March 1:... Eek!! More snow! Cancel classes!

Oh well. So much for that. During a dull 3-hour class (fortunately the only one of the day) I managed to draw a picture and determine the lessons driving Scarlet, Selene, and Nyx. I'll spare you the psycho/theo- logical episode. Heh. In other news, Gwen successfully managed to call her mother today. And it's snowing again, and sticking. We listened to Alessandro give a little talk about the roots of Italian culture, then group-wise, we went to a nearby (like... 40 m away) restaurant called Mezza Luna. Very cool. Highly recommend. I had ravioli al ragu and 1/4 glass of wine, maybe. It was good though. 5,50 euro in the hole for that. *shrug*. Still snowing. Bought a comic book today too. Sure, it's all in Italian...

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March 2:... We had one long Italian class today and then we were free all after pranzo (lunch). When the stores reopened (midday siesta), I went and bought more food. I was, after all, down to my Nutella. I got a wedge of Pecarino cheese (it's sheep cheese!), and Gwen has decided that it's now her favorite cheese. (In retrospect I wish I could remember the kind of Pecarino we got...)

Later, Gwen and I stayed up and chatted... she discussed possible ways of maybe playing her Jack Cordell/Battleflag character with Payroll. I got to explain the team more to her. She digs Armageddon.

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March 3:... Dried my hair (after a slightly more pleasant shower) in the sunlight coming through my window. Who'd guess that I could bask, dry my hair, and study at the same time?

Aced a quiz in Italian, no biggie. Not even graded. What's cool is that I translated (roughly) 3 pages of my comic today. Go me. Drew another warrior chick in Renaissance class today. Must be a theme. I have new lotion, and I like it.

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March 4:... Will's birthday today. He got roses and cake, and a kiss from Madre Giovanna. Heh. I embarrassed myself in Italian class by totally blanking out when called on. Oh well.

Then was the last of our "orientation" meetings. After that was over (more Skillen rambling *rolls eyes*) I got over to Calzedonia (spiffy sock store) and got me a pair of knee high fishnet tights. Wee hee. I wanted full length ones though. Also, my shoe size in European sizes is between 38-40. Must remember. So many ... interesting... shoes.

At 7:30, Will, Pamela and I went to Skillen's house for dinner and a 'get to know you' chat. The dinner was good (linguine and wine and gelato later) but I was unsatisfied with the conversation. And I left my sketchbook over there. Grr. But I had fun explaining the colors of the alphabet with Gwen and Julia later.

March 5:... (Long one) Went to Assisi today. The weather was infinitely better than on the trip to Siena. Almost warm. I even managed to get Alessandro's van again.

After a fairly pleasant drive along the Tiber (It's green!) we viewed Assisi from a ways off. It's built on the side of a mountain, but the base of the mountain was shrouded in fog, so it looked like it was floating. Gwen said it looked like Asgard. Darn her.

The first place we stopped was an ancient olive grove. Most of the trees were only between 6 and 8 feet tall, but I'm told that they were all hundreds of years old - or at least the stumps were. Made me wonder how old the olive trees on the APU campus are, since they're huge but the campus is only just over 100 years old. Also, I asked Alessandro where the Rubicon is, and he said that he thought it was in Germany. Hmm. Mental Note: must photograph Alessandro.

After a brief guitar-accompanied worship session in the olive grove (including one Franciscan chant) we went down the hill and explored the church of San Dominico (Saint Dominic, I think...). There, I had a close encounter with the biggest freakin grasshopper/locust I've EVER seen. Gwen and I were leaning over a railing to inspect a bronze plaque and I spied a grasshopper in the bush. I grabbed it, but the instant I positioned it on my hand, it SPRANG at me! I freaked and tried to figure out where it had gone. It was on my coat. I grabbed it again, and this time he sat nicely on my finger. He was a nice grasshopper, even if he only had one leg. (He was as long as my ring finger, and for those of you who remember, I have long fingers!) We named him Alessandro as a joke. Before we left the orchard area, I had a pocket full of rocks that I liked. One was for Marty, 2 are for me, and 1 I intend to crush for pigment. I also found a tiny snail shell.

We walked up the hill to the city proper, which is regrettably full of tourists. We same some beautiful churches --most of which will not let you take pictures inside-- including one with panes of glass in the floor to show the ancient church the existing building was constructed on top of. Spiffy.

By far the most entertaining thing about Assisi was feeding the pigeons. That may sound dull until you realize that A) Pigeons eat pepperoni, B) pigeons can't fit a whole pepperoni in their mouths, and C) to tear the pieces of pepperoni into small enough pieces to swallow, they play a pigeon version of frisbee/tackle football.

Oh, I suppose I should say something about the churches. Hmm. My neck hurt looking at all those frescoes, but the Basilica di San Francesco was exquisite, and had beautiful stained glass windows. But the coolest thing... the Tomb of Saint Francis. The Basilica has 3 levels, you see. The upper level has the pews, the frescoes, the vaulted ceilings, and those gorgeous windows. (A lovely rose window!) But underneath is another church, also frescoed, albeit with a lower ceiling, and surprisingly, it also had windows. The central altar is amazing.

The third level, though, is my favorite. The frescoed walls give way to wrought iron and roughly carved tufa rock. The lighting, while slightly more even than portions of the level above it, is all candles and very subtle recessed lighting. At the far end was the Tomb of St. Francis, behind a metal portcullis. According to a wall plaque, the room was made in the 1800's, and Francis's skeleton was still intact then...

Before we left Assisi, we had one final stop which involved driving almost to the top the mountain to a hermitage where some Franciscan monks still go. It was... unreal. It was so high up... so quiet... so peaceful... still crowned with snow... so wild. It looked not unlike some impossibly perfect movie set. White doves only added to the otherworldly slice-of-heaven atmosphere... they just flew around, happy and fat as could be.

I thought that beautiful experience would be the perfect ending of a perfect day, but Skillen had at least one more place to show us, which was really anticlimatic when viewed against the hermitage. It was the church where St. Francis died, and inside it was the preserved little church he once repaired with his own hands. I was so tired by this point that I barely cared, and was happy to make a jaunt over to a neighboring playground with Will, Tara, and Gwen. The trio decided to make themselves sick on a tilt-a-whirl merry-go-round thing while I watched and taunted. I was told when we got into the vans again that Skillen wanted to go to one more place, but fortunately the traffic prevented it. Well, it did end up giving us a "spaghetti parking lot" thing for a while (a concept also known as gridlock, bumper-to-bumper, stall 'n crawl, and rush hour), a phrase which I ended up having to explain to everyone. Oh well. So... tired. But on the positive side, I spent under 10 Euro in Assisi. I even developed a keen dislike of tourists. Yay me. *smiles*

March 6:... Nothing of consequence. I finished me picture (page 10 of sketchbook) and spent a comparitively large amount of money. Found a mask I want. Must mail postcards. Internet tomorrow. Can hardly wait.

March 7:... The most inconsequential day in the history of ness. My biggest (only) accomplishment was beginning a sensibilities-strangling detail-heavy drawing which is (surprise) turning out to be a pain in the everything. I also read four chapters in the book we're supposed to read before we go to Florence. Or was it five? Played 'favorites' with the group after pizza dinner in the sala. We told our favorite books, movies, and CDs. Then I stayed up talking to Gwen, Julia, Pamela, and eventually Sara, too.