On a central square in a city of the sun rose a palace

Wow, once again I continue to suck at actually posting on this blog. It's just that school's starting to eat my life. I'm actually feeling pretty good about this semester. With one or two exceptions *cough* Ethics *cough* all the feedback that I've gotten back has been positive. This week also marked my midterm exams. I had three (Italian Culture, Ethics, and Foreign Policy) and I'm cautiously optimistic about all three. (The "caution" mostly is connected to Ethics. My professor is really hard to read and is a very weird grader, so I'm not sure what exactly he wants. The fact that I feel good probably means that I either did really well or really badly. Italian felt super easy and my Foreign Policy exam was mostly straight from the readings/discussions so I felt prepared.)

Aside from that I really haven't done much since I've checked in. On top of school stuff, the weather has been really bad, killing my motivation to do anything. Also, euros are annoying.

So I'm on spring break now!!

I was originally planning to take a bus trip around the Northern Loop of Europe, but sadly money continues to make things complicated. But my break seems pretty sweet all the same. Why, you say? Well for one thing...

I'm in Florence.

I can't even tell you how excited I am to go to Florence. I've wanted to go since I was in high school- since I was sixteen, to be exact. Because it was my sixteenth birthday when I saw this:

(And yes, that is Matthew Morrison of "GLEE" fame. Back when he was AWESOME.)

So I decided to treat myself to a weekend trip to Florence. And let me tell you, all you hypothetical readers, it is amazing. This is the best weather I've had in Italy so far, and there are PARKS with BENCHES and I can read in the sun. There's a store that is almost completely Indian clothes/jewelry. I must have been the first customer they'd had in a while, the person running it was basically, PLEASE BUY ALLL THE THINGS." DAMN YOU EUROS, WHY ARE YOU NOT RUPEES.

And right now I'm in a wireless cafe down the street from my hotel. They have CHEESEBURGERS. Also, right as I came inside, the album version of Sgt. Pepper was playing. <3 <3 <3

Pictures from around Rome!

These pictures were taken one weekend when I decided to just amble around my neighborhood taking pictures.

This is my street.

I just really like this wall. Not sure why. I'm also a big fan of those flat trees you can see over the wall. They almost look like something you'd see on the African savanna.

That's my school. Again, more flat trees.

An embassy.

This is a church I stumbled upon while wandering around behind the school.

It's pretty.

And finally, here's another fun addition for anyone who read my India blog: I was startled to find that Vodaphone does quite a bit of business in Italy as well! This is an ad on the bus stop across from my apartment:

Okay, that's it for this post.