Florence, Italy: Fresh Wind

I started this week in a funk. Literally. One of the nice things about going so cheap and efficiently to Venice was that I took 1.5 outfits that fit in the bottom of my backpack. They were dirty by the end of the trip and I threw them in the wash right once I got back. The Italian laundry process is similar to the states, with the exception of not having dryers (besides the laundromat). Line drying takes longer but also leaves the clothes feeling fresh. That is, it does when it’s not raining and freezing outside.

On Sunday night I had to use our internal drying rack to throw my clothes on. I’d done this before in the semester, but never with two full loads of clothes after Brett had done some of his during the weekend. Our apartment was incredibly humid because of the showers, laundry and lack of ventilation, so it was taking two or three days to get the clothes to a point where I could wear them. I don’t mind a little dampness (or I should say didn’t), but after I set the clothes in my closet I got a little surprise this morning. They reeked. I’m not sure how it happened, but I think our apartment has a mold in it. Any clothes that are even mildly damp, if they stay damp for longer than two days, will acquire the stench. I rewashed the jeans, threw them into the dryer at the laundromat down the street and then threw my other clothes that smelled back out onto the line outside our window in the sunlight. That seems to have solved most of it.

I’ve also gained some momentum with my classes. I was in pain at the beginning of the week because my test in Italian last Thursday didn’t go as well as I’d hoped and we spent all of my Art History classes on Monday looking at the works of and reviewing the life of Donatello. The class was wonderful, but I’d taken in so much that I needed a way to take a break. Italian wasn’t going great until yesterday when several things started clicking. We’re in the fifth week and still haven’t made it to anything but the present tense, but I’m at least solidifying several things I didn’t think were important before. I also have found more time to study in the past couple of days than I have for the past couple of weeks.

Want to know what’s giving me my greatest sense of a “fresh wind?” I’m staying in town for this weekend and I have some friends from England who are coming to Florence at the end of next week. This’ll be the first weekend in the past three that I’ve been in Florence. I’m SO anxious (I’m going to read a lot of fun stuff and not strictly the class material)! Now to finish writing my Classical Rhetoric assignment …