October 28, 2011

October 28, 2011

This morning I woke up around 7:30 and headed into school around 8:30 for the guest lecture at 9:00. This morning’s lecture was on digital photography, which, unfortunately, was not really what I was expecting. Unlike the other guest lectures, the “lecture” was very scatter-brained and didn’t have much coherence or direction. It was kind of a smattering of the history of photography, the history of cameras, photos taken in Florence that they had found on Flickr and some mistakes people made with their digital cameras like putting it on the wrong ISO. In short, I didn’t really learn anything and it wasn’t really fun and interesting. Oh well, it was nice to hear other professors talk and kind of get to know other people. The upside of going was that, following the lecture, there was a sort of reception with coffee and pastries, during which we could mingle with the visiting professors and they asked us about our experience with the program. I had a delicious apple pastry and got to talk to the professor who will be teaching with the program next fall, so it made the morning worth it :)

After the coffee break, I met with my Dante group to share our relectories on this week’s readings and then had lunch and did some homework. At 12:30, my Dante group (Leah, Tyler, Franzi and me) headed across town to our professor, Katy’s apartment. Once a week, Katy is having one of the discussion groups over to her apartment for tea, coffee and a treat, while discussing questions about Dante and what we are doing in class. We didn’t really know what to except but ended up having a wonderful time! I actually wish we could go over to her place every week :) First of all, she, her husband and daughter, are renting out an apartment (complete with furniture, movies, books…everything) from a couple that lives in Spain but this is kind of their vacation home. It is a GORGEOUS apartment and very cool architecturally. She made tea for the three of us girls and coffee for her and Tyler and then offered us a cake she had bought at her favorite bakery that morning (which was absolutely delicious, by the way!) Once we were all well fed and content, we discussed some different points about Dante and got some questions cleared up about different assignments, which really reduced my stress level :P It was a lovely visit and I am kind of hoping that it will happen again, although, with all the different groups, it probably won’t happen. Even so, it was very nice of her to have us over and to be so open to helping us…and feeding us ;)

After meeting with Katy, I took a little walk with Leah so we could just talk and hang out before we spent much of our weekend studying and doing all the homework we have. We eventually ended up back at Linguaviva where we found Willi and the three of us ended up just talking about everything and nothing for about an hour, which was so nice and very much needed by all of us. After they left to go home, I got to Skype with my Grandparents, my cousins and my aunt all at once, which was quite a treat! Skype is such a wonderful invention, so thank you to whoever created it! After Skyping, I headed home.

Once I got home, I decided to finish up my worksheet on Inferno for my Dante class.  When I say worksheet, you all probably think it’s really simple and won’t take me a long time…wrong! Basically it’s a ten to fifteen page paper in disguise. The “worksheet” had six “short” answers for which we needed two-three paragraphs, a geographical description of Inferno that was another two-three paragraphs, ten characters of Inferno whom we needed to explain the literary and history background of, as well as circle of Hell and sin, and, finally, five literary terms to define and give examples of from the text. Sorry, you didn’t need to know all of that, but I needed to share :P When I was finished (I FINISHED IT BEFORE DINNER!!) I double-spaced it (and then put it back in single space) to see how long it was and it was fifteen pages…CRAZY! Anyway, I did indeed finish it and even emailed it off to Katy so I am officially done with it and can focus on studying for my Medici midterm.

Andrea made dinner this evening because Daniela was not feeling well. She had the first course with us but then had to go lie down. Apparently she has a fever, which I really hope I do not pick up. I am ready to be all finished with this whole being sick thing. Tonight was PIZZA NIGHT so we started out with my favorite airy bread rolls, cheese and salami. I had four…oops :) For our main course we had, of course, margharita pizza, which was absolutely wonderful as well. We finished off our meal with clementines and little slices of the cake we had last night. A lovely dinner, although we missed Daniela! Andrea did a wonderful job of taking over though!

After dinner, I did my assigned reading in Purgatorio (WOO no more Inferno!) for Monday’s class and then decided I needed to be done with homework for the night, to give my brain a little bit of a break! So, after posting this, I will probably do the usual—stretch and head to bed early. This week has really worn me out so I am about ready for bed already at 9:15 as I am writing this. Tomorrow I am meeting Erin at 10:45 to study for our midterm but I will still be able to sleep in some! Plus, if I do go to bed early, I won’t need to sleep in too late. I hope you all have a wonderful rest of your Friday and a lovely start to your weekend!

All my love,

Kari