Gli esami...

Exams are torture. What's worse about this is I only have four papers to write. Two of them for English, one for Comedy and one for Architecture. They're all really easy. It's just that I'm having a lot of trouble buckling down. Honestly, I have a lot of other stuff to be worrying about right now! For example, the fact that I will be traveling back to the States in a matter of five days its a slightly pressing issue. Then there is the play which is Wednesday AFTER my written Italian exam. I took my oral Italian exam today and am pretty sure I did really well. I also have to make sure I can fit everything into my suitcases to get home. I'm almost all packed and only essentially have the clothes I need for the rest of the time left out. There's also the issue of how much stuff is going to change within the matter of a day.

Coming here, I knew it was going to be a gradual process. Moving into a new house, meeting new people, eating different food, and living differently I knew would take time to adjust to. But going back it's going to be different. Everything at home is established already. I'm going home to people I know, friends that I've had for ages, frozen and fast food, and the same house that I left behind in RI. This also means leaving everything here behind. I have to say bye to my friends from the West Coast not knowing when I will ever see them again. That's pretty heavy stuff. I have to say bye to Franco, Barbara, and Tori who have been such an amazing family to live with. Tori's my little munchkin and I'm gonna miss tickling her every morning when I see her. I'm going to miss the fact that Franco would offer to do the "pound then explode" fist bump with me after we talked about my day. That stuff is all finished. I'm not returning to it like I am to everything in the States and that's really hard to wrap my head around.

So yes, I'm in the library right now with Laura and we're both doing exam things. I've got a good portion of my Comedy paper done and she's studying for her Nutrition final. We'll take a lunch break eventually. I've got the Freshmen farewell dinner tonight. Yay for more free food.

Hopefully I'll have three of the four papers finished by the end of tonight. I'm writing my architecture paper tomorrow with my TA. Then I will be officially done with stressing. I will have all day Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday to prepare for the show with only a brief interruption for my written Italian final on Wednesday.

US of A: 5 Days.

Anyone know of a good place to get a new set of lungs?

Howdy doody y'all.

So, Monday proved to be a crazy day with classes and rehearsals and bad weather and the worsening of the rather dreadful cold that I seem to have contracted during the course of the last week or so.

Tuesday was the national holiday of the Immaculate Conception so we didn't have classes. I went to Mass with the host family and then met Liza back at school to keep working on our project for ETS. I then went with Merritt to film at Palazzo Pitti for the video as well. I stayed at school all day working on this project and also my project for Architecture. SO MUCH WORK. To complicate matters, I wasn't able to breathe due to my incessant hacking. My back was in a lot of pain because I was coughing so hard. I left at 6 with Liza to head to our Italian professor's house for an appertivo. We had wine, risotto, and some other little perfectly delectable things. I then proceeded to RUN home for dinner. I had no other option because my teacher is a little bit of what we like to call, a "ciaccierone"...or one who talks too much. So I ran for almost a half an hour to get home despite the fact that I couldn't breathe.

I was basically passing out at the dinner table so I ended being in bed by 8:55. I had a rather fitful sleep and resolved that I was going to pay a visit to the doctor.

Today was long because of the projects and presentations going on. I spent a lot of time with Beth and Steph today which was quite nice. I went to the doctor and he said there was nothing that he could tell that was wrong with me. But yet, he prescribed me three different things. I have already taken all three to start my dosage and I hope that this plague of sorts dissipates within the next few days.

I'm in rehearsal now. We have one week exactly until the performance. Things are getting pretty stressful. We have four sick cast members, a sick director, people who don't show up on time or at all for that matter and several characters that are still not off book. I just really want this to go well.

I'll be home in approximately 7 and a half days. The State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations isn't going to know what hit it.

Peace out cub scouts.

Lazy Day...

