little brick house on the oklahoma-texas line

((The song actually has absolutely nothing to do with anything in the post...it's just stuck in my head!))

So nothing eventful has happened in the last few days, other than the booking of a trip to Switzerland and the packing for Barcelona, but I still feel the need to update! We've been fairly inundated with work from classes, but I've still been slacking off a little in terms of spending more time planning trips than getting ahead (I have a few absolutely miserable weeks looming after the first 10 day break). Today I just had to escape the house after tutoring Mary Grace/having 6 1/2 hours of class, so despite having a ton of work, I decided to go for a walk along the Zattere, which is where the above picture comes from. Even though I get really stressed about travel plans and school stuff and things like missing Baby Jack's birthday, I know I'm so lucky to be here and I think seeing all the amazing views of Venice today along the Zattere kind of reminded me.

The only really eventful point today was when our art history professor showed up about 15 minutes late, like always, and while we've come to expect it, that alone is still kind of frustrating. BUT, today, three of us were sitting on a couch in the class room (it doubles as the "screening room") after we were specifically told at our house meeting Monday to leave the couch in there so as not to hurt the floor/doors by moving it. In comes the professor...out goes the professor. In comes the assistant house director and the house handy man, Massimo. First Roberta, the assistant director, explains that we can't have our feet up on the ottomans. Fine, no biggie. Next thing you know, the entire couch/ottoman family is quickly whisked out of the room and Allie, Trevor and I are standing awkwardly as Roberta, Massimo, and Professor Chiari stand there staring us down. Apparently it's a respect thing...they just don't allow couches in classrooms in Italy. My only complaint is that I feel like it's kind of disrespectful for her to always show up late and then hold us late...which then leaves me with less than 1/2 an hour to eat and get ready for the second half of an already jam packed day. But, I think she's a delightful and brilliant lady, so hopefully we don't have any more cultural snafus like the embarrassing one today...