Oh, yeah, we're taking classes, aren't we?

The calm before the storm is over. Now that we’re all acclimated to life in a foreign country, we’ve remembered that we have to try to squeeze two classes’ worth of work in between sightseeing, wandering aimlessly, and gelato-gorging. Our reading assignments are intense, and, to be honest, a little bit dry. All the history is interesting enough, but one of the passages we read last night was a detailed description of every fresco we saw this morning at the Santa Maria Antiqua in the Forum. I read about half of it, but it all started blending together, so I skimmed the rest of it and moved on to Chapters 1, 2, and 4 of our textbook.

Yesterday, we took a day trip down to Tuscany to check out some Etruscan tombs. I knew exactly what they were talking about and what we were seeing thanks to Papalexandrou’s ARH 302 class from first semester. And people say classes aren’t practical. Tuscany’s a pretty rural area, so the most amazing part of the trip was the view – wide open spaces, sheep grazing in fields, cloudless sky, all against the backdrop of the Tyrrhenian coast. I need to set up a Flickr account so I can start posting pictures. I’ll put it on my to-do list. After our tour was over, we relaxed at the overlook for a while and then headed off to our free (!) lunch. Side note – gelato is no longer an indulgence. It’s an addiction. I spent the majority of last night catching up on reading for class. We had a hundred pages of reading due today, so I read fifty or so of them on Wednesday night so I wouldn’t be swamped. On the bus home, Professor Galinsky announced that perhaps the reading assignment was a little bit much, so he was canceling the first half to make the load easier. Mom and Dad – this is what happens when I’m proactive and get stuff done early:-)

The Americans from our building that keep us up all night? They’re Harvard grad students. Can’t ignore the irony of undergrads from America’s number one party school complaining about Harvard grad students partying too much. Classic.

Small victory: I can now make coffee in my flat. The maker that comes with the flat is pretty ingenious – it consists of two compartments screwed together in the middle with a double-sided filter in between them. You pour water in the bottom half, put the grains (I bought some Lavazza at Harrison’s recommendation, it’s epic) in the filter, screw them together, and put it on the stove. The water boils up through the filter into the top compartment, giving coffee. Now I don’t have to pay two euros at the closest café for my morning jolt. Speaking of, I have yet to strike up a conversation with a stranger at a café, something I’ve been meaning to do. There are almost as many tourists, most of them American, as Italians, especially in our neighborhood, so it shouldn’t be too difficult. Probably won’t turn out like Before Sunrise, but hey, I like meeting new people in general.

Everyone seems to be getting along pretty well so far. I have to say that, ‘cause odds are good that at least a couple people from our group are gonna read this, but it’s true nonetheless. We’re all laid-back and friendly enough that I don’t foresee any major drama over the next few weeks (famous last words).

One last random anecdote: Wednesday afternoon, Sherry, Dhananjay, Amanda Jones, Andrew and I ended up in a bookstore. Anyone who knows me at all knows that bookstores are my weakness – I can spend an hour browsing before I know ten minutes have gone by. It was a used bookstore run by this little old British woman who commended our taste as we checked out at the little desk in the corner. The whole place smelled like old paper, the shelves ran all the way up to the ceiling. I can’t remember the last time I used this word, but it was very quaint. The one thing I forgot to pack on this trip was leisurely reading. I didn’t bring a single book to read for fun, which is very unlike me. I bought two books, a collection of short stories by Thomas Mann, and a collection of essays by E.B. White (of Charlotte’s web fame). I’m about a third of the way through the Mann book so far; I’m guessing I’ll end up back at the bookstore before the week’s up.

Gotta go start writing my two five-page papers due on Tuesday. I have plenty of time, but as long as I have guaranteed Internet access, might as well crank at least one of them out. Ciao for now.