This is my last journal to be written in Italy… how sad is that? It’s when you get to this point that you stop and realize what you’ve missed while you go through almost five months of life. I’ve missed stuff from home, and I’ve missed opportunities here. But I have to say that I have done a lot here. Most of it we did with the entire USAC group, and that doesn’t bother me a bit. A lot of our trips have been nice, and I have learned a lot of Italian… though I lost a lot of my Spanish, but they say it will come back to me if I need it. I learned enough Italian, that I know pretty much how to tell the story of Beauty and the Beast… why do I know this? Because I am the type of person who thinks in Italian while they take showers, and this morning, I told myself the fairytale while I washed my hair. It cracked me up as I was using the blow drier. Why am I this strange? At least I don’t sing in the shower (unless no one is home, haha). Anyway, I digress.
This week. What DID we do this week? I feel like it flew by, but not because we things to do. In fact, I feel like I did very little. Poccisimo. Monday, we had class. Tuesday we had culture class, and that was fine, but I got upset at the people in my class who were obsessing over our final exam. In culture. Please, kids: this is Italy. If there has been one thing you should have learned it is to not stress so doggone much. Sheesh. They were asking all sorts of questions trying to get “exact” things to study. Basically, you just have to review every worksheet and quiz we had in class, and you’ll be fine. Look over your notes. Mary Jane said it would be a simple enough. It’s multiple choice and 2 essays. That is basic freshman stuff. And they were spazzing. I know I say this enough, but I am glad I go to a small college.
Wednesday, we went all by ourselves to get papers legalized for us to be really married in the states. I was really impressed because we were able to understand enough to get the paper done adequately on our own. At night, we had dinner with the literature class, and I am ashamed to say that a lot of the girls in our class got tipsy before they came (because they don’t like the professor much). They were really loud, and then they drank beer at dinner. It was really embaressing.
Thursday, I had my presentation in literature. Dottore Pacioni basically presented everything I had to say before my presentation. Oh goodie, right? When I gave my little lecture I sort of winged it, and I sat down, because I thought I would not be able to wing it standing up. It actually went pretty well, except that he came up and tried to find my place for me in the book, when I had actually just gotten ahead of myself. I’m sure he thought it was fairly unorganized, but when I had to cut about half of my material because he already presented it, the scratch marks all over my paper made it a little confusing to follow. I was just glad it was over.
Friday we got some media from Steve, and went out to Chinese at our little Chinese restaurant for probably the last time. It was really dead. We joke that we single- handedly keep that place alive. It’s sister restaurant (owned by the same people and with the same menu) is outside the walls, and little farther of a walk for the same food, but apparently the Italians can tell the difference, because they really only go to the other restaurant, even though ours is much larger (they have a banquet room that is never used).
Saturday Kevin and I woke up early, took the train to Rome and finally saw the Vatican Museum. I liked the Rapheal Rooms, and I really liked the modern art in the Borgia Rooms. The Sistine Chapel was something. That is to say it was an experience. I was really annoyed at everyone’s blatent disregard for the guards who were trying to keep them quiet. It was darker in the room than I expected and it was a little difficult to see everything. Therefore, not to be mean to Michelangelo, I liked the other parts of the museum better. The biggest problem that I had with the museum was their plaques. Of all the museums I have been to on this trip (and I have been to quite a few), the Vatican museum had by far the worst labeling. If you recognized a piece, you couldn’t know who the artist/sculptor was unless you tried to listen to other people’s tour guides. We actually made it through the museum pretty quickly because we didn’t have a guide, and we knew what pieces we wanted to see. Plus the crowds were really quite small. When we got back to Viterbo, we returned Steve’s hard drive and watched some USAC kids play Frisbee. Travis was dog-sitting, so we got to play with Agatha, the half-rot. She’s cute. We made stew for dinner and Kevin said it was one of the best meals we had made since we had been here. It was also the first stew we made. Too bad we won’t have time to make another while we’re here.
Yesterday I worked on my pet projects and avoided my literature paper successfully. I hate the thought of writing another paper devoid of research. It is impossible to get research here because so little is written in English about these authors online, because I can’t access my university’s library resources from a remote location, and because we don’t have a library here to do literary research in. It is really frustrating for me. We watched Hotel Rowanda, and did laundry. We also went for one of our last gelatos at Café Schenardi… It was super sad. It’s hard thinking that we are going to leave this virtual oasis… our newlywed nesting spot.
Viterbo is a very nice place to live. Very very nice. It will be sad to not be able to walk everywhere, or to see people walking their dogs, or to talk in English and have people around me not understand if I speak quickly enough and in a Hocking County accent, haha. I will miss 70 cent espresso, and 1 euro lattes with Illy coffee. I will miss our counterworker friends at Giulio’s. I will miss tramezzini, and I will miss how quiet it gets at night, and in the afternoon during lunch. Here there is a verb that is literally translated as “afternoon” which is synomamous with “deadly quiet, and still.” This place is like a ghost town between 1 and 4. I have been longing to go home so long that the last few weeks have almost been pointless. It is time to go home, and now I know part of what I will miss… but I am ready.
I will be back in Ohio after 22 hours of traveling. And after being awake for about 48 hours. I am not looking forward to that. But, I am looking forward to being with my family and starting my new life… wow, this is a sad post, haha. I guess with that, I will say “until next time” and when I write again, I will let you know how my travels were, and how my last week affected me. Until then,
Mom, don’t forget to water my plants. See you in a few days! (Mexican Food, here I come!)
A Presto!
Doreen