Really?!

I'm taking the GRE in December in Dallas during break so I've been studying for the it for the past couple of days (there is a lull in my class readings at the moment but it's about to pick up again).

Couple of things I've learned:
1) I relied too much on a calculator in my math classes. We can't use calculators on the GRE and I've always been horrible at math (that's more James and Daddy's department than mine) so I've been studying math more than anything. During this studying I came to this realization.

2) Kaplan and I, we have different definitions on what word definitions fall under the classification of hard, harder, or hardest. Under their section of harder - talon: claw of an animal, especially a bird of prey. Ok? Seriously? That's a harder word?? Or am I just too much on the liberal arts side of things and know too much vocab?

3) Between Kaplan and Princeton Review, they suggest a ton of possible/most used GRE vocab words. Lots and lots of vocab words.

Oh the joys of standardized tests. And Graduate School applications, of course.

I've been working on my application for Texas Tech Grad School to get a M.A. in Museum Science (kinda weird - Master of Arts when Science is in the degree title). It's a work in progress, the biggest thing on the application, is my purpose statement. And of course, finding professors that can (and will) fill out recommendation forms.

But this is amazing that I'm graduating on time, so I cannot seriously complain about all of this.

Did you know?

That Adolf Hitler was an artist?

I kid you not. However, he was rejected by the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna (the Academy's controlled who would be big in the traditional art world). During the time he applied for entrance to the Academy was the Expressionist/Modernist movement in art. His paintings were too classical to be accepted.

The sad thing, because of his rejection by the art world he turned to politics. Well, the events he witnessed in World War I also helped too. We all know how his foray into politics turned out.

This rejection also led to another horrible act that he committed that you don't hear about...the burning of almost 5,000 pieces of modern or traditional artworks. (Almost like Fra Savonarola's Bonfire of the Vanities, horrible, tragic burning of tons of Renaissance paintings and writings in Florence's Piazza della Signoria.)

Just an interesting fact you don't hear about in history class.

I'm losing my mind.

What little I had left of my mind, that is.

This week has just been something else. I had a test on Monday. I've got a paper due tomorrow that took me forever to write because the words just wouldn't come out. My website is due on Monday. This website - lordy. It's stressing me out big time. This determines whether or not I pass this class. This class determines whether I graduate without having to take another writing course next semester. At this point, to register for a writing class would mean I have to show up in the teacher's office in tears to get permission to register for said course. So, yeah. It's kinda a big deal. And I don't like how big of a deal it is. Especially since there are no guidelines whatsoever for the thing. That just makes it worse. Am I doing too much? Am I not doing enough? I don't know.

There's some other things going on that are slowly adding to my stress too. I'm worried about people I care about. Some of 'em are going through a tough time and I'm just worried. Hopefully, things will get better. Hopefully.

I'm just slowly losing my mind. I need to get away from school, from the apartment, from everything. I'm glad I'm going to Atlanta this weekend. Even if I don't get to go to the concert with James tomorrow night, I'll get to see my family, and I'll get to get out of Tuscaloosa for a weekend.

LOVE.

In this red state...

...we may not have turned it blue, but we did turn a red nation blue!!

But, in this red state of AL, in my apartment complex, once the projected winner was announced on the news networks, people went out onto their balconies and started screaming. It may be because this is a majority of college students in this complex, and we've seen how the youth vote has gone, but it was amazing to me, in AL that there were so many people in my complex celebrating!

Can't wait.

JMC was very gracious in his concession speech and one can only hope that all of his supporters will be as gracious in their defeat and that the BO supporters will be gracious in their win.

Election Night Coverage

So the way to go in the Election coverage....Comedy Central's Indecision 2008 with both Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. These two are doing a one hour special together and then I think they're doing their own shows tonight. I love these guys separately, but together?? They're amazing.

Other than that though I've been watching CNN like crazy this week. America's Best Political Team. I like them. Plus, my old roommate's uncle is on the network a lot. Which is kinda cool with the whole 6 degrees of separation thing. They're technology though - kinda scary. Did anyone see the holograph projection of the reporter in Chicago?! It was like 'OMG! I'm watching Star Wars IV! Princess Leia!' All she needed was the braided buns over the ears and a white dress. I kid you not. Check it out:



Enjoy.

