March 22:... Been here a whole month. Feels longer.

Dish duty again tomorrow. Last day for a while. I mailed some of my postcards today, and will do the others later, as they are 80 cents each to mail. *wince* Dang international price. Mailed 7, 6 to go. Also went grocery shopping again, as my cheese isn't tasty, my tomatoes are bad, and my prosciutto is slimy. Bought, among other things, Chianti, soap, a sacher torte, and... tape! Joy! Must record expenses.

Alessandro had his seminar today. He had us draw maps of Orvieto. I realized how small my world is. But I got creativity points for including a pigeon, and psychic points for the fact that both Gwen and I included the Tabacchi that sells comics. After that, I drew Alessandro. It came out well, but Jess B made me show him. *blush*

After that, dinner. I had a glass of Nate's wine. Not bad. I'm going to help people drink their wine when I can, so that it doesn't go bad like mine always does. ... Ah... a HOT shower for once. And a nice shave. Benissimo.

March 23:... A good day, mostly. Done with disty duty for today, plus I washed my socks, underwear, and some pants and shirts. They should be dry soon. I hope.

I wrote my first paper today, the easy one, on Lorenzetti's Good and Bad Government. I hope that's the last I hear of that fresco for a while. Also, the Nutella-like stuff that I got at Todi's is spreadable at kitchen-temperature... whee!! Good stuff. I am such an addict.

Other than that, I've started on page 4 of my comic. Go me.

March 24:... Crazy weather today. Ah, spring. When the sky is totally unreliable. Saw a gorgeous rainbow though. And most of my laundry is dry, despite the rain.

Not much to report. Perpetually cold. Ate at Mezza Luna though. Gwen had gnocchi ai quattri formaggi (she really wanted some) and I had tortellini al ragu. Good stuff. Thought I was gonna explode.

Took our first actually graded test in Italian today. I think I did well. Not sure. Drew Pallas in Art History class. Man, Skillen-the-rambling-machine was in fine form today.

I should open my wine.

March 25:... Today was some sort of Annunciation holiday in Italy -- we had some torte-like jam pastry and REALLY thick cocoa for breakfast. No, seriously. This cocoa was so thick that it was developing a skin. Good, but scary.

Today after lunch and a shower, I finally drew "David" alla comic. S'okay. Gwen and I have started a crossover between two of our characters. Just barely.

Gwen has also successfully started (yes, STARTED) her sketchbook for class. She's sketched 3 doors in it so far. I never realized how many arches there are over all of the doorways here until now. Then we got gelato, even though we were freezing. (It's THAT GOOD) Gwen committed a horrible act by biting the tip of my cone off -- I'd really wanted that part. Otherwise, today was fairly uneventful. No excursion tomorrow. Rome on Sunday, though. I want gloves.

March 26:... Fairly uneventful day. Found my batteries at last. Still playing CDs (four so far) on the old ones. Starting to realize that I may very well finish this sketchbook before I leave. Drew a picture today. Don't like it but Gwen and Julia won't let me erase it. Not that it would be possible with all the engrained perspective lines anyway.

Later, I opened my wine, and had a glass. I got the cork out all by myself, go me! Must drink more. Methinks two glasses tomorrow, just to keep it from going off. At 6ish, after my internet time, Gwen and I went to In and Out (NOT the burger place) for cocoa and a couple of torte slices. The berry torte was really good, but the Sacher torte tasted funny and the cocoa wasn't very tasty at all. Note to self: cheaper or no, I don't like their cocoa. Then I came back, drew Seth, and went to go bother Gwen and show her. She was busy teaching Will how to play one of her computer games, so I hung around and watched and joined in on making fun at the characters. Will is cool. When he doesn't seem moody, at least. Deep voice.

March 27:... Woke up early today. GLORIOUS weather in the morning. Couldn't be bothered to go back to sleep, so I got up and went to the market. Didn't find anything I wanted, so I started to head back, then got a yen for hot chocolate. Montanucci was crowded, so I tried the Blue Bar. Dig. Waaaaaaay less expensive than Montanucci but much tastier than In and Out. This is my new favorite.

I spent some time out on the terraza while it was still sunny, with every intention of doing my homework. Of course, I forgot to bring the sheet with the project requirements on it with me, but who cares, right? I colored part of page 4 of my comic instead. I swear, having less internet makes me draw more. A LOT more. I bet I fill that sketchbook before I leave for home.

