AWAKE MY SOUL

So today was the day I've been anxiously awaiting, first day of classes!

As I am walking over to my first class I finally get to be me, put my ipod headphones in, and listen to music as I walk to class (feel free to make fun of how determined and quick I walk, all my friends do). The second I hit the Duomo, Awake My Soul comes on. Now I'm not exactly the hugest Mumford and Sons fan seeing as its the only song of theirs I have, but I think it's a pretty powerful song. I heard it first while on my H.O.P.E. trip to Tennessee and I associate it with the life experiences I got during H.O.P.E. It was surreal walking past the 4th largest church in the world, rain still drying on the cobblestone, and realizing that I am "awaking my soul" through my study abroad experience.

Moving on past my metaphorical tendencies...

First off, Creative Process in Visual Communication. The name says it all, it's going to be an interesting class. I should be used to being the only male in most of my classes, but when it's also a class of 8 people and I'm one of two Americans, it should get really interesting. We worked out creating a personal logo that will be turned into an actual stamp. After sketching I stumbled into creating a shamrock using only the letters d and G.

The class is 5 hours long though.. but I knew that going in and was hoping my interest would keep me in it. So far so good.

Then a quick half hour goes by and I'm in Workplace Psychology: Building Effect Managers.
Now this will be the class that pushes me out of my comfort zone more than anything. The class is more focused on class discussions, exercises, group projects, figuring out your personal strengths (WHATTUP STRENGTHS QUEST DEF GONNA USE YOU FOR MY PAPER), problems in workplace, etc etc. Not your average business class pretty much. Prof Stefano is definitely friendly and nice, but I can already tell this is going to be a hard class aside from it being mentally challenging. Oh yeah and we meditated at the end as our first exercise to understand the process of stress in how we breath...

Then another quick half hour and I'm in Elementary Italian, with Daniele who is hilarious. As much as Italian is getting screwed up in my head (Merci Francais, Gracias Espanol) I know this will be a fun class. Daniele has his tongue pierced if that says anything. He's a little bit crazy, but I feel any language professor has to be a little strange to rock teaching a language.

So 3 of my classes are in Piazzo Strozzi, also known as the Duffy Academic Center of LDM Florence. Luckily since I have 3 classes in a row the last two are in Strozzi. Also, it's great because I actually feel like a college student again in here. I HEAR ENGLISH and there's other students just as frantic as I am, it's comforting and just what I needed at this point.