September 21, 2011

September 21, 2011

We spent Italian class today reviewing for our Italian midterm tomorrow. There is a lot that we have learned over the past four weeks so it is going to cover a lot of different things but I am pretty confident about it at this point so hopefully it will go well! After class, I ate my lunch and went, again, to the market and the surrounding areas with a few others where they go their lunches (I was content with my home lunch today). It was warmer today, in the mid eighties, but at least not the nineties as it had been. Hopefully it will only cool down from here. After a while, we came back to school and just hung out and used the Internet until our Venice orientation meeting at 3:00.

Our Venice orientation definitely made me excited for this weekend, although I am sure it will be a whirlwind. We leave Friday morning at 7:30 a.m. on a private coach that will take about three hours to get there (thankfully we can sleep on the bus). When we get there, we take a private boat to Murano, known for its glass blowing (I am foreseeing this as a highlight for me). After about an hour there, we get back on our boat, which will take us to our hotel. We’ll have about an hour in our hotel to get settled before we head back out into Venice. We were allowed to pick our roommates for the hotel so I am rooming with Franzi as well as Nikki and Becca, another roommate pair who were both in Cinque Terre with me (see photo of a bunch of us in Cinque Terre). I think it will be a fun little group. After we get settled, we are headed out to do some sightseeing and tours in Venice (I’ll elaborate more later- in the blogs for the days when we actually go there).  Then we have a few hours in the late afternoon to explore Venice on our own. At 7:30, ACM along with study abroad programs from University of Michigan, Duke and Wisconsin have come together to actually RENT the basilica. While we are there, they have hired the organist to play classical music and Jodie will talk about the art history of the basilica and a professor from Duke will talk about the politics of Venice over history (I think…I don’t quite remember). We will be there for a little over an hour and then we’ll head back to the hotel where we’ll have a late dinner at 9:00 p.m.

Saturday, we have the morning off unless we choose to take a walk with Jodie to some of the churches around Venice. A little before one, we will meet the professors to take the train to the cathedral in Padua. We’ll be there for the afternoon and arrive back in Venice around 5:30 where we’ll have free time until dinner at 8:00. Sunday morning at 9:30, we go to the Academia for a couple hours with Jodie and then are free until we leave to go back to Florence around 4:00. We’ll return home in time for dinner that night. Like I said, it will be a whirlwind, but hopefully a lot of fun! Also, a quick note: I am not bringing my computer to Venice so I will bring a journal and try to write down my blog entries each night. I will post all of them when I get home either on Sunday evening or Monday. So don’t worry when there are no posts Friday, Saturday, and maybe Sunday!

After orientation, it was about 4:30 so I decided to head home. I brought my computer out onto the balcony to send a quick email and download a reading for one of my classes. Right before I signed off, I got a surprise call from my friends at St. Olaf, Sofia and Rachel who were calling from the green room (aka the theatre student hang out room)! I was SO excited because I got to see so many of my theatre friends at St. Olaf and even Karen, my professor :) It was such a wonderful surprise and so exciting to see all of their faces! Every time someone new walked into the room, everyone would yell to come over to the computer and see who was there. It really brought a smile to my face :) I really have the most wonderful friends. Speaking of which, I got a lovely letter from my friend Rachel today so a shout out and a thank you to her!

Now I thought I would write up my blog entry before I start studying for my Italian midterm. I’d better go to that now and write more after dinner. Wish me luck!

I studied for my Italian midterm and did a little more homework for my other classes so I feel fairly accomplished. I will do a little more before bed but I’m not too worried. We’re spending the first hour and a half of class tomorrow studying, taking our break and then taking the test after the break. So we’ll have plenty of time to review in class. As I was finishing up my studying, I could barely concentrate because dinner smelled so wonderful! We started off with penne pasta with ricotta cheese, zucchini and fresh basil that was to die for! I definitely had seconds on that. For our main dish, we had a spinach and cheese quiche that was also incredible. We ended off the meal with ice cream cake and dessert wine (that I had a small glass of-it was okay). We spoke a lot about colleges in the United States at dinner, which was a very interesting conversation. You would think they would know all about it after hosting so many students but they were so fascinated by everything we said. They thought Knox and St. Olaf were huge schools…then we told them about Madison and the like…they were dumbfounded.

Well, I have a bit of a headache so I’d best get this posted, study for a little bit longer and get myself to bed. Oh, but two more fun little tidbits! First of all, my friend from Minnetonka Theatre and high school, Simon, is studying abroad in London this semester so we decided to hang out one night while I am there over fall break. Today, he got us tickets to see Phantom of the Opera so I am VERY excited for that! Also, I made reservations for myself and four friends from the program to go on a biking tour of the Tuscan countryside next Saturday. It’s a thirteen-mile bike ride through Chianti and includes a trip to a castle/vineyard where there will be a wine and olive oil tasting followed by a homemade, huge lunch. We also stop for gelato along the way. A bus will pick us up in Florence at 10:00 a.m., we’ll go on the tour and then the bus brings us back to Florence by 5:00 p.m. We’re all very excited to go! Okay, now I must sign off for the evening.

All my love,

Kari