Not Enough Hours in a Day

We're so busy. Every time I sit down to blog I don't even know where to start, what to talk about and what to leave out. There's just so much to talk about: my experience, the group dynamic, and what I'm learning (academically, culturally, and spiritually).

Valentine's Day: We had classes all morning but then for lunch Mona and Kyle put some things together. They completely decked out the dinning room, complete with candles, confetti, valentines, neat little bread sticks, banners, and themed napkins. Once all the ladies were sitting down the gentlemen of the group all came in holding roses. They sang "My Girl" to us except replaced "my girl" with "HUF girls." I don't think there was a girl in the room not smiling. After we each received a rose we ate spaghetti and enjoyed each others company. We had the afternoon and night free. There were quite a few couples going out for dinner and some groups of all girls. I decided to take the time to head out in the nice weather with my hammock and have some alone time. Which I know sounds lame for Valentine's Day but alone time here is few and far between! Living in a villa with 30 some peers (more than half being female) and a family of 4... let's just say things are pretty chaotic. The villa dinner group was small but fun and afterwords we all watched a movie together. To top of my wonderful day, I had an interview with Climb Nashville for a job this summer over skype. I found out yesterday that I got the job!!! I'm so thrilled, this falls under the dream summer job category.

Since that night I haven't even had time to write in my journal. On the 15th we went to Sante Croce, a Gothic style church here in Florence. It's known as the Italian Westminster Abbey. It holds many important works of art and has over 300 tombs, two of which being Michelangelo and Galileo! Michelangelo's tomb is to the left. It was sooooo cold. I was excited and interested in what we were learning but the cold made it so hard to take notes and pay attention. The day before had been so pretty so I hadn't dressed as warmly as I should've.

We also went to the Bargello that day which is now a museum but was the first public place in Florence. We saw works by Michelangelo, Donatello, and Brunelleschi. I would love to go back and spend more time there. I saw art students sketching statues by Michelangelo and wanted so badly to join them. For dinner we went to this little place were it said that an artist lived who was friends with Michelangelo and they probably had a few meals in the very room we ate in. The food was amazing (pasta of course).

Well, I'm out of time for now. Hopefully tomorrow I can set aside some time to catch up some more!