my first post

Hi everyone, my name is Alyssa Dwyer, I am a student at the University at Albany, and I am studying at Florence University of the arts this semester through Stony Brook. After all of the rigorous administration process, extremely long and complicated visa process, and the finding and booking the flights, I am finally here in Florence. Living and studying in Italy has been a dream of mine since I was a freshman in high school. Having traveled to Italy with my family that summer, there was something about the culture and the people that I knew I just had to come back. Two years later I returned and spend a month in a small town in the Abruzzi region and stayed with my Italian relatives for a month. Because my high school did not offer Italian language courses my Italian was limited to the few words I knew from my previous trip, and anything that was similar to Spanish, the closest thing to Italian I could take in high school. After the month of living in Italy, I knew that I didn’t only want to but needed to master the language. I started my studies in Italian freshman year of college, and after two years I can hardly say that I am fluent. However, since I have arrived in Florence I have had nothing but great experiences using the limited Italian that I know. Sometimes it is almost too speak English everywhere you go, because the majority of people know at least the basics of English. Nonetheless, I have only been here two weeks, and already feel more and more comfortable using my Italian. I know that many times when I speak with the locals I am nowhere near being grammatically correct; the people here are more than willing to work with what you know and really help you use your Italian.

I really want to focus my blog on the atmosphere here in Florence, everything from the art, the scenery, the way people interact with each other at markets and small stores, to even the differences of the night life. I have only been here for about two weeks, and I have already done and seen so much, I will try and update as often as I can with new discoveries and occurrences here in Florence. But before I go I would like to share one of my favorite things I have done since I have been here. At around 9:30 every evening a really great performers stands at the end of the Uffizi gallery, by 9:35 he has attracted a crowd with atleast 100 people or more. He plays all American music anywhere from, the Beatles and Simon and Garfunkel to great bands like U2. The atmosphere is wonderful and it’s easy to meet people from all over the world

I'm going to end it there, but will post again soon with pictures and hopefully some great new stories!