Tomorrow - the end of the political ads! Happy Day! I'm tired of seeing the negative ads in the local AL races. Not even going into the negative ads in the national race.

Random ideas while taking showers are fun.

One of my history classes this semester is a writing credit class. Well for the final project we can pick our own topic as long as it pertains to the course (The Age of Exploration and Conquest) and we can choose to do a 15 page paper or a website. At first I was going to do the 15 page paper and my topic was going to be how the Spanish were able to conquer an Aztec empire made up of millions and the different theories that there are for that. Then when I was taking a shower the other night (I love how many ideas I get in the shower) I decided, if my teacher OK'd it, that I wanted to completely change my topic and format. I talked to my teacher on Friday, told him what I wanted to do, and got the OK as long as I sent in a new outline and bibliography over the weekend. So yesterday I started building a website on the Aztec Empire. This way, I can cover the things about the empire that I love, like all of the gods (they have fun names - Quetzalcoatl, Huitzilopitchli, Tlaloc, Tezcatlipoca etc.) and their technology - the sun calendar, and their building skills. I can also cover the Conquest by Cortes and various other parts of the Empire. I'm just sad that we aren't covering the Mayans in this class too. I would love to be able to include them in this website - especially when it came to building skills. James pointed me to Microsoft's newest version of Front Page so that I could look there for a program. There was good news on that - there's a free 60 day trial. I only need it for a little over 2 weeks so I don't have to go spend tons of money on a program.

It should be an interesting project. I'll post a link for the website when it's finished. I'm going to be able to publish on the bama.ua.edu server so I also don't have to worry about finding a host server.

GO OUT AND VOTE TOMORROW! You can't complain if you don't vote. :)

Fun in Art History...

I have a test tomorrow in my Modern Art class that I've been studying for lately. When studying, my bella roommate from Italy and I went back over our lecture notes and got a kick out of the description for this one work of art by Marcel Duchamp. The work of art is The Large Glass (The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even). Duchamp also did Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2, which I'm sure is recognizable, even if you don't know it. But the description that our teacher gave us for The Large Glass is just hilarious. Braegan and I cracked up when we were reviewing on Monday.

The Large Glass depicts an elaborate and unconsummated mating ritual between the bride in the upper half of the glass...and the uniformed bachelors in the lower half. Despite their efforts, the bachelors fail to project their "love gasoline" (the sperm gas or fluid constantly ground forth by the rollers of the chocolate machine) into the realm of the bride, so the the whole construction becomes a paradigm of pointless erotic activity.

This is, verbatim, what she said in class.

I'm sorry. "Love gasoline"?!? Are you kidding me?? We started laughing in Starbucks when we were reviewing on Monday. It's just one of those things.


Randomness for the day:
I had to scrape the ice off of my windshield this morning. It's not even Halloween and it's this cold?? I so don't like this. Maybe we'll get snow this year. That would be pretty cool.

You know you're up at Starbucks too much when the Midtown Village security guy recognizes you. "Oh, you were in here the other night, weren't you?" Yeah, I've only be there studying/writing a paper four nights this week....

I need to find a new place to study.

Countdown...

Has anyone watched CNN lately? They have a countdown on the bottom of the screen (at least on Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer) for when the first polls close. They have days, hours, minutes, and seconds on this countdown.

Really?? Let's start the countdown, down to the seconds, a week (excuse me - 6 days, 23 hours, 16 minutes, 30 seconds) before the polls close.

It just seems too early.

This debate...

Not gonna lie, I didn't pay one hundred percent attention to the debate. But here's the reactions between James and I throughout various parts of the debate through text messages.

J: "Not answering the question"
A: "Agreed."
A: "Okay why talk about Joe the plumber?"
J: "Meh. Didn't necessarily answer the question either"

J: "Oh god! Joe the plumber again"

A: "Role model?"
J: "Ha! Role model to women"
A: "Now that's bulls**t"
J: "If you ever end up like her i'm sending you to the crazy house"
J: "Croonyism!"
J: "Or is it with one o?"
A: "Haha!! Please send me to the crazyhouse then. And one O I think."

