As promised, I have created one more blog post before my arrival back in the states. I think for this I’ll just go through a bunch of the last pictures that I have on my camera and leave it at that. I’ve had some of the most memorable moments of my life so far abroad these last three and a half months, and to be able to put it all into words right now would be impossible, even if I didn’t have an immense amount of things to do on [...]

Buon giorno a tutti. I know it has been quite sometime since my last post, so I’ll be sure to include one more here after this one before I return home. The pictures I have from this post are from Pasquetta, or simply Easter Monday. Joe’s family was in town for the week, and his dad made a huge meal for us and about twenty others in our program. We spent the whole day celebrating and eating at our apartment, and a good time was had by all. Above is a [...]

Everyone…I am alive! Even though I have been in the country since Friday…I have been totally out of Internet or phone connection until yesterday, but here I am in Florence, Italy. While some people went out their first night, my roommates and I were extremely jet lagged. But we are finally getting adjusted to our sleep and of course the 9pm dinners. My roommates are all super nice, two are from Indiana and the other is a U of M student as well. It is comforting because we all seem [...]

In the early 16th Century, Florence desired a beautiful statue of the god Neptune in Piazza della Signora for Francesco I de Medici’s wedding with the grand duchess Johanna of Austria. Artists came and presented their ideas and one of Bologna’s very own artists Jean di Bologna, otherwise known as Giambologna, presented his miniature statue to the city of Florence but it wasn’t good enough. Giambologna was not given the job and instead artist Baccio Bandinelli won the competition. Unfortunately, Bandinelli died before he started carving the piece and so [...]

So, I am pretty much back to my normal life. I am sleeping in pretty much every single day (not the best habit to get into before school starts). I am cooking stuff that I am used to eating, and most of all, I am living with people who can understand what I am speaking. (I’m also thankful for the working shower). I have so many people to thank for supporting me throughout my 10 weeks of studying abroad. Without them, I don’t think I would have made it. First [...]

So today is officially the last day of the program and my last day in Florence. I will be leaving my apartment at 2:45 am (definitely not planning on sleeping tonight) to take a taxi to the group meeting place, where we will take a bus down to Roma Fiumicino Airport. I will be taking a train into the city of Roma while rest of the group will be flying back to Minnesota. I am having a little mixed feelings right now. On one hand I am really excited to go [...]

Churches are everywhere in Italy. Every city has at least one church, those more significant in size have a duomo (cathedral), and those like Florence are likely to have streets with several churches on them. The Duomo of Florence, otherwise known as the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore, is the mother church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Florence. I walk past it almost everyday to get to class, but I have not been to its ground level until today. To be honest, I wasn’t really impressed, as the interior [...]

Today was a regular day. We had class this morning, discussing our projects, previous excursions, and weekend adventures. Running out of groceries, I went to the market to get fruits and vegetables. Every time I go to a new place, I go through this phase where I have trouble buying food from the local market, since I keep thinking that stuff there is too expensive compared to wherever I lived before. Well, to be honest, stuff in Florence is more expensive in general, but I did manage to start buying [...]

As great as the title may sound, it’s really not all that great. For the first time I felt the effects of alcohol. Our excursion today included two wineries/vineyards, Castello Banfi and Fattoria di Rignana. Castello Banfi, owned by the Mariani family from the US, is a castle located in the Brunello region of Tuscany. Next to the castle is an estate of 7100 acres that is a combination of vineyard, olive groves, other agricultural products, and forests. The Banfi company was founded in 1911 in New York as a foreign wine [...]

I can’t believe I only have one more week in Florence, and I can’t believe I have already been here for more than two weeks. In some way it seems a lot longer than that, in others I feel like it’s way shorter than that. As I now approach the stage where I try to not be classified as a tourist in the city (this isn’t really working, since I am Asian, and I usually carry a camera around my neck), there are various observations I would like to share. [...]

Since I didn’t really do anything particularly interesting today, I thought I would just recount my day and write about something else. I went to the post office to send Googly to Fargo, North Dakota to another friend, and it took a lot longer than it should. First of all, I wanted to buy a box to put Googly in, but I couldn’t find one. Then I spotted a stand in the lobby of the post office, so I went to ask the lady there for a box (in Italian… [...]

Well, since it is in a city I don’t normally live in, I guess it’s not that ordinary. We had class at 9 am, and a guest lecturer came in to talk about Italian meals. At noon, I went to Mercato Centrale to buy stuff to eat, and I finally got the famous panino trippa alla Florentino (Florentine tripe sandwich)! For those of you who don’t eat insides of animals, this might not be the best post to read. Tripe, or cow stomach, may sound gross, but I had it [...]

Today was a long day. We woke up around 6:40 am so that we could get to the meeting point by 7:30 am, as early departure ensures that we see everything planned. We departed for Siena (1.5 hour by bus), where we visited Molino Parri, a flour milling company that has been in business since 1700. Well, obviously they have made quite a few changes since 1700, as Molino Parri is now a technologically advanced mill, completely run using electricity. The owner did show us the old mill though. As [...]

The most noticeable landmark in Florence is obviously the Duomo. It is the center of the city and attracts way too many tourists in the locals’ minds. Today we climbed it. Now the word “Duomo” doesn’t actually mean “dome”, but refers to a cathedral, in this case, the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore. Pretty much every city of decent size in Italy has a Duomo. The dome of the one we climbed today was designed by Filippo Brunelleschi in the 1400s. The cathedral itself was finished in the 1200s, without a [...]