Encountering David

Since being in Italy I have come into contact with a HUGE assortment of art... namely, renaissance art. Not only am I in a class called 'The History of Renaissance Art', but I tell you, art is everywhere. From the thousands of galleries and museums to the fresco adorned churches and palaces, from the statues in every courtyard to the doorknockers and sewer grates. I swear, everything is ornate and the italians have run out of room for 'normal' art, so they take to exploiting the smallest and most obscure things.
Last weekend I went to Florence and spent almost the entire thing looking at art. Florence is one of the art capitols of the world, and they say there is an art gallery per resident... I'm sure that is an exageration, non the less, there are a ridiculous number of small hidden galleries... I only visited two and a couple churches. Friday I spent the whole day in the Uffizzi gallery looking at the paintings we've been studying in class... only when I got all the way through did I look at the time and realize I had been in there for over 4 hours.
Saturday was the duomo, and climbing it, and other fun churches. It was also my visit to Academia museum... home to Michelangelo's statue of David. Now, for some reason, last time I was in Florence (in high school) I did not go see David. I guess I figured that there were hundreds of replicas of him not counting all of the touristy memorabilia... He's everywhere, everybody knows what he looks like and in what position he is standing. I didn't think seeing him would be that big of a deal.. boy was I wrong. Nothing had prepared me for David.
For one, he's huge, much bigger than one expects, but there is a grandure about him that you just don't get with the replicas. Everything realized about him, is completely and breathtakingly accurate! I don't know how he does it... but Michelangelo somehow transformed marble into perfect skin and hair textures. The furrow in his brow and the fear in his face make one contemplate what David is thinking... is he looking ahead to his big battle with Goliath? Who knows. His sligshot taught against his back, David's arms and hands are flexed showing off his perfect veins and tendens, drawing attention to the wrinkles in his knuckles.
My favorite spot on David, the one I stared at forever and still can't quite get over, is his bellybutton. I don't really understand how, but the skin is pulled tighter to the pucker of the belybutton. There is a small dimple right next to it with amazing charm. How can a marble bellybutton be so accurate and so perfect?!

'Lucia'

The other day I finally got to go to the opera since being in Italy. We got slightly dressed up and commenced to our nosebleed side seats and experienced Donizetti's 'Lucia di Lammermoor.' And let me tell you, everything about the experience was fantastic.
For one thing... the theater in Ferrara is a 17th century style opera house, completely round with layers upon layers of box seating. I felt like I was in a movie! At the very top, where we were, was just benches for us to sit on and lean way over the balcony so we could see the action below. The only draw back to this was that it was so hot up there, other than that, it was the perfect spot for me because it provided and interesting angle and let me observe much of the audience as well.
The second great thing about this evening was that it was Anne's first opera experience. I love being there when people are introduced to the art of opera! She was so lucky that her first one was not only so incredible, but in Italy, the capital of opera! She was so cute for me to watch and it was an experience in itself just to see how pleased she was!
The woman who sang the part of Lucia was phenomenal. There is a part in the second act when the character has gone mad and murdered her new husband. She is standing there in her wedding dress, covered in blood and with a knife in her hand. The aria she sings, "Il Dolce Suono," is fantastic and so moving... its a very grotesque and parodoxal scene to watch because the music (and the acting!) are so incredible, but the context is so heart wrenching... she's mad, she's about to die, she has lost her love who upon hearing the news of her death kills himself. I know its the typical tragic love story... but I still had tears streaming down my face by the end. There is this one moment in her big aria where she lies down and having an arial view of it was so great! And then another moment where she is singing an interplay, a dialogue between her and the flute... Words cannot describe it!

"Leave the gun, take the cannoli"

So the sister and brother and law came to Italy to visit me! Well, I guess for vacation as well... but anyway... it is always fabulous to see people from home! We had the best time! I showed them around my town, they were mostly impressed by food, gelaterie, and Kjersta by the oldest chocolate shop in Italy, I heard all about it. Then we went to Venice and spent our days there getting lost!
I think the company was so incredibly great cause there was no specific agenda, we were just enjoying each other's company in such a wonderful foreign place... maybe thats why we were late with everything and missed several different trains...
Its a bit of a let down to no longer have their visit to look forward to, but I guess now that I have only 5 weeks (yikes!) left in Ferrara I get to look forward to seeing all of the shining faces at home! Love!

