Living in an apartment is pretty cool. We have a small two bedroom place with a very small common space including a kitchenette, table, tv and mini sofa.
I have my own bathroom, which is the best part, but showering is not very satisfying because the water temperature always changes and the water pressure is low. I’m really roughing it. Haha. All of our neighbors are other English kids from my program so it’s nice to have people we can talk to and share meals with. We have a really small clothes washer, and last night I got to experience wringing out all of the water in my clothes. We later found out that my roommate had pushed the wrong button, stopping the clothes from spinning to get the excess water out. Glad to know I don’t have to do that anymore. Regardless, we have to hang dry our clothes so laundry has to be planned out ahead of time. Our refrigerator is very small. It is smaller than the mini fridges we normally buy for college. That makes stocking up on groceries difficult. It is necessary to go to the shop every other day for food. Cooking is another issue because my skills are limited. And eating all carbs for dinner is a tendency and the easiest to do because pasta is the easiest thing to cook. We had a cooking course as a part of orientation
but everything we cooked required an oven- which we don’t have. We also don't have a dish washer, but that is something I'm used to. Last night I had the most substancial meal yet. I cooked some chicken with sprinkled herbs on the stove and it turned out to be a huge success. I live right by the main river in Florence which is nice for two reasons, A. that I have access to the other side of the river where things tend to be cheaper and
B. the view from the bridges is beautiful when it’s a sunny day. 
On the other hand, I have to walk between 10 to 20 minutes to class through a city. Usually I’m walking by myself, which isn’t too lonely because there are always people walking along the streets, even at 8:30 in the morning. So far classes have been good- other than I had both my studio art classes (Printmaking and Watercolor) on Monday and had to spend almost 400 euro for art supplies, which is equivalent to about 600 dollars. I shit a brick. The entire day I had a pit in my stomach because I couldn’t believe the expense, all for art supplies! Normally at SMC I have a set lab fee (around $65) and have to spend no more than $100 dollars for personal expenses. Not 300 dollars in total expenses! While I do think I will get much more out of these studio classes here- I have to wonder if it is worth the expense. I’m thinking about dropping watercolor, mainly because I wrote my name on all of my printmaking supplies so I couldn’t return those even if I wanted to. My parents on the other hand think I should stick with both. My tuition is the same even if I drop a class, so in my parents eyes, 300 dollars isn’t a huge deal in the big picture. I’m not sure if I agree, and even though they say it is okay, I feel terribly guilty about it, especially when that money is only for my art supplies. I still have two other classes that require 100 euros each, for books and museum trips that I will need to take over the semester. EEEEEEEKKK!One of my major goals here is to get involved. The school has club sign ups but students can usually only sign up for one. I’m leaning towards the jogging club or the yoga club. It will be nice to get out and start some form of physical exercise, aside from walking throughout Florence daily. Luckily we have a couple of beautiful parks around that I've heard of- perfect places to jog or walk. My mom suggested I join a gym nearby but I’m not sure if I want to pay the extra money to do it. I also found out that I can join the American church here and do community service. That’s another thing I want to get myself into. I’m starting to plan my traveling, but unfortunately both my roommates are strapped for cash, and don’t want to travel to the places I do. Luckily I’ve talked with two girls who are interested in going to two of the places I have my heart set on, Prague and Poland, so I’m hoping I can plan those trips with those two girls instead.
As you could probably already tell from the expense of my art supplies, everything is expensive here. A lot of times we forget that 2 euro does not equal 2 dollars. Aside from food, internet, school supplies I haven’t bought anything other than this 11 euro green wool scarf that I purchased at the market which was the best decision of my life. It’s been pretty chilly here- Not as cold as Vermont but cold enough for me. I definitely need to limit what I spend and not buy more than I have to.
My moods switch from feeling really confident and independent, to vulnerable and lonely. Small things make me feel stressed and confused because I’m always in a state of uncomfortability- everything seems different here- like walking into a store and not finding what I need because everything is written in Italian, or asking for something but not being understood, and entering into a nice little game of charades. This will change with time, I’m sure. I also find that my mood changes based on the weather. On cloudy, rainy days I tend to have lower spirits. Yesterday however was a beautiful sunny day so I went exploring on my own.
I had to make a few errands, but along the way I tried to take note of neat places I found. For example, I found a REAL bakery, the kind that smells like a bakery and picked up a fresh loaf of bread for dinner. 
I browsed some shops and came up with a great idea for souvenirs. I found the three level H&M in the heart of Florence and checked it out. I bargained with the market woman and bought my beautiful green scarf, and I took pictures and made two videos to post. 
It was a very successful day and I felt so much better about myself for being so independent. Sometimes I think about my time here and can't believe how long it will be until I can come home. Other times I think about how short it will be and realize that I need to take as much advantage of this place as I can. It's a day to day thing, even hour to hour. I just have to learn to adjust.
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