Hello again. This shall be another boring blog to read as my brain is preoccupied with other things.
So, I went to Venice and Florence! They were beautiful! I think Venice is my favorite city that I’ve seen in Europe because it’s so weird. Who builds a city on 100+ islands? It just doesn’t make sense… It was cool that there were no cars, though. I think I would be annoyed with this if I lived there, but as a visitor it was nice to not have to worry about getting run over (which is a very constant worry when living in Naples)
My day of travelling from Naples to Venice went perfectly- as soon as I got to the metro stop, the train pulled right up, as soon as I arrived at the bus stop, the bus pulled up, and I even had enough time to do some of my research at the airport before the plane pulled up- it was perfect. Venice from the air is very impressive.
I knew that all of that luck was going to come to an end, because travelling never goes that smoothly, and I was expecting something very unfortunate to happen so that the universe would be balanced.. but nothing terrible ever came. Leandra did have quite a feat getting there- maybe that’s where it equaled out. Also, that night we took a bus to get to our hotel, which was in the country outside of Venice since every room in Venice that cost less than 700euro (literally) was booked, and I left my ipod on the bus… Luckily I left my paper with the name of our hotel and all of it’s contact information on the bus seat next to my ipod…. The bus driver called my hotel when he got to the final stop with directions of how to get to the station, and I was able to go retrieve my ipod in the morning.
It was supposed to rain all weekend but we were very fortunate. The rain didn’t start until Leandra and I were on the train to Florence, and it only rained the duration of the train ride. The next day, it only rained as soon as Leandra, her family, and I were all worn out from walking around all day and were headed back to their hotel on the bus. Perfect.
I can’t do justice to either city by describing it on here… I think pictures will do just fine. As Dan says, there’re pictures on the internet, so that’s all you need to do to hear about my weekend- google it. Or if you want a more personal account, I will be posting my pictures once I’m done with all the work I need to do.
Alright, on to all the random tidbits of information which I’m not sure you care about, but it’s what a blog is for…
As a break from all the work I need to do, I’ve been getting to do a little calculus- one of my friends has a test coming up and has been referring to me when she gets stuck. It’s been a fun break from writing!
Italy’s getting hot. Real not. And humid. Not really any more hot and humid than Rolla in June, but with far less air conditioning. And even in the places that have air-conditioning, they don’t turn it on- they open the widows, which is quite pleseant when you haven’t just ran from the metro to class because the metro runs at different speeds and comes at different times everyday. It’s really hard to get cool again when you’re sitting in a semi-warm classroom all sweaty. And when they turn the air-conditioning on, it’s just barely on. I was in class yesterday, in the class that actually has air conditioning, and I was thinking, wow- it feels really good in here, quite perfect actually, and the teacher got up to turn down the air-conditioning because it was too cold and making his voice “disappear.” I appreciate that the US pumps so much air conditioning into a place in the summer that you always have to take a sweater with you- it allows us to run from once place to the other, which suits our lifestyle. It’s hard to be an American over here- I need to pull out more of the Italian in me.
I’ve just been informed that today is the festival of Spring and Mother Nature is coming to the Villalta… Something must have been lost in translation there.. I’m picturing someone in a green, viney, flowery suit coming and we all sit on her lap and tell her what we want for spring. I will let you know how this has played out.
So, my 3 months of travelling and procrastinating has caught up to me. I’ve been working all day everyday since I got back from my weekend excursion, and still have a lot to do. The next couple of weeks will be very interesting.
I sent my list of objectives for my research paper to my advisor in Rolla and to my advisor in Naples. My advisor in Naples said that his only concern was that it might be a little to “ambitious” and we’ll see what I can get done in my remaining time here (he knows my departure date is in 5 weeks). My advisor in Rolla responded with “great, can you have it done in 2 weeks?” So we’ll see if I can meet that 2 week request (although it’s less than a week now since I went to Florence and Venice last weekend and have been working on a different project all week…), or if it is, in fact, a little to ambitious.
I present a report tomorrow morning which I’m not sure even counts for anything. The professor gave an assignment a month ago in class, but since I am the only student who speaks English, I’m pretty sure I’m the only one who understood that the teacher was assigning something. It’s the report on what the world would look like if concrete had never been discovered, which I was actually excited about writing, which is the reason that I sent the teacher an email last Friday asking if I could give a presentation on the subject rather than write a report (this way I could stack it with pictures, which is pretty much my game plan.) (Also, I was hoping that maybe if I did this project, it would be a replacement for a final exam. Since the exams here are oral, I have honestly no idea how to prepare for the test, so I’m going to try to avoid it any way I can.) My professor said that a presentation would be fine and “we’ll see about the report after.” Which is still fine by me if it replaces the test. On Friday he said- okay, you can present it Tuesday. However, I was leaving for Venice when I got this email, and wouldn’t be back until Monday evening, and had not at all completed the project, so I asked him if I could present Thursday instead. So here I am, trying to cram a semester’s worth of knowledge into a report due tomorrow which may or may not be for any credit. Yesterday in class he made a joke- “make sure you come prepared Thursday! This is your final grade!” and just as I was getting excited because it sounded like it would replace my exam he said “I’m just joking.” My heart sank. Oh well, maybe if I make it nice enough he will be blown away tomorrow and say that I have mastered the topic and no exam could match my seemingly endless knowledge! Here’s hopin’.
Okay, off I go. I could use prayers for persistence, endurance, and focus. Thanks! Also self-control…I have met my match with the food here. I hold no power of self-control against it. I know I shouldn’t let it be my master, but I willingly let it be at every meal and every snack time.
Mmkay, I’m really going now. You think you can only procrastinate so much…and then you write another paragraph…
K, ciao!
P.S. I’ve been continuing to document the food we’re eating, in a separate document so I don’t type your eyes off (the phrase “talk your ears off” doesn’t really transfer to the e-world…), and I literally just spelled delicious as “delishish” and could not remember for the life of me how to spell it correctly.
Too. Much. Writing. I’m literally going insane.
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