Week 7: Celebrating My Birthday in Italy? Sounds Good to Me!

10/7/19 – It’s officially midterm week, which means I’m already about halfway through the semester! That being said, there wasn’t a lot going on this week. I’ve been pretty much locking myself in my apartment so that I will study (even though it’s pretty difficult when you’re in a different country).

10/8/19 – On Tuesday I got pretty sick, unfortunately. I stayed in, slept, and did homework, pretty much.

10/9/19 – I was still pretty sick on Wednesday. I couldn’t hear well either, so class was slightly difficult (lol). I did work on a photoshop project for my visual merchandising class, though. I had to design a window display based on a VM trend (mine was lunar reflections). I haven't used photoshop in a while, but I think it turned out pretty good.

10/10/19 – Thursday I was still sick, but I at least left the house. I spent most of my free time shopping for an outfit to wear for my birthday (which is tomorrow, yay). I ended up wearing a black dress with feathers around the top I ordered from revolve.com, and some short heels I got for just 15 euro at a shoe store behind my apartment (sadly I forgot to take pictures).

10/11/19 – On my birthday, I woke up feeling a lot better, thank god. I went to La Milkeria to get something for breakfast. I originally was going to get a crepe, but when I got there, I realized they had pancakes. I repeat, they had PANCAKES. I of course had to get those because I miss them so much. I usually don’t get any sort of breakfast food here, because Italians don’t eat a large breakfast. They usually just have a coffee and a pastry. After that, I went to the Pitti Palace and Boboli Gardens with Hannah, since it was free admission day (yay). The palace was quite large and grand. There was so much art in it, it was almost overwhelming. I think it’s crazy that people used to live in places like that. All of the ceilings had fresco paintings, and art all over the walls. Although I think I was meant to live in a palace, I much prefer my simplistic bedroom. The gardens were behind the palace, and they were huge. By the end of it, Hannah and I were dragging for sure. The fortress right outside the gardens was where Kim Kardashian and Kanye West got married. Sadly, you had to pay to go in the fortress, so we decided against that, but we at least saw the wall where they were married. I’ve decided I think I’m going to get married at a palace. I just need to find the man and the money now (no big deal). After the gardens, we stopped at a new panini shop to get a snack. It was called La Prosciutteria. At this place, you got to build your own panini, which is something I haven’t found here yet. It was really good, of course. But honestly I’m wondering if there is a such thing as a bad panini in Florence. Later on, we got ready to head to dinner. It was me, Hannah, Sophia, and Kailey, and we decided to go to a place called Za Za. Both my roommates had been there before and loved it, and I heard good things about it too. It was so good. I got the Bolognese, since it’s my favorite sauce, so I felt like I had to have it on my birthday. I got the tiramisu for dessert (I still can’t figure out why I suddenly like that dessert now). They all surprised me with buying my dinner, which was so nice of them! After that, Hannah and I went out for a little bit to a cool club in town. After that, we headed to the secret bakery. I can’t remember if I talked about this in a different blog before, but it’s a bakery that opens at 3am and sells croissants for one euro. They make the pastries for many cafes around Florence so they are fresh baked each day between 3 and 5am.

10/12/19 – Saturday not a lot happened. Once again I had to study (ugh). That night I made a pasta salad my mom always makes, since it’s my favorite and my birthday (okay a day late, but who cares).

10/13/19 – On Sunday, my roommate, Sophia and I, avoided studying for a very long time. We kept finding more and more things to do. At first I did laundry. Then we decided to hand wash all the clothes we have avoided washing for 2 months. After that we cleaned the floors and the apartment. Next we decided we needed to redecorate, of course. We moved the couch and the kitchen table around (really opened up the space, soooooo worth it…). Then we decided we needed to open up the balcony doors we have that have been locked the entire semester. Sophia messed around for a while, but finally got the lock undone. After that, we saw a mosquito, so we hunted it down until we killed it. Finally, we were running out of ways to avoid it. Hannah and I decided we should actually try to study now, so we looked for a place to go (since the libraries are closed on Sundays). We started at a place on a rooftop with the coolest view of the Duomo and the city. After that we tried a different place. It took us a while to find one, and we accidentally ended up in a shoe store for a while, but finally found a café. I just can’t get into the studying mode, though. Everything is so distracting in Italy. Wish me luck on midterm exams, cause I’m gonna need it!