Halfway There (with classes at least)

8 weeks down. 7 until I see my family. 12 total until I go home. 4.5 weeks until visiting Scotland. 4 days until I see Will and MK in Germany. 2 more Linguistics classes. No more Geography classes. 1 more paper for Literature, due in 4 days. 1 oral defense of said paper. 17 more classes of Emilia Romagna art history. 2 other classes to start and finish. 7 weeks of class left. 5 oral exams. 8 weeks down. 12 to go...

I'm grateful that I knew beforehand that I wouldn't want to stay for the year, because I can deal with less-than-two seasons of Italy, but not almost-four. This place has done weird things to my work ethic as it is, I think (although I really shouldn't be blaming Italy for that, that's something I should control). Either way, I'm glad to be here in a handful of ways but know that I will also be sooooo glad to be home when this is over. In the meantime, I just want to be a bum and travel around Europe learning about history and art first hand instead of going to class and listening to boring lectures. But then I might fail, and my parents would freak (as would I, my self-respect, my gpa and my bank account), so I'm not going to do that. But I can dream of that freedom. :)

Halloween Day itself was rather uneventful, as nothing really happens here for it, beyond the rare decoration in a store window and some drunken Americans in the night. However, Lizzie brought me into the Xenia kitchen for several wonderful hours of feeling like I was actually able to hang around with my friends and talk and laugh, even if I had no control over my location and my vision was somewhat fuzzy and I couldn't actually taste the yummy-looking homecooked food that Roger pretended to feed me and then ate himself (ie: I was looking through a camera eyeball and sitting in a laptop). But that's totally ok, because it was more than worth it. Thanks guys, I needed that. Thus, the first few hours of Ognissanti (All Saints Day) were passed happily and in quite some amusement at the antics of a party across the great ocean. Last night was another moment of relief, as Leah and I went out for cappellacci di zucca al ragu' (excellent local specialty of pumpkin ravioli with light meat sauce) and hung out for a while afterwards.

I didn't end up going to Padova this weekend, since I figured it was more worthwhile to try and get some work done for my final literature paper. I had hoped to be able to sit down and crank out the paper this weekend, but that didn't happen. Being at a loss for a topic, I instead spent many hours going back through the short stories and poems we read as a review. I think I have some more cohesive, although probably not very original, ideas at this point, but that will have to do. As long as I can write it out tomorrow, I should be fine with editing it and getting a chance to prepare for the oral, pack for Germany, and watch the election news with baited breath in time to head to Venice Thursday afternoon with the knowledge of having finished a class completely and, most importantly, of who our next President will be. Oh, I am so hoping for good news November 4th/5th.

Then I just need to figure out how I'm getting to Scotland and Sicily. But first come my paper and a visit to Mainz. (So excited for next weekend!) Oh man. Half way done with classes. I can do this. Right?