J-Term Diaries: Sarah Morehead

Today, we awoke to sunlight streaming into our room; perfect weather for a journey that would take us all over Rome on foot. Jess, Cari, Matt, Kevin, Kendall, Meredith and I are all seriously broke, so that was a factor in our planning. Our whole group met in the lobby at 9:30 and I was secretly very proud of myself because after two weeks I have finally wised up and I took cheese and salami roll ups from the breakfast buffet and stored them in a Ziploc bag in my purse. We walked to the metro station, purchased our tickets, and boarded the subway like old pros (it was the same ride we took on Wednesday). Instead of going into Saint Peter’s Square we walked along the wall to the Vatican until we came to the entrance of the Vatican museum.

The Vatican Museum houses the Pope’s personal collection of art. All I knew about it before today was that the grand finale of the museum route is the Sistine Chapel, Raphael’s School of Athens is there, there is a “really good” Egyptian Exhibit, and that about 1/3 of the gallery space is not open to the public (according to my Italy guidebook). I had also heard about the famous double helix staircases that help with the traffic flow of the visitors – which is a very high volume.

Professor Headrick warned us when we arrived around 10 this morning that the museum closes at 6 pm, so we should make sure we get through to the Sistine Chapel. This put us under quite a bit of pressure because we had a lot on our to do list for the day. I was hoping to make it up to the top of the dome of Saint Peters after visiting the museum, but some people had already been up there and even though we tried to move quickly through the Vatican Museum we were there until after 1 pm. It is truly an impressive collection of art.

When we were planning our day last night we each picked one thing that we “had” to see and then we plotted a route to take us to all of them. This gave us a diverse collection of sites and our varying interests also proved to be beneficial to our visit to the Vatican Museum. Some of us were interested in art history, some in religion, and some in the history of the Egyptians. We all had various pieces of knowledge to bring to the table, and by 10:30 I found myself in an argument about the difference between The Ascension and the Transfiguration of Jesus. 

We had to search extensively but we finally found the Carriage House within the maze that was the enormous museum. The Carriage House has “pope mobiles” dating way back – everything from chariots and carriages to Mercedes and Land Cruisers. That was an unexpected and very cool exhibit.

The museum was very crowded but it was pretty understandable considering how many incredible pieces of work are all under the one roof. I finally saw Raphael’s School of Athens, one of my all time favorite paintings. There was some really neat Etruscan jewelry that we all agreed we would love to have (imitations) of.

Seeing the Sistine Chapel in person was an unreal experience; we were light headed from the vibrancy of the colors and the sheer number of “things” happening in the frescos. Again, I’m sorry that this is a common theme for me when it comes to Michelangelo’s work, I really can’t describe it, images of it cannot do it justice, and you really just have to go see it in person.

After we left the chapel and found our way out of the museum – what is it with Italian museums – you follow “exit” signs for about 45 minutes through staircases, ramps, and all kinds of twists and turns and then finally you pop out in some alley. We were all starving so Matt W, Meredith and I decided to take everyone to the cool street outside of the Vatican walls that has tons of cheap outdoor cafes with umbrellas and heat lamps. They also had great set menu deals – pasta or pizza, any drink, and gelato or cappuccino for only 10 euros (that’s the one we picked)!

It was probably the best lunch I have had in Italy… I know I say that a lot. Here is how we proceeded to spend the rest of the afternoon: Hadrian’s Mausoleum (Jess’s pick), the Ara Pacis (Matt’s pick), the Pantheon (everyone), the synagogue (Cari), Trajan’s Column (Kevin’s pick), a long but unfruitful search for the Colossal Constantine (Kendall’s pick), the Trevi Fountain (we had all already been but it was on the way, and how often is THE Trevi fountain on the way somewhere in your daily travels?), and finally the Spanish Steps (my pick). The pictures – coming soon – are worth more than anything I could describe.

 We regrouped, had a brief “class” session during which our final exam was handed out – due before the wheels hit the runway at Dulles tomorrow night, and headed to dinner. I had a delicious “last supper” of pasta with meat sauce, bread with olive oil, balsamic vinegar and parmesan cheese, followed by beef marinated with artichokes. As I gobbled mine up I noticed that everyone else was just picking at their beef. About the same time, everyone noticed that my plate was clean as a whistle. So that was pretty funny. Dessert was the best I have had since we have been in Italy. It was essentially vanilla icing wrapped in sugar cookie dough with chocolate sauce and cocoa. It seemed like a great way to go out, but not everyone at the table was served the same dessert, so I can’t speak for them.

Carlo made his final toast/speech – he has done a toast every night since we have been here…. Just ask someone on the trip – there are some videos floating around. Professor Headrick said that we need to have our bags packed by 8:30 tomorrow morning OR ELSE. I asked if I could just stay permanently.

My internet is about to run out, but I hope that everyone has enjoyed reading because I have enjoyed myself immensely and the only thing I enjoyed more than my little escapades around Italy was sharing the stories with the world. Keep checking for pictures over the next few days… we have some real winners (but some uploading issues). 

Time to pack one last time. 

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This morning we boarded our bus and were given radio receivers and headphones. We checked to make sure that they were working, and set off towards the Coliseum. We disembarked and turned out our headsets to begin our tour, and naturally, mine was not working. The bus with the extras had already left, so my only option was to stay at our guide’s side so that I could take in the information. I felt bad for staying on her heels, which must have been annoying, but I didn’t want to miss any of the information because I was very much looking forward to this visit.

The Coliseum was built as a way to appease the Roman citizens, who were not happy with the amount of money spent on and the scale of the Emperor’s palace. All of the games that were held at the Coliseum were free, and the opening games lasted for 100 days straight. In the morning there were fights with animals (animals killed by people, people killed by animals, and animals killing animals) and in the afternoon there were fights with people fighting people. We entered the arena though an area that had been the emperor’s box, and, even though the building is in ruins, it was amazing. The Coliseum was originally very grand, but over the years most of the “good stuff” was stripped to be used in other building projects. I found myself wishing that a replica of the Coliseum as it stood when it opened was standing next door so that we could visit both (and it would make a sweet venue for sporting events, concerts, etc.). Our guide had a book that had overlay pages so that you could see what it would look like, so that helped a lot. The building is surprisingly “modern” in that there are not many differences between it and stadiums we use today. The seating was divided by social class, and the only people who sat above the lowest class were the women, if they were allowed to be in attendance. The floor of the arena, which was wooden, is long gone, but it provides an excellent view of the elevators that were used to raise fighters to the arena. After the guide gave us all of this information and more, we were free to climb to the top and have a walk/look around. One thing that I thought was very interesting was that our guide pointed out that the asphalt that was put down for the jubilee in 2000 is falling apart, while areas where the original floor is are still perfectly intact.

We checked out the Arch of Titus and then walked into a park that contains the Palatino and the Roman Forum. The coolest part of this for me was that we were walking the grounds upon which Rome was founded. The Palatino offered spectacular views of the city, and the forum reminded me of visiting Jamestown I know that Jamestown is an infant compared to Ancient Rome, but I really like visiting Jamestown because when I visit I get the feeling that something big started here (which it did, obviously, but I’m referring to the vibe I get when I’m walking around). The sheer history of the place is astounding. My headset was in and out – I got it to work for a little while with my ipod headphones, but mostly I had to try to stay close to the guide.

A call from Franco the bus driver meant that we were running late, so we hustled over to City Hall, which was designed by Michelangelo and has steps made for horses leading up to it because the noble people refused to walk up the hill because they were noble. 

Franco picked us up and we headed to the train station to eat lunch in the cafeteria there. It was very crowded, and I did not particularly enjoy my pasta (expensive and green vegetables of unknown origin). I know that our guide brought us there for lunch with the best intentions -  but I would have rather picked out an obscure hole in the wall for my second to last Italian lunch. We probably wouldn’t have had time for that, though, and it was already pretty late, so it all worked out.

We boarded the bus and headed out to Saint Paul’s Cathedral, which is gorgeous and houses the remains of Saint Paul.

I am exhausted, so that’s where I am going to stop for now… more to come! 

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So Saint Paul’s Cathedral was gorgeous – in my opinion one of the prettiest in the world. I felt like I was at the beach both inside and outside of the church. While we were touring the cathedral a crew of workmen were setting up for an event. I’m struggling to figure out what kind of event this is because it appeared that they had gated off the majority of the church (like where there would be pews for people to sit) and the workmen were in the process of assembling scaffolding on each side of the nave. I have decided that Italians think that scaffolding enhances the architecture because it is everywhere. The fact that they were putting it up inside of a cathedral in preparation for a celebration (and it was only about 10 feet tall and free standing so its not like it was supporting the ceiling or the wall) pretty much confirmed my suspicion that they just like to have it around.

I went down to look at the place where Saint Paul’s remains are and I thought that it was pretty cool that I had seen the final resting places of Saint Peter and Saint Paul in two days.

I was very excited to find a coffee vending machine on my way out – I got a latte from one every morning at the University of Alicante. They are very cheap (like 50 cents) and there are tons of varieties – espresso, café Americano, cappuccino, latte, macchiato, dulce (sweet), decaf, etc. Once you put in your money and make a selection a little cup pops out and the coffee is made before your eyes and when you take the cup out there is a little spoon in it so you can stir it up. I started walking towards the bus with my macchiato and realized that it was slowly backing up. I haven’t had a watch the entire time I have been here, so I was a little freaked out that I was late and I was getting left. I walked a little faster, then ran, then walked again (I was sure everyone was on the bus laughing at me), but when I arrived at the bus there were only a few people on it and Franco the driver was just moving the bus around a little (Franco does what he wants).

Our next stop was the Catacombs. I was looking forward to the catacombs because I am a fan of movies like Indiana Jones, National Treasure, and The Da Vinci Code/ Angels and Demons. However, this appears to be a case where fantasy is much more interesting than reality. Although we were told that there were three levels (downward), we only went down one level, and we had to stick together the whole time and find the guide. I would have preferred if I was given a map and told I had 30 minutes to find my way out, but I don’t think many people would have found that to be a fun activity. It actually reminded me of places you go to play laser tag indoors – dark, kind of creepy, funny smell…

I am glad that we had a guide though because he was able to point out all sorts of interesting facts and explain the facts behind the catacombs. I am running short on time so let me just clarify some common misconceptions. Christians were buried in the catacombs for economical reasons; land was expensive, so burying people under a building on land that was already owned makes sense. They would dig deeper when they ran out of room (hence 3 levels in this catacomb). Catacombs sometimes served as a gathering spot for prayer/worship for Christians, but it wasn’t secretive or booby trapped or anything. Many of the remains are gone from the catacombs because as Christians began to build churches the bodies were moved because no one was taking care of the catacombs.

I thought it was a cool experience and I wish we could have stayed longer/explored on our own. The catacomb we visited had over 7 miles (there are about 50 miles of catacombs in Rome), and mostly now I am curious about visiting the others.

We bid farewell to Franco, our loyal driver for the majority of the trip, when we arrived back at the hotel and had about an hour to regroup before dinner. Our big excitement after dinner was getting to watch Man of the House (Chevy Chase, Farrah Faucett and Johnathan Taylor Thomas) on the English language movie channel. While we were watching this cinematic masterpiece we plotted out our final Italian adventure. 

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I will admit that even though it was advertised as a special highlight of our trip, I was not incredibly excited about seeing the pope. Don’t get me wrong, I understand that he is a HUGE deal. Professor Headrick explained how lucky we were to have the tickets and that we would be in the same room, mere feet away from the pope, and told us a story about a student a few years back who got an aisle seat and the pope came up to her personally. I thought about these things, and my first reaction can only be described as one of guilt. I felt like I didn’t deserve the opportunity. Many of my classmates were incredibly excited, and I felt bad that my excitement was not on the same level. As Professor Headrick explained how the pope’s presence moves the people in the audience, many of whom are on religious pilgrimage type trips, and I felt even worse, like I had taken the place of an elderly person or a devout Catholic who had been waiting to meet the pope for their entire life. While these new thoughts put me slightly more in awe of what we planned to do today, I still felt like I would rather have an Audience with the Queen of England, (I am a total Anglophile) and hopefully would catch a glimpse of or have a word with Prince Charles (boo) or Prince Harry (my future husband?). Meanwhile, when it was announced at dinner last night that we would have a VERY early morning (6 am) because of the metro strike which would mean that we would have to stand outdoors in line for a minimum of an hour (the gates don’t open till 8:15) and then wait inside in our seats for two hours (the audience wasn’t until 10:30), I started to wonder if it was going to be worth all of the effort. Just call me Doubting Thomas.

