It really has surprised me how different the people have been in each country I've traveled to. I have to say, the Italian lifestyle is definitely my favorite one. Everyone here is very relaxed and doesn't allow life to pass them by too quickly. There is always time for a stroll in the piazza or a 3 course meal that lasts 5 hours.
I really do love living in this country and I feel like I know Verona so well. I am also still enjoying all of my classes.
At the beginning everyone in the program had Italian for 4 hours a day, 5 days a week. Needless to say, we picked up the basics pretty quickly. That only lasted for 4 weeks, though, and now we only have Italian class once a week. While it was nice not having to wake up for 9 am class every single day, I do wish that we had Italian more often. I find that I'm not as good at speaking it anymore because 1) I don't have class as often and 2) I leave every weekend to go somewhere that speaks a different language!
My Italian teacher, Elena, is so sweet and loves talking about the differences between America and Italy. She just about fell over when we explained what Unofficial was and thinks Americans are absolutely insane thanks to us.
Photography is probably my least favorite class right now, which is really disappointing. We've yet to actually take any pictures and I was looking forward to improving my photos. However, we have a midterm due next week where we have to turn in 9 pictures of specific themes so I'll let you know how that goes.
In painting I've been doing a lot of things I don't normally do - such as paint! I've always been more of an arts & crafts kind of person as opposed to paint brush and canvas. But with some help (and when I say some I mean a lot) from our teacher, I managed to paint this little angel.
Step 1: Made plaster and covered our canvas
Step 2: Chose our painting and traced it onto paper, then our canvas
Step 3: Painted it to make the finished product!
Art history is by far my favorite class, which I never would have expected. Half of the time we take field trips around Verona or in neighboring towns and visit famous churches or museums. Last week we went to Padova and saw the second oldest university in the world! Most of the art we see and learn about is religious and I love learning stories about the saints or knowing how to identify different apostoles in art. I'm definitely putting my 8 years of religious education class to use here, because when some people in the program are confused about certain biblical stories or Catholic practices they often come to me with their questions (hope I'm making my godparents proud!).
I love all of the places I get to see but I have never thought to myself "I wish I had studied abroad in this place instead." I love Italy and am looking forward to seeing more of it in the next few months.
This weekend my sister Steph is coming to visit and I guess you could say I'm a teeny tiny bit excited about it. But just a little.
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