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!!
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