Boy, WAS I WRONG (there you go, haters who say I refuse to be wrong). I have never experienced anything quite like the audience with the pope, and I don’t think I ever will unless I am able to go again (I totally would). Let me start at the beginning:

The hotel was gracious enough to have breakfast for us early, and I took full advantage and had two shots of espresso and a cappuccino. We set off into the pitch-dark streets, bought our metro tickets and climbed aboard. It was the smoothest 1^st subway ride in a foreign city I have ever taken, thanks to the test run that Dean Hull and Professor Headrick took last night. We emerged from underground with the Bernini’s masterpiece (Saint Peter’s Square) in sight. Upon realizing how large each column on the portico is (there are over 250), I started to have my first wave of realization of how epic our visit to the Vatican was. I also thought that it was really neat that the square was practically deserted (since it was so early), and that we got to see the sunrise from such an amazing location. We arrived at the gates to the audience hall and we were not the first ones there, but we were close (what did the people who were before us do, camp out or something?). Professor Headrick explained to us that we needed to stand our ground as we waited in line because people were going to get very pushy (because of their excitement, but also I have noticed that many Italians have no problem pushing ahead of me to get whatever they want before me, including the man who butted me while I was in line for my metro ticket). I was very enthusiastic about this though, because I love excitement, crowds, and the opportunity to “box people out” (probably the only skill I mastered in my brief basketball career when I was about 10). He also pointed out that we could line up at any of the 5 or so gates, so Matt D, Erica, Cari, Justine, Meredith and I walked to the farthest gate, where there was no line.

It was at that point that I realized something else epic: our gate was closest to the audience hall, we were the first people in the line, so therefore we would be the first people into the audience hall, and from what I understood, the tickets were open seating, so we could sit ANYWHERE we wanted, AKA we might be able to get up close and personal with the pope. My day just got a lot more interesting. Soon after we had arrived at our strategically awesome position a group of older (probably retired) tourists in turquoise or purple scarves began to edge in on us. This was nothing however, to the ordeal that some of my classmates went through while waiting (for an hour).

Today’s title is another quote from Carlo (what can I say, he’s a funny guy), and he is the one who dubbed our experience “the Thunderdome,” starting with the rude awakening they got when the turquoise/purple scarf group showed up (there were hundreds of them). Carlo and some of my other classmates chose to stay at the first gates where the line had initially formed (those of us who moved are true believers in “you’re either first or you’re last”). As the time for the gates to open drew closer, the nearer lines were swarmed with people. Matt W was attacked by an elderly lady with a cane, and I think I heard something about Paul and an aggressive woman in a wheelchair. Remember, the gates were not even open yet. Either way, apparently it got pretty crazy, so crazy that Carlo made a “documentary” about it by recording the wild rumpus on a video on his camera. Before anyone thinks anything negative about this video, I think that it is amazing because it shows the otherwise indescribable (or at least unbelievable) fervor and unrestrained excitement that people had about seeing the pope. The tension was palpable to say the least, and, although we were successfully holding down the fort at the far gate, I couldn’t help but get swept up in the moment.

Over at our gate, a group of older ladies in fur coats edged towards us, and we realized that our gate had two openings. We needed to figure out which one was going to be opened for us to walk through so that we could huddle around it to prevent butting. Matt and Erica took up a post at the left hand side, and I (with the help of one of Bernini’s giant columns) took the right hand side, and the rest of our little group stood ready to move as soon as the gate was open. They opened the left gate, in case you were wondering, and Matt D ushered us all in, and yes, we were the first people inside the gate.

We were not, however, the first people into the audience hall, because as soon as other people got in (the gates were all opened at the same time) they started SPRINTING towards the audience hall. Ever the competitor, I also broke into a run, and it was in that moment that I realized just how cool this experience was. Well, I actually realized that, as well as the fact that I was totally amped up about seeing the pope, when one of the Vatican guards yelled “NO RUNNING!” at me and some of the other enthusiasts. We had to wait for the rest of the group anyway, so we waited for everyone to catch up (I cant imagine how bad the surge must have been at the first gate when it opened).

We were directed to the farthest door into the audience hall, and it led us into the front section of seats. The very front rows (1-4) were filled, but I was the first one into the 5^th row and headed straight for the center aisle (on the outside chance that the pope walked down the center aisle). However, an usher insisted that we sit about 15 seats from the aisle because a group of children with cancer were expected. I thought that this was amazing – the point of attending an audience with the pope is that you are blessed, and as a strong believer in the power of prayer I found it touching that these children were given reserved seats in the front and center.

Professor Headrick had suggested that we bring some reading material with us because the wait was so long, but I never cracked my book. With my seat secured I headed off to the bathroom (I’m pretty sure that we were the first people in the bathroom too), and then quickly returned to my seat because I didn’t want to miss a thing. On my journey to the bathroom I also found out that our tickets, which were blue, meant that we were allowed to sit in the front section; the pushy group with the scarves all had to sit in the rear section. I asked Professor Headrick if we had gotten our “VIP” tickets because he knows the pope (see that story in one of the first entries), but he explained that he simply reserved our tickets far in advance. The hall filled up slowly, considering, and cardinals, Vatican guards, and men in suits (secret service?) appeared on stage.

I was under the impression that the hall would be “respectfully silent” while we waited, but the air was filled with loud, excited chatter, and, once they had arrived, live music which was played by what appeared to be a middle school marching band. As the start time drew closer a large screen off to one side of the stage came one and displayed a live feed of Saint Peter’s Square.

The camera angle changed, and suddenly it was zoomed in on a navy Mercedes with license plates that read CSV 1. The car came to a stop, and the pope climbed out. The only way I can describe this is to say that it was just like Jay-Z’s entrance to this year’s VMAs as the intro to his performance of “Empire State of Mind.”  Italians are so cool. Pope Benedict said a prayer, and was introduced to some people who were gathered outside as we waited inside. The screen shot went back to the general Saint Peter’s Square live feed, and we knew the big moment was just seconds away. Without further ado the pope strolled in though a side door that led straight on to the stage. He had on his white papal robes (expected) and bright red Prada shoes (not expected).

A few quick facts: the Vatican is a sovereign nation and the only absolute monarchy left in Europe. As the absolute monarch the pope is in charge of everything. The Vatican is surrounded by a wall which separates it from the rest of Rome.

Back to the Thunderdome though. The room erupted with cheers and lept to its feet. I noticed a nun standing on her chair to get a good picture of the pope, and I climbed up and got a good photo too (naturally, the tallest man present at the audience sat in front of me).

Once the cheering died down and the pope was seated, a lesson was read in Italian, French, English, Spanish, Portuguese, and German (it may have been another language, but I think it was German), by some of the cardinals who were on stage. Next, the pope shared his thoughts on the lesson in Italian, so I’m not sure what he said. After that, the cardinals who read the lessons each took turns introducing groups in the audience. I’m not sure because I don’t know Italian, French, Portuguese or German, but theoretically the cardinal and the pope said the same thing each time. When it was the English speaking cardinal’s turn, he introduced groups from South Korea and Switzerland and then started on the groups from the US. Soon enough he said “faculty and students from Randolph-Macon College, and we all stood. My heart was beating so fast that I was kind of confused – Jess was featured on the big screen when we stood up (we didn’t all sit together) and the pope blessed us. After all of the English speaking groups had been introduced they moved on down the list to the next language. Normally I would find something like this annoying, but I was riveted and it was so fascinating. Each time a group was recognized the rest of the room would applaud. A few things about the groups:

1.      Most groups, especially the large ones, had matching (brightly colored) scarves or caps. When they stood up they would cheer and spin them around (Like Pittsburgh Steelers fans and the “terrible towel”).

2.      Many groups had choreographed their moment of recognition – something small like a unique cheer, or something large like a song. Some groups were church choirs, so they would sing a hymn, school groups had prepared songs as well, the band played a piece when they were recognized, and best of all, the group of cancer patients sang “Yellow Submarine” in Italian.

3.      Some groups even had their country’s flag (or each person had a little flag) or a banner that they held up when they stood.

4.      Sometimes, the cardinal listing the groups would not realize that a group was putting on a performance so he would go on to start to announce the next group and while the previous group was singing. This especially started happening when it was the Italian’s turn. The cardinal would announce a group, and the room would erupt with cheers and applause, and the Italian groups were generally the largest so it was very loud. The applause and cheers would die down and give way to the group’s performance, but sometimes the cardinal had already forged ahead with announcing the next group. At one point a group was announced but the group that was announced before was not satisfied with their introduction so they went on and sang. The pope was visibly amused (in my opinion), but the Italian cardinal was not. At first he would pause and smile a little bit, but soon he was a bit huffy and would peer out over his reading glasses. The cardinal was featured up on the big screen while he was reading, and then cut to the group being recognized, and then back to the cardinal, so it was very easy to see his expressions. At one point he actually closed up the folio he was reading from and I swear I saw him start to roll his eyes at least once. It was hilarious.

5.      The pope seemed to especially like the groups from Italy and the German (I think) speakers. When he really liked a group he waved his “pope wave,” which really confused me at first, because he outstretched his hand and, leaving it parallel to the floor, wiggled his fingers. He smiled a lot, and this was very moving for me because it was neat to see his genuine emotion.

Basically, it was like being at a major league sporting event, and there was very much a sense of community amongst everyone in the audience. Everyone was a fan of Pope Benedict, and after everyone sang The Lord’s Prayer (the Our Father for all of you Catholics) in Latin (it was printed on the back of our tickets). After that, certain VIPs began to line up to be introduced to the pope, and a close up of these introductions was featured on the big screen. The most interesting people who were introduced were an Orthodox Bishop (I think he was a Bishop) in his ceremonial attire, three brides and their future husbands, all decked out in their wedding attire (yes, wedding gowns), and each of the children with cancer was introduced to the pope. When I say introduced I mean that they were also blessed individually, which is very cool.

After that, the pope started to leave the stage, and everyone cheered loudly. Pope Benedict turned around and waved one last time and then he was out the door. John Paul apparently often had a hard time leaving when he had audiences because the crowd was cheering so much. All in all, the experience was very uplifting for me, and it was incredible to be a part of such a public, strong and enthusiastic outpouring of faith. Our group were among the last in the audience to leave, it was weird, even though I really had to go to the bathroom and we had been inside of the hall for about four hours, I didn’t want to leave. We lingered as long as  we could, and the lights started to be dimmed, and with that we headed back outside.

So that brings us to a little after noon, and I just realized how long this entry is… sorry. This was just such an incredible experience. Definite highlight – need I state the obvious?

We headed for a side street in the Vatican to find a place to eat and settled on a “Wine Bar” that served us delicious pasta and paninis. The prices were incredibly reasonable and the atmosphere was awesome. Plus, after our big morning we were all starving.

We gathered in Saint Peter’s Square and headed into the cathedral. I am going to attempt to say this without sounding ignorant or unappreciatative, but after 10 days of visiting cathedrals, I was kind of lulled into the standard, wow this is big, wow this is beautiful, wow how did they do this, routine. I was not particularly looking forward to another cathedral tour. Wrong again, however. Saint Peter’s was flooring. It is the biggest church in the world and decorated to the nines. Despite a major tourist presence, it was still very moving spiritually, and I could not imagine a more appropriate “headquarters” for Christianity. Simply amazing – I don’t think my description of it could do it justice.

After that we went below the church to see the crypt. Many popes and other important people are laid to rest down there, and it was amazing to see how many people were praying in front of John Paul’s tomb. We were planning on climbing the dome, but when we emerged from the crypt it was a little cloudy, and for various other small reasons we decided to put off this venture until Friday, when we will be returning to the Vatican to tour the Vatican Museums. 

Matt W, Erica, Justine, Meredith and I walked out of the Vatican gates and back into Rome and arbitrarily took a right. We had the vague notion of visiting Hadrian’s Mausoleum, but mostly we just wanted to explore the city. A trip down some side streets resulted in a snack for each of us, and as we neared the river, we realized that we had indeed wandered our way to Hadrian’s Mausoleum. As we began to cross the bridge we spotted Kevin, Kendall and Monica, but we continued to wander and found ourselves at Campo De Fiori. This square was filled with street vendors and outdoor restaurants, and there was an “American Bar” at one corner. We met two Americans there, and they explained to us that many American and other International students had just arrived in Rome because the semester starts on Monday. They encouraged us to come back later in the evening, and more importantly, showed us, on a map, how to get back to our hotel (we had wandered pretty far), either on foot, by cab, or by bus. We elected to walk, and in doing so saw even more of the city, and most excitingly, we found ourselves at the Trevvi Fountain at dusk. The fountain itself was amazing, but the area was literally swarmed with tourists, which took away from the experience.

After cleaning up quickly at the hotel we went to dinner. We boycotted the wine that was waiting for us on the table because they had tricked us to buying it the night before, and after dinner we headed out into the gorgeous Roman night.

Somehow, even though I had confirmed directions to the bus stop and the bus route with my Italy guide book, a different map, and the conicierge, our group managed to bumble around looking for the bus stop for 15 minutes. They guys quickly got frustrated, and even though we located the bus stop we ended up hailing cabs (from the bus stop, ironically), because the difference in price was minimal, and the cab would drop us off at the doorstep. It was 1 euro each way to take the bus and 2 euros to take a cab. This was my first cab ride in Italy and I thoroughly enjoyed it!!

