Uhhhh what... we have CLASSES?!?!

Buonasera! I made it back for post number two and only a few days have passed since my last post, you all should be proud.

Ok so where to start. WELL we started these things called classes on Monday and I was kinda really out of wack. You have to understand I have been out of regular semester classes since May 10th (I did take summer school but still) so I was not at all ready for these classes and as a matter of fact I am still not. My thoughts going into class were "Ok I am in Rome, these classes can't be too bad after all, I will be seeing most of the things we are talking about. My thoughts coming out of class were "uhhh what, excuse me but I do not have time for pages on pages of reading while I am in the best place on earth for a limited time...learning can wait". Yes it really was that bad. My first class was philosophy which is going to be a struggle. Most of my professors have really strong italian accents that are all slightly different, and my philosophy professor has a particularly difficult accent to understand. If that were not hard enough, the first class was a jumble of words and phrases that I just did not understand. Philosophy is hard, it involves thinking and I mean thinking, and I was not ready for that. We will see how the class progresses over the course of this semester. Art history and history followed after a break for a small lunch at a nearby caffe Pascucci's. Art history is a lot of reading as well and a lot of memorizing. History followed... also lots of reading.

Today I had an italian placement test and theology. Italian will be difficult but good for me. Obviously being in Rome is the perfect place to be able to and to force yourself to use the italian you are learning...easier said than done as I am experiencing...so I hope this class will freshen my italian and make me feel a tad more confident to speak it in more coherent and intellectual sentences instead of pointing at the food I want and saying "un cornetto e un aqua per favore" every morning. I was proud of myself and my roommate Colleen today though! We were reading in one of the sunrooms on our floor and we got locked out of our room so we went to the maid and I said, "puoi aprire la nostra porta?" to which she immediately knew what I was asking and unlocked our door. YES GO US. Progress and little baby steps are important. Theology was pretty fantastic. Our professor is a priest and is just so interesting to listen to. I could just sit and listen to him talk about ethics and christian morality all evening. It is going to be one of those classes that I truly look forward to going to, oh and there isn't much reading. I can't complain.

I will let you know how these classes are going in about a week or so, my attitude will probably be more positive as it should be, but right now it is all kinda rude and stressful. I will learn in just a few short days that it is ok to put down the book and go for a gelato. It is going to be alright.

Other than classes some other noteworthy happenings in Rome would be the difficult task of planning where and when we are going to do our traveling. Our schedules this semester are packed so tightly and while we have many three day weekends, there are only about a total of five weekends that are free for us to travel. All the other weekends are either too short or we have lectures and tours on Saturday. So we all had a pow wow tonight on the terrace outside and tried to organize ourselves. We realize that we all want to go so many different places and we also realize that we are in Italy so we should take advantage of that and travel in the country as much as we can. Who knows we may never be back (thats why we throw that coin in the Trevi Fountain, so we do return) and so its important to take advantage of Italy while we are here. Our most current plan is for a day trip to Assisi this upcoming Sunday to which we will be transported by train.

We have group dinners every Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday at three different restaurants around 7:30. It is a nice opportunity to talk to new girls and share a nice meal and conversation as we unwind from the day. The other days we are on our own for dinner and my friends and I have realized cheap is the only way to go. It is easy to spend 10-15 euro a night on just dinner, and although I like my italian food, I like my future italian boots and my trips much better. We share and order tap water, maybe occasionally wine. After dinner is a necessary gelato stop. Its just what you have to do at night in Italy. Go out for gelato, people watch and enjoy the atmosphere. It is quite spectacular. (I should get a photo  of this wonderful night life so you all can see what I am talking about).

It is 2:00am. I have 8:00am philosophy in the morning. Its bedtime for me. Rome is still awake and active, but Andree is winding down. Night all!

Arriverderci