Londra

Ciao! Sorry for the lack of posts, but midterms are finally over and I am getting my first real break from work (besides a trip to London, but I was without internet.) Everything is going well. Classes are tough, but I am getting through. We are all extremely annoyed that we have to spend everyday in the library to keep up with work while learning about places/things in Rome. Wouldn't it make more sense to limit the work and actually let us have time to go see the places? Oh well! I am learning a lot so that is good I guess.

This past weekend I went to London with my friend Tyler. Friday was technically the make-up day for wednesday classes, but she convinced the art history professor to let us miss one class and we went thursday night. The weekend was fun, but not without its problems. The hostel was disgusting and an all around bad experience. Luckily we only had to be there for a few hours. We would stay up as late as we could manage and get up the next morning before 7. This did give us plenty of time for exploring, though! We arrived in London friday night after 2am (it was a 10:30pm flight) and went to our hostel, then got up at 7 friday morning and were out early so we could wander the city streets. We went to the national gallery, walked down all the major streets, went to Big Ben and walked around the London Eye (deciding to actually go on at night), and saw Love Never Dies at the Adelphi Theatre. It is the sequel to Phantom of the Opera. I thoroughly enjoyed it even though it was extremely strange. I wasn't a huge fan of the use of videos between scenes, but the overall show was great. We went to meet the actors afterwards. We had to wait until they got all of the crazy copious amounts of makeup off of the phantom's face (he is mask-less for about a half hour in the show), which took about an hour or so. By the time we left, we decided to just go back to sleep. The next day we did a tour of Oxford, Windsor, and Stonehenge. The whole thing was extremely rushed. We literally had to sprint through Windsor. Stonehenge was really neat and the area around it makes it that much cooler. Now, Oxford was the real reason we did a tour. Tyler wanted to see the place where Harry Potter's great hall was filmed. She was so excited to see the Harry Potter paraphernalia. To our dismay, Oxford closed the great hall just for this particular day because of a banquet for students going home for Easter. That pretty much put a damper on the rest of the rushed day, and it seemed like a bit of a fail. When we got back to the city, we went on the Eye, went to Piccadilly, explored some more, and went back to sleep. Sunday we got up early for Mass, got a true English Breakfast, went to Harrods, Hyde Park, and had a delicious lunch. We left for the airport in the mid-afternoon and were back in Rome by 9. Since then, I had been working on an Italian project, studying for a religion test, working on essays, and reading for mythology. I am taking this morning at my morning to relax before I jump back into it all tonight. I will post again soon! Ariivederci!

Northern Italy!

Well, get comfortable, this is going to be a long one. I am about to catch everyone up on the last week of craziness including 9 Italian cities in 5 days... I will start off with monday, my final day in Rome before the adventure began. I woke up early, went to my painful music class, and fought not to fall asleep during those long three hours like every monday morning. Near the end of class we decided to ask our professor about the midterm exam that is coming up hoping he could give us a bit of information so we could study on our long bus rides. But no. He didn't tell us a thing, then lectured us on the perils of last minute studying... Which didn't make a whole lot of sense when we were all trying to start studying two weeks in advance. Class ended, and insanity began. I had a few hours before lunch so I decided to head back and pack, which was more difficult than I had thought. Going north, I had to prepare for freezing cold and rainy weather which meant planning multiple layers. Plus I had to fit it all in a rather small bag since we couldn't really bring too much on the bus. By the time I got everything together and ready to go, it was time for lunch. I can honestly say I don't have a clue what we ate, it seems too far off now... but I am sure it was delicious as always. I do remember, though, Miss McHugh making an announcement that we would not be receiving any food all week from the program - no breakfast, no lunch, and no dinner. Plus, they weren't going to tell us of any restaurants so we were on our own for all meals... After lunch, I had art history in which we had a quick conversation about the presentations we had to complete while traveling, followed by a lecture. It was all good and interesting, but I was honestly still sore and tired from the hectic weekend that I was ready to relax. The rest of the afternoon is now a blank until it was dark and we went to grab dinner. All of us got sandwiches to go and ate in one of the hotel rooms. After we finished, I ran to the classroom building with a group of girls, got bus tickets, and went to the train station to purchase tickets to Venice for the upcoming sunday (which was actually a rather last minute decision). The bus took a little over 20 minutes, and when we arrived at the station, we ran to get in line. All five of us bought our tickets, making sure we would be sitting by each other. We were running low on time (our bus tickets were going to expire) by the time everyone got through so we once again ran back outside to get on the next bus. Upon arrival at the hotel, it was getting late so we decided to relax and have a movie night while booking flights and eating cake to celebrate one of our friend's birthdays. We were planning on going out, but that just sounded painful since we had to leave the next morning before 6am... We got to bed pretty early to prepare for the coming week.

