One of my first challenges here was cooking on my own. Sure, I’ve been living on my own in NYC for the past year and a half, but since I was going to work during the day and straight to class at night and not getting home until 9:30pm, well I didn’t have that much time to cook at home. I usually got food while I was out during my day and left a cereal box at work for the morning. My designated shelf in the kitchen of my last apartment was pretty bare except for granola bars, microwavable popcorn and cereal. Oh! And I think I had Entemann’s chocolate chip cookies for dinner for a full week…

Well that had to all change living here in Florence. I don’t have the usual school meal plan and I don’t want to eat out often because it’s just too expensive with the Euro being all high and mighty. So I have to utilize the kitchen, and I actually lucked out in that aspect. The kitchen in this apartment is very spacious and stocked already with utensils, pots and pans. It’s pretty great.

So first day, after a surprisingly quick unpacking of my two large luggage bags and laying on the small but comfy bed for some relaxation and reflection, I asked one of the girls where the nearest grocery store is and I went out. It was nearby actually, only maybe 5 blocks away. It was small but had all the basic essentials.

I bought about six basic items to make dinner that night and carry me through breakfast the next morning, but I’m not concerned about all the items, just one.

I was in the vegetable area, and in the refrigerated shelves was a nice little wrapped package of spinach, or what I thought was spinach. It had small individual leaves on thin stalks and it was green, thus spinach. I should have just read the label… “basilico.” In no way shape or form does that word look anything like the “spinaci” I was looking for. But I went home, confident of my purchase until the next day at lunch when I took it out to use with a Panini.

“Oh no.. I got basil?! What am I supposed to do with that?” The only time I had ever seen anyone cook with basil was my mother, for this incredible Peruvian pesto. And yeah, if you think I was gonna try and attempt that, well, that would just be a disaster as I’ve never tried to make anything that complicated before. So what was I going to do with all that basil?

I threw it into the Panini anyways, in an eh, let’s see what happens gesture… and it was delicious. No, not just delicious, incredible. The basil added just enough zest, just enough flavor to make the panini spectacular.

And with each new dish I made, I threw in basil, just a little bit chopped up into small pieces; it added an incredible amount of flavor, not overpowering, but just enough. With bread and mozzarella? Of course! Pasta? Yes! Chicken in the fry pan? Yes! In the omelette? Fantastic!

For those of you who are seasoned cooks, well, my awe of this little basil plant may be a little exaggerated. But for me, I’ve found a whole new way to add flavor beyond the salt and pepper, but without going overboard with sauces. If you know of any other basic dishes that basil adds a bit of pow, let me know. I’m making discoveries in my Florence kitchen…

The Brussels airport didn’t have as much of an impact as I thought it would, as many of the airport employees spoke English. Thus, my next wow moment ws when my Brussels Airline plane slowly dipped below the cloud line, passed the steep peaks of mountains, and flew over my first aerial view of a tiny red-roofed Italian village. There were no more than 5 houses in that little group. My eyes traced the winding mountain roads and saw more villages, even larger than the first. I smiled at their beauty and at the realization that this is going to be where I live for the next four months. Absolutely breathtaking.

As the small plane circled around Florence to land, I saw the Arno River wide and proud, meandering through the city. I searched for the Duomo, but to no avail. After we landed I stepped out onto the landing strip pavement and looked around. It was a gorgeous sunny day, and though the air was chilly, it was crisp and fresh, what you’d find in the New York suburbs in late Autumn. The sun illuminated the yellow-painted apartment buildings and the surrounding greenery, making everything shades brighter. I couldn’t stop smiling.

As the passengers all piled into the bus to take us to the airport, I struck up a conversation with a young American girl, whom I heard spoke English at the Brussels airport. We found that we’re both attending the same school, Lorenzo de’ Medici. She introduced me to some of her university-mates. They were all very nice. We parted ways, after getting our luggage and exchanging email addresses.

Before I could get a taxi to take me to the apartment, I had to exchange money. I handed over my passport and nearly $200. Guess how much I got in exchange? Only 132 Euro. I was disappointed. Though I had already known the exchange rate was not in my favor, I didn’t know it was by that much of a margin. Good thing though, as it only reinforced how much I’m really going to have to budget things while I’m here.

