Seriously bad juju

Saturday started off badly but I managed to salvage it with Caitlyn, Ashley and Katy's help. As I mentioned, Morgan had been very unhappy about my general presence after I refused to be isolated. So all morning she gave me some serious attitude, which they other girls will verify they noticed it too. I tried to stay low and follow her around (she decided to lead, though she had no idea where she was going), but ultimately it was me that found the right bus to take, and me who bought our bus tickets, etc. We got breakfast at a caffe, and I managed to get chocolate croissant all over my mouth, I guess I need more practice. Then we went to our first museum of the day, the world famous Uffizi. We had reserved tickets so as to avoid standing in line, but when Morgan and Mary found out there was a $4 reservation charge they started talking about turning around and waiting in line for tickets instead. Again, I don't put up with crap. So I told her flat out that she could go to that if she wanted, but I refused to and I was getting the tickets that were in front of me. To this she yells out "Why are you being so bitchy!" and all I had in response was "Why are you being so bitchy!" (I know, but I wasn't expecting it then and it was all I had) Following this we paid for our tickets, then she and I stepped back and I told her that she had embarrassed the whole group with that outburst and that I was only as unpleasant as she was being. I called her out on her attitude for the whole of the morning, and Kelsey the peace maker broke it up and started walking us into the museum.

Luckily then we broke off into groups of 2 to explore on our own. Mary paired off with Morgan, which I kind of expected. I now associate Mary with Morgan, they are one united camp, and I will never be able to look at Mary the same way again. We'll see how it is living in the apartment now. (Wow, you all should feel lucky, I'm giving you all the juicy details even though I didn't want to.)

So besides all of the drama, the day went very well. The Uffizi gallery was impressive though I know nothing about art. I recognized a few things, and got to see works by da Vinci and Michelangelo, although my favorites were all by Botticelli. I loved the Birth of Venus, something about the scene as a whole and the colors. Also it was huge! Definitely my favorite painting in the Uffizi.

After the Uffizi we walked briefly to the Ponte Vecchio, which was cool but ridiculously crowded. Also all the shops on the famous bridge were gold and jewelry stores, so we didn't buy anything there. Then we made our way over to the other world famous museum in Firenze, l'Accademia. This is where they keep the statue of David. While waiting until we could pick up our other reserved tickets, we grabbed some made-to-order sandwiches at a supermercato across the street, while Mary and Morgan found a pizza joint around the corner. We ate in a park and tried pieces of the girls' strange pizzas--one was hot dog pizza, the other was french fry pizza which tasted like bread with soggy potatoes on top. Finally we made it in to the museum and looked at their various collections before heading over to David. There was an instrument exhibit that I liked, I got to see a Stradivarius violin, and tried to sneak a picture of it but a docent yelled at me...

David was incredible. First off he was huge, I would say more than 16, 17 feet? And perfectly white. The artistry was amazing, you could see every muscle and he was perfectly proportional. What caught my attention the most was how you could see veins carved into his hands and neck. Come on, veins in marble!! You gotta hand it to Michelangelo, he knew his stuff. This was another highlight of the weekend.

After l'Accademia, Caitlyn and I left to go to the Duomo, which is some huge church in Firenze. Not sure why it's so amazing, but it's very elaborate on the outside and huge on the inside. There is a large dome in it which you can pay to climb--of course we couldn't pass this up. We spent the 8 euros and, as if we weren't tired already, had an intense workout all the way to the top. I'm talking some incredibly steep steps all the way up; I counted 422 steps but apparently it's 462. Either way quite a bit, but worth it; when you're at the top the view is indescribable! You can see for miles, all of Florence and then the hills beyond.

Also while climbing we could stop half way and see the fresco on the ceiling of the dome. It was just as elaborate as the stones outside, with these huge scenes of hell coupled with scenes of grace, etc. I noticed and thought it was very funny that parts of the hell depiction showed little demons shoving flaming poles up peoples' butts. That's an image that'll be with me forever :P

Alright, to sum up the rest of the day, we later met up with Katy and Ashley and walked around some shopping areas for a while before stopping for a bottle of wine at a wine bar. We then walked all the way across Firenze (again) back to our hostel for jackets, then out to meet some other girls in the program for a nice steak dinner. We wanted to try bistecca alla florentina, one of the most famous specialties here. We didn't know what was so special about it, so we all got a bistecca. Turns out it's just a giant t-bone steak, nothing special about it. I don't even like beef, I just got it to give it a shot while in Florence. When that huge hunk of meat came I looked at it and literally asked "how do I do this?" It wasn't even very good...

Following dinner we got gelato at this amazing, busy place. I got a cup with berry and dark chocolate gelato, then went back with a few other girls to get a second cup of the dark chocolate! You can't imagine how good it was. We again called it an early night and went home without going out on the town.

Alright, only one more day to cover! Almost there!