J: "Haha! Iraq is united. Hilarious!"
A: "Laugh riot."
J: "Haha"

A: "Yeah. He's not refuting why Obama said he didn't support the Columbian Free Trade Agreement. Why support it if they won't prosecute would be assassins?"

A: "Joe AGAIN?!?!?!"
J: "Looks like women get pissed when if mentions joe"
A: "Seriously."

A: "Thank you for mentioning the tax on health care!"

So here you go. It's not the same kinda reactions as last debate, but this is just as well.

I don't know. I kinda wish I had paid 100% attention, but Ash and I were watching this in the living room while I baked scones, so we went off on tangents at times.

I'm getting a little sick of the BA topic though. BO was 8 when BA did those acts. If people are going to say BO is 'palling around with terrorists' then why not say that about those students that BA (and other 60s activists) were professors to? I know BA is not the only radical activist from the 60s that is now a professor.



Oh yes. The answer to the question I asked earlier today. The Civil War is the only war America lost before the 20th century. Makes sense once you think about it though. America v. America...one of 'em has to lose.

"War is Hell"

My Age of Exploration and Conquest teacher asked us this question today. "Prior to the 20th century America had only lost one war. Which one was it?"

Do you know?

Have you ever noticed...

...how much you depend on one website?

What website do you depend on?

For me, it's Google. I'm not going to be the typical college student and say 'Facebook', because for me, Google is where it's at. Let me explain. iGoogle is my home page. GMail is my main e-mail service (I even get my school e-mail forwarded there). Blogger - Google product. Picasa (my picture website) - another Google product. Google Reader is my RSS feeder to be able to keep up with various blogs and other websites. I even use Google Docs and Google Notebook. Google Calender is on my homepage. Oh and let's not even get me started on Google search! My search engine for everything. How many times do you think you've said "I/You/We should Google this or that"? I never noticed it until this summer in Italia when I didn't have a consistent internet connection. There would be a landmark/building/church that we'd have a question about the history of that wouldn't be in our guidebooks (and we had tons of 'em between us all) or in our textbooks and we'd want to Google info.

It's amazing once you think about it...

Happy Weekend

It's the first day of a four day weekend. So I didn't have an alarm this morning. It's a wonderful thing to not have an alarm on for a Thursday. It was the beginning of a good day.

Then, I made a trip to Barnes and Noble. :) Ah, my own little slice of heaven. I bought three books, all of a historical note. I bought Machiavelli's The Prince, a book about the Italian Renaissance, and a book about the Medici family. Italia. La dolce vita...I miss Firenze. But one of my teachers mentioned The Prince the other day and said that it was about King Ferdinand of Spain. On any tour of a Medici property in Firenze you were told that this book was about Lorenzo the Magnificent (a Medici). It peaked my interest that I have heard that the book was about two completely different people, so I bought it and am hoping to be able to read it sometime.

And I cleaned my bathroom today. It took forever, but darn, that bathtub looks fantastic. I'm proud of myself. :)

This weekend, I'm fish sitting for Ash. She put Spike out on the table in the living room along with his food for me to take care of him. I hardly get to see the guy since he's in her room all the time. He amuses me. I've turned the TV on twice today - both times to watch reruns of Daily Show and Colbert Report - rerun of both Wednesday night and Thursday night episodes. Both times, Spike has turned around from facing the back wall to facing the TV and has been watching the TV. I don't know if he does that in Ash's room, but it's amusing.

Reactions to the Debate...

**This post will make more sense if you watched the debate. You may still find comments appropriate without having watched the debate. Abbreviations are used instead of names. Who knows how many people have e-mail alerts for all of the names present in the debate.**

Tonight is the night of the town-hall style debate. The proclaimed "aggressive" debate (at least proclaimed by cnn.com). I'm not seeing it. If JMC can be 'aggressive' I'll be surprised...he never seems to show vocal emotion.

