Just call me Elle

Sorry for the lack of updates lately. As I stated in a previous post, midterms are here with a vengeance, and that means lots of studying.

I have my Public International Law midterm tomorrow. That one will be a beast. My prof said if we do it right we will be begging her for more time. Yikes! I am moderately excited for it though. It is an issue spotter. So, my prof creates an elaborate fake international crisis and we have to create arguments for both sides. Then we reach a conclusion and present an opinion (course of action) for the Foreign Minister of one of the fake countries. I have been studying like crazy, and now feel comfortable using legal jargon in my daily life (I object!). Speaking of, I may just have to watch that movie (Legally Blonde) tomorrow after my midterm. It seems like a good way to unwind.

Big news! I planned all my weekends with my roommates today. It will be epic! Our destinations will be (drumroll please): Switzerland, Prague, Venice, Berlin, Dublin, Edinburgh, and Cinque Terre. I am so excited!!!!!

In later news, the count down to the stream of parents has begun. Kelsey's parents come next week, mine the week after, and Molly's the week after that. I can't wait to see everyone.

Cooking update. I made homemade mac and cheese. I felt like eating something homey, so I just whipped it up. No biggie. Just made a roux, added some milk, then some grated cheese and presto! Mac and cheese. Way better than Stouffers.

Now that I have caught you all up to speed it is back to the books for this one!

Addendum

What? Two posts in one day?!?! Yes, you are all that lucky. I just thought that you would want to know that our water heater has been fixed. A nice little man came about a half hour ago, jiggled a few things, and proclaimed that it was all better. We were able to once again wash dishes, do laundry, and shower without freezing to death. Huzzah! All is right with the world. To make things better, Erica and I ate fajitas in bowl tonight. Yum. I love Mexican food. I miss Mexican food.

Good night for real this time. Love you all!

I am a wilderness explorer!

Italians are bizarre. On my way to class this morning I saw three, yes three, people in down jackets. They have broken out the hats and gloves. They walk with a hunch. They rub their hands together. You all back home may be picturing a beautiful winter vignette. But the weather could not be farther from that. The weather topped out at 70 degrees. Yes, 70. I finally feel comfortable in jeans and a cardigan and they are busting out the wool sweaters. I shudder to think what would happen to a native Italian in Minnesota in the month of January. I don't think they would make it.

In other news, my apartment continues to crumble around us. The latest problem is the water heater. We awoke this morning to find a note shoved under my door, from my roomie Molly. She told us not to use the shower unless we were prepared to suffer from hypothermia. I checked, and turns out she was right. So this morning I washed my hair in the sink. I felt like some sort of wilderness explorer (I am waaaay cuter than Russell). We emailed SAI and they never emailed us back. By the time we could check our emails (darn class) and decide to throw in the towel and call them their office was closed. And of course, lack of hot water does not constitute an emergency, so we could not call that number. Needless to say, the residents of Trastevere 118 are quite peeved. We are all growing weary of the antics of our apartment and the lack of communication between SAI and us, and SAI and the agency who is supposed to fix things. SO FRUSTRATING!

Yup, It Leans

In lieu of midterms creeping up on us, we decided to stick close to home this weekend. However, we also decided we were all going a bit stir crazy, what with all the studying, so we planned a day trip to Pisa.

Pisa is located in Tuscany, close to Florence. Had we been thinking, we would have gone to Pisa when we went to Florence earlier in the semester. Alas, we did not. Hence, our trip this weekend.

We put Kelsey in charge of finding a train to our destination. Apparently she woke up at 4:30, rousted Erica and planned on waking me, to catch a 6:30 train. But there were some doubts about being able to get a ticket at that hour of the day. So they all went back to bed, I continued sleeping, and we awoke at a more reasonable hour (8:30) and caught a train at 10.

4 hours later, we arrived at our destination. I was a good little student, and did some reading and studying on the train. Yeah for midterms...not.

We walked out of the train station hoping to see the tour right away. However, those crafty city planners had us walk through a shopping district to get there. As a result, I am now the proud owner of two nifty Italian scarves. One green and paisley (obviously) and the other orange and red with a smaller paisley print. I love them both.

When we finally finished weaving our way through the town we saw the tower. The consensus, the tower does indeed lean. We took the requisite tacky pictures propping up the tower, took a few videos (to be posted soon), and even got kicked off the lawn by the po-po (I feel like this effort is in vain, tourists constantly storm the lawn).

Pisa is a super cute town. It is very tiny, and pretty much all that is there is the train station and the leaning tower. We did get some cool pictures though. Erica is in a photography class and needed some portraits. So I ended up posing in front of an old door. It felt a little like senior pictures. But I enjoyed it, and she got some awesome shots.

