A few days later...

So the first week of classes was a little all over the place. My schedule changed just about everyday so I have finally landed on my schedule (I think)...

Monday & Wednesday: 10:45 Food and Culture, 1:45 Italian, & 3:00 Family Business

Tuesday & Thursday: 9:00 Art of Florence, 10:45 Business of Art, and 1:45 Italian

I keep going back and forth about my Food Class considering its the only one I actually can drop, and would make my schedule amazing because I would be able to fly home on Mondays buttt its the only class that I genuinely like. I have the week to decide but I'm leaning towards keeping it (after all, I do get free food and wine...). 

Multiple of my classes have tours throughout the city, but I forgot to prepare for the fact that at 9am in Florence hidden in between buildings it’s FREEZING! Definitely was not ready for that considering the rest of the day (at least so far) is usually really nice. But as annoying as some of those tours are, we really do learn a lot so I shouldn't complain. This morning I even tried cows stomach! (Obviously I had no idea what I was eating and was a littttle nauseous after I found out) Also a plus, since we already paid certain "site fees" per class, we get free treats so after the lovely cow stomach we got some technically-not-free-but-free-at-the-moment gelato. And Ash, the natural kind is for sure 100% better.

This weekend I had my first trip to INTERLAKEN, SWITZERLAND! It was an 8 hour bus trip but since we delayed the bus and left at midnight I just slept through the night. Pleasant surprise- they picked up my friends in Rome before getting us so I got to see some of my best friends on the bus =). I genuinely don't think the hostel was bad at all. I was in a 10 girl room with all of my friends so I wasn't worried about any of my stuff or feeling uncomfortable. We did have to share a bathroom with my guy friends next door, but whatever we knew them. It did get a little tight... 5 sets of bunk beds will do that to you but overall I’d do it again.

We spent the day going up the gondola but they didn't tell us that it would be a bus then a train then the gondola then a bus until we would finally get to the restaurant. But getting to hang out with my friends all day made it totally worth it. I forgot how much I missed them. After our "swiss" meal we wandered around the town, bought some AMAZING chocolate, got a few other things for the night, we came back and completely passed out. We only had a few hours of sleep, what do you expect!

Oddly enough one of the best places to eat in town is a Thai restaurant, and honestly it really was very good (especially considering we were in Switzerland). Preparing to go out later in the night, we went to a bar across the street, then squeezed 15 people into our room for our pregame. The bar/club was downstairs in our hostel. Apparently it’s the only place to go in town (minus place for locals) that people go to so every one of our friends from Roma, Florence, and Barcelona were in the same place. It was a PSU reunion in the alps! I even saw kids from high school. Even though I went abroad to do my own thing, I was really happy to spend the weekend with my friends. Although, I've gotten used to going out really late, so since we started at around 8 I was exhausted at 1:30 (the time I usually am just beginning my nights). I went upstairs and I wasn't surprised at all to find a few of my friends up there already eating some snacks haha

Interlaken is preeetty pricey.  Totally worth it because I got to see so many of my friends in on weekend, but a bunch of the activities were just too much so I ended up just going night sledding. It was a really great time… a lot more fun than I expected. We went up on the mountains at night, they give us glow sticks so you can see the person in front of you, and you steer yourself down the mountain avoiding the "black shit" (aka rocks and the cliffs) and staying on the "white shit" (aka snow). I was a little freaked out, you could have so easily fallen off the side of the mountain! Minus a few scares we all had a great time (minus those who were too drunk and weren’t allowed to go..)

We went out again when we got back to the hostel, again just more bonding and such with my friends from school/home, but I realized how much I missed Florence. I've had the most amazing time so far and I just feel so comfortable here. My roommates are great, and I love our group of friends. I honestly have nothing to complain about (minus missing people from home). I could tell that some of my friends weren't as happy as I was and it broke my heart. I can't imagine your time abroad being anything but amazing. 

Back in Florence now and aside from our current electrical problems (the outlets and lights don't want to work in my bedroom currently) I'm so happy. Time to go shower in the dark .. ciao!