Returning from Germany

Oh, adventures adventures. My long weekend in Germany went quite well, and it was awesome to see Will and MK again. But I will write about that later. First. I got back to Ferrara today around noon, over half a day later than I had expected but with no serious mishaps. There easily could have been some real problems, but it all worked out somehow. There was, of course, a strike of all trains and buses yesterday of which I had been previously unaware, so on top of almost losing my backpack and having the airplane be rerouted by quite some distance due to superfog, I almost got stranded near Slovenia for the night. That was fun, I can tell you. There were a number of moments, both going to Germany and with this mess coming back to Italy where I just had to sigh, shake the head, and figure out what to do next while seeing lots of other people around freaking out (although I admittedly had a few brief moments of freakout, too). However, for me at least, a series of fortunate events occured, and I was able to meet up with my cousin Gina, who kindly let me stay at her place again! I'm grateful to have someone in this general area whom I'm comfortable calling for help, as well as the fact that it was good to see her again. And we're planning on going skiing together, too, about which I'm pretty darn excited! Luckily, the strike stopped today, so I was able to catch a ride back to Ferrara in time for class.

But the adventure of returning from Germany didn't stop there! Upon returning to Ferrara, I found that half the main road in town was stopped still from traffic - because the other half of the entire length of the road (Giovecca) was full of a student protest! They were striking classes, had a sit-in in front of some of the main university buildings, had speeches in the piazza near the cathedral, and made enough noise that probably at least a quarter of the inner city could have heard them clearly at any one time. Probably several thousand students, plus some teachers and parents, too, all cheering, singing, holding posters, some dancing, many dressed up, and followed on the rims by grumpy looking squads of police and carabinieri. It was a strange kind of ordered chaos, with the definition of "order" dependent on what stretch of the crowd you were in and what happened to be the current musical accompaniment. Perhaps needless to say, I couldn't even have gotten near my classroom with all the chaos (I was supposed to have a linguistics class that was extended to this week from being cancelled by the last student protest...), but at least I think they usually cancel class during protests, so I'm hoping it isn't a problem. Real Italian experience, all these strikes in the last few days, apparently.

Really, I've never seen anything like it. I think there were a number of things they were protesting, but the main ones seemed to be something about research, the quality of the education, and the cost of the university, which made me want to laugh out loud. Supposedly, any students with demonstrated financial need already don't pay anything, and those who can afford it pay little more than a thousand euros a year (maybe 1500 at the most). I think they need some perspective on the potential cost of a good education. However, it was certainly interesting to see that many people all together for something and being really excited about it, as I've never seen a serious protest, strike or demonstration of any kind before. I snaked through the crowds for a while to get some photos and to see what was going on, so I'll put those up on flickr sometime soon. I also, of course, took a bunch of pictures of our time in Germany, and will get around to those, and writing an entry actually about the weekend.

That will have to be delayed for a bit though, as I have the final battle for Hogwarts, sleep and an 8:30-12:00 in the morning class awaiting me currently. And then LOTs of housework, emails that need returning, a post on Germany to write, laundry, finding an English copy of the Bible if possible (oh yeah, my hw for my medieval art class for the next lesson is to read the gospels and compare them, and I don't think I will have the time to do so in Italian... this will be interesting), make final decisions for class registration on Thursday, and sleep somewhere along the way tomorrow. Lots to do, lots to do.

But on the whole, I am feeling well and am both re-energized and calmed by my vacation in Mainz, for which I'm thankful. And in a few days I will be half way through until I get to go home for February break. I can do this! I think. Ok, now that I've alerted the necessaries to my safe, however rocky, return to Ferrara, I think I am off to sleep.

Also, err, happy or, perhaps more appropriately, remembrancefull, Armistice/ Veteran's day !