With all the taxi signs at the airport, taxi’s were not hard to find. The lady driver helped put my bags in the trunk. I showed her the address on my phone and off we went. And those of you who know I took a few semesters of Italian must be reading in shock, “You showed her off your phone?! You didn’t simply just speak it?!” No, I didn’t just simply say it. I was slightly terrified to speak.

And probably a little too distracted to even think Italian while I was taking in the sights. At first, the roads, small cars, and street signs reminded me of Switzerland, but then the longer I watched, the more I realized how much more disorganized Italy is! Yes there are trucks, big cars, little cars, mopeds, bicycles, and pedestrians all in the same shared road/sidewalk space, like Switzerland, but here it seems as if they are battling to dominate the roadway! It’s very chaotic. And I saw this one car parked at the middle of a three-way intersection. How did that person even manage to get it there?

After a bit of gaping at the traffic patterns, I gathered up the courage (and quieted my fears of ridicule to a whisper) and I uttered my first Italian words in Italy, “Dov’ è il Duomo?” I have to admit, the only thing I understood from her reply was her hand gesture, but it was a start.

The taxi driver turned down what looked to me as a glorified alleyway, then she stopped and pointed to a door. Really? This is a street? Not an alley just big enough for a Smart Car to pass through? I paid her, the flat rate of 20 Euro, took out my bags and rang the doorbell. At the buzz, I pushed the door open, dragged my two suitcases inside and heard the pitter-patter of my roommate’s feet coming down the stone steps. And I made it, after two days of flying, to my new Florence home.

Hello,
Wow, I can’t imagine spending 15 hours on a plane like you did going to Australia. I think I’m about three and a half hours into this trip, going to London and I’m so restless. I watched the second “Night at the Museum” movie; it was pretty funny. If you haven’t watched it yet, I recommend it.
I had a little dinner on the plane, which was pretty good also. I’m on American Airlines. It was a meager but good salad, a bread bun, swiss cheese soft as butter to spread on crackers and pasta with tomato and chicken and mushrooms (that last one I pushed off to the side – no mushrooms for me please! ☺). And the lemon cake was surprisingly delicious.
The first time this trip really settled in was not when I fully packed, or driving in the care to airport with my parents, or even checking in my maxed out bags. It was the moment I waved my last good-bye to my parents from the other side of security, and turned my direction toward gate 6, “You’re on your own now Jenn, for the next four months you’re on your own.” I have to admit I teared up, but I didn’t let one drop fall. Instead, I smiled. This experience is going to be incredible. I think my next wow moment will be in Brussels, when nothing’s in English, and the next when I see the red rooftops of the Florence buildings. See, I’m even smiling again now thinking about it, picturing how it’ll look out my plane window.
So I should get some shut-eye now. This six and a half hour plane ride is going to be all the nighttime I have to sleep, as I’ll be landing at 6am London time and have to function. You know, I was fascinated when I saw the passenger in front of me had folded his headrest inward, to kind of cradle his head so he could sleep. Don’t remember plane seats doing that and I guess planes to and from Florida have no need for them. I was so curious I immediately went to my own headrest and cautiously pulled the left side toward me. To my absolute delight, it moved. Hehe, I know, I can be such a little kid sometimes, but I’ll never stop having fun in the small discoveries on sights of everyday.
Ok, bedtime for me, and this time I mean it…
Sincerely,
Ginevra

It was 4:30pm. My friend and I were trying to hail down a cab at the busy intersection of 23^rd st, but with no success. My head pounded, vision was blurry, and I could barely stand straight because of dizziness. On this second day of symptoms, I had gone to Duane Reade earlier to check my blood pressure. It was 184/126. I meekly told the pharmacist the reading, which was well above the normal 120/90, and asked him what should I do. His face blanked in astonishment, and he said, “Calmly walk, do not run or rush, to your doctor’s office.” And that’s where we were headed with the taxi. My doctor took a blood pressure reading and it was still rising. She sent me to the Lenox Hill Hospital, only a few blocks away from her office. By the time I was admitted, it was over 200/130.

After that hospital visit, numerous blood tests, an MRA scan and talking with a few doctors/specialists, we figured out what was wrong. I had a blockage in one of the vessels going to my left kidney. I’m on medication now to keep my blood pressure stable, but after discussing the situation with a cardiologist, Dr. Iyer from the Lenox Hill Hospital in the Upper East Side, we all agreed the best course of action is to implant a drug-coated stent in the vessel, which would keep the vessel open and then the coating would prevent the vessel from getting too inflamed and closing up again. Though this is a normal procedure done in the heart because the vessels are small, the use of the coated stent is rarely done in the kidneys because normally the vessels are large enough to use a stent without the coating, but my left kidney has two vessels instead of one, and the blockage is in the smaller of the two.

