So as of today, I've officially been in Florence for 1 week. Amazing isn't it? How fast time flies, yet seems to go really really slow at the same time? Don't get me wrong, I am enjoying it here, but sometimes things just go really slow and I wish they didn't.
Today we didn't exactly have "class" we had our two site excursions for Western Civ and European Studies. We went to all of the different piazza's (squares) today for European Studies and walked to Oltrarno. Florence is divided into 4 sections, West, East, North, and Oltrarno. Oltrarno is across any of the bridges from W, E, or N Florence. It is the less "developed" side so-to-speak and has a completely different feel to it. It was cool to see the other side of Florence. After that we walked across Ponte Vecchio--which for those that don't know, is the bridge that has all the gold shops on it...wooooo I wanna shop! haha. It's actually pretty cool to know that above the shops on one side is a corridor that one of the Medici rulers had built so he didn't have to walk across the bridge and be around at the time what was butchers and factory type shops. The reason the bridge is now all gold shops is because the Medici ruler did not want the noise...so he ordered that any vendors that were in there had to be gold shops so it was quiet. (and fun to look at!)
We also went to the synagogue that is here in town today. It is actually really big, and on the inside the walls are beautiful. It is an Orthodox Synagogue, and it has a seperate division for the women who come to pray which they have to sit behind. It was really interesting to see because I don't think I've been in an Orthodox Temple before. The woman that worked there gave us a mini-info session on the history of Jews in Florence, and how the synagogue came to be built and the architectural influences that had been used. It's kind of funny to think that the Catholic Church was a major influence in building a Jewish Temple! (there were 3 architects, 1 Jewish, 2 Roman Catholic).
This afternoon we have a wrap-up session for classes, then we have the rest of the weekend free!! It's lots of fun to know we have 3 day weekends every week! It's kind of the group consensus that KU should have classes like that back in Lawrence!
I'm not sure what exactly I'm up to this weekend...maybe exploring some more around here. I still don't know my way around very well, so maybe I'll get lost and try and figure it all out...who knows?!?!? I do know that I will do some shopping this weekend...there are so many things I want to buy...but we'll see! Ciao!
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