Flamenco and Florencia

So once again it's been quite a while since I've written. Maybe this will turn into a once a week type of thing...

This past week was hectic and fun as usual. Classes are really picking up (we have midterms next week, ah!) and I'm struggling to keep up with all the reading as always. But...this past weekend I went to Florence with Jessica to see Bekah which was amazing! It was so wonderful to see friends from home and explore Italy (which is absolutely wonderful).

Oh, before I get into my Italy trip...last Thursday my program organized a trip to a Flamenco show for all of us, which was so cool! It was in this old taberna and featured a 5-piece band (2 guitarists, a drummer and two vocalists) and two dancers. The show was great! I loved the guitarists, I still can't believe how fast they played and they way the just improvised these incredible pieces. Dad, you would have loved it! The dancers were also amazing. There was a man and a woman who danced together at first and then the woman had a solo and then the guy got to dance on his own also. They were both very talented, but very different dancers. The woman was so passionate, it looked like she was in pain while she was moving and the guy was smiling and looked like he was having a lot of fun up there, so for me that was a little more enjoyable to watch (although I know Flamenco is often a very serious, somber dance).

Anyway, so that ended late and I had to get a cab at 5 am in order to catch my 6:30 am flight. Woo hoo! I met Jessica in Milan, where we flew together to Florence. From the airport, we took a cab to our hostel (Leonardo House). It was basically this guy's house which he had converted into a hostel with a few rooms and a couple bathrooms. He was really nice and helpful and the place was clean and in a great location, so we lucked out. Yay hostelworld.com haha. Bekah was spending the day in Sienna with her mom who was in town to visit so Jessica and I spent the day wandering the city. We climbed the Duomo (all 500 steps!) to see the gorgeous view of Florence. The climb was intense, with tiny and narrow spiral staircases that wound up forever and considering they were all open and I'm terrified of heights, I'd say it was quite an accomplishment. The view was beautiful. Florence is so pretty with its red rooftops and sprawling hills. And small enough so that you can see it all at once! After our climb, Jessica and I treated ourselves to a really yummy lunch on Piazza de Republica. I LOVE Italian food! I could eat pizza, pasta and gelato forever. Not kidding. After lunch we wandered around for a bit more and then napped (much needed) and then finally met up with Bekah and her mom for dinner. Dinner was again, wonderful. We joked how our days just revolved around food...you kind of do things in between meals but it's really all about the food. Haha. After dinner, we went back and saw Bekah's dorm (which is so cute!) and then went out for the night. Florence night life was really fun, although it's weird because there are SO many Americans. You seriously hear more English than Italian on the streets. We ended up at a club (with no cover charge...amazing!) that was actually playing American music. Yesss!

Saturday was another busy day. We went and got coffee (sooo good) and then got in line to see Michaelangelo's David. The line moved quickly and the statue was magnificent. It was such the opposite experience from when I saw the Mona Lisa last summer (I was really underwhelmed). The statue was bigger and more beautiful than I thought. We just sat and looked for a while, taking it all in. We then wandered around for a while, touring the open-air market and the old bridge and then ducked back to the hostel before it started to really rain. Dinner was incredible (how could it not be...) and then Saturday night was fun as well, although I was starting to feel really sick so we made it a relatively early night.

Sunday was a really long day of traveling (they cancelled my flight and had to reroute me around for a few hours) but now I'm back in Madrid. Sadly, all my weeks of fighting really hard to not get sick failed and now I'm sick. :-( Hopefully my many medicines I stocked up on before I came here will help!

Anyway I must get to the homework I did not do today while I was searching for a doctor's office. Hope everything is great back at home!

Adios!