Student Starter: Welcome to Florence, Italy!: Let's bring in 2013 a Firenze.

Today's Beautiful Morning

Hey Everyone!

So I'm pretty sure that you all are pretty disappointed that I haven't actually been posting to this since.... October..... but things got super busy with midterms and then I neglected the blog after I went offline. I hope you can forgive me.

So this/next week is Carnevale, which is basically a huge Mardi Gras celebration before Lent, which, this year, is February 13th. To embrace the culture of Italy more, I decided that I would commemorate Lent, though I'm not Catholic, and give up the consumption of meat for the 40 day period until Easter Sunday. And thanks to my Nana Marie, who gave me this book for Christmas:

I will now be able to explore Tuscan dining without meat. The book is full of little ole' recipes ranging from bread styles, soups, snacks, salads, and some pasta dishes. I am really excited to find a kitchen and start cooking :)

To fill you in on what I was really busy with last year, I directed Metamorphoses by Mary Zimmerman with a few of my student peers here in Florence. The show was ultimately a success, the audience was impressed with the show, and we didn't spend too much money putting it on. I was generally content with the outcome. You can find some of the photos from the show in my 'Pictures of the Week' section at the end of the post. (Photo Credit: BHausdorff)

This year, I'm working with one of my professors, Eric Nicholson, to write, direct, and produce Boccaccio's tales from The Decameron. We just finished the auditions last week and we plan on starting rehearsals at the end of the month, so I will definitely keep y'all posted.

What's Coming for This/Next Week:
I'm beginning my English Language teaching position at ITC Duca d'Aosta, here in Florence. I will be teaching once-a-week for four hours, engaging students in conversations in primarily English and some Italian. The students are mostly architecture students, so I will try to interest them with the Empire State Building, the Freedom Tower project at Ground Zero, etc. I'm really excited to start teaching, this will be an exciting opportunity for me to work on my verbal Italian skills, as well as, building lasting friendships with some Italians here before I go back to the States.

Well, that's it for this week, I expect to be writing posts every weekend, and I hope y'all check in on me. Keep in touch by emailing me at joelyates401@gmail.com or contact me through Facebook.

Love y'all,

Joel C. Yates