so my theater teacher is a maniac.
today he made someone cry because they couldn't pronounce a word for the umpteenth time and he just started yelling at her. when she went to the bathroom to cry in peace he was like is she sick or something? we said no, just frustrated, and he said OH so it's a psychological problem, i can't deal with fragile people like that. we said italian was just difficult for her and she was really trying, and he said that she definitely wasn't or she would succeed, and it was merely a problem of concentration. very nice. he also yelled at us for not marking our parts for an exercise we had never previously done or discussed, and made fun of this one guy's american accent rudely and at great length. this was only today. we're still reading the same four poems (POEMS, not plays) that we have been for weeks and weeks, which is becoming a bit fastidious.

right now i'm chilling in the program office trying to stay awake, because i need to be here at 1700 for a mandatory program meeting and if i go home i intend to sleep for quite a while. currently wondering if i can get away with napping on this couch.

reason #346 why the italian bus system is ridiculous: this morning as i got to the bus stop i saw the #27 i wanted pulling away. i was bummed to miss it but was willing to wait nine minutes for the next one. suddenly another #27 pulled up to the stop, so i joyously boarded it, thinking, what luck! the system is working out in my favor! then we got to the main stop in the center of the city, where the bus stopped for 15 minutes and i ended up walking the rest of the way to school to avoid being late.

i'm finally getting that allergic reaction on my skin to the wheat i've been eating that i came home with last summer, so i'm taking another cleansing absolutely-no-gluten break.

i am a bit grouchy today, i apologize! however, it IS unbelievably gorgeous outside, and the windows are open and letting in a nice breeze. i am also very proud of my italian proficiency this week! i went to a dinner party yesterday and was able to have many lovely conversations with italian people.

more of the family vacation saga soon!

just went to the homemade gelato place around the corner from my school office called "sogni di walter" (walter's dreams) for the first time, and got stracciatella, coconut, and the equivalent of cake batter. i think i may have died and gone to heaven.

got offered a job at mathtree again this summer, so i'm all set!

short continuation of the italian saga, not feeling so good today. i just had a whole bottle of diet coke and a cappuccino and still feel all foggy. currently in the middle of a fibro flare which doesn't mesh well with walking all over town.

the second day of my parents' italian journey was spent in bologna. trish and i went for a run in the morning and i wore my awesome new running skirt. after that we met up with mom and got some excellent panini for lunch. after lunch, we climbed the daunting asinelli tower, which provides a spectacular view of the whole city of bologna. the stairs were quite a workout, so we went to my favorite gelateria afterwards. the gelateria is devilishly close to my apartment (horrible temptation!) so i gave them a quick tour of my cute little orange apartment with its amazing terrace. mom and i went to the internet point after that, and then we all went out for dinner at a restaurant with an all bolognese menu to experience some local cuisine.

so much has happened since i've last posted, so i'm going to start with annie coming to visit and update piece by piece! that way you won't have a giant block of text to read and i don't have to type out everything at once. :P

anyway, annie dropped by for two days before my parents came! i cooked for her which was fun, and i took her to my favorite gelato place of course. we got lots of time to catch up on each other's lives and gossip and whatnot. the night before she left i took her to my favorite discoteca.

the morning annie had to leave was the morning my parents' flight arrived! unfortunately their luggage had decided to take a brief vacation in france, but that just made the taxi trip and getting settled in at the hotel easier. mom and i took a walk around and went into the archiginnasio, which is the "official" seat of l'universita di bologna. inside the archiginnasio, we saw a really excellent library, all the family crests of the first students (from the 11th century and on!), and the anatomy theater where they dissected cadavers, among other things. after the archiginnasio, i left mom and trish so they could take a nap and i took annie to the train station so she could move on to her next stop (after having our own nap and lunch). when i met up with mom and trish again, we went into the basilica of saint petronius, which was gorgeous with the sun shining in but very loud because part of it was currently under construction. we wandered down the street where all my classes were, ran into an american guy who i disagreed with in every way, and stopped in a quiet cafe for coffees and pastries. i had this amazing mint hot chocolate that was actually just hot pudding covered in m&ms. after wandering around for a little while longer and visiting a nice park, we had a leisurely, delicious dinner and then all went to bed.

more later!

Note from Bonnie -
Pat and I are visiting Morgan and have taken over her blog for the duration! We arrived without problems yesterday, unfortunately it took our luggage a little longer to arrive - it didn't leave Paris when we did.
But we're all here now, and loving it!
Food is good, gelato is WONDERFUL and we're walking off every calorie - I swear!

hey everybody, i probably should have made this post hours ago, but i just wanted to say that the earthquake in l'aquila didn't affect bologna. my friends from that area and i are all okay! apparently the tremors beforehand actually started near bologna, so i'm considering myself very lucky. it's a real tragedy what happened to l'aquila. a lot of people lost their homes and around a hundred people are reported dead. please send prayers in their direction!

back from florence! i am EXHAUSTED, because i still haven't learned that one still sleeps when travelling. it was lots of fun, although unfortunately lots of the churches with Important Art we were trying to get into were closed.

we had an epic dinner that was 11euro for wine, water, first course, second course, and a side dish, so i think i'll take the parents there if i can find it again. i had ravioli with pesto, chicken with yellow peppers, and the most amazing roasted potatoes i have EVER had.

speaking of that restaurant (trattoria contadino, in case you're ever in town), it took a while to find because the streets in florence have "red" numbers and "black" numbers, which means there are doubles of every address! fortunately a very sweet hotel manager explained this to me when i asked why we were standing in front of a hotel and not the restaurant we were looking for.

for some reason all the trains back to bologna this morning were full in second class, but i found a first class ticket on a really run-down train that was cheaper than second class on the trains i usually take, so that was new and exciting i suppose. i was in a little six seat cabin with five italian people in business suits that shot me dirty looks the whole time and refused to move their legs when i was trying to get out. first class is serious business!

it occurs to me that i don't need to set my alarm clock again until thursday morning. oh. my. goodness.