Florence is a Walking City

I am willing to admit that I am kind of a whiner. Especially when it comes to walking. I have been known to complain when someone parks a few spaces farther away than necessary in the parking lot and friends have created a drinking game after how many times I ask "How much further is it?" But part of the whole studying abroad thing is growing as a person and I'm making it a personal goal not to complain about the fact that the transportation of choice in Florence is by foot. Besides, how can I complain when my walk to school leads me past a cathedral, an amazing pizzeria whose owner we have already befriended and four or five gelato places. The fact that in Florence one never seems to be more than 20 feet from gelato is a reason to be grateful for all the forced exercise.
Florence is a very manageable city, small enough that by the time I leave I will know my way around pretty well. As bad as I am with directions, I am already starting to get the hang of the area around my apartment. At the same time I feel like there are not enough meals in the next four months to eat at all the amazing places the city has to offer. So far we have just been eating at whatever place we stumble upon whenever we are hungry, and nothing has disappointed. I had the most AMAZING bruschetta at lunch today. I will probably have dreams about it tonight. Well that and the hazelnut gelato I just had about 15 minutes ago.
Unfortunately as well as I have been eating, the mosquitoes have been eating better. By some act of God we have a private backyard and we have been leaving the doors open to let in the light, giving the mosquitoes the perfect opportunity to leave me about 10 bites all over my legs. Well then and during all the walking we've been doing.

Leading lady

I sometimes forget that you can not actually be physically capable of doing something just by telling yourself that you are. I was born into the "you can do anything you set your mind to" generation and people have been telling me this since birth. But as it turns out, I can not carry all four of my bags with previously untapped super human strength just by setting my mind to it. After making a sufficient fool of myself I admitted defeat and got a cart. Which made loud squeaky noises for fifteen minutes before I figured out how to take the break off. It is during this point that I concluded, my life is not a chick flick. I concluded this of course because no beautiful British boy stepped up to offer and carry my bags, take me out on a romantic date, fall in love with and eventually marry me. My life is not a chick flick, it is however some sort of movie. I am about to spend almost four months living in Florence, Italy. This can not be real.
Even though I consider myself a fairly independent person I tend to get stuck in my comfort zone. I have no trouble leaving something or someone I dislike but change when my life is already going well terrifies me. Studying abroad is without a doubt the most daring, frightening, and exciting thing I have ever done. I am so lucky to have this opportunity to not only travel and immerse myself in another culture but also to get to know myself better. In removing myself from everything familiar I am suddenly living a life that before I had only imagined or watched in a movie. My life IS a movie. The setting is Italy. As leading lady I'm a bit hapless and unsure of myself. But I am the leading lady never the less. as Rose says in The Holiday "You're supposed to be the leading lady of your own life for Christ sakes!" I don't know that I always have been but in the story of a young girl laid over in the London airport waiting to see what adventures await her for the next semester, I am without a doubt the leading lady. The rest of the story, is still unwritten.


*Image from tumbler