Day 27-Roma!-Wednesday-2/23/11

Hello everyone! Sorry about the delay of posts!  Today I woke up and took the bus with Cort to school because we wanted to stop at the café and get some breakfast before class.  A chocolate chip muffin and cappuccino… pretty standard.  I love the café beneath the school because it's run by these two old men and they are sooo cute and nice :)  Plus it's the best cappuccino in town!  After that I went to History of Italian Mafia.  We have a quiz coming up next week, I'll have to actually start reading the text book :-/ Ha Ha!  That class is interesting, we have basically been going over the history of Italy first and I think this up coming Monday we will finally start learning more about the Mafia.  1861 is drilled into my head because this is the year that Italy finally came to be.  It’s quite interesting actually, I had no idea that it took them that long to become a unified country.  They had been fighting wars with the soldiers speaking a different language than the commanders can you imagine?  I think  my professor is secretly a part of the mafia, but I have yet to be sure… ;)  After class we had a long break so I went  with Jodine, Clara, and Molly to get lunch at a café on the corner.  We all got paninis and after we headed back to school to book the beginning of our spring break.  I am going to Paris with them for the weekend until Monday, because my parents will be in Rome on Tuesday and from there I will spend the rest of the week with them :)  Woo who!! I was having trouble with my credit card so I got a little freaked out for the day because the website said error when I tried to book my flight and I had no idea if the payment went through or not.  It was a very stressful day not knowing if I should book another flight or not.  I went to class that night not knowing if I had a plane ticket to Paris while eveyone else did so I was pretty bummed.  Class helped take my mind of things a bit, especially because we talked about the Vatican and Sistine chapel since we were visiting it on Friday!  I am sooo excited for that!!!  We learned that Michael Angelo was the first person to paint people twisting and turning, that he was able to do this because he was a sculptor, and that he had to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel  in the dark holding a candle the whole time he painted.  This was because the scaffolding was above the windows so no sunlight could get in where we painted.  Michael Angelo painted 16hrs a day, six days a week for 4 1/2 years before the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel was finished.  He permanently damaged his kidneys from the toxins and neck from staring upwards for so long.  I find it fascinating to learn about the people behind their work.  I like hearing their life stories and more personal items, it makes their creations that much better!  After class I stopped by the little market by my house and cooked up some delicious penne pasta with zucchini and tomato basil sauce with parmesan cheese.  I skyped my mom while I cooked and it felt like I was at home again :)  She told me it was pretty much unbearable cold at the cabin and my doggies couldn't be outside too long, but they would still beg to be out.  I am getting really excited to see them, they are even bringing me PEANUT BUTTER! Hahah I am such a nerd :)  After I  ate dinner and hung out some more, Molly and I took the bus to Scholar's Pub, a local Irish pub close to school.  It was college night so we got discounts on drinks.  I decided to try a Peroni because it was the cheapest and a ton of people were drinking it.  It was pretty good, I'm surprised to hear myself say that because I normally don't like beer.  I even won a free t-shirt just because I was drinking it!  That was exciting :)  It was a pretty chill night, a group of us met up there and we sat around a table just talking and socializing, until we went home and went to bed.

Me, My Peroni, and Free T-Shirt!!!