The operation to put in the stent was supposed to be today, two weeks before I go to Italy. My family and I made sure every step of the way that I would be able to get this fixed before I depart and the cardiologist, who is performing the procedure, reassured us that I could definitely get this done before I go, and still have ample recovery and preparation time. The one thing we didn’t think about was my insurance.

Because I’m in that weird in between period still being a full-time student but also too old to still be covered under my father’s insurance, some papers didn’t get automatically filled out, and at the moment, I don’t have insurance. The cardiologist’s office called yesterday to say that the insurance didn’t go through and they will postpone the procedure, pending the insurance papers, which shortens the already tight schedule that I’m on before I leave.

The procedure is now scheduled for Thursday, and my family and I are working with (or yelling at, whichever way you want to look at it) my insurance to finalize the process. Cross your fingers that everything works out these next few days.

When I saw the Tweet from @airfarewatchdog this morning, I groaned, “Delta raises checked bag fees again.” Really Delta? And it turns out Continental followed suit, with probably more airlines to follow their lead.

I have a few friends in FL, and used to travel down there often before I started planning this trip to Italy. The last time I went in late October, I was determined to not be a victim of the checked-in bag fees, writing about it in “To Check in, or Not to Check in…”. And with fees now increasing, I’m sure more passengers will try to find ways to skirt the fee.

The Airfarewatchdog blog said the Delta fee for a bag checked in on a domestic flight is $23, and they tack on a $2 surcharge if you check it in at the airport instead of online. That’s a total of $50 round-trip for a bag, which is absolutely ridiculous. And Continental matched their fees to Delta’s.

Looks like I’ll be flying JetBlue and Southwest from now on, since they don’t have any check-in fees…

After stumbling across my blog, Maggie, a junior at Bates College in Maine, was kind enough to answer a few questions I had about dealing with my cell phone in Florence. She studied abroad in Florence, living with an Italian family and attending classes with the Syracuse University program. Maggie’s Camera, her blog, also has some gorgeous pictures of Florence… made me super excited to know that those will be all the sights I see in a mere three weeks!

I asked her if she could give me a little advice about things to expect in Florence, and this is what she told me:

5 Places you should definitely visit in Florence

1. Boboli Gardens, they’re the gardens of the Piti Palace
2. Uffizi Museum
3. Il Duomo – Santa Maria del Fiore, it’s the main cathedral in Florence (Lorenzo de Medici, my school in Florence, is only a few blocks away! I’ll definitely be stopping by there)
4. Piazza Michelangelo, great over looking views of the city
5. Santa Croce, mainly just visit almost every weekend because it has a large open piazza where there are many different markets. There are also a lot of bars around there I would suggest.

5 General tips for Studying in Florence:

1.      Get sandwiches (Panini) at the grocery stores

2.      Take a million pictures, you want to remember this (hehe, believe me, my lil point ‘n shoot camera will be on hand at all times!)

3.      Make sure to visit Venice, Rome, and Pisa if you only were able to visit three other cities in Italy (hmm, good to note)

4.      Go to the local bars instead of where the other study abroad (SA) students go to. SA students seemed to have always been at Red Garder, Twice, and Glamour, whereas I really liked Rex, BeeBop, Moyo, and The William. (A friend of mine gave me similar advice too! He said buy a travel book, and avoid all the places it list)

5.      Pack 10-20 lbs under the weight max going over because you will add that much coming back (wow, that’s gonna be tough to do…). I watched people throw stuff away at the Florence airport and have to repack their bags to meet the weight limit…and I was one of them (Oh no!).

5 Places to Eat at (within the main city)

1.      Oil Shoppe, a great sandwich place with a great 5 euro sandwich, water, and fries deal (I’d say that’s a pretty sweet lunch deal).

2.      Trattorias behind San Lorenzo indoor market: mainly Café Zaza and Mario’s – they’re two different ones

3.      The following Gelaterias: Perche No, Vivoli – the oldest Gelateria, Grom which is popular throughout the world (yeah! We have two in NYC! I’ve eaten at the one in the UWS, sooo good!), Parigi though myspelling is questionable, but I can tell you exactly where it is, and Carabe, that has Sicilian gelato with great cannoli.