Tuesday morning, I jumped from bed and got dressed to go. I layered and made sure I would be warm upon arrival in Ferrara. As I walked down the steps, suitcase in hand, I honestly didn't have a clue what to expect; the program always seems to take the cheapest way possible so I honestly thought we would be riding in something like a school bus. Instead, we had a wonderful bus with comfy seats and a luggage compartment (which I was excited about since I wouldn't have to sit with all of my stuff). I slept most of the way, and was woken up by Dr Prebys screaming over the microphone that we were entering Ferrara and needed to immediately prepare to 'disembark.' A half an hour later, we arrived... I was a bit upset I didn't get that extra half an hour of sleep, but oh well. The first day we went to the Jewish Cemetery and explored the city center. It became immediately apparent upon arrival in the Cemetery that the week long trip was, as we had thought, was going to be based on Bassani. Why this annoyed us all is a bit of a long story and I will be happy to share it with anyone who asks. We walked right by elaborate graves and names that seemed familiar to the very last grave in the cemetery that looked like a strange modern sculpture. This was the grave of Giorgio Bassani, an Italian author. It was interesting, but we stayed for quite a bit longer than most would have liked at the grave. After that we went to the hotel. Room picks were literally set up as a race. First one to the lobby (with the passports of everyone they wanted to room with) that got to Dr Prebys got first pick. The quint was the coveted room because Dr Prebys made it out to be the greatest thing ever, and that was what we wanted. So I was chosen to be the runner and one of my friends was going to get my suitcase. They all handed me the passports and I got ready for the bus to stop. Other groups had planned much the same sort of thing so it was very tense. I was seated right in the front so when the doors opened, I jumped from my chair and went right out to the lobby, girls running behind me trying to catch up. We won and were awarded the quint. Not only was it separate from the rest in its own private section, it had two massive floors, two televisions, a fridge, a sitting area, an eating area, and an exercise bike. The birthday girl was extremely excited and said it was the perfect birthday present. We had the time of our life all week in that room dancing, singing, watching movies, eating copious quantities of food (such as nutella sandwiches, boxed wine, yogurt, and cookies; not all at the same time of course). After an hour of relaxation, we head to our next tour. The town center was neat, we saw a castle with a mote in the center and that was fun to see. Two girls did reports on two of Bassani's books which supposedly occurred in Ferrara. At the end of the day, we went to the hotel to relax. At the end of the day, we went to a nearby restaurant for some famous ravioli and went to sleep.

Wednesday, we met at 8am and left for Mantua. We visited the Palazzo Te and Palazzo Ducale. We saw tons of frescoes and gorgeous art. After lunch, which consisted of Nutella sandwiches, chips, and soda, we head back to Ferrara. The rest of the afternoon was mainly spent wandering the city and trying to recover from both the weekend before (which we were all still sore from) and the walking of those past two days. It was so much fun being with my group, and I really loved everything about our quint. The night felt like a sleepover, talking for a few hours before getting to sleep pretty early. A kind of funny thing that night was the drama over the bathtub. Some of the girls thought it was disgusting and were unhappy we had no shower so one of my friends asked if we would pretend to be hair stylists and wash her hair for her. It was hilarious. We all through on tshirts and sweatpants, set up a chair leaning back into the tub, and actually washed her hair for her so she wouldn't have to touch the basin.

