Homework 1: Ethnographic Studies

So, the USD is crap compared to the Euro which sucks for those of us who have been brainwashed into thinking that US is the hegemon of the world. Because now things aren't so affordable and you have to try cooking with LIMITED ingredients. And guess what, you end up with a natural disaster like this:

Looks GROSS, right? Because it is, in taste, smell, and looks, even feel and hearing as it sputters.

Which leads us to the occasionally weird smells in Florence which makes me have to use a good-smelling candle: 

This one smells like vanillaish.

This actually brings me to the fact that there are no smoke detectors at all in the apartments. When the adjoining apartments smoke, some of the smoke enters my apartment and it smells like smog, which the candle is for. An ashtray:

Ignore what's in it.

The windows here don't have screens which makes it really annoying when the mosquitoes come strolling by. Six to ten mosquito bites per night is not a good night. So yesterday night I used a mosquito repellent and whaddya know, no more mosquitoes. The leftovers of the mosquito repellent:

The Screenless Window

The last post about the apartment. Florence is an old city with old buildings and apparently a city of old keys too. They cost around 50 euros to replace, which is currently around 75USD.

Awesome, huh?

Since Florence is the capital of Italian culture, it is also the wine capital of Italy. I think... wine, wine, wine, wine, wine, wine, wine, wine, wine, wine, wine, wine, wine, wine, wine, wine, wine, wine, wine, wine, wine, wine, wine, wine, wine, wine, wine, wine, wine, everywhere.

This isn't wine by the way. lol

Regarding liquids there are several different types of milk which is confusing, like alto qualita, parlizamente scrimato, etc.

Staying on the topic of food, I ordered from a Chinese take-out place yesterday. What is so amazing is the price which was 2,50 euros, and the quality of the food. They actually used white rice, not the yellow rice found in the USA. It was less greasy too.

The candy strip thing in the back came with it too. Apparently the place, Jian Jian is so cheap because it was established 20 years ago and the customers are just as old too, so to change the price would be to lose the customers.

What was also cool about Florence is that there are a few Farmer's Market thing that goes up almost every day. The food is a lot cheaper and more fresh than most other places in Florence.

A sample of vegetables, they also sell meat, nuts, fruits, and etc.

For the last study, the train station. The Florence train station is moderately sized. But the cool thing is that it's not all indoors, there are parts of the station that is outdoors too, such as where the actual trains are on standby. 

That's all of the ethnographic studies for now. More to come later. Possibly...