Firenze Again

I know it's been a while, and it's getting tougher and tougher to do these blog posts the busier I get, but here's a quick update. Right now, I'm still waiting to hear back from the FDIC on whether or not I got the internship, which I really want. Hopefully something will come through in the next couple of days. It's snowing here in Bologna. I was kind of hoping the weather would be a little nicer by now, but hey it's still Italy. Alex is coming up tomorrow to visit for the weekend, and we have a costume party with the ESEG organization in a rented out mansion to celebrate Carnivale...basically the equivalent of Mardi Gras here but they don't take it as seriously as Venice in Bologna. This past weekend I actually got to see Alex and her parents. I was out until about 4 or 5 the night before (my first time going out all week, don't worry Ma) and when I woke up at about noon, Alex convinced me to go meet her family in Florence. I won't rehash on all the details of the city again, but I got there by 3 and we climbed up the Duomo. We got a little coffee at a bar afterward, and the guy at the counter gave me and Mr. Boardman free donuts for whatever reason. After that, we made our way to the David statue at the Accademia, and I got to snap a quick photo of it on the way out, even though the people in charge basically attack you if they think you're taking pictures. I also got my mom a nice little postcard of the posterior angle of the sculpture (Ole Davey's arse). We went to a nice little restaurant for dinner, where I tried rabbit for the first time. It was in a dish with chicken and artichokes, and everything was fried. It was really good, and I still have yet to have a bad meal here in Italy. By the time dinner ended, it was around 9:30 and the last trains out of Florence to Bologna were all 2 hour long ones with transfers, so the Boardmans were nice enough to let me stay in their hotel. The hotel was right in the center and had a great view of the Duomo. We were watching a little TV, and the local news channel did a global weather forecast calling for snow and cold throughout the entire Northern hemisphere...I think he might have been a little off. I wanted to sleep on the floor but they made me take a bed, and I actually got a pretty good night's sleep. We woke up at about 8 the next morning, grabbed a little breakfast, and Alex and I caught a glimpse of Dante's house while we were trying to get some shoes for 15 euros. The place was closed though. After that, I hopped on a train at 11 and it was back in Bologna by 11:45 (The fast trains are too awesome to pass up). I want to give a special thanks to the Boardmans. They were on vacation to see Alex, and honestly I'm pretty surprised they wanted to see me at all...they treated me very well, much better than they had to and I appreciate it. Not much going on here this week at all, just reading, working out, and trying to survive until the weekend. P.S. I'm actually on my 5th book since I've gotten to Italy/ reading a 6th. Maybe I'm not wasting my time afterall. Next time I update, hopefully I'll have my internship put together and will have had a great weekend with Alex. Even if the internship falls through I'm in Italy, you can't beat it.