Happy April Fool's Day!

Just finished up my last classes. Exams next week and then we're done... and it's really weird. Time flys, but I really don't know where the last 3 months went. I can walking into the hostel at 5 in the morning on the very first day in Macerata like it was yesterday and now we have to pack up our apartments, clean the spaghetti off the kitchen walls, throw out the empty wine bottles, and leave in a week.

Since I last wrote, we went to Rome for our last excursion. We saw everything that Filiberto could pack into 3 days, of course and it was awesome. The weather was beautiful which was completely different than our luck in Florence. We did the Colosseum and walked around Palatine Hill, toured the Vatican museums, Sistine Chapel, climbed St. Peter's, saw the Forum, Bernini's fountain, the Pantheon, etc...oh yeah, and found gelato. An essential. I don't know if I like Rome or Florence better, they are kind of like apples and oranges though. Rome is definitely more touristy, but we found a couple places in the few days we were there that most tourists don't know about like this park with orange trees and a great view of the city.

I met my tandem partner, Serena, for the last time on Tuesday night. We went to Pathos, a local cafe. She was leavin
g to go home for Easter Break. Italians get a whole week for Easter, kind of like our spring break. She isn't coming back until the 12th so I'll be gone before she gets back. I don't know if I'll ever see her again, but I'm glad I decided to get a partner because it was cool to have an Italian friend...I wish we had more time to hang out though. She was sweet and I didn't get to know her very well. She also made me speak Italian sometimes, so I would have learned a lot with her...

Tomorrow Molly, Alyson, and I leave on a 5 am train to Naples. The tentative schedule is to do Pompeii Friday, Capri and Visuvius Saturday, and Naples Sunday. We're staying in Sorrento and apparently there are a lot of Easter celebrations throughout all of Italy. So we'll see how southern Italy does Easter. I'm so excited..It's supposed to be warm and beautiful. We're gonna try to find the pizzeria in Naples that invented the Margerita pizza. So...hopefully, somewhere in there I'll get some studying done?

I need to go start cleaning out my apartment out...and packing.

Happy April Fools Day!
Buona Pasqua!

Keeping it classy in Siena

Teddi is engaged!

I just want to say CONGRATULATIONS to my best friend Teddi on her engagement-I'm so happy for you both and I miss you!!

Assisi

Saturday Alyson and I went to Assisi by ourselves just for the day. The program usually schedules it as one of the excursions, but this semester they didn't so we wanted to see it.

We decided we need to start praying to Saint Christoper. Apparently he is the saint of traveling and we have the worst luck with traveling. I should have known it wouldn't go smoothly when my alarm clock didn't wake me up and I woke up 5 minutes before the bus was supposed to leave. Oops. We took a later bus and didn't have a lot of time in Assisi because the only bus home was supposed to leave around 3pm. Well, the bus never came. Italian public transportation might be efficient, but it's a real pain in the ass....So we took a 4-hour train home (Assisi is like an hour and a half away).

Assisi itself was pretty. We went to San Francesco's Basilica and saw Cimabue and Giotto's frescos. We stalked other tour groups and listened to the guides so we knew what exactly we were looking at. That's definitely the way to do it because you can just walk away when you don't want to listen anymore. There was a voice over the loudspeakers telling everyone to be quiet in italian, a deep, man's voice..coming from somewhere above us, shouting "Silenzio" and "Non foto in Basilica" at random times. Of course God would be Italian.

We walked around the city the rest of the time...I found a wine glass outside the Albergo Giotto-a hotel, so I have a little souvenir now. Alyson said it was Karma that we missed our bus because I took the wine glass. Maybe, but I don't think Giotto would have cared too much.

That's pretty much it for now. My computer turned on last night and worked for a little...then died again. But I did back up some files in it's short life span, so that's the positive side. A few months ago, I'd be freaking out if my computer crashed like that. I think the Italians are rubbing off on me...that or all this pasta is affecting my brain. We asked our Italian teacher why Italians aren't obese from their food intake--3 course meals for lunch everyday, pastries and cappuchinos for breakfast, and pretty good size dinner. She didn't really know..