Charlotte's Visit

Have you ever had a friend that shared a bond with you nobody else could have? An unbreakable bond that seems stronger than time? Ok, I know that this is cheesy, but this is how I feel about my friend Charlotte. Charlotte and I were exchange students together in Norway, she's from Germany.
Earlier this week she visited me for a couple days and it was the first time I had seen her in almost exactly three years. I'm not gonna lie, I was nervous about things were going to go. But when she showed up and I saw her it was like no time had passed. She looked the same, and it felt the same to talk to her, just as easy. It was the most surreal feeling I've had in a VERY long time.
And seeing Charlotte made me realize how much I learned and matured during my semester in Hamar. I wonder if it was specific to that experience at the age of 17, or if it works the same no matter what study abroad someone goes on. Later, maybe a year or two from now will I visit Anne (my roommate and best friend here) and only then truly realized what I learned and how much I changed from my semester in Italy? I am aware of all the things I am learning right now, but am I aware of how they are affecting me? It is a question I don't think is possible to answer right now but it certainly is interesting to think about!
I had a lovely time showing Charlotte around Ferrara, cooking her dinner, chatting, reminiscing, and when it came to saying goodbye I was happy and relieved to know I would be visiting her in Germany in just two months! What a change from 3 years!

Giotto or No Giotto?... The Assisi Question

This past weekend I spent time in Umbria with my program, CIEE. Umbria a gorgeous region of Italy set partly in the mountains, home of amazing olive oil, Saint Francis and the city Perugia. We started out our weekend in a cold, foggy, snowy Perugia. My question... what is the point of going on a walking tour around a wet city that you can't even see!!! If I could at least have seen to the top of the Cathedral when standing outside of it, maybe I would have seen the point. We did see some neat things though, despite this inconvenience. We saw where the Virgin Mary's wedding ring is kept, we saw ruins from a papal fortress and most importantly we had Perugian chocolate! Yes, Perugia is the Italian capital of chocolate! Later in the evening after a long day when everybody was hungry and tired and cold and cranky... we went to a factory where we learned how they make olive oil and got to taste some of the best olive oil ever! It was so good! I thought about buying a bottle, but I can't afford $15 a liter, thats a lot when I can buy it at the grocery store for $3.
Saturday was Assisi, my new favorite place!!! We started by visiting the two basilicas of Saint Francis. It was so exciting because not only was there St. Francis' tomb and relics, but we had studied all of the frescoes and art work in my class. I thought it was so funny, because our guide was so enthusiastic about the frescoes painted by Giotto in the upper basilica and there is actually a great discrepancy as to whether he painted them or not. But of course, when we asked this to our guide he looked shocked and scandaled that we had such doubts! It was so sad and funny... poor man, just doing his job. Assisi is built on a hill the side of a hill, so when it clears up, you can see for miles! Its gorgeous! You walk up the little streets and pop into shops where little Italian women ask you about your life and what brought you to Italy (an Italian boyfriend?) Or you end up chatting with a Canadian Franciscan monk who is staying at the monastery for two years. He gave us a couple fun things to see and wished us well on our way!
It is little conversations like this that really stick out in my mind. I remember one such Canadian man I ran into in Norway and I still remember our entire conversation... I just think it is so nice to meet and have conversations with people that are not awkward.
After two other little towns (Spello and Cortona), an AMAZING dinner, a hike,a museum on the etruscians and a discussion on the proper way of saying 'grazie' I was ready to head back to Ferrara. In a later post you will hear all about seeing my german friend again and learn how the visit from Kjersta and Dustin goes!

