After a while...

Ciao Ciao everyone... Apologies for taking so long to update you on my Italian life.

I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know my poetry professor and her two children while they were here during my last class. Christine, the professor, and I had a lot of neat conversations while walking around the town and during class about family, theology (Orthodoxy in particular), good books, creativity, and the future. She really encouraged me to pursue opportunities where I could share the gift of theatre with children, specifically those with special needs. She thinks I would really be an encouraging and compassionate teacher of theatre for a group of unique individuals who might benefit from such creative outlets. I have been thinking about the idea of looking into "theatre therapy" (like art or music therapy) for after graduation, so I really appreciated her honesty and spurring me on in that direction. I was also really excited about the challenges and improvements I saw in my own writing over the course of the semester. It was fun to push myself to write in