Time flies when you live in Italy

Time is flying by. Mid Terms are next week and I can’t believe they are already here! I’m not as stress out about completing my projects like I usually am at Cornish so that’s good. My painting teacher was nice enough to give an extra week to finish our paintings so I don’t have to rush to finish those this weekend. All of my other classes are going pretty well. My Italian teacher is nice and I feel like i'm learning a lot more. She has decided that we aren’t allowed to talk to each other in English is class anymore though which is hard because we don’t know enough words yet to have a normal conversation. I have to turn in my photo project next week which means I have to spend as much time in the dark room as I can before that. I’m going all day tomorrow but I think i’m going to have one of the guys in the group with me. He’s never used a dark room before and he really wants to learn and have me teach him. I don’t really have a problem with this I just hope he doesn’t get in my way and that I can still get some work done.

Things in our apartment are going ok. Sara and I seem to me the neatest in the group. It’s hard to keep the place clean with 7 girls living together. A few of the girls don’t seem to know how to clean up after themselves. The kitchen is usually a mess because of them. I wouldn’t usually mind that much but we only have so many bowls and pots which means if you want to cook something a lot of the time you have to clean up after people first. Sara and I spent part of last weekend cleaning the entire kitchen and bathroom and that didn’t last long. But we put up a note and talked to some of the girls and they seem to be cleaning up more now…hopefully it will last. I finally found some nice boots today and I have been looking around for good Christmas presents for people at home.

We have been going on a lot of trips lately! Sorrento and Pompeii were amazing! We had a chance to walk around both cities on our own and see everything and we got to go to the ruins in Pompeii. There was a big protest at the gates to the ruins and a bunch of the guys got stuck on the outside. The Italians were protesting the damage being done to the ruins by tourists and they wouldn’t let the guys through. It was pretty interesting to see a group of short Italian women physically block off 4 talk American boys. We had a great time in the ruins though. I really wanted to climb Mount Vesuvius but there wasn’t enough time. Last weekend we went to Pisa with a couple of the guys. Pisa is about an hour from Florence so it was just a quick day trip. There isn’t a lot to see in Pisa, just the tower mostly. We all paid 15 euro to climb the tower which was by far the highlight of the day. We called the stairs the drunk stairs because when you walk up them you feel like your are drunk as the tower leans to the side haha. I spent the rest of the day taking pictures of people taking pictures of themselves holding up the tower. It was funny to show them without the tower behind them because it made then look completely ridiculous, I think I could do a whole project just with those photos. This weekend I don’t think we are planning on going anywhere big but next weekend, Halloween weekend, we are going to Venice for a few days J

I love Italy but its amazing how the little things from home can totally make my day. Courtney sent me some Starbucks Via from home and I couldn’t believe how excited I was to make myself a drip. And when it rains and everyone pulls out their umbrellas Sara and I puddle jumping to remind us of home. I’m waiting on another package from home and hopefully it will get here soon, I can’t believe how much I miss Mac and cheese! Little things make me miss home but I’m still so glad I came here; I really hope time starts to slow down a bit!