Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Blog #7: Arrival in Florence/Start of Classes




My arrival in Florence was one that was surprisingly eye-opening for me. As soon as I stepped off the train and onto the dark, graffiti-ed stone platform I could tell I was in a different kind of world. One that was drastically unlike the few European cities I had just traversed. If Europe were the U.S. then Austria would be Colorado, Switzerland would be Florida, and Florence would be New York. Honestly, as soon as the train doors opened, it was as if Florence immediately poured through the aperture and flooded the locomotive high and low, making sure to cover every square inch, influencing each individual regardless of race, color, or creed. I was now apart of Florence, whether I [and everyone surrounding me] wanted to be or not.
People herded through the station, scattering in every which direction as they held their designer purses [both fake and real], wore their fashionable shoes, and pulled their trendy coats up to cover their napes from the brisk wind swarming through every void. My head was involuntarily filled with the hundreds of voices of my people back home, finally partially justifying their countless warnings of pick-pocketing and wallet placement [which in case you were wondering, apparently often-times held more priority, to some, than conversing about the hundreds of years of history, culture, art, and architecture that I would be seeing]. We managed to snake our way through the masses of the Santa Maria Novella station and out onto the streets of Florence, Italy. I purposely arrived 2 days prior to when my friends and schoolmates would be landing so that I would be able to show off a little knowledge of the city streets, city life, and my newfound saving grace....gelato. We found our hostel, logged onto the internet to relax, and yet again, catch up with some friends back home. We then decided to take a brief stroll through the city to get a grasp of where exactly we were before heading back for the night to rest up for visiting the infamous Italian Outlet stores the next day, where I would purchase a few things to help blend into the urban make-up of Florence.
Next, the morning finally arrived on which I could earn the keys to my apartment and get re-acquainted with my friends that I had not seen in quite some time. Berta and I met with the Florence and Abroad company, at which point a young Italian woman walked outside with us to show me to my new residence and offer a tour. We climbed stair after stair [about 60 I believe] until we arrived at the summit, winded as if scaling Everest. The keys turned, my anticipation rising after every clank of the lock. The door swung open and I was finally able to explore my new temporary home; opening every single door, drawer, closet, cabinet, appliance, window, hell even a book or 2 [Go here for the tour! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WDsxAJz6nU]. I was so overwhelmed to finally, after living nomadically for the past 2 weeks, have a place of my own to always come back to after a long day. After some confusion and hours of waiting, my other 3 roommates finally arrived, luggage in hand and smiles on face. We had finally all made it to Italy for the best semester of our lives. Nothing would ever be quite the same.
Days passed as everyone allowed their bodies to adjust to the significant time change [6 hrs] and we managed to get settled into the city and affiliated with some of the local bars, clubs and discos [no, old folks, not like the 80's]. Consequently, classes inevitably came around and it was time to begin what I had come here for. I made sure, after getting approved to do so by the school, to pack my schedule full with as many classes as I could [20 credit hrs] so that I would be able to take the utmost advantage of a semester's worth of Italian education. Even after doing so, however, I managed to only have one class on Mondays and Wednesdays and none on Friday. This allowed me, as well as all my friends, to travel every week utilizing the 3 to 4 day weekend! The staff here at the Kent State Florence Campus is simply amazing. Each professor is so passionate about the subject they teach, making learning almost contagious. In addition to the phenomenal staff, the amount of culture, history, architecture, and art that I am surrounded by every step I take is inexplicable. Just walking from my Apartment to School I pass 100's of years of Art and Architecture, including Brunelleschi's infamous Duomo [Santa Maria del Fiore], Ghiberti's Gates of Paradise, several Medici Palazzos, the Uffizi Museum, and the Piazza della Signoria [the original site of Michelangelo's David]. Forget about locking myself in my room to study, from now on all I have to do is take a 10 minute walk for some Gelato and I will pass 85% of the material on my Italian Art Exam. My favorite class, though, outside of studio of course, is Forces that Shape Cities. It was one of the additional classes I opted to take outside of the core curriculum, and forced me to have a Monday class unlike most of the rest of my classmates, however, even considering all of this it is still what I am most interested in. It deals with the connection that urban planning and architecture have had in the past eras, as well as the influences of society, politics, and economics on architecture and vice versa. My professor has traveled all around the world, including the U.S., and has one of the most unique outlooks on cities, as well as design and life in general. One of my biggest praises about the courses over here thus far, though, is the manner in which each specific course feeds into the next. All of the material seems to all flow and overlap upon one another and eventually mesh together to help form a basic understanding of absolutely everything Florence has to offer.
As I said before, no classes on Fridays means that we are able to simply pick up and trek to where ever we please every single weekend; and that is exactly what we did one of the first weekends that we were here. We awoke one Saturday morning with nothing on the agenda and ate breakfast. Afterwards we decided that we didn't want to simply just stay in Florence all weekend, so we walked 2 blocks to the train station, bought round trip tickets to Pisa for €11.70, and just like that we were on our way to witness one of the world's most intriguing phenomena. Since I have had time to settle in, however, my friends and I have managed to plan ahead a little more, booking numerous weekend trips all around Europe in advance [all of which you will soon hear about].