My favorite video!

My friend/roommate in Orvieto, Becky, put this together this video of our semester! I could watch it over and over again because it really shows what our life was like in the monastery - along with all of our picnics, hikes, and more. I love it. I'm not sure if the link works yet but hopefully it does... 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuVc2WzEYLo

One of Tim's photos :)

Day #5 in California

November 17, 2013 – Sunday

On Sunday morning, we went swing dancing in the park. This was almost as scary as Saturday’s trolley ride but swing dancing was more awkward. Apparently in the park every Sunday, they teach you how to swing dance for the first 45 minutes or so and then it’s just a free-for-all of people asking you to dance for the next two hours. It’s safe to say that I was pretty darn anxious about this because dancing with strangers is definitely not on my top 100 list of fun things to do. Sara loves dancing, though, and she was so excited to bring us. Anyways, it was 90% fun and 10% awkward so it was a success. Definitely some serious awkward moments though. Some of Ed’s friends were there, which was nice, because then there were a few more boys to dance with that weren’t COMPLETELY random. At the end of the morning, the announcer woman then asked who was visiting from out of town. She was like “and please welcome Megan and Laura from Boston!” Apparently Sara gave her our names and then we had to go to the middle of the circle with 8 other visitors and then boys would take turns dancing with us in front of every else! So. Awkward. But I don’t regret it because now it’s funny.

After swing dancing, we had to say bye to Sara because she had to make the drive back to Santa Barbara and beat the traffic. It was sad to say bye to her because it was just a few days ago that we met her in the train station! After she left, Laura and I went to the Butterfly Museum and Plant Conservatory (not sure if this is the real name but there were lots of plants and butterflies). You weren’t allowed to touch the butterflies but we tried our hardest to get them to land on us. Laura thought one landed on her but it was actually a dead one.  

We went out to dinner with Ed and his friends at another Mexican restaurant. I got a quesadilla and it was so good! We also got frozen yogurt after. Ed drove us to the airport and we had plenty of time before our flight at 10:30pm. I’m not sure why I thought that I would have a ton of time to sleep AND do homework on the plane. Unfortunately, neither of us slept very well on the plane and the woman next to me kept bumping my arm while she was knitting. Ugh. We arrived in Boston at 7am where Laura’s brother picked us up! It was such a short trip but so so so worth it. I wish Sara went to Gordon although she’s definitely a California girl and I guess I always have someone to visit in California (because I have so much time and money to go there every weekend, right?). Even though it was short, it seriously felt like the three of us had never been apart and it’s so nice to have a friendship that started in Orvieto but can still continue. It doesn’t feel like our friendship is based on nostalgia or anything that would make it hard to be friends after studying in Italy together. 

Swing dancing with Ed's friend

When they asked all of the "visitors" to raise their hands. Obviously,  I was thrilled. 

Day #4 in California

November 16, 2013 – Saturday

On Saturday morning, the three of us took the bus to the farmers' market. I’ve only been to a few farmers’ markets before, mostly just the one in Newburyport. This outdoor market was huge and people would come up to us to ask if we wanted free samples! Even at the dried fruit stand, they told us to try whatever we wanted. So pretty much out entire breakfast/lunch was supplied by all these free samples. There was even a falafel stand with free samples. When Laura and I went to visit Kelly in Edinburgh, we went to this falafel place three times in three days because I didn’t even realize I had a falafel obsession. So I had about five pieces of free falafel and then I ended up buying some for lunch too! We sat on the pier and I ate my falafel while Sara and Laura ate their real lunch – some sort of Mexican. Anyways, for free samples we had all sorts of toffee, fruit, iced tea, crackers, cheese, bread, coffee, chocolates, and more. Then when we left the market and started to walk to the pier with the seals, a lemonade truck pulled up and gave us free bottles of lemonade! You can’t make this stuff up.

We finally made it to the seal pier where we watched these seals for almost an hour. They were so interesting! They were barking, sleeping, fighting, rolling, swimming, and just being seals. People would come and go but Laura and I could’ve watched them for days. They were just so funny! Sara thought they were funny too but she’d already seen them so they weren’t AS exciting.

We took the trolley up and down the hills of San Francisco in the afternoon. Laura and Sara wanted to stand on the side of the trolley instead of sit down so I agreed to do so as well although I wasn’t sure about it. I mean I like adventure and all but hanging out of a fast-moving trolley sounded a little too adventurous to me. Anyways, it was really fun even though I was definitely scared at times when we would pass other cars/trucks on the road and I would flatten myself against the side of the trolley, hanging on to that pole for dear life.