Got up early this morning and went to church at Basilica di Santa Croce with the fam. We walked around the Christmas markets for a few minutes too. When we came back, Tori and I hung out until lunch time. We had a really nice lunch together and then I proceeded to sit in bed from around 4 til 7 watching Glee. It's a really funny show, as awful is it may be quality wise. I'm sitting in the kitchen with Tori now and we're just watching the Italian version of Who Wants to be A Millionaire. I'm pretty smart according to this country. Yesss.

I'm going ice skating tonight with Maddy, Laura, and Remi! WOOOO!

Crazy week coming up. The last three days of classes...MADONN!

CHEOWWWWWW.

Roaming around Firenze...

So, today was particularly delightful.

I met Liza at school to do some filming for our English project. Then we went to Paperback Exchange to sell back some books only to find out we could only get store credit. We started filming at the Duomo which was a lot of fun.

After that, we went back to school and then head to San Ambroggio for cheeseburgers! Love it. Perche No! was next for some gelato deliciousness. Tori, Rachel and I wandered around and had amazing time for the rest of the day.

We went to Esselunga for dinner and did our usual feast of cheapskates. I skyped with my Brothers which made my life!

I saw Ashley, Nikhil, Amanda, Ed, Ben, Brenna, Whitney, Meredith, Ben, Lucas, Bethany, Royce, Natalie, Tia, and a whole bunch of NIBS!

I'm watching Glee now. It's fantastic. Mass and lunch with the host family tomorrow :)

Man, I love Italy livin' but I can't wait to get home.

12 days...still.

Right...sooooooo about life.

Okay, I would like to reiterate my sincerest apologies for being an awful blogger as of late. Things are absolutely crazy right now.

So, backtracking to the weekend of November 6, 7, and 8. I went to Siena and San Gimignano with my Mediterranean City class on the sixth. They were both super cool. To see the Campo where the Palio is run was awesome. Kelly, Andrea, Tori, Jacque and I bought a bottle of wine, some bread, cheese, and lunch meat and sat directly in the middle of the Campo for lunch. A+ day. On Saturday I went FINALLY to go see the David. Good stuff. He's got athlete's foot. Just so y'all know. Nothing else too important.

During that week I had some rehearsals and signed up for classes. Nothing too special.

I went to Vicenza, Padova, and Venice on the 13th and 14th. Venice was absolutely surreal. I don't really have much to say about it other than that. It's one of those things you have to see for yourself - truly.

The next week was rehearsals, Rachel's show, The Dumb Waiter, which was a lot of fun, a lecture by the author Gabriella Kuruvilla, and some more rehearsals.

I went to Rome for Friday and half of Saturday. It was really nice to go back. The group I went with was awesome. I roomed with Laura, Lauren, and Maddy. They rock. We went out in Campo di Fiori. Kelly and Andrea were a blast to hang out with throughout the weekend.

A bunch of us took the early train back so that we could go to the Fiorentina Game! Italian soccer games are one of the craziest things I've ever experienced. It was so much fun.

This week got really insane. I had classes all day, then rehearsal, then soccer both Monday and Tuesday. Insanity. We came in second in the Soccer tournament!! Tuesday was even crazier because after our soccer game I went with Caitlyn, Remi, Schulyer, Maggie, Julie, and Alex to the AF Champions League game. Then after that we went down to Lion's Fountain to get our trophy...boy was it a late night. But I had my first Italian burrito which was AMAZING.

I skyped with Jenna on Wednesday which I really needed. I miss her TERRIBLY.

Thursday it was off to Dublin for a nice Irish Thanksgiving. Ireland is amazing as always. I traveled with Maggie, Aviva, and Rosa. Friday was spent sight-seeing in Dublin and visiting the Guinness Storehouse! I ran into Mickey, Kyla, and Anna which was super cool. We went to Gwendalough on Saturday which is out in the country to do some hiking - fantastic. I left Sunday afternoon to head back. I flew into Rome and then literally ran across the city to catch the train back to Florence.