4.      Aqcua al due, has a delicious balsalmic steak

5.      Trattorias across the arno: Quatro Leoni and La Casalinga

5 Things to be Aware of

1.      Italian internet is nowhere near the internet level in the US. I remember being back home and saying “wow, this is fast” (ha! that’ll definitely be a part of initial lifestyle adjusting).

2.      Don’t buy from the venders on the street if their goods are not on a cart it’s about a 50,000 euro fine, but that’s justthe number that popped into my head, I could be off. (Whoa, no way! Will have to remember this one!)

3.      The cabs are really expensive and easily add money when you are not paying attention, avoid them as much as possible.

4.      Beware of the euro and make sure to pay attention to the exchange rate (yes, must be aware of this at all times, if I’m going to make it through the 4 months without going broke!).

5.      Make sure to validate your train ticket as well as your bus ticket. If you don’t validate your bus ticket it’s a 50 euro fine.

Thanks again Maggie!

Ok so I realize it’s a little late, but I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and a great New Year! I enjoyed being home with family and spent time with friends I haven’t seen in awhile. It was nice.

The last issue of Time Out New York has the cover line, “New Year, New You”. But who really wants a whole new version of themself? I have trouble with this because even if it’s a whole new me, it’s my same life with the same challenges and opportunities. I rather still face it all as me. It’s just the approach needs to change.

I asked someone close to me what’s their favorite personality trait that I have. He told me the way I dive into things, situations, and friendships with a completely open heart and a happiness in thinking of all the wonderful potential. I said to him, but that leads me into trouble a lot of the time, to which he replied true, but the way your whole persona lights up and shines, believing in it all, is a beautiful thing.

And I still want to have that, where my eyes and heart search for the good, believe in the promise of the wonderful things to come in everything I see or experience. But I don’t think I can do it with such abandon anymore. It’ll no longer be a blind dive, kicking ans swimming til I reach the bottom. Though I don’t want to tip toe at the shore either. It’ll still be a dive, but a gradual descent, taking the beauty of the ocean around me, understanding more of myself along the journey, while I swim towards the treasures at the bottom.

So my New Year will not be a complete overhaul. There will be no miraculous to do list or resolutions to meet. Just small changes to be a stronger and happier me.

And it already begins with a change of heart…

Yesterday, I deposited the half-month of January rent and security deposit to Lauren, my new Florence apartment-mate. That’s right, I won’t be dorming. I’ll be living in an apartment with 4 other girls… very exciting.

It all started with me handing in all my forms late. I still hadn’t figured out what kind of place I would like to live. I really wanted to learn Italian so I inquired about host family options, but the more I learned about it, the more I disliked. They were generally one or two person homes, located far from the school and there was a 2am curfew. After living in New York City for a year, it would’ve been very difficult to abide to a curfew. Entertained the idea of living on my own, but that would just be lonely and get complicated with setting up utilities and internet. I even emailed a listing on Craiglist, but didn’t get an answer back. So I considered the dorms, even though I wouldn’t get much Italian practice in and there were restrictions on visitors.

But at that orientation meeting, in December, I sat next to another fellow student who lacked housing, Danielle. Well, I’ll rephrase, she didn’t lack housing, but was planning to set up an apartment with 3 other girls when they got to Florence. As the meeting wore on, she realized that it might be very difficult to do this, so I told her that I still don’t have housing yet, so I’d be up for rooming with her if she decides to dorm, and she said she’d think about it.

I emailed her two days later, and explaining a bit about myself to see if we would compatible as roommates, and from our email exchanges it seems like we will be! We both are laid back, tidy, outgoing, like to exercise and dance, and look forward to exploring Europe and making lifelong friends while doing it.

Along with a description about herself, Danielle told me that there’s an apartment with a few FIT girls looking for two more roommates, who would share a bedroom! I told her, I’d be happy to live with her. And with the deposit I made yesterday, it’s all finalized.

The picture of the bedroom is to the right and of course Danielle and I would separate the beds. We also get our own bathroom attached to the room, along with a closet, desk and nightstand and a large window in the back of the apartment. The apartment itself has a washing machine, which from what Lauren says, is pretty hard to come by in Florence. The kitchen, also shown to the left, is pretty large, which is nice. And the apartment itself is a 5 min walk to the school.