So we took the trolley downtown, where Ed picked us up in his car and we drove to the Golden Gate Bridge. It was so beautiful at sunset! Laura took some beautiful pictures and we spent some time under the bridge until it got too cold/windy. We then went to a Thai place for dinner and that was delicious, again. It was an hour-long wait to get a table (and at this point I was getting prettyyyyyy hungry) but it was totally work the wait. :)

So scared

Day #3 in California

November 15, 2013 – Friday

On Friday morning, Sara went to her morning class while Laura and I slept it. When I woke up, I went outside to sit on Sara’s front porch to watch the sun come up over the ocean. Like… WHAT?! I mean it was hard to see parts of the ocean because there were so many tall palm trees (again… WHAT!) but I guess it was pretty beautiful. So I sat out there for a while and then made pancakes with Laura. I already made pancakes with Sara before she went to her class but since Laura still needed breakfast, I just had to make another batch of blueberry pancakes and eat them with her, too. When Sara got back from class, we packed up her car and started our road trip to San Francisco! The drive to San Francisco was so beautiful – throughout most of the drive, we had the ocean on our left and then the golden hills on our right. Sara had a lot of road trip CD’s, most of them from high school so we spent the 5+ hour drive singing and catching up on everything from when we left each other in Orvieto on June 15th. I thought the drive would seem long, but after two hours, we stopped at a beach to collect sand dollars and soon after that, we stopped for lunch. I was so surprised at how friendly everyone was at all the restaurants or coffee shops that we went to. I would go up to order my food, and the cashier/server/waitress would be like “HI! What brings you to Santa Barbara/San Luis Obispo/San Francisco?” This always caught me off guard because I wasn’t ready to make small talk. Anyways, everyone was really friendly.

We eventually made it to San Francisco after 7pm and our reservation at this fancy sushi place was for 7:30, so we quickly dropped our stuff off at Ed’s (Sara’s boyfriend) apartment and then walked to the restaurant. It was pretty small and I’ve never had real sushi before (unless you count the California rolls they sometimes have in our dining hall – with cucumber and avocado but no fish) so I was pretty nervous about dinner. The four of us sat right in front of the chef and Ed told him that we wanted the “chef’s choice” so pretty much he would give us two rolls/pieces of sushi at a time. I should’ve counted how many pieces we ate but I think I lost count because they just kept coming! We had all kinds of raw fish, eel, mackerel, and sea urchin (this was the weirdest one). We also had fish eggs too but this was the one that I couldn’t finish. Pretty much all of the sushi was so good and I liked them all, but then I would remember that it was raw fish and then I would feel kinda queasy. After dinner, we then went to an ice cream place and I think I got some sort of chocolate ice cream and it was all vegan/organic. San Francisco was so organic and ecofriendly too – at least the part that we were in was really clean and there were recycling bins everywhere. After ice cream, we went back to the apartment and fell asleep right away even though it was only 9pm! 

My crazy hair made it's way into this picture

It was so cold here!

Day #2 in California

November 14, 2013 - Thursday

On Thursday morning, Laura and I woke up and left Sarah's apartment in LA. We walked to the bus stop and took a bus to downtown LA. We then took another bus to Union Station, which is where we were going to take the train at 10am to Santa Barbara! Before we took the second bus, though, we decided that we would save money and walk but after walking in the heat with our suitcases for fifteen minutes, we checked our map to see that we were only 1/4 of the way there and we immediately got on another bus. So we arrived at Union Station an hour before our train so we had some breakfast and sat in the sun for a little while. It is so warm here! We were both wearing tank tops and shorts and it was so hot just sitting in the sun.

At 10, we made our way over to the train tracks and got on the one to Santa Barbara. Once again, I'm still impressed that Laura and I made it this far because of our past travel fails. The train was pretty spacious and comfortable. Laura and I sat next to each other and the seats reclined but I couldn’t really fall asleep – Laura fell asleep though because she sleeps anywhere when we travel. The train went right along the ocean which was so beautiful and even though the ride was two and a half hours, it was nice to look out the window and see the ocean the whole time! We were about twenty minutes away from Santa Barbara when there was construction on the train tracks or something like that. We were so close! After about half an hour of sitting there on the train, we started to move again and soon we were in Santa Barbara. Laura and I ran off the plane (well, tried to run with our backpacks and carry-on suitcases) and frantically looked around for Sara. She was running through the cloud with her cute little beach hat and sundress on, of course. We had a dramatic reunion that included me accidently punch Laura in the teeth when I tried to hug Sarah. It was funny and great and weird to finally see Sara again! If you want to read about the MOST DRAMATIC DAY aka the last day in Orvieto, that’s the last time we saw her. We got into Sara’s car and drove to Westmont College. Laura and I were both staved though so we got breakfast/lunch at this place that makes smoothies in bowls with a bunch of toppings (granola, honey, fruit). It was so good and I can’t believe they don’t have that on the East Coast. Although I guess it’s a pretty cold thing to eat so maybe that’s why it exists only in places that are always warm? I don’t know. It was delicious.

