"Now I know why they call you cat lady. . ."

Welcome back to my first day of school! I finally got the photos to upload so I will try to remember what I did as best as I can . . .Let me start off by saying at times I look around and think I am attending Hogwarts. 

 If you saw either of these, wouldn't you too? Because of this I sometimes call the program director Dumbledore behind his back. In reality the program director, Michelangelo, is very attractive but calling him Dumbledore is just fun. 

 For lunch, MF and I grabbed some fresh fruit from this market outside of our school. 

. . .then we sat down to enjoy our food. Notice the birds in the background? Mary Frances hates them and soon after this photo was taking was running from the birds. Hilarious. 

This is the building we sit by during break. So lovely. 

She likes to eat, eat, eat apples and bananas. . .

We all love each other. 

Seriously? A disney store in Florence? Don't tell Trenton or he may never go to Italy. 

Panels on the Baptistry door. Notice something weird about the left panel? I'll buy a souvenir for whoever figures out what we learned was wrong with the panel! 

Cute old folks eating gelato on the steps of the Duomo. 

We went to dinner before the ballet and for 12 euros flat we got water, wine, and a 3 course meal! The only problem is, in Italy it's considered an insult to the chef if you don't eat your full meal and I couldn't eat all my food! They serve courses slightly different too. First course is usually a pasta of some sort, second is a meat, and third is a side such as salad or vegetables. I'm so used to eating salad first and the meat and vegetables being served at the same time! 

In case you were wondering, I did have a sip of wine to fully engage myself in the culture. My friends were kind enough to let me have one of the two water bottles they brought to the table since I wasn't drinking the wine other than the one sip.

There was wine leftover after dinner so Ash decided to pour it into her empty water bottle for later. Hilarious! 

Our entire meal was so fun and yummy! We laughed SO much and had the best time together. 

The night ended seeing the ballet, Swan Lake. It was a super neat experience and I actually stayed awake for the whole thing! Others had some difficulty. . .in their defense, the music was very soothing and we'd had a long day. I can't believe we've only been here 3 or 4 days! It already feels like we've been here a lifetime and I'm okay with that. Today is our day off from school so everyone is sleeping in and taking things slow. I am hopefully headed to Piza and Lucca tomorrow during the day! Wish me luck! I'll try to fill you in on what we did yesterday later on. 

xoK