Exam Cram

So Lily and I have taken up a permanent residence in a local café called ItIt. It’s a cozy little place just down the street from ECCO’s office and the beauty of it is that it has solid, consistent internet. Other pros include delicious blueberry muffins, huge cushioned chairs that you can sink into, English Breakfast tea, Americana-esque music (think Elvis, Bill Haley & His Comets, or—randomly—the occasional indie-rock lullaby) and, most importantly, staff that does not mind that we live in their café. I am not exaggerating. The patience of the ItIt staff is kind of legendary. There have been a few days in which the two of us have camped out in a dark corner of the café, strategically placed by an electrical plug to keep our computers charged, from around 10 a.m. until closing time…at 8 p.m. We only leave to go buy food for lunch that is cheaper than ItIt’s organic sandwiches. The ItIt staff not only lets us stay for this long period of time without questioning us, but they also say nothing as we smuggle in kebabs or large hunks of foccaccia that clearly did not come from their kitchens.

            There actually haven’t been too many of these days, overall, but in these few days that we are in Bologna we must make the most out of our time to study. Just before April ended, I realized that I had a grand total of eight days to study for my five exams. Yes, you heard me right. 8 days for 5 exams. Also, these days are broken up, so it’s not like I have one, huge block of time to study. How did this happen, you ask? Well, to be honest, I’m wondering that myself. It seems that Past-Danielle had very little concern for the study schedule that Future-Danielle would face in May. As such, Present-Danielle is sort of stressed out and is scrambling to figure out a way to do this. Obviously, everything will work out. But there is no doubt this is a challenge.

            The issue is that as soon as I got back from my weekend in Gaeta, I had three ItIt-filled days of studying before my wonderful four days in Barcelona. I currently am on the last of three more days of studying before I go to Sicily with Rebecca, Lydia and Kyra (tomorrow!!) and today I took Ivan’s Writing Workshop exam. When I get back from Sicily, I will have ONE DAY before going to London with Michelle. And upon returning from London sometime in the early morning of Saturday the 18th of May, I will have the rest of that Saturday and then Sunday to study…before exams begin on Monday.

            So. Things are busy. Things are exciting, but they are certainly busy. I know that at home, my parents are nervously wringing their hands, remembering the promise I made them at the beginning of the semester: I will return to the States with 15 credits of classes. This will happen. Not only am I determined to achieve these 15 credits, I also (obviously) want to do well in my classes. I know semesters abroad can turn into vacations abroad for a lot of American students (and I’ve certainly had my fair share of vacation) but I also have really enjoyed my classes and I don’t want to let myself or my professors down right at the homestretch.

            So I will be studying and traveling traveling traveling. I have no time left to write about my four-day-Barcelona-extravaganza, but that will come soon. I promise. After my exams, I’ll have more than a week to play catch-up with blog posts and to enjoy Bologna before heading back home on the 31st. Ahhh! It’s so soon. I’m excited for this summer and for my upcoming Senior year at UMW (yikes—how am I a Senior?!) but I’m also devastated that this whirlwind semester is coming to a close. I went into this knowing that it would go by quickly. Every time I told someone that I would be studying abroad for a semester, I got that same response: Wow. That’s going to go by so fast! I kept this in mind every day, every week, every month that I was here. Every meal, every opportunity for travel, I leapt at. Even my full five months didn’t seem like a very long time…and now that I’m here at the end of it, I’m constantly wondering how this all went by so fast and yet how long ago that first plane ride to Italy now feels.

            But I can’t think about leaving too much because it takes away from the moments I have left here. For now, I’ll just call it a night and head to bed in preparation for Sicily tomorrow, where I’ll be exploring a seaside-town called Taormina. I am beyond excited...but I will also be lugging along my Italian Medieval History textbook. It can't all be fun and games.

I’ll leave you all with the knowledge that tonight, when trying to discuss the horrors of McDonald’s usage of preservatives and chemicals in its food, I used the word preservativi and was very confused as to why my roommates burst out laughing. This just proves that every day, I am learning new things…or at least forgetting old things that I had already learned. I just informed my roommates that McDonald’s French fries are disgusting because they remain looking unchanged for over a month, due to the fact that they are made out of condoms and chemicals. What can I say? Every day is a new adventure.