Then, we went to the house that Sara lives in with 5 other girls. She has a huge deck that overlooks the ocean and it’s like a cute little beach house. Definitely a step up from my on-campus apartment that I live in now (we have like… two windows. It’s so dark). Sara then gave us a tour of Westmont and it seemed similar to Gordon in size although Westmont had palm trees, fountains, and gardens. Gordon has a pond and some really annoying geese. It was cool to finally see what Westmont was like and of course Sara seemed to know everyone on campus and would introduce us as her “friends from Italy. Well, they’re not Italian. They’re from Gordon.” 

We then went straight to the beach – Butterfly Beach, I think. I’d never seen the Pacific Ocean before so I went into full tourist mode and took a thousand pictures. We asked this man to take a picture of the three of us and he told us he has his own photography business so I guess we asked the right person. That’s why we have all these romantic pictures of us running through the water together.

After spending a few hours at the beach (it was pretty warm, like 75 degrees, but at 6pm it started to get a little colder), we went back to Sara’s house to get ready for dinner. Sara took us to this Mexican restaurant that was really small and cheap but the food was so good. I ate soooooooo much guacamole I was surprised I even got out of my chair after. I love guacamole so much. Anyways, after the guacamole-fest, we went back to Sara’s house again and sat in her living room and talked. Laura and Sara wanted me to read my first blog post in Orvieto (here) and my last blog post. I haven’t really gone back to read my blog but it was funny to read it out loud with them and I realized I had a few spelling errors that I never changed… oops. Laura and I were falling asleep at 9:30pm (12:30am in Boston) so we went to bed soon after that!

Me and Sara!

One of the running pictures...

Setting up our towels

Day #1 in California

November 13, 2013 - Wednesday

Wednesday was one of the craziest days in terms of my emotions and travel. I'll have to write something else about field hockey because I can't even explain it right now, but on Saturday at 2pm we were in Keene, NH, playing in the first round of the NCAA tournament. So that alone was emotional because it was my last game if we won (because my team would move on without me while I was in CA), and it was my last game if we lost, because that's how it works in the tournament! Anyways, the game went well for the first half but then they scored a few more goals in the second half and there were thirty seconds to go and I was crying (because when do I ever not cry?). I ran over to the bench, grabbed my suitcase, backpack, and field hockey bag, then quickly hugged a few people and jumped in the car with Dad. It was 3:45 at this point and boarding started at 6:40 in Logan so I was nervous I wouldn't make my flight! Mostly because of traffic.

Anyways, Dad had a sandwich ready for me for dinner, we talked about field hockey for a while, and then finally at 6ish we rolled up to the airport (there wasn't too much traffic until the end). I made it through security at 6:20 and then I found Laura waiting at the gate! Had some Dunkin' Donuts, of course, and then we started to board the plane. It was weird because the plan was probably only 1/3 full so Laura and I ended up sitting together with a seat in between us. I was so tired at this point and I wanted to sleep but I was SO EXCITED to see Sara that I didn't really sleep at all! The flight was around 5.5 hours long and it felt really really really long after the two hour mark.

So we arrived in LA (we flew to LA instead of Santa Barbara because Laura's best friend is studying there for the semester and it was cheaper to fly there), where Sarah picked us up (not Sara from Orvieto but Sarah, Laura's friend). She drove us to her apartment building where we dropped off our stuff and then Sarah and Laura went out while I stayed back and slept (I'm a sloth) because it was like 12:30am in LA so 3:30am in Boston! I was exhausted from the day but so excited to finally be in California! We bought these tickets at the end of August, before I knew that my field hockey team was going to be good (call me pessimistic, whatever - we've never been this good before). Visiting Sara was something that we talked about at the end of our semester in Orvieto together but it didn't really happen until I was feeling sad about being back at home so I was researching flights and ran into Laura's apartment at Gordon and I was like "LET'S VISIT SARA IN NOVEMBER. LET'S BUY TICKETS NOW." Anyways, it was kind of impulsive and even though it was a little frantic in terms of field hockey, I couldn't believe that Laura and I had made it this far! Mostly because we're awful at traveling together. If you don't remember, you can read my post about our trip to visit Kelly in Edinburgh and how Laura and I got on a train to Bologna instead of the train to Florence. So it was impressive that we made it to LA! :)

Quad break

There are a few reasons why I'm writing this post right now: 

1) It's quad break. We didn't have class on Thursday or Friday because of midterms last week so this is technically the half-way point in the semester! And I haven't written anything about the semester so far...

