November 15, 2011

November 15, 2011

This morning I had to wake up pretty early so I could get ready, catch the bus into town and then walk to Palazzo Vecchio where we were meeting for my Weaving the Tale class. It was very cold outside this morning and none of us were really prepared for it because it had not been this cold yet (or maybe we just hadn’t been out so early in the morning—class was at 8:30). Anyway, before we held our second half of class in the Uffizi, we had to stand outside and listen to an oral presentation on Donatello’s Judith for about an hour…all of our toes were numb by the end of it but we survived. Finally we got to go into the Uffizi where we had another oral presentation on a depiction of Judith by Botticelli. It was much warmer inside and they had space heaters everywhere so we finally warmed up. Then the last part of class was held in the Uffizi café where Katy treated us all to tea and coffee (probably to make up for making us stand outside in the cold for such a long time), which was lovely.

After class, I took the bus home because I had some time between then and my Italian class. Last night after dinner I was pretty out of it and not able to focus on homework so I decided to start a movie. I was very sad that I was not able to see Crazy Stupid Love when it came out, right before I came to Italy so I decided to see if I could find it for free online. And, amazingly enough, I found an incredible website (that actually works in Italy) where you can watch any movie or TV show you ever dreamed of for free! Anyway, I watched part of that movie last night and, since I still needed a bit of warming up and a break, I finished it up this morning and really loved it :) After that, I had some lunch, did a little bit of homework and headed back into school.

It was hard to believe that today was our last Italian class as tomorrow we just take the final and then have a little party afterward. It will definitely be nice to have more free time but I am going to miss Umberto a lot. Thankfully we will still be around the building for our other classes so we will see him but it’s still weird to think of life here without Italian class. I mean we’ve been taking Italian class since day one of the program so it will be much different without it. Anyway, we spent most of class reviewing for the final and then a little bit of time singing along to our favorite Italian songs from the semester :)

After Italian, we headed over to Palazzo Strozzi to see an exhibit about beauty and money in Florence, mainly art. I had not yet been to Palazzo Strozzi and it was absolutely gorgeous—perhaps my favorite palace in Florence (or at least the one I would most like to live in). As part of the exhibit they had a little computer game simulation thing where, when you scanned your ticket in each room, it gave you a situation and a title as a merchant in Florence and had you perform trades and other things. If, by the end, you had made 5% profit or more, you got a discount in the gift shop (what a marketing ploy…) Anyway, Nikki and I did it together and made a 10% profit so felt very good about ourselves :P We did enjoy the artwork of the exhibit as well, don’t worry!

After Medici, we headed back over to school for a quick Rome orientation. We got our schedule for the weekend, signed up for roommates for the hotel (I am rooming with Becca and Nikki), signed up for tours and museum visits and just talked about Rome. I am very excited! After that, Jodie [finally] handed back our Medici midterms and I got an A on mine so I am very happy :) After our orientation, I headed home. Once I got home, I worked on homework until it was time for dinner.

For dinner this evening we started with penne pasta with tomato sauce that was warm and delicious on such a cold day. For our main dish we had a bean, tomato and sausage dish that was also very warm and very yummy! Daniela offered to make me something else if I didn’t want sausage but I am very glad I had it because it was quite delicious. We finished off the meal with clementines as usual. We also had fun conversations, as we so often do, which made it an even better meal :)

Now that dinner is over, I have a little more homework I need to do tomorrow before I can stretch and maybe watch a short episode of a TV show before I go to bed. I don’t have class until 10:45 tomorrow so I will be able to sleep in, which is so very nice. I hope you are all staying warm and having a lovely week!

All my love,

Kari 

Palazzo Strozzi