Monday February 9, 2009

Erika and I don’t have Friday classes so today we decided to wander around Florence hoping to see some areas we haven’t passed yet. We wandered north of our apartment, a direction we haven’t gone before, and came upon a small park. I’ve been comparing NYC to Florence a lot and one thing that I appreciate about NY is the numerous green spaces throughout the city that rarely appear here. In general, the atmosphere here in Florence is much more similar to NY than I expected. In both cities the people we pass on the street come off as cold and rude… but I don’t want to call them rude because I know it’s just their culture. They’re very aggressive here, forming lines to wait for things doesn’t exist, and walking on the busy streets is similar to riding bumper cars with no apologies. I guess these are more “city” characteristics that living in small town Manhattan has sheltered me from. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not like this all the time, all of the Italians we’ve gotten to know personally are very warm and friendly people, just like many New Yorkers.

Anyway, back to our day: We passed through the park, found the beautiful Jewish synagogue, and roamed around a residential area. Erika and I still hadn’t found my rain boots or her purse so we continued the hunt. Unfortunately, it is the end of boot season so many of them are out of stock or overpriced. Finally we stopped at a shop we’ve seen before to try on boots. I think one of the hardest things to get used to about shopping here is not being able to go in stores and browse without buying anything. Yes, you can do it but it’s looked down upon, especially in the smaller shops. Most shoe stores display all of their shoes in the window so they’re should be no need to go inside unless you’re ready to try on or buy. The man in the shop we went into was very friendly which was very comforting. I tried on a couple different pairs and purchased some that were 50% off! The suave salesman coaxed Erika into a pair as well and gave us a small discount for being students.

Pretty synagogue by our house.

Church of San Marco.

We started doing laundry in our mini kitchen washing machine. Figuring out what detergent to buy was a challenge in itself…we probably stood in the laundry aisle for a good 10 minutes before decided what we determined as laundry detergent. We looked up the manufacturer’s laundry machine instructions online to figure out how to use it. Not having a dryer has turned our apartment into a drying rack on laundry days with clothing hung on every surface throughout. We’ve learned that sunny days and our radiators are the most efficient dryers.
For dinner I busted out my new Italian cook book we were required to buy for my Foods of Italy class. It’s my new favorite cookbook because all of the ingredients are measured in both English and metric units…plus the ingredient lists are simple and short! I made the Pasta Norma for the girls…a tomato and eggplant pasta with a salad and bread. It only cost about a 1.50€ per person!

Erika putting the clothes out to dry...first timer.