Roommate Date

Between Anne and I we have a crazy next couple of weeks. We both have visitors coming and midterms, not to mention a 3 day trip around Umbria with our program and to top of the month, Spring break! So, in preparation for all of these festivities, Anne and I decided to go against the tradition thus far of going on a trip every weekend, and stay in Ferrara. The plan was to study for our first midterm on Monday, read ahead for our classes, maybe take a walk or two, and RELAX.
Friday we went looking for the country side. From our apartment on the seventh floor, we can tell that it is relatively close, and it didn't seem like a big deal to get there! Little did we know! Good grief, somehow we got ourselves lost, and not in the country side. We did however find two very cool places. The first was this wonderful little neighborhood full of old people and their dogs! The whole place just had the nicest atmosphere and I think what I liked about it the most was the smell. It no longer smelled like a city, as Ferrara does... it felt borderline rural! It probably helped by the fact that it sat along our nasty little river. As we walked up the street we found things like restaurants out of people's homes and little old men greeting us from their gardening work.
The second place we found was amazing and disturbing! It was these three buildings that were so beautiful in their own, dilapidated way. We decided it necessary to do a bit of light trust passing. One had a tree growing out of where the roof and wall once had been. The other had all of its windows busted in and there was a thick layer of grim and dust over all the broken chairs, tables and bathtubs. It felt like such a strange juxtaposition to have this piece of property right next to apartment city!!! There were two creepy things about this place. One, even though it was obviously not touched for years, there were still things like a couple of razors perched on the edge of the sink and a wash rag on the edge of the bathtub. The other, there were dead pigeons all over the place!!! And these pigeons did not look like they had been killed by stray cats... creepy.
To celebrate our adventure, Anne took me to Indian food and we laid us down to sleep!
Saturday we went to a lovely antiques market, explored a huge cemetery and walked around our city's wall! There was this lady at the market who was having the best time haggling and speaking in Italianglish with us! She kept saying how this and that was very mod and the big style of the year. But in all honesty, I don't think she believed that we could understand her, because then she would turn to an italian lady and be like, 'these are americans... watch me practice my english!' Plus she enjoyed telling us things like, the Americans only speak english and how during tourist season she liked to swindle money out of them! It was all very funny... especially since she would ask if we understood her and then ignore our answer in italian!!! Oh, the people you meet at market!
Little did I know that when staying in Ferrara for the weekend, it would actually end up being the best ones yet! The weather is getting nicer and there are buds on the trees! Spring is on its way!!!

Degustazione Vini (Wine Tasting!)

Last night I partook in an activity much associated with Italy... wine tasting! We headed over to a little osteria in old Ferrara at 8 pm and sat and ate and didn't leave until 2 am! It was organized and payed for by our program directors and the wine theme for the Evening was Sicily. Apparently, Sicily has a climate quite comparable to California and perfect for producing wine. But until the last 20 years they never really developed the quality wine industry that they have the potential for...lucky for us, now they do! Sommelier Nicola took us through the brief history of wine production and explained how to taste wine to appreciate it with a more trained mind than to just drink it!
First, Appearance. Look at the color of the wine, if it is a white wine, the darker and cloudier the color, the longer it has aged. The opposite is true of red wines which as they age get lighter in color. Next one must look at how quickly the wine settles down after swishing the glass, quicker is better... it shows that the wine is going to have a softer taste on the palate. Like every other aspect of life in Italy, appearance played a big role in lasts night's festivities. From the presentation of the dishes to the pressed white shirt and apron of the cute waiter to everyone dressing up for the occasion. There are many a girl in my program who very deeply identify with Italy's love of image... don't worry, I played my part, I actually showered!
Second, the Bouquet. There are three things to think about when smelling your wine. 1, is it a 'delicate' smell, does it smell appetizing. I know this sounds kind of like a given, but is still important! 2, how long does the aroma stay in your memory, chances are, the more complicated the flavors and the more flavors there are, the longer it will stay with a person. 3, what are the things that you smell. This is slightly subjective, some people will smell different things than others, this idea is true in the taste as well. There are also three things that effect the smell and taste of a wine and they are, what grapes are used and how they are grown, The fermentation process of the wine, and lastly the aging process. As is true with everywhere I go in Italy, there were many a interesting smell in the 'bouquet' of the evening. Sitting next to me was the program avocatto (lawyer) who every once in a while would move and I would get a lovely whiff of BO... then to counter act that the crazy, obnoxious, flirty lady across from him sent out a overly perfumed odor. There was the musty smell of broccoli in the air, one of old socks from the weird cheeses we got in course number 5, not to mention the smell of fish... course 2 was a wild, tasty assortment of shellfish on toasted bread. Plus the building we were housed in has this really comforting smell of old, used, polished wood. That alone is enough to overstimulate the nose without adding trying to identify smells in wines on top of it!
Third, Taste! As with smell, taste can be very subjective. One wine we had last night, a chardonnay reminded me of peaches and white flowers, very fruity, another, a nero d'Avola merlot had the tastes of preserved currents, cinnamon, and a touch of licorice... The one thing that the sommelier did tell us was that the longer the after taste, the better the quality of wine. I tell you, the game of describe that taste is very fun!!
I had a six course meal last night and seven different wines... unfortunately there were many a person in attendance that had too much to drink, and it would have been easy to do! There was SO much wine, but our director had explained at the beginning of the evening that it was a bit of a marathon and not to drink to much of the whites in the beginning because the heavy reds came at the end and could hit you hard if you'd already had plenty to drink. So those of us with a head on our shoulders did absolutely fine! (No, the obnoxious random woman across-ish from me did not so much follow this advice which made her even more obnoxious!!!!) I probably never again will have a 6 hour meal, nor do I necessarily want to, it was so long! But as you can see I learned a lot and I'm definitely glad I got to do it!

