Il Rinascimento, Rigatoni, e Rapporti: Orientation and More

Yesterday we had orientation all day. We met in Odeon Cinema, an old theater where they show movies and performances. We had a break for lunch and went to the market to get amazing sandwiches where they dipped the bread in this soupy sauce...yum. More orientation, where we met another girl who was also doing a homestay. We figured she would be pretty down to earth and we were right. She is a Mechanical Engineer going to Iowa State University! I did not think we would meet another Engineer here, let alone an ME from Iowa!

Afterwards we took our placement test. I was a bit worried about it, but it was not bad at all. We were still placed in the same class! Before I turned in my test, I noticed another girl get up to turn hers in. I thought she was wearing a particularly short "dress" (more like a long shirt), when she bent over to pick up her bag and she mooned me because she was wearing nothing underneath. It's incredible some of the things the Americans wear here. They advised us on how to stay safe in Florence during orientation because Americans stand out. Well, this is another reason why some Americans are such easy targets.

Later, LdM hosted a dinner for us, where we met some more cool people. After dinner, we walked around looking for a dumpster for our trash (they told us in orientation to take out your trash every day). Today was pretty lazy, but we did walk to a big supermarket to pick up a few things and finally got some gelato :)

Now, onto the pictures!

That's Kristen pointing to the sign

Il Duomo, or Cathedral (too bad the construction ruins the picture)

Thaaaat's right, a Ben & Jerry's in Italy. This is wrong. So, so wrong.

Other side of Il Duomo

A map of Florence

A carousel in Piazza della Repubblica

A street performer a la Charlie Chaplin. At one point, he took one guy's shirt off and taught the little girl in the middle the forearm jerk. It was gutsy and it got him a big crowd, laughs, and, most importantly, money.