This week was a little hectic, but a lot of fun. Monday was relatively normal, we went to classes and such, and that was basically it.
On Tuesday, however, we woke a little earlier than usual. We typically do not have class until 5:30, so we usually sleep in, but this week, we had a date with the gardens class. We walked across town after an early lunch, and met up with the group to wait for the bus to go to Bomarzo. Now, we “adopted” Bomarzo for our culture class, and the gardens group was getting to go, specifically to see the Parco dei Mostri. The monster park consists of fountains and sculptures carved out of the naturally existing rock. It was created by a rather twisted prince of the area, who was hunchbacked, and who married a woman whose family owned the palace Kevin and I got married in. She is said to have fainted when she saw the sculptures. They really were not scary, but it was daylight, and I guess I was seeing them hundreds of years later. The park was at one point overrun by brush and forgotten. It was rediscovered, and recently sold to a private owner (for chump change, honestly), who has fenced off some of the best parts, in my opinion (like a part with a giant turtle sculpture!!!). The pipes for the fountains have long since broken down, but Christine thinks they might actually try to restore them and get the many fountains to work again, which would enhance the park dramatically! It was a long way down to the bottom of the valley where the monster park was located, and we dreaded the walk back up, but we brought sun screen and water, which we needed very much. We lounged in the sun, and took pictures, and lots of silly pictures of monsters eating us, or some such nonsense. I have included a few. We eventually made our way back up the hill and went home, but it was probably one of my most favorite times in Italy: it was spring and the flowering trees had blooms, and the sun was shining and the weather was gorgeous!
Wednesday, I went to cooking class and got a cryptic message from Steve that something structural was wrong with the classrooms we normally get to go to for Language, and that our classes would most likely be moved. Class was cancelled for the day. It turns out that the projector screen was very loosely fastened to the wall, and only into the dry wall with drywall screws. It fell on one of the teachers and onto our assistant director, Francesca. The place was recently renno-ed so USAC could be moved in when we started classes. We are glad that we did not have any other problems, but Frankie sprained her knee, and the 50 lb. screen landed also on the teacher’s back, so we hope nothing else is wrong. We had the rest of the day free, so we wandered around town and just had a fun time. In the evening, we went to the internet lab, and got online, but got a call from the office, which I could not return because I didn’t have phone minutes. We went to the office to see what was up, and decided to wait for a turn on the computer and stay with Francesca until she left. We waited over an hour for two girls to finish being spoiled brats, one of whom was particularly infuriating, when she knew we were there for a specific reason and that we needed to be there together. Needless to say, we had less time online than the time we spent waiting for the snotty girl to get offline. It was annoying.
Thursday, I had literature, and we spent a good long time online during the day and evening. We have been working on getting our registries worked out. A lot of the items are online at some of the places we registered, so it will be convenient for people to ship things to the house instead of having to drag them with them to the ceremony and reception. We felt like we spent the whole day online, because we did not have classes.
Friday, we ate a really early lunch: we had class from one til three. It was a nice class, and since we were at the main office building, we got to stop into Giulio’s for coffee. The guys that work there have started asking about us if one of us comes in alone during our separate classes, or when I am in cooking class and Kevin stops in. It is really entertaining. We also went on a “walk” to see our new classroom building. And we cleaned the house because our landlord and lady came to retrieve rent. I was nervous about the rent, so Kevin let me run to the store so I wouldn’t have to be there for most of it. He’s a sweetie. We tried to get online at the office, but Francesca went home early (that is to say “on time”) so we used the internet at the lab across town. I literally half ran across town while Kevin went to the video store so I could have a little time to check my email and get some replies written as well as work more on our registries.
Saturday, we got up late, which was lovely, and we made lunch, and went for a walk. We sat in the courtyard of City Hall and took in the sun and looked out over the city. It was really quite lovely. We talked about the kinds of dogs we liked and when we would be able to get a pet. This couple with a Westie came in, and I was a little giggly about the dog, because my parents had one before I was born, I think. I do not have memories of him. Anyway, as we were leaving the courtyard to take our movies back, my parents called with business questions about the reception and the invitations, which my poor mother has basically addressed all by herself. We ate gelato and sat on the benches in a piazza nearby the school, and after the nice conversation with my folks, we did some errands, then went to get online. We spent 2.5 hours online trying to fix up some things with our registry and so forth.
My mom told Kevin that her parents would come to Doug's wedding in Wisconsin, but couldn't come to our reception in Ohio. I'll be honest: I am a little bummed. It has been hard enough trying to move the wedding reception up two months, and the reason we were trying to do all of that was so we could accomodate out of state guests to both weddings. I do understand why it is impossible: the date we could get at the church for Kevin and I is not perfect, but we tried. Kevin says I need to keep my chin up, and to try to think "whoever comes, comes. Whoever can't come, can't." He's better at that sort of thing than I am. Mom says "you got married in Italy," and while yes, that is amazing and wonderful, so I am not really allowed to complain. So, in Wisconsin, I guess I get to steal time from Doug's celebrations to spend time with my mother's family.
Anyway, after all of that, we were eventually able to go to dinner at the Chinese place outside of the walls. It was very, very crowded. We are more used to eating out on weeknights, and at the other Chinese place where there are fewer patrons, but the same exact menu. We were finished quickly, but it took over a half hour to get our check and pay to leave, because it was just THAT crowded. We came home and watched Shrek 2, (yay puss in boots!) and went to bed.
Sunday is our cleaning day, so after watching our 2nd film of the weekend and eating leftovers, we cleaned, aired out the bedding and our rugs on the clothes line, and set the mattresses up to air while we went to get online (sounds familiar, eh?). Kevin is trying to narrow down graduate and law institutions that he would be interested in attending. He also was awarded two scholarships last week: one for being an excellent student and a participant in study abroad, and one for being an excellent history major. I think they apply for next year’s tuition, which is a real blessing. If they are large enough, we might not have to take out a loan for one of the two semesters (God provides!). We came home, and finished the cleaning now that the floors were dried and put everything back together. We got the Doner sandwiches/burritos for dinner, and sat around gabbing. I made little pies for dessert out of pears, which were pretty good, but I am really wondering how I am ever going to get the baked on sugar off that pan, haha! I am really struggling with the writing of my literature paper, so I might change the topic entirely. I thought I would know when I was doing the research, but it just isn’t coming to me yet. All my theses seem to be really “obvious” and things we have covered in class. I would be set if I could just add another level of dimension to it, but we’ll see. I have until Thursday, even though I also have a project due in Culture, and soon my cooking paper is due. If we had more access to computers and internet (not like we haven’t spent the whole week online, haha) I would not stress, because I would have resources 24/7 like I do at college. Ah, for those days. So, I guess that is all.
Mom… I know you’re overwhelmed being my wedding planner… but don’t forget to water my plants!
A Presto!
Doreen