Sono Stanca

I know, I know, me blogging two days in a row... this is unheard of! I'm just feeling overwhelmed right now, I have really bad contact with everybody, which is horrible, because I need all you all's support and love now more than ever!!! Life here no longer has the 'new and exciting' feeling to it... now its just hard, its school, its across the world, and I still can't speak Italian well enough to really feel comfortable.
I've been wondering why there are only a select few people that I hear from on a regular basis. My roommate pointed out to me that maybe you all think that I am in a new place and the one with an exciting life, why would I have time to here about the old lives of those in Kenai or at PLU... So, this is my plea to you... I want to hear from you! Everything! I care just as much or more now what you are up to! Please, even just a comment on my blog every once in a while or a comment on facebook... I'm not asking for a novel length email, I know how much work that takes!
Love you all!

La Bella Figura

Italians are obsessed with image an image that we refer to as 'la bella figura' or 'the beautiful figure'. They constantly are well put together, fashionable, friendly without being overly outgoing, and they never do anything that would make them look foolish or in bad taste...ever. However if you talk to an Italian about la bella figura, they probably wouldn't quite understand what you mean... I've decided their obsession with la bella figura comes directly from their conscious obsession, la brutta figura. In Italy everything is probably done for some image reason, not to appear 'bella' but rather to not appear 'brutta'.
For example: Italians don't work out... they just don't do it, not in public, not the way Americans do. An Italian wouldn't go running for a great workout, to be sweaty is brutta, to have physical exertion show is brutta. On occasion I do see someone running or at the gym, but it hardly ever a woman and whoever it is always still looks great and is wearing a cute little 'workout outfit' of spandex.
Another example: Last month I said that one of the things I had learned was that Italians do not drink in excess, they don't get drunk, its frowned upon. I now realize, there is no ethical or moral reason behind this, but rather, to drink to the point of walking and acting funny is brutta, the image and control is gone. It is brutta to be out of control.
There are of course smaller things that are never done because they are brutta, one never wears short socks and long pants, one never wears sweat pants in public, one never eats mushrooms and cheese together, and the one I personally always break and get stared and pointed at for... one never wears flip flops between the months of October and April!
Of course these judgements are not as harsh on foreigners, it is weird if I break a 'bella figura' rule, but it is horrible and stupid if an Italian does so. The ironic thing to me is that Italians may follow crazy rules and norms when it comes to esthetic, but when it comes to ethics, they believe they are up to interpretation... thats why you find Italians cutting in line, and running red lights. I just think this is so fascinating, probably because it is such a foreign concept to me! I don't do something nice for someone to APPEAR nice, I just want to be nice. I definitely value ethics over esthetics, who am I to judge other people based on their appearance! Maybe what this should be teaching me is, who am I to judge people on anything, even their actions, they could have a perfectly logical reason for doing something like cutting in line, like a cultural imposition!

