I only have a couple more days in Florence, wow...I'm really going to miss this city.

We've been doing some last minute touring around the city - going to more museums and palaces and churches. It is tiring, but you have to see it while you're here I guess.
We went back to the Boboli gardens for the second time to paint. It was really good, better than my first time for sure. And I don't mean to say that in a way that you should expect I'm coming back home with painted masterpieces...because frankly they're mediocre if you were actually to rank them. And now that I look back at it I wished I had been sketching more before I came so I wouldn't have been so rusty when I came here - I'm almost back up to my regular standard. But, strangely, it hasn't even mattered to me what my paintings look like. Usually I get really frustrated (I have a couple times here but not many), and I've really been able to just focus on whats around me and absorb the atmosphere I guess. Like really, you soak in everything in different way when you're painting...more sticks with you I guess. But anyway...this younger girl was watching me paint and became kind of intrigued I guess. She walked up with her teacher and some classmates later so they could translate a conversion with me for her. And really, if that girl is really interested in art, and just by seeing our class paint there that day makes her really motivated - thats cool, thats good enough for me that I can be a stepping stone for something better I guess.
We went out for this HUGE dinner on Tuesday night I guess it would have been. It was on Sheridan - or included in our fees..I didn't really ask. But there was soooo much food. Guess who ate squid...ya thats me. After we went to the dancefloor they had in the front of the restuarant for some Spanish dancing...our teacher Kim was trying to teach us.
I talked to some friends of mine about God and why I'm a Christian and all that good stuff. They were pretty drunk of course...but it seems like the real questions and real responses to things like that don't come out until someone is drunk...but it was still really interesting, and I guess it was easier to see how these people are struggling when they seem like they aren't just because the wine made them a bit more vunerable.
My friend and I have really good conversations about life. She's a new age thinker, went to see Fleetwood Mac when she was 8 and does an amazing Cheech impression (as well as Tom Waits, Lois from Family Guy, and so many others). Anyway, she's very interesting...I hang on to every word she says (with discernment of course)...but I've learned more about compassion and humanity from her than I have from most Christians I know...she's really cool....she's one of those people you hope everyone can meet at least once because they're just that amazing.