I don’t think I can come up with a second high point without taking away from how amazing the audience with the pope was, so I would like to count that as a double highlight. I also can’t really think of a low point, besides the fact that it was a very long day, and even that is not a low point because the day was action packed. Tomorrow we have an all day bus/walking tour, and I am most excited about our visit to The Coliseum 

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Last night we had what I would consider to be our best dinner yet. I qualified that because I know that a lot of people didn’t enjoy it. Since we were still at the Hotel Michelangelo we had a selection of first and second courses to choose from. I happened to choose pasta with crab and chicken cordon bleu, and I was very impressed. For desert they served cream puffs in a chocolate sauce. The best part of the meal however, was the rowdy (no exaggeration) group of Austrailians who were dining at the same time as us.

The group was comprised of mostly middle aged women, but there were some men mixed in. When we were down at the waterfront earlier in the afternoon we had run into two of them and their guide. Its always fun when you run into someone who speaks English (and by that I mean someone who is American, British, Canadian, or most fun of all, Austrailian). They seemed to be pretty jolly ladies, and, since I was dreading walking back up the 937483 steps flights of steps that led us back up the cliff, I jokingly asked if we could get on their bus with them. They informed me that it was a public bus and that they were waiting for the driver to return from his coffee and cigarette break.

This may sound strange, so let me explain because I experienced this in Spain too: bus drivers are designated a break every few hours and they literally pull their bus over at a stop and leave it there while they hit up the nearest bar (bar = café). In my experience these breaks seem to last as long as the driver feels he needs to break, and the length of these breaks are not regulated, and the driver never seems concerned that his bus is behind schedule as a result of his extra long break.

I wished the Austrailian ladies a “nice holiday” and they cheerfully said goodbye to us and then went back to muttering about Italian bus drivers. About an hour later I was sitting in the lobby of our hotel (blogging) and they walked in. we recognized each other and I said hi. I didn’t really think that they would be the subject of my blog until later last night at dinner when our (also pretty rowdy, as usual), was “out Americaned” by the Austrailian group who silenced the restaurant with a drunken rendition of “Waltzing Matilda,” followed by a few chants of “Ziggy Zaggy Ziggy Zaggy, Oye Oye Oye!” The waiters looked disgusted, we clapped politely, and they called for us to sing a song. Dean Hull thought we should sing “America the Beautiful,” but we were hesitant (somehow, I’m pretty sure that a significant amount of people in our group don’t know the lyrics – this is probably something we should be worried about). The Austrailians continued to sing and egg us on (we were egging them on but never sang to them) and I was seriously hoping that they would sing “Kookabura,” but the waiters were quickly serving them their dessert so that they would leave.

We agreed to meet in the lobby at 9:30 to go to Daniele’s, which was a casino/discoteca/karaoke bar. While we were waiting for everyone who wanted to go to meet up I somehow managed to get behind the bar by explaining to the bartender (his English was not very good) that I was a bartender too. Just to clarify, I work for a catering company and if they are really busy I get to be a bartender instead of serving like I usually do. Carlo and Matt D had befriended him the night before, so he was happy to be with our group. It turns out that Matt D’s dad knows the bartender at the hotel, but when Matt and Carlo spoke to him the night before he informed them that the regular bartender was on vacation for a month and that he didn’t really know how to bartend and was just filling in.

So basically, he believed that I was more qualified to be behind the bar than he was. I’m glad that no one but our group was in the bar. The karaoke enthusiasts set out into the Sorrento night only to discover that all of the discotecas including Daniele’s were closed because it is the off-season. We were disappointed, but were determined to have a good time. We ended up in the girls’ triple (Kendall, Monica and Erica), and had what can only be described as a group sing along. It started with Neil Diamond and ended a few hours later with Miley Cyrus, with everything from the Backstreet Boys and Michael Jackson to Uncle Kracker and much more in between. After about an hour and a half of a cappella singing, Kendall and Erica whipped out their laptop and iphone, respectively, and that took our little song session to a whole new level. I don’t really have anything else to say about that except that Carlo could probably make money as a professional rapper, and my throat was sore and hoarse this morning when I woke up (I do not have a good singing voice, so my contributions were mostly yelling lyrics and clapping out of beat with the rhythm).

Today as our bus driver literally drove in circles around the area in Rome where our hotel is located, things got a little tense, and Paul, Carlo and Joe started up the singing again. I guess that’s how it is now. Believe it or not, Joe actually did a split on the aisle of the bus while we were waiting in traffic.

However, in between these two song/dance parties, we visited Pompeii. After the rush to check out and take care of room charges (no, we didn’t break anything, it was stuff like laundry and internet), we got on our big bus and headed to Pompeii. Mount Vesuvius was in view for the entire drive, but I have to say that I was surprised when we arrived at Pompeii because it looked like we were just on some street in the middle of some town. Once we had our tickets and walked through the turnstile towards a wall, it was clear that we were entering some kind of park with ruins.

My favorite thing about Pompeii is that there are stray dogs everywhere. Well, my favorite thing is not that there are so many strays, but that the curators (I don’t know if that is the right word) of Pompeii have started a program through which anyone can adopt one of the strays. They have all been given collars and tags so they are all “in the system,” and just outside the gate we walked through to enter the city there was a “dog care station” that had dog houses, food and water bowls. Needless to say, and even though I know it would be very complicated logistically (and therefore very expensive), I REALLY want one. I even picked one out… he followed us for the first half of our tour. I had Cari take a picture of us… but now he is gone forever.

Our visit to Pompeii was really too brief. Our guide from yesterday, Jonnie/Alec Baldwin (Jonnie Baldwin, as Paul named him, because he looks just like Alec Baldwin), was waiting for us when we arrived. Every single girl elected to take Jonnie up on his offer for a “pee pee stop,” so we spent about 20 minutes outside of the gate before we went in.

First we trooped into the small ampitheater, and Jonnie explained about the acoustics and asked for a volunteer to sing. Dean Hull nominated Carlo to sing to us, and pretty soon Carlo was serenading the group with his on rendition of “Tearing Up My Heart,” which he said he had memorized when he was younger so that he could serenade a history teacher.

Our next stop was the Pompeii “McDonalds,” as Jonnie referred to it. It was essentially a bar that sold hot wine mixed with honey, water and spices. The countertops are still intact, and a bunch of shops like this are located throughout Pompeii. On our way to the one we looked at Jonnie pointed out that the sidewalks (which look like ours today but are made of stone) were raised (about a foot and a half above the pavers) because the streets were full of sewage and trash. Other Roman cities at the time had pretty sophisticated drainage and sewage systems, but since Pompeii was built on top of solid volcanic rock, these systems were impossible to build in Pompeii,

Next we went into a house. The house was a pretty nice house (well off family), and had an entrance hallway (floor sloped up from the threshold to tell the person who entered that the owner of the home was of higher status – literally “above”), a main room that had a square opening in the middle, a bedroom, dining room, dressing room, office, and kitchen/bathroom. Starting with the main room, the square opening let in rain water, which was collected in a square pool below (and in a cistern below that). This water was used for drinking, cooking, cleaning, bathing, etc. When they had excess water they were able to drain it out on to the street. The bedroom was not very interesting, but the dining room, according to Jonnie, would have had three low couches (each for 3 people) and a table. The people of Pompeii would eat for hours and hours in the evening and when they were full they would throw up in the vomitorium. And then continue eating, repeating the process as long as the meal continued. Even worse, they would end the meal with a toast to the most important person at the table. This wasn’t just any toast, but everyone would do a shot for each letter of the person’s name. Jonnie informed us that each person had three names plus a nickname, and then quickly summed it up by saying that the drunkenness from the excessive wine during dinner and then the shots often led to the infamous orgies. So that room was interesting. The dressing room was where the lady of the house had her wardrobe and “tools for daily household activities” and the office is where the man of the house received his visitors (who would wait outside on a bench). The kitchen/bathroom was surprisingly sophisticated, and although it seems gross that they were located in the same room, it was because they both needed water and the room was closest to the street; the latrine emptied straight into the street and they would pour the dirty dish water out that way too.

The house also had a staircase in the main room, which led upstairs to the once present slave quarters, and a large garden out back. Inside the house, and most impressively out back, were frescos. Inside of the house they were not as well preserved and were painted in red, black and gold. Outside, there were images filled with exotic animals and blue skies (blue was used to show wealth because the paint was made by crushing lapis, which was expensive).

We walked on and saw a fountain. We learned that the streets ran either east/west or north/south and that the nicer areas, uptown, were literally at a higher elevation, and vice versa with downtown. Poorer people lived downtown because all of the sewage etc. rand down the hills, so those areas smelled worse. Also located downtown were the tanneries; they required urine to function, and also smelled terrible. Next to the fountain was a bakery. Jonnie told us that some people purchased bread there but others who were too poor to afford to buy bread and were also too poor to have an oven in their home brought their dough with their initials carved into it to the oven to bake. After the eruption and subsequent discovery of Pompeii something like 87 such loaves of bread were found in the oven. The fountain had a complicated, gravity based system to regulate water pressure and a small statue on it served to help people identify their location within the city (each fountain had a different statue).

Next, we saw some brothels and the frescos in them. For the sake of more sensitive readers, I will leave it at that. You can google prostitution in Pompeii if you are interested in learning more; it seems like it was a thriving industry.

After that we went to the city center, which had a great view of Mount Vesuvius and along one of the sides we were able to see pottery from Pompeii as well as a few plaster casts of bodies of people killed in the eruption. You can also google the story behind the plaster casts of the bodies if you are interested.

With that, Jonnie led us back out of Pompeii and that part of our visit was over. This is the part that was most disappointing to me, (low point) because I wanted to look around on my own. Matt W was disappointed too because he is a Classics major and exploring Pompeii was what he was looking forward to most during our trip. I am pretty sure that he knows more about Pompeii than Jonnie Baldwin anyway.

We did not have time to linger and were nearly overrun by Japanese tourists on our way across the street to the lemoncello factory/tourist trap. They were giving out free samples, and I couldn’t tell who was drinking more, the people who worked there or the tourists.

We boarded the bus to assurances that we would stop for lunch within the hour. I wasn’t really following the time, but I am pretty sure that we drove for a lot longer than an hour before we stopped, and it was the same rest stop we had stopped at on our way into Sorrento. This time I got a yummy lunch of tortellini stuffed with beef, and I was only dissatisfied because I noticed that the Italians who came in received linguini with clams, and I would have really liked to try it or have been offered the option to try it.

The rest of our day was consumed by the bus ride to Rome, which was also much longer than promised (common theme every time I have traveled anywhere by bus outside of the United States). But, as I mentioned earlier, when things got rough we dealt with it by breaking into song like we are the Brady Bunch or the Jackson Five or something. Most people have the ability to take videos on their cameras, so look for videos of Carlo’s performance in Pompeii, Joe’s dancing to the group singing on the bus, and many more special experiences we have had here in Italy together.

When we checked into the hotel and finally got into our room, Jess and I went through the proper motions like old pros. We are apparently staying at the only hotel in the western world that still permits smoking, so we threw open the windows, turned down the heat (we are finally learning how to read Celsius), and scoped out the bathroom. Finally, a bathroom with a tub and a showerhead with good pressure, and a shower curtain! We are so excited! Next, we called about laundry and internet, which are both essential to us (laundry because I am pretty much out of clean clothes, and internet because it is fun), but no information was available about the laundry and the internet is VERY, VERY expensive. I don’t understand why they are so stingy with the internet here in Italy. I have been buying it under the excuse that I need to blog, but the truth is I am so used to having wireless internet wherever I am (at home) that I just feel weird without it.

Dinner time came very quickly, and we ate at a restaurant outside of our hotel for the first time. We got tricked into buying wine (they put it on the table, said it was included and then charged us), and the waiters seemed pretty grumpy, but the food was very good and I am looking forward to going back.

At the end of dinner Professor Headrick gave us some interesting news. There is going to be a metro strike tomorrow morning at 8 am, so instead of leaving the hotel at 8 to take the metro to the Vatican (tomorrow is our audience with the pope!), we have to leave the hotel at 6:45 so that we can be in the Vatican before the strike begins. Crazy stuff. This means that we will have to wait outside of the Vatican until the audience hall opens at 8:30 and then we have to wait inside the hall until the audience begins at 10:30. The bright side of this is that we will probably get really good seats and be really close to the pope.

I realize that I have gotten kind of slack on specifically identifying my two high and two low points each day, so to recap, the two low points were that we didn’t get to stay longer in Pompeii and how long it took us to find our hotel; the high points are that we have a bathtub and a nice shower and that the group seems to be dealing with the “we have been stuck together for ten days pressure” by singing and dancing – and I can’t think of a better way to be!

