Day 2 - Florence- Saturday 1-29-11

The next morning we got up and had a tour at 9am I think of the city where our instructor told us where the important things were like how to get to the Duomo, the bookstore, and the Tibachi shops which are like little gas stations without the gas.  After that we arrived at a mansion where we played icebreakers for an hour or two.  One of them was we got a name tag of another person and we had to find them and introduce ourselves to each other.  The other was we had to build a tower using balloons, tape, and ribbon.  Not going to lie both of these games were pretty interesting… lol  a balloon tower is a lot more complicated than it sounds.  After that we got to eat lunch where we were served a pesto lasagna, chicken with mozzarella and tomato and potatoes, and for dessert we got tiramisu.  It was all very tasty.  After lunch we had our orientation where we where given a folder with stuff in it and then the head of their police department came and lectured us about safety in Florence.  He was actually really funny!  After that we were left to walk back and find our hotel on our own.  We stopped at a cute little toy/notebook/card/stationary store and we found a 99 cent/euro store.  That was pretty neat.  A couple of the girls got a bottle of red wine for only 99 cents! Crazy!  After that we eventually made it back to the hotel where I had a minor freak out because I couldn't find my pin number… that was not fun.  Mom had to get a hold of Dad who had to talk to mom who had to relay the message back to me.  Dad, future note, next time keep your cell phone on ;)  Anyways I am pretty sure the pin number dropped out on the plane or bus and I told myself to check under the seat cuz I heard something drop and did I? Nope.  Good one Ash.  Good news is there is no card info with the pin number and I now have my pin number… yay!  P.S. Dad if you are reading this the B'NL banks I'm supposed to go to for atms are secured and I have no idea how to get inside of them?  So… yea.  Back to my story I showered after my freak out and went to dinner then after dinner my roomate Molly, being the sweetheart she is walked to the B'NL where I couldn't get in then walked to another atm with me where I was finally able to get some Euros and back to the hotel.  After that we finished getting ready, met the girls next to us in the hotel, and enjoyed an evening out on the town at the green fish :) I actually was able to converse with some of the Italians can you believe it?  I think I'm somewhat ahead of the game for taking seven years of spanish and listening to Italian in my car :) woo woo!!! Oh and p.s. parents worried about my spending… I only spent 10 euros at the bar can you believe that?! 10! That's soooo cheap :D  I'm so proud of myself! …. It may have something to do with that 99 cent bottle of wine before hand… he he :D  Over all the night went from awful to amazing and I'm really happy I had great people to spend it with!