Ciao from Firenze

Ciao ragazzi! My first two weeks in Florence have been amazing. I couldn't think of a better place to study art. We literally live in a living museum and there are tons of students from all over the world. Just last night I went to a party where I met people from all around the world, including some really interesting locals.
Encountering different people and cultures might be my favorite part of this experience. For example at my homestay, it is me, another student from Wash U, a thirty one year old Japanese student, and my homestay mom. The Japanese student hardly speaks English and even less Italian. So between the two American students and my homestay mom who doesn't speak any English a lot is lost in translation over dinner. I look forward to every dinner, not only because everything is delicious, but because every dinner is a hilarious exchange of cultural differences.
However, we aren't allowed to cook in her kitchen. So, I just finished a delicious dinner that me and three other students made. We have started a weekly tradition of making dinners on Sundays. This is great because we all are learning how to cook. I am already looking forward to what we will come up with for next week.