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Today we went swimming in the Mediterranean. I hate to just throw it out there like that with no build up but I can’t help it. This trip just keeps getting more and more amazing – first with the gondola ride, then the ice skating, then the castle, and now this! Swimming in the Mediterranean, in Italy, in January. The only thing I didn’t have was a bathing suit. I actually considered bringing a bathing suit (I didn’t know that we were going to have the opportunity to go to the beach) because I like to abide by the always be prepared motto and because at the end of the summer I got an awesome BCBG bikini for only $20, (which is an amazing deal), and I haven’t worn it yet. But I digress.

Jess and I really lucked out today because we didn’t understand how to call for a wake up call (at the other hotels we received them automatically) and I somehow messed up our alarm clock so that it was set on PM (but the alarm itself was set for AM), so if it wasn’t for the sunlight (!!!!) streaming through our window we wouldn’t have woken up. Today was gorgeous and warm (great beach day), and we loaded our slightly smaller bus on which we were greeted by the driver, a tour guide, and the driver of our big bus who was coming along to “help” the driver navigate the cliffs.

The scenery is unbelievable and I think that this is the most beautiful place in the entire world. Certainly the most beautiful place I have ever been. It vaguely reminds me of California, but I have only been to California once, and that was a while ago, so if you disagree with that then I totally understand. I will try to upload scenic pictures, but even the pictures don’t do it justice.

Our first stop was at a produce stand located at a scenic look out point. Our tour guide made fun of us for taking so many pictures, and as we started to wonder over to the produce stand, we met three dogs. One was a puppy who was terrified of all of us, the second was his buddy, and then there was a third one who only had three legs.

Our next stop was at a tourist shop that specialized in ceramics and lemoncello, which is an Italian liqueur made of sugar, water, and lemons. The lemoncello was delicious and the entire group shopped for about a half hour, even though our guide said that we could only stop for 15 minutes.

Our guide was quite a character, and we are all thrilled that he will be our guide tomorrow for Pompeii as well. He looks like Alec Baldwin, and was constantly making jokes with us, for example about how our bus driver was a kamikaze, how he says “pee pee stop” instead of “pit stop,” and how red peppers are considered Italian Viagra. Anyway, he talked nonstop for the entire drive to Amalifi, mostly comparing rocks in the water and rock outcroppings to sirens (mermaids), various saints, or the Virgin Mary. When we got on the bus to make the return trip he got on the microphone and I had no doubt that he would have plenty of new material to share with us on the ride back, but he simply said, “Now we go back. It is the same as before.”

We arrived in the village of Amalifi and were told that we had only an hour to spend there. The majority of us hit the beach, which was disappointingly but not surprisingly covered in black pebbles, some to swim and others to watch/document the experience.

Last J-Term I lived in Alicante for three weeks and although I went to the beach almost every day after I got out of class (and they had normal sand), I never got into the water above my knees. I have regretted my decision to not go into the Mediterranean all the way all year so I was completely committed when I learned a few days ago that I would have another chance to go in this year.

All of the boys (except for Carlo) all immediately threw their stuff down, stripped down to their boxers and pulled on bathing suits and were in the water before I had even finished trying to figure out how I was going to change into my swimming “outfit.” Devon also wanted to go in, and I am so glad that she did because I didn’t want to be the only girl to go swimming and I was very disappointed that none of the girls believed me when I said that I had regretted not going in all year and they would regret it too.

The water was freezing; only Matt D and Kevin stayed in the water for longer that it took to dunk underneath the surface. The pictures pretty much explain it all.

Once we were redressed the sun actually made the beach quite warm, so I sat and enjoyed the view, the sounds, and the black sand. Some people walked the beach and looked for beach glass, but I was content to sit because I love the beach (and because I had worn uggs and you really needed to wear shoes to walk on the rocky beach and I didn’t want to mess them up any more than I already had). Most people just left to go get lunch but I wanted to spend as much time as possible on the beach.

Basically our entire group ended up eating slices of pizza at the same café, and then it was time to board the bus. Back at the hotel, we were told that we had the rest of the day free, so I tried to convince some people to rent a boat with me. No one was convinced, but Kendall, Justine, Paul, Kevin and Matt W indulged me in an adventure down to the waterfront of Sorrento. The waterfront was deserted, all of the stores were closed, and it was a bit disappointing but it offered spectacular views of Mount Vesuvius.

Tomorrow we have to get up really early so that we can make it to Pompeii by nine.

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Today it is spitting rain and very gray outside. I am not complaining though because if today, the day that we spend 5 hours on a bus, is the only day that we have bad weather that is an incredible record. Hopefully it will brighten up when we arrive in Sorrento this afternoon. To improve my mood I listened to 80s Joel fin my ipod for the majority of the bus ride. I have been looking forward to visiting an Italian highway rest stop and I thought that we were going to today, but 45 minutes into our trip we pulled up to a café and were informed that this was our only stop for the entire trip. This place only had one (co-ed) bathroom, and that fact, combined with the fact that we had only been on the road for 45 minutes, made it seem like a really stupid place to stop. Oh well.

I can’t believe our trip is more than halfway over – if only I could do some laundry I would definitely extend my stay infinitely.

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So it turns out that we did get to go to an Italian highway rest stop, so that was a definite highlight of today. I was disappointed in the way our group behaved though, but obnoxious tourist behavior is sometimes unavoidable when there is a language barrier and an unfamiliar environment. Also, because it is the off-season here in Italy, many establishments are not staffed to handle large groups of tourists.

We arrived at Hotel Michelangelo after our bus driver made a few calls from his cell phone – he was very lost. After checking in there was quite a bit of (expensive) internet usage by members of our group as the last two hotels did not have access. Also, Sorrento is a tourist destination, and like I mentioned before it is the off season, and their isn’t really anything culturally or historically significant here. Today was our first opportunity to get some R&R and many people took advantage of the bus ride to catch up on their “daily” journals.

Around 5 Paul, Matt W, Kevin and I decided to explore the city. We found that most stores etc were closed, so we wandered for a while and then settled into a pub to watch a soccer match. We had intended to watch the Ravens-Colts game, but upon our arrival in Sorrento and subsequently our first access to the internet in a few days, we discovered that the game was on Saturday night not Sunday afternoon. This probably isn’t a big shocker, but Italians could care less about American football. So we sat in the pub, practically the only open establishment we could find, and the boys and a few Italian men were thoroughly engrossed in the soccer match. I tried very hard to pretend that I was interested in what was going on, and although I appeared to be totally engrossed in the game (I hope), the reality is that I cannot even tell you what teams were playing (two Italian teams is all I know).

Dinner was amazing; for the first time so far on the trip we got to choose from a menu. I chose gnocchi for my first course and veal for my second course. We were served eggplant, roasted potatoes and banana ice cream as well as rolls (somehow I managed to eat 3) along with these selections.

After dinner we hung out in the hotel lobby/lounge and on our balconies, which have disturbingly ugly views of train tracks or the moldy hotel pool (it’s a really nice hotel so I’m not sure what happened there), depending which side of the hall your room is on. All in all today was the perfect opportunity to gear up for the remainder of the trip – which is going to be action packed. Amalfi coast tomorrow, Pompeii on Tuesday, audience with the pope Wednesday, touring Rome the next two days and then we have to come home.

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This morning we were well rested, clean (our shower was to die for), and well fed (the breakfast was just as good as dinner last night, if not better), and ready for our trip to Assisi. Joe and Josh slept through their wake up call this morning, but we left shortly after nine. Matt W and I set up a refreshment station at our mini party table on the bus and offered the group mimosas and chocolate croissants (taken from the hotel’s breakfast buffet and stored in a napkin in my new buttery purse). Joe especially appreciated our little set up because he had missed breakfast.

Assisi is even smaller than Siena, but is especially relevant to our class because it is home to St. Francis and the Franciscan monks. I thought Siena was hilly, but it was nothing compared to Assisi. The streets are so steep and narrow that our bus had to drop us off at the bottom of a hill outside the city gates. We were only a few blocks from the hotel, but the hotel was quite a bit higher up so I was glad that there were porters to take our luggage to the hotel for us. Our rooms were not ready when we arrived so we were given 45 minutes to explore on our own and then we were supposed to return at noon to check in to our rooms.

I forgot to mention that Assisi is a medieval town and is breathtakingly beautiful. Today the weather was gorgeous and, until the sun went down, very warm when you were not in the wind. Besides the Basillica di San Francesco the Basillica di Santa Clara and the Tempio di Minerva, which we were going to see on our afternoon tour, Asissi is home to the Rocca Maggiore, a giant medieval castle at the highest point in the town. Matt W, Kevin, Devin, Josh, Jess Cari and I decided to check it out. We weren’t sure how to get there, but we knew that if we headed up we couldn’t go wrong. We hustled up one hill, then another, then another, then there were some steps, then another hill, and suddenly we were sweaty, out of breath, and in someone’s yard. At this point it was 11:30 and Devin, Josh, Jess and Cari were concerned that if we continued to attempt to find the way up to the castle we would be late for our group rendezvous at the hotel at noon. I am always pretty laissez faire about being prompt, so this was not a matter of concern for me. Matt and Kevin were convinced that with the pace they were keeping, which was pretty grueling, we could make it up to the castle and back down to the hotel in time.

So the three best friends (that anyone ever had) started off on yet another adventure. We made sure that we were inside the city gates (being outside of the city wall is what led us astray on our fist attempt) and then just headed up. At one point the road started to flatten out and we were a little unsure of which way to go. I looked around an saw a stairwell that said “Via San Croce” and knew, because it was the longest flight of stairs I have ever seen, that it had to be the way up (who says girls can’t navigate). We hit the steps, and I did a much better job of keeping up with the boys. The stairs finally ended and we walked up another hill. We were starting to wonder how we were ever going to reach the top because the road appeared to be circling the mountain instead of going up it. Suddenly, a white shaggy dog appeared out of a gap in the shrubbery, and with that, the opening of the trail to get up the mountain was revealed to us. I am utterly convinced that Saint Frances, the patron saint of animals, showed us the way. Although this revalation was very symbolic and exciting, what was not exciting was the fact (unknown to us at the time) that our journey hadn’t even begun.

Professor Headrick had mentioned that it was “a hike” to the top, but I had no idea that we would actually be on a hiking trail in the woods. The trail was narrow and rocky (Matt was wearing hiking boots but Kevin and I were just wearing regular shoes) and seemingly endless. It was vaguely arranged as a switchback trail, but somehow even in the flatter parts we were all panting and trying to catch our breaths. We popped out at a paved road, STILL at least 1000 yards away from the castle walls. Although we thoroughly enjoyed our nature walk and saw the dog showing us the way as a sign from God, I was a little frustrated that other people probably just drove up the mountain. I didn’t think that was an option.

I felt like a champion once we reached the castle gate, and happily paid the 5 euro entrance fee so that I could climb around on the ruins. I have to say that after grocery stores and interacting with locals, climbing around on ruins is my next favorite activity. This was a definite high point (although tonight I found out that Meredith and Justine only had to pay 3.50 to get in, and the guy at the ticket desk had originally tried to charge us 8, but we settled on 5, and I thought we had a deal until I heard that). Anyway, for the next half hour we cruised around the entire fortress, climbing tiny staircases, venturing through narrow tunnels, and always and most excitingly, emerging at yet another look out point. It was incredibly windy and we were literally in the clouds. The highlight of this highlight was that when we reached the top of the 3rd watchtower, not the tallest but the most open, it was noon and we could hear the church bells from all over the city below us tolling the hour. Matt and Kevin were a little concerned that we were not anywhere close to the hotel, but I told them that I wanted just a minute to sit quietly and enjoy the beauty. I have to say that they seemed to enjoy it too, and they have been talking about “how cool” it was that we reached the top of the tower just as the bells were tolling all day. We all agreed that it was the perfect picnic spot. If only we had had the foresight to haul a picnic (bread, cheese and wine – we are totally embracing the Italian way of life) to the top. Next time, I guess.

We managed to make it back to the hotel by 12:30 and no one was worried about our tardiness. We checked into our rooms and showered because after getting totally drenched in sweat during our climb, our sweat had pretty much frozen while we were at the top in the wind. It was nasty. What was nastier (and my first low point) was my bathroom at the hotel. First of all, it was kind of dirty. Second of all, there was no shower, only a bath tub with a detachable showerhead. Under normal circumstances I would not complain about that, but when I turned on the shower head water spewed out from it not in the normal way but out in all directions like rays of sun. After that little debacle I had an interesting run in with Dean Hull, Professor Headrick and some of my classmates. I was in such a rush to shower I had forgotten to close the doors to our balcony (yes, we had a balcony with an amazing view, more on that later). And when I went out to close them so I could get dressed, I ran into our chaperones and quite a few members of my class in my towel.

Showered and dressed in clean clothes, we asked the concierge where we could find a grocery store (our plan was to pick up lunch and eat it on the balcony), and he informed us that there were no grocery stores in the town. This might be weird, but I feel like the concierges have been blatantly misinforming me throughout the trip. We walked across the street to a Pizzeria, bought slices and took them out to our balcony. Jess and I, Brittany and Kate, and Kelly and Laura were the three rooms lucky enough to have large balconies with tables and chairs and a million dollar view. These balconies were only separated from each other by wrought iron railings, and they were very safe because there was a generally terrace for everyone who wasn’t as lucky as us adjoining ours. Its hard to explain, but it was very cool. The lunch in the sun on the balcony was another highlight of the day.

