First week of class!

Well, Katy and I have officially completed out first week of classes here in Italy and we're still both alive and well enough to blog about it.  It was a long week, but a good week.  Classes started for us Monday morning.  Katy began at 12:00 and had two classes: Special Events Management, which she is less than thrilled about, and baking techniques, which I think she likes better, but wishes there was more equipment in the kitchen to go around.  I have a later start at 6:oo P.M.for my Chocolate and Confections class.  The teacher for that class owns his own chocolate shoppe here in Florence and also happens to be a five time world famous, award winning chocolatier... so, I'd better learn something from him, especially since he happens to be my teacher for three of my six classes.  

Katy has a break on Tuesdays without any classes.  I have one, Pastry Shoppe, which I liked well enough.  We took a walk around Florence and toured some local pastry shoppes in the area and even got to go into the back kitchen of one of them.  It was fun, but I was really hoping for some little snacks or at least some rejects that didn't make it to the display case - something! But nope, nothing for the hungry and salivating little students.  Bummer!

Katy and I both keep BUSY on Wednesdays, with a full day of classes.  We both start out the day at 9AM with Regional Italian Cuisine, where this week we made polenta!  It was fun and new for Katy, but I little boring for me, since I had been tortured back home at work all summer making batches of polenta in pots large enough for me to bathe in! Oh well, it's all a part of the job, I guess!  Right after this class we both headed off to our Breads of Italy/Specialty Breads class, where were were greeted by a man who spoke less than great english and soon began to graph the gluten strength of certain breads on a chart on the chalkboard... we're starting to wonder what we've gotten ourselves into here. I guess we'll just have to wait it out and see.

Our final classes of the day are different as Katy heads off to Traditional Italian Foods while I go on to my Contemporary Italian Cooking. 

Wednesday nights are still busy for me as I decided to check out a self defense class offered at out little mini gym - emphasis on MINI - as there is just one treadmill, one bike, and one elliptical, as well as some weights and a punching bag.  The class was pretty neat though.  There were only two of us student and the instructor, who is, I believe a police officer in town.  He's very talented and I've already learned a lot in just the first hour long class.  So, everybody watch out now - I've got the moves!

Thursdays, our last day of classes for the week, was a welcome occurrence for the both of us as were were pretty shot from the first week of everything.  We each have one class, and happened to really enjoy them, which was a great way to end out the week.  Katy was very happy with her Hotel Management and Front Desk Procedures class and I was equally thrilled with my last class of Dessert Styling.  We celebrated the end of the week with a late lunch in a great little cafe that we found on the corner where we got a tasty lunch and talked about how our weeks had gone.  It was a nice way to end the afternoon.  

Then, later that night, I tried something I had never tried before... YOGA.  Oh boy! Good story...where to start? Let's start with stating that I am not a very bendy, yoga-y kind of person.  I am no "yogi" I told Katy later that night after I had bent my body back into it's normal and comfortable position.  She was rather confused with that comment and asked if I was referring to Yogi the Bear...  Anyways, this class was very interesting.  Let me start by telling you that the instructor spoke ONLY Italian.  So, all I really got out of it were the phrases, "In" and "Ex" which I assumed translated into "Inhale" and "Exhale" followed by what I gathered to be the counting of 1- 5.  Beyond this, I really had no idea what the man was saying, let alone what I was supposed to be doing.  His chanting and breathing, however, were very clear and impressive.  Now, let me just say that I think people that can do yoga are great, and I have the utmost respect for them, I just don't think I'm one of them, at least not yet.  If I do decided to go back, there are a few things I should remember.  Like, wear yoga pants, or at least some tights under your shorts, as you're going to become a human pretzel with legs flying everywhere in the course of the next hour.  And, oh, don't wear your shoes and socks.   I was quickly informed of this as I stepped onto my mat with my shoes still on.  The instructor kept pointing to my feet clearly trying to tell me something, and I finally got it when my neighbor kindly told me that he wanted me to remove my footwear.  How I failed to notice the 12 other barefoot people was beyond me.  Oh, and those silly little mats! I don't know how people manage to stay on them so well... after like, two moves I was completely off the mat and half way across the room, I guess I just don't quite have the hang of it all yet.  We'll see how well I improve over the month.  I suppose that if nothing else, I'll learn how to count from one to five in Italian really well.