Beatles and the Choir

For fat Tuesday most people drink, dance, party... go to Venice. One girl in my program even fell in a canal while she was there! Oh but not me... I had a very irregular end to my carnival.
I recently joined a university community choir with two other girls. After my first evening there Francesco, the director, asked if we wanted to join them the following week in performing. I was the only of the 3 to show up, which was initially nerve racking, but in the long run it was perfect. Without the other girls at my side not only was I more approachable, but I needed to be approached. Everybody took such care of me!!! People would link arms with me to get me to come with them. I am now officially called 'Miss Alaska'. I was wearing knee length shorts, and for me, it was a little chilly, but nothing to complain about. Everybody was shocked, this apparently is scandalous! But I would hear people saying, 'oh remember, she's from Alaska, its hot here for her!' Yeah... its not hot here, but I just love that they all think I'm too hot!
The concert was in a very fun theater in Bologna, 40 minutes from Ferrara. During the concert we sang back up for a band. We sang and danced and clapped all during the concert. It was a good time I just kept laughing, I couldn't help it! The choir sounded...not so good, but because I don't really feel tied to them I didn't care!
Among the many good things to come of the evening were one, that Francesco asked me to sing in the other choir he directs as well... I don't know what kind of choir it is, but maybe its more exclusive than this one, or at least balanced. And two, last night I was walking down the street with a few people and Jacamo from choir recognized me and called out to me! People in town know me! I'm no longer completely a stranger! What a fabulous feeling, I can't even tell you!

Claudia & Operation Tornare un Amico

Saturday I visited Padua and made a friend (Padua by the way is absolutely amazing and as much as I like Ferrara, I wish I lived in Padua). Her name was Claudia, she was wearing a pink fuzzy bear costume. Claudia was about four years old. I played with her in the streets for about 10-15 minutes. She would 'sneak' up on me and throw confetti all over me and then I would reciprocate... it was such great fun! There was so much confetti everywhere! This is what happens during carnival, the children dress up in costumes and go in town and throw confetti... other stuff happens too, but that is not important quite yet! Needless to say... I got back to my room and found colorful pieces of paper in crazy places you wouldn't think it would still be after 10 hours.
Speaking of friends... its time that I make one besides an American. I have two plans of action. 1. Tomorrow is my first choir practice. I only have it once a week, so I am going to force myself on my fellow choir members. 2. I am generally a study in my room type of person, but I have decided I need to go to the study room in my building to make a friend. I know, you aren't supposed to talk in the study room, but I'm going to strategically place myself so that I can ask somebody for 'help'/if I'm doing my Italian homework right. After they answer my questions it won't be weird to introduce myself. Little will they know that the whole thing had been prepared in my head... Hey whatever I have to do to accomplish Operation Find a Friend.

The Laundry Outfit

Yesterday was crazy. Yesterday everything seemed to go frustratingly. I don't know if I would call it a bad day...just frustrating. I'm going to ignore the fact that I had a midterm, that I worked at school in the lab for 2 hours next to a smelly girl, and that at lunch I had a horrible discussion about my diet... which wouldn't be that bad, I know that it sparks discussion, but the debate was so uninformed and frustrating!!! What you should know about is my doing laundry.
The building I live in has three towers. Each tower is 8-9 stories tall and each floor has 6-7 appartments. That means there are approximately 108 people who share each laundry room. The laundry room is located on floor A (between 1 and 2) along with things like the electrical room...in other words, its creep central. There are pipes everywhere that are always making noises. The laundry room itself only has two washers and one dryer, and when the washers are on the spin cylce water bubbles and seeps up through the drain in the middle of the floor, I know, weird.
So Anne and I decide to do our laundry, and we both brought very limited wardrobes so we needed to wash everything possible. Picture this...I am wearing sweatpants and my down vest zipped all the way up because I'm not wearing a shirt under it, not to mention, my hair looks crazy! Anne looks even better...she is wearing a a sweater on top of a nightgown on top of a lacy slip...yeah, we look great. I wish I had gotten a picture, next time! (The funny thing about this is that I had to run downstairs to the store to get more change and I got hit on more in my laundry outfit then ever! I haven't really experienced it much, but last night the men came out of the woodwork for my laundry outfit!)
Anne says the point of a laundry outfit is that as little people see you as possible...if we were completely successful, we wouldn't even see each other. Lucky for us the machine ate a bunch of our coins so we had to go running around the building to people we know collecting coins. 1 euro here, 50 cents there. Yes, it felt like everybody saw us. Now I looked relatively normal according to american standards, but not italian...Anne just looked ridiculous. Someone did finally comment on it to my great joy!
What made this worse was half way through our evening of laundry excursions, we get a phone call that I answer and the guy says, "Its Andrea, we met in the centro in front of the cathedral. We spoke little english and you live in Darsena 713 blah blah blah." I was so confused and kept saying... "I don't remember, I don't remember this!" I finally told him he had the wrong number and hung up on him. Two minutes later we get a knock on our door and a guy saying, "I'm sorry for the phone call, open the door." Don't worry, we didn't. So then we were all creeped out and we still had to run and take care of our laundry several times. It was bad news.
I didn't get to bed until 1.30 but I ate some double chocolate cookie dough before going to bed so that I wouldn't have nightmares about creepers in the laundry room!!!