After our lunch and a quick consultation of the Italy guidebook we met up with our tour guide Marco. Marco was by far the best guide we have had so far on our trip. Or first stop was the Basillica di San Francesco. Saint Frances was from Assisi and was from a successful merchant family. He wanted to be a knight and was a “player,” always throwing around money and partying with his female companions. He left for the crusades and was captured and held as a prisoner. When he finally returned to Assisi he was a changed man and began giving all of his possessions to the poor. His father tried to stop him, but, with the blessing of the pope, Francis continued, and founded the Franciscan Brotherhood after taking a vow of poverty, chastity, and obedience. Marco pointed out that “one question many people ask of themselves is, why such a nice church if the Franciscans are supposed to be poor?” I started to wonder about this myself. Marco, ever ready with answers and information, assured us that it was “ok” because the pope had found a “loophole:” the pope declared that he owned the church, not the Franciscans, so by being custodians of the basilica they were not breaking their vows of poverty.

A few other facts about the basilica:

1. There are three levels: the crypt, the lower church and the upper church

2. As the church was decorated over a span of 30 years at the beginning of the Renaissance the art evolved from flat, unrealistic figures to paintings that included 3D spaces and realistic people.

3. Saint Frances’ body is in the crypt

4. The Franciscans who live and work at the Basilica wear black robes instead of brown robes like most Franciscans.

5. Giotto painted a series of bibliographic frescos in the upper church that depict the facts about Frances’ life that I described above

6. There was an earthquake in Assisi in 1997 that really messed up the basilica; people died and the frescos flaked off the walls. Much of it has been restored (they literally picked up the pieces and put them back together on the walls), but some of it was destroyed beyond repair.

So I really liked that part of the tour. Our next attraction was the Tempio di Minerva, which dates back to the Roman period of Assisi. Marco talked to us along the way (other guides were not so good about that), but most of the time we were trudging up hills, which requires quite a bit of concentration, especially with vespas and cars whipping around us. Finally we arrived at the Basillica di Santa Clara. This basilica houses the crucifix that Saint Frances was praying in front of when he saw Jesus’ lips move and heard God’s call to “rebuild the church.” Saint Frances and Saint Claire were very close, and she was a remarkable woman from a feminist as well as spiritual point of view. Unfortunately, there was a mass going on when we arrived so we were not able to see the crucifix, but we did go to the lower level to see some relics and Saint Clair’s body. No, that is not a typo, somehow they managed to preserve her body by dipping it in wax.

It was getting dark and very cold, so that was the end of our tour. Marco pointed us in the direction of a grocery store, so Kevin, Matt W and I stocked up. Tomorrow we have a 4 hour bus ride, so we figured it would be good to be prepared. Also, we set the bar pretty high with our refreshment station this morning.

Back at the hotel I attempted to take a 20 minute nap, but an hour later I awoke and shortly after we all went downstairs for dinner. The combination of my hunger and the menu (veal!) made my eyes bigger than my stomach, and I definitely ate way too much (so good food; highlight, eating too much good food; low point). Afterwards we were all pretty beat, but we managed to hang out on the balcony (the brave people who bundled up) and some of us played cards in my room. After a week of listening to random Italian TV shows which seem to bee cheesy versions of American Idol, we finally realized that we could play music off itunes, so that was nice.

Oh, so you are probably wondering why this blog is called Knights and Barbarians. Matt W, Kevin and I invented the game (a modified version of cops and robbers – which if you are not familiar with that game, its essentially hide and go seek tag) while we were up at the castle. Half of the class was supposed to be knights defending the castle (the first two floors of the hotel) and the barbarians were invading (their base would be the main balcony). Dean Hull even offered to referee. I still don’t understand why no one wanted to play – I thought it was an awesome idea.

Tomorrow we are leaving at 8:30 to go to Sorrento, which is on the Almalfi coast.

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Today we got off to a late start because Meredith and Justine slept through their wake up call. In their defense, I also slept through my wake up call, but since I had no intention of getting up at 7 am I had set my alarm clock (yes, I brought one) for 8:15 so it didn’t matter.

We all pretty much passed out as soon as we boarded the bus to Siena, but I am told that it was a beautiful drive. We arrived at our hotel in Siena a little before noon, and let me just say that this is the nicest hotel I have stayed in in Europe. Everything was slick and modern. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of our room (I have been at the other hotels), but hopefully I can get a picture from someone else so that I can show a “typical” hotel room and a luxury one. On a related note, I told my classmates that I will give 5 euro to anyone who uses their bidet and describes it to me so that I can share the experience in my blog. I’ll keep you posted on that project.

We left the hotel and headed to the Piazza del Campo (sorry for any misspellings in past blog entries, I am now referring to my Italy travel book as I write my entries). The Piazza del Campo is sweet because it is a large, slightly sloped open space with a fountain in the middle and a road that runs along the entire perimeter. That doesn’t sound too cool until you consider the incredible architecture surrounding the piazza and the story of what takes place there annually. Here’s the deal: “The Palio is Tuscany’s most celebrated festival…It is a bareback horse race first recorded in 1283…The jockeys represent ten of Siena’s 17 districts; the horses are chosen by the drawing of lots…the races themselves last only 90 seconds each.” Moreover, over 30,000 spectators attend. There are only 50,000 people living in Siena today, but people who were born there are fiercely loyal to their district (when someone from Siena tells you where they are from they say Siena AND the district). Members of the districts are more than just neighbors; they all attend the same church, have a museum of their district’s history, and they have festivals and meals together as a community throughout the year. Anyway, the race sounds amazing, sorry for the (Baltimore) reference, but the Palio sounds like the Preakness on steroids and without all of the rules and regulations. The winner of the race is not the jockey who comes in first but the person who is beaten up the worst – for example someone who falls off their horse. Oh, bella Italia.

The other interesting thing about the Piazza is the fountain in the middle. We noticed when we got their that people were drinking out of it. Kevin and Matt W immediately filled up a bottle (see picture) and I have to say that it was the best water I have had since I have been in Italy. Most of the water here tastes like chlorine – literally its like drinking swimming pool water, but this water was very pure and I swear it had a hint of vanilla flavoring.

We had an hour and a half to shop and eat lunch, so we set off to explore the city. While Kendall and Monica took advantage of a major boot sale I preferred to be sketchy and I ended up getting lost deep in one of (probably a few of) the districts that tourists apparently rarely frequent. I thought that it would be a good idea to find a place frequented by university students (Siena has a university with 20,000 students) for lunch. Matt W and Kevin were dumb enough to let me “navigate,” and we proceeded to walk about 4 miles up and down and all around the VERY hilly streets of Siena. During our little adventure we also ended up covering the major attractions – including the Duomo (where we had a huge argument/intellectual discussion about the architecture), the Museo dell’Opera, San Domenico, and the university. We could not, however, seem to find an acceptable place to eat, and every time we happened upon an eating establishment we would stand outside and “read” the menu (they were all in Italian only since we were way off the beaten path), and then move on. At one such place an older Italian man was smoking a cigarette and reading the menu as well, and he turned around and asked where we were from and if we would like to join him for lunch.

Next to shopping at foreign grocery stores interacting with random local people is my favorite traveling activity, so I was super pumped. Kevin and Matt were more hesitant, so we tried to explain to the man (he didn’t speak very much English) that we wanted to have wine with our lunch (since wine was not listed on the menu). He said not to worry, and that he would get us a delicious lunch of shrimp, pasta and red wine. I was in heaven, and pushed the guys into the restaurant behind our new friend. The man summoned the waiter and while they were talking about something in Italian Matt disappeared out the door. Kevin started to follow him, but I refused to be left alone in a restaurant with a strange man (interestingly enough, there were no women in the entire place), so we attempted to get the man’s attention to tell him that we had to go find our friend. Because of the language barrier, he thought that we were going to get another friend to join us. Kevin was visibly shaken by our cross-cultural interaction so I quickly explained that we had a walking tour in the afternoon and so we couldn’t eat lunch with him because we would be late. With that we were out the door. Apparently when we walked in everyone in the restaurant stopped eating and gave us dirty looks, and that is why the guys wanted to leave. I didn’t notice, but that’s why the guys were so uncomfortable.

We got un-lost, headed back to the Piazza del Campo, grabbed a quick pizza and gelato to go and met up with the group. There was a communication snafu with the hotel so our tour guide Viviana was a little late, but we all got to enjoy the Tuscan sun and the fountain for a little, which was very nice. Viviana had a head set and a little speaker that looked like a purse, which I unfortunately found hilarious and I found myself cracking up randomly while she was talking throughout the tour. It was nice though because it meant that we could hear everything she was saying without standing in a tight little huddle.

The inside of the Duomo was gorgeous, done in black and white stone. That was our only inside stop, the rest of the tour was pretty much outdoors. After the tour we enjoyed a snack at an Irish pub across from our hotel (I don’t know why there are so many Irish pubs in Italy) and found that the pub was a popular hang out for international students who are studying in Siena. We also learned that they were having a live “pop band” called Viceversa, so we planned to return in the evening. Last night most of the group enjoyed what we were told was going to be a “not jazz but a band that played popular Italian music,” which was actually a cover band that played a variety of American oldies (in English), including soul, motown, and classic rock. The lead singer apparently had a crush on Paul because she pulled him up on stage and had him sing Rolling on a River. Based on the live music experience that I missed out on the night before, I was VERY enthusiastic about the prospect of seeing another live band.

Matt W, Kevin and I left the pub and searched for a convenience store because we needed to pick up a few things. Despite a map with our hotel and the store listed on it, we were unable to find it. We asked the concierge at our hotel and random people on the street, but no one could help us, even the people who spoke some English. So that was my first low point because it was the second time today that we had gotten lost in Siena – in Florence I only got lost once and that was a much bigger city! However, during our search we found an ice rink in the park adjacent to our hotel. That was obviously a highlight, but more on that later. After close to an hour of searching we found a grocery store, and although the store was packed, they just so happened to be having a sale on orange juice and they carried my new favorite champagne, Pinot de Pinot.

We returned to the hotel, cleaned up and went down to dinner. Nice hotel, nice restaurant. The food was delicious – ravioli, steak, spinach, tater tots (yummy, but I thought that was a little weird), and an apple tart. The Italians are very serious about their wine pairings, and insisted that we enjoy a Chianti with our meal.

After dinner Jess, Cari, Kendall, Justine, Meredith, Matt W, Kevin, Paul and I bundled up and headed over to the ice rink. We rented our skates and hit the ice. None of us had been skating for at least 5 years; some people had only ever been once or twice. Interestingly enough, despite our lack of skill, we were all much better than the most talented Italian skater… Skating was probably the most fun I have had on the trip. We were joined by Elizabeth, Josh and Devin, and although most people had had enough after a half hour, some of us stayed quite a bit longer. Huge highlight – who knew that we would be night skating to Lady Gaga in Italy!?

After we were finished skating we went to the pub, but the “pop band” proved to be another situation of false advertising, and the reality was that it was just a lady with a guitar. So we left and everyone is calling it a night now because after a week of traveling we all need the extra sleep.

Two things that I forgot to mention:

1. Yesterday at the Academia I saw something amazing (besides the Michelangelo masterpieces). There was a gallery at the Academia that was completely full of plaster casts of sculptures. One in particular stood out to me, and I keep thinking about it. It was called Love, Virtue and Wisdom. 3 child sized figures are arranged on a round disk – one is lying down, amost totally covered by the other two figures, and that figure is virtue. The second figure is sprawled out across the other two with a cup falling out of his hands and that figure is vice. The third figure is sitting upright with his legs out, virtue underneath them and vice on top of them and he has one of his hands raised with his pointer finger pointing upwards. That figure is love. The message of the piece is that love conquers all. I thought that was really cool, and no, that is not my interpretation of the piece but what the sign (written in English) in front of it said.

2. The Baptistery doors that I mentioned a few days ago: here is the story behind them. Brunelleschi, who is the mastermined behind the Duomo (located at the top of the cathedral across the street from the Baptistery) and Ghiberti both wanted to be the artist who was commissioned to carve these bronze doors. In typical Florentine style a competition was held between the two artists. They were each to complete a sample door panel. Brunelleschi was pretty positve that he had the victory in the bag, but Ghiberti’s piece stunned the world (the Florentine art scene at first, and then the world) because he had included an angel in the top left hand side of the panel that seemed to be flying toward the viewer and out of the piece of bronze. Something like this had never been done before. Just in case you were curious.

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(said the salesman at the leather store as he was trying his best to convince Matt W and I to buy leather jackets for “only” 100 euro)

Today was pretty awesome. I hate to start off with a low point, but I am exhausted. That is really my only low point for the day though, and I am planning on getting plenty of sleep tonight.

