Week Two

Second full week in Firenze and it's been getting better. Dominique, Alyssum and her boyfriend Cullen, and myself have all pretty much bonded and been our own group. Beth and Alex have pretty much disassociated from the rest of us. Yeah we kind of interact with them but apparently they don't like me all to much. Apparently they saw one of the first videos I posted from here and I said they were party girls. They were offended and said they they're not party girls but they don't have the balls to say shit to my face. So going out every night drinking and not coming home until between 3 and 5am and bringing home a strange guy doesn't constitute as party girls? Yeah, that's what I thought too. We're going to try and sit down and talk to them today and if things don't change within the week, I'll talk to CAPA and someone is probably going to move out. It is what it is and that's all that can really be done about this.

So I went to Boboli Gardens Friday. It was so amazing and so beautiful. Even though there isn't a lot of things in bloom right now, it was still gorgeous. It's freaking HUGE! I actually got lost in the gardens. You need a full day to actually explore the full garden. It was a little sad though. I went to one of the romantic places in Italy by myself. I really wanted Bobo to be there. It was nice though just to kind of be you know. After that, the four of us went out to dinner at this really tiny restaurant. It was sooo good! I got this chicken dish with a balsamic sauce over a salad. It was nice not to have to cook too haha!

Saturday, we went to Pisa to see The Leaning Tower. The train station here in Firenze is huge and rather confusing. To buy tickets, you have to use the ticket machines. They don't have actual people to buy tickets from. The tower was really cool. Not as big as people made it seem. Actually, if anything, it was kind of a disappointment. There's nothing in Pisa except the tower and this one section that's essentially a strip mall kind of area. Yeah, the tower was really cool to see and yes we took the typical touristy pictures but really not wroth doing again. Once really is enough. The Duomo they have is beautiful and so underrated! That was worth the trip too. The pizza in Pisa isn't great. It's also possible that we've just become so used to Firenze pizza that we might be becoming "snobs" about it. It was a nice day though to go out and stuff. I made risotto for the first time too! I undercooked it a little bit but it was really good. I'm proud of myself for it. Risotto isn't exactly an easy thing to make and it takes practice and patience to make it well.

I think I'm starting to settle in a bit more here too but not always in a good way so to speak. Mentally, all the things I thought I kind of left in New York are coming back. I actually thought I'd be better here because I'm not bombarded with media and American ideals of women and things like that. I can't help but feel like, with these new people, it's all coming back to how I was treated in the states. They haven't said or done anything to really warrant me feeling this way but all those things just keep flooding back into my head and they're starting to effect me. I'm starting to feel like I need to withdraw myself more and more from the group. I don't know! It's all really confusing actually. I don't even know if I have an opportunity to talk to someone here about these things and I'm a little worried that if I can't, what will happen. I just don't know right now and it's a little concerning to me.