Thursday was a bit more stressful for me. It was the day of my presentation. I had spent the hours on the bus the day before practicing and going over it multiple times trying to get everything just right. We left for Ravenna at 7:30 in the morning but the bus ride and morning seemed to drag longer, especially as we neared San Vitale where I would be speaking. Our first stop was San Apollinare in Classe which is a town outside Ravenna. It had a neat mosaic covered apse, and we all sat bundled in the freezing cold church as our professors told us all about the history of the church. Next was San Apollinare Nuovo in Ravenna. A girl did her presentation there, which was wonderful and interesting. After this church, we head to San Vitale. I shook the entire way. They tricked me at one point because we stopped and I thought I was going, but instead we were stopping at Dante's grave which is half way between the two churches. I laughed because we literally spent a quarter of the time here than we did at Bassani's grave. Finally we got to San Vitale and I got up to talk. Surprisingly, my voice came out completely clear and I was able to go on and on about all of the symbolism. Not only that, but people were actually interested! I got questions which I could answer and excited "Oh wow!!"s from the crowd. Afterwards, I was congratulated by the professors as well as my fellow classmates. It was a pretty good time. Two more presentation took place across the way at the Mausoleo of Galla Placidia, then we broke for lunch. We went to a restaurant for some amazing pasta and got back on the bus to see Mesola and Pomposa at which all we heard about was Bassani. We got back late to Ferrara so in a tired stupor, we grabbed food at the grocery store and went up to the room. The rest of the night was spent watching the Lizzie McGuire movie (which is a Disney movie about a girl going to Italy and being discovered by an Italian pop star) and dancing like idiots all around the room laughing hysterically.

Friday morning we got up early and met at 7am. We spent the morning in Padua visiting the city center, the Basilica, the markets, and the Scrovegni Chapel. The Scorvegni Chapel was the most interesting simply because of the silly sanitizing room. Everyone had to sit in a room for 20minutes to be 'sanitized' so that we didn't damage any of the frescoes with our presence. The whole thing was a huge joke. When we went through all of the space age doors into the chapel, and examined the frescoes, we noticed that on the far wall was the original entrance to the church with such huge cracks, we could see clear outside. The frescoes were stunning in the tiny room, though, so it was definitely worth visiting. We got lunch at a restaurant by the Basilica and head to the bus. The afternoon was spent in Vicenza where we visited the Teatro Olimpico and the Basilica. The day was very worthwhile and neat, but we were exhausted when we got back to Ferrara.

Saturday was the last day of the Northern Italy trip. We met at 8am, loaded up the bus with all of our luggage, returned our room keys, and went on our way to Bologna. We visited the Piazza Maggiore, Casa di Re Enzo, the Duomo, the Chiesa di San Domenico, Il Compianto, the two towers, and the university quarter. We pretty much rushed through all of the churches, which was a tad disappointing, but we got to see a lot of neat life-size terra-cotta sculptures representing the time just after the death of Christ. The towers were cool, though we didn't get to go up them since Saint Mary's was too cheap to buy us the tickets and kept us busy until they were closed. The university quarter was very cool, though. It was full of medieval structures, and we found out this was where the first woman graduated from university. At one point we passed a girl wearing a wreath around her neck, and apparently that marked she had just graduated from the university. We decided we should bring that tradition back to the US because it looked like fun (and we were verging on slap-happy at that point). The rest of the day was ours to explore Bologna so, of course, we ate and shopped. I got pasta with bolognese sauce, a few pastries, and various other snacks. That was all I bought. Some girls bought some clothes from the boutiques we looked through, but there really wasn't any 'souvenirs' (I guess since Bologna is known just for food and the university...) We left for Rome around 4 and got back to the Tiziano late at night. A bit later than expected because a few girls took over a half hour at the rest stop eating dinner... I guess they didn't realize it was only supposed to be a bathroom stop. We got some food quick at a cafe and got to sleep early since five of us were getting up early once again the next morning for Venice.

