Quotidian Life

As I unlocked the door to my apartment my first day in Florence I was terrified: would the apartment be old? Small? Dirty? Would I like my roommates? I quickly pushed open the door; I couldn’t wait to find out. To my surprise, the apartment appeared to be decked out in modern, Ikea furniture: glass table, stainless steel appliances, funky light fixtures, denim couch…this will definitely work for me, I thought.
Laundry on the other hand is a whole other story. I mistakenly assumed that the washing machine and dryer would work exactly like the ones I use at school. I put my clothes in and three hours later the buzzer went off. I opened the door and began taking out my clothes. I pulled out a sock and noticed that it was blue. I pulled out one after another, each one a different shade of blue. ‘O god,’ what did I do wrong? Assuming that the dryer would magically fix my now blue wardrobe, I stuck everything in and shut the door. I checked on my clothes an hour later and noticed that my clothes were SOAKED. I had no idea what to do next, so I piled the drenched clothes into bags and carried them into my apartment.  Next thing I know, my entire room was covered in water.  I was tired and cold and this was the last thing I wanted to be dealing with. I decided to lay my clothes outside to dry overnight. I would take everything to the closest Laundromat in the morning. From now on, I’ll follow instructions. Lesson learned.
When I’m at school, I always follow a schedule. My oversized red planner is my Bible. But my first week in Florence was anything but organized. At first, the thought of not being on a schedule made me anxious; I was convinced I would be a total mess. How would I survive? Two days passed and I realized how obviously wrong I had been.  Maybe this would be a great chance to ‘go with the flow’ and take each day at a time. So far, most of my days consist of taking the bus to class, climbing through the grounds of Villa Pietra to get to class, going to the gym, and dinner with my friends. Luckily, I found a gym that’s three blocks away from my apartment. I can definitely live like this for a semester.