Class starts today and I don't know the deal on 'tipping'

So checked in on Saturday and got to my room at La Pietra (the place where NYU has the classes/houses the people). The campus area really is pretty crazy (in a good way). Lots of rolling hills, grass, tall trees, fountains, and statues that no longer look like a tacky New Jersey front lawns (this is the real thing, pictures below). My room is pretty nice also; not so big, but a decent size a pretty good view, private bathroom and definitely enough closet space which I was not expecting. I unpacked pretty quickly and fell asleep til my roommate showed up, then we went to eat in the cafeteria and met some people. This turned into a collective trip to a local supermarket for shampoo and things, and we realized...everything is somehow uphill here and tough to walk in the humidity without a map. haha, we learned the hard way but eventuallygot there in one piece. The other kids in the program are also great; can't really say I've met anyone yet who's rubbed me the wrong way.

Saturday we pretty much stayed in. There was a jazz concert on the villa grounds; we went, stayed for an hour, and got too tired and left. The group flight came (about 60% of the people were on this flight, so not many were there on Saturday when I got there) and it was cool to meet even more people. Then we got introduced to the teachers, had to introduce ourselves (in front of 80 or so people, the standard ice breaker crap I'm used to because of NYU), and went on a bus to the town center. Then was the walking tour; we saw the major outdoor sights, but museums were all closed because it was Sunday (plus...we were tired). Then, free ice cream. Good stuff. I liked.

Went back to La Pietra and showered (2nd time in 24 hours) and met some people to go to town for dinner. We pretty much ate at the first place we saw because we were all starving. And we didn't know the tipping situation, because we thought we didn't have to tip (in Italy there's a surcharge Coperto that's included in the check, and it is a form of 'tip') but on the bottom of our check it said 'service not included.' I think we were supposed to give extra, because the waitress looked pretty angry on the way out. I'll ask a teacher or something. And now it's Monday. My first class is in an hour or so, and I can't believe I have school again. Kinda weird. I also realized last night that these grades will really affect my GPA like any class in NY would. Even more weird. AND, I realized I have to do secondaries here / the MCAT is in less than 2 weeks. Which isn't weird, but frankly blows. Anyway, enjoy the pictures. Til next time.

David

The view from my dorm room window.

More of the grounds of the Villa.

Guess....

Front of the Duomo (I think). I told you the thing is huge!

An arch? Don't know.

God it's HOT here!

First off, any of the pictures below can be enlarged just by clicking on them. Just wanted to get that out there for the technically impaired (mama). I think I could literally wring a bucket of sweat from my forehead after today. It's brutally hot in Florence (humid) by NY standards. Imagine NY weather but like, a suffocating humidity that's 100x worse. Still, it's not as harsh as Spain was last summer. I actually was able to find my bags within 5 minutes at the airport, passport check was quick. The taxi was easy to get and he knew what he was doing / where he was going. The hotel is OK. Statues of the Virgin Mary all over the place are freaking me out slightly, but I should be expecting to see lots more of her. We're cool, she told me so.

OK, first impressions of Italy:

1) People here drive CRAZILY. I almost got hit by at least 5 Vespas. Not joking. They go fast, and I assumed (since in Spain, Israel) they'd stop for pedestrians. Nope. They don't. Seriously, beware of them, especially at pedestrian crossings.

2) The food is good. Like really amazingly good. Especially the tomatoes. I have yet to get a gelato fix (can I be any more touristy?).

3) Shit is expensive, yo! I had to pay 6 Euro to climb the Duomo (central cathedral in Florence, more on this later) and 1.5 Euro for a big bottle of water. The latter is like, almost 3 bucks kids.

4) The indigenous folk are not as good looking as people say. Well, they're not ugly. But whoever came up with the Italian = beautiful stereotype had other things going on. Also, most of them don't really dress so well. Sure some of them do, but I saw tons wearing shorts/tank tops. Kinda wish I brought more of those with me now. This was another thing that made me feel awkward before I came here - but ended up being false.

5) It is LOADED with tourists. I'm sitting in my hotel now (post shower, read: post sweat-removal) and it just occurred to me how few natives I've seen. You can spot the foreigners easily with shorts and baseball caps. And of course, the ubiquitous cameras of which I admit I am a part of :-)

6) The people are really nice here though to tourists. Minus that one bitch who I bought the water from who gave me the most disgusted look when I went to take the water from the refrigerator myself (apparently they need to get it for you? I dunno). Then she goes 'It's SPARKLING water.' Umm, ok? I wanted to splash that sparkling water in her face. hahaha. In all fairness, the accent sounded weird. And she had blond hair. I think she was actually an American immigrant. That explains the nastiness. Hey, maybe she was from NY. With my feeble, shy Italian skills I ordered dinner to take to the hotel and the people there by the counter obv could tell I was a tourist, but they kept our little repartee going bc they saw I was trying. This was really cool, because I understood pretty much everything they said, and learned a new expression too ('portare via' means to 'take out' as in to take food to go). Noted.

