Assorted Thoughts

One great big hug goes out to my bestest pally Colleener, who today turns ten plus ten. That makes twenty!!!! We are so proud of how cool she is. Tho we are sad she is not home here in the Park to celebrate with us. But don't worry, Colleen, we still love you even through you're very far away. I'll still drink to your health.

I'm gonna post some vacation pics as soon as Dad moves the scanner over, so that is a part of your birthday present. Even though everyone gets to enjoy them. I'm feeling generous like that. Guess who's on a sugar high! A-well that would be me. I'm leaving now before I cause more damage. POST YOU BIRTHDAY MUSINGS HERE, Y'ALL. You know you want to. Ok now I really am going because I'm starting to creep even myself out.

Wow. Man. I can't believe I'm home already. I can't believe I even got to go. It went by so fast. Wednesday I was all cranky because we didn't have time to see the Colosseum before our train to Florence and we had to waste time standing around in a train station for a long time. I was raining when we got to Florence (which was pretty much what the weather was like for the whole trip, unfortunately) so we kinda wandered aimlessly and looked at the jewlery shops on the Pontevecchio (a really old bridge from like, 1335 or something). The next day was better, we took a tour of Florence, went shopping in the market, and took a tour of the Uffizi gallery. Which. Was. AMAZING. It was like taking a tour of my art history text book. Seriously, I was completely overwhelmed. It meant so much more to me than it would have if I hadn't taken art history.

Unfortunately after that my knee was killing me from walking around everywhere, so the next day when we took the train back to Rome for one last afternoon of sightseeing I was in unpleasant amounts of pain. But at least we got to tour the inside of the Colosseum finally, and we took the subway to the Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps (although we still aren't entirely sure what they are.) By then it was pouring and dark out and we were collapsin', so we went back to our hotel one last time.

The plane ride home was a bit of a nightmare, because I was a bit feverish from sleep deprivation, but I'm mostly better now. Jet lag hit me harder than I expected. Yay sleep! I am so glad I have no miderms this week, otherwise I would die.

Greetings from Roma, everyone! Mom and I are living it up here in Italy but we are exhausted. Yesterday we saw the Vatican Museums, the Sistine Chapel, and St. Peter's Basilica. We left the rest of Rome for today - a very bad idea, as we had to rush around to see everything. We took pictures of the Pantheon, the Arch of Constantine, Piazza Navona, and a ton more. We didn't get to go inside the Colosseum yet but we're hoping to squeeze that in before we leave for Florence tomorrow (!) How can it almost be Wednesday already? We managed to sleep in til 10:30 this morning (good job us) but we made up for it by walking all over town. It was madness but I love it. Anyway, we should probably get going now because I need my beauty sleep, haha. Also we are about to fall over. Hopefully we'll figure out how to access our email before we come home but don't hold out on that one. So for now it's buonanotte e a la prossima!
PS I definitely need to work on my Italian. I't quite sad really. But anyway BYE!

Um, ok. So somehow my studying plan (if you can even call it a plan)has worked. Who could have predicted that? I actually did manage to get through everything I had meant to get through this weekend. Honestly, I thought I was being a little optimistic when I said I'd touch on every subject, but look! I actually did.

The only problem now is that my brain is starting to crap out on me. Trying to sqeeze in some more soc last night was very much not happening. But now that that exam is over, I can forget everything from soc and make more room for Italian! The oral part is tomorrow. I have a vague feeling it will be my doom. I'm really hoping my prof picks the topic on travelling...

Today feels really good. It was all sunny and jolly and you know when you're listening to music and it just completely fits the mood of the moment you're in? Well it was like that. Tonight I'm hanging out with friends and putting off (again) studying for my 5 midterms next week - yay party!

But really, I will be studying hardcore this weekend. The plan was to get in about 3 extra hours of studying from the time I got home from school until supper. Hours I have been home: 2. Hours I have spent studying: 0. Hours left until supper: 1. Hmm. Plan needs revision. I think I'm hoping to learn by osmosis or something. How long will it take to learn the phonetic alphabet? 5, maybe 10 minutes? Well, that's what Wednesday night is for.

Ok, for real now, Over and out!

Ok, so la vacanza in Italia is officially happening. It's been kind of a mess organizing this monster; Dad's not coming after all and Mom and I have been left to plan it ourselves. We are not the best people to organize things. Mom's limited computer skills and my strong aversion to anything resembling work are not helping. But flights, hotels (mostly), and tours are booked! Progress is being made, slowly but surely. Soon I will see the things I'm studying in art history! I love life.