Festival of Lights!

None of my professors speak good english. Not one. I now know what it feels like to be a foreigner. I can sypathize with all my spanish speaking students one day because it is so difficult to understand a two and a half hour lecture in a horrible english accent. But I'm managing...

So I was inturrupted in my blog writing by the loud noise going on outside my window. I had earlier closed it when I heard singing in the plaza and was trying to study my italian. I was about to yell "silencio!" out the window but was stopped dead in my tracks by the sight I witnessed. The entire florentine population was walking down the streets singing with the bands playing, people were dancing, parents were holding up pretty lanterns lit by fire, and everyone was heading towards the plaza. I yelled and yelled for Jess and the neighbors to come look. It was incredible. People were waving and children were playing as they marched down the street. I kept saying "it's the festival of lights, it's the festival of lights!"

After watching for a few minutes and noticing that the parade had stopped in the plaza and it seemed they were going to hang out there for awhile, we decided it looked safe enough by the number of police cars and firetrucks so we headed out in our pajamas and all. We asked a man along the way what it was and he told us it was a festival for the children who would be ending summer and beginning school. He then asked us if we were going to go play futbol by the attire we were wearing. Laughing at the fact that we were silly foreigners who completely stood out in the crowd, we practically skipped down to the plaza to a wonderful sight. Families were everywhere and each group had their own handmade lantern. A group of old men in red and white costumes were sitting up front playing the trumpets while a man who seemed to be in charge talked in italian. We had no idea what he was saying but the whole crowd was listening so we pretended to even though we didn't have a clue what he was saying. I was more distracted by the food everywhere. It all was so different but looked so good. And the best part (well my favorite part) was the children with spitguns who thought it'd be great to "shoot the americans". After getting hit a few times they grew tired and starting shooting the wads at the lanterns. We guessed (and later found out we were correct) that the kids were trying to put out the flame with their spitguns. It was like a warzone. We just kept saying they'd never let kids do this in America! The festival was an amazing experience and one of the true first florence experiences we had with all the people who live here. By the end of the night the children would gather around fallen lanterns and finish off their spitgun wads while the firefighters stood by and enjoyed the sight (but also in case one of the children caught on fire). We watched for about 10 minutes as the most adorable 2 year old girl played with a lantern and tried to pull away at the last minute when older kids shot at the lantern. It was an incredible experience.