After pictures we were all quite hungry, so we decided to grab dinner before we hopped on the train. Dinner, was, well, an interesting experience. Erica was hit on by the server, Vittorio, for the whole evening. Even did some tacky magic tricks for us. It was very odd, but provided some good laughs. Italian men are huge flirts, the guide books are right.

Then we boarded the train, and spent the next four hours rehashing our day and attempting to get some sleep.

A quick trip, but a fun trip. (And a shorter post, just for you Mrs. S!)

sequestered in my lair

Last night was so much fun! Realizing that this weekend was going to be consumed by large amounts of homework and studying, we went back to the Ombre Rosse. This is a little bar in our neighborhood that has live music every Thursday night (the month of October is Blues). It was so much fun to sit with my roomies (sans Molly, she ditched us for the Amalfi Coast) and listen to the band. This particular blues band even had a harmonica player. How much more blue-sy can you get? Not much.

Joining us at our table was a little Russian couple. They managed to make conversation with me, though it was challenging. The man spoke "extreme English" (I think he meant broken....), but the girl spoke it pretty well. It was a little hard to hear over the music, but she certainly tried. I think she was excited about being able to use her English. I gathered that she went to school in Belgium, and had been traveling around Europe for the last month. She wanted to know how long I would be in Rome and where I was studying. After a while, we gave up and just listened to the music.

Today, has been every bit as dull as I thought it would be.

I slept in (woot), ate breakfast, then hit the books. I have barely moved from my bed (which is functioning as desk) all day. As a result, I got a great start on the research for paper (researching child sex tourism is not for the faint of heart), started my Public Law midterm study guide (lots of Latin words), and made a study guide for my Italian test (lots of Italian words...). It has been very boring, but necessary work.

The one exciting thing consisted of a cheesecake making study break. Erica found a recipe for a blueberry peach cheesecake that we simply had to try out. So we all took a break and convened in the kitchen. Much to our surprise, the recipe made a lot of filling, so we ended up making two cheesecakes. Such a sad revelation...

Anywhoo, the plan for the evening is to rip me from my laptop, eat cheesecake, paint nails, and watch a chick-flick. I feel like that will be a great end to a rather exhausting day.

Roll Up Those Sleeves

At long last I can breathe again! This is not in the figurative "oh my gosh I had so much to do" sense, but the literal sense. Finally I have shaken the bug that has been plaguing the residents of Vialle di Trastevere. Huzzah!

Very exciting news *jumping up and down with grin covering my face*!!!!!! We found the most amazing grocery store yesterday. It is located, oddly, in the basement of a department store. You may be thinking, bug deal Kate, another grocery store. This is where I would wave my finger in your face and say "no, very big deal." That would be because I found some of the most amazing things. There were blackberries, blueberries, strawberries, pre-cored pineapple, oreos, swiss-cake rolls, baby spinach, and sour cream. The discovery of these things was enough to send us happily skipping down the isles. This is biggest grocery store that we have found, and it has the most variety. As an added bonus, its all in one place. Usually, I would have to go to multiple stores to find these items, but not at Billa, they are all in one place. Even better, it is several blocks closer to my apartment (which means my arms are significantly less likely to fall off my body from the heavy bags). Its a tad more expensive, but for the aforementioned reasons, I feel it is worth it.

Fast forward to today. I had my first midterm. This test is a full two weeks before the designated "midterm week," but my prof decided to move it up. Her reasoning was that the European Human Trafficking and Slavery awareness week is the same week as midterms. She did not want us to have multiple midterms, and speakers to attend, and documentaries to see all in one week. Thoughtful, I thought so. This also meant that there was less material covered on the midterm. Woot. I studied like mad because it was an essay exam, so I would have to recall the information, not just fill in a bubble. I felt very prepared, and I think I did alright (but I am an awful judge). There were only two essay questions and she wanted no more than one or two pages. Thus, it did not take terribly long.

In my other classes nothing terribly exciting happened. Just more lectures. I really miss the discussion based classes at Gustavus. I don't learn very well in a solid lecture environment, which regrettably, is how all of my classes are structured.

The next few weeks will be busy and involve more studying and less exploring. I have an Italian test on Monday, my law mid-term on Friday (scheduled on a make-up day, grrrr...), media mid-term the following Monday, and Italian mid-term on Wednesday. Plus I have two papers that I need to start working on. One is only 2000 words, so hopefully it won't take long, the other is 12 pages (still nothing compared to my 20+ pages for Rhetorical Criticism last semester). One thing is for sure, will all the research, typing, and studying, both my trusty laptop and myself will be fried at the end of these two weeks.

I leave you with inspirational words of Sam Ewing (former White Sox player c.1949) that I have often read during times when I feel like there are simply not enough hours in the day: "Hard work spotlights the character of people: some turn up their sleeves, some turn up their noses, and some don't turn up at all." I intend to be the one who turns up my sleeves.

