Lunedi 01.06.09

Today marked the dawn of the studious era in our lives here at Arcobaleno.My first exam is on Friday and so I've put my nose to the grindstone, buckled down if you will, so that I may come through yet another semester with flying colors.IT IS SO BORING.All we do is eat, sleep, and study.No parties, no museums, and sadly, I breathed fresh air on a trip to the grocery store only to perpetuate the eating part of my day.We do find ways to procrastinate however, such as reading CNN.com and making up far-fetched stories of how alien abduction is the most likely cause of the AirFrance disappearance.In writing, it seems downright disrespectful, but it was most amusing at the time.

I suppose I should be grateful that the subject matter isn't really the uninteresting factor.In fact, today I learned about the gold standard era and the creation of the International Monetary Fund in great detail.Each paragraph was packed with information - events, causes, reactions - and held my attention quite well for a certain amount of time.The hard part is that I'm gaining this knowledge not through seeing or touching, but through reading.This aversion worries me a little since I consider reading to be one of my favorite pastimes, but I think the root of the problem lies in the fact that my time here, gallivanting from museum to museum, has spoiled me rotten.Rome, where I experienced so much history in so little time, seems so far away now.I can't tell you the last time I saw a piece of classical art and was able to pause and consider it for as long as I wanted.I am so lucky.If only it wasn't interfering with my study habits.

It's put everyone else in a bad mood too, though I would describe my feelings as more restless than anything else.Once you get past the laziness aspect, it becomes apparent that exam time has reminded everyone that in just a few short weeks we'll be going our separate ways, leaving this experience behind forever.Not only will we never all be in the same place together again, we'll never sleep in these beds, in this city, come home from the market on the tram, have trouble organizing everyone to leave for the discoteca at the same time, hear the hysterical and sometimes bizarre stories from the night before, plan trips to places we've only ever just read about… There are so many things that I'm going to miss and though I miss everyone at home dearly, I can't deny the anxiety that I feel when I think that one morning I'll wake up in another country where everything is so different.And since life has such a fascinating sense of humor, I'll admit that these emotions were similar to the way I felt just before coming here, although this time, the word "never" is rearing it's ominous, ugly head.