Venice was probably one of the coolest things I have ever experienced. Getting off the train, I didn't really know what to expect, but we literally stepped right out looking onto one of the canals with a bridge leading into the city. It was the official first day of Carnival so everyone around us had masks and confetti. We quickly made our way to the very first booth next to the station which had very cheap masks, bought one for each of us, and put them on right then and there. They didn't come off more than twice all day. We spent about the first hour wandering the city before making our way to the main Basilica for the official 'Flying of the Angel' ceremony and then mass. Little did we know that literally thousands of other people were doing the same. When we got to the piazza, we were forced into the middle by a crowd behind us and then were pretty much stuck motionless surrounded by hundreds of people in a small side area just to the back right of the main piazza. We couldn't see much but it was definitely the best view we were going to get. After about 20minutes of music and people dancing on a stage (which felt like miles away from us) the big screen showed us the woman who was to be flown from the top of the Basilica to the stage across the piazza. We watched in awe as she flew down, moving slowly in a massive red and purple gown, singing the entire way. As soon as she landed it was as if everyone around us was like "well, now that's over" and the entire mob started forcing its way in all directions. All we wanted to do was get to the doors of the church just a few yards from where we stood. We made a train, linking arms, and I led the group forcing myself between all of the people. Thank goodness we didn't bring any bags or anything because it would have been effortless to pickpocket us. When we got to the door, we removed our masks, and I spoke to the guard in my very best Italian requesting entrance for mass. He let us in with a smile and told us where to go. We were a few minutes late since we couldn't get through the crowd so we grabbed five seats at the back. I spent the entire mass in absolute amazement looking at the incredible architecture and golden details in the Basilica around me, which distracted me just enough to keep me from being able to understand the Italian. Mass ended and we made our way back out into the chaos. As soon as we got back through the crowd, we went to a small restaurant for lunch. The wait took forever, understandably, but the food was worth it. (Well, I thought so at least. One girl felt sick and couldn't eat her pizza, another got lasagna and was disappointed by how tiny it was, and another got just a salad. My pasta was massive and amazing!) After we finished eating, they practically through us out to get the next group in (the line was out the door). The rest of the day was literally spent trying to get through crowds, playing with confetti, taking pictures, riding in a gondola, and shopping. I found the perfect gifts for my grandparents and then got my parents a gift I think they will love. It was so much fun, but I don't think I can express how delightful it was to crawl in bed after a long shower that night. I am so very happy to have a relaxing week ahead of me (well, minus the midterm exams, but still...)

The only thing to note from today was the delicious lunch at the Tiziano (pasta with red sauce, cicken, potatoes, carrots, green beans, bread, and gelato) and the fact that I got an A on my presentation last week. Other than that, I have done nothing eventful; not even unpack or do laundry which needs to be done asap... Maybe I will go do that now. Well in any case, arrivederci!!

Firenze!!

Florence is absolutely spectacular!! I can't believe how amazing it all is. The green marble on the baptistry and the duomo is just stunning and the David was far larger and more incredible that I had thought it would be. I actually think, dare I say it, that I like Florence more than Rome. It was quiet, beautiful, and what I expect Europe to be. It had the nice city-like area and just around the corner were hills covered in homes and fun, winding paths to explore. Not to mention how much fun walking around the markets and shops was. I think I may very well have to go back and spend longer than just a day there at some point over my lifetime. For lunch, we stopped at a cute little place, and since I was starving, I got pizza and ravioli - both were splendid. It made me more excited for ravioli in Bologna! I got some good gifts for my family and added them to the fun little stack growing under my nightstand when I got back to the room. I may have to ship out a few boxes to everyone just to clear out space soon...

I am getting rather sleepy since I have been getting up so early everyday this weekend (we met at 5:15 this morning to get to the train station...) so I am going to quickly add my itinerary for next week and get to bed. I will upload bunches of pictures tomorrow afternoon when I am done with class!! Buonasera!

Northern Italy:

Tuesday Feb 22 - Arriving in Ferrara and sightseeing before checking in to our hotel (Hotel Ripagrande)

Wednesday Feb 23 - Mantua day trip, return to Ferrara after lunch

Thursday Feb 24 - Ravenna day trip (where I will give my art history presentation...), return to Ferrara before dinner

Friday Feb 25 - Padua day trip, return to Ferrara for dinner

Saturday Feb 26 - Bologna day trip before returning to Rome after lunch

Sunday Feb 27 - Either Venice for a Carnivale or the Vatican Museums (yet to be decided...)

