. I'm all unpacked, and eagerly awaiting the rest of the stuff that I shipped so that I can put up pictures and such! I went to Ikea to get throw pillows, a laundry hamper and a step stool, but I might need to take one more trip. All in all though, the apartment came with everything I need.

Ok, so a brief day-by-day:

Monday - went to an outdoor market for a coffee, then walked to school, met some people and went to the Agencia delle Entrate to get my codice fiscale which allows me to work. Then we went to lunch at this incredible restaurant right around the corner from the university center. That night we went out for Gelato and kebabs and walked around by the river.

Tuesday - We went to Ikea in the afternoon, got personal stuff and desks for our office. That evening I blew all the power to my apartment when I accidentally hit the power button on the remote that goes to the air conditioning unit (Yeah, that was fun!) and spent the next three hours in darkness trying to figure out what to do - good thing I'd picked up candles at Ikea. After we got it temporarily fixed, we went out for drinks

Wednesday - First real day of work - took the passport pictures of all 195 students, stuck their names onto them, taped them onto white paper and photocopied them into "books" so that all the staff can help learn who is who. That night we went to an Irish pub for Pub Quiz night and our team came in second place - that was a lot of fun. When I was up at the bar getting drinks the bartender looks at me and says "Victoria? Victoria Frost?" Katie Hedden had been a sophomore at my high school when I was a senior and she was also involved in theatre. What are the chances?!? She is completing her Master's at NYU and she's doing their exchange program. Oh, and that night, after pub quiz, we went traipsing around the city looking for the "secret bakeries"

There are two or three bakeries in Florence that bake the pastries for the bars and coffee shops to sell in the morning, and if you go there around 2am you can knock on a side door and buy incredibly delicious, fresh pastries. Shelley and Linda have worked at Gonzaga in Florence for over four years and had heard about the secret bakeries but had never gone. There was one right around the corner from the pup, but it was closed for August (lots of things shut down in Florence for most or all of August). We then went back to school and went online, looking for the other one - which we found! We walked over there and it was seriously amazing. All these different kinds of croissants (with jam, with nutella, with chocolate . . . ) and doughnuts, and other yummy goodness! Oh my!

Thursday - at work James and I took the pictures from the little "look book" and then repasted them onto nice big blue cardstock, which we put into two frames and are now displayed in the lobby of the building - this took forever - mostly because we had to draw and measure lines to make sure the pictures were straight and evenly distributed. That night I made dinner for myself - potato ravioli with basil and olive oil, and a glass of Proseco.

Friday - we spent pretty much the entire day putting together our new desks - they're great, but from Ikea which meant they had 100 little steps, and there were two of them. With that done, I went home and packed and then went out and grabbed a panini for dinner, and then orange granita with yogurt gelato - which was an awesome combination.

Saturday we flew to Berlin to prep for Opening Tour. The student arrive Monday, so six of us flew out early (me, Shelley, Linda, James, Federica and Alessandro). We walked around so that we would know how to get where we need to take the students, did a little shopping, and then had dinner at an australian restaurant (we're going to be eating traditional German food for the next ten days, so we all had curry!) Berlin is beautiful, lots of newer buildings, more than I would have anticipated. At one point we were just walking down a street and across it was a path of two bricks - the marker of the wall! It is so insane to actually be here and see things like this.

Today I'm just relaxing until we have our final prep meeting - I feel like I've been going non-stop since I got here so I'm excited for a low key afternoon. I'm really excited for the students to arrive, and I hope that all goes smoothly.

That's all for now, but I'm sure I'll be posting again soon!

Oh - a character guide:

Shelley - the Associate Dean for Student Life - my boss and a super cool woman - from Texas

Linda - the Travel Director - she organizes all of the trips and is also super cool - originally from Sweden

James - the other Student Life Coordinator - from New Jersey

Federica - the Assistant Director of Student Life - absolutely wonderful and so nice

Alessandro - the business/operations director and a professor here

Pat - the Dean of the program

those are pretty much the only people in my life right now, so I'm happy it's a good group :)