Day 38: Valentine's Day (and Midterms Day 2)

For Valentine's Day Rosanna had heart shaped biscuit cookies for dipping into coffee for breakfast. I had two and they were delicious!
I had teaching at 9am. We taught the students the "head, shoulders, knees and toes" song to help them learn body parts. We also played "Simon says..". The students were excited and loved the games.
Then I had my Renaissance Art History exam. It went pretty well. The first section was identifying and describing the techniques used in paintings (we were each given 5 pictures). The second section was an essay on the 1200s Florentine development of the innovations of painting leading into the first generation of the Renaissance.
I then had a break until 3pm for lunch and studying. My last midterm exam was for my Architecture and Urban Planning of Florence class. It went ok, my essay wasn't as strong as my previous ones. Speaking of previous essays, I got my 2000 word paper back and I got an....

Funny story: I was in the library and someone was talking about needing a bandaid, making me remember that I had put one on my hand last night. It was not on my hand anymore, so I figured I must have taken it off this morning and forgot. When I got home I had a piece of bread with some peanut butter.. and found the bandaid in the peanut butter jar... ew!

 Valentine's day isn't really my favorite holiday. Especially since I am oversees and can't get any of my favorite candy (I would kill for some Dove dark chocolate or Reese's peanut butter hearts). But the A+ and awesome comments from my professor on my essay made the day 10x better. I got cards from my two best friends, Lauren and Julianne, last week and put them on my desk. My roommate also made me a card.

For dinner we had mini potato pancakes, crepes filled with egg, and "pizza." For dessert we had a bowl of chocolate and slices of a loaf of cake. The cake was somewhat like a fig newton's crust, but was sweeter and dense and delicious!
We gave Rosanna a Valentine's card that Amanda made in Italian class. She was so excited! She read it and was so happy, I can't even describe it! She kissed Amanda on her cheeks and then kissed the back of my head. I think we made her day!

Day 37: Midterms Day 1

Midterms began today (woohoo!). I first had Italian, which was pretty easy since I studied for it and knew what I was doing. My class focuses on grammar rather than vocabulary, which I am better at. Next I went to the Palazzo Capponi and studied for a little bit before my next exam. For Dante, we had to write two essays on either Canto X, Canto XV, Canto XXVI, or Virgil (we had to pick two). I wrote about Brunetto Latini from Canto XV and Ulysses from Canto XXVI.
Then I had teaching. I went to a level 3 English class, which I went to teach History last week. Mariagrazia had the students read out loud a paper about the Statue of Liberty and had them ask questions. We helped to explain some of the history and share some information she didn't know as much about such as Ellis Island.
It was gorgeous out today. The weather was mild, with a slight breeze and temperatures in the mid 40s. Below are pictures I took when I crossed the bridge between my two exams.

Day 36: The Uffizi Gallery

This weeks schedule is a little mixed up so instead of having no classes I had two and a meeting. First I had Dante class. We talked about Canto XXVI, which features Ulysses (Odysseus). Alessandro went on a long rant/ lecture using my spring break plans as an example, saying that it was my duty to return to Florence and finish my studies rather than running off from Berlin to China. Everyone was laughing, as I am only going to Berlin with one person and they find it amusing that that would be the person I would running away with (this is more so for me to remember when I read this blog later, so if you are confused why this is funny, just ignore this section).
Next I had an outing for Art History. We went to the Uffizi gallery! It was cool and I got to see some cool paintings by artists I have been studying. I will be going back on another outing to see pieces created later in time as we study those periods of art. I do not have pictures as photography is forbidden. However, here are some links to paintings made by three painters of the early Renaissance (in order they were made):
Cimabue's "Maesta"
Duccio's "Entroned Madonna and Angels"
Giotto's "Madonna Enthroned"

Then I had a meeting for my internship to review last week's experience and discuss our interactions with the teachers as well as future plans, such as making activities for the students to do.
The rest of the afternoon was reserved to midterm studying. For dinner I had a chicken drumstick, pasta with a small amount of spinach sauce and chunks of spinach (looked like pesto, but it was not), potato chunks, and salad. For dessert I had a cream/ pudding with small chunks of cake in it that was red on top (food coloring possibly).

Day 35: Snow! Neve!