Non Capisco!!!

I've been in this country now for 10 days and this is the first one that I've had internet. I actually thought about titling this post '10 days without internet' but then maybe everybody would think I was dwelling on this... ok I am. I never realized how much I rely on the internet, not even for email or facebook but for answers to little questions.
I'm a week into my intensive language course and I've learned to count, tell time, and introduce myself. I'm practically fluent! But no, actually I've also learned present tense verbs and the exceptions... very handy. Now I can say 'I don't understand! Do you speak English?' which is 'Non capisco! Parli inglese?'
Non Capisco...its the story of my life. In class I start to think I understand and then I get called on and...oh, non capisco. I ask how much something costs and get chatted at in italian...non capisco. Random boy comes up and says 'I see you standing here and I think to myself, I want to talk to her.' My answer, 'uh...non capisco.' I tell you, its my answer for everything! Either that or non lo so, I don't know.
The social lives of the Italians is something I can understand. The big nights to go out on the town are Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. OnTuesday there's this bar(everything here is a bar, restaurants, cafes, bars...its all the same!) that has dress up night and every week is a different theme! How fun is that!? The other thing is that Italians do not drink until they are drunk, they just drink socially. I think this is the best news I've heard! Its highly frowned upon to get really drunk and make a fool of yourself like Americans tend to do. What a relief! Social drinking... something I can very much understand. And social drinking in Italy starts at lunch time! I feel like I have three options of beverages to order when out... Sparkling water, a glass of wine, or an espresso (I literally drink straight shots of espresso these days!)
I may not understand the language yet, but I'm starting to get the hang of the people and the city, and thats the first step. I shouldn't be expecting too much of myself after only 10 days anyway!

Lessons for Italy

During the last nine months as I have bragged to people that I would be going to Italy I have been given a lot of advice on what to expect there. I'm not saying these snippets are necessarily wrong, or right, but I still find it odd that people who have never even been to Italy seem to know what they are talking about. I won't ignore what you all have said completely, but I've decided to take some of it with a grain of salt.
"Watch out for those greasy Italian men pinching your butt!" This is the most prominent phrase from people that I've heard, or some variant relating to the personalities and conduct of the men from Italy. Now, I've been to Italy... and they aren't THAT bad! My god, the way people talk you'd be thinking I'm going into a war zone! I think its just a reputation they have that they can't necessarily shake. I just finished reading the autobiography Eat, Love, Pray and she spends four months in Italy and the men don't pay her much sexual attention and she feels old and put off. She then is reassured that its not her looks, its that the men have toned it down, not that the world realizes it. I guess I'll find out if this is true. The other thing about the Italian men being affectionate is that it is part of their culture. Isn't it judgemental to project our social ideals on a completely different culture! If thats how they do things over there, then who are we to say boo to that... its not our place.
"Drink wine and Eat" Don't worry, I'm ready, and I've accepted that I'll probably gain some weight while I'm gone. When a church friend of the family found out I was going to study italian language and culture he replied, "So you'll be eating and drinking wine?" I think he's right, even if my culture class isn't about food and wine, my 'independent studies' (so to speak) will definitely be. I've already promised my sister and brother in law to scope out the best gelato place in town so when they come we don't have to waste their time and can go straight to the good stuff!
I also got the parent talks. I HATE parent talks, they are soooo bad! My mom doesn't give talks like Danny on Full House... it just doesn't work that way. They always end with me really cranky and mom being glad its over. I only really get them as I get ready to go somewhere. This trip I've gotten the 'how do you take care of yourself in a city?' talk, which ended in me flat out refusing to talk about it, and the 'be smart around wine(alcohol)' talk. I don't really know why I haven't gotten that talk sooner, like for instance, when I left for college. Anyway, I got it on Saturday and all I could say back was,"mom really, I know more than you think."
"Have a blast!" I'm sitting here writing this before heading to the airport and it still feels pretty surreal that I'm leaving for the semester. I have no doubt that I will experience everything that I can, and I know I will have fun. You all must keep me informed on your lives just as you have the option of reading here about my life. I'll miss you, but its worth it!