I'm watching the debate tonight, even though I mailed in my absentee ballot today. I know though, in my classes, the debate will be a hot topic. Or if not in my classes then among my friends. I'm thanking everything above though that in my HY318 class we have a test tomorrow so that Mr. Ultra-Conservative in the class can't give his reactions....

I've had some pretty 'aggressive' reactions to some of the comments by both Senators though. Honestly. Here are some of the snap reactions that I've had while watching the debate...

JMC should not be repeating what he has voted for and what BO has not voted for. That's great. You do your job in the Senate. What does it mean for your campaign?! What is your platform on the question.

JMC and BO both need to follow the rules they agreed to. If they can't follow debate rules, are they going to be able to follow their campaign platforms??

If JMC and/or BO had agreed to a 'Manhattan Project' view on nuclear power I would have flipped my lid. Just hearing that question I almost flipped out.

I was following the reactions to the debate on Twitter - one said that there should be a drinking game, and every time JMC says "my friends" take a drink. You would be drunk. Quickly. At the beginning of the debate I would of said if "cronyism" or "cronies" would've worked.

TB, though, is great repeating the rules to the Senators - "there are lights around the stage", "Let me remind you of the rules you agreed to..."

Let's not even get me started on my views on Iraq...oh lord have mercy.

Troops will come home with honor no matter what. Whether or not there is a victory. The fact that the troops have done something that not all will do..they deserve the honor that comes with the uniform. I may or may not agree with why the troops came to be in Afghanistan and Iraq, but all troops deserve honor and need to be supported.

My question for BO: Do we know for sure that bin Laden is in the hills of Pakistan??

Let's not give a history lesson throughout the entire debate gentlemen. Answer the questions as how they apply to your campaigns. I love history. Obviously as it is my major. I don't want to hear history being used to skirt around the answer though.

I'm sorry, every time I hear 'General Petraeus' I think of The Daily Show: "General Betray-us". I don't know when they did that segment, but I hear that each time I hear the General's name.

I don't know near enough about foreign politics - especially in Russia. I need to learn more about Putin and what he did...

Yes or No question. Why give a long response to that? I didn't know that yes or no required a minute speaking. And JMC needs to use his mic. That's what it's there for.

What's wrong with negotiation, JMC? If we can get out of something without diverting troops to another country, another war, why would you not want to do that? I understand that no one should want a second Holocaust to take place, but does that necessarily mean that we fore-go negotiations and go straight to troops? Good for you, BO, saying that we should never take military options off the table and use all of the tools available to us to prevent possible terrorist actions in Iran.

Point for BO: talk with our friends and talk with our enemies.

"What don't you know, and how will you learn it?" Great viewer question.

"What I don't know is what the unexpected will be." - JMC. Good quote. Me like. May not like anything else, but I do like that quote.

Can you tell from my comments who I voted for?

Check the Facts. (Another CNN website)

I'm still here.

Lot's of things have been going on lately.

Classes have taken over all of my time, or so it seems. I'm taking 15 hours and all of my classes are upper level (300/400). I bought 22 (or was it 23?) books for my classes this semester. And by the end of the semester will have read front to back in all but 2 of them. Which is good, because one of those is an anthology I have to have for one of my Art History classes and it's 1,258 pages. One of my classes is a writing class too, so I've been slowly working on my final paper for that class. If the teacher would ever give us our paper proposals back I'd be doing more work on it. As it is, I don't know if my proposed subject will be approved.

Good news though - I applied for graduation on Wednesday! After this semester, I will be finished with my major and minor and will only need 6 more hours to have the required 120 hours to graduate. It's pretty awesome! :) It's amazing that I'll be graduating on time, within four years, given how my first two years went here. It's wonderful how it all works out.

