Day Five

Monday Jan. 11 2010

Today we began orientation week. I woke up early this morning (about 8:00) and walked to Via Dei Cerchi- the street where the Kent State Building is located. The Building is very unique- like most buildings in Florence, the building is connected to each building on either side of it, the entrance is small, and when you walk inside you immediately encounter a staircase that runs up 5 floors. The buildings in Florence are very sectional- they are not fans of open spaces. Instead, they cram spaces with architectural elements. The grocery stores, markets, clothing stores, pizzerias, and ristorantes make the most use out of any space they take up. Grocery stores and markets are always busy because Italian people don’t buy groceries once a week like Americans do. Instead they get groceries- bread, fruit, milk, vegetables, and sometimes pasta, every 2-3 days simply because they are more fresh. Nobody at grocery stores gets more than a bag full of groceries- and they walk everywhere, so you wouldn’t want to carry bags of groceries all the way back to your apartment.

The facility has a lecture hall on the second floor (it Europe it’s called the first floor), the second floor is an eating/vending area, the third floor is the library and I believe the studios are on the fourth floor (I don’t know yet). We started our basic conversational Italian course today- our instructor is 100 percent Italian. In fact, all the staff and professors speak to each other in Italian, so we never understand what they’re saying. We learned how to order food at a ristorante or take out café, which I kinda already knew how to do… not really, haha. Most of the time I just stand there like a dumb American and say something like “Buongiourno, non parla italiano. Parli Inglese?” and they would most likely shake their head if they didn’t speak English, then I would have to say “Viero Pizza con acqua naturale, grazie.”

After the first Italian class we had a nice welcoming from the director- M. Fantoni, who happens to be my studio professor, and then a security briefing and a reception. At the reception I had seeded grapes and the best oranges I ever had in my life!