Sabato 04.04.09

A beautiful convergence of events has occured: exams are over and spring has sprung in Milano! I spent the last week studying for my midterms which surprisingly, wasn't as hard to force myself to do as I thought it would be. I guess I have to thank the rain for that since it kept me inside and minimized distractions. Then on Friday, in an almost miraculous fashion, I rocked my Management of International and Suprnational Organizations exam (three essays!) and the sun came out! The weather combination helped the blossoms to explode and the grass to green in parks all over the city. Day by day I'm seeing Milano welcome the new season.

My friends and I certainly can't wait to start enjoying the change. In fact, we've all got a bit of cabin fever - we've already forced a beach day at Lake Como and Hilary and I are planning on renting bicycles soon. I noticed during the study week that as a result, we have gotten really good at multitasking, cramming all that knowledge in while simultaneously planning our next trip (between the hours of noon and 6pm) or our next party (between the hours of 6pm and 4am). It's now Spring Break officially and you should have seen the flurry of activity leading up to it while everyone was choosing where to go and how best to get there. Currently, Joey, Josh, Mandy, and Charles are all in Dublin and from there they will go to Poland and Hungary. Charles actually just got back from a trip to Spain with Jenna and Aamir. Hilary just returned from a trip through Italy with her parents and sister, Chantal is in Paris where Joey and Hilary will meet her, and I'm on my way to Greece! I'm not even sure where Anne and Adam or Will, Chris, Mark, and Natalia are headed, but I do know I can't wait to hear the stories. And this is all before/during/after nights of debauchery that have become so common in my life.

Switching back to responsible subjects, I have a job! I interviewed to be a business law professor's assisstant way back in February and then started officially working at the beginning of March. He chose me and a guy from Georgia Tech named Michael to be the lucky recipients of 25 euro a week and all we have to do is show up for an hour and be taught. We're the guinea pigs that he's testing his syllabus on for his new tenured position at Penn State. So far, I have learned the difference between common and civil law, the rules governing relationships between agents and principals, and the grey areas of partnerships. I just think life is so funny in the opportunities it offers you because without this, I probably wouldn't have had the chance to learn about these subjects without pursuing a long and arduous degree after undergraduate school. I don't say this enough: I feel so lucky to be here, able to do everything I'm doing just by saying Yes.