Snow!

Hey all.

Florence is great. Freezing, but great. We are supposed to get a LOT of snow (a mediocre amount of snow by midwestern American standards) within the next 24 hours or so. Anywhere from 6-10 inches...which is also 15.24 cm to 25.40 cm. Yes, I'm getting accustomed to the metric system. Apparently it's warmer in Madison, than it is here. I'm going to play the bullshit card.

But anyway, here is the weather forecast for tomorrow.


Brussels this weekend, London next weekend. Classes are all good. And it's 9:30 PM here. Eskimo Joel. Out.

The Days After the First Days

Hey all.

I come to you, the reader, live from the jazz bar across the Arno, because our lovely program which promised us Wifi, once again, did not come through. However, I'm staying positive and living in jazz bars/on campus until this all gets sorted out.

Anyway, we went to Pisa yesterday. It's a cool city....for no more than 4 hours. Small, quaint, lots of people trying to sell you watches and trinkets and what not, and a leaning tower. Surprisingly, nothing else was leaning. There was no "Leaning Gelato Stand of Pisa" or "Leaning Big Church of Pisa". Quite a disappointment. But I guess that's why the city get's so much attention and people flock from all over the world (mainly Asia as it seems) to see the Leaning Tower. In the words of Lewis Black, in order to stimulate an economy, you just need to build a "big fucking thing. It doesn't matter what it is, as long as it's big, and it's a fucking thing. And people will come see the big fucking thing." That's where the Leaning Tower of Pisa is unique. It's big, and apparently it's a "fucking thing". BUT, it happens to be leaning. Extra points go out to the leaning tower. We also speculated that if that tower had not been leaning, it would just be another tower. We even took one of those touristy pictures....



Climbing up the tower was kind of trippy because it's leaning. You see everyone standing perpendicular to the ground, but the walls are slanted. It's kind of like an ancient fun house. In a nutshell (or leaning tower), that was Pisa. It was cool. Donna has the pictures from Siena, so I'll upload those when I get them.

On a semi related note, here is the view from our balcony at sunset. It's gorgeous. Kind of makes up for not having internet at our apartment. In case you were wondering, the Duomo is on the lefthand side of the first picture. The second picture is the view towards the hills and the Arno River. Straight west.



We're working on some trips. London next weekend. HOPEFULLY Copenhagen this weekend. Possibly Amsterdam in two weekends. We'll see.

Also, as this blog is indeed entitled, The Ignorant Wine Snob, I hate to not mention anything about wine. We realized the best thing to do in Italy is order the house wine at restaurants. It's much cheaper and just as good. But we've had some very delicious bottles.

From the jazz bar being jazzy,

Joel

First Days

Hey all. I first want to say the reason I haven't yet posted is because we don't have Internet in our apartment. We've been trying to get in touch with our housing coordinator who conveniently is having dinner with her dog (like a normal person) 24/7 and must not be disturbed because she "is a human just like you."

Anyway, we have an apartment, which is pretty cool. It's technically three floors. The entrance is on the fourth floor of our building where there is a very small entry hall and then a staircase going up to the main floor. On the main floor we have two bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a kitchen, and a small sitting area. And on the third floor is a third bedroom and rooftop balcony. The balcony makes the apartment--when I have a normal Internet connection, I'll post pictures.

Besides for the apartment, we have just been orienting ourselves with the city. Yesterday, we decided to check out Siena. It was pretty cool, we climbed a big tower, contemplated entering some churches (and then didn't), went to the fortress (which we suspected was breached by the people of Florence because they left the gate open during lunch), and we all climbed in a phone booth. Again, pictures to come soon.

As far as wining and dining is concerned, I've been wining and dining. A lot. Almost too much.

Off to Pisa for the day! Ciao.

Frankfurt

Grab your lederhosen! As the title suggests, we (Benny, Justin and I) are currently in Frankfurt, Germany awaiting our connecting flight. Let me be the first to say that the Frankfurt airport is set up in a completely illogical way. Anyway, the flight to FRA from ORD was pretty standard. Although, the plane was over half empty, so there was quite a lot of room to sprawl out, and we didn't have to breath the air of too many other people.

After much consideration, we decided to not go into the city. And when I say "much consideration" I mean a 90 second conversation between the three of us who don't speak the language, know the area, or had the desire to run around the city. Instead, we ran around the airport for a little bit, contemplated buying an $1800 bottle of scotch, and sat down. And kept sitting. And then had a beer. When in Frankfurt...

On that note, as we were walking around the airport at 10:00 am, I was kind of surprised seeing so many people drinking this early in the morning. Having been to Europe many times, it just took me back and reminded me that we are definitely not in the states anymore.

T minus 5 hours till Florence.

From Frankfurt with love,

Joel

PS. If you want to communicate with me (regardless of whether you have an iPhone or not), please use an app called WhatsApp.

First post

Dear blogiary,

Wow. I really can't believe it. I have but eight days--the same number of days the miracle of the oil lasted--until I leave for Italia. There is so much to do, and so little time. Well, not really. I have a little bit of time to figure everything out. Anyway, my preparations for my semester thus far have included the following: getting my visa, clothes shopping (because I hear they don't really sell clothes in Florence, and in the general surrounding area for that matter), and bumming around, waiting for the clock to tick down to the very last possible second to actually start preparing. Oh, and I also created a blog. I really hope this blog gives you a glimpse of my upcoming new world.

Until next time,

Joel