Ciao Bella!

I'm in a cheery mood. Which is suspicious because I'm leaving Italy in 11 days, and I don't want to.

Ostia Ampitheatre

Friday, the school was supposed to take us on a trip to Tivoli to see the famous Villa D'Este.  Unfortunately, we've had non-stop rain here for more than 2 weeks, and so the Villas were all closed.  Instead, we went to Ostia.  I had been to Ostia before, but this was with a big group, and it sounded like fun, so I went anyways.  We took the bus to the train, and it was actually fun.  I think I'm finally at the point where I'm comfortable with all of my fellow semester students, so I never feel like I'm lacking someone to talk to.  It's a nice feeling to be included. Plus, I have Katey and Mandy, which opens up the DTWs to me, even though none of the other semester students really interact with them.  So we got to Ostia and walked through the ruins.  We spent awhile in the Ampitheatre and then headed to the river.  On the way, I found a stray dog. And fell in love. It's not hard for me to fall in love with a dog... I fall in love with every single one I meet. I'm one of those kids that started asking for a dog at the ripe old age of 3 and still hasn't gotten one. So I really liked this stray dog.

Me and my new friend. Photo credit: Kate

He was white. Kind of like a lab build.  He was dirty and his fur was matted, but he just wanted some love! Everyone was afraid to pet him, but he walked right up to me and rubbed against me. I couldn't resist.  A bunch of us petted him, but when it was time for us to go, he followed us. And kept following for a really long time. When we would stop for one reason or another, he would wait for us.  It was really cute, but bad because we weren't sure if he was supposed to stay within the Ostia gates or if he would be able to find his way back.  When we reached the gate, we told him to stay, and he did, but he whined as we left and looked so sad!

There he is. I'm pretty sure everyone on the trip had a different name for him. I didn't name him because then I would have had to take him home!! 

Then we walked over to the castle and the little residential area behind the castle.  It's one of the most adorable little areas I've come across here in Italy.  The houses are exactly how I imagined all of Italy would be.  There were cats there. Lots of them.  Apparently people abandon their cats there and this one British woman takes care of them and tries to find them new homes.  She told us all about them and their names and such.  It was fun! But then our dog friend found us. Which means he crossed the street by himself and probably followed us by scent, since he wasn't behind us and he showed up like 20 minutes later.  We sent him back, but it was sad. When we left there, we got on the train back to school.

One of the cats, Kelly. 

That evening, I didn't do much.  I cooked myself some pasta and broccoli for dinner and hung around the kitchen for awhile.  Then I ended up studying for my Italian final with Lorraine for a few hours.  Saturday I didn't really do anything productive.  I was feeling especially tired when I woke up that morning.  Most of the day was spent either working on homework or procrastinating working on homework.  I had pizza for dinner, and realized just how much I'm going to miss Pizza Colonna when I go home (SOOO much).  That night, me and Lorraine watched Love Actually in the lounge, and it was quite enjoyable.  Definitely got me in the Christmas spirit.  Sunday I split my time between doing my paper for Italian and doing my presentation for Art.  That night, I emailed my paper to my teacher to read, so now I have to fix her corrections and write the last 2 pages.  Sunday was the day of both the first meet for my fencing team, and my family's big reunion/Christmas party, so I kind of wish I could have been home for those. But I spent a while on skype with my family after, and my fencing team went undefeated, so I guess everything worked out.

Him sleeping before he met us. 

Monday morning I had service, as usual.  The kids spent the first half hour practicing for their big Christmas show that's coming up.  They've been working really hard, but the nun still gets so angry at them when they mess up.  Poor kids.  Then, we stayed down in their multipurpose room and let the kids run around with hula hoops.  We played a couple of different games and it was actually really fun.  At one point, they were in pairs, and one was the horse (inside the hoop) and the other was the rider (outside the hoop) and they were galloping around in circles.  One of the little boys, Francesco, would give me the dirtiest looks every time he ran by my.  The first time he growled at me, and then it just kept going from there.  It was hilarious, but I'm not sure, maybe he really doesn't like me? hahah.  We had our semester meeting that afternoon, and they started talking about re-entry and how we go about adjusting to life back in the states. It was SO depressing. Apparently if we talk about study abroad too much it will make people hate us... hm.  That night I cooked dinner for myself and Katey and hung around the kitchen talking with some of the girls.  Then I slaved over my project for Art and Architecture for many hours until about 2 am.

Him laying in a field of daisies waiting for us. 

This morning, I had to actually give my presentation.  It was pretty bad.  I was nervous, so I just read straight from my notecards and talked really fast.  I don't know how long I was standing up there, but it wasn't a long time.  There wasn't actually too much information in my presentation, so I have no idea what kind of grade I will get.  Then I took a nap, and it was one of those really wonderful naps that you don't ever want to get up from.  I was having a really pleasant dream, until my alarm went off and ruined it.  Then I went to Theology and had to listen to a lecture on Christianity.  Then I came here and wrote this! hah!

Part of the castle

We have no classes tomorrow, so I was going to go to Pisa, but now I think I should spend the day working on my paper and writing up journal entries for my service.  I hate realizing how much work I actually have to do in the next week or so.  ugh.  Ciao a tutti!

Some houses in the little area behind the castle in Ostia.