I left the hotel almost as soon as my bags were dropped off, looked at the map and headed to Ponte Vecchio, supposedly a really old bridge that crosses the Arno (river around Florence), one of many bridges. But it was the only one the Nazis didn't destroy in WW II (pictures below). It was cool, lots of shops but I didn't buy anything. I walked to the duomo, climbed up it. I'll probably do this again with NYU, but I figured 'Eh, I'll do it again,' and I'm glad I did. The view was really amazing, and a great way to start my time here (more pictures below).

Then I walked home, saw some old italian men driving Vespas and almost crashing because their heads were turned around to look at some blond girl's ass. I laughed. I'll probably stay in tonight, because I don't know anyone here (yet) and I'm really tired anyhow. it's kind of annoying being here alone, flash backs of Spain. But I know this won't last long. Like one more day, haha. It's still really exciting to hear Italian being spoken all over. Cool, I like.

Good luck to all those MCAT kids finding out today, my prayers are with you!

David

Yours truly on the Duomo's tip top. The Asian girl who took my pic said '1, 2, 3, SAY CHEESE!!!!!!!!!' - she smiled also. A lot.

From the top of the Duomo, outside. Is this a church or a synagogue? You decide, because I couldn't.

The dome of the Duomo, from the inside. I think I overheard someone saying it depicts the 7 layers of hell (Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy)

Questo e' il duomo. This is the duomo, quite possibly the biggest chunk of Jesus I've ever come across. I could only get like 1/8 of it on film, by the way. It stretches all across.

The view of bella Firenze from the top of the Duomo

view from the Ponte Vecchio. The water is il fiume : l'Arno

I have/had absolutely no idea what the hell that tower was, but it looked important (?) so I snapped it :-)

Bored in the airport...Svizzera

OK, note to self my first lesson in Europe: keyboards are really, really screwed up. The letters are all interchanged and the shift key doesnt work, the Y and Z are switched, there are no apostrophes.....in short, excuse all the typos here. (There is a webcam though, for internet lovers). Weird.

The flight was OK. As usual, I barely got any sleep maybe only 2 hours. Also, as usual, the guy next to me was fat and sweaty. Great (I want to put an exclamation point here, but cannot find it on this damn keyboard). Oh. !!!!!!. There it is! Now I can do it! Also, Im timed on this computer and only have 3 minutes left. Pathetic considering how fast I can normally type. We got into Zurich an hour ahead of schedule, so that gives me plenty of time to bum around and then go through security (AGAIN) to my flight to Florence. Not much shopping to do here. A prettz boring airport, and everything on the PA system is in some German dialect, then English, then French. I think French here is like Spanish in the US. Pretty much a second national language. By the way, is this country known for anything besides chocolate? and watches?

OH! Americans with FANNY PACKS just sat next to me (I can tell not only from the clothes but also from the accent). Fanny packs. Remember those? Im talking about the big black ugly ones, hehehe. I put in more money - now I have 7:50 left. Im gonna stop writing now and put up a picture or two, bc God knows how long that will take on this piece of crap.

Next time from Florence!
!!!!!!!!!! (I have mastered and spited you, crap Euro keyboard)

David


Apparently Europe hasn't gotten the memo yet; 'Smoking Lounge' is really just a euphemism for 'Lung-cancer-in-a-glass-enclosed-nicely-decorated box'

I simply had to take a picture of the only Indians in Zurich airport inconspicuously. This is how it came out.

Aren't you just dying for me to buy you this shirt? No, really.

Leaving New York very, very soon

Today is here! I still remember when my day countdown was in the 300's, so weird how fast everything came. Anyway, we were advised by the NYU staff to only bring 1 bag with us (even though we're technically allowed 2 by the airline) because apparently there's not so much space for stuff in our rooms. To be honest, I wouldn't mind keeping a lot of stuff in a suitcase for the time I'm there for. But, if I want to travel a lot it would be a major pain in the ass to have a lot of things (read: bags) to lug around with me. Me being me, of course I'm taking 2 heavy laden bags :-) I still don't know what I'm doing for the two weeks after the program is over (August 8). It's going to involve Spain, France, Greece perhaps? Depending on how much of Italy I've seen at that point. Wellington went to Israel yesterday, mom started to cry because we're all leaving her alone here in America, bla bla. It's OK! Just give us lots of cash, and we'll buy you nice presents (and keep the leftovers)!

This morning I woke up early, finished doing laundry, packed toothbrush etc. The standard last minute shit. Gonna make some phone calls at around 5PM when I leave for JFK, because after that I won't be able to - I'm leaving my American phone at home. Oh and I got a blood test. It's weird to not be afraid of needles anymore (where did that come from?).

For some reason I had it in my head that the flight was at 8:10PM but really it's at 8:45. We're stopping over in Zurich, Switzerland first for 2 hours before the next flight out to Florence (Peretola airport), and I should be landing in Italy at around 2PM local time on Friday. What the fuck, I'm going to ITALY, still can't believe it. It's gonna be 2 months of bank account depletion (thanks Bella) and added inches to the waist (thanks pasta); it's all good. When I get there I'm staying overnight on Friday in a hotel because I can't check in to the NYU site in Florence til Saturday late. To do it all in proper style, I reserved a room in a five star place (sorry Mom). Hey, it's Europe. Gotta do it right, right?

K, goin' now. I'll update from the other end!

David