Two very close friends of mine have experienced unexpected deaths in their families in the last two weeks. One her mother, the other her brother. I wish I was closer to give them the kind of support I would like. I never know what to say in times of grief, I feel like everything I can think of sounds cliché and trite. I know when I've needed support the gesture and sentiment was what mattered, so I'm certain my friends know how deeply sorry I am that they have to feel such a loss, and I love them very much. Blessed Be to you both.

Okay, Okay, I'll take one for the team and go check this out. Thankfully I'll be on a chartered bus for the ride home so I can safely slip into a hypoglycemic coma. Looks worth it to me!

Let me elaborate...

So I have many tales of woe about this little adventure o' mine, but I'm trying very hard to keep bitching to a minimum. But I need to respond to a comment I received about my last post. I brought a camera to Italy. As a matter of fact my super sweet rommies gave me a brand spanking new Fuji A800 the night before I left, and it was working just fine, but when I took it out on the plane to play with it, the display was broken. I have no idea what happened. I'm sending it back to my friends so they can exchange it, but unfortunately they can't mail me a new one because the customs fees would cost about 500 euros or 750 dollars! I'm on a strict student budget at the moment but I'm hoping that my honey will be able to bring the replacement camera with him when he comes to visit in October. Anywho, it won't kill me to revisit the sites I've seen so far so I can snap some artistic shots. Fingers crossed, I will have an Italia 2007 photo album on my smugmug page before you know it!

and I see my blog template has disappeared. I can do this.

No local friends. No money. No camera. I'm sure I'm supposed to be learning something here.

Yikes! In some areas here each block of the 'same via' can have a different name. It'd be like walking down Powell Street and it would be called Powell Street beween Bush and Sutter, but then Main Street between Sutter and Post, and then maybe Loony Street between Post and Geary. That's it! I'm learning my way around by landmarks!

I just had the most deliciously salty, soft and warm prosciutto and mozzarella panini in the universe while window shopping at Valentino. It was my own little Breakfast at Tiffany's moment.

Real Mature

So I'm the old person in my group of students from CCSF. There are about 15 of us and I learned yesterday that most of them aren't even 21 yet! I keep catching myself rolling my eyes when one of them says something incredibly naive or giving the boys stink eye because they won't stop talking when the director is giving us important information. Yesterday during orientation the housing director was reviewing the do's and dont's of student housing and she was very seriously emphasizing that overnight guests are forbidden. She told a story of a girl who was locked out of her own room because her roommate was having a 'private party' in there and the phrase made me laugh out loud. I looked like such a dweeb!

First Impressions

Okay, with the gazillions of pictures I've seen of Florence, I had no idea The David, as well as the Duomo, were so big! I was wandering around looking for a hostel when I stumbled upon The David and I actually got a little choked up when I saw it. I got blurry-eyed when I took in the Duomo as well, it's so magnificent! I've already walked across the Ponte Vecchio while eating gelato and covered enough of the city to have seriously pulled a hammy I think. My living arrangement is perfect, I have a clean little room with a terraza and it's about a 20 minute stroll to school. This morning we had a terrific thunderstorm just as I was leaving the house; I miss those from the East Coast. We've had a few orientations and mixers at school and I'm looking forward to being more sociable when classes start next week. So far so good, just missing my sweetie, friends and family like crazy. Of course I'll post more as I do more. Ciao for now!