Florence Day 13: Sickness and Futbol

Ciao! 


Trying to catch up here... please be patient--oh wait... you already are. Ok. Well, lets get started then shall we? 


Saturday: 

Saturday we didn't have any plans scheduled. I was still thoroughly burnt out from the previous day of walking and climbing through Siena and San Gimignano and then of course... the party afterwards. I didn't sleep very well that night. Oh by the way--did I tell you that we were lost for about an HOUR looking for this dang party that ended up being... well, not my cup of tea? If I didn't... well, now you know. 

I did a HUGE load of laundry on Saturday. I was worried I was going to ruin my clothes because this washing machine we have in our bathroom is a bit different, plus all the words on it are in Italian... but surprise there right? So, I decided to be on the safe side I would wash all my clothes in the coldest temperature of water and turn the other knob (which I still have yet to figure out what it's function is) to the lowest number. Thankfully I did not destroy my clothes. So happy about this. Then I hung them out to dry on the clothes line outside my kitchen window. I felt so spiffy doing this, you have no idea. It was so nice to clean everything. I LOVE sleeping in clean sheets. It's heaven. I sort of miss have a clothes dryer, though, because I don't really like that crisp feeling to the fabric after its hung outside, but this is something I can easily get used to. We got to be appreciative for what we have and we have a washing machine. WAHOO! 
Two of my friends and I wanted to go out for the day and see the Boboli Gardens, which isn't all that far a walk from my apartment. I sort of had a feeling it wasn't going to go so well because my back was aching pretty badly and as we reached our destination it just got worse and worse. It felt like a paring knife had been jammed between my lower vertebras. There was no alleviation from it. I also picked up a cold, so I was sniffing the whole time. Everyone has been getting sick lately. I remember my mom telling me this was something normal when you travel. And if that wasn't bad enough it was also scorching that day, so I was sweating. It was just a bad day. 
So, I went back home and blew my nose a bizillion times to the point where my nostrils were rubbed raw. Don't you just hate that feeling???

I just sort of sat there in my red comfy chair where I do my blogging (sitting in it right now) and watched YouTube interviews of various authors. I felt like crap. 
My roommate was so kind and made me dinner. I ended drinking four LARGE water bottles (well, same water bottle just filled up 4 times) of water with those Vitamin C packs added to it. Then I went to bed and 21:00. I couldn't even read one page of my book "The Help." I just conked out for the night and slept AMAZING... I should be sick more often... JUST KIDDING!!!! I got 12 hours of sleep and felt brand spanking new the next morning. I felt so much better. 


Futbol: 


Biggest Understatement Ever: Italians take their futbol seriously. 

Ariel and I. 

So, yesterday I went to an Italian futbol game and it was definitely a sort of fandom that I have never experienced before. The Florentines' colors are purple and white, so that is what everyone was dressed in. On our way to the futbol game my friends and I bought our own purple t-shirts to be supportive. They had the symbol of Florence, which is a lily (remember?) on them with the caption: MATO PERFETTO. Which means "Born Perfect." 
We found are seats and before the game even started, people were waving HUGE (not exaggerating here) flags and were chanting non-stop. The enthusiastic atmosphere kept me smiling the whole time. There was this one section for the opposing team's fans. Their colors were light blue, which was actually the shirt I originally had picked out for the event. SO glad I didn't wear it. Could have been bad. These fans are intense. 
Whenever someone scored a goal the fans would go crazy. ABSOLUTELY CRAZY!!! They start yelling and chanting and--let's not forget this one--cussing at the other team, while viciously flipping them off with the very middle of fingers. They particularly liked saying this one word that rhymed with: Chuck...
In the end the Florentines lost. And I liked it even better when the other team scored a goal because that little section of the stadium would go nuts. They'd run down to the plastic wall and beat it and flip us all off. 
I was laughing my head off. 
Later we walked back home. The Italians were looking at us Americans funny because we were trying to be like them with wearing their futbol team's shirt and all. They scoffed at us. I felt so weird. I was like: BUT I'M SUPPORTING YOUR TEAM! There were other people who read our shirts--MATO PERFETTO--and scoffed because well they lost and weren't so perfect. Haha. 
My friends and I went out to dinner that night. To a place called "The Diner." It had normal food there. Some of you may be rolling your eyes at me, but hey, it's nice to get some familiar food once in a while. I used my food vouchers to get some fried chicken with french fries and a cappuccino milkshake. Let me just say this... it was AMAZING. Everything was pretty much gourmet and out of this world delicious. Everything in the food department here is crazy delicious. I still can't get over that. 

Drinking my delicious cappuccino milkshake! Yum! :)

Monday:
I went to Italian 101 today. Not much to say about that. It is still hard since she ONLY speaks to us in Italian, but I am getting a hang of this. 
I learned how to order a cappuccino properly now: Vorrei un il cappuccino. 
Ba-bam! That's how it is done. 
Now I am finishing up this blog and afterwards I have a million pages of ART HISTORY to read. Goodness. This is a lot to do. 
I will talk about my grocery shopping trip ON MY OWN tomorrow. (Do you like how I capitalized all that, made it way more intense. Haha.)


Enjoy life my friends!
Arrivederci! 


~Amanda