Perugia!

Well Thursday passed slowly, but I got a lot done. Once again got myself up and went to the library, finally getting out of the television coma. Classes were long but went well and lunch was the usual sandwich. I handed in my papers for Italian and Mythology, and then had a very interesting lecture in Religion. Dinner was strange; I accidentally took a bite of anchovy pizza which was the most disgusting thing I have ever tasted. The ham and margherita pizza slices made up for it though. Then we all got ready to go out!! It was the first time two of the girls were going out to Scholars, and it was an amazing night. Beret man was a crazy Italian guy who danced around us all night. He was insane and actually started biting a friend of mine's hair... Then three guys from South Africa joined our group in crazy jumping dancing to everything from Party in the USA to Cee Lo Green's big hit and YMCA. It was absolutely the best night out, and I am happy to say that after this first month, I have completely settled in and found an amazing group to hang out with. Thats actually the group I went to Perugia with, but we will get to that in a second.

Friday was good, slept in a little and then hit the library. Our group Northern Italy trip is next week so I will have no access to computers or books and mid-terms are right when we get back... I got all my notes typed and I am going to finish them up monday night so I can study while traveling. (I am going to upload the full itinerary for the week tonight!) Lunch at the hotel was some strange meatball dish with mashed potatoes, and a strange pasta that had fish on it that scared me (especially after the anchovy fiasco). Directly after lunch, we went on a cannoli run and then went to the train station to get tickets for Verona. Sadly though, upon arrival at the train station, we found out Verona was sold out so we got a map and Eurail passes so we could decide where to go that night. We went directly to the library again when we got back to pick a place to go and work some more. After intensive googling, we decided upon Perugia - the home of chocolate with a Nestle chocolate factory. We had a fun night of sitting in our friend's room chatting and watching movies before sleep.

I got up at 6:00 to meet everyone downstairs at 6:30. I was ready by 6:20 so I went to knock on the other girl's door to see if they were ready. It was a good thing I knocked because they had overslept! We managed to get on the bus at around 7 after getting some breakfast and got a train to Perugia that left at 7:45. The train ride was fun, we all talked and took photos off all the rolling hills along the way there. Umbria is gorgeous! It was a slow train so we didn't get to Perugia until 10:30 but it was really fun and we got some short naps on the way. As the train pulled into the station, we all looked at each other with the "where the heck are we and why did we go here??" face. It did not look good. The buildings seemed rundown, the train station seemed liked it was collapsing, and we had no clue where to go. Yay for pre-planning. We decided to go around to the train station entrance to get information and as we walked around to the front, everything started looking up! Literally. And figuratively. The town looked far better from the other side of the crummy buildings and the front of the train station was gorgeous, so we got excited. The walk to the city center took a full hour but the views along the way were breathtaking. Finally we reached a pretty statue in the center of a rotary so we decided we had to be close. Around the next turn was a sign for the centro pointing down into a strange dark tunnel but large groups of people were going in and out so we went on ahead. It lead through an area that was reminiscent of a subway entrance and dumped at us a line of escalators. After riding three consecutive escalators, we ended up in this incredible, yet strange, old building that looked like a castle. The room had a massive statue in the corner that spun and past that was a large doorway. The structure was made of stone, and they were stacked unevenly like you see in ancient buildings, with grand arches and extremely tall ceilings with windows along the top letting in sunlight. As we past through the door, two free exhibits about Perugia were to our left along with the stairs leading out and a museum on our left. We went right, checking out the exhibits before starting up to yet another escalator up. At the top, we were dumped in the middle of a stunning street with pretty old buildings and a large duomo in the distance. For the rest of the day, we explored everywhere finding strange staircases, cute restaurants, fun chocolate stores, and a very cool outdoor market at which I bought a gift for my parents and grandparents. We finally stopped in an information booth to find out what was open since every single church we passed was closed but apparently we hit it on the wrong day for indoor sightseeing (the worst part was the chocolate factory was closed). We were ok with that though, we had fun exploring all the nooks and crannies of the neat little city on a hill. I have so many stories from today that it would be hard to write them all down in such a short time so I will give you the cllif-notes version and I can tell you all the details over the phone - when we got there we were all starving so we went to find a restaurant and found a cute little place in an alley that served Hot Dog pizza with fries on it. Two girls ordered it and we all tried it. It was rather odd. I had primavera pizza which was delightful. We found a park with a tiny playground hidden away that was a bit run down, a guy was near the entrance burning a random cardboard box and then we found a hill that we climbed to find a large collection of stuff and sleeping homeless people (needless to say, we ran). Then on the way down we tried to find a shorter route back and got stuck in a car tunnel with no real sidewalk, but luckily it was a very quiet day (and it did end up being a whole lot faster). We also spent some time in a McDonald's waiting for our train, which was surprisingly similar, but delightfully different at the same time. We got happy meals and milkshakes, our third of four meals today. The train ride back took forever and we got back over an hour late which was frustrating but no big deal. We grabbed sandwiches and head back to the rooms. Now I am finishing up charging my electronics and getting ready for Florence in the morning! We may even hit up Pisa on the way back! I cannot wait! Arrivederci!

