Second Day of Classes... aka First Test.

    To say my Theology class is horrible would be a very nice understatement. Today is the second day of classes and Nora, Anthony, Adrian and I spent 3 hours in the library studying for our first exam (Not one SINGLE break!). The reading that the test was based on was so extreme and so difficult to understand I can honestly say I have never read something like this in my life. Economics was one of my worst classes in High School and Theology is one of my least favorite classes in college...well this lovely course is a thorough combination of both. It is day two and we are already teaching ourselves this class.  Five week module courses are extremely overwhelming. To mush four months of work into five weeks is nearly impossible and frustrating. All of us feel the same about this class... I guess 3 hours of studying on the first day, on a topic none of us understand, will do that to you.
    On a positive note...I had a delicious dinner last night. I got Gnocchi (a dish I have been craving since I got here, a pasta stuffed with potato in a red sauce) and the house Red Wine.

      A large group of us went out to this restaurant and though pricy, it was our last meal not using our meal tickets (Meal plan started today...thankfully!!!) So, it was well worth it. In Italy you have to pay for everything at dinner; from a fee to sit down at the table to the bread on the table to tap water. Yes, you may not have to tip the waiter, but it adds up fast. Adrian innocently asked our waiter last night if he could get Chili (spice) to put on his meal and then proceeded to ask if it cost anything. The waiter was laughing so hard at Adrian's question that we both turned red. "No, no, no - no charge for Chili!" the waiter said mid laugh. haha! Well, how were we supposed to know! After that every time the waiter came over with parmesan cheese or pepper or salt he would kid Adrian to not worry it did not cost anything.
     The waiter and owner loved our group of friends (or maybe how much we spent on dinner) and gave us all a free glass of dessert wine free of charge. Dessert wine seems to be very popular here. We see a lot of Italians drinking a yellow drink after their meals- we learned last night that is called Limoncello. It is completely yellow in color and tastes like Lemons. The owner sat us down in front of a Television playing MTV and before we said a word to him gave us menus in English. Apparently they can spot Americans from a mile away.
    Today, the only real time we had for anything was to grab a quick lunch and coffee. We had a building meeting this morning, studied, and then class, so that was our down time today. Nora, Anthony, Adrian, Ricardo and I went to a local cafe and I ordered a cup of Coffee (well Adrian did because he is learning Italian!) and the cup was so tiny!! I posted a picture on my last post. It was also gross! Adrian asked for cream in it and they put whipped cream in it and stirred it! haha I ended up having to have three sugar packets to even get it down and I was jittery for hours after that. I got a different kind of pizza for lunch - bacon, egg and cheese pizza. Delicious.
   Tonight we are going out to eat again, hopefully using our meal tickets. We all have noticed we get very hungry during the day because we have cut out snacking entirely. Our meals consist of one slice of pizza or one plate of pasta. It just goes to show why the Italians are all so skinny.
    Tomorrow Nora and I don't have class. We are using the day to study and do our loads of homework. I have my first test for my online class on Friday. We might take a break in the afternoon to go to the Trevi Fountain and The Pantheon. We haven't really had time to do that much site seeing during the day, so tomorrow is the perfect opportunity. Our class for Thursday was canceled so another day of homework and studying will continue. Friday we have our tour at the Vatican and we might go to the Colosseum as well. My test is Friday though and most everyone else has a term paper due Friday. This weekend we would really like to try and get to Florence, but a great amount of homework needs to be completed before then. Well, off to dinner we go! Yum yum yum! Hello to all in the States! I miss you!

XOXO Shann