2) I have two papers and a midterm due tomorrow, then a huge research paper due on Tuesday (that I haven't started). This is procrastination!

3) A year ago, I was accepted into the Orvieto program (like... WHAT!). Which of course makes me think of Orvieto and this blog and the fact that I've abandoned it.

Anyways, I'm not sure how to sum up this "quad" or the past two months in one blog post, but pretty much my time is consumed by three classes, an internship, babysitting, working in the chapel office, working in the writing center... that's pretty much it. Oh wait - field hockey aka the thing that takes up most of my week! Seriously. I always forget that during the fall semester, field hockey is sometimes my first priority even though I guess being a student should be my first priority. A theme of this past semester is my impatience with everyone who seems to be having fun and/or has free time. I get stuck behind slow people on the sidewalk and I'm immediately like "WHO HAS TIME TO WALK AT SUCH A SLOW PACE" as I'm hustling along with my backpack, field hockey bag, stick, as I'm sorta in a nice outfit but sorta in practice clothes as well. Believe me, it's a sight. This happened again this weekend when everyone went home from Wednesday night to Sunday night and people were like "Megan, are you going home this weekend?" to which I replied "No, I have a game on Saturday so we'll have practice and then go to the game." But really, inside my head, I'm like "MUST BE NICE TO HAVE THE LUXURY OF GOING HOME FOR FIVE DAYS!

Anyways, it's a good thing people can't actually read my mind (although I'm exposing it on the internet right now) because as you can see, my thoughts have been aggressive when people have free time or at least enough time to strolllllllll along the sidewalk while I'm trying to speed walk by them without hitting them with my stick (or maybe I'm trying to hit them with my stick - you'll never know).

Well, now that I've revealed how much of an awful person I am, I'd say it's time to actually go do my work (because who has the time to write for fun??????). Just kidding. Also, my new best friend this semester is my iCalender (as shown below). Kelly always makes fun of me because whenever she looks at my computer, I'm always adding stuff, deleting stuff, or simply reorganizing my calendar. It's so helpful though!

As you can see, Mondays are awful and Thursdays are the best (usually filled with lots of sleeping, Netflix, and bothering my friends who have class). 

Ciao from Gordon

I close my eyes and I'm walking down Corso Cavour. 

I close my eyes in chapel with other Gordon students, ending chapel with the doxology and suddenly I'm back in the Catacombs of Priscilla in Rome - in the deepest corner of the tombs, singing the words with our group. Karen's there, Prof Doll too. The small nun holding the keys to this secret cave is holding a lantern, closing her eyes too as we sing praise God from whom all blessings flow. 

I open my eyes and I'm back in chapel. I look around to the row in front of me and see Becky and Laura, I move quickly toward them as we're dismissed and students pour out of the chapel. I ask them, "Do you remember? Do you remember that time in the catacombs?" They respond, nodding together: "Yes, yes, yes, we remember. We remember that."

I close my eyes on the field hockey bus to an away game. Headphones in, listening to the playlist that Prof Doll made us for Disegno - my favorite playlist to listen to on the train. I'd close my eyes, lean my head against the window and blink open to watch the Italian countryside, sheep, houses, hill towns. But I open my eyes and see highways, cars three times the size of Italian Fiats.

At home in my on-campus apartment, Jenna runs in the door and tells me to come quick! We go to Becky and Laura's apartment, sit close together on her bed, and listen to a recording of the last chapter meeting. Linking arms, listening. My eyes close and I'm in the monastery sala, ready for lunch but wanting to listen to Prof Doll's words.

How can my home in Orvieto be so far away from here, yet I close my eyes and it's all I can think about? Even though I'm here at Gordon, I find that it's with me always. Missing this place & these people!

