Tour Guiding and Midterms

Sorry it's taken so long to get the weekly post up this time around! We have been keeping pretty busy with midterms.

We had a fantastic weekend, one of our favorites so far because we were looking forward to it ever since we first planned it. My aunt and uncle, John & Kathy are vacationing in Tuscany for two weeks with two other couples and we planned to spend the day with them last Friday. We basically played tour guide and showed them around some of the great sights of Florence. It was fun getting to see what we have learned from our tours and pass on the info to someone else. We were pretty proud of ourselves ;) After picking them up from the train station that morning, we took them to the central market for lunch. They bravely and boldly tried a Tuscan favorite: Tripe! There is a really great stand in that market where you can get tripe sandwiches, and they are famous for dipping the sandwich bread in the meat juices before serving. It is quite different but delicious. I think it went over pretty well ;) Then we met Brie, Carmel, Megan and her friend Flami visiting from Rome. Brie recently began volunteering as and English-speaking tour guide for the Church, Santa Croce. She offered us a tour so she could practice. It was very enjoyable and she did a wonderful job! Go Brie! Next we led them through some of our favorite/interesting spots of the city and then to the best gelato in town, of course. But my favorite part of the day would have to be having John and Kathy for supper in our apartment. We did our best to serve them a typical Tuscan family meal, and we just had a great evening of food, conversation and quality time together. It was so refreshing to spend time with family. We can't believe our Moms are already coming in just a few short days! We were enjoying ourselves so much that we ended up having to rush them on to the last train of the evening just before it left. After such a great day and hurried goodbyes we were really wishing we could have spent more time with them. Then... we awoke to a call the next morning from John saying they'd like to spend another day in Florence and this time they were bringing their friends. We were really excited because we offered to show them around so more if they got the chance to come back. So we spent most of the morning in the San Lorenzo market. I helped the ladies shop through the souvenir vendors and Cody hung out with the men in the produce market. Then we pretty much spent another afternoon as guiding the group around the city. At one point we had the whole crew in our apartment for a water and a rest. It so fun to see our place full of people. The weekend was a nice opportunity for Cody and I to finally get some pictures together at some of the sights, although I think John and Kathy have some pics to share with us. They decided to take off after our afternoon gelato so Cody and I, quite exhausted really, retired to our apartment for an evening of movie watching since John & Kathy were able to bring with them a case of some of our movies from home. Yea. There's only so many times you can watch The Proposal, 17 Again, and Hotrod.

As I mentioned this week is midterms, so after all that frivolity, it was time to get down to business. So we hosted a study party! Which seems like an oxi-moron, I know, but we actually did a pretty impressive job of focusing. We enjoyed some brunch together then spread out around the apartment to work on various projects and test preparation. Studying is always more fun together. We really enjoyed the day of listening to music, snacking, studying and spending time together. Oh and of course we had to have a gelato study break. ... in the rain. It's getting so cold here!!

It's been almost fun this week. It's nice to have a change of pace, even though that pace is faster. Sometimes it's good to be busy because you have more sense of accomplishment afterward.

So midterms seems like a good time to take a moment to evaluate our experience so far. John asked us if we can tell whether or not we have changed or grown much yet. I would have to say yes, but it takes me a really long time to process my experiences, so I probably won't fully understand the impact this has had on my life for a long long time. It will surely have a lasting effect, and if it hasn't taught me any life lessons (which it has) then it certainly has taught me and us a lot about ourselves. For one, we discovered that we are much more of homebodies than we thought we were. Well, at least I have never had too much trouble being away (though I've never REALLY been THIS far away) and I've never much dealt with homesickness, but we've come to laugh a little bit about the fact that so many have expressed their jealousy about our plans to come here, and yet we'd like to inform them that this is SO not easy. This whole experience has been really quite hard. And you might think, "Gee, it's only Europe," but it is really different. We must be so confusing when we talk about our time here. This is a dream come true BUT we feel ready at any point to come home. We want to make sure we don't miss any of the sights BUT we're really sick of tourism and want things from home like peanut butter and ranch dressing. We want to blend in BUT it's fun to go to the American bar for wings night. I know, we are being quite contradictory. We are caught in the middle of trying to get the most out of this experience, and also trying to keep how much we miss home under control. We hear it's been such a lovely fall, so we're pretty sure it's colder here. This we did not expect since the weather is supposed to be more mild. It's also sad that we're aren't really around trees much to see that they are turning. We decided that if we were to come back some day, we'd definitely prefer staying in the countryside and visiting the city. (Good choice John & Kathy!) I realized that much of my ideal dreaming about Italy was mostly about the countryside, which is beautiful and just how I pictured it, and of course, since it is more like what we are used to, it is far more refreshing and feels more like home. BUT we never get to venture out and see it. Wow, I feel terrible sometimes writing these blogs because I feel like I'm not expressing the depth of how delighted, excited, and grateful I am to be here. I promise, I do feel that way, but the things that make it difficult are a little easier to dwell upon I guess. Forgive me, it is a wonderful and magical place, being here in Italy, but the classes, the people, our peers, the city - it's all challenging, interesting, and beautiful, but we are growing a new found love for the Midwest, the States, how we were brought up, and gives us a still greater appreciation for Northwestern. Studying here enriches my experience as an art major and in life in general, but being away from NWC helps me to recognize and appreciate even more what NWC is and what it gives you. The freedom to think, talk about, and challenge your faith pours in and out of everything; such an atmosphere is a great blessing that is hard to come by.

Never have we looked forward to Christmas so early and often in the year. I think we had an hour long conversation the other night about which Christmas goodies were our favorites that would have to be essentials in our future traditions. haha Moms! We'll be needing some recipes I think ;)

Midterms are going decently, I think. It was a little hard to prepare for some test because we received little indication of what would possibly be on them. However, our schedules are so different that Cody was completely finished with all of his projects and exams by the time I still had 3 left! Oh well. Everything has gone quite well since then, as I'm writing I only have one test left! Italian :S Wish me luck! It will all be over soon!

Love and miss you all dearly! Time for Fall break!
(check out pics from the weekend on Facebook.)