Venice

Ravenna--- (Mosaics)

Un giorno nella vita di me

questa settimana-

i feel like my weeks are getting less and less interesting. but that doesn't mean i shouldn't share, right? :-D

I'm pretty sure i left off with last monday (a week ago from yesterday). I went to class as usual. We had painting at the ponte vecchio (because that's what we're painting), and then i went to lunch at gustapanino. afterwards i went back to apartment to study for my italian quiz and do my homework. so much fun. and then i went to italian and took my quiz (i got a 24/25). afterwards my friends and i went to dinner earlier than usual (before 7...that's so early right? haha) i ate tortellini and salad. it was really good. but i'm really sad to say that i haven't had gellato in 2 weeks. i'm too broke. how depressing :-(

Tuesday i went to class in the morning and my professor bored me once more with stuff that i've already learned, and then i got to go to my favorite class afterwards. Peter- my early renaissance art professor- is so much fun! we went to the Santa Maria Novella church and talked about who designed the facade. and then we wandered around the city while he rode his bike around. it was fun.

wednesday- painting at the ponte vecchio again. i attempted to be done with it, but my professor never thinks anything is good enough and told me i wasn't. so i guess i'm not done yet. oh well. then i had my first day of tourguiding- which i've already told you about because i couldn't wait to share :-D it was fun. i'm excited to go back again this week despite the fact that i have exams and papers to write.
that night my friend Sage and I went to the duomo for drinks and people watched. the tourists are dying down this time of year so the square isn't as crowded at night as it was when we first got here, but there are still a lot of interesting people out at night. not like dalton, ohio. or grove city. a little more eclectic.

thursday- class again. Peter didn't take us anywhere fun but he invited us to come with him and his canadian class from another university to Ravenna on saturday so some of my friends and i signed up to go. then i went back to my apartment and worked on my papers until my eyeballs felt like they were going to fall out of my head. i'm sick of staring at this computer screen. i wish i was looking at architecture or paintings instead- but our professors are mean and don't care. except peter who told us that he wouldn't give us a paper if it wasn't required of him because he'd much rather us go to a museum and be out exploring the city and learning that way than sitting inside writing about things we don't care about.

friday- i slept. yup. that's what i did. i get so much sleep here. it's really rather amazing. i'm going to die going back to grove city.
then i did more studying and papers--- disclaimer: it may seem like i talk about doing papers and studying a lot, but compared to the good ol' gcc this is nothing. so don't worry- i'm still giving Florence a good run for its money :-D
oh yeah- and it rained friday. a lot. and got cold. i've been really happy since it's still been in the 70s here while its getting cold back home (not to be mean or anything), but this week its going to be in the 60s!!!! how horrible. i wore long sleeves today. :-( i was sad.

Saturday- had to get up at 5:45AM to meet peter and his canadians to go to Ravenna. Which is beautiful. They have amazing mosaics. but the canadians weren't very sociable or nice. so my friends from my school and i basically hung around each other and ventured about the town and listened to peter tell us about every little thing. he knows everything. no joke.
that night i met my friend Michelle's parents. they took me out to dinner at the Goldenview- it's this restaurant right on the Arno that's on our meal plan (we get meal tickets to use at restaurants....it's really convenient).

Sunday- this day was a waste of day. it was the last sunny day i've seen and i spent it inside working on stuff. and i feel like i got nothing done. so stupid.

monday (aka yesterday)- class- painted at a piazza and got a lesson in art restoration by some italian couple who are in the business. they showed us how to put gold on frames. super cool. then i went back to my apartment and wrote a paper that was due today. end of story.

that leads me to today. i took a midterm today for Peter's class. it was super easy- i hope i did good. i dont want Peter to think he failed me if i did bad....

this weekend i go to Venice with my school (they set up the trip for all of us along with a trip to Rome in november). we'll be there friday night and saturday night. sidenote awesomeness: Peter's coming! hahaha i'm excited.

then next wednesday i head to Prague to see my friends that are staying there from Grove City. so free place to stay! yay! I'm super excited because a girl from my sorority studied there last fall and it'll be really nice to see where she was all that time.

va bene. é fine. arrivederci!
bacio!

first tour

gave my first tour yesterday at the Duomo.
i was very nervous. but i had very nice people.
and i got tips :-D

so i would also like to add that i've not spent any money this week- but MADE money. aren't i just the little entrepreneur?

midterms are next week. so this weekend will be nothing but studying. these classes are getting frustrating- not grove city hard, but they dont teach anything in class and then expect us to know all this information for the tests. i'm not used to this. oh well...

well- that's all. i'll update again soon. ciao ciao

on a scale of 1 to fun- i'm having fun

Positanoferry boat ride to Capri

Capriwe climbed that to get to the top.....basically a whole mountain.

after chair lift to the top.- view of the whole island!