Sunday Crafting

August 4, 2013 - Sunday

By the time I woke up on Sunday, my dad had already scoped out the neighborhood yard sales and bought these two frames for $1 each. I think I mentioned this in another post recently, but I collected wine corks in Italy (although I didn't bring ALL of these corks back from Italy - some came from other people, some from craft stores, etc) and ever since I've been home, I have begged my dad to bring me to his Tech. Ed. classroom to help me put these corks together in a cork board. And then suddenly July came and went and it's August now. I think he thought it might be better just to buy some cheap frames instead of letting me go crazy in his school classroom with saws and stuff. Anyways, I went to Lowe's later with Mom and Grammy (we were really going to get vanilla ice cream at Hannaford but since Lowe's is right there, it was convenient). Mom went to ask if we could get a $2 paint sample of this red color that I picked out (it happened to be called "wine glass" which seemed appropriate) and then Grammy and I went to pick out some wood for the back of the frames. So pretty much I set up my work station in the garage and spent the rest of the afternoon running around the yard, trying to find Dad to ask him questions about where paintbrushes were and how to measure stuff. I definitely spent more time trying to track him down than I did working. The hardest part was to fit all of the corks into the frame perfectly because they aren't all the same size. So I completed one cork board and I'll just have to keep collecting to fill up the second one!

Sanding and cutting the frames

Painting stuff!

Fitting the corks into the frame (stressful)

The finished product

The painted frame is not really this brown - it's more red/magenta

My favorite one from Orvieto :)

7 minutes of my semester

It's pretty small here but it looks a lot better if you click full screen!

I have so many video clips from the past semester, but I chose a few and condensed them down into seven short minutes. Even though seven minutes is nothing in terms of a while semester in Italy, this is a decent representation of my life there. Now if you're friends with my parents on Facebook, you've probably already seen it but I guess you could always watch it again! :) This video starts with the loud fans at a Roma football match, then the view from the inside colosseum, St. Peter's Basilica on Easter Sunday (WITH THE POPE), a concert Rome, Laura eating a sandwich, a train ride to Castilglione del Lago, the green hills of Siena, ocean waves in Riomaggiore, a Harry Potter graveyard tour in Edinburgh, Kelly climbing down Arthur's Seat, a ride through Edinburgh from a double decker bus, the flaming dove canister and festival during Pentecost, the little old dog that would walk on Corso Cavour every day, a ride up the funicular, Sara next to the (loud) clock tower bell, Scottish dancing in Edinburgh, ferris wheeling in Florence, Cinque Terre hiking, stalking cute boys in the Roman Forum with Becky, and a view of Orvieto from the clock tower.

The song is "Once There Was a Hushpuppy" by Dan Romer & Benh Zeitlin. This was one of the tracks on our Disegno class playlist that we would listen to in the studio. 

From Orvieto to Home

July 22, 2013 - Monday

Summer began over a month ago when I stepped off the plane, hauled my heavy bags through customs and was immediately greeted by Mom, Dad, and an iced coffee. Soon I hopped into the car and a few hours later I was in my new room in my old house. It felt familiar because I was home, but strange because all of my stuff had been moved into Michael's room. Suddenly I had suitcases to unpack with clothes, souvenirs, posters, scarves from Italy, and tried to make them fit in my room that is always covered with high school artwork and field hockey awards. I took down the high school art and put up my sketches from Disegno. Then I took down old pictures and taped up pictures of the duomo, pictures from Rome, birthday cards from new friends. I cleared off my bookshelves and replaced the old textbooks with my whole collection of Dante books, The Life of St. Francis, and all of the journals I made during the last month of the semester - full of blank pages. My final project from Disegno hangs from the corner of the room, folded in half because it's took long to hang from anything but a studio ceiling. Even if the past few weeks, I've ordered 101 free prints from Shutterfly and they sit in a stack on my desk (well, Michael's old desk) next to a pile of wine corks that I've been planning to assemble into a cork board. 

But no matter how hard I try, I can't seem to make all of this stuff fit into my room! Now it's a complicated mess of high school sport awards tucked into shelves with drawings and pictures and sketches of Italy tacked up onto the walls. This has been the unyielding question since I've been home as I try to make my semester in Italy fit seamlessly with my home and with Gordon. Even in on June 15th when I returned home, in a matter of hours, my weepy airport self (if you remember how many tears there were on that day) had to quickly turn back into my home-self as my summer days were suddenly filled with babysitting, pretending to work out for field hockey, working at the preschool camp, applying for fall internships, stressing about fall internships, thinking about the future, stressing about the future, trying to buy a car, realizing that all of my money was spent on gelato and train tickets, etc. Anyways, you understand. I think. My life in Italy was quickly pushed aside and replaced by all of these consuming things. 

