So today I was asked if I was Australian… because apparently I look like I am from Australia! I guess until I open my mouth that is!! Speaking of accents… our first day in London a group of us were waiting in the lobby for our room keys and another group walked in so we said hello and I go, “where are y’all from?” and one girl goes, “oh wow you’re from the South” so apparently my accent is “adorably southern” and a few of my friends, Alexa and Taylor, have both caught themselves saying “y’all” on multiple occasions then laughing about how my speech has rubbed off on them. It has been hilarious hearing all the accents!! A lot of people are from Minnesota and say “beg” and I just laugh every time! Anyways, today I woke up and had breakfast at the hotel and found out they had already placed me in Elementary Italian 2 so I didn’t have to take the placement test! So my friends who didn’t have to take it just hung out at the hotel until Alexa was done taking it and then we went out and found an amazing pizza place for lunch!! After lunch we walked back to the hotel to go on an art tour of Florence! Our tour guide was from Amsterdam originally but he moved to Florence like 6 years ago! The tour was a lot more than just art, we learned that one church, that is by our school, was made of a stone that is found only in Florence. When Steve Jobs was fired from Apple he went to Florence and became obsessed with this stone and now every single apple store is made out of this stone! Or at least the floors are. This same church is apparently where Michelangelo went to dissect bodies to learn about them… disturbing?? We also saw the church where Michelangelo went to church normally! We learned that a lot of architecture in Florence focuses on arches and rectangular stones — which we saw a lot of! The small streets are so adorable I could honestly take picture after picture and never get tired of it! We also saw the Ponte Vecchio which is a bridge has shops on both walls of it that you can walk down, almost like a market rather than driving through it. There is also a love lock area on it, just like in Paris. We watched one couple put a lock on it! We also saw the Duomo again which, again, I could never stop taking picture of. It is insane how huge it is; it doesn’t fit in a picture!! We are going to get tickets to go inside and climb to the top of it hopefully this week or next!! We also saw a church that had the same style as the Duomo. We ended the tour ironically at the wine bar that we went to for a glass of wine one night so we knew exactly where we were! After the tour, we went into the leather market. It was huge and most everyone was Moroccan or another foreign race. They would yell in Italian and English trying to get you to come over to their booth. There was one woman however who was not yelling or pressuring us at all, she was so nice and laid back and so we decided that we wanted to shop at her booth. She said she was originally from Croatia but has also lived in Canada so her English was very good. She has a family here in Florence now! She took so much time to talk to us and give us recommendations and laughed with us at all the aggressive shop owners around her. She also took the time to explain to us where her leather came from and how everything was made and colored, which made us know it was genuine leather. She said that the soft leather comes from lambs and the stiffer leather comes from cows! Also, to get the color into the leather they use hand creme. The color changes often over time! In the sun it fades very easily, but if you keep it out of the sun the color should darken over time. It was very fascinating and it was so refreshing to meet someone who cared about her product so much and wanted to take the time to talk to us. She said she loves when new students come because she always makes a few friends out of the group and a few she still keeps in touch with. She was the nicest person we have met all trip! She even cut the price of my wallet in half for me after I finally picked one after probably 30 minutes with her!! I got her business card so we can find her again when everyone comes for spring break! After we left the market we went in a few stores on our way home! We went in sephora to look at makeup and then in book stores to get our Italian text book and a notebook! We also stopped and got macaroons on the street leading to our hotel. Once we got home we freshened up for dinner where we had some sort of chick pea soup, mash potatoes, and spinach flan! Then we had gelato for dessert!! After dinner we all got out our coloring books we brought with us and had a glass of wine while we colored! It was hilarious we are all the same!! Then we got ready for school because our first day of class is tomorrow and we are all so nerdy and excited for it!