Other good news - how 'bout dem Bama boys?! I wish I was going to the game today, but I've been sick this past week, and then I woke up today with a killer migraine. The migraine has gone away some, it's just sitting at the back of my head right now like a low-level headache, but I don't think it'd be a good idea to go sit outside in Bryant-Denny for four to five hours (you gotta get there when gates open to get good seats) with no shade feeling like this. It's wonderful that we're playing this well though. It's a completely different team than the one we had last season. I hope we continue it, and that the boys don't let it all get to their heads. ROLL TIDE!! #2 in the nation! Hopefully, we stay up there. It would be amazing to be in the National Championship game my senior year. At this point though, I just want us to beat LSU, Tennessee, and Auburn my senior year. We haven't beaten Auburn at all in the past three years, I don't want that to continue. Let's hope for a Big-12 upset (especially next week at the Red River Shootout - it won't be against Baylor judging by the game play so far) and not an SEC one for us.

I got my absentee ballot in the mail yesterday. Which is an interesting thing all in itself. When I filled out the application I checked to send it to my out-of-county address. They sent it to the house in Paris. Mom sent it to me so that I could actually vote. They sent my application to Tuscaloosa, my Tuscaloosa address was on the application three times, and they still sent the ballot to Paris. They also did the same thing to my roommate, so her mom is having to forward it to her too. But I was looking at everything they sent, and there is an approved list of write-in candidates who have met the Texas Electoral Code to be able to be written-in on the ballot. I thought it was interesting that they had to be approved to be written-in. And the Railroad Commissioner? Deals with the oil and gas industry. I looked it up last night because I had no idea and neither did Mom.

Time to curl back up in bed, enjoy some football on TV, and work on homework/test reviews.

GO BAMA! ROLL TIDE!

Arrivederci, Italia

It was an adventure getting home.

Our teachers had the hotel give everyone a wake-up call at 3:15 in the morning on Tuesday (which would of been 8:15 Monday evening for you Texas people). We got on a bus, drove an hour to the Rome airport, checked our bags (mine were underweight!!), went through security and made it to the gate right as they started the boarding for our flight. We made it to Frankfurt on time, I didn't sleep at all on the plane, went through Passport Control in Frankfurt (I have two Frankfurt stamps in my passport but NO Italy stamps!!), found our gate and got comfortable for a three and a half hour layover until our flight to Atlanta.

Well, here's where the fun starts....

11:30 AM comes to pass and they haven't started boarding for a 12:10 PM flight and there is no information on any board we can find in the terminal. No one is at the desk to answer questions and we're hearing whispers about an airline strike and that our plane has been delayed until 2:40 PM or the next day. So I do what any kid would do while stuck in a foreign airport with no information - I called Mom. Needless to say it's barely 4 AM in Texas when I call and Daddy and Sammie weren't too happy with the wake-up call. I asked Mom if she could get on the Internet and look up what was going on, Daddy got involved and called the Lufthansa 1-800 number, and I finally got some information.


Some Lufthansa workers held warning strikes over wages on July 1. They want a wage increase of almost 10%, while the company is offering 5.5%.

That's great and everything, but geez-louise I wanted to be home. Or at least on the flight heading to the States. I did not want to be stuck in the Frankfurt airport from 9 AM to 3 PM and still have a nine hour flight to look forward too. It wouldn't have been so bad on any other day, but I was exhausted, the airport floor was cold and uncomfortable and nothing was holding my attention for more than 30 minutes. I couldn't read for long, I couldn't listen to my music, the conversations with my friends weren't holding my attention. Nothing.

Italy was wonderful, amazing, and something I'll never forget, but by those last couple of days in Rome I just wanted to be home.

We finally take off at 3:15 PM Germany time and make it to Atlanta at some time. I don't even know. I was kinda on auto-pilot by then: get off the plane, go through customs, get my bags, go through some more customs, re-check my bags so that they'll get to another terminal, go through security, get on the train to baggage claim, find Mom, get my bags, go to the hotel. I don't know anything else other than that.

The next morning we go back to the Atlanta airport for our flight to Dallas. Our flight was to be at 8:50, we go to the counter to check my bags and the ticket counter person tells us that the 8:50 flight has been delayed so they moved us to a 9:50 flight. Boy, am I glad he did too! I looked at the Departures board at 9:20 right before our flight started boarding and the 8:50 AM flight to Dallas was delayed until at least 1 PM.

So, it was an adventure, but I finally made it home to the States.

Italy - Day 21?

So there have been lot's of things that have happened since the last time I updated, but I'll try to keep this post short (or at least not too long!).

