Day 10

Sorry for not posting in so long, there has just been a string of work and stuff going on. I am going to try and catch up tonight, but I may have to finish tomorrow (on the beach!).

So, day… 10? Si, Day 10. I am going to come home and say random Italian words by accident…

Anyway…

Monday morning started like Florence mornings typically would. I would wake up grumpily (Air conditioner), shower and schlep downstairs for the meager breakfast of a pastry (croissantish thing with sweet filling), some meat and cheese and a crappy cappuccino. For all its charm, the hotel amenities could be better. We then went out in the yard (it hadn’t begun to heat up yet, thank god) for class. Our class snagged the tables in the shade; the other classes had to use the lawn and the tables in the sun.  Our class focused on philosophy and Socrates in general. Of all our classes, this one probably had the most profound effect on me and made me self-reflect and examine my thoughts a lot in the following few days. After the class we had a test on the Greek myths we presented on. The test was 2 questions long: write a summary of three myths, write an essay explaining how historians can use myths as an accurate source. I ended up getting an 86% on it, so I was satisfied. After class I grabbed a slice of pizza and headed to the internet café to email and download some web pages for my upcoming seminar on Sophocles’ Antigone.

I made it back to the hotel for 1:30 in order to go to the leather market with the class. We haggled a deal to get about 20% off all purchases at a certain pair of leather stores; one purse store and one jacket store. I looked around the jacket store for a bit without the intention of buying anything, then watched as the girls went crazy over the purses and wallets. After that bit I headed back instead of moving on to the belt and tie stalls of the street market because I needed to do laundry badly. I gathered up everything and headed down to the Laundromat. There I realized I forgot my detergent at the hotel and tried to buy some from the dispenser. The instructions were in Italian so it took me 5 euros to finally get the 2 euro sample of detergent. I got everything in the washer and then decided to explore some streets and find some of the cool graffiti I’d seen around. Florence is filled with graffiti, most of it is just tags and such, but every once in a while there are some cool ones. One set of three I found on Via San Gallo (they appear to be the same handwriting) The first one seems to be from an Italian pop song “Apriro Il Giardino, Quando Tornerai” (Open the garden when I return), the second is my favourite “Niente di particolare, a parte il fatto che mi manchi!!” (Nothing special apart from the fact that I miss you!!) and the last one is very straightforward and obviously from the heart “Siculamente… Ti amo!” (Sicilian… I love you!). There were some other ones I found and this became a sort of hobby of mine in Florence. I was back a few minutes before my load was done and read Dante for the rest of the time as well as through the dryer cycles. After the second 10 minute cycle not all the clothes were completely dry but I was out of coin and coming close to dinner time. So I headed back to the hotel and hung up the really wet clothes.

We had dinner at a nice Tuscan place not far from the hotel (typical pasta, meat, dessert) and I headed back and watched a movie and prepared for my seminar.

Not a very exciting day but I had to include it anyway, just to ease those troubled minds that worried about the state of my clean underwear supply.