But I'm reminded again that the past semester was real when friends from home ask me about it, family friends, my parents' friends, people from church. Everyone asks "How was Italy?" and I can only reply with a simple "Good! It was really great!" and that answer just seems so... awful. Even though it is the truth! Italy was "so good" and "really great" but I find myself frustrated that I can't explain everything and at the same time, I don't think that all of these people that ask me, "How was Italy?" really want me to blab on for days about it. 

I'm even conflicted about this blog. I wrote 113 posts! One for every day in Italy! Individually, I often think the posts are a little boring at times, especially during those days where I spent most of my time in the studio and only stopped to take a nap. But when I think about all 113 posts together, I like them and it's crazy to think that I spent 113 days there (113 bowls of cornflakes!!!!!!!!! That's intense!). But now what? I have a feeling that if I start writing about what I eat here at home, it's going to be significantly less exciting than when I wrote about what I ate in Italy - although cornflakes are probably the most boring food I can think of (other than saltine crackers). So then I decided that maybe I would do a series of reflection posts. But as you can see, it's now July 22nd and I'm now writing a scattered post about how I don't know what to say when people ask me about my semester and how I don't know what to do with my blog now! Sigh. 

The stack of things piling up on my desk - these are the 19 birthday wishes that my Orvieto friends mailed to me for my birthday!

Making cappuccinos at home

The cork collection that I haven't made into a cork board yet

Day #113 in Orvieto (Rome-Dublin-Boston)

June 15, 2013 – Saturday

I don’t even know how to explain today because I think I’m felt every emotion today but then I still don’t even know what I’m feeling. The day began at 5:20 when I got up and then went to wake up Sara and Laura for the sunrise. We made our way down to the lookout by funicular park and even though we were a few minutes late, we watched the sunrise together and it was so beautiful even though it was kind of a dark/cloudy morning. Laura and Sara went back to the monastery to start making coffee while I ran up to the duomo (it took me like 10 minutes to get there). I’ve never seen the duomo before without thousands of tourists in the piazza, all taking pictures. It was so strange to be the only one standing there, looking up at the huge duomo. I didn’t have much time though so I ran back to the monastery by running down the main street in Orvieto. I was also the only one out on the street, too. Then I realized that I was really leaving Orvieto that morning which brought about a few tears (which would be the first of many this morning…). Anyways, made it back to the monastery, had some coffee and an apple, grabbed my bags and walked to the funicular parking lot with everyone. We loaded our bags onto the bus and then walked over to the cliff to listen to Prof Doll road a few things and to say our goodbyes to the Hannah, Karen, and the 6 people that were staying behind to travel with family or by themselves. Laura and I had to say goodbye to Jenna and Sara here and I couldn’t look at any of them without bawling. It was the hardest to say bye to Sara because she lives in California and I probably won’t see her for a while. The good thing about going to Gordon is that there were ten people (out of the twenty) on this program that I’ll see again at Gordon in the fall. But still, Jenna and I couldn’t even say anything to each other, we were just crying. I thought I got myself together and stopped crying for a few minutes, but then Alessandro came up to hug me and I totally lost it! Seriously, so many tears. He was so sweet and I’m definitely going to miss him. Alessandro and Prof Doll always say that they think of themselves as older brothers to us, and Alessandro was definitely that! And he still liked me (I think) even though I was awful in his Italian class. So that shows how great he is. So we finally had to get on the bus and wave goodbye to our friends that were staying. I sat with Laura on the bus and cried the whole way down from upper Orvieto to the airport. Once again, I thought the sobfest was over but then we arrived at the airport and finally we had to say bye to Prof Doll, but it was a hurried goodbye because something was weird with Becky’s flight so he had to rush off with her to figure out where she needed to be. So we quickly said bye to Becky and Prof Doll and then I was so sad because I realized he wasn’t going to come with us. I mean I knew he wasn’t going to get on the plane with us but ideally, we wouldn’t have to say bye to him.

Anyways, the tears ended there for the morning. Said a few more goodbyes to people going to different terminals, but Laura, Christabel, Katie, Tim, Elizabeth, and I checked in and then went through security together. Tim and Elizabeth went to their gate while the four of us went to ours, grabbing lunch and some last minute things on the way to the gate. Not sure what was happening with our flight but we were supposed to board at 11:20 but we didn’t even board until 11:50 and then our plane was supposed to leave at noon but it didn’t leave until one. So we were a bit worried because we didn’t have a HUGE layover in Dublin, but we tried not to think about it too much.