Under the Tuscan Sun

This past weekend I embarked on another epic adventure, a three day trip to Tuscany planned by SAI (my program). It was by far some of the most beautiful landscape I have ever seen. This was probably enhanced by the fact that this was the first time in over a month that I have seen this thing called grass. After walking on cobblestone, however historic and quaint it may be, it was a welcome sight.

Enough about that, you probably want to know what I did.

DAY ONE:

First stop of the weekend was Lake Bolsena and the surrounding town. We got to take a boat tour of the lake, don't worry, it was far less disastrous than Gilligan's tour. The water was so blue, it looked like the boat was driving through blue powerade (after years on Lake Minnetonka, I forgot what water was actually supposed to look like... ). Our guide told us all about the lake's two private islands and was kind enough to point out the local wildlife (that is a mah-lahrd duck and that, over there, is a seagull). After we got done with the boat tour, we move to dry land to take a tour of the town. We were escorted to a gorgeous little church that was named after the martyr Saint Chirstine. The church was really beautiful. The artwork was amazing and the architecture dated back to medieval times. We even got to tour the catacombs that are under the church (don't worry, very few bodies are actually left down there).

After we finished, we boarded the bus and were taken to our home for the weekend. A luxury resort nestled in the hills with natural mineral springs heated by volcanic activity (Terme di Sorano). Slice of heaven? Yes. They fed us a scrumptious four course meal in an old church (no longer used for services). With full bellies we went back to our villa, spread blankets on the lawn, and stared at the stars. Being a city girl I have never seen the milky way, and let me tell you, it is quite the sight.

DAY TWO:

The previous night I had gotten no sleep. I am still sick (darn typhoid Molly) and cold medicine is hard to find. Never the less, I was in Tuscany and was going to live it up. So horseback riding in the morning it was! My horse's name was Shena, and she was a real sweetie (softest ears ever). We rode through a vineyard and wound our way down a hill to get a breathtaking view of town. Sorry, I don't have pictures of this part of the trip. I lack the coordination necessary to hold the reins and take pictures. So you will have to take my word for it. Think horseback riding scene in "The Parent Trap" but more rustic and more hills. The place where we went riding also had sheep. So after our ride we scampered over to them and cooed over the babies. You have not lived until you have heard a lamb bleet. SO CUTE!

After riding we had a quick bite on our porch and then went on a tour of the Maremma Towns. This is a grouping of three towns that are super tiny (like 100 people or less tiny). The first stop was Pitigliano. It has three main roads, no joke, and we covered the whole town in less than an hour. The history in this town is amazing though. They had a Jewish ghetto and the stories the guide told us were amazing. The Jews would be locked in at night, but had free reign of the town during the day. The townspeople thought they were total equals and hated the ghetto, but had to have it as it was law. Then, after the armistice was signed in WW2 the townspeople hid the Jews in the hills so they would not be taken to concentration camps. It reminded me of a book I read called "It Happened in Italy." In fact, this town may have been mentioned, but I don't remember. Anyway, I would highly encourage you to read this book. It gives autobiographical accounts of WW2 Italian Jews and just how different their experiences were from those in Germany. I thought it was fascinating.

The second town we went to is called Sorana. Here we visited some of the Etruscan ruins. My favorite part of this town was the bomb shelter. Let me explain. There were natural cracks in the earth and the townspeople widened them. They were sheltered by trees and pretty deep, so during bomb raids in WW2, they would hide there. Someone even carved 1945 into the rock (sadly the picture did not turn out). Now they are used to get from town to town, and children walk to school in them.

The third town is Sovana, and is where we ended our tour. We saw a church that was commissioned by a Pope name after the Virgin Mary. Funny story. They only built the church when they had money, and it was interrupted by wars, so it took a long time to build. As a result half the church is Romanesque and half is Gothic (some of the arches come to a point, and some don't). Also, the church was literally splitting in half, so all the pillars bend out, it looks like an optical illusion. They fixed the crack and added flying buttresses so the church will remain in one piece. The things you learn on a guided tour.

After dinner (another four courses) we headed off to the hot springs. It was dark (and like 10 at night) so the stars were super vivid. We sat in the pool, floated and stared at the sky. All the while, soaking up the mineral-y goodness of the natural springs.

DAY THREE

We went to a fantastic little farm to watch a demonstration of Italian cowboys (Butteri). They were hysterical. They showed us how they would brand a calf and then played a game on their horses. It was a lot of fun.

We arrived back in Rome in the early evening, exhausted, but satisfied with our time in Tuscany.

Sorry for the crazy length of this blog. I had a lot to say and didn't want to leave anything out!