These past few days have been filled with many happenings. That is because this week was the visit of the friends of Meredith College. On Monday, our disastrous paper was supposed to be due, but our amazing professors extended the deadline to Tuesday morning. I had retreated to the tranquility of the classroom to work on the paper. I was on the fourth page when Vi, Amanda and Samantha came into the room. Needless to say, production wasn’t as fast as it was before. We ended up having a tiny pen war. I finished my paper at four in the morning and fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.
Three hours later I was awake, and none too happily. I was worth it in the end; the trouble was getting there. On this particular day, the students had decided to join the Friends and accompany them to Florence. I have to say that Florence was a lot of fun. I got to see things that I didn’t before and they were all very interesting. The first place we stopped at was the old Pharmacy. The herbal remedies and displays were fascinating. Afterwards, we left for an old Palazzo, which used to be a tower, and is now a museum. My favorite room was the kitchen. It didn’t have only cooking supplies in it, but lace making and things of that sort as well. Those things have always been of interest to me. After the Palazzo, we made our way to the restaurant where we would be having lunch. Finding the bathroom in that place was an adventure in itself. The lunch was delicious and we were amused to find that the restaurant was named “Angels”. After lunch, it was time for the Bargello. This museum was very fascinating. My favorite room did not involve art, but artifacts. The many different items were appealing in every sense. My favorite item was an old globe that showed the latitude and longitude, but no countries. Afterwards, we had free time. Amanda and I ventured off to the market. I bought two hats and a purse. I only went shopping so that I could exercise my bartering ability. When we were finished at the market Amanda and I went on the hunt for art supplies and gelato. However, the only art supplies we could find were for drawing and painting. There was also no gelato to be found, at least from a clean establishment. We decided to give up our hunt and made our way to the bus. We sat outside of the bus for nearly ten minutes before we decided to actually board it. We weren’t sure if the bus driver would let us on, at first he wasn’t going to. We asked if his was the bus that had left from Sansepolcro; he thought we were random people before he realized we were students. The entire situation was amusing. Everyone made it to the bus and we went home. Upon arriving in Sansepolcro, we left to hunt for food, with no success.
Wednesday was a day of agony for all of us. We had two exams in one day, one for Italian and one for Art History. After the exams we all let out a sigh of relief. That night I stayed in and relaxed. The next day we had an oral exam in Italian. I had no idea this even existed for us, although common sense should have told me that it did. Needless to say, I did not study for it. This did not dampen my spirits. That night I stayed in again, but this is a good thing because we were going to Perugia the next day.
On Friday, we all left for Perugia at 8:15am. We were all tired and most of the students had luggage with them due to the fact that they were leaving for their destinations, as this was a travel break. I opted to stay home this weekend, and I am glad that I did. Anyways, back to Perugia. While in Perugia we met up with our Italian teacher, Chiara. She is no longer our Italian teacher so this was to be our last day with her. She took us on a tour of the chocolate factory. It was absolutely amazing and the chocolate was delicious. I found a place where I will get some Christmas presents. While there, an obnoxious American woman was rude to Hannah, and that put a dark cloud over the trip, because the woman had insulted all of us. I really don’t like Americans anymore. I think it’s odd how that happens. I feel that I am so much in the process of assimilation that I can see the faults that were harder to see in the US. I feel odd that I should be so judgmental and critical of my “fellow countrymen”. After we left the chocolate factory we went to the train station. Here is where we lost Chelsea, Lauren and Jackie. They had left for their destinations, which were far further than the rest of ours. Those remaining went to lunch with Chiara. We went to a pizzeria with delicious food. I had french fries along with the pizza that Samantha and I split. After finishing lunch, we went for a walk around Perugia where Chiara showed us amazing views. The views were absolutely beautiful. I discovered that from Perugia you can see Assisi. It was time for us all to split ways; Hannah, Samantha and Vi left for their train and Chiara, Amanda and I left for ours. We made it to the train station in almost fifteen minutes. We made it for the 3:30pm train. We said our farewells and left for Sansepolcro.
That evening we left to eat dinner with the Friends, professors and John Rose. It was interesting evening. I had a lot of fun. My table companions were Double Trouble, the Swab’s and Doctor Banker. The entire night was filled with amusing conversation, along with the story of the Swab’s met. It was a great story. The entire night my attention was riveted to a painting on the wall opposite of me. By the end of the night I had discovered that it was by a Yugoslavian woman. I will find out who she is. Her artwork was strange, but it fit my tastes perfectly. People made speeches and even made Doctor Webb so emotional that she wept. Upon seeing her cry I started crying. That night, when we arrived back at the palazzo, I knew that I should go to bed early. However, I didn’t. I ended up waking up at the ungodly hour of 4:00 am. I was going to help the Friends with their luggage and bid them all farewell. First we were off to the Hotel Fiorentino. When we finished there we were off to the Palazzo Magi. The Palazzo Magi is where Double Trouble stayed. I must say that they are two of the most amazing ladies that I will ever meet, and I am honored to be Miss Jean’s adopted granddaughter. I helped them with their luggage and we set off for the bus. However, before departing, Miss Jean gave me a present. It was a beautiful ceramic leaf plate, with a scene painted on it. I was deeply touched. Finally it was time for farewells and I set off for the Palazzo with a strange sense of loss. It was really nice to be able to look out of our windows and see people we knew. It was also really nice to hear all of the noise and commotion that our wonderful Friends brought with them. They were certainly a lively lot. Back at the Palazzo I found no trouble returning to the kingdom of slumber. The rest of the weekend was spent in silent bliss, I finished my homework and managed to watch an episode of “Scooby Doo”, in Italian of course.
just thought id say hey
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