Fighting the Kitchen Clock

I still haven't determined if this is going to be an actively shared blog. So I suppose I'm not writing to anyone in particular. But that frees me up to explore the many voices that will inevtiably surface in the course of writing. One of them will most likely be the dreaded "blog voice:" sugar-coated, over-eager, with just enough wit as to be uncomfortable. I will make peace with the blog voice. It has some valuable things to say too.

Normally, (as in every single one of the probably dozen times I've started a blog) I would hurl a million qualifiers onto the page, in attempts to explain or validate why it is that I've taken on such a trite occupation as blogging. But I feel perfectly validated in repossessing this rather hackneyed form of expression for my own benefit.

I am in Italy...haven't you heard?

And I often remember to process but forget to record. And so, like a thrower's wheel with no clay, my mind spins round and round and I have nothing to show for it. Let this blog stand as my written record! Well, one of them anyway. Journals will never go out of style.

It would be exhausting and futile to recount all the grains of moments that have sifted through my fingers since arriving here in Florence. But I'll give the basics:

- I am studying abroad, through Syracuse University
- I am studying abroad through Syracuse University in Florence
- I have a host mother, host father, and two hospitable host cats
- I live with a lovely roommate, Gabby. We chose each other before coming here and I'm very grateful for her.
- We live right in the city, a 10 minute walk from campus, a 10 minute walk from the center
- I have done many beautiful, spectacular, life-affirming things. I have also questioned myself one million times and gone through the distinctive pain of adjustment. Which plagues even in Europe.
- I still feel like an outsider, but am working hard at walking down the street in the cool, detatched, painfully slow manner of the locals.


Being in Florence, homework is generally the last thing on the agenda. But at 11:15pm (5:15pm, for all you East Coasters), it does sort of have to figure in. So woefully, I drag myself to the books.

Until tomorrow!