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!