Me dispiace!!!!!

I am so sorry I haven't posted lately!!! Things picked up fast and classes have decided assigning projects/papers all at the same time is brilliant... I will have to do some catching up, so here we go!!

I believe my last post ended with last friday night so I will start with last saturday. Woke up late, sleeping in was delightful, and went shopping with a couple girls. We window shopped all along the street with the beautiful designer stores. Then we went along the road leading to Piazza del Popolo and stopped in a few shops. Three of which were Sephora, H&M and Zara, and I found this funny since all three are stores in the US, too. They look exactly the same here too! We also stopped in a leather shop because I was looking for a jacket but didn't find anything I really loved. I was told Florence is the place to go since it is big in leather goods. Two of the girls here told me they found really good deals in Florence so I am waiting until this weekend to get one. Then we got some sandwiches and food out at a cafe. Back in the Hotel, I rewrote my essay, worked on my Italian essay, looked over and started some pre-writing for my Italian project, reviewed for my art history project, etc etc. By the time I got it mostly done I was starving again so my roommate and I ran down to Pascucci's for a quick snack. When we got back to the room, it was dark out, and we thought what a brilliant idea it would be to go to the hill by Circus Maximus for a view of the city at night! So we knocked on a few doors and three of us went off on a walk. Our lack of directions and having only been there once (on a rushed tour) we got VERY lost. We always knew how to get back to the hotel, but we had no clue where anything else was in reference to where we were. The evening continued with walking along creepy dark streets huddling together, laughing and running if we ever felt nervous, but we never went anywhere bad and were extremely careful. We always made sure there were people around in the street and restaurants before we turned down a street. When we finally got to the Circus Maximus it was an absolute relief. We stood at a crosswalk, waiting for the walk sign to turn green, laughing about everything we had seen and everywhere we had been on our way there. The walk sign went green and we started strolling across the very wide street. Suddenly, when we were about halfway across the street, the light started blinking oddly (none of us had ever seen a light do that, the walking signs have red, yellow, and green lights like regular street lights) so we started speeding up but the light went red and the cars started going with us standing there! We were practically screaming and felt like we were playing frogger getting the rest of the way across. After all the excitement and the hours that had gone by, we decided it was best if we just went back to the hotel. So we avoided crossing streets the rest of the way back, and took the path we now suddenly remembered from the tour... It took about 10min to get back which just made us laugh even more at how ridiculous the whole evening had been, but it was amazingly fun and exciting. I got to sleep pretty quick.

