it's hump day during my first "real" week in florence.  started my internship and classes, and i must say it's going great!  my first two days at the florentine were a little intimidating--my very first assignment was to translate an article from italian to english, which took two whole hours, and even though it's an english-speaking newspaper, everyone in the office spoke italian all day.  i just nodded along and pretended that i understood.  i got to do some other cool things too, like writing articles and uploading the newest issue onto the website.  yesterday i got to work with one of the supervisors, giacomo.  he's the goofiest italian i've met, with hair that sticks out every which way.  he played me some italian music while we worked and sang along with every song.

i'm also really excited for my classes (as nerdy as that might sound).  i'm taking creative advertising of italian destinations where we'll be learning all about art, food, fashion, wine and italian advertising.  today, i had my first photography and food writing classes.  starting today, i have to take one picture a day for the rest of my trip, showing my personality and way of seeing a foreign country through the lens of my camera--those will definitely be up here for everyone to see.  but food writing has to be my favorite so far.  we will be writing recipes, restaurant reviews, feature food articles, and personality profiles--everything you can imagine with food.  we'll be taking field trips to open air markets, butchers, and local restaurants to taste and write about authentic italian food experiences.  i already made great friends with my teacher, who happens to be the editor-at-large of the florentine, and she promised to lend me all her books by anthony bourdain--my favorite food critic.  he has his own tv show, no reservations, where he travels to every corner of the earth, trying every city's native foods and recipes.  and since most of the writing we'll do is in blog-form, i will definitely share my writing here--so even if you can't come to italy to physically try real italian food, hopefully i'll help you to experience it!

"people ask me: why do you write about food, and eating and drinking?  why don't you write about the struggle for power and security, and about love, the way the others do?

they ask it accusingly, as if i were somehow gross, unfaithful to the honor of my craft.

the easiest answer is to say that, like most other humans, i am hungry.  but there is more than that.  it seems to me that our three basic needs, for food and security and love, are so mixed and mingled and entwined that we cannot straightly think of one without the others.  so it happens that when i write of hunger, i am really writing about love and the hunger for it, and warmth and the love of it and the hunger for it... and then the warmth and richness and fine reality of hunger satisfied... and it is all one." --M.F.K. Fisher