Side note, as I write this I am watching the movie Chocolat in Italian and there was just a commercial for boxed red wine that involved an entire family (grandparents and all) sitting around in the kitchen and pouring themselves huge glasses.

Anyway, we walked over to the Academia first thing this morning and all I can say is what an amazing experience. First we looked at “the slave sculptures,” which are unfinished and enormous sculptures by Michelangelo that appear to be emerging from enormous blocks of marble. I cannot really describe how moving these sculptures are (some people think they are dumb, but come to Florence and see for yourself). After experiencing these five unfinished works (there are other ones from the same series that are in France and Rome), you get to see The David. I will tell this story for anyone who is confused right now; David, as in David and Goliath, is the mascot of Florence. David, a Hebrew Shepard, was upset that the Palestines were taunting the Jews but flaunting Goliath, their giant soldier and daring any one Hebrew to try to fight the mighty Goliath. No one stepped up to the Challenge until David, armed only with his sling shot, walked up to Goliath and took one shot, hit him straight in the head with a rock, and Goliath dropped dead on the spot. The Hebrews went on to win the battle. Florence, a small but brave city-state, has viewed herself throughout history as a kindred spirit to David. I would use the word rogue, but I don’t want to steal Sarah Palin’s thunder.

Apparently people often think that The David depicts David just before killing Goliath, but it is actually just after. Also, many people believe that he looks pensive and meditative, but after spending over a half hour today staring at him (he is so beautiful it is hard to tear yourself away), I think he looks cocky. I like his quite/confident attitude a lot, but that is just my opinion on his expression, and most people (like experts) who hypothesize on his attitude claim that he is almost in a state of disbelief that he just successfully took down Goliath. Again, all I can do is recommend that you come to Florence and make your own opinion. If you are really curious about this you can always look on the internet or if you make it to Florence but don’t want to pay to go into the Academia there is a copy of the sculpture where it originally stood in the Plaza Signoria, BUT, in this case there is truly nothing like the real thing. So my “date” today with The David was my first highlight.

After lunch and some shopping we went to the Uffizi Gallery (Medici art collection – I am pretty sure it was the largest private art collection in the entire world) and that too provided the opportunity to get up close and personal with some incredible/incredibly famous works of art. I won’t bore you with the details because I know that some people are just not into really old paintings, but I will say that it was an incredible way to spend the afternoon!

Kevin, Matt W and I had to take a break before we tackled our next mission, which was to climb to the top of the Duomo. Brunelleschi’s Dome, as it is commonly referred to, is the biggest dome in the entire world (because it is so tall its volume is greater than the dome on the Pantheon.

463 steps and 8 euros later we made it. I’m not going to lie, the boys made it about 5 minutes earlier than me. Luckily, I made a nice friend who’s husband left her behind (in Kevin and Matt’s defense I told them to go ahead) and so we took a few breaks to chat, AKA try to catch our breath, control our dizziness (spiral staircases) and for me, attempt to not throw up. WHAT A VIEW. The Duomo is the highest point around and you can see snow capped mountains in the distance. We could also see the entire city and could literally pinpoint everywhere we have been during our entire stay.

That was my last activity for the day, and probably my last Florentine adventure because we are leaving early tomorrow morning. Also because I was pretty beat (I’m really not that out of shape, but during the climb all of the fun I have been having on our trip kind of caught up with me), as evidenced by the picture of me at the top of the Duomo at the beginning of this blog – looking kind of rough, but playing like a champ. The view from the top of the Duomo was my second high point.

My second low point is that we are leaving tomorrow and there is so much more I would like to do here in Florence: tour the Palazzo Medici, shop on the Ponte Vecchio, climb to the top of the Campanile and see Donatello’s statue of David and The Annunciation, to name five specifics.

I don’t mean preachy (but I would feel weird if I didn’t mention it): I hope that everyone is keeping the people of Haiti in their thoughts and prayers.

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The nice thing about Florence is that we are staying 3 nights here. Justine and I had made an ambitious plan to go running in the morning while we were at the pub last night, and, believe it or not, we followed through on our plan (at 7 am, nonetheless). I have to say that it was pretty cool to be jogging along the streets of Florence watching the city come alive.

It is 8:50 AM right now, and I just got swindled out of 2.50 euro by the hotel so that I could spend 15 minutes on the internet uploading blog entries and “maintaining” my past entries. It appears that in my haste to post some of the entries I put the wrong entries under the dates and headlines. Sorry for the confusion. It appears to be straight to me now, so if you go back and read it it might make more sense. Our tour guide meets us at 9 and we are doing an all day walking tour of the city! I am so excited.

Its hard to believe that I already have a high point and a low point for the day, but I will say that the run was definitely a highlight and a related low point is that I was unable to shower afterwards. I thought that it was just our shower that wasn’t getting hot water (see description of the shower from yesterday) but it turns out that the person who delivers oil for the hot water heater did not show up this morning. So now shower for me or anyone else in the hotel this morning. As soon as I have another chance to get on the internet I will fill you in on the rest of our day… I know you are sitting on the edge of your seat waiting to hear about our next adventure!

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Well, the rest of our day was jam packed with activities. Our tour guide was a little late to pick us up at the hotel (which worked out since I was up in my room finishing my blog entry), but what he lacked in promptness he made up for in his ability to talk non-stop for 8 hours straight. Before I sound like I didn’t appreciate our tour of Florence, let me explain.

My project for the course (we each picked a topic to write a research paper on over Christmas Break and then we each gave a presentation to the class on our topic) was about the Medici Family. This family basically controlled Florence for over 300 years and came into power after becoming wealthy merchants and then bankers (even the pope banked with them). Besides their influence in Florence, they had their hands involved in everything throughout Europe, and the family tree includes 3 popes and 2 queens of France. Their family crest is a shield with red balls on it, and during my research I found some differing explanations of what those red balls are. My research proved pretty conclusively that the red balls were actually melas medicas (medicinal apples) and since medici means medic or doctor melas medicas became a symbol of the family. Furthermore, I discovered that (as was customary in the day) artists who the Medici’s patronized and commissioned works of art from included the family crest (especially in architecture) or melas medicas in their work. You are probably wondering what this has to do with me not liking our tour guide…

Our tour guide kept describing the red balls as pills (there are Medici family crests all over the place). Finally, I brought it up to Professor Headrick (partially because I didn’t want to get points taken off on my grades because the guide’s information differed from mine) who insisted that I take it up with the guide. I did so hesitantly, fearing the lengthy response, but to my surprise, he simply said, “No, you are wrong.” To make matters worse, we were standing by a painting that had melas medicas subtly painted into the composition and when I pointed this out he adamantly agreed with my “theory.” For the rest of the tour (about 4 hours), every time he pointed out the Medici crest he would pointedly include the “fact” that the red balls were pills. So yeah… we didn’t get along too well. And then there was the lunch fiasco.

I’m getting ahead of myself though so I’ll back up. Our first official stop on the tour was the Cathedral of San Lorenzo. I say official stop because our guide had the habit of stopping and talking to us about random stuff for about 20-30 minutes in any place that caught his fancy, despite the frigid temperatures, high winds, and a surprising amount of noise from cars, trucks, construction and city life in general. San Lorenzo is a GEORGOUS renaissance style church. As (it seems) is typical of many Italian buildings, it has a massive but unassuming exterior (it actually looks kind of dumpy – the picture at the beginning of this entry is of our group standing in front of it) and is spectacular inside. It was originally done in all gray and white, but over the years color has been introduced to the interior design. Most interesting of the 93848374 facts we learned about the church is that when Pope Leo X (a Medici family member) came back to Florence after he was elected Pope he asked Michelangelo to design something “impressive” inside the Medici family church (San Lorenzo). Michelangelo took his first crack at architecture and designed a balcony inside the church. The balcony is still there today, and it has three doors that appear to lead to the exterior of the church but are actually cupboards that hold relics.

Our next stop was the Medici Chapel. The original plan for the Medici Chapel was for it to house the tomb of Christ (yes, the cave with the rock that was rolled away from the door). The Medicis were able to aquire ownership of the tomb because the sultan who owned it happed to be one of their banking customers (literally everyone was and that’s why they were filthy rich), and he was convinced that swapping the tomb for the forgiveness of some of his taxes/interest payments/debts to the Medicis was a good idea. The Medicis decided to make an incredibly fancy new home for the tomb (to make up for its plainness) and did so, but their project took so long that a new Sultan came into power and the deal was off. The Medici Chapel was left unfinished but it is still incredibly fancy and beautiful.

Many of the bodies of the famous members of the Medici Family are there now, and four of the most famous Medici are in the adjoining New Sacristy. The New Sacristy is yet another unfinished masterpiece. Pope Leo X commissioned Michelangelo to construct a tomb for him. Michelangelo didn’t like Leo to begin with, and during the project he left and never came back to Florence. The tombs are really neat because they show a contemplative man and an active man (together they represent the best a man can be) as well as day and night and dusk and dawn.

Next, we walked over to the Baptistry and the Duomo. The cathedral was closed (and will not be open until Friday afternoon when we are no longer in Florence) and the Baptistry didn’t open until 12 so we waited at the door with the gypsys until it opened. The Baptistry has a golden ceiling mosaic that is HUGE and has a very graphic and scary depiction of the Devil (the subject is the last judgment). At that point I was starving and very much hoping to get a delicious lunch of spicy meatballs.

Which leads me to the lunch fiasco: our guide had “helpfully” made a reservation for those of us who wanted spicy meatballs at a restaurant that he knew. I was looking forward to the lunch so I decided to try to win some brownie points (this was before I confronted him about the melas medicas) and started chatting with him about our lunch plans. It turned out that we were not going to get spicy meatballs but spicy spaghetti (first course) and steak Florentine (second course) and that the meal, including wine, would be a minimum of 20 euros. I only had 5 euros and was very upset that he had misrepresented the lunch (I had literally asked him where I could find spicy meatballs for a cheap price), so when he told everyone who wanted spicy meatballs to follow him, I walked the other way. So that was the fiasco, not so bad now that I write about it, and actually my lunch was a great success – I got a delicious pizza (yes, one whole pizza just for me, and my first one in Italy) with spicy pepperoni that was quite possibly the best 5 euros I have ever spent. My lunch was definitely my second highlight.

After lunch we regrouped and headed into the Pallazzo Signoria, which was my second low point. First of all, similar to the Doge Palace it was much colder inside than outside (I attempted to fix this by posting up at the guard stations in each room where there was a chair and a small radiator). The tour of this building lasted four hours. The guide kept saying, “one more room left” every time we were about to leave the room. I think he had his English confused.

Last night at dinner Dean Hull told Jess and me that we should sit at the biggest table since we were popular and people would want to sit with us (I’m still not sure how just sarcastic she was being, but I know that it was all in good fun). By default, kind of like how you sit in the same seat in class every single day for the entire semester, we sat at the big table again tonight and were joined by Dean Hull and Professor Headrick. The conversation and the wine flowed very smoothly and before we knew it, the entire group had vacated the restaurant and headed next door to see some live music. Our table did not leave dinner until well after 10. Dinner “with the grownups” would definitely be my 3rd highlight of the day.

After the live music we had two firsts. The first first was a brief adventure to a discoteca – not really my cup of tea. The second first was getting totally and completely lost. Luckily for Cari and me, Matt W finally helped us find our way back home (but to be honest, getting lost was pretty much his fault in the first place).

What a day. Two things to look forward to tomorrow (well, actually four): we don’t have a tour until 9:30, and Professor Headrick is going to be our tour guide! I am especially excited to see (ok, five things to look forward to) The David (by Michelangelo), the Uffizi Gallery, and the Duomo.

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Early morning today – wake up call at 6:30 am. Even though we were running on three hours of sleep Jess and I were bright eyed and bushy tailed. We collected Cari from her room and headed down to breakfast. Professor Headrick was there (he missed breakfast yesterday because the hotel forgot to give him his wake up call), and Matt W was busy siphoning pineapple juice into a water bottle (I’ll explain later). We got onto our water taxi for one last trip and said goodbye to Venice. Once we were back on the mainland we boarded our train to Florence, and all hell broke lose. Professor Headrick warned us that the train would not wait for us if we were screwing around, so we all hustled to follow him, inspired of a genuine fear of being left behind. The train originated in Venice, so our original rush was unnecessary, but once we boarded some members of our group seemed to be confused about train etiquette. In their defense, some of our bags are too big to fit in the overhead containers, but seriously, I have never seen such a hot mess. Matt D, Erica, Justine and I secured a party table (yes, they have them on trains as well as buses here in bella Italia) while everyone else scurried around.

