First Week of Actual School Work

This week flew by. I don't even remember what happened on Monday. I did see my friend Steven who goes to the University of Michigan. He is on spring break now so a couple of his friends and him came to Rome and Barcelona to visit friends studying abroad. I took him and two of his friends to a pizza place called Dar Poeta. They are known for their pizza especially because they have so many varieties. I will probably take my friends there when they visit if they want some good Italian pizza.

I had two Italian oral midterms today and yesterday. Yesterday's oral was to talk about a person for three minutes straight. I chose to talk about my brother which seemed easy at the time, but it is hard to talk about someone in another language for 3 minutes. I think it went well though. Today's oral was to have a conversation with a partner for 5 minutes. My roommate Kelsey and I decided to do our dialogue on an Italian giving a tourist a tour of Rome. I was the Italian and Kelsey was the tourist. We talked for the allotted time, but then again do not know how we did. Jessica, our teacher, is really nice and laid back so I am sure we all did well.

Tomorrow our program is taking us to a TV station. I actually have no idea what we are doing there, but I will blog about it when I get back. Tomorrow is also Unofficial. If you don't know what Unofficial is, it is the greatest holiday ever created! The first friday of every March U of I celebrates "unofficial" st. patrick's day. Basically everyone has a great day dressed in all green, drinking beer, and hanging out with their friends. Food and Culture unfortunately will be at the TV station all day, but when we get back we plan to go on an Irish Pub Crawl. I have to end the night early because on Saturday I am going to Venice for CARNIVALE!!! Carnival started as a time for celebration throughout the social classes by wearing masks to hid any form of identity between social classes. The Carnival starts around two weeks before Ash Wednesday and ends on Fat Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday. Over 30,000 visitors come to Venice to celebrate, which is exactly what I am going to do. Saturday we are going to experience Carnivale, and then Sunday we will explore and see Venice. I have been waiting to see the "sinking" city and I will on Saturday!! I will write about my experience when I get back!!!