You must have thought that I forgot about you! Well, I didn't, I assure you. It's just that this last week has been the most busy thus far. We had midterms last week, which is an entire week ahead of everyone at home. I'm not really sure why they chose to do it that way -- maybe because they know that students have family coming in and will miss Thursday class this week anyway? All I can say is this: I studied more for my Art midterm than I have for anything in a looooong time. You should know that this is not your average study abroad, everyone-gets-an-A class. Our professor is an Art historian obviously and has had some high-paying clientele as a Tour Guide for rich tourists, which is how he got his job. He met President Boren after giving him a tour in Florence. He did his Masters thesis over Michelangelo's financial records. That may mean nothing to you but he can tell you exactly when certain pieces were completed because of how they were entered in the ledger. Basically, I hate going to do any touring without him because he knows everything about everything. I can't appreciate what I'm looking at because I know Kirk could be telling me something about the architect or the foundation of the facade.
On our midterm, we had to know the title, artist, date and current location of every piece we had seen together as a class so far. That's overwhelming considering the fact that we have been to over 6 locations so far. That's a lot of art. Just sayin'. There were also two essay questions and a host of vocabulary for which we had to give the definition, its significance to our class and an example. I spent well over two hours completing the test and had another midterm after. I was drained and that night, had to get on a train to Rome for our Illicit Trafficking field trip.
Rome was nice but you have to understand, I was in meetings for the whole thing. We went out late Tuesday night and found the Colosseum. That was about as touristy as the whole trip was for me. Wednesday, we went to the Carabinieri to speak to them about the trafficking of illicit art. It's interesting to see how much staff and money the Italians pour into investigating and tracking down stolen art. That was unanimously the class' favorite part of our day. We also spoke with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and Libera. I went home exhausted but didn't get to make up sleep until the weekend. Friday afternoon, we went to Florence to go shopping. That sounds so snobby to say that out loud. Anyway, we went to get some tops because I wasn't prepared for the spring/summer weather. I was under the impression that it would be cold until mid/late April. I brought about 4 shirts so I was looking for some moderately inexpensive shirts. Mission accomplished.
This weekend, I got a visit from an old friend. Julia was a foreign exchange student at Choctaw my junior year. She's from Germany and is on break from school so she stopped in Arezzo on her way to Florence. We got to catch up and she brought us German chocolate. It was great to spend some time with her! Safe travels, Julia!
We're starting to get antsy for Spring Break. I have a paper due tomorrow and another midterm on Tuesday. I'm having the hardest time focusing. I think this post wins the most boring ever award. I will leave you with a small token from our procrastination:
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