Lanterns, Spit Balls and Classes

Monday was the first day of classes here, but every Monday is Labor Day for me! I didn’t class until Tuesday morning at 10:30. Hooray! So I had a pretty chill day. I just ran some errands around school like buying my Italian book and getting my ID. Then I came back to the hostel and read my Let’s Go Italy on A Budget Guidebook. It is awesome and directed toward students so it has a lot of good ways to save money. I read all about Cinque Terre, which is where a group of us are headed this weekend!

Later I decided to see if anyone wanted to go grab some dinner. We decided to ask the front desk at the hostel of some good places to eat. They are so helpful! The guy circled a whole bunch of good areas on the map that weren’t so touristy and had great food. Then as I was packing up my map he said that there was some lantern parade and festival going on that night and it was just getting started. Having missed all the Cow Chip activities back home I was pretty excited and so we decided to find this parade/celebration instead.

We found the area were the parade was supposed to end up at the Piazza Santissima Annunziata. There were carnival karts selling candy, nuts, cotton candy (that was only white) and some weird chip looking things. The chocolate ones were good, but the regular ones tasted like licorice. More and more people started showing up and everyone had really cool paper lanterns on a stick. I saw a lot of fish and suns, but also a few really neat homemade ones. One little girl had a castle and the candle inside lit up all the windows. Another one looked like a volcano erupting.

Although we had no idea what the celebration was for we decided to stick around. The Santissima Annunziata Basilica was open so we went inside to look around. It was absolutely beautiful with lots of huge paintings and detailed sculptures everywhere. When we went back outside there was even more people. There were lots of families and young children each with their own lantern. Then there were also kids running around shooting what appeared to be spitballs and peoples lanterns. At first we weren’t sure what to think of this put apparently it is part of the game. The kids have a tube with what appeared to be clay wrapped around it. They would shoot these little balls at the paper lanterns to try and blow out the candles. Surprisingly I only got hit by one once.

They had an area set up with lights and a sound system and a guy sang songs and played guitar while everyone waited for the parade to arrive. We heard the parade before we saw it and it was lead by the Cardinal and the mayor of Florence. There was a band and everything. It was pretty neat. Then both the Cardinal and Major spoke. I had no idea what they were saying but I applauded when it seemed appropriate. It’s Ryan’s birthday so we kept joking that this whole celebration was about him.

We also started wondering whether or not these things were a fire hazarded. Well it was not 5 minutes after we said that the one dangling just behind where we standing caught fire. Being paper it burned pretty quickly and then it was done. The kids seemed excited about it and laughed.

One of the best parts of the night had to be the children’s choir that performed. They all wore red jumpers and none of them could’ve been over 10. They were one of the best children’s choirs I have ever heard. They were so good! Each song had a soloist and they were all so confident and excited to sing their song. Everything was really upbeat and everyone around us was dancing and singing along. It was so fun! One little baby right in front of me kept staring at me and then smiling. It was so fun to be around that many locals and not so many tourists. We ran into a few other students, but not many. It seemed more like a neighborhood celebration than anything else. It was around 11 when we decided to head back to our part of town. And although I didn’t get my yummy Italian sit down dinner and settled for a slice of pizza I wouldn’t trade it for anything. I was a really neat culture experience that I would have totally missed if it hadn’t been for the helpful guy at the hostel desk. I hope I run into him again soon so I can thank him!

I have definitely figured out one thing since I have been here and that is that no plan is set in stone. You have to go with the flow and grab whatever opportunity passes you by. I could have easily shrugged the lantern festival off and done something else but I am so glad I didn’t. I don’t want to pass up any culture experiences as unique as that one. Although I have no idea what was said or sung I still had a wonderful time and it is something I will never forget!

Classes started this week and I think they are going to be pretty cool. My first class was my Italian class on Tuesday morning. The teacher speaks to us mostly in Italian and that will take some getting used to. I am so bad with languages I hope that I can pick up on Italian pretty quickly. I miss being able to walk down the street and know what people are talking about. My next class was Introduction to International Marketing. This was not so good. I have never taken a marketing class before and was a little overwhelmed. We are allowed one course add/drop so I decided to drop the marketing class and take an Art History class instead. When in Rome right…well Florence I guess J Seemed like a good idea to take a class that can explain all the amazing artwork that surrounds me here. The finally at 3 was my last class of the day Food in Italy! This will probably be my favorite class because it is all about cooking Italian food. The first day we made a basic tomato sauce and I was in love! I promise to study for that class really hard so that I can show you all what I learned when I get home. J

On Wednesday I found my second favorite class. My Italian Renaissance class is going to be so much fun! The professor is so funny and really knows his stuff. He has a lot of experience and will make the whole thing really interesting. Plus it includes some field trips! That was my only class of the day, but now I will have art history in the morning. Ryan’s birthday was Wednesday so a big group of us went out to dinner at a neat place near school. I decided to order fettuccine alfredo. I know it is not really an Italian thing but I had to try it. It was very different and I am not really a fan. Live and learn. Then we went to the girl’s apartment for cake. It was chocolate with Nutella frosting and crushed Oreos. It was probably one of the best cakes I have ever had! Yum! Then we went to an Irish pub and I had a pint of cider that was delicious. Thursday was Italian class again and my other history class, Ancient Rome. It should be pretty interesting, but I don’t think I will like the teacher quite as much. Overall, I am pretty excited about all my classes. The weird thing is that all of them, besides my Italian class, meet only once a week. This makes for long class periods, two and a half hours, but that means a lot of free time and 4 day weekends!

I think that’s all for now! Gonna get started on my exciting blog about this weekend in Cinque Terre. Bye!