In With A Bang

It's been one hell of a weekend.

For some reason, things in Firenze lately seem to be snowballing. Maybe it's because it's getting warm out, maybe it's because we only have something like forty days left here, but whatever it is, it's making everything seem a little more off the wall than usual.

Barely back from France, this Thursday my lovely friend Megan and her equally lovely friend Hannah joined me in Florence. However, they were not the only guests who would be joining me and Kara and Arielle. Two days later, I woke up in the morning and found Kara already dressed. No one in our apartment is dressed until 12 on the weekends.

"Why dressed so early?" I asked, barely lifting my head from the pillow.

She turned and explained, "the Australians are coming!"

Less than five minutes later, two of the tallest men I've even seen with two of the biggest backpacks I've ever seen were suddenly in the living room of my apartment, and suddenly our three person apartment was now hosting seven people.

By now you're probably wondering, how the hell did you end up with Australians in your Italian apartment?! Kara and Arielle found them in their hostel in Barcelona on spring break and convinced them to visit them in Florence- just in time for Easter!

After a busy Friday and Saturday spent showing our guests around the city, Easter Sunday arrived. I wasn't really sure how Easter would turn out. I've never missed an Easter with my family, and the large part of my heart that loves Cadbury cream eggs and all things chocolate was feeling rather empty. But I didn't have much time to mourn my missing basket of goodies that morning. We had to leave to watch the Explosion of the Fire Cart, a true Florentine tradition.

The fire cart, pre-explosion.

From what I've gathered, the fire cart ritual was imported from the east during the crusades, and for hundreds of years the Florentines have heralded the resurrection of Jesus with a bang in front of their famous duomo cathedral. I feel as though having a pyrotechnic show thirty feet away from a priceless building might be a bad idea, but apparently the Florentines don't share my sentiments. Here are some pictures of the explosion. I stole them all from Kara, because I was behind this man who was at least a foot and a half taller than me who REFUSED TO MOVE even though he could've seen everything fine like, ten feet behind me still. I hate crowds and being short. This is why I stopped paying money to 'see' shows. Anyway, the pictures!




Once the festivities were over, I escorted Megan and Hannah to the train station for their daytrip into Pisa while I headed back to the apartment to cook dinner for nine. I didn't think there would be enough food at first, but I quickly realized that was not going to be the case at all. I don't think we have to cook anything in this apartment for a week now. Easter ended up being really fun with everyone there, the Aussie boys even bought mini Easter eggs so us girls could have an Easter egg hunt around the apartment so I finally got my chocolate fix! There was also another bigger chocolate egg which was not only delicious, but wrapped in red foil that we played with the rest of the night. I don't think they thought we would have as much fun with that foil as we did. Don't ask for pictures, I refuse to show them to you.

The Easter Crew minus Megan and Hannah, who kindly took the picture.

And now it is Easter Monday, which is apparently a holiday in Florence. Except not really, because even though classes were cancelled today, they are rescheduled for Friday. Not that that matters for me anyway, because I'm going for Berlin this Thursday, which is why I'm trying to write my papers on my birthday (but obviously failing since I'm writing this blog post). Like I said, everything's been crazy here. Three days after I get back from Berlin, my parents and brother and coming. Then three weeks after they're gone, I'm back in Buffalo. Where is the semester going?