No joke, that’s how Dino Rodriguez, the FIT coordinator of the study abroad programs starts off our introduction to Italy last week. Once we get all the administrative stuff out of the way, like what papers we need to bring with us on the plane and a letter of some sort, he begins to tell us about the study abroad experience. Sorry I didn’t pay attention much to the papers, because with the Swiss Passport, most of it didn’t apply to me.

He explained further that it was only initially that we might cry at night, because of the culture shock, and that girls in the past have emailed him about it, so he knows it’s true. And to be careful about being labeled as “dumb Americans.” Once again, waving my Swiss Passort might get me out of that label…

But then he began to answer questions about the programs and about each city. There are about 17 students going to Italy, all of them women, only three, including myself going to Florence. I happened to sit next to one of the Florence girls during the orientation. The other city the girls are going to is Rome.

As Dino described Florence, he said that “it really feels like you are in Italy because it’s so old and as a truly Renaissance quality to it,” and the city is also very diverse, with many immigrants. “So be open to finding a non-Italian guy,” he joked. And the size of the city, from on end to the other is comparable to the distance walking between FIT (27th and 7th) to Battery Park.

Also we have to be aware of pickpocketers, as students have been robbed before. Florence, and maybe Italy in general I’m not sure yet, is a male-dominated culture. He gave us an anecdote about this. A female FIT student was having an argument in a bar with an Italian man, and she slapped him… and he did back. The student went to the police to have some action done against the man, and to her surprise they did nothing, but just said, “Well you deserved it.”

In regards to the language, I liked the way Dino described our situation, “Learn to speak Italian. Struggle with it! It’s the kind thing to do to approach a person by speaking Italian, since it shows you that you are trying. And soon enough, they’ll put you out of your misery by speaking English.” I got a good kick out of that one, because that’s exactly what happened to me when I went to Switzerland when I was 15 and learning German in school. The moment I told anyone I was American, they spoke to me in German, as much as I tried to get them to practice German with me.

“How many bags should we bring?” asks one student. A very good question since we’re all women, and fashion students, and probably tend to overpack. But Dino advised to not bring too much, since we’ll probably be bringing back twice the load. “Pack for generally winter-ish weather and try to limit it to one bag…” and all 17 of us groaned. And he said to forget bringing your absolute favorite straightening iron, because not only will it not work in the outlet, but even if you get a converter, the outlets in Italy don’t have the power necessary to run the thing, like the “power-hungry” US does.

The Florence school, Lorenzo de Medici, is not that strict, which was a little to my disappointment. I like being challenged in classes and tight schedules; I find I’m more productive. But Dino said since the teachers are Italian, they are a bit more lax about deadlines and things like that.

And as for the technical details, we can generally buy things with a credit card; it’ll convert between Euros and Dollars on its own. And we should know where the Consulates are. The American one is very close to the school. And lastly, what to do about a phone. Can I just bring my world edition Blackberry and just change the SIM card to an Italian one, and thus be under local-paying-minutes? Any advice on this? I’m only gonig to be there for four months…

Yesterday, in preparation for my Italian tutoring session today, I grabbed an Italian Elle to try and read. I debated on grabbing another Italian magazine, like the mini-sized Glamour, but I decided not to challenge myself that much. So I bought the mini-sized British Glamour.

I occasionally like to read my magazines from back to front, and once I got through the pages upon pages of ads, I saw the Duomo! There was a little highlight on Florence under the title “And your holiday starts… NOW!” and subtitle “No airports, no crowds and no ‘check-in has closed’. GLAMOUR hits the road, rail or water to test the best no-fly mini breaks.” From my reading perspective, all the places I can go without needing to fly when I’m in Italy next semester.

Taking the train from London to Paris and then through the night for an AM arrival in Florence looks like a cinch! I’ve never been to London or Paris so learning about opportunities like this is exciting. Could leave it for a weekend excursion…

To take an early morning stroll along the Ponte Vecchio, “where culture and commerce collide,” is not only beautiful, but you may be blissfully alone to take in the sights. Early morning and evenings are best to avoid crowds of tourists. I’ll also take the mag’s suggestion to visit Hotel Lungarno, owned by the Ferragamos, and the restaurant Borgo San Jacopo at night, where I’ll be able to see the stars mirrored gorgeous in the Arno river.

And on the weekend, Paris here I come!