This past week has been spent doing a lot of school work and rehearsing. I have also been fighting a pretty nasty cold that I got in Dublin so that's been taking a lot of energy as well.

Today I went to the Vasari Corridor which is, aside from being a "secret passage" taken by the Arch Duke from Palazzo Vecchio to Palazzo Pitti, the biggest collection of self-portraits by famous artists. This isn't open to the public and in fact we were the second to last group to go in there before 2015. The paintings in there aren't even catalogued...it was insanity.

That's all the factual stuff for the month of November. Rehearsals for the Importance of Being Earnest are going well. I'm off book at this point which is really awesome. It feels like it's realyl coming along. I have an awesome cast to work with and that's making all the difference. I'm going to be spending the rest of this weekend working on projects and papers.

I think I'll be going to the Fiorentina Game on Sunday which is really cool. Total of three!! They were really super fun. The fans are insane. There's everything from huge flags to flares and pushing and shoving, amicably of course.

My time in Florence is winding down and I can't wait to make the most of the rest of it.

United States of America: 13 days.

Sono viva...

Hi all.

I'm alive and heartily apologize for lack of an update on my life since November 12th. I'm currently doing a lot of homework and will work on a full-length blog update for the near future.

Coming Soon to a Blog Near You:

Siena and San Gimignano

Venice

Rome

Dublin

Two Fiorentina Games

Importance of Being Earnest Rehearsals

Soccer Tournament

Nights Out

General Update

Stay tuned!

Today, the last day of November, I will start my countdown for gli Stati Uniti: 18 days.

FALL BREAK! - 5

Fall Break, Part V: London, Florence and Epilogue. November 1^st and 2^nd.

We took the tube home and then met up with Jill and Megan at Shakespeare’s for drinks. London is fantastic. I know I’ve said it before but it needed to be reiterated.

We were up early the next morning to go to the changing of the Guard but it got cancelled due to inclement weather. Yes, that means we stood in a downpour for an hour before they decided to cancel it. I headed back to Mickey’s to work on my architecture presentation. I Skyped with my parents right before leaving which was nice. Saying bye to Rachel was tough because I won’t see her until January but I get to see Carolyn in Dublin in three weeks so I was over that!

Aviva and I headed out to catch our bus. We got slightly turned around which stunk. When we finally found our bus, we found out it was broken down and we were waiting for another one. Once the other one showed up, everyone was loaded on and then the driver broke the back window so we couldn’t use this one either. We all had to resort to paying cash to get on a National Express bus to catch our flights. So many people lost their flights or couldn’t pay because they only had cards. EasyBus has lost my business from here on out.

Anyway, I was fortunate enough to have ten pounds on me that I lent to a guy by the name of Jacob so that he and his friend could make it to the airport. They couldn’t pay me back and didn’t have time to get to the ATM when they got to the airport so they asked for my information so that they could contact me later. It reminded me a little of what Isabella did for me on my way back from London just two weeks before.

We made our flight on time and grabbed some Starbucks sandwiches for dinner. Our flight was fine and then we took a bus back from Pisa to Florence. It was all-in-all a fantastic return journey.

This break was definitely the experience of a lifetime. I’m really glad that I was with a group of girls who were all about immersion in the cultures that we were visiting. I saw much stuff, ate so much great food, laughed so hard, saw so many good friends, and really just had an amazing time.

Thank you to those who helped make the Break awesome. Thanks first and foremost to the girls! Aviva, Mick, Rach, Dana, Megan, and Jo – you guys made the Break for me and I can’t imagine having gone any better! Thanks to Rich, our travel agent in London, who set us up with really cheap places to stay but in GREAT locations and modes of transportation! Uncle Leon, thanks for the tips along the way! Mom and Dad, thanks for the cash-ola. Katie, thank you for pestering me to post this. Thank you to all of you who have read this faithfully and are continuing to follow me through my semester abroad. It means more than you know!

Now it’s off to Venice for the weekend!