Learning.

In the past several days, I have learned a large amount of things.

For instance, I have learned that I actually like chocolate.

This past Friday, our class took a field trip (Yes, it was a FIELD TRIP- haha) to a Chocolate Festival that was going on here in Florence. You see, at home I don’t always enjoy chocolate. Some people are in awe of this, and wish they were me-but honestly I always wished I enjoyed it more than I do.

This all changed the moment we stepped into the festival.

Everything was chocolate. Not only was it an art form for many of the vendors, but they also took a huge amount of pride in the chocolate that they were selling. So much pride that they gave us free samples. Nothing could have been better. It was beyond incredible.

I tried some “soft” chocolate and instantly melted. It was delicious. It was a hazelnut type of chocolate, and it was beyond anything my taste buds could have ever expected. I then purchased a strawberry and white chocolate combination of chocolate, as well as their own version of a soft chocolate cookies and crème. Yum.

I have learned that school can be fun and truly engaging.

My classes are excellent. Enrico and Federica are wonderful Italian language teachers. I know I have already said that before, but it truly makes a huge difference in the learning process when you are actually excited to go to class.

Though I have enjoyed my classes at Elon, classes here seem to be more exciting, more engaging. Though I may not always love my literature class, it is somewhat interesting. I think one class that I am going to really enjoy too is my Art History class. My professor, originally from VA now lives here in Florence and has for the past 13 years. She knows so much about everything in Florence and Italy, for that matter. Not only is she a great resource, but I feel like we will learn an exceptional amount about Italian art and architecture. I feel already as though I will walk away from that class feeling a sense of appreciation for art all through Italy.

I learned that I love the secret bakery.

These places are open really late at night- around 2am to 4am- and they make the pastries, croissants and anything else delicious for shops in town. This way, the shops are always receiving fresh treats daily- but don’t have to stay up all night to make them.

Well, our friend Luke, knew where the secret bakery was.

You see, the bakery is secret for a reason. It is illegal for these bakeries to sell their pastries during the night as they are preparing for the next day. However, these secret bakeries DO indeed break the law and sell their pastries to people that can find them and are out late at night. This way, they make profit under the table and we are happy because we get fresh goodies on the way back home after dancing.

if you find it- you knock on the door and ask them for a croissant/pastry, they will sell it to you for 1 euro. Fresh. Croissants. Yum.

I have learned I enjoy nightlife.

At school, I don’t really go out on the weekends very often. It has been a fun experience to get to spend some good time with my classmates on the weekend outside of class, and to get a feel for Florence nightlife. We found a few “discotecas” here in town, and have been able to dance, which has been really fun. Also, we have been to a few pubs here in town too- and I have enjoyed that because it really does give you a sense of everything going on here in town.

I have learned that I love seeing places I’ve only seen in textbooks.

Like the leaning tower of Pisa.

Sunday’s activities included the following:

We woke up around 7:25am to get ready to go to Pisa for the day. My roommates and I (along with several other Elon students) tagged along on the trip to Pisa with the Accademia.

I also found my new love of trains. I know my mom says that I have been on a train before, but I certainly don’t remember it. So, I felt like I got to ride my first ever train ride. It was SO fun, and so different from American travel. I love it.

On the train Corey and I sat next to one another and we met a guy named Taku. He goes to Accademia, but we have never met before.

When we are beginning to speak to him, we realize quickly that he speaks absolutely no English at all.

He does speak Japanese and Italian, though.

Because we knew we had no shot at communicating to him via the Japanese language, we started taking to him in VERY broken Italian. He was very patient and encouraging during the entire trip. He had his notebook out and was using it as a tool to communicate with us a little bit. It was one of the best learning experiences ever. I really did have to use the 1 week of Italian language that I just learned in this situation in order to talk to Taku. What a wonderful experience.

We then arrive at Pisa.

There was something challenging about this trip that is important to note. The whole tour of Pisa was entirely in Italian. For only being in Italy for a week or so, I don’t know but handfuls of the language. Every 150 words or so I’d catch a phrase that I knew, but it was difficult to say the least. It was all right though because there were enough of us that didn’t understand- so we really just had fun together. Of course, we saw the leaning tower and took hundreds of pictures. It was hilarious. Glancing around the lawn and seeing about 50 people at a time posing with the tower in different positions was quite entertaining. Of course, we were about 15 of those nuts.

Then, Peter, Jason and I climbed the tower. It was worth it, because the view was amazing. Also, how could I go to Pisa and NOT climb the tower? After all, I don’t know that I’ll get the chance to return again. Also, for all we know, the tower might tumble tomorrow.

After we got back, we had a little downtime in the afternoon until the Superbowl.

Superbowl Sunday was splendid. We went to this place called “Space” and they set up huge screens all over the upper level of this club. In addition to that, with entry fee you got an all-you-can-eat American Buffet complete with burgers, fries, hot dogs, chicken fingers, wings, chips and salsa and even microwavable popcorn. I felt for once like I was back in America. All the people at the club were Americans too, because as I learned, Italians don’t really understand the game of American Football. However, it was a really late night considering the game didn’t start here until 12:30am. I only stayed until halftime (2:00am) because we had class this morning, but it was absolutely worth it to get a glimpse of America here in Florence in it’s purest form: American Football. I really enjoyed it.

Once again, I begin this week being utterly thankful for the experience that I am getting to have here. I walk around thinking, “How can this be real life? How can this be my life?”

Needless to say, I am learning a good deal and growing in more ways than I could have imagined.