It is 6:15 p.m. here in Florence while it is 10:15 a.m. in Salt Lake City.

Every time I paint my nails, the back of my right ear itches, but I cannot itch it unless I want a hot mess of nail polish on my head.

I am sitting on the floor of my room. It is Sunday. A very calm, tired, feeling has draped my emotions and my body.

I’m exhausted from the earlier hours of taking photographs all over Florence. You should have seen me. I looked like a tourist. I had my large digital camera around my neck, along with my film camera. Side by side, alternating images.

I have two different photo classes, which means two different assignments. On film, I needed to capture the people of Florence. I thrive off of candid shots. They are my favorite. So what did I do? I took three rolls of film of people. On digital, I am working on a photography essay telling the story of Romeo and Juliet without captions. It is not as easy as it may seem. Abstraction can be the simplest photograph you take, but the hardest to find. I am almost finished, and when I do, I promise to show you the outcome.

Although I was embarrassed by my look of touristic nature, I was in heaven wondering the streets of an Italian city taking photographs. Since I have already captured the “snapshots” of the main attractions this city has to offer, I am beginning to really notice the little details. I walk the same street day by day, but each time I notice a new crack, an arch, a plant, and piece of graffiti, and poster that has been tattered by rainfall, or a statue guarding the corners.

I am not only studying in Florence, I have begun to really live and thrive in it.

Yesterday, Joanna and I spent the day at the park. It was here that I realized how much I have been reading since I got here. At home, I rarely pick up a novel and finish it in the same month I start, because things come up and other priorities take charge, I do not finish for a while. Here, I cannot stop reading. It is lovely. I have read: Less Than Zero, Memoirs of a Prostitute, A Million Little Pieces, A Walk to Remember and now I have started reading The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.  All in one month. You should be proud of me, considering it took me a year to finish The Rules of Attraction. If there are any books you suggest me reading you should tell me, or better yet, you should send them to me because the chances of me finding them in English over here is not high.

On the subject of sending me something, I am going to straight up tell you how I feel. I have been here a month and personally, I did not expect that people would send things to us students over here. I guess I was wrong. Charles, my photography professor, bluntly stated that I am the only one who has not received ANYTHING (he emphasized the anything) in the mail my entire stay so far. I had not really thought about it, but yes, it is true. SO.. I am suggesting you send me a letter. Or a picture of you. Or a grocery list. Or maybe your piece of gum you have been chewing the passed three hours. Anything! I am in need/want for documentation that people miss me (or at least remember that I exist.) If you need my address, tell me. I will happily send it your way. (I know what you are thinking… “Desperate, much?”)

Well. That is all I have today.  Thanks for reading.