We don't celebrate Thanksgiving in Italy for obvious reasons, but it's no reason to break a tradition to take one day to remember what we're thankful for. We absolutely know how fortunate we are to be living in such a beautiful city and doing our jobs as we did in the US. We still can't believe that we've been living in Florence for a year now.
It's the beginning of winter and looking back we remember where we were when we first arrived in Florence. Our apartment is still freezing cold because of the cement walls and less sun that comes through the windows. But, we have learned that we don't want to put the heaters that were installed in the apartment recently because our bill for last winter was 1000 Euros! The landlord almost fainted when I showed him the bill.
We also don't have to worry about having too many appliances on at the same time because the circuit breaker got fixed a few months after we arrived. We used to have to run downstairs after waiting two minutes before turning our power back on. We found out that the electrical company that hooked up the higher capacity to our apartment actually didn't do it properly. One day, it blew up so bad once that we were out of power for an entire day!
We're also more adjusted these days and so we see many of the same people. We don't exactly fit in, but we feel like we belong here and that Florence is our home.
I'm especially thankful for many people from my past who have looked me up (usually using Google!) and found me through my blog. I've also met many new people, living in Canada, the US, and even Italy. Some have written me for advice about living in Florence, some to say hello, and others who have opened up to me and have become good friends. I wouldn't have thought that my blog would have brought me so much, but I am truly thankful!
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