Happy St. Patty's Day!

I'm wearing green today, and I made my room mate change into something green too, I don't know how serious the Italians to St. Patrick's Day, but I'm guessing they don't dye their rivers..

One thing any college student will find at some point is that big old building where they keep books. You know, Italy has them too and I found Macerata's. It has computers with free internet access. Bingo.

Just got out of painting class, we're working on flowers now...everyone's doing the same one, but it's a technique excersize and I'm just happy I don't have to stare at my self-portrait anymore. Yesterday I smashed a bottle of wine while I was cleaning the kitchen. Not just any wine..My favorite red wine that I was saving for when Mom, Dad, and Kyle come. That's gotta be bad luck. I found out which way our kitchen floor is tilted..and that it's titled so far that it doesn't take more than a minute for the wine to soak the tile. While I was running around trying to find a mop and stepping over shattered glass, my abandoned pasta was boiling over. I'm glad no one else was there to see me..

There are professors here to review the AHA program this week. From Oregon, and Alma, and one from Ball State. They're sitting in our classes. It's kinda funny to see our professors change up our classes, sticking in more breaks than usual, etc..

We're going to Loreto and seeing caves tomorrow for our last excursion before Rome! Loreto is the third most holy city in Europe, following the Vatican and somewhere in France, I think. People make pilgrimages there. It should be pretty. Saturday, Alyson and I are taking a daytrip to Assisi, a city halfway between here and Florence. We've learned about a lot of art that's located there in class and usually it's one of the excursions, so we want to go see it while we have time.

For Easter weekend, we have Friday and Monday off so Molly, Alyson, and I are going down to Naples, Pompeii and Capri. I've heard it's beautiful, so I'm excited.

And yes, I'll be in church on Easter.

Italy killed my computer..

Our electronics over here drop dead right and left...and my poor computer was one of them right before we left for Florence last week. I think I just need a new charger, actually but I don't know where to get one. I can still use AHA computers, but it might be more difficult. We'll see..I'll get blogs up somehow.

Anyway, quick note. Florence was awesome, but the weather was rainy and cold the whole time. It was strange to be back four years later. The city itself hadn't changed, but I have I guess. I tried Tripe-the official Florentine food. Some of us went to Siena for the weekend and I fell in love. Siena was beautiful. We wandered around the huge market on the piazza all day Saturday. Sunday was just as pretty. We found gelato, got sunburnt, and ventured out of the city a little.

I'll write more when I can get my computer restored (hopefully). Cross your fingers!

Ciao!

Time is flying..

So I'm sorry I've been leaving you hanging for the past couple weeks. I left for our spring break trip on one hour of sleep, packed the morning I left, and forgot my journal (and camera)! I didn't buy one until my second day in Dublin and didn't write in it until the flight back into Italy. So...it's not exactly finished or I would have copied the whole thing on here.

Today we were supposed to go to Macerato and see a castle for our Friday excursion, but they pushed it back to tomorrow because the weather is crappy today. We had a cold front come through and they were expecting snow. Dove sei, Sol? Anyway, I was desperate for a day to chill out and put my life back together, it seems like I have been running on empty since we got back from break.

Time is really flying, we only have a month left. I'm excited because I'm going to a lot of different places in the next few weeks, Florence, Rome, and somewhere for Easter I haven't decided on yet. But it's gone so fast, and I feel like I've known everyone in the program forever now. It's gonna be weird to leave.

I made meatballs last night :) They turned out pretty good too. I'm getting this Italian cuisine down, I think...Then I attempted to make crepes because I was doing a paper the night Alyson made crepes for everyone. The first of mine turned out pretty good, and then they turned into more like pancakes. I can't wait for French food.

Yesterday was Grace's birthday so we overloaded her on cioccolato


This is the cafe di cioccolato by our apartment. The hot chocolates here are like pudding.