One of the biggest things that's happened though - VENICE! We left on Friday (the 13th) and made it there just fine, with little problems (we only got on the right bus going the wrong way once) and the weather was fine. We explored Venice for a while the first night on our own (we don't know where we were - I think we were in the Old Jewish Ghetto, but I don't know for sure - we just memorized which streets we turned on). That happened a lot. We either remembered which streets we turned on or followed the signs posted around Venice that said "Per Rialto" or "Per S.Marco". We found some cool places doing that too. Venice is a gorgeous city. With all of the water surrounding everything, the building's reflect onto the water, the sun (when it was out) reflecting, it was gorgeous. You should not live in Venice though if you get seasick easily however. The only public transportation: vaporettos (water buses). I loved riding on them, but my roommate couldn't wait to get off of them! To me it felt like being on the lake in a no wake zone, just a slow gentle rocking. We did all of the big things while we were there - we went to San Marco, the Doge's Palace, saw the Rialto Bridge, saw the Bridge of Sighs (and went inside of it too!), took a gondola ride on the Grand Canal, had Bellini's in Piazza San Marco (my roommate's 21st birthday and our final goodbye to Venice), and went to Murano. It was a busy couple of days, but it was simply amazing.

That's honestly, how this whole trip has been. It has been so jam-packed, but it has been an amazing month. It has flown by - I'm going to be home in like a week and a half. I don't know how coherent I'll be, but I'll be home. To get used to the time difference and to get our bodies on Italian time, my roommate and I on the first night, unpacked, went to the supermercati down the street, and then slept from like 9PM to 8AM. That definitely helped me out. I don't think I'll be able to do that when I go home though.

This weekend, my roommate and I went to Ravenna and Bologna (in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy). Honestly, I think we might of enjoyed it more if we weren't just so tired. We've been to so many churches and museums this month...Even though we went to a museum in Bologna (Museo Civico Archelogico di Bologna) that has one of the largest Ancient Egyptian archaeological exhibits in all of Italy. That was pretty interesting and something completely different. Ravenna also has some amazing mosaic works in churches throughout the city - especially at San Vitale.

To leave you all will the completely random moment of the day, a picture of me and a (we think) thrift shop in Bologna, Italy:


Don't you just love random things like that??

Florence and Pisa pictures

New pictures up of both Florence and Pisa.

More to come over the weekend.

Ciao (again!)

Venezia

We got back from Venice this morning! It was amazing - when it wasn't raining, that is.

My internet connection is horrible. I'm just letting everyone know that I've been to Venice and back now.

I'm also trying to get pictures uploaded, but again, with the horrible internet connection. I'll definitely have some up this weekend - Braegan and I are going to Ravenna and our hotel has Wi-Fi. Amazing!

Ciao!!

Italy - Day 5

Buon giorno!

Hey, let's try for a better post this time.

Internet at the school has just been crazy and then since it takes so long for us to get it working our laptop batteries are almost dead. It's just been crazy. Now we're at an Internet Cafe down the street from the Duomo before school starts - 15 minutes for .50€. Buon. However, there is an Italian keyboard which is just funky compared to American!

We're going to the Santa Croce today with the class which should be interesting. It's on the other side of town from our apartment. Yuck. We've also got a cooking class tonight - fresh pizza, fresh pasta, and panna cotta. Yum.

We went exploring last night with a couple of other girls from class. We went down to the Arno, the Oltrarno, and the Ponte Vecchio, then made our way over to the Uffizi and Piazza della Signoria/Palazzo Vecchio. We got some gelato down at Ponte Vecchio - I thought of you Daddy when I ate it!! I've got lots of pictures, however, those are all on my laptop and I didn't bring it to class today so I can't upload any.

My time is running out now. So, ciao!

Buon giorno!

Hey you guys! We finally got some internet working at the school here so I can update.

We made it to Florence with little problems - we had a 30 minute delay in Atlanta and an hour and a half delay in Frankfurt on the way to Florence (which I slept through). Once we got here we went to our apartment which is a cute 2 bedroom 1 bath place on the ground floor of our building. The first night we got here Braegan and I went to bed at 8:30 at night and then woke up 13 hours later - that took care of any jet lag problems and getting used to the time change.

