back to the grind

Well, Switzerland was fun! But I came home to an apartment in tatters and this:

Okay, so my mountain of homework isn't THAT big. But it's relatively large. They told me before I left that a semester abroad would be more difficult than I was used to. I didn't believe them and I still don't. But I will say that they give you more work which takes at least double if not triple the amount of time it would take me at home. It's not harder. I can study for an exam in a day or two and still ace it, but I get about 30 pages of reading for each day (if not more, especially for feminist literature.) To all my friends who are pleasantly shocked that I'm taking a fem lit course: I had to take it, I hate it, and I am in no way excited about the mountains of reading my teacher assigns--in dialect, no less!--nor am I particularly excited to sit for 2 hours twice a week to be talked at. To all my friends who are appallingly shocked that I took a fem lit class: I repeat--in no way, shape, or form did I have a choice in this matter.

Also, when you figure in that you basically won't be doing homework on the weekends when you want to travel and see the world and not sit with a textbook and read pages upon pages of Italian, your time windows for getting homework done are significantly narrowed. Oh, and don't forget you have 9am classes every day and an 8:30am class on Friday, so you can't stay up until 3am doing homework. Plus, even if you do (I have tried it for fem lit), you end up falling asleep because it is so incredibly boring and confusing and you're soooooo tired from getting up at 8 that you can't possibly keep your eyes open.

So! Even though I have a month to do this:
1) Read 37 pages of Contemporary Italian History
2) Read 27 pages of Italian Cinema
3) Write a 2000 word essay for Italian History (which of course I still have to research, so...)
4) Finish researching my essay
5) Finish reading 25 more pages of a super boring book for Fem Lit
6) Read an additional 81 pages for Fem Lit
7) Read 100 pages more (at least I can do this in English) for an Italian presentation
8) Plan my Italian presentation for my final (which is next week, I should add)
9) Study for my Italian final (also next week)
10) Study for my Cinema final (thankfully in 3 weeks)
11) Study for my Contemporary History final
12) Study for my Fem Lit final
13) Write my Fem Lit paper (and I haven't even started on that research...)

And, of course, make time to research my thesis in the historical archives when I can't even figure out how to access them. This is shaping up to be a very interesting month, huh? So to everyone who's been asking what I've been doing: STRESSING!

And of course, seeing this little corner of the world while I still can, which has probably contributed to the whole 'I feel like I have no time left now' feeling. Oh, well!

Switzerland was fabulous, to everyone who wanted to know. Although, this meat-eater found out that she sometimes likes to change it up and not eat fried or sausaged meat every night (which the Swiss apparently are not so fond of, unless you consider fondue, which I am not so fond of). I will look back on my time in Switzerland fondly, though. Especially the hotel which left a Toblerone on my pillow every day and which had 4 channels of TV in English (and 3 in Italian!) so at least I got some couch-potato time in there. And of course Zurich and the scenery was just beautiful.

Stein am Rhein, Switzerland near the German border

Sir Stu liked the view too.

But I think he liked playing around in Hohenklingen Castle more...

Back to the homework, though! (And hopefully some fun travels in the near future which include me leaving the apartment and the weather not being rain EVERY. SINGLE. DAY... I mean, seriously, when did "April Showers" become "monsoon season?" And I heard it's supposed to be 88 in NJ tomorrow... and probably sunny too.)


Oh! I forgot to tell the wondrous story of my trip back to Ferrara from Zurich! -__- When I got to the train station yesterday--45 minutes early, I might add, even after exchanging my Swiss francs into Euros!--my train wasn't on the departure board yet so I waited in a really long line at the ticket counter to ask what track it might be on. I was promptly informed that it was on track 7 and was not a direct trip today; that everyone who was going to Milan had to change trains at Chiasso. Wonderful! When I got on the train, car 5 seat 47 did not exist. I found car 5 seat 46 in 1st class and the rest of the car was a restaurant. So I got to spend a whole 4 hours in a wooden-backed, minimally-cushioned chair at a dining table.

At Chiasso, they made us walk through the station even though the train was literally on the next track (i.e. on the other side of the platform), past the Italian finance police and a bomb-sniffing dog (I think... maybe it was drugs, I don't know). And then the train left about 30 minutes late.

Meanwhile, I had a Frecciarossa to catch at 3:20pm from Milan to Bologna, which I had already paid for. Luckily for SBB and Trenitalia the train arrived 10 minutes before my Freccia left. Otherwise, they would have had a very upset, possibly screaming & cursing American on their hands.

Unluckily, my Freccia was 5 platforms away and I had a suitcase with me. Also unluckily Milan is a very, very  crappily designed station and all the major tracks funnel into the main station area. Imagine it like a T, except it has too many vertical lines connecting to the one horizontal line. The vertical lines are the platforms. Which means that people just hanging out smoking and generally getting in my way all stand at the end of the vertical line nearest the horizontal area or in the horizontal area directly adjacent to the vertical platform lines. And everyone is bustling around the connected area trying to get to their trains. And old ladies are just generally getting in the way because they are slow and well, old ladies. They are also short, which I use as an excuse for why I always seem to crash into them (sorry, they are all of 4'8" which makes them impossible to see over a normal-sized Italian crowd).

At the connection of these horizontal and vertical lines the Milanese people have erected sloped slabs of marble to display the digital signs which inform travelers of the track number and train information. Unfortunately these slabs of marble are not so conveniently placed for harried travels running between tracks and trying to avoid old ladies, rolling over people's toes with their suitcases, etc. Oh! At this point I should mention I was wearing Converse, which even as brand-new pairs have little traction. Mine have about -5 traction. Yes, the are basically just flat rubber on the bottom. Not great for trying to mount giant slabs of sloped and polished marble. Unluckily for you readers (and luckily for me), I did not in fact wipe out on the marble mountain/sign display-er. But there was a second of uncertainty where I thought I might. And I'm sure a bunch of unhappy and crowded travelers were disappointed to see me wobble, slip, trip... and steady myself on the actual sign to remain upright and sort-of stumble the rest of the way around the giant slab.

Luckily for me--and unluckily for the man sitting in my seat--I made the train. After almost-yelling at the man in my seat that I had the corridor (in Italian, I might add... I think he was Canadian and didn't really understand much of what I was saying. Which of course I realize about 5 minutes too late), I was finally, finally seated. And the Canadian guy even offered me a cookie about half-an-hour later. (But, seriously, I can assure that I do not look deathly thin and do not need to be offered food by every passing traveler, so I'm still not sure why they do it!)