We arrived in Dublin an hour before our next plane was departing. Christabel, Katie, and I rushed off the plane to go to the Boston Aer Lingus connection, but then we realized that Laura was stuck in the back of the plane, waiting to get her bag, and she had to make her New York connection which was pretty much 20 minutes from when our plane landed. So the three of us were waiting to say bye to her by the New York sign, but she didn’t show up for a few minutes! They were calling her name because the plane was about to leave, and then all of a sudden she starts running up the ramp with her huge suitcase and backpack. The Aer Lingus people were really nice though and they told her to give us a quick goodbye because her plane needed to leave. So we quickly hugged and I barely had time to tear up before she was taken away (which was probably for the best, considering that I’ve been crying all morning). So the three of us continued on through security and then we arrived at our gate just as everyone was boarding. This plane was bigger, they served us a meal, and the seats were pretty comfy compared to those in the first plane. But still, it was a 7 hour flight and it felt like FOREVER. I watched the sixth Harry Potter movie on my laptop, walked around the plane for a while, listened to music, pretended to sleep, looked at all of the pictures that I took during this semester, made an extensive to-do list for when I return home, thought about what kind of iced coffee I would get in the airport, etc. Important stuff. Also I was wondering if my parents would be there to pick me up because the last time I texted my dad, I told him that we didn’t have much time to get to our next plane and that we might miss it and he was like “Nice. See you soon” or something like that… and then I never responded to say we DID make it. Anyways, I wasn’t 100% sure if they would be there when I arrived in Boston. 

The good news is that they were there and had an iced coffee ready for me! We loaded up my suitcases in the car, went out to eat seafood, then drove home! I started to fall asleep in the car and suddenly I was so tired since it was around 4am Italy time. I stumbled into the house, hugged Rocket for a while (he looks even bigger than when I left him four months ago), gave Emily and Michael their gifts, then tried to unpack in my new room! Michael and I switched rooms so it was strange but good to come back to a totally different room. I still can't believe that I was in Orvieto this morning watching the sunrise. I'll eventually write a blog post on my semester reflections... but now I'm finally going to bed!

I'm going to miss them!

Day #112 in Orvieto (the last day)

June 14, 2013 – Friday

A few people woke up early this morning to see the sunrise but I just woke up early at 5:30 to do my laundry – I’ll see the sunrise tomorrow morning before we go to the airport! Most of the morning was spent packing, eating leftover food, cleaning, returning things to the studio/classrooms/Prof Doll. By noon I had my bags packed except for a few clothes that still needed to go in before Saturday morning. It was SO hot today! But I was inside for most of the morning doing all of that stuff. We also had a huge music swap where we made playlists on each other’s computers and then shared all the music. So my laptop has 3000 more songs right now, which seems a little excessive, but at least I’ll have lots of music to listen to tomorrow on the plane!

After a busy morning, Naomi and I went to the clock tower around 3 to take a break from packing/cleaning. The clock tower was just as good the second time – it was a beautiful day to be up there but unfortunately we couldn’t stay long because we had to get back to the monastery to finish cleaning before room checks. We got gelato on the way back (for the last time!) and then everyone had to go to a quick meeting in the sala because Prof Doll needed to tell us a few things, hand out course evaluations, give out grades, etc. We then finished cleaning and packing up our rooms before the art show at 7. Even though all of our art from the entire semester was set up around the monastery, everyone stayed outside in the courtyard because that’s where the band and the snacks were. There were a million kids running around, playing soccer, and then a lot of people were dancing. The party/show lasted until 11:30pm and it was a little bit sad at the end because we had to say goodbye to Alessandro’s family and Prof Doll’s family.

We cleaned up our artwork from the studio, packed it up into our suitcases, and brought the suitcases down to the lobby at midnight. Then Karen gave me a haircut until 1 in the morning because my hair was so long and I couldn’t stand it! And Karen is so great at cutting hair. So it was fun to talk to her while she cut my hair. I finally went to bed around 2am and had my alarm set for 5:20 the next morning because I wanted to see the sunrise!

