March 15:... My birthday! I'm having my birthday in Italy. Drew a comic-esque style Judith in Skillen's class today. Heh. Got Kissed by Madre Giovanna at lunch. Lunch was polenta. Bleh. It's like pre-chewed mush. Not bad cake, but I wish they wouldn't always soak it in some sort of liquore. I blew out all but two candles in one breath, go me, and got a nifty little vase of sunflowers. Still wish I'd gotten a rose like Will and Tommy, though. Heh. There is a conspiracy to take me out for gelato after siesta today. *** Later *** Drew Venus and Mars. They look cool. *grins* I went out for gelato with Gwen, Tommy, Joseph, Will, Sarah, and Dan. I got a waffle cone with lampone (raspberry) and a dark red flavor, mirtillo (which turned out to be blueberry). Very good. Gwen then took me out and bought me a little potted rose and a ring. No, we're not dating. Heh. Ick. Finally found my 30 euros. Yay. I want cocoa.

March 16:... Glorious weather today. Calendar or no, I think spring is here.

Skillen told us today that sculpture class might have to change because Prof. Zingarelli has family health issues to attend to. I hope this all works out. St. Patrick's day tomorrow. Must wear green. Also must buy tickets to Flamenco performance.

Gwen invented a new character today. A satyr. Hmm. I took a nap in the sunshine today on the courtyard terraza. That was glorious. I had a headache after getting up, but that happens. What an experience though! Lovely. Just lovely.

At 3:30 ish today, Gwen and I went for a walk, stopped at Todi's (grocery store at the bottom of the hill) for snacks, and had a picnic of sorts at the muddy end of someone's vineyard. (Ew, small fast black spiders.) We had cookies, apple juice, and strawberries, and just talked. It was nice. We left a strawberry behind in honor of the place, and left soon after we discovered a shotgun shell on the property nearby. We then went grocery shopping. Soon after returning, I put the groceries away -- good stuff, man -- and spent the entire evening drawing. There. I've now done my token perspective drawing for the year. *smirk*

March 17:... Another lovely day. Somewhere in between 3 hours of make-up Italian class, I took a shower and let my hair dry in the sun on the terraza. Heh. From soaked to 90% dry in 20 minutes. It was nice.

Also, Gwen and I bought tickets to Tarantos! today. So expensive. 20 Euro each. Ick. Well, I gues I have food for a while. Must save money. Today was St. Patrick's day too, I wore my green necklace. *grin*

Later in the evening, I went to visit Gwen, and stood at her window with her watching the bats while she sang. I didn't have any songs. That made me depressed. After we talked for a while, we watched the traditional St. Paddy's day show -- An episode of Voyager entitled "Spirit Folk". I felt better. Must do papers.

March 18:... Met bishop today. Yeah Yeah, I know. that probably deserves more than three words.

I dressed up for the first time while here -- the black slit skirt and the purple blouse, and I decided to flirt with disaster by wearing my fishnets, though I covered almost to the knee with my books. Heh.

Well, the class prepared a somewhat chaotic "Be thou my Vision" for our meeting with the bishop, (who apparently is newly ordained but wanted to keep up the tradition of the old bishop of visiting the Orvieto program students every semester) and sang it fairly well when he arrived. He was very nice and down-to-earth, but I think everyone was being pretty rigidly on their best behavior.

He stayed for pranzo, and the nuns put on a real spread for everyone: appertivi, then fettucini with asparagus and cream sauce, followed by chicken breast with truffle sauce, with sides of porcini mushrooms, tomatoes, zucchini, and a few other vegetables of whose identification I'm sadly in the dark. Then was dessert -- a peach mousse. I made a joke about the dessert which I admit was probably less than the best manners, so I got scolded a bit for it. Oh well. After dessert, fruit. I ate a blood orange. It wasn't orange. It was red. In fact, it was so red that it was nearly purple. Crazy. Good though.

After pranzo, we had Italian sunshine to accompany our Renaissance art history class out on the terraza. That was good. After, I went in and took a nice nap. Later, I ate a mini-pizza for dinner, bothered Gwen, drew something, and went to bed. In that order.

March 19:... I think I'm getting a cold.

Today was San Guiseppe's Day (St. Joseph) the patron saint of Orvieto -- and of carpenters. There was supposed to be a big to-do tonight so Gwen and I went out at about 3 to check things out. A couple of balloon venders, but that's it. So, on a whim, we went up Craftsman's Alley and peeked into the Venetian store. It was open, so I bought the mask I've been wanting. Hehe. Yeah yeah, I know, but it's a holiday.

We went out again at about six, after the mass was supposed to be over, and caught ourselves in a throng of Italians who were waiting for the parade from the Duomo. Thank goodness I wore my tall-heeled boots. I could just barely see over the crowd. They paraded a wooden statue of Joseph down to the little church on the Via del Duomo. We spotted some familiar faces in the crowd, and everyone had soggy fritters and listened to the oompah-esque town band. We played with a small dog's mind (dumb animal couldn't find the piece of fritter we dropped for it... six inches away...) and then went home, skipping the concert. Then, Gwen and I stayed up at chatted about characters and storylines and things... must write my essays.

March 20:... Today was my first day drying dishes. Kinda scary, not too bad. Still sick. Nose running like a faucet. Probably shouldn't ACTUALLY be touching clean dishes...

Spent two hours trying to find topics for my papers. Had minimal success. Sucked at drawing today too. Annoyed Gwen for a bit, and felt better.

The high point of the day was definitely TARANTOS! the Flamenco performance we saw at the teatro Mancinelli. Gwen said she'd kill me if I didn't learn how to do that, and I think by the end of the second dance, I agreed with her. That was so amazing... I've never seen anyone move their feet so fast. The lighting, the costumes, the... everything. It was brilliant, amazing, definitely worth the 20 euro. It wasn't over until 11, and we all (Skillen included) marched back to the convent so the nuns could let us in. So much for celebratory gelato.

March 21 Had the best of intentions to go to the grocery store and get some soap so that I could do my laundry, but with no such luck. The stores weren't open. Drying dishes today was "fun"... instead of cleaning up after 15 people, it was probably more like 65... a group of 50 or so came by for some reason... That was crazy. An hour and 1/2 to dry all those dishes.

I drew a dashing picture of Dage for Gwen today. Okay, so maybe 'dashing' isn't the right adjective. "Grouchy" might be closer. Had an awful time online today -- two weeks worth of email to catch up on... gah. None of it very fun. After, Gwen and I had the best intentions of going out for a gelato, but we had to have dinner first. And then we hung around to see if Gwen's mom would call. And then she did. And then she and Gwen stayed on until 9:30. I worked on/finished page 3 of my comic. Never did get my gelato. Or do my laundry. Or my homework. Oh well.