The second day here we just met for a little bit to talk about syllabus. After that Braegan and I walked around town for a while. We went to Piazza della Signoria, saw the copy of the David, saw Perseus, and Rape of the Sabines, then we made our way over to the Duomo.

Yesterday, we were supposed to have class but due to technical difficulties that didn't work out. So instead of class we went over to the Duomo and climbed up to the top of it! 464 steps!! It was insane, but the view was amazing. Then after that we went to the Palazzo Borghese for dinner (wild boar). The Palazzo was amazing and there was tons of food (three courses and dessert - tiramisu!)

The weather has been OK - the only time it was really bad was last night when the heavens just opened up it seemed like. Otherwise it's been sprinkling rain, which isn't too bad. It hasn't been too hot and it hasn't been cold either. It feels like Texas in October really.

I've got some pictures up on PicasaWeb (http://picasaweb.google.com/bama.amanda) of everything we've done so far.

Sorry, this post is just everywhere. I'm trying to get this done in the small amount of time I have between classes today. I'll try for a better post sometime. I'm just letting you guys know that I'm alive over here in Italy.

Ciao!

Viaggiare è vivere.**

So I said in October, this blog will be better than the previous blog. I won't go too long without updating it. Two (almost three) months later, here I am, updating.

Spring semester is over and done with - I pulled out a B average for the semester. I only got one A, but the chances are good that I was either the only one to get an A in that class or one of two to get an A. I am very happy with the B average for the semester though. This semester was a first - all of the classes I took were in the same department (I took all upper-level History classes this semester). Two of my classes were taught by the same professor and his classes were crazy. Apparently everyone in the History and Classics Department's try their hardest to have him as their teacher. Yeah, I found that out after classes started. It was not my greatest, most brilliant idea ever to take two of his classes at the same time. But I made it through and lived to tell the tale.

I have another week left before I leave for Italy. I'm going to try my hardest to update this as often as I can during June, but I make no promises. While in Florence I only get free internet when I'm on campus (two days a week). I'm not too sure about internet when I'm in Venice and Rome. Our hotels may have free internet or they may not. I may have to give in and go to an Internet Cafe somewhere. But it's going to be a great adventure and an even greater experience. I can't wait. Besides Florence, Venice, and Rome I know we will be going to the Chianti countryside and visiting a Castello for some olive-oil tasting. There was talk about going to Milan for a weekend (to go see The Last Supper), and I really want to go to Pisa also. We're going to be in Venice on a Sunday and the San Giorgio Maggiore on Sunday's their mass is a Gregorian Mass with Benedictine monks and Gregorian Chant - definitely going to try to go to that.

I could go on forever about this trip, but I won't. Suffice it to say, I'm excited. Besides the whole taking classes aspect this will be something totally different for me. Whenever I've gone to Mexico or any of the Caribbean Islands (cruises), we've only stayed less than a day, or a couple of days in a city at most. This time I'm going to be spending at least two weeks in Florence, in an Italian apartment, sharing a building with Italian families (I'll share the apartment with three other UA students). Totally different, but it'll be so much more interesting.

Keep checking back after next week for any blog posts and check Picasa Albums for any pictures I upload.

**To travel is to live.

I have bad news for you all...we're all going to hell

According to the open-air preacher that we have on campus this week, we're all going to hell - except him, of course. Apparently if you are a female you're going to hell because we're still paying for Eve's sin. Other reasons that have been given as a reason for you to go to hell: if you're a Catholic, if a female has shown their knees in public or her elbows, if you have kissed someone before marriage, if you listen to rock and roll music, if you are a Jew, if you are blonde, if you are fat, if you have a tattoo, if you're a woman and you work (he told someone today that she needed to grow her hair out and get into the kitchen and start cooking), if you are Buddhist, Muslim, Protestant, Hindu, if you're a homosexual, have premarital sex, if you watch TNT, MTV, VH1, or if you own a pet then you're going to hell. Well darn it, I'm going to hell. But we've got good company according to this preacher - Mother Teresa, Ghandi, Pope John Paul II, Martin Luther King Jr., Paul Bear Bryant, John Lennon, and Elvis. I went out to listen to him (along with at least 50 other UA students) after my History of Rome class and I got there just in time. My friend Sheridan (a drag queen - Sheridan is her stage name) came to join the party in full drag. Nothing got to the preacher quite like Sheridan did in the 30 minutes that I was out there.