I woke up this morning, got ready for school then had breakfast in the kitchen. A woman was in there named Flavia. She is Brazilian and is living in what I call the pink room, because it has a double bed with a pink bedspread.
After breakfast I was in my room finishing up putting on my eyeliner when I heard Rosanna yelling down the hall way. She opened our door, which was semi-cracked open and told me that it was "nevica," or snowing. That's right, it was snowing in Florence this morning. Here is a video of me walking down my street:

I had Italian class then a break, then the general meeting and then another break. In my first break I finished up my Architecture paper. I also did some other work, but was actually really unproductive today.
For today's Architecture we had an outing. We went to Orsanmichele which was the sight of a small church, then became the grain market and eventually was turned back into a church. The building changed over time to meet its function. To serve its market purposes, a structure was built, but the arches were kept open as it was an outdoor market. It was rebuilt a few times due to being destroyed and also for expansion purposes. It was then made into a building, with a roof and windows where the open arches had been. Two floors were added over time. When it was converted into a church it still had the market set up with two large columns in the middle of the building. This created a problem for where the alter would be placed. The alter now stands off center, on the right side of the church. Unfortunately the upper floors, where the original statues are housed was closed. A cool thing about this building is that it was located in the part of town owned by the different guilds of Florence. When it became a church, each guild was told to commission a statue of their patron saint for the outside of the building. They hired famous sculptors such as Donatello. The statues are now either inside the church or in a museum elsewhere and replicas decorate the facade.
For dinner I had rigatoni with cheese and two thin slices of nearly rare beef. I liked the pasta a lot and even had seconds. As I was finishing eating and everyone else was done, Rosanna pushed this large bowl of some sort of green goo towards me and told me to eat it. I took a spoonful and put it on my plate. It was spinach liqufied, like baby food. It probably falls under the category of the worst foods I have ever had in my life. It just tasted horrible; I had to choke it down with water. For dessert she gave me a piece of cake that was soaked in a chocolate pudding and cream. I didn't mind it, but I am not a big fan of soggy foods.

Day 34: Too Cool For School

Here's a selfie.. because I got bored while writing my paper

 Today was thrilling. But not really. I have been writing my paper all day. As of 7pm I have 400 words to go and the conclusion is not yet written (I can do this!). The goal is to have it finished except for the citations tonight. I will do citations at school tomorrow and then turn it in during class.
For dinner I went to Astor and got a veggie sandwich with fries and a Fanta. Fanta is different here and tastes more like carbonated orange juice.

Day 33: First Family Skype

I worked on my paper most of the day today. Not exciting, but I am here for school, so its gotta get done.

This is not chocolate cake.. sad face :(

For dinner I had pesto penne. The pasta was a little too undone, but otherwise it was pretty good. On the way home Amanda and I stopped at a bar and split what we thought was chocolate cake. What looked like a delicious cake turned out not to be chocolate but some sort of fruit cake with jam filling. It was honestly pretty disgusting.
When I got home, I skyped with my Mom, Mike and sister, Riley. It was the first time I have talked to anyone in my family (other than email). It was nice to talk to them and will hopefully do so again in a few weeks.
I then went to a bar called Naima to meet up with Jess, Nikki and Caleb. We then went to Nikki and Jess'  British friend's apartment and hung out their for a little bit. There was this hilariously flamboyant guy there who had just turned 21 and a big group of girls from New Jersey. They were all going to Space, but we (Caleb, Amanda, Nikki, Jess and I) decided to go to Twice. Its not a great club, but its free, so we go there sometimes.

Day 32: 2000 Word Papers and Midterms, Yeehaw!

I always fail to do much of anything on Fridays. I slept until the afternoon, much needed since I have been sick since Sunday (but really starting last Thursday). I got some homework done, mostly taking notes/ making an outline for a midterm paper due on Monday. I am writing about The Cathedral of Florence and the Santa Croce Church, comparing them based on their architectural features. It isn't the most interesting topic, but it also isn't the most dull paper I have ever written. I have visited both churches, so it is cool to have had the real life experience on the topic I am writing, rather than just a classroom lecture and textbook like at JMU.

Lemons inside the tables, under glass, at the pizzeria.

For dinner Amanda and I got pizza about 5 blocks from our house. We split a Margharita, which is tomato sauce, mozzarella and basil.

the weird forks

all done!

After dinner we went home and continued my paper. I had hoped to write my paper this week at school, but I was just too ill to do anything other than sleep and get through my classes. That unfortunately means I have to spend my weekend doing work. This upcoming week I have midterms on Wednesday and Thursday, so I will have to start studying for those too. I also have another midterm paper due after spring break which I need to write (see the drawing from yesterday.. those were my notes for this paper) and hopefully get done before break.