Hell is being trapped on a plane that is in the air indefinitely surrounded by a senior group on their way to Munich. This has solidified my stance that I hate flying and everything to do with it.

The travel part of our trip to Florence consisted of two legs. The first was Chicago to Munich, Germany. The second was from Munich, Germany to Florence, Italy. I will digress in two parts.

PART ONE: GERMAN FLIGHT ATTENDANTS ARE MEAN!

Our trip was booked on Luftansa, which I have heard nothing but good things about. SURVEY SAYS: WRONG! I think this was the worst experience I ever had on a flight.

ISSUE 1: Senior groups are not the best traveling companions. My O.P. buddy Ruth and I were lucky enough to get seats together on the plane. However, we were stuck in the middle of a row with four seats in the center. One each end was a senior traveler. Now, I’m not saying that senior citizens in general are bad traveling companions; I’m saying that this particular group was awful. The two people on the ends would not budge when we had to get up to either walk around (it was a nine hour flight) or use the bathroom. It was such a laborious task for them to unbuckle their seat belt and stand up. We got such dirty looks thrown at us. Then, when there was supposed to be “quiet time” on the plane (to get some rest), they decided to make it social hour. Uh, hello, the lights in the cabin are off for sleeping, not mood lighting. Needless to say, I got very little sleep (maybe a combined 1 hour)

ISSUE 2: I think pilots like to torture passengers. We had 30 minutes of non stop turbulence. Now this was no ordinary turbulence, this was rock n’ roll airlines turbulence. The pilot even got on the loudspeaker and said that it was going to be like a roller coaster and that we should enjoy it because people pay big money for those kinds of thrills (no lie, not even embellished). It was nauseating, literally. This guy got up and threw up all over that little center section where flight attendants do their thing. It was great, because the flight attendants deserved it. Which brings me to…

ISSUE 3: German flight attendants are mean S.O.B’s. The guy who got sick on the plane was scolded by this GFA (german flight attendant) and told to sit down. The guy said something like, I threw up a little in my mouth, then got scolded again. Then the flood gates let loose as he elbowed his way past the GFA. Score one for the passengers. The favorite saying for the GFA’s was….SIT DOWN, ZE SEATBELT LIGHT IZ STILL ON. Every five minutes you heard a random GFA saying it. Now this is when we had no turbulence. Yes, I even got yelled at. After the 30 minute ride in the tumbler, my bladder had had enough. So, after the turbulence had stopped, I made my way to the bathroom. All of a sudden I get a flashlight shinning at me at the end of the row and hear…SIT DOWN, SIT DOWN. I can only compare my experience to that part in the Sound of Music when the Nazi’s are looking for the VonTrapps in the cemetery and Rolf finds them. Totally that, except me on a plane (without Julie Andrews and Lesil).

PART TWO: HERE’S LOOKING AT YOU KID. Do you remember the end of Casablanca when Bogart and the girl are on the runway and the plane is in the background while they’re saying their goodbyes? That is exactly what the last leg of the trip was like. We had a propeller airplane that we had to get onto from the tarmac! I didn’t even think they made those kinds of planes. Well they do and what a scary (noisy) experience that was. Still with no sleep and paranoid as hell, the hour and a half flight felt like three hours. Landing never felt so good.

PART THREE: REDEMPTION Florence is awesome. AWESOME! It is such a huge city. I didn’t think it was going to be anything like what I have experienced so far.

The 17 of us students have been split into three apartments. The guys live right by the central market. The eight girls live by the Arno river (still within the “old city”). The three girls live on the other side of the river (a 25 minute walk to school).

I have to say we truly lucked out. We live right by the central market which is like nothing I have ever seen. There are tons of shops inside the market and all these street vendors outside. You can buy meats, cheeses, wine, liquor, produce, clothes, belts, imitation watches/purses, jewelry, leather goods. It is truly a chef’s (and shoppers) paradise. We don’t live too far from the Duomo either. But there are people everywhere. I compare it to Michigan Ave in Chicago during the summer. But oh the possibilities of gelato, restaurants, shopping, and old architecture.

I could spend weeks just in this city, which depending on how much money I spend, I just might have to! But this is just the first day and it is just a little taste of what the city has to offer. I can’t believe I’m going to be here for 10 weeks. It is amazing.

I must go for now… we have an orientation in a half hour and I need a nap. CIAO

Ciao regazzi.  Sorry I’ve not blogged in a while.  I’ve been living the Florentine life and it’s been pretty good.  Wine, pasta, discotecs, and trips to other parts of Italy, could it get any better?  Oh wait, there is that school part of this whole experience.  That’s kind of a bummer; it’s really cramping my social life.  Adding to the cramped social life is doing laundry, shopping for food, constantly cleaning the dusty apartment, making sure your chef clothes are pressed, sweeping the floors of the constantly dusty apartment, wiping up after your roommates because they don’t know how to cook without getting pasta sauce all over the stove…UGH!

So, yeah, life is pretty good.  Except for a few minor “bring you back down to earth” chores, I’m living my dream. 

Well, well… I’ve got to get you caught up on the last four weeks of my so called Italian life.  Where to begin?  Let’s start with the boring stuff first. 

SCHOOL

So, I finished my Italian language class!  Thank god.  That intensive four week boot camp gave me nothing but bad dreams involving words like “il”, “la”, and “gli”. One more week and my head would have exploded like a Dora the Explorer piñata at a little girl’s birthday party.   On the positive side, I do know how to order an espresso in Italian.   (I know that some RMC faculty members may be reading this so let me put this note in:) It really wasn’t that bad.  I did learn a lot, but not enough to hold an actual conversation with a local.  I can get what I need, but I’m probably saying it in a not-so-pretty way.  

Hopefully I will get at least a B in the class. I got a 100% on the midterm, but I decided not to study for the final.  Umm...I didn’t do so well on the final.  However, that night I should have been studying, I was out and about in Florence having fun with friends that flew in from Chicago.  So I regret nothing.  Besides, this is my last quarter of school and the brain is on shut down mode.  Five more weeks and I turn the thing off.

I did manage to get an A in Italian Regional cooking.  It wasn’t too terribly difficult.  I learned a lot though and have some awesome recipes for cow’s brains and testicles.  Maybe I’ll post those next time.

I started my internship last Monday.  Man, did I hit the jackpot with this place.  I am working in a five star hotel here in Florence called Relais Santa Croce.  Here is the website for you to check out.

http://www.relaisantacroce.com/en/index.htm

Pretty shwanky, eh?  I was telling people that if Oprah were to come to Florence