A Free Weekend!

There was a group of us that stuck around Florence and Sesto the first weekend. I figured I get lost plenty in Florence that I don't need to go and navigate another city. Friday I did two much-needed loads of laundry. When I put my clothes in the washer I decided to walk to the Esselunga--a supermarket for some school supplies and whatnot. It's probably about a ten minute walk. About 3 minutes into it, it starts drizzling. I think, "Wow, a little Italian rain. This is great!" Then, it starts raining harder, and harder, and harder. Just when I thought it couldn't rain harder, it did! Now, when I left the villa, the sky showed no indication of the downpour that was soon to come...so my raincoat and umbrella were sitting safely (and dryly) inside of my closet. Anyway, I made it to the Esselunga and sat outside for a while to wring my hair out and try to stop dripping...and I wanted to enjoy the rain from the protection of the overhang. I went into the supermarket and found what I needed all the while getting strange looks from the Italians. (Like none of them have been caught in a downpour before! pshh) It was sunny when I left the store.

Friday night we watched a movie called Italian For Beginners. I know what you are thinking...you stayed in on a Friday night to learn Italian!? (Mom and dad, you are probably proud of me for doing that!) But, the movie is actually a Danish film about a bunch of strangers taking an Italian class and then eventually going to Venice together. It is filled with death and drama. It was made in 2000, but looked like a home video from 1994. One of the professors strongly recommended it to the house fellow, so we watched it. We are unsure why he thought it was so funny. Weird.

Sesto has a pretty popular market on Saturday mornings. We got up and went to that around 8:30ish. They had tons of clothes and a food market with whole pigs. There was a volunteering day in Florence at 10am. American students were meeting to go down by the Arno and clean up. We had intentions of going but got to the bus stop at 9:45ish. We decided that the worst time to be late to a group is when no one knows you are coming. (There wasn't a sign-up. You just showed up at a fountain in downtown at 10 if you wanted to help.) So, Laura, Amanda and I went to a bar (which is actually a cafe...they just call them bars here!) for cappuccino and pastries instead! In the afternoon Amanda, Abe and I went for a stroll around Sesto and made reservations for supper. We went through a big ordeal trying to figure out how many people we should make the reservation for. We decided on 6. Then, a group of 9 of us left for dinner at Gratta. It was delicious. I had a calzone that was a little over-cooked, but it was reasonably priced. Dinner was followed by gelato. Delicious!!

Saturday night a few of us went to downtown Florence for a drink. We went to Fish Club then Schott Cafe. It was fun and pretty relaxing. A taxi ride from downtown to Sesto is about 25 Euro so we wanted to catch the last bus back from town. We left about 12:30 to come to Sesto. (Also, we didn't swipe our bus passes on the bus, so we got a free ride...I felt like a rebel. And was also very scared the whole time. I may not do that again!) Once we got back to Sesto we went to a little bar. We were all pretty wiped out so we went home and went to bed pretty early.

Sunday morning I went to church. (Funeral free this time!) Then, I came home for brunch. I don't think much went on that day besides homework and relaxing. Before I knew it, the weekend was over and it was time for a new week of classes.