Oh yeah, apparently Queen Bee is a Feminazi, according to him. I wonder how he feels about yesterday's primaries then...

This guy just goes around to college campuses and preaches this stuff for five hours a day. You won't find anyone who agrees with the guy (or if there is they are very quiet about it). Everyone out there watching him don't agree with him and are waiting to hear the unbelievable things that come out of his mouth. And some get violent - apparently a freshman punched him yesterday after he said that all of the Catholics were going to hell for putting Mary on the same level as Jesus.

UA has been invaded by a crazy person...

Fort 333

"I want to make a fort in the living room this weekend. Is that OK with you?" Wait, what? That came out of no where. Apparently, the Chem Labs on campus got some ovens delivered and there was a lot of cardboard left over, Ash saw it and decided she wanted to make a fort in the living room. So yesterday, Ash and one of her MDB pals made a fort out of cardboard in the living room. It was an awesome fort. We had about seven people in there at one point and there was still room for more. We played Mad Gab (always an interesting game) and just acted stupid. What a great way to spend my Saturday afternoon. This is la dolce vita, in my opinion.

My family just got bigger...

...according to a group of researchers in Denmark there are 300 million new people I'm related to now (or may be related to).

More than meets the blue eye: You may all be related

Well, that's interesting.

History Today

One of the things that I've found fascinating with my different History classes is how you can see the influence of history on current events - or how there have been some things from the Ancient Civilizations that still continue on today (seriously - dogs have been humans companions since 50,000 BC in Greece and Rome). I'm especially seeing that this week with my New Left/New Right (history of politics from 1960s to 1980s) class. We just got done reading an autobiography from a Student Nonviolence Coordinating Committee member during the Civil Rights Movement, so it's interesting to see those things especially since Martin Luther King Jr. Day was Monday. How would the people of the '60s felt about Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton as the two main Democratic presidential candidates? Would groups like SNCC and SCLC (Dr. King's movement group) be supporting Obama and the groups of the Women's Rights Movement be supporting Clinton? I think that would probably be the case (SNCC for being all equal rights for blacks thought the men were superior to women - which is interesting all in itself though). It's also hard to answer that question especially since the issues that were relevant to groups like SNCC and SCLC then aren't as much of an issue today (I won't say the issues have been solved completely because that's probably not the case). But it's interesting to see the affect that one decade is still having on us today. I mean, hello? Writer's Strike, anyone? The early 60s really emphasized the whole nonviolence aspect of resistance and using nonviolence as a way to make change happen. And it's also interesting to see how long it's taken us to get to the point where we can actually have a black person and a woman as main candidates in a presidential election and people don't say "OK, well if I want to vote Democrat I'll just have to go with John Edwards in the primary or I could go vote Republican or Independent..."

Just one of the many awesome aspects of history for me.

Let It Snow!

What a beautiful thing to see an hour after you wake up on a Saturday morning. We had fun out in the snow Saturday!! There were a couple of small snowballs thrown, small snowmen made on car trunks, and lots of laughter. It was great fun.

Italia, here I come!

It's really happening! I turned in my application and my deposit today for the Art History program in Italy. May 31 to July 1 I will be in Florence, Rome, and Venice. I am a very happy person. Plus one of my roommates from last year will also be there taking the Italian Language program through the University, so I'll know someone. I'm going to be taking two courses: Art in Renaissance Florence ("A survey of painting, sculpture, and architecture in Florence from the end of the Medieval period through the 16th century.") and Topics in Renaissance Art: Art in Renaissance Venice & Rome (same description as Florence just different cities). That will give me six hours and put my on track to only have to take 2 more 12 hour semesters before I can graduate!!