From Ripon to Florence : As the days go by

If you asked me during this week what I had done, I would have told you "nothing really" or "not that much. Went to class, ate delicious dinners, you know, just living the dream." I mean I am completely content to blog about food all day long, but I figure that is only so interesting to read when you can't actually eat it.
The truth is we did have a mild week especially compared with last week because last week was so crazy full of new beginnings. But we never not do anything here in Italy. Monday after classes we went to the Orsanmichele which was at one time a place for grain to be stored and sold to the city and was later converted into a church. I didn't have a chance to take any pictures but its a truly beautiful church and its free to go in and see! Always a bonus. We were there to not only look at the church and the decoration of the inside but also to look at the sculptures that were once on the outside of the building (that have been moved inside for preservation purposes.) It was a step into looking at sculptures and recognizing the style of artists. For example, Michelangelo, tends to sign his work very obviously, and his work tends to be very grandiose and exaggerated. I don't mean that in a negative way, it is just that the stature we looked at and the doors of the Baptistery (from last week) that are works of his that we compared and looked at show this. He places a picture of himself in the doors in one of the scenes and he stamps his name on the robe of the statue. Its just a trade mark of Michelangelo.
Tuesday was an introduction to the courses we are going to take. Each of the professors sat down and described their class. It was laied back and relatively informal and actually rather annoying because they talked about how cool their classes would be, but I still have to wait 2 more weeks to start! Nerd problems...
Wednesday we went to the Galileo museum here in Florence. If you ever get the chance to go there, go. Galileo was one hell of a smart man. He made his own telescopes and he is responsible for the idea that the sun was the center of the universe, not the Earth. The museum is a collection of a lot of Medici artifacts (because Galileo was on very good terms with the Medici) that then lead to the displays of Galileo. The museum cover the topic of humans seeking of knowledge to understand time and science and the measure of the universe and science before going into Galileo and his work and how it revolutionized it all. Again, I didn't really have the chance to take too many pictures (because our tour was moving quiet fast) but they did have a cool exhibit of old bikes in the basement that I snapped some shots of.
Thursday brought us to the Medici chapel. The briefest explanation of who the Medici were is this: they were a really rich and powerful ruling family in Florence for many generations who were great patrons of the arts. They funded A LOT of Renaissance art work. A LOT a lot. Two of them were even Popes. Which was what brought us to the chapel in the first place. Last spring, students on the ACM program worked on this temporary exhibit on Cosimo who was one of the Medici who became a Pope. And seeing as we will be studying the Medici (and visiting their Villa on Thanksgiving for a wine tasting) it seemed very fitting to go to this exhibit. Their private chapel is absolutely stunning (and I was not allowed to take pictures which was very very annoying) but it was really really cool to see. Its 11 euros to get in (we got in for free because we have museum passes as students) but I would recommend going and seeing its breathtaking splendor.
The icing on the cake though had to be Thursday night (last night) Vogue's Fashion Night Out. When in the land of the well dressed, one must partake in their fashion night out. And partake we did! It was so so cool. Basically all the shops are open "late" (mostly everything other than bars, restaurants and gelateria's closes around 7) so that you can view their new falls lines that were release recently. All shops from the little boutiques to the big name brands like Prada and Tiffany & Co., Armani, Coach, you know. Just to name a few. And so you can walk in the stores and not be super rich and not get stared down because everyone is there to wander around and socialize. Sometimes they have models out wearing there clothes, but mostly it is just one giant street party with music blaring and well dressed people milling around. The group of us went just to people watch and we actually didn't make it into any of the stores because most of them were so crowded. We did end up however, in a party of some sorts. I mean I don't always go to Vogue's fashion night out, but when I do, its in Florence Italy and I end up in some posh (seemingly private party) with a free gin and tonic. For that, I was rather under dressed. I had gone with jeans and black ballet flats with a blue take top and a black cartigan (so I looked put together and cute, but not super duper trendy or going out level) because I was anticipating it being cooler than it was, and I was expecting to be outside, not inside. Moral of the story, go with the lace dress and black cardigan next time and don't leave ALL you're party clothes home in the States.
But of did we have fun and we were all so glad we went! We saw some girl wearing a cats tail, and her friend was in metallic pants and a matching metallic hat. The party we were in had models wearing these long formal dresses with the skirts consisting or woven ribbons. Men in suits and sport coats with popped collars and women in sparkle cocktail dresses but then normal kids like us in jeans and blouses and heels- it was everything one thinks of when they think "fashion party in Europe!" Even though Christian and I called it an earl night (we were home by 11:30 because we had a quiz today, which I got a perfect score on by the way) we had so much fun, wandering around the crowded streets just seeing people. Sure, we didn't see that much fashion, but it was like one big huge party in the streets all through the city which was cool to be a part of. They have these fashion nights in New York and in Chicago. Go. Just go. Trust me. Just go. (and if you can find where to buy the tshirts, get one of those because they go to supporting young designers by giving them scholarships, grants, and commissions. September 11th, 2001 rocked more worlds than just the United States, the fashion world being one of them. Hundreds of shows were canceled and people bankrupt and young designers to lost everything. The proceeds of these shirts go towards preventing this from happening again, as well as keeping opportunities open for budding fashion students. I couldn't find them last night other wise I would have gotten one.)
So that was my week. Individually, each day was pretty mild and low key, but I keep plugging along at Italian (which is coming so much easier to me than Spanish and French ever did) and I keep discovering more and more cool things about the city I'm able to call home for the next three months.