Week 11: 11/4 - 11/10
Midterms! (but make them Italian)
A sunny day by the Ponte Vecchio!
Midterms week! I’ll warn you that this is a pretty slim blog because I spent most of my time studying for my tests.
They started out pretty easy with Ceramics on Monday — fueled by pizza, I took notes on the pdfs and slideshows on our course page and looked over them a few times. It was more information than I was expecting; I had to know the 7 different types of clay, all of the hand-building techniques, the decoration techniques, etc. At Belmont, our art class midterms and finals were always just projects like an oil painting, so I’m not used to written tests about art. He ended up announcing that the midterm will be 25% of our final grade, so I’m glad that I studied enough — it went really well! After we finished up the assessment, we spent the rest of class working on our stumpy pots. Now that the clay is leather-hard (yup, I know the terms now) we were able to sand down the imperfections and paint a few layers of glaze on top for decoration. At the end of class, our professor announced a group assignment: we will be working together with our table mates to create a chessboard and a full set of playing pieces. We huddled up and brainstormed some shapes for the pieces, and then we headed out for the night.
My stumpy, spotty little guy!
One thing I hate about exam week is that after your big test, you heave a sigh of relief and prepare to relax with… another study guide for the next big test. I didn’t have time to do much on Monday besides eating dinner, and then I settled down at the dinner table with Virginia to go over our class notes from History. We used those, the slideshows, and some questionable Youtube videos to gather as much information as we could about Rome and Athens. Once it hit 11:30, we tapped out and prepared to study the next day.
On Tuesday, I headed over to Wild Buns to grab breakfast and spend some time studying. I got my precious iced latte, and then I also tried their chocolate hazelnut pastry today. It was really good! To be fair, I haven’t had anything bad there yet.
Come ON!! It’s so good.
Virginia and I met up at the apartment to do some last minute group-studying. We monologued as much as we could remember, checked on terms that we were unsure about, and then packed up and made our way up to the city center to get to class on time. After stopping for a good-luck empanada, we were ready to crush it — and we did! The test went so well. When she went over the answers after, we found out that we got all of the multiple-choice questions right. We spent the rest of class wasting no time and starting a new unit.
Good luck empanadas!
Tuesday night, you guessed it: studying for the next midterm! I took notes on HR Management and studied them before turning my attention to the presidential election. It was really odd to feel so separated from something that typically dominates conversation back home. Here, nobody cared. I waited until midnight and watched as it hit 6pm on the East Coast and the votes started pouring in. I stayed up a bit longer to see a couple more states start to count, and then I turned in for the night.
I woke up at 7am and watched as the election wound down in the early morning across the ocean. At this point, Trump had 267 votes, so it was pretty much over. It was fascinating to come to class this morning — everyone had wildly different opinions on the matter, but we were some of the only people around us who cared. Italians walked around and minded their business while we chatted about the drama occurring back home.
HR went pretty well! There’s one question that I know I got wrong, but other than that, I knew all of the material. We had a pretty long break, so I sat out on the patio with some friends and sipped on a cappuccino while we compared answers and talked about the election. After class, I rewarded myself with a trip to the grocery store and then headed out to take a few photos just for fun. It was a chilly but beautiful day, and I knew that I wanted to capture it.
A little bit of bruschetta for lunch!
Once my free time was spent, I trudged back to the apartment and dialed in for my last study session: Mafia! This one was a little trickier to study for; the slideshows he presents in class are pretty bare-bones, so if you miss anything that he says, you’ll never know about it. I compared my studying with a few classmates to try and fill all of my holes, and then I headed to bed for my early class.
I woke up extra early on Thursday morning so that I could grab a coffee before class started and hoped that the caffeine would help me do better on the exam. Now, this test was kind of funny: all of the short answers and essays were easy work, but the multiple choice questions had tricky wording (not helped by the translation barrier) and everyone was eyeing each other nervously. A couple of brave souls decided to hand their tests in after a few minutes, and Professor Flavio was not impressed. He is the king of facial expressions, and he pursed his lips or grimaced while scanning each of their answers. “Students,” he called to no one in particular, “do you really think that Al Capone led the meeting? What have I taught you?” *Cue the sound of scratching out answers.* He repeated this a few times, getting so irritated with people’s stupidity that he would essentially give the answer to the rest of us. We sat quietly for probably 30 minutes and waited for more people to sacrifice their tests and force him to reveal something. “No, no, no…” He would mutter. “Where is Palermo, students? Is it in Calabria? Do you think it is in Calabria? Do you know a map?”
Well, thanks to his help and my studying, I got everything right on the exam. I officially survived midterms!
On Thursday, I headed across the river to meet my friends Mia and Sienna for dinner. Mia’s mother was visiting, so we headed to a nicer spot — Trattoria ZaZa — to spend time with her and celebrate the end of testing week. It was so nice to spend time with a mom! We had amazing food, wine, and even some dessert. It made me miss my own mom — Hi, Mom! I’ll see you soon!!
Friday — I enjoyed a really nice day decompressing from all of my tests. I did some cleaning, went for a nice walk, and journaled at Piazza Centro Storico for awhile before some guy started bothering me and I had to abandon my spot. It wasn’t the saddest thing, though — I stopped into a vintage store and found a gift for someone! After eating some leftovers, I headed out to meet Sienna, Mia, and her mother for a drink at a bar near their apartment.
I slept in for a little bit on Saturday, and then I headed out to grab Wild Bun for breakfast and journal. After that, I made my way across the river to visit a vintage market at Palazzo Corsini. Here’s where I messed up — I headed in (what I thought was) the entrance, and then strolled around and explored all of their offerings. Vintage heels with leather tomatoes on the toe, a rack full of Italian wedding dresses, and wool winter coats… it was really cool to look through! Once I was finished exploring, I headed to (what I thought was) the exit, and made an awkward discovery: I had mixed up the exit and entrances and bypassed a queue about 2 blocks long! I stared at all of the people waiting to get into the building I had apparently sneaked into, and I hurried off. Oops!
Absolutely incredible. Too small, otherwise they would already been in my suitcase!
After that, I checked out a few more stores, grabbed a gift or two for some of the ladies in my life, and then I made my way back to my apartment once the sun started setting.
Sunday, the clear winner of “Best Day of the Week.” I had plans to meet Sienna, Mia, and her mother for brunch, so I made my way over to Santo Spirito first thing. After grabbing a cappuccino from the cafe, I strolled around the market and checked out a few things. It seems like it was an antique theme this week — all kinds of old plates, posters, and brass candle holders. None of it was catching my eye, so I went ahead and made my way across the river to Tino for a great meal with the girls. We had brunch, we explored another vintage market, and then we shopped around at a few stores to grab some warmer clothes. The temperature has dropped really quickly this week, so we needed some more long sleeves! Then, on our way home, we found this guy juggling on a tightrope. Florence is such a funny city! All kinds of things to see.
Another week down, and a successful set of midterms! It’s definitely gotten colder this week, and I even broke out the puffer jacket once. We’re all getting used to a colder season here in Italy! It’s been exciting to watch stores begin to put Christmas decorations up — they don’t celebrate Thanksgiving, so they just skip right onto the next holiday here. It may or may not have inspired me to start grabbing some Christmas gifts…
Bye for now!!
Charlotte