Midterms are over! woohoo!

I couldn't be happier that the weekend is finally here. Midterms always really stress me up, so its very relieving that they are over and I'll (hopefully) have less heavy of a load of schoolwork for awhile. Timing couldn't be more perfect for my parents visit. They wanted to come after midterms so that I would have time to tour all of Florence with them! (good call mom and dad!). They are leaving for the airport around 11:30 (their time). By the time they switch flights from Amsterdam to Florence and take a taxi from the airport, they will probably get to the hotel around 2:00 pm my time. What a long day for them! I bet they will be very jet lagged. I definitely was when we flew into Germany a couple months ago. Hopefully they will have enough energy to go out to dinner! Me, Annie, Lillian (and her mom), and my parents are all planning on going out to eat a nice, Italian dinner on Halloween! What am I doing after? No idea! Like I said... Halloween is not really popular here. It was so funny though, because two of my fellow peers dressed up for the occasion today at school. My friend Kelly dressed up as Santa Claus (or Babbo Natale in Italiano) and my friend Ryan dressed up as Michael Phelps. How creative! I didn't bring any costumes... haha oh well!

I am pretty hungry right now!! We are having our last prepared meal of the weak until Monday. I wonder what it's going to be! Lillian and her mom are going to a sit-up meal for lunch and then we are going to San Lorenzo where the open market shopping is, where Lillian's mom is going to get some cheap Christmas gifts for friends/family back home. I have been to San Lorenzo lots of times, but it never gets old! It really displays the typical Florentine atmosphere. After that, we might go to the Bozart (sp) Gardens that Florence is famous for. Hopefully the weather holds up because it has been so random lately! One minute it will be downpour, lightening/thundering and then the next it will be super sunny. Reminds me of Seattle except less muggy/warm.

I will post all about my adventures with my parents come tomorrow and the rest of the weekend!

The picture above is of me and Lillian!
Also I attached a picture of the well-known San Lorenzo church and it also shows part of the open air market that I am going to today! As we learned in my Intro to Florence class, it is the first Cathedral in Florence. :0)Also I researched some extra info about the church from Wikepedia: The Basilica di San Lorenzo (Basilica of St Lawrence) is one of the largest churches of Florence, Italy, situated at the centre of the city’s main market district, and the burial place of all the principal members of the Medici family from Cosimo il Vecchio to Cosimo III. It is one of several churches that claim to be the oldest in Florence; when it was consecrated in 393[1] it stood outside the city walls. For three hundred years it was the city's cathedral before the official seat of the bishop was transferred to Santa Reparata. San Lorenzo was also the parish church of the Medici family. In 1419, Giovanni di Bicci de' Medici offered to finance a new church to replace the eleventh-century Romanesque rebuilding. Filippo Brunelleschi, the leading Renaissance architect of the first half of the fifteenth century, was commissioned to design it, but the building, with alterations, was not completed until after his death. The church is part of a larger monastic complex that contains other important architectural works: the Old Sacristy by Brunelleschi; the Laurentian Library by Michelangelo; the New Sacristy based on Michelangelo's designs; and the Medici Chapels by Matteo Nigetti.