We take off on the bus tomorrow morning at 8am, so of course, I’m still awake at 11:39pm, and don’t necessarily plan on heading to bed particularly soon.

Whatevah.

Today was interesting. First off, history. (I think that’s the correct nomenclature for the class. No real way to be sure.) We were theoretically supposed to present out research on Classicism. But, of course, there were more groups and discussion than time.

I figured out the trick to Paolo’s masterminding. I call it Paolonctuation.

Paolonctuation:

• Whenever he says “si”, you should think “.”
• Whenever he says “e”, you should think “,”

It’s that simple. Srsly.

After figuring that out, it was lunchtime. I don’t know why I actually take the time to type that, besides the fact that it indicates passage of time to some degree.

Post lunch Jessica and I traded some music. So right now I’m listening to some new stuff that I’m apparently under contract to listen to in its entirety. I shoulda signed her to the same contract. Carp.

Then it was off to Mixed Media. (Yeah, I had no clue what it meant either.)

Turns out it’s actually Printmaking. So we ink a plate and press the design into damp paper. We’re making prints. How cool is that? (It’d be cool enough to document with pictures, but my kindergarten premiere isn’t anything to be proud of. Someday, though.)

Walking back from the printmaking studio/prof’s house/prof’s store was the COLDEST THING I’VE YET EXPERIENCED IN THIS COUNTRY.

Dinner was pretty interesting. We we forced into assigned seating, which was pretty strange. Oddly enough, I was assigned a seat at random directly across from J-to the E-S-S. The reason for the over-order was the totally minuscule fact that the mayor of Castiglion Fiorentino came to formally welcome us to the city. He’s a pretty funny guy, even though someone else had to translate his jokes.

The actual food was scrumptious. I get hooked on the pasta and bread. I have about six pieces of bread a meal. That’s about 12 a day. Go grain.

Also important that happened at dinner: I managed to make my name by folding a piece of paper. They said I couldn’t do it, so I did. Pretty dern fantastic, if you ask me.

Nothing much happened after dinner. There was a mandatory “Meet the Italians” thing we went to, but the majority of the Italians present were guys, who we figure were only there to pick up American girls. We just sat and talked amongst ourselves. Better luck next time?

A little hanging out past that brings us to now, when John kicked us out of the room to take a shower. What can you do?

As implied by the title, tomorrow is Assisi. I’ve heard it’s the most beautiful country we see, so pictures are a definite possibility.

Sbottonare.

Charles