Busy, busy, busy

Sooo...it has been a few days since my last post! (Thanks for checking on me Callie) And a lot has happened in the past few busy days!! Last week I had to finish a paper for my interculutural communication class, which I wrote about the difference between Italians value of food vs. the U.S. Pretty fun and interesting!
Thursday we got to go to the opera! It was really cool, even though the opera was in German and there were Italian translations, I just sort of made up what was going on! It was a very contemporary and modern troupe doing the opera, so it was really interesting! The opera was called Las Rhinegold (I am not sure about the spelling) and it was around 2.5 hours...with no intermission, so I will admit that I dozed off a couple of times, but overall I really like it! It was just a cool experience to have in Florence. We all got dressed up and felt very cultured.
Friday I went to a wine farm with my cooking class. It was really like something out of a movie! The land has been in this family for generations. The man giving us the tour was so nice and his wife and daughters live on the farm. He showed us the wine cellars and all over the property and then took us to a beautiful yard area with huge wooden tables set up covered in food and wine! We were nestled under trees and overlooking the vineyards and there was an awesome gazebo covered in honeysuckle...and I am pretty sure I want to get married in this yard! The wife made us all sorts of tasty appetizers to munch on while we tasted the wines. I loved the wines because the man has named different ones after each of his daughters and his wife. It was just so perfect and picturesque!
Friday afternoon we took a train to Cinque Terre, which are a set of little coastal villages along the northern coast of Italy on the Mediterranean Sea. We stayed in La Spezia Friday night at a great hotel and then spent the whole day Saturday in Monterosso. We wandered around the pretty little village and relaxed on the beach. It was absolutely wonderful! I even got a little sunburnt! We stayed most of the day and headed back to Florence around 7 that night.
Sunday morning Beth and I went to the Italian mass at the Duomo. It was a really awesome experience. Obviously, it was all in Italian, but I could still follow along and basically understood what was going on. I loved hearing the music and voices during the service in that massive cathedral.
After mass, we went shopping and I got some pretty great clothes! I have done surprisingly well on controlling my shopping here, because there are soooo many amazing places to shop!! So I finally gave in and bought some stuff for myself at this great store called Zara.
Beth and I did some much needed cleaning of the apartment Sunday afternoon. We suited up with plastic gloves and everything! After cleaning we were pretty pooped, so we just laid on our couches and had a music fest, listening to tons of songs on Beth's ipod. It was so good to just chill and sing and dance!
It was a great weekend!