Sunday morning was slow, but once I got myself up I started on my work again. The library is closed on weekends which makes everything more difficult, but I continued what I could and got a lot done. In the late afternoon, the same two girls we have been hanging out with a lot lately knocked on our door wondering if we wanted to go get some food and walk around a bit. We quickly grabbed our coats and off we went. We spent the whole afternoon out and about trying to find a place to eat. We walked all the way to the Jewish Ghetto but couldn't find a restaurant that we wanted to stop in so we went back to the area around us and found a nice place to eat by the Pantheon (I got penne with a spicy tomato sauce, but it wasn't spicy at all). Lunch ended up taking forever because the service was really slow but it was fun to just sit and talk. When we finished, they walked with me to the post office to find out about my package but they were not helpful. One girl decided she had to show us all her favorite bakery so we decided to go get cannoli's! My first real Italian cannoli and it was amazing!! I think I may be obsessed since I have been craving them now every night. So after we ate the delicousness, we head back to the hotel to get some work done before dinner and mass. I got working right away and when I finally got something done it was time to head to Delfino's for a quick dinner. I got a tomato, mozzarella, and prosciutto thing that was reminiscent of a hot pocket, but far better tasting. Mass was delightful, I read the first reading. After mass, we head back to the hotel and relaxed. A few girls went for a walk but I was far too tired. I guess it was a good thing I didn't go because when they got near the vatican they were swarmed by seagulls who proceeded to poop all around while the girls ran screaming... I talked to some friends and got to sleep.

Monday morning, I woke up very early for music class. We spent most of the class watching an opera that was very good, but nearly impossible to follow since we skipped half of it and kept going out of time order. He didn't want us to watch the whole thing for some reason so he had picked out specific scenes but if we just watching it all probably would have taken less time. He took forever to find what he was looking for. Class ended and I went back to the library to begin my intensive research for my Art History project. I have to give a 10 minute presentation about the Presbytery section of the San Vitale church in Ravenna on our northern Italy trip next week. I managed to get all of my initial information down, including an introduction about the history of Ravenna / where in time the building of the church fits in and the basic layout of the church. I did a little bit of research on my mosaics but stopped working on it after two or so hours to get back working on my Italian paper due tomorrow (thursday). I surprisingly got it done and was very happy about that. After the library, we had lunch at the Tiziano. We had some weird meat stuff with sauce on it and gelato. Art history came up next. Nothing too exciting, just a long hour and a half of intensive note taking. After class, I head back to the library once again. I worked until around 7, then went to Pascucci's with a group of girls for dinner. I was proud of my surprising productive day. When I got back to my room, I relaxed for a bit, talked to people online, and finished up some homework. A few friends asked me to look over their Italian projects for the intro Italian class. I was happy to help! Then one of them agreed to look over my myth paper since she had myth last semester. She had me fix one sentence and said that she thought he will really like it. It was a nice boost of confidence. The rest of the night was spent on the computer.

Tuesday I got up around 10, stripped my bed and cleaned up the room a little to prepare for the maids, and head back to the library. I read my reading assignment for Italian with the help of handy dandy google translate. I did another quick review of my Italian paper since I had the time, and finally went to submit my myth paper online. At first, the librarian gave me the wrong password to turnitin.com so that didn't work, then she found the right one and I got on, but my professor hadn't posted the assignment yet so I couldn't submit it anyway. I got a bit worried but decided I would just print it off if he never set it up. Then I was off to Italian class. We discussed our most recent reading assignment and got another assignment to do along with the essay, which made me even more thankful I had it done. Class was fine, and interesting enough, but I was beginning to feel fried. After that, I sat around on the couches in the school building reviewing the reading for myth before class. That class also went well, but my professor sort of lost it on a girl who made a comment about studying to be a lawyer - and it was not nice stuff. She came pretty close to tears, and tried to stand up for herself, but he kept on going, cutting her off with rapid fire lawyer jokes. Let's just say it wasn't the best class I have had yet this semester. I got my religion test back first thing when that class started. I did well, but not as well as I had hoped. I got everything perfectly right except that one question I said I thought I had missed something on. Apparently that one thing I forgot lost me 3 points out of 25. Oh well, I will do better next time! We started our next topic - social ethics - and began with a lecture on how theological ethics transitions into social ethics so well. It was all very interesting. Class ended precisely at 7 so we all sprinted to dinner as fast as we could. We had lasagna, which I found to be delightfully delicious (others said it was terrible, and some girls got sick from it... I guess I got a the best piece). After I finished eating, I head back to my room. To reward all of my this week, and since I had practically everything done already, I watched all my favorite tv shows and a movie before sleep. Apparently that wasn't my best idea. Instead of refreshing my mind and helping me continue working hard, it made me feel far more lazy and instead of getting up to go to the library in the morning like I had planned, I slept in and watched a few more tv shows.

