Italy + failing technology = NO fun!

Today has been quite the day, but not in the best way possible. The day started out decently enough. I left the apartment around 8:15 am so I could make it to my 9:00 am class on time. My bus was acutally on time for once so I was 15 minutes early for class. I had to give 2 presentations in class, but I thought both of them went fairly well. From Art and Politics at Palazzo Vecchio, I headed back to the school for my second class of the day, Strange Art in the 16th Century. I was monumentally boring today. I am not really what it was about the lecture today, but I could not focus for the life of me. It was an hour and 45 minutes of extreme bordem. I had a nice hour long break for lunch during which I ate a PB & J and a banana. After lunch, I had my final class on the history of women in ancient Rome and Renaissance Florence. I love that class. It is usually so interesting, but today even it seemed to drag by.

After my classes, my roommate and decided that we needed an American food fix (we haven't had one since we arrived in Italy), so we headed to McDonald's. I ate a Big Mac for the first time in my life in Italy. How odd is that? We came home on the bus, which was crowded as usual with rush hour traffic. Tomorrow I head to Naples/Pompeii tomorrow with 1 professor and 7 other students, and I wanted to make sure my iPod was fully charged for the 3 1/2 hour train ride to Naples. I went to plug my computer in only to finally that my power cord had finally bitten the bullet. I knew it was fading, but I was optimistic that it could hold out for 3 more weeks until my classes ended for the semester. But of course, that was not the case. It is as dead as can be. I still have 2 papers to write and a powerpoint presentation to put together for my classes. That could be a little cumbersome with a computer that I can't easily charge. Luckily, my host mom has the same brand of laptop as I do, so I can at least charge my computer at the apartment. Now, if only, my battery would last more than an hour. I think it is fair to say considering that my computer ate half of my pictures from Athens and that my headphones and my power cord both died, Italy has been rough on all of my electronics. Hopefully everything else can hold out for another 3 weeks.

Photo time

These are various photos from my recent trip to Rome with the ACM.

1-Ancient Roman Port town of Ostia

2-a group of us at Ostia after getting soaked in the rain/hail storm

3-Colosseum

4-Me at the Colosseum

5-Roman Forum

6-Colosseum & Me

7-Ara Pacis (Altar of Peace built by Augustus)

8-St. Michel on top of Castel San'Angelo

9-Me on top of the Castel San'Angelo

10-view from the top