4

Sleeping still isn't very easy.

Alarm clock set for 8AM, I wake up at 7:58 hoping I'd have atleast a couple more hours to try and rest. Uppety up I go, brush teeth, change sling (I'm so tired of this thing) get dressed, grab money, and head to the bank.

I have my backpack, because I was going to go straight to SACI from the bank. Well, I'm not allowed to enter the bank with it, so I run the backpack back home, then return hoping to exchange some of the US currency I brought. After a bit of time, they exchanged 500 USD's worth, which is fine, minus the 8 euro commission fee. I digress.

I swoop up the backpack and head to a small dolce shop and get a sandwich and juice for breakfast. Walking to school was slightly interesting this morning in that there were a million (probably not exaggerating) pigeons through out the garden. They're not afraid of humans either, they fly through groups of people and walk right beside you. They're Italy's squirrel.



I arrived to SACI at about 8:40 and paid for my permission to stay. 58 euros. I then checked the emails upstairs, and met back down in the garden for our tour of local, important destinations. We were shown various art supply stores, a farmacia (that has english speaking doctors) the American Express building that probably has a better exchange deal than the bank i went to earlier. We were also shown the post office, A book store called Edison. Throughout the tour, I saw some incredible sculptures and buildings. I took pics and can't wait til I can post them all for you guys to see.

After the tour, we headed back to the main lecture room, called the Clayton Hubbs Lecture Hall, where we were given a quick, but interesting history of Italy. Although cities within Italy have been around for thousands of years, the country as a unified nation is only just over 100 years old. In the beginning of Italy's existance, many people referred to themselves by their cities, rather than 'Italian.' For example, people form Tuscany would call themselves Tuscans and had their own dialect that isn't what Italian is today. The speaker also mentioned the politics of Italian culture and how it has changed over the years.

After the lecture, I started marking my map with the places we visited earlier until a woman came to take us to the Fuji Studio where I will be taking Book Arts. Book Arts is basically different techniques for creating, binding, and illustrating books. I think that it will be a rewarding course and also allow me to combine some graphic design principles to it.

After the studio, I had to eat! I grabbed a sandwich and water from a small dolce shop and then headed back to SACI to get directions to another post office. I had to pay 50 euro to get Italian Emergency Insurance. From what I gathered, this allows me to use facilities within Florence even though I have my own insurance plan. It's a bit confusing, but necessary I suppose.

By now the time is around 2:45 pm and I head to a store called Vodaphone. I request a new sim card at the price of 10 euros and then head to a corner tobacco shop to buy some phone cards. I have yet to activate the cards, but hopefully everything goes smoothly. I pulled out the phone at the shop to show the cashier the phone, and must have set it on the counter when he handed me the phone cards.

I walk home. I grab a slice of pizza for later, some yogurt, and finally some much needed milk. (Oh, it tasted so good!) I get back to my room and within 1 minute of setting my bag down, I realize I do not have my phone. I panic, check my back pack, check my pockets again, and run out the door. The walk to the tobacco shop isn't a quick one. It takes about 15 minutes to get there, so I'm worried throughout the entire walk. I finally arrive and do not see it on the counter. I ask the guy who helped me earlier and he held it up and said something in Italian. I thanked him a few times and exhaled in relief. I finally made it back to the apartment and took off my shoes. (I have the worst blister on my right foot).

Now, it is 5:00 pm. The rest of the day will go as follows: watch tv, browse the net, figure out the phone cards, shower, eat dinner, read, and hopefully sleep.

Until tomorrow, Ciao!