We figured out last Friday that we now have less than 5 weeks left in Rome. I am overwhelmingly sad at the thought of leaving. The problem is that most of the people I'm with are excited to get back to Boston, their homes and their friends. However, after I spend a blissful three days with my family in San Diego, I head back to an empty Boston. By empty, I mean sans family, sans best friends (most will still be in Europe), and sans anything resembling a home (except for a roof over my head). Don't get me wrong, I'm excited to get back to experience Boston in the summer and to the familiarity of knowing the native tongue, but I know that re-entry is going to be really difficult and there won't be much to outweigh the cons. Then I think of getting back to triathlons and how they saved me from a total breakdown about 8 month ago, hopefully they will do the same this time. I am already technically in the triathlon club at my school. I get all the emails and stuff but I've never met or trained with any of them. I'm really excited to get started though. The excitement is also buoyed by the fact that my parents are getting me a tri/road bike for my 21st birthday and I couldn't be more excited or surprised. All I expected was a card! So I will be spending my lonely days with my new bike! Also, if any of you triathletes or road bikers have suggestions for a bike, whether to get a road or tri or just two seat posts with aero bars, where to get said bike, and whether I should get it in San Diego and bring it on the plane or to just get it in Boston, please email me with your advice!
Anyway, now that I've spilled my guts...after I wrote last week, I had a relatively relaxing week. My roommate's friends were in town so we took them out on Tuesday night. The night is pretty foggy, I just know that I felt like s**t for two days after. I'm getting less tolerant in my old age! I stayed in for the next two nights and did loads of homework. I'm trying to step up my game in the design part of school and its very time consuming. I remained sleep deprived for the rest of the week because I found my mind wandering every time I tried to fall asleep. Now I know how my Dad feels, its sucks.
On Friday night, we knew we would have to wake up early the next morning and Erica and I decided to have a quiet night. We went to dinner at a cozy restaurant around the corner, thinking we would be back within an hour and half. Silly us! We forgot about the Italian way of long meals (this is one thing I will definitely miss when back in the US). After a liter of wine between us and two courses we finally left. Three hours later. We got back to our apartments, hung out with the people just getting ready to go out, and then crashed for a full night's sleep. It's obvious, alcohol is the cure to sleeplessness. Duh!
On Saturday morning we left for a trip with our Italian teachers to the paese (tiny town) of Fabriano. They are known for their paper making factory. It was a gorgeous day, sunny and warm, and we had a scavenger hunt around the town. Just by being there, we doubled the size of the town (that might be an exaggeration) so it was interesting the look we got. After that we had a leisurely lunch and then went for a tour around the paper factory. Yay! In pursuit of the betterment of our Italian, our teachers made sure that the tour was in Italian. Although I understood most what they said, a lot of my time was spent looking around wondering what the hell she was talking about.
After the tour was had a half hour to kill and immediately headed to the child's playground we had seen on the drive in. It was definitely the funniest half hour of my week. One of my classmates fell off of a balance bar onto her back (only funny after we made sure she was ok), another got stuck in the little wooden animals that bob back and forth on springs, another got stuck trying to climb on top of a play set that was not meant to be mounted. Then we discovered the zip line. YES. It was much too big and scary to be in a child's playground which meant that it was perfect for us. We all lined up for a try (me being first, of course, I couldn't wait to get on this thing since the moment I saw it) and everyone finally had a ride, including my Italian teacher! She's a really good sport.
Usually our tours are led by the dean of the program (Scott). He is my italian teacher's (Claudia) husband. Both are really nice people but Scott is much more uptight. Claudia is a very warm and motherly person and an absolutely sweetheart. All she wanted was for us to have fun. It was very different than our other trips, led by Scott, during which seeing old stuff was the top priority. Ew.
We were offered the opportunity to stay in Fabriano for the night and then have a leisurely Sunday outside of Rome, for free. Most of us stayed but unfortunately it was a really rainy day and we didn't get to see much. The involved a lot of sleeping on the bus and feeling cozy away from the rain. We did stop at a cave for a tour. Very cool and different from all the other caves I've seen. I also realized how many caves I've actually seen in my life, interestingly, it's a huge number. Just a little factoid for you.
We got back in to Rome at 7pm and I've been cooking dinner and blogging since then. A very uneventful and restful weekend. Hope all is well with you guys and that you had an awesome weekend.
Oh and I almost forgot! My most recent design work was highly praised my my professor and I can't believe how it's transformed. Apparently the hard work paid off.
Also, kudos to my parents for their 65 mile ride this weekend. They're nuts as far as I'm concerned.
ALSO! My sister, Makenna, won the position of president of a leadership group for the entire state of California. She is now going to be traveling around the state teaching other kids how to run their leadership clubs. She beat out several other, very qualified kids when she dominated a speech in front of 2000 people. TWO THOUSAND. You are looking at a very proud older sister. Yeah Makenna!
Love you all,
Ash
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