About one hour into our journey some stewardesses came by with a beverage cart, and offered us complimentary wine and champagne. They came in the nick of time because we had just finished off the bottle of champagne that we brought with us. Thanks to Matt W, we had left over pineapple juice so we were able to make more champagne cocktails. As the train took us towards Florence I could already tell that I was going to miss Venice. I didn’t even include high points and low points in my blog yesterday because I felt like the entire day was a high point and there were NO low points. However, I would say that the first low point of today was that we had to leave Venice.

We arrived in Florence and were met by our guide and a small army of baggage handlers who loaded us and our luggage onto a bus. One very short ride later we arrived at our new hotel. Jess and I agreed that if our new room was as small as our room in Venice we would ask for a new room. Our room here in Florence is actually huge, and has lots of storage space (crucial) but what we gained in spaciousness we gave up in modern bathroom amenities. Our shower is simply a curtained off portion of our bathroom with a drain in the floor. The water trickles out at such a slow rate that you have to cup your hands together to collect water and then dump it over your head to get wet. The water does not get warm until it gets scalding hot and there is no in between. Needless to say, we will not be showering in our bathroom (and luckily everyone else has a nice shower so we are taking them up on their offers to share). I would say that this is my second low point, but it is not so bad, and I still felt refreshed after the 45 minute ordeal that was my shower.

First highlight of the day was seeing the duomo (Italian for cathedral) and the baptistery doors. I have studied both repeatedly in history, art, and art history classes over the years, and both were truly amazing and did not disappoint. If I am running low on material or feeling really ambitious I will tell the story behind the doors in case anyone is interested. On the way to the cathedral I was walking in the middle of the street (narrow, cobblestone) deeply involved in my conversation when I almost got hit by a speeding vespa (literally, less than a foot away from me driving about 30 mph). The rider screamed at me “WAKE UP!” in an Italian accent and Dean Hull pretty much saved my life by throwing me out of the way (Thanks again).

We split up for lunch and then reconvened in front of the baptistery. Professor Headrick offered to help people who needed it with their banking and a few of us who did not need to bank took advantage of the opportunity to pop into a cell phone store a half a block away to get pay as you go phones/ SIM cards. The man at the store went about his business excruciatingly slowly and we were gone for about 25 minutes. You can probably tell where this story is going – we hustled back to the baptistery and the group was gone. Fortunantly, Profesor Headrick had given us maps of the city so after a decent effort to meet up with the rest of the group we just went back to the hotel.

Even though we had been separated from the group we did not want to miss out on our first free afternoon in Florence so Meredith Joe and I regrouped (showered, napped, called home) and hit the streets. We had fun shopping and I have to admit that my second high point was haggling and purchasing a purse in the leather market. It is beautiful and buttery looking and has made my entire hotel room smell like leather.

Dinner was served in the hotel restaurant and then we all trooped across the street to take advantage of the 3 bottles of wine for 10 euros deal. After being kicked out of the hotel lounge (this hotel prefers that you “hang out” in your room if you are consuming alcohol – in Venice they asked us to hang out in the lounge instead of our rooms) many of us made our way up to the villa, aka the boy’s triple. There was some dissent about what to do next, half of the people wanted to go to a club and half wanted to go to a pub, so we did both. The club had a 16 euro cover charge so we did not make it past the entryway and instead we headed to The Irish Pub (that is actually the name) and that is how about 15 R-MC students spent their first night in Florence – drinking pints in an Irish pub. 

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Our wake up call was early this morning, but since we had gone to bed at 10:30 the night before we were well rested and ready to get the day started. A quick weather check (we opened our window) proved that it was pretty cold and very foggy. So much for the nice weather we were promised. I pulled on two pairs of leggings and headed down to breakfast. Jess had left before me because she does things on time like a normal person. For me, on time is 10 minutes late. I enjoyed a frothy cappuccino with an extra shot of espresso compliments of Monica.

After breakfast we loaded back onto our water taxi and headed for Murano. What had the potential to be a fascinating tour of “the lagoon,” as Venetians call the area, was actually just a cruise through thick white fog. Literally we could not see anything – white on all sides. Barbara, our tour guide, attempted to describe the sights we were passing but not seeing, but the engine was pretty loud, so mostly it was just a nice boat ride. Murano is famous for its glass and specifically glass blowing. We disembarked and walked straight into the “factory.” The master (he was never referred to as anything else) was busy making a globe for a chandelier when we walked in. we lined up on the bleachers they had set up in front of the furnace and work area, mesmerized by the process. Basically, the master would sick an iron pole into the furnace which was 1065 degrees (there was a digital thermometer) and pull out glop and then he would blow on the end of the pole and then spin the pole around and the glop would become a shape. It was crazy. The master didn’t speak any English so Adriano explained everything to us. Adriano was very enthusiastic about America and once he learned that Matt D was from California he stopped talking about the glass making process and discussed LA and Hollywood with Matt while the rest of us listened. Adriano even sang part of the song “Hotel California,” which happened to be playing in the background. The master was a middle aged man wearing a wife beater and jeans, and he had a few tattoos. He made the process look effortless and managed to complete the chandelier globe and create a vase and a Ferrari horse before our eyes, all while smoking a cigarette.

After the demonstration we were escorted into the gift shop. They had a deal where you could by 3 items (I can’t say what because they are presents for people at home) for 20 euros so Justine and I tried to strike a deal with Adriano by collecting 6 items and asking for an additional discount. Adriano, who’s Spanish was better than his English, explained, “I already give you two for free. I cannot make better price.” Justine and I were upset, and Adriano could tell, so he quickly said that he could “make it better” by giving us a “sweet.” This turned out to be much less sketchy than it sounds; he gave us each a glass candy.

We climbed back onto our water taxi and headed to Burano, which is another island in the Venetian lagoon, and is famous for lace and, apparently, cookies. Burano was so pretty, and the fog actually gave it a romantic feel. We trooped into the lace shop to see a lace making demonstration, but were informed that since it is the off season the lace ladies were not making lace. The shop keeper gave us a quick explanation of the lace making process (all handmade), and the most interesting part of it was the fact that lace makers can only work 4-5 hours per day or they risk going blind and therefore it takes 2-3 months to make individual items. The shop keeper then gave us a very detailed explanation of the special group discounts she was offering.

After the lace shop we were free to roam around Burano until our lunch. The lunch at Burano is legendary at R-MC – groups who have gone on this trip in the past have raved about the meal and the experience. The meal began with liters of wine – chardonnay and rosé, and bread with olive oil and balsamic vinegar (which came in a spray bottle – awesome). Carlo made a toast to the wolf pack (if you don’t understand the reference its fine) after speaking with the owner about the menu. Carlo was concerned that we would not be able to have seafood risotto while we were on Burano, and he wanted to make sure we would have some. The first course was a seafood lasagna, which was probably the best thing I have ever tasted. The second course was the seafood risotto, and it was kind of ruined for me by Carlo’s description of it. According to Carlo, risotto includes bottom feeder fish, and if prepared incorrectly, oozes black liquid. Yum. Fortunately, Carlo was totally off in his description, and the risotto lasted almost exactly like Spanish paella marisco (my favorite from last J-term), but you put lemon juice on it instead of mayonnaise. The next course was an entire grilled fish. Some people (Erica, Kendall, Monica, Jess), refused, because “it had a face,” but other people (Joe, Matt W) eagerly consumed the entire thing, including the eyeballs (which were crunchy?). The fish was served with fried calamari, fish sticks, onion rings and fried shrimp. A salad, biscotti, cookies and espresso rounded out our feast. In case anyone doesn’t know, it Italy it is customary to have salad as your last course before dessert. We left Burano and headed to Torcello, another island.

On Torcello we visited the cathedral, which was really old and had a gorgeous mosaic (or mose – A – ac, as the Italians pronounce it) of the last judgment. On Torcello we also discovered Italian public restrooms. It is the norm here in Italy to charge 1.50 euros to use the bathroom.

On our way back to the boat I had the opportunity to talk to Barbara (I felt guilty because she had been talking to us all day while we were on the boat and I hadn’t heard a word of it because of the engine noise). Barbara has two sons, a two year old and a three week old, and After we discussed our families, churches, and the differences between Italian and American baptisms and weddings, I asked her about gondolas. As and American tourist in Venice I was very interested in taking a gondola ride, but I knew that it was a total tourist trap situation and wasn’t sure if it was worth my time and money. On one hand, who spends time in Venice without riding in a gondola? (many of my classmates, as it turns out), but on the other hand, are gondola rides just a stupid tourist activity? (no). Barbara assured me that gondala rides were the best way to see Venice. She called a friend to confirm the details, which were that six people can ride in a gondola and that before 6 pm are 80 euros and after that the price jumps to 100 euros. Ever the instigator, as soon as we boarded our water taxi back to the mainland I gathered the wolf pack and explained the plan. Twelve of us were down for a gondola adventure. We agreed to regroup in our rooms and meet in the lobby. Kendall and Monica attempted to back out, but I persuaded them to come, promising them a trip to a ring store and the realization of their wildest dreams if they rode on the gondola. I was not able to convince Matt D to come because he was passed out in his room, exhausted from his 5:50 am run (he got lost and didn’t get back to the hotel until 9). So then there were 11 in the wolf pack and we set out to find ourselves a gondolier. As soon as we crossed the Academia bridge (“our” bridge) we happened upon two gondoliers. True to Barbara’s word, they offered us rides for 80 euros each. We climbed aboard our respective gondolas and Matt W broke out the wine (the gondoliers encouraged us to drink). Meredith, Justine, Carlo, Paul, Joe and I were in George’s gondola and Kendall, Monica, Erica, Matt W and Kevin were in Hugo’s gondola. Hugo and George agreed to paddle side by side and serenade us throughout our trip. Words cannot really describe how amazing this was. Definitely the best 15 euros I have ever spent. Carlo (George insisted that he sit in the bow because he is a “big guy”), was afraid that we would tip over, but Justine and Meredith were snug in the love seat and Joe, Paul and I were cozy in the middle of the boat. Especially Joe and me. The gondola ride will go down in history as the biggest highlight of the entire trip.

I thought it would be hard to top the gondola ride, but dinner was pretty amazing. We went back to the same restaurant that we had dinner at on our first night. Matt W ordered us a bottle of our new favorite cabernet sauvignon, Walter Nordin. and Carlo made another toast. For some reason it appeared that cast members from the show The Jersey Shore were dining at a table in the next room. They immediately hit on one of our tables (full of girls) and suddenly we had a situation on our hands (literal and figurative). After that run in we all agreed that we would be safer if we all laid low at the hotel for the evening, so once we were back in dinner we gathered in Matt W and Kevin’s room. I will spare everyone the details but Jess and I agreed when we got back to our room that it was a great night.

Tomorrow we are traveling by train (me excuse, hope we don’t go through any tunnels) to Florence. Internet access is expensive, so forgive me if there are no posts and then suddenly three day’s worth – I have been writing daily but have only had internet access once so far. 

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(that’s what the street vendors yell at you as you walk by – they are attempting to entice you with discounts in broken English, but it kind of makes you feel like a prostitute)

So Italy is the best place in the entire world. And by entire world I mean my limited experience of the world, but you get the picture. One more negative experience in France to report; I was not allowed on the plane. Shortly after I finished my last blog entry an announcement was made that our flight from Paris to Venice was to begin boarding. I hustled into line along with my classmates, waited patiently, and when the Air France personnel scanned my ticket she asked me to step aside. I was concerned that she continued to scan peoples’ tickets, and even more concerned when Dean Hull (our other chaperone on the trip), went through the check and continued on to the plane. No worries, I thought, being let alone in France with no money and no way to connect with other people will be a brilliant opportunity to showcase my survival skills. I had, after all, alerted the bank that I would be traveling to other countries besides Italy during January in an effort to help my case for staying in Europe after the class was finished. However, Kendall and her roommate for the trip Monica stayed behind at the gate with me, and after a number of phone calls, data base checks, and other nonsense, during which nothing else changed. Then, after a nerve-wrecking half hour, the lady running the front desk just let me board. No explanation, no anything.

Our next flight was a blur. Apparently some people got brilliant shots of the Alps as we flew over them, but I was fast asleep for the duration of the flight. When I woke up it was sunny and we were landing in Venice, and oh what a place!

Venice is possibly the coolest place I have ever been. The water is a beautiful shade of turquoise, which I have to say I did not expect due to the fact that I heard that sewage and other outlands are regularly dumped into the water. Being in Venice is pretty much like being on the set of a movie,

Now that I am in Italy I feel like each day can officially warrant at least two highlights and at least tow low points, so let me begin:

First low point on Sunday: our flight was delayed so we had to wait around the airport for a while. Then, once we boarded the plane, we were further delayed because they had to de-ice the plane. All of this meant that when we finally arrived in Venice we were running pretty late so we had to skip lunch!

