Before Break...

The week has been low-key but fun so far. I finally booked the hotel for Rome, just a few minutes away from the Colloseum and am so excited! Easter at the Vatican should be very very cool. Besides that, I’ve spent the days in class – learning past tenses in Italian and taking photos of the Florence streets in Photography. It turns out that my Photography professor is extremely well-known in Italy and even in the United States. She photographs bands and musicians, mainly in concert but also portraits. Annalisa even has a close relationship with the artist Moby, and spent six months following Radiohead on tour to photograph their shows. Pretty amazing. And also interesting – her husband is a famous musician in Italy, with a band called Negramaro. I even found their CD at the library here and it sounds really good! Now I know, personally, two of the more famous artsy people in Florence/Italy. I had no idea.

Midterms are next week, right before spring break. They shouldn’t be too bad, since I only really have two “hard” tests – one for Italian and one for Renaissance Art History. That will be the worst, memorizing dates and places and church names and Italian artists…I haven’t taken a history test in probably five years. English papers are a breeze by now, but I’m a little worried about knowing all these dates and names. I started on a study guide and my roommates and I are planning to study this weekend, so it should be OK. Other than that, Italian probably won’t be too difficult – except that I’ll have to rush through it to bolt to the train station and catch a ride to Pisa Airport next Thursday! Break is so soon and I can’t wait. I’ll be in London for the weekend, then heading to Dublin for a few days during the middle of the week with my friends from school here. After that, going back to London and possibly doing a day trip into the English countryside. And when I return to Florence, Sheena’s coming! Mom and Dad randomly surprised me with the fact that my sister would be visiting for a week, and it’s going to be so fun! I have lots of plans already for all the Florentine things we’ll do – mainly eat pizza and gelato, because let’s be honest, those are the only things you really MUST accomplish here. Sheena will be sleeping on a mattress on our floor for the week, and we’ll be visiting the family in Castiglioncello again so she can meet Matteo, Stefania, Giorgio and Dahlia. (I am also going this weekend with my roommates so they can get some good old Italian cooking too!) March is going to be a whirlwind, but SO great. London, Dublin, then Sheena, then Rome, then my birthday weekend (maybe Venice?) and then Eva visits. Suddenly it’s May and I’ll have only a week of class before packing up. So strange, it’s going by so fast but so wonderfully.