7 hostel

pompei

i just had to get sick this week didn't I?

Monday was a pretty typical day. classes, then out to eat with friends. we went to a pretty awesome restaurant called il teatro. then to the old stove.

Tuesday i was sick as a dog. sitting through class was painful. I didn't even see it coming. no symptoms or anything. just boom- SICK! aches, couch, you know- all that gross stuff. but i went to class nonetheless because i'm saving up my skips for other such things (like when mommy and daddy come...cause they're actually coming now...bought tickets and everything! i'm so proud!) went out to a mexican restaurant for dinner- got a burrito. wasn't as good as mexican back home.

wednesday i went to class and was supposed to do my tourguiding for the first time, but i was too sick. i called the school and they told me it was no big deal and that they didn't want me to infect innocent tourists. so i stayed in and slept. then i went to the esselunga (our supermarket) because i was out of cough drops and food. but i took the bus back so i didn't die. and then i ate greek food with my friends. this greek restaurant is fabulous. they have all the best food! i'm going to have to take mom and dad there. they'll freak out at the dessert menu. :-D

then even though i was sick i trudged through a walk around town. i've gotten to that point where i'm afraid i'm going to miss something or regret not doing something. i only have two months left! time is going by so quickly!

thursday i went to class and packed for my weekend trip to the amalfi coast. then we left that night and drove alllllll night. we arrived at our hostel around 2:30 in the morning. but our hostel was the nicest hostel on this planet. i didn't know they even existed like that. it was so clean, had a bar and restaurant, rooftop lounge, flatscreen tv's, free internet...you name it- 7 hostel had it!

then we left bright and early friday morning for positano. it was raining so that was a bummer. we weren't able to go out on the boats and go into any caves or go cliff-jumping like we'd planned because the water was too rough. so we just wandered around the town. and no offense to positano, but there isn't much to do there. and since i wasn';t feeling good we decided to grab a bus to amalfi. so we bought our tickets and sat at the bus stop. and waited. and waited. and waited. for 4 hours!!!!!! not even kidding. 1 hour we waited for our tourguide who was late. and then another 2 hours we waited for the bus. it finally came but was too full for us to get on. so we waited another hour! we finally got on, but we ran out of time! so we literallly rode the bus there, and had to ride it straight back. we didn't even get off. so technically i've been to amalfi, and seen amalfi (which is sooo beautiful) but i haven't set foot in amalfi. i was a little ticked off. that night we all went to bed really early after eating dinner at the hostel. we were really tired.

friday we got up and got on the bus to head to capri. then we took a private ferry around the island. they showed us where the blue grotto is (even though it was closed for the day and we couldn't go in....story of our lives). then we climbed up this HUGE...HUGE....HUGE....incline up to a garden that overlooked the island. it was worth the climb but i felt so sick after that. then we were free for lunch, etc. i got a pair of sandals made- capri is famous for their custom made leather sandals, so i splurged a bit and bought myself a souveneir...wearable souveneir. haha. then we got pizza that was soooo delicious! after that we didn't have much more time, but my roommate tiffany and i went up this chair lift to the top of the mountain. the ride was about 15 minutes and the view from the top was fantastic! after that we wandered back down to the ferry- sat in the sun for a few minutes- put our feet in the water (yes- even though it was october the water was warm and the sun was hot!!!!)- and then we got back on the ferry for about an hour ride back to sorrento. then we had to climb another huge incline back up to our bus. basically the story of my life- lots of walking, stairs, and inclines. that night the hostel was having a live band, etc and people from the town were strolling in. so we hung out on the roof. but i was pooped so i went to bed before midnight.

sunday- pompei

pompei is so awesome! we got a tourguide who explained to us the history of the ruins and what each of the buildings used to be. it was so interesting. they even had a brothel! who knew. then we hopped back on the bus for our 6 hour ride back. end of trip.

today- monday- just got back from class. cooked myself some spaghetti and ate some nutella on cookies. that leads me to now.

ciao

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