After pranzo, Gwen dried dishes and I took a good hot shower. After that, we went back to the terraza again, but the sunshine was gone, the sky was full of clouds, and it was cold. Ick. We went back inside where I finished coloring. Later, Gwen did her laundry and hung it out to dry. I peered out her window while she was checking to see what was dry, and noticed that one of her tiny potted cacti was missing. At first, we feared that it had fallen onto the terraza some seven or eight feet below, but then Gwen quickly noticed that it was in a pair of underwear that was hanging up. THE UNDERWEAR SAVED THE CACTUS! Then, as she was bringing in the underwear (it was all dry) a pair fell, but caught on a random pipe protruding from the wall, just out of arm's reach, but not quite out of implement's reach. Gwen employed the little prong-things on the end of her crossbow to retrieve them. THE CROSSBOW SAVED THE UNDERWEAR! (What are the odds you'll hear the words 'cactus', 'underwear', and 'crossbow' in the same couple of sentences?)

Then, later, hungry, we went out to find food and get Gwen a yummy Blue Bar cocoa. On the way back from the grocery store, we ran into a one-mime band and a dancing-on-stilts clown/mine chick. It was... cool. Gwen loved it. We still got our cocoa. Life was amazingly antiproductive, but good.

March 28:... Got up early. Went to Rome. The long train ride -- half of it through tunnels -- was made considerably shorter by the abuse of gummy Smurfs and dinosaurs.

Rome. What can I say about Rome except that it's big, and very crowded. I do think that I liked Florence better. Never got to buy gloves because it was Sunday and everything was closed.

We stood in line for around an hour trying to get into the Vatican museum, which I could tell wasn't going to happen with a crowd that was stretched two or three blocks long, double the width of the sidewalk, and packed and tight as sardines.

Speaking of sardines, the Roman subway system is dirty and crowded. Avoid it. And when I say 'crowded', words cannot fully express the depth of what I mean. It was nearly traumatic.

We didn't go into St. Peter's either, as the line was ridiculously long, though Gwen and I did a little shopping on our break. I got a Ferrari T-shirt and keychain, a magnet for Jenny (and later a gelato and two books) as well as an overpriced slice of pizza. I hate tourist traps.

Later, we did this 'sightsee while we walk back to the train station' thing, wherein we saw several churches, the Fountain of the Four Rivers, the Trevi Fountain (I threw in a coin!) and the Pantheon. I dig the Pantheon. It's bigger than it looks on TV.

On the train back, Gwen, Dan and I sat in a little compartment with a fellow named Ibrahim (who apparently was from Iraq or something and left to get away from the combat) and we attempted conversation now and then, as he spoke a bit of Italian, and we spoke some, if less. Then we finished off the evening at Pizzeria Charlie's and returned home, exhausted.

March 29:... Where IS March going?

Three hours of Ren. History followed by 1 and 1/2 hours of Italian today. Ick. Got some reading done, though, on the terraza. Nice and sunny.

Gwen and I are scrambling to get our trip to Venice together before Thursday. It's going to be interesting. Already we've had 'fun' with the payphones in the piazza, calling places for prices. "Per favore, quanti una camera per due persone per due notte Aprile uno e due?" ARG. We don't want to stay in a hostel because of the stories we've heard and our lack of experience in choosing a good one. So we've decided to stay in another convent -- I figure, why not? Kinda used to it. I need to get back on the phone tomorrow to get the lady who speaks English... please God...

March 30:... 2 hours of Italian class. After that... I didn't do much to redeem myself. I tried calling the convent again, but with no such luck. Then Gwen and I tried the internet to find a place in Venice. Filled out and sent off a form -- waiting anxiously for a reply. I hope we get one.

Didn't finish my paper. Drank a glass of wine and took a shower, then took a short nap out of lack of motivation to do anything else. Finished my book. Took another nap in Gwen's room.

Then we went out, got pizza, then dessert ( I got a chocolate fish!) and planned on getting cocoa, the Blue Bar was closed. Came back and drew.

March 31:... Not going to Venice this weekend. Highly unmotivated anymore and out of luck. Today was fairly depressing, even beyond that realization. Dreary weather. Woke up tired. No cocoa at breakfast because I used it all last time. Wine's gone off. Finished my cookies and Nutella already. No more. Grocery store's closed so I couldn't get more. Blue Bar is STILL out of cocoa.

Did I mention that today was dreary?

Tried writing today, with no success. The best part of the day was definitely chatting with Gwen until we both got to that scary/crazy/everything's-funny stage and went to bed. But on the plus side, I did start adding my journal to my webpage today. Katrina got my postcard!