What's that saying? When in... Florence?

Bongiorno a tutti!

Things here have been doing nothing but improving.  There was a break in the rain on Friday after class and the roomies and I took the long way home stopping to take some pictures and get some gelato.  I had an epiphany just looking around this ancient city, and now I think I'm going to make it/love it/embrace it for the next 4 months.  Confession:  I had quite a few moments last week where I was incredibly homesick and was beginning to brainstorm how to tell everyone I needed to go home.  I wish that was an exaggeration, but it's not.  Having a schedule, lots of friends, and more knowledge of the city/how things work around here has only helped these feelings to go away.  

So what have I been up to?  Well, Friday morning I woke up with a cold, yayyyyy (not).  I imagine it's due to fact that I have been soaked and chilled to the bone all week with the rain.  So Friday night when the guys with the really sweet apartment (unlike our jailcell, which is really not that bad but it is fun to make fun of) had a party, I stayed in and went to bed early.  It was lame I know, but I thought I could sleep it off and be better for the rest of the week.  Wrong, woke up more sick this morning.  Slept til about noon, got up and took a hot shower and then...

(Insert suspenseful music here) Morgan and I got a haircut in Italy.  In retrospect, really really bad idea to get a haircut from someone who's language you do not speak.  I thought we were on the same page, hand motions were the same and everything, he repeated me when I explained my only stipulation was that I wanted to be able to put all of it up in a ponytail.  Duh Jes, parrots can repeat things and not understand what the heck they're saying.  Long story short, I'm bald.  Alright maybe that's a slight exaggeration, but I sure can't put all of it up.  Grr.  I'm angry now but give me a few weeks for it to grow and I'm sure this story will be hilarious.

After that we FINALLY found a legitimate grocery store and are finally pros at ordering deli meats (thanks to a lengthy tangent we got my Italian teacher to go on).  Came back, made a big family style dinner and are recovering from the days events.  The girls went out again tonight to a local pub, clearly I'm still sitting on my bed in sweats, being sick =(  

Tomorrow we're going to check out a local museam, we have cards that get us into most of them for free.  There are student discounts everywhere around here!  Potentially finding the IKEA bus to get some hangers/sweedish meatballs, and perhaps some studying?  Have to schedule that in or you tend to forget you're actually in school around here.

Here's the only picture of my new 'do, it's not so great but I'm sure you're all just dying to see it.  That's my, "crap, what just happened" face:

That's all for now, more (healthy) updates soon!

xo