Once noon rolled around, I started getting up and getting ready for the day. I finished my last Glee episode, and went for lunch with a few girls before our two lectures of the day. They were long, in a row, and boring. One of them was technically my art history course, so I would have needed to go anyway. I decided it was like killing two birds with one stone! When they were over, I returned to my room with the intention to study. Nope, the ora of laziness has taken over. I looked online for trips and am booking Ireland, Paris and this weekends excursions to Verona and Florence. Oh well, I will be productive again tomorrow, I swear. Time passed fast and the next thing I knew it was 7:05 so I sprinted down the stairs to get in line for dinner. Luckily, I was just late enough that there was barely a line and most everyone was already eating. Getting food was a breeze, no hitting trays with anyone. I ate my tomato soup and fried chicken/meat patty thing with potatoes slowly, and head back to the room to get ready for mass. The four of us girls head down to mass, the only four there (which is a tiny part of the reason we go...) It was short, and I read part again. Afterwards we made a quick grocery run. I am now sitting here writing this and attempting to motivate myself to do something. I guess I should get going and see what I can get done tonight. Arrivederci!!

I disturbi della vita in Italia...

Hmm.... In order to accept a present shipped from home, I have to pay a tax over double the cost of the original gift, fill out three forms completely in Italian, and go to the post office to discuss with them what the purpose of the package is. Not to mention I won't even get the box for another couple days since it cant be moved from Milan until it has finished being processed.... Thank you Italian government. As a general request, while I love them dearly and hate to say it, please do not send me anything over the rest of the semester. Apparently there is a possible 5 euro charge and paperwork for cards, too. So emails are just perfect! Grazie!

Me piace pizza e gelato!

Thursday was a delightful day - slept in late, got lunch at Pascucci, went to Italian in which we watched a rather bizarre film, then mythology (got a perfect score on my project and first quiz), then religion. It went along like normal, and dinner was pizza and soup as is the case with every thursday evening. I spent the rest of the night studying religion for my exam and preparing to lead the discussion in mythology. Got to sleep pretty early, and got up pretty early the next morning. At 4:30 I was woken up by my cell phone - I guess my parents accidentally called the wrong number - oh well! I found it funny, and fell back to sleep without a problem. My alarm went off at 9 and I got up to continue studying and get ready before lunch and my meeting with my myth professor about my first paper. For lunch we had bow-tie pasta with pesto and fish with mashed potatoes and green beans. Delicious! My meeting with my professor went well, he enjoyed my essay, he just wanted me to strengthen my thesis to be more argumentative. We talked about it and turns out I came up with a far better idea in the end, so I may very well just rewrite the whole thing for next week. I am writing about how Achilles is the most relatable character in the Iliad according to today's standards because he is the only character who shows his own perspective loud and clear. He fights authority but still does the 'right thing' (according to his times). I am excited about it. Myth class went really well. I lead the conversation (each member of the class has to once over the semester) and it seemed to go well. I am excited, I think I am going to do really well in that class. The religion test came next and it was crazy easy! I had everything memorized and actually felt like I studied too hard. I couldn't remember one part of one question, but I really think I did well. After class, I went to dinner with a group of girls to a small pizza place. I got a pizza with egg on it and we shared white wine. It was fabulous! Then we went for gelato at Giolitti's and ate in sitting on the steps of the fountain outside the pantheon. While sitting, we actually ran into a girl from my high school! What are the odds? I am now enjoying a relaxing evening watching movies in my comfy room, my first non-stressful or busy or work filled night in a week or so. It is rather delightful. Well I should be getting to sleep soon as it is nearing 1am, so goodnight! Arrivederci!