School and Towers and All That Stuff

Well hello again! It is now weekend two here in Florence, and it has been a great one! First, though, let us speak of school...
I started school this past monday (no Martin Luther King day here, folks) and so far I like my classes! I dropped one of them because it was at a bad time and didn’t really interest me enough to make me want to do the work, so since I didn’t HAVE to take it, it has been kindly removed from my schedule, and the even better news is that it has not been replaced. When making the decision whether to be a good student and take 18 credits (four classes), or take only 14 credits (3 classes), I consulted three sources. First, an academic counselor, who said yes, please take some time to enjoy yourself in Florence as long as you have enough credits from previous semesters to make your total at the end of this year 64 credits to complete your Associate of Arts degree... check! Then I e-mail Josh, that one guy, and I asked him what he thought. He, as you might have guessed, was all for my taking only three classes and getting out and seeing things! So the last, and most important consultation to be made, was that of my parents. I e-mailed them (they are currently cruising around the Caribbean) and my mother responded that she felt that it would be GREAT if I only took three classes, provided things were in order with NYU, and that she doesn’t want me to spend the entire with my nose stuck in a book- what a great thing, to have adventurous parents! So... three classes for me!
Friday I took a day trip to Pisa- yep, the home of the Leaning Tower! The train station is at the other end of the city from where the tower is located so Staci and I trekked through the entire tourist trap main street of Pisa to get to il Torre Pendente... as we approached and it peaked its head over the line of other buildings Staci and I found ourselves smiling and giggling. It is the first “landmark” site that we have seen since arriving here (our free entrance to the museums here in Florence comes this week, if you’re thinking we’re crazy...) and we were overjoyed. We have both heard that Pisa is nothing special except for the tower- we were So glad that we went! It was so cool to see this ancient(ish) building that we have seen in pictures all of our lives! Hooray for Pisa!
Today we went (Staci, Andrea, and I) to Bologna. Bologna was a great place- the historic center was quite a ways away from the train station, but it was a nice brisk little walk (very cold there today, a bit of snow on the ground even!). Once we reached the Piazza Maggiore we were overjoyed- it was so gorgeous! The Piazza is surrounded by the San Petronio Cathedral (AMAZING), a Castle from the middle ages, and some adorable other old buildings! The San P was amazing, truly- they say that Cathedrals were built to inspire awe but the pictures in history class DON’T do them justice. I can truly say walking in this Cathedral that was originally supposed to rival St. Peter’s (until its funding was moved to another project) took my breath away. The streets of Bologna were lined with Arches and the smaller streets were absolutely precious. The outskirts of the city were much more “modern”- McDonald’s, shops, etc etc... fun, but the Centro Storico was the place to be!
Well that’s all for now! Sunday is going to be a homework/sleep/clean day! A good one to you!