Busy In A Good Way

This week has been busier than usual, but mostly in a good way. It's midterm week, so I had studying to do for Fabio's Intercultural Communications exam Tuesday and Francesca's Comparative Media exam Wednesday. Gloria's Italian midterm is next week since the business majors have been in Geneva, Switzerland all week for a conference. Rocky's Art midterm is also next week because he's Rocky and he's an internationally known art historian and he's starred in the History Channel's Engineering An Empire and he's from Rhode Island and married to a French model so he does whatever he wants.

"En-TAB-La-ture."

Just ignore that.

Monday evening the school hosted a screening of the movie La Vita é Bella, starring Roberto Benigni. You may have heard of it because it won three Oscars in 1999, but I had never heard of it. And apparently no one else had because only four of us came to watch it. But I'm so glad I made the trip across town in the rain to see this movie because it is one of my new favorites. It is so, so good! I don't want to give anything away, but if you haven't seen it, do so. It's hilarious, it's super depressing and it's an all-around excellent movie. And I'm not being paid to say that.


Tuesday was another fun night out. The school offered a trip to St. Mark's Opera for a performance of La Boheme. That was interesting, but I loved it. First, it was an opera, which is not an artform with which I am particularly familiar. Secondly, it was in Italian, which is not a language with which I am particularly familiar. But it worked out. And English narrator explained each scene before they acted it out, so the story was easy to follow. Also, I've seen Rent, which was based on La Boheme, so that gave me another advantage. If you haven't seen this one, it too is super depressing, but not at all funny. 


Today I went to lunch with Katy again between class and caught up with her since it's been a few weeks since we got together. After that, it was class with Fabrizio where we watched a History Channel special on the Medicis, starring our one-and-only Director Marcello Fantoni. We are surrounded by celebrities every day in Palazzo dei Cerchi.


After class, Lydia and I walked down to the Arno where we laid out until dusk, then got gelato. 


That's about it for this week. I have to pack now for a weekend in Madrid with Caitlin and Bethany. We have a flight out of Pisa tomorrow at 1 p.m., so we'll have to leave home by 11. I'm really looking forward to this being my first trip outside Italy. It was a very spur of the moment decision (Bethany said, "Hey, me and Caitlin are going to Madrid next week. Want to come with?" And I immediately said, "Why not?"), but I've been getting more and more excited as this weekend approaches. I won't have my laptop with me, but there will be lots of photos on Facebook Sunday and you'll be able to read all about it right here by Monday or Tuesday. So check back soon and often! 

Love you all and talk to you when I'm back in bella Italia. I hope my high school Spanish doesn't fail me this weekend... Puedo ir al baño, por favor?