Domenica 25.01.09 Today was all about organization! We decided to plan our first trip out of Milan for next weekend. We picked Roma and got straight to work on picking out hostels, booking them, and then buying train tickets. This process was made even more difficult by the fact that there are 18 people going! Good news apparently travels fast because once our core group of friends starting discussing the plans, word spread and soon additional friends of fri...

Venedi 23.01.09 We dragged through class, you could tell our teacher didn't even want to be there with the weekend just within reach. Before the fun could begin however, we had errands to run after school: 1st stop: Il Copione to make copies all of our important documents for the Permit of Stay Application. It was packed with students since we are all under the gun to get our paperwork turned in. Apparently, within 8 days of arrival you have to fill out th...

Mercoledi 21.01.09 My second day of Italian class! It certainly is a crash course: 4 hours per day with only a 20 min lunch break. My teacher, bella donna di Roma, is awesome! Not only does she keep us on our toes with rapidfire material, she's also witty and fun to joke around with. Both facilitate boredom prevention. We covered the most important verbs: to have (avere) and to be (essere). Just like in English, you use them to tell the time, tell how you ...

Departing the U.S. 16.01.08: Following a week of goodbye dinners and farewell get-togethers, Mom dropped me off at the International Wing of BWI for a 9:00pm flight. Security was a breeze and soon I was in line waiting to board. I met up with another girl from UMD, Hilary, and we chatted about our excitement and fears before taking off. I found my seat and, running on adrenaline, ended up chatting for the entire flight to London (6 hours) with the man sitti...