Let's dial the clock back to 2pm two days ago and its Monday, the 24th. I have left my home and made my way to JFK. With no traffic at all we zoom to JFK ahead of schedule. I checked in all my bags and then I just sat around waiting for people to show up. Sid is the first, followed by Dan and Komal and Monish literally squeaks in at the last possible second. Everyone thought he had stayed back to network more. Once we got passed the security gate, with everyone taking off their shoes and belts and basically all the clothes off of their backs, we were lounging in the gate and decided that we were hungry. Naturally, we picked Panda Express.
Who knew that my last meal in the United States would be Panda Express?
Now the flight itself was very enjoyable, save the fact that Dan's decision to choose a seat with mine being next to his not being honored by Swiss Airlines and so I had to sit next to two strangers. But the service all but made up for that minor detail, with the stewardesses serving us refreshments every 30 minutes and with me having a personal screen to watch movies and listen to music to for the first time in my flying career. I ended up watching Duplicity which was enjoyable and then messed around with a few sudokus. I did listen to my Ipod for most of the trip, and I did get a chance to listen to Frou Frou's Let Go during take off. Transcendent. Sublime. You name it, it was that and more. It just felt incredibly surreal during takeoff. But for the most part, I listened to Mat Kearney's City of Black & White, John Mayer's Continuum, Diane Birch's Bible Belt, and James Morrison's Songs for you, Truths for Me.
This is us arriving in Zurich.
Our plane seemed to have booked it like we were escaping out of Mexico into America because our plane arrived an hour early. We then proceeded to just chill in a random area and wait for our plane to arrive. All of the duty-free shops were way out of our league, selling caviar, expensive watches, and jewelry I didn't know was legal to sell to the public. It was there that I bumped into Natalie who had decided to change flights and get on the one I was on. She met the AKPsi people I was flying with and we all took a bus to the plane, which looked like it could hold about 20 people. It was tiny. That's an understatement.
This is the Zurich Airport which is where we had our layover.
"Camel Smoking Lounge: Tobacco Seriously Damages Health"
Our flight from Zurich to Florence was only 50 minutes. Now, the flight itself was really good, free of turbulence and any kind of delay. The food was horrible, a pretzel with butter that was too soggy and was barely edible.
Don't believe the hype: this bagel is food
Believe the hype: The Script is for real
The view out of the window while flying incredibly low through Switzerland and into Italy
Once we landed we figured that getting our baggage would be easy. We also figured that we would be out of baggage claim within the hour. It turns out that 30 or so people had either 1 or all of their luggage missing from the flight and it took about 3 hours for some of us to get out of there. Luckily, I got out with my luggage the first time. But as luck would have it, I met Jesal and Salman at the airport, both of whom took different flights. After deciding to wait with me, Salman and I left hours later to go to La Pietra, the campus that New York University has in Florence.
The dinskter bus that took us to Campus from the Airport
What we thought was going to be a quick and easy orientation and sign in ended up being a murderous journey that took over 2 hours in hot and cramped rooms with people that all had just gotten off flights lasting for more than half of the day. Restless and agitated, no one was in the mood to have to open their belongings and find documents, run around a villa and find the right room, or wait for what seemed to be infinity to be fed. Once room keys, phones, initial documents, and other things were sorted out, they had us wait for vans to take us to our dorm buildings. The "refreshments" had thoroughly been picked through and it seemed like everything had either been touched, licked, or digested and refunded. Needless to say, the first legit meal in Florence was not what all of the travel books said it would be.
A first glimpse of our campus in La Pietra
A quick peak at the Duomo while in a bus that took us from campus to Borgo Pinti
Our room is in what seems to be a residential area, filled with quaint shops, hole-in-the-wall restaurants, and enough Vespas to park along each sidewalk and fill all of Florence. We, being Sid, Dan, and I, live on the second floor of this building. The steps seem ominous in the fact that they have this air of communist China to them, a presence of Stalinist Russia where each step is cold and bare, too high to be considered normal and yet just enough where each step is accompanied by a just slightly exerted strength that ought not be needed. Our room, once passed two large wooden doors, are to the left and in a corner of the hallway. Once that door is opened with a key that is exactly out of Harry Potter, a slender old fashioned key with one tooth at the end, and our humble abode greets us, warmly, very warmly.
An incredibly hot room with no view
Our closet
Our tables directly across from our bed...if u paste the two pictures together that's about our room...yes thats Asian Dan. What you can't see is he's sweating...un-controllably.
Our first day came to a halt with Dan, Monish, Salman, Earl, Rutali, Vidisha, and I eating at a small Trattoria and consuming house wine that was much stronger than advertised. Not only had my face looked like the Land of the Rising Sun, but my arms, legs, and belly all glowed as red as the Target symbol found on any of its locations around the world. We all found ourselves trying to fall asleep, but Sid and Dan woke up numerous times due to the oppressive, tyrannical heat. The night dragged on, with mosquitos feasting on our new bodies and the heat melting us to the very core. It seemed our first night would be one of the hardest tests all summer.
We luckily all woke up without a set alarm that went off. Showered and ready, we all headed down to a full day of orientation. If it were anything like yesterday's, it would be the second round in Hell.
