Come On Irene

Come on Irene; please spare New York City.

I'm witnessing the first time in history when the most densely populated city in the country is being shut down.  All airports are closing, subways are being shutdown tomorrow, and there is the first mandatory evacuation in the entire history of New York City. After what was called a once-in-a-lifetime earthquake for this area that we experienced earlier this week, we are all wondering what will happen for New York City after this weekend.

We've been keeping our eyes on this storm all week, knowing it could get ugly.  Many universities have chosen to evacuate their students, but FIT remains confident we will be okay to stay here.  As the only students on campus currently are freshman, transfers and visiting students who are unfamiliar with the area and its normalcy, we already feel slightly more concerned with the situation.  We just received notification via e-mail as what we should prepare to do this weekend, but there have been no faculty or administrators of any kind assuring us personally that we will be kept safe.  Events continued as normal today.  Some of our friends who have a place to go with family in safer areas have left already, but for a majority of us, we are at the mercy of the storm.

We remain hopeful that Irene will die down slowly and spare the coastline.  Today a friend and I went down to the seaport area and out to Governor's  Island, both areas which should be completely evacuated by tomorrow afternoon.  Grocery stores were full of people and empty shelves.  Water bottles were going for 6 for $18 at Trader Joe's.  This is my first hurricane so I don't really know what to expect.  But most people I have talked to do agree on one thing:  they lived here all their life and heard the media hype over and over...but this time, something is different.

I'm sitting on my bed looking out over Chelsea neighborhood from 8 stories up.  Listening to the sounds of the city and comforted by the glow of lights from buildings across the street, I wonder how different things could get if Irene does hit with a fury of a storm of the century. Fingers crossed and prayers going out to all along the east coast through the weekend.

Photos from today below.

Fiesole

The city of Florence is situated in a valley in the heart of Tuscany.  In the summers, as I have certainly noticed, it can get really very hot because of the geographical location, so it was a real treat to take a day to explore a small town just about 5 miles north of Florence in the hills, Fiesole. According to my guidebook, the village was settled around 7th century BC, and there are still Roman and Etruscan remains here.  

I walked up to San Francesco, a friary founded in 1399.  Apparently, the last Pope visited the friary and it was a great big deal because there were signs (in Italian so I only got the gist of what it was about) posted around the area.

I found a great place to take in views of Florence, feel the breeze from being outside of the city, and sip on a Tuborg -- a beer produced in Copenhagen which I've found I prefer over the common Peroni Italian beer.  

From the largest photo you can see the Duomo dome very clearly and get an idea of exactly how huge it is.

Piazza San Marco & Piazza della Santissima Annunziata

Here are some photos from one of my favorite places in Florence: Piazza San Marco & Piazza della Santissima Annunziata.  The last two photos are Piazza San Marco and the others Santissima Annuziata.

I went here during my first week in Florence and saw some of the locals hanging out.  There was a man teaching another man to draw, with the learning man's son creeping over his shoulder and watching his pencil strokes very carefully.   

An older man, probably grandfather, was teaching a young boy to ride his bike.  When the boy fell over the man comforted the boy, who was clearly trying as hard as he could to hide his pain.  It was neat to see how different they both reacted in this situation I have seen replayed a thousand times back home. They were very quiet but very intimate.  There was no yelling to "walk it off"! Nor did the boy burst into a tearful rampage.  Perhaps it all depends on how different people react differently, but I still found it touching to watch these two.

Lastly on my way leaving the Piazza I caught a glimpse of a young couple, maybe 15 or 16, the girl crying and the boy with his arm around her and wiping her tears.  It looked so sweet coming from such young people.  

The pre-teens here always seem older than they really are.  For the first few weeks of my class there was one Italian girl who could not speak any English.  Since I can only speak minimal Italian, there was such a language barrier in the classroom.  I watched her come and go every day and I assumed she was nearly my age.  However on one of the last days, with our professor translating, I learned that she was only 15! The age of my younger sister! I could hardly believe how she was this young.  As I have learned since then, the youths here are permitted to dress a little older style for their age compared to Americans.  Also, the drinking age here is 16... something to think about.

Photos I

Train ride to Florence

Leaving Pisa on train

Ponte Vecchio & Arno River

A view of Florence from one of our school buildings.