April 8:... Was told at breakfast that the white cat (Syriah?) had kittens.

Had Italian class today, reviewing for a test. I think I missed something while she was teaching future tense. I have succeeded in drawing page five though. Climax has been reached. Now to wrap up. Pranzo was interesting. We had a passover meal with the nuns. I sat across from Claudia, the maid, and tried my best to at least chat with her.

After pranzo, I read for a bit and worked on my comic. I'm halfway through 'By the Pricking of my Thumbs'. Then I bothered Gwen for a bit, then went back to my reading, then went with Gwen to the kitchen to get some dinner. The whiteboard in the hallway proclaimed us all 'male' and 'sporco', which had the both of us busting up laughing.

I opened my wine -- it's really good, I'd better remember this stuff- and with the collective help of Peter, Nate, Dan, and Jessica, we drank half the bottle, each of us having half a cup. It was at dinner that I learned that apparently all the kittens are dead or something... that was lousy news.

Eventually, everyone went their separate ways, and I went and listened to music, drew, and tried to compose poetry before finally going to bed.

***

April 9:... Today just really did not feel like the ninth. Oh, and plus, it was really schifo outside.

After breakfast, I wrote my 4th paper (out of five) then visited Gwen who showed me the plasticine that her roommate had given her and told me her mortifying nun story of the day. I spent a large portion of the morning reading, then, after pranzo, I took a little nap, had a glass of wine and some Nutella sandwich-ettes, and got surprisingly woogity surprisingly fast. Went back to my room and drew something that Gwen described as an 'acid trip'. It's not finished yet, and by the looks of it, it'll take a while.

Later, we went to get pizza for dinner, came back, did a little reasearch, and I worked more on my 'acid trip' before going to bed.

***

April 10 :... Didn't do much. Not that I ever do. Wrote a page of my last paper. Basked on the terraza, and finished my book. Went grocery shopping. Chocolate that's melted in the sun is tasty when you lick it right out of the foil wrapper.

Later, all the students went and dyed eggs at Skillen's apartment, and after we came back, I moped about going to the Duomo for the Easter Vigil Service. It went waaaaaay too long, and I collapsed in bed upon returning home.

***

April 11:... Big breakfast this morning -- with chocolate eggs! A bunch of the group (3 boys... and Gwen) had to be called down to breakfast... wow. Knocking on the boys' doors and seein' 'em half-awake and half-dressed was interesting... heh. (Nate doesn't sleep with a shirt on... hmmm...) There turned out to be little boppy guns in the eggs. Later, Gwen and I opened the eggs we'd bought earlier in the week... I had a stuffed magnetic blue hectopus in mine! Gwen and a lipstick-shaped teddy-bear eraser in hers.

The rest of the day, we drew, ate a huge Easter lunch, and did very little of any redeeming value. But a few small things worth of note occurred: Peter, at lunch, had an egg (one we dyed) that wouldn't crack, and when spun on its tip, would spin amazingly well -- very steady for 40 seconds! Scary. Our Italian presentation was also moved to next week, and we were informed that only one of the kittens (turns out there were five, not three) died... the other still live. Today has been really unproductive. Restful, but unproductive.

***

April 12:... The weather was undescribably schifo today. No 'pasqueta' picnic today! And then we had a class. Studied a bit for Italian, but most of the day I simply amused myself by working on/recreating my power spectrum.

On the more exciting side, it was Sarah's birthday today, and after pranzo, we all celebrated by chucking a giant chocolate egg off of the upper covered terraza onto the road below in the pouring rain. The sucker shattered all over the road... it was beautiful. That must'a been a 100-foot drop.

***

April 13:... Took bigickyhairy Italian test. Not so bad. Forgot to erase something I wrote in the margins though... *blush*. Got to celebrate Alberto's birthday! No idea how old he is. Gwen drew him a card and I bought him a small chocolate bar, and we dropped in to visit him. Jess B., Pamela, and Julia were already there, and Alberto was serving up cakey sweet bread and wine. It was grand. We must all have chatted for an hour or so.

Later I attempted to study for tomorrow's test, then chatted with Gwen about Payroll/Particle man and chibi Seth. Heh. Soooooo productive...

***

April 14:... Took bigickyhairy art history test. It was as bad as I thought it would be. Finished off my cookies. Dried dishes today. In Italian, Will wrote something bizarre on my paper... is that good? Finished off my wine, drew a picture of Scarlet -- she likes Gwen's Anharath mix CD -- and chatted with Gwen before crashing shortly after 1 am. Seriously considering reworking Scarlet and rewriting the entire hitmen story.