The view from a balcony in our hallway that looks out into the Slovenia Consulate
Looking right out of the main door at Borgo Pintio
Looking left out of the main door at Borgo Pintio
The first task was the train station. We all had tickets, but the train never runs on schedule we are told, and once we get on its a mad dash to find somewhere to stand. This morning, I decided to stand next to someone who had opted it seemed to not shower that day, and his aroma was beyond phenomenal. It was so pungent I felt like he was swimming in a soup that I had unknowingly drawn a spoon to. Quite disgusting. What made it even better was the fact that when he decided to get off, his body touched mine and I felt like only the holiest of holy water could cleanse me after this encounter.
Death Valley...yes you walk down and up this hill everyday
Once the bus wove its way down Florence's tiny streets, we arrived at 106 Via Bolognese. In order to start orientation, however, it was necessary to cross what has become known simply as Death Valley. It starts as a sharp incline down a hill only to be met by a complement on the other side, complete with stairs, hot gravel, and a mirage of shade that never ceases to be one step ahead of you. One trip to the other side made all of us realize that we would either have the greatest calves after one semester, or we would find our friends' bodies strewn along the side from the exhaustion.
The Trek Begins
View from the promised land...also known as the other side...also known as Villa Ulivi
With time left after our first orientation meeting, which consisted of Survival Italian with a 47 year old man named Carlos that proved to be both hilarious and educational, Salman, Monish, and I found ourselves with an hour to spare after lunch which saw me packing 10 sandwiches away for later(see: drug mule) and we decided to go around campus. Halfway down Death Valley we stumbled upon an actual oasis, with shade, and a swimming pool that has definitely seen better days. After finding respite from the sun, we went back to find out that for the next 90 minutes we would learn how not to get killed, either by falling off clay roofs or having our neighbors push us down the stairwell. A lecture on safety had us so tired that we all ran out of campus and found ourselves on the first bus back to our dorms.
Random paradise in the middle of an olive grove with an empty swimming pool to the right
Once we got off, Monish and I, now accompanied by Runit and Jesal, decided to go do the following: 1. get euros; 2. buy a phone with sim card and an international calling card; and 3. buy a fan. What should have taken less than an hour ended up being a 4 hour trek around Florence which caught us seeing: The Duomo, the entrance to the real statue of David, and the Ponte Vecchio. We literally weredistracted with each intersection, each road that twisted against the burden of orderly neat rows that led to the heart of Florence; those roads that would lead us to gems that sold gelato, stores that sold soccer jerseys, but not to places that sold either fans or phones with sim cards and international calling cards.
And then I turned the corner and the Duomo loomed in the distance like a god amongst men
Ground Zero of the Duomo
Found where the David is...
Although this David outside is a fake, I have yet to meet the real David
I have found temptation and her name is Gelato
Ponte Vecchio, tied for first with the Duomo for most appearances on postcards
Where passion meets precision in a public plaza
4 hours later, with me being phone-less but with newfound euros and an oscillating fan, Monish and I walked back to Borgo Pinti. While we were at the doorstep of our dorm, we turned our heads and saw through two open wooden doors previously thought to be shut forever, and found ourselves in a church with open lawns and wooden columns that was in session with a sermon. Monish and I rested our legs after the apparent marathon that we just found ourselves in and daydreamed, of all things, of where to find places to study with the heat so unbearably intense. The true Stern side of our inner selves never failed to show its face, even in a place as serene as this forgotten bygone era church.
Our first true gem: a church on Borgo Pinti hidden away behind two wooden doors eerily similar to ours
With dinner plans suddenly changed on us with Monish and Sid having to run off, Salman and I found ourselves galavanting through Florentine streets, with no where to go, no sense of direction, and no apparent time constraint that would lead us astray. We were under the notion that the entire city's culinary side fell asleep due to food coma by 6pm, but we found ourselves eating at a place called Plaz. We ate outside in the finally cool summer air and we caught up with all things life, liberty, and the pursuit of property, or happiness for those who suddenly find themselves confused.
Penne alla bolognese (penne with meat sauce)
After our dinner which cost about 10 euros each, we decided that via Delle Alfani, where there was a huge party, was nowhere to be found and so we walked around dimly lit streets until we found pockets of civilization, crowds of people bustling that were separated only by one or two blocks of silent, sleepy streets. The biggest discovery of the day proved to be a Myth Buster: Florence has a nightlife and it isn't the sleepy giant we were preached about. We found restaurants everywhere that were open past 6pm, those open even past midnight, everywhere and relief cascaded over us like the summer heat that seems to find itself in our room way before the sun shows it's face. Gone were the fears of having to buy everything before the sun went down. Gone were the dreaded thoughts of going to bed hungry. And gone were the fears of not having anything to do past 10pm. The only fears left were the nooks and crannies that wouldn't be discovered and captured by my camera, by coincidence or fate. Our day logged us walking at least over 5 miles over ancient cobblestone streets that saw the likes of Dante Alighieri and Leonardo da Vinci pacing over. The plazas greeted us with the same charm as when they celebrated their first birthdays centuries ago. The adventures and memories were beginning to warm to our presence from faraway lands, and i'm glad i have something to write to you to catch you up on places i've been. Now let's hope my memory card holds up.
Time Won't Let Me Go - The Bravery
Whenever I look back
On the best days of my life
I think I saw them all on T.V.
I am so homesick now for
Someone that I never knew
I am so homesick now for
Someplace I will never be
On the best days of my life
I think I saw them all on T.V.
I am so homesick now for
Someone that I never knew
I am so homesick now for
Someplace I will never be
