Well it has been a heck of a week!

Well it has been a heck of a week! When I arrived back in Florence at 6:15 am on Jan. 30th, I had no where to go! I spent two hours riding the Florentine city buses around, for then sun had yet to rise, and that seemed to be the safest option. After my ride, I parked it on the school steps and hoped someone would come to open up soon. Sarah and I did not have keys to our new apartment, so I had to go first by the rental agency and then to the landlord's overseer to get keys. Keys in hand, I awaited Sarah's arrival. When she arrived, we both brought all of our baggage (a heavy amount, I must tell you) to the sidewalk to wait for a shuttle to bring us to our apartment. We waited atleast an hour and a half for a shuttle. While we waited, a man walked by and happened to drop his keys right beside my bag. As Sarah was watching the luggage, I ran after the man to give him back his keys. The keys were on a frayed elastic chain, looking as if the elastic broke, and thus they dropped from the man's hand. The man was looking through his bag for whatever he had dropped. He did not seem to accept the keys at first (this was quite strange). Finially, he took the keys and I began to walk back towards Sarah, and looked intently on our bags. Sarah kept her eyes on the bags, but a man began to ask her how to ring the dentist (there is not a dentist that we know of in this building!) Another friend of these guys waited on them at the end of the street in which they both had come. The key guy walked back the way he came and said "Ciao Ragazzi! Grazie per i chavi!" and held eye contact. When I looked down, my red bag (with my camera, laptop, passport, ... well everything expensive I owned really)was gone. I ran after the guys, but they had disappeared.

Suffice it to say, I broke down into tears and spent my day in the Carabinieri office filing a police report. Unfortunatly, my credit cards (although not stolen) had to be canceled and replaced. Mama and Daddy worked really hard with the insurance company and had almost all of my things replaced and coming into Alabama within a week. Mama worked it out to be able to bring the goods to me in Italy this Saturday - I am so excited for her to come! Although I moped around for three days, there are a few good things to come out of all this! I do get a new computer (replaced by insurance - so free) and my scratched 30G ipod is now a shiny new 80G. And I get to see Mama! So! Things are looking better!

I have started classes and am looking forward to my Food Photography and Food Writing courses later this week. Tonight, I had a wonderful time going out for aparitivo (appitizer buffet and drinks) and Grom gelato with my friend Kelley. She has a masters in art history and is a teaching assistant at Saracuse University here in Florence. She came up with a wonderful idea for my Honors thesis - merging Tuscan food and Renissance art! We'll see what I come up with!