This post is coming a day late, though I must confess that since I have been sick all week with a horrible cold and a severe lack of familiar medications so I spent more time resting than exploring. The highlights of my week included the usual classes, many trips to the store for more tissues, a few much needed gelato runs, and a trip to IKEA on the free Sunday IKEA bus. I probably should have stayed home for the IKEA outing, since I really wasn’t feeling well enough to go, but it was an interesting experience seeing how a store that I am so familiar with in America can still feel similar and yet very different. At first glance, it looks very much the same. Similar furniture styles and prices, modern kitchens and bathrooms (though I haven’t seen many since I’ve been here), and the same Swedish meatballs IKEA has become so famous for. Upon closer inspection though it is possible to notice the subtle differences such as the bidets in the bathrooms, slightly different kitchen supplies, the fact that everything is in euros, and of course, the language barrier encountered when ordering the Swedish meatballs. Along with my IKEA pictures I included some gelato I had this week as well as some street art commonly seen on the streets of Florence. There are several of these chalk pictures and they are cleaned up at the end of every day and recreated every day for the tourists benefit. I was also able to take a short bus ride with my study abroad program, CIS abroad, to the town of Fiesole. The view was spectacular, but due to the lack of light (it was an evening trip) I wasn’t able to adequately capture it on camera. I did, however, try some delicious and weird chips that I plan to buy later (barbecue and mint flavor!) and ate a yummy chocolate thing from a small market on the way back from the trip. Hopefully I will have some more interesting pictures next week after I go to Octoberfest on Saturday!

Ciao for now!

-Alexis

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