First hight point on Sunday: Italy is amazing. First of all, we didn’t even have to go through customs. This might be some European Union deal, but when we arrived in Paris we only had someone look at our passports, so who knows. We saw the sun for our first time since arriving at Dulles, which is a huge plus in my book. Our bus had a party table (four seats situated around a table like on a boat) and our bus driver, tour guide named Roberto, and porter were all incredibly polite, informative, and helpful (unlike our American bus driver). We took the bus to the end of the mainland, which was pretty basic looking, and pulled up at a big metal building which Roberto told us is a parking garage where all of the Venicians keep their cars. Roberto told us not to worry about our baggage so we got off the bus and climbed onto a bus. Like I mentioned earlier, at this point it felt like we had walked onto a movie set. We climbed onto a water taxi (excuse the Baltimore reference) and took that boat to our hotel. The hotel is located about 200 yards (my estimate, could be totally off) from the water front and is gorgeous with a large porch/ semi-outdoor seating area and a lovely garden with statues and fountains. We couldn’t check into our rooms because it was too early, so after all of our bags arrived we set off to Saint Mark’s Square (Piazza del San Marco) with our new guide Guido. Yes, his name was Guido. I have to admit I liked Roberto better…..

Before we set off we had an exciting run in with a gypsy lady who started CRYING when we did as we had been coached to do and ignored her/walked away/said “NO!” The irony of it all was that even if we had wanted to give her money we couldn’t have because we had just arrived in the country and had not gotten any euros yet. Nearby the entrance to the hotel some men had set up shop selling fake designer bags. I am on a mission to get a new purse so I was very excited and started talking to one of the guys. Not only did I not have any money, but I didn’t like any of the bags particularly (I am trying to get a real leather bag from Florence), but this aggressive salesman did not seem to understand these facts, and tried his best to make a sale. I struggled with being polite to him while the rest of the class stood behind me in a cluster in the middle of the street sniggering.

Anyway, the second low point is that the Doge’s Palace (located on the water next to Saint Mark’s Cathedral) was colder inside than outside. This may seem like a relatively petty issue, but it was actually a hugely influential factor that  made Guido’s explanations of each of the rooms seem painfully long and drawn out. The Doge’s Palace was the residence of the Duke of Venice (independent city-state until Napoleon showed up) and currently houses wonderful paintings and frescos by Titian, Tintorretto (excuse my spelling) and other 16^th century artists. Our tour took us across the bridge of sighs, which Guido was adamant about clarifying that the sighs refer to condemned prisoners who were taken from the palace to jail after their trial. The romantic poet Lord Byron is at fault for the misconception that the bridge of sighs is a romantic spot for couples.

The second high point has to be taking a shower in our hotel room. For anyone who hasn’t stayed in a “typical” (at least that’s what my R-MC professors keep telling me) European hotel room, let me indulge in a quick description of our room. There is a double bed headboard and bedspread with two twin mattresses underneath. There is one foot between the bed and the wall on each side and at the foot of the bed, in a line, are a wardrobe, a desk, a chair (not enough room for the chair to be at the desk) and a luggage rack. Our bathroom has a pocket door, which is located one foot from my bed, and is actually quite nice – my roommate Jess and I were particularly excited about the heated towel rack. Anyway, after showering I felt like a new person.

We rounded out what seemed like the longest day ever with two more activities: a trip to billa and dinner. Billa is our neighborhood grocery store. The past two J-terms I have found that for the best prices, “cultural interactions,” and selection of goods (both familiar and foreign), you have to go to the grocery store or Wal Mart equivalent. As soon as Jess and I were cleaned up we went to the front desk and asked for directions to a grocery store. Accompanied by Kevin, Matt and Paul (it was dark so I insisted that we have male escorts). Five minutes later we found ourselves on the wine aisle of billa. After much deliberation, we made our selections, got in line and a very nice Italian man with a cart full of groceries insisted that we cut in front of him. It was so nice of him and he didn’t speak English, so I said a sheepish “gratzi!” and took him up on his offer. Dinner was amazing, located at a restaurant five minutes in the other direction from the hotel. Bread with olive oil, balsamic and parmesan, penne pasta with tomato sauce, veal in white wine sauce, salad, and a delicious lemon pie…. Probably the best meal I have ever eaten, although I was so hungry by the time we finally arrived at dinner (we hadn’t eaten in 12 hours) that my standards were not high at all.

To recap: Italy is awesome, low point 1: delayed flight out of Paris, high point 1: party table on bus, low point 2: freezing temperatures inside the Doge Palace, high point 2: shower. Sometimes it’s the small things. 

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So I am sitting in the Paris airport – Charles De Gualle and outside Paris looks exactly the way it is described in The Da Vinci Code (dark, foggy, rainy, cold). So much has happened in the last 24 hours, so I will try to recap.

I woke up early Saturday morning and packed. This was a great success because EVERYTHING I wanted to bring fit into my suitcase, which is smaller than the one I took on the past two J-terms. This is also a big deal because the past two years I have checked two bags – when I went to England I did this on purpose, and when I went to Spain my bag somehow weighed almost 70 pounds (50 is the limit) and I had to utilize an extra bag to distribute the weight. Furthermore, my packing job was monumental because despite the fact that I was a Girl Scout and used to pride myself on my packing skills – anyone who was a boy or girl scout knows what I’m talking about – as a college student I have become a terribly slack and haphazard packer. Just to illustrate how bad I usually am (and therefore what a feat it is that I have everything I need for two weeks in one normal sized suitcase and a backpack), let me just say that when I go home for a break, no matter the length, my “luggage” takes up the entire car and items are packed in laundry baskets and shopping bags. Usually I can’t even fit a passenger, and if I am giving someone a ride or a friend is giving me a ride home I get lectured about needing to pull my life together.

Anyway, Christi played mom to Kendall and me and drove us to school, dropped us off at the bus and hugged and kissed us goodbye. Kevin and Matt W jumped at the opportunity to earn extra credit by loading everyone’s luggage onto the bus (the lady bus driver said she couldn’t because of her back…) Then we all climbed aboard and Kaycie distributed goodie bags of snacks (thanks, Mrs. Williamson) to each of us. With that we were off on our journey, and although I was supremely disappointed that we did not get to watch a movie (our un-helpful bus driver said we had to provide our own DVD), the drive went by quickly.

We arrived at Dulles, went through all of the motions of checking in, and those of us who are of age quickly settled in at La Tequilaria, the bar conveniently located at our gate. At the time, Mexican food seemed like the best option for our last American meal, and that, combined with a buy one draft beer get any shot for only $3, made for a very pleasant afternoon at the airport.

While we were enjoying La Tequilaria my mom called, so upon leaving I called her back to say my goodbyes etc. And this is when my mom saved the day. I was confused when her first comments were about the weather at Heathrow (a family friend had a flight to London which was delayed because of the weather), but I began to see the method to her madness when she explained that our flight to Paris could also be delayed. “No,” I said, slightly frustrated that she was meddling/worrying about my trip. Next, she argued that she believed our flight had been moved because she was on “the airport website” and nothing about our flight came up. She also pointed out that if we were indeed leaving on time, we should be boarding by now. Concerned, but eager to prove her wrong, I walked over to the information desk and FREAKED OUT when I realized (that she was right) the information at the gate was indeed NOT about OUR flight. I flagged down Professor Headrick and he quickly solved the dilemma – our actual gate was 2 gates over – and it was on time and passengers were indeed boarding. I thanked my mom for her (accidental) help and quickly hung up. We all boarded the plane and as I went to turn off my phone I saw that my mom had called (again) and left a voicemail. It turns out that she was on the BWI airport website and not the Dulles website, so that is why she couldn’t find any information about our flight. Either way, she definitely helped us all out.

Once we were all on the plane and had played the obligatory musical chairs to make sure we were all sitting where and with whom we wanted to sit, I had my first run in with a French flight attendant. I got up to go to the bathroom and even though the door said vacant I was unable to access the bathroom. I politely asked the flight attendant how I could gain access to the bathroom (I thought maybe they were closed until take off) and she laughed, and asked me, “Did you try pushing?” to which I good-naturedly shrugged and continued to struggle with the door. She came over to help me, shook her head, and, upon opening the door proclaimed, “and you’re not even blond!” in her heavily accented English.

Dinner was served as soon as we reached cruising altitude, and on the menu was beef bourguignon, which I found ironic and exciting considering that the dish is featured in Julie & Julia (high point – I warned that a disturbing number of these would be about food). I should probably mention that we are flying Air France (hence all of the French references) to Italy. My attempt to joke with another flight attendant when he asked for my drink order landed me with both a bottle (!!) of red wine and a glass of champagne – I think there was a language barrier issue – and I thought the bottle was so cool that I saved it (unopened), only to have it confiscated when we arrived in Paris and had to go through security again. 

The flight was uneventful other than the fact that due to some minor turbulence the crew strictly enforced the seat belt rule, and the aforementioned flight attendant who was apparently on bathroom duty for the duration of the flight refused to let me leave my seat for two hours while I waited to be allowed to use the bathroom. We also had another run in with the male flight attendant when he was serving breakfast – we asked for mimosas – and he tersely informed us that it was 5 am in France (aren’t mimosas a morning drink?).

So now it is officially Sunday, 2:30 am at home and 8:30 am here in Paris. Our itinerary changed slightly so that we have a 3 hour layover instead of the original 1 hour, so we are all just sitting at the gate (low point). I would like to report that the sunrise in Paris is magical, but it is not. I can’t wait for Venice. 

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Don't you hate when a day or two goes by and you think to yourself, "wait, what have I been doing with my life?" Its pretty bad when you notice that this has happened to you and its really embarrassing when you are supposed to be blogging about all of the interesting things you are doing. I literally got into bed (at 9:40 pm) last night and thought about creating a blog entry, and decided not to because it would be too pathetic. 

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My roommate Kendall is in my Italy class. I realized this morning that this is an interesting fact that I should probably throw out there, especially since I made her screen my first blog entry before I posted it. Our other roommate, Christi, is not coming with us as she is embarking on her own adventure to Ghana (unless we figure out a way to sneak her into Europe in one of our suitcases). 

Last night after my first blogging adventure and a dinner of pita chips and brushetta (we are avoiding grocery shopping since we are only here for a few days), Kendall and I headed over to the senior apartments. We ran into a number of our Italy classmates there. We all agreed that we are looking forward to enjoying a glass or two of wine during lunches in Italy (so there, to whomever says that Americans aren't enthusiastic about embracing local customs). 

Now that I am feeling a little less awkward around people in my class, I have to admit that I almost dropped out of this class last fall. Like I mentioned yesterday, I have always wanted to travel/study in Italy, and this trip is pretty much my last chance to do so. However, when I saw the list of people who were signed up for the class I was a little concerned and reconsidered my decision to go on the trip. First of all, I am the oldest person in the class (and no one wants to be the creepy older person). We were doing some icebreakers on Monday and I kind of freaked out because I found out that about 4 of the people in the class were born in 1991. I'm pretty sure that I have been a babysitter for kids who were born in '91. Second of all, of the 30 students in the class there are 23 girls and only 7 guys. I'm not sure how to say this without sounding uber sketchy, but that is just not a good ratio. All that aside, our group has seemed pretty legit so far, so lets keep our fingers crossed that it doesn't get weird....

So, I'm about to leave for Italy, and I'm really excited. Despite the appearance of my room/apartment and the fact that I am definitely not even unpacked from Christmas Break, I have been planning (in my head) what I am going to bring to Italy. My dad keeps reminding me how cold it is going to be, and has a somewhat bewildering obsession with me taking long underwear on my trip. Meanwhile, Professor Headrick's only wardrobe advice thus far has been his announcement that he will only be bringing "jeans and black jeans," no dress clothes because he can wear the black jeans for a more formal look. Sorry guys, but I'm a girl, and I'm not about to go traipsing around Italy in long underwear (no matter how cold it is) or black jeans, or, god forbid, both at the same time. Luckily, my friend Kelly has the patience of a saint, and spent a significant amount of time in the leggings and casual shirt section of Forever 21 yesterday helping me pick out clothes that I think will be Italy/packing friendly. 

But I digress... Today's low point was that Wing Wednesday was cancelled (a disturbing number of my high and low points will probably be related to food) and Estes had a (nasty) nacho bar instead. 

My high point is that today I went on a mini road trip to Hampden-Sydney! Our men's basketball team, which is #1 in the nation, by the way played Hampden-Sydney today. Its hard to resist a road trip, and it proved to be the perfect way to make sure that I did not accomplish anything that I needed to do after class today. The atmosphere in the H-SC gym was tense, and one H-SC dad actually ran on to the court at one point and mopped up a wet spot with his vest. And then he put the vest back on when he thought no one was paying attention anymore. Inappropriate. 

So it pretty much looked like we were going to loose, and that my little adventure to Farmville was going to be my low point when Adam Desgain shot a three pointer with 4 seconds left. All 20 of the RMC student fans jumped up and cheered, and it seemed like the entire Farmville police force was immediately on hand to "contain us," which was silly considering how few of us there were. When the clock ran out the gym was practically silent, filled with seething H-SC fans, and suddenly I was happy for the overly enthusiastic police presence because I felt like we needed their protection. The final score was 69-68. Basically the most badass win ever. 

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