Here are a few pictures from tonight:

Day #111 in Orvieto

June 13, 2013 – Thursday

Thursday was our last day of class and our final presentation! We didn’t really have a real class though, we just went down to the studio to see the final art projects and read our poems next to the art that was made for our poem. Sara made her final project about my pigeon poem so it was fun to see what she had been working on for the past week and to see it next to my poem. We only had the final critique for 2 hours so then we had an hour before chapter meeting to start cleaning the monastery. I ran to the market quickly to buy a few more things, then came back to the monastery to clean the academic room. In chapter meeting, we heard Prof Doll’s life story, which was so interesting because we don’t really know much about his life. After his story, he read us a “farewell letter” and there were a few tears. We had sandwiches at the monastery for lunch so we all sat in the courtyard to eat them in the sun. I packed for a little while, then we went to Prof Doll’s house at 3:30 so his wife, Sharona, could teach us how to bake the cakes that she always makes for us whenever someone has a birthday. While the cake was baking, Prof Doll showed us some of his art and that was great because we had never seen any of his paintings before! 

We stayed at their house until 6pm, went back to the monastery to get ready for the final Locanda dinner, then left for Locanda around 8. There were forty people between the two tables! Twenty students, Prof Doll’s family, Alessandro’s family, and the professors’ families. Locanda served us a huge five course meal and then Mauro (the owner of Locanda) did some karaoke for us and he moved the tables away so we could have a dance party. It was the strangest thing that’s even happened here (except for the dove parade for Corpus Christi) but it was so wonderful and sad to leave Locanda! We left Locanda at 1am, came back to continue packing, and then went to bed pretty late/early. Tomorrow is our last day in Orvieto!

One of Tim's photos!

Day #110 in Orvieto

June 12, 2013 – Wednesday

Wednesday was a pretty average day except Alessandro came over for breakfast! :) He brought a HUGE espresso maker that probably serves like 20 people. Maybe not 20 people but there was so much of it. Katie had pancake mix and Alessandro loves pancakes so we invited him over for breakfast. 

Our last day of class was spent just wrapping up different poems that we didn’t go over in class yet. We talked about what the final presentation would look like on Friday, we went out to talk about our poems in the courtyard (and it was so hot out there), etc. It was such a good class and it definitely felt like the end of school/almost summertime when we were sitting in the courtyard, picking flowers instead of concentrating on our work (but we did eventually do the work of course… it was just so nice out!)

At chapter meeting, Hannah and Karen shared their life stories and we had lunch a little bit later, around 2. After lunch at Locanda, I went to babysit for the Stevick’s from until 6! I went to the palazzo to pick them up, we played Star Wars and I made up piglet stories for them, then we walked to the park. I dropped them back off at the palazzo and then went back to the monastery to work on my books (everyone thinks I’m crazy for making so many books – I can’t stop!). We had dinner at the monastery tonight, which was soooo good because it was pesto pasta and bruschetta. 

One of Tim's photos by Sunset Park

Day #109 in Orvieto

June 11, 2013 - Tuesday

Today in class we went down to the studio to meet with the art students. For our final projects, we are pairing up with the art students and they're illustrating one of our poems. It's challenging because we have to work together but it's also fun because I'm working with Sara. So we both had to spend time at a same spot in Orvieto, come up with ideas on our own, and then work together to come up with a poem and visual representation of the spot. At the spot, I did my free-write paragraph about the poems there, and then I turned it into the poem. Here is a rough draft of the poem (I'm stilling working on the syllable count and lots of other things...)

Pigeons race around tufa edge –

pretending they have an ancient

obligation to guard invisible

fences, shooing feathered neighbors.

They cling to the beam with prideful

waddles. Little legs grasp onto

weeds growing from rock growing from

fortress. Hundredth generation

pigeons in Orvieto. They

defend and demand a small square

footage of stone – just because their

Etruscan ancestors built this place

with their bare claws. 

Anyways, tomorrow is our last class with Prof Stevick before he heads back to the States on Thursday. After class, we had chapter meeting (Becky and Tyler did their introductions), we had pasta for lunch as usual, then I went to a museum during the afternoon because I'm trying to check things off of my key to the city. It was nice to go to the museum but it was freaky because I was the only one in there and it was dark and there was strange instrumental music coming from the stereo. I started to freak myself out because the noise of my sandals was loudly echoing through the dark halls and it was just too creepy. So I didn't spend a long time in the museum. 

In the afternoon, I made a few more books and started to pack! After dinner, a few of us (Sara, Laura, Jenna, Becky, and Kristine) went to the carnival across the street, Luna Park. There isn't usual a carnival there but we think it's because school ended last week so it's some sort of celebration thing. So we rode on the bumper cars (I'd never been on bumper cars - except for the ones at Funspot...) and it was really fun but pretty dangerous and I have a few bruises I think. We also went on the swings - also fun, but made me so dizzy. Here are a few pictures from the day!

From the sarcophagus room in the museum

Creeping on the duomo from the museum window

The swings!