Amy, ‘11

Wow, it’s hard to believe I’ve already been here a month! The time is flying! This week was pretty busy at school. Now that we’re getting into the semester, projects and papers are starting to be assigned. It’s crazy to think that in a few weeks midterms start. I feel like we just started classes! I think I’m going to have to study the most for my Italian midterm, which is next week. Surprisingly, Italian has consistently been my hardest class here. I’ve only studied German previously, and Italian is so drastically different that it’s been a struggle. But I’m trying!

This past Friday, I went on a field trip to Rome for my fresco painting class. We went to Basilica di San Clemente, Basilica SS. Quatro Coronati, and Museo del Quirinale. Going to these places gave us the opportunity to study and become familiar with frescoes from different time periods. It also gave us plenty of ideas for our first fresco assignment, which we’re starting next week. After that, I met up with my friend Julia from Richmond. I spent the summer with her in Turkey and now she’s studying abroad in Rome, so we spent the afternoon and evening together. It was so much fun to be able to catch up with each other, and we spent most of our time together walking all over Rome and talking. It was definitely weird being in Rome and not going to all of the major sites and museums (I’d never been to Rome before), but I’m planning a weekend trip to go back and see everything. However, on my walk I did get to see the Colosseum, the Vatican, the Trevi Fountain, and one of Bernini’s fountains.

Because I had the daytrip on Friday, I wasn’t able to go away for the weekend, which ended up being amazing! One of my other apartment mates and I spent the weekend in Perugia, which we hadn’t done since we’ve been here. After talking to people who already studied abroad, they always said that their biggest regret was not spending more time in the city or town where they studied. I think I was so exhausted from balancing school and traveling that I definitely needed a weekend to relax and catch up on sleep. On Saturday, Lindsay and I went to the big market that they hold in Perugia every Saturday. The market had everything from fruits and vegetables to clothing. It was a really neat experience and I’m glad we were able to go. Saturday night, we decided to be a little more adventurous with our cooking, so we made baked vegetables, pasta, and a homemade tomato sauce. It was nice to actually have to time cook a nice meal and to change things up a little bit. Other than that, I just got to relax a lot this weekend and do some cleaning around the house–things I normally wouldn’t have time to do if I had gone away.

Here are some pictures from Rome and my weekend in Perugia:

Basilica SS. Quatro Coronati, Rome. This is where the nuns pray every day.

The Trevi Fountain, Rome

Saturday market in Perugia

Cooking dinner Saturday night