As some of you might know, Italy just held its general election. Since I don't really watch much Italian TV or interact with very many actual Italians, the impact of the election wasn't as huge as I might have expected. However, I did see campaign ads all over town, which was pretty cool. They just put up posters everywhere, and there were so many ( Read more... )

It's been a week since my last update, but not a whole lot happened last week. I pretty much got into a routine of internship, class, eating delicious foods, and hanging out with people. One highlight from last week was going to a jazz club. I normally don't really dig jazz all that much, and I wouldn't really actively seek out and listen to it. ( Read more... )

As promised, I spent previous weekend in Venezia, which you probably know as Venice. I went with two of my roommates, Keith and Joel. We left Friday around 6 pm, but I wish we had left earlier, simply because the Italian countryside is incredible. Sadly, it got dark after about two hours, when we were passing through Florence. But the rolling hills ( Read more... )

Today we had the first of our little sightseeing trips. We looked hopelessly touristy, walking about town in a giant group, with Ruggero dropping all kinds of knowledge on us. This guy is really something. Last night, he put on a little concert for us at the UW Rome center, which we referred to as Ruggero Unplugged. He sang some songs by Fabrizio ( Read more... )

Classes here are all about the Italian language. We have two hours of class a day Monday through Thursday. Mondays and Wednesdays we have two hours of Italian 203, which is basically just grammar, taught by the big, jolly Ruggero, who I had for 101. Tuesdays and thursdays, we have Italian 299 with Giuseppe, who is the director of the program. In ( Read more... )

So this is my fifth day in Rome and I'm loving this city. The 16 hours of flying were agony, but it was all worth it. At first, I was a bit overwhlemed and homesick. The city is just so big and busy. There's so much to do, I simply had no idea what to do, if that makes sense. After a couple of days, though, I got comfortable and I'm having a great ( Read more... )