I've mostly taken it pretty easy this break. I have seen a couple films ("Si puo fare," "Natale in Rio," and "Happy Go Lucky.) I have also gone out, visited friends and the like. For Christmas I made snickerdoodle cookies and German Chocolate Cake. I also made fudge just a few days ago. Another interesting thing I did was to go and listen to two Greek men talk about the riots in Greece. It took place at this little cafe with beautiful photographs of India and a lot of political books.
For Christmas Eve I went to midnight mass with the family and returned at 1:30 AM. We then opened presents and toasted champagne and ate some cake! I missed my family a lot, but I talked to them for two hours over skype with video which was a lot of fun. The next morning we all slept late, having stayed up until 3 in the morning. We passed the day at the house and had a nice Christmas dinner.
Happy New Year to everyone! I called home while I was in 2009 and Oregon was in 2008, I thought it was kinda funny. Last night, the 31st, all the buses, to my dissatisfaction, stopped at 8:00 PM. I left the house two minutes after that. I waited about twenty minutes, then returned to the house to put on some walking shoes. I then walked to the center and arrived in about half of an hour. I met up with a friend of mine, Minja, from my Italian lessons. We found a little pub called "The Old Stove" and spent an hour there listening to some good old rock and roll. It wasn't very crowded so we could sing along without disturbing the peace. I recommend it to anyone looking for a cozy little spot to hang out while in Florence. After we left the pub we headed to Piazza della Signoria to meet up with her family and to listen to the orchestra playing in the Loggia de Lanzi. It was packed with people and there were fireworks. It was a fun place to be to count down till midnight. Afterwards things got a little dangerous. People were throwing their empty bottles everywhere! Just throwing them on the ground, or at times, into the air. I hope there weren't any champagne bottle deaths. The road was completely covered in glass on the walk back. I walked to a nearby piazza where my host parents graciously picked me up, as there were no buses. All in all it was a really nice evening. I'm looking forward to starting a new year. New year, new president, university in the fall time. But for now I've almost made it through four months here and I will continue to work hard at learning the language, and the culture, and to have fun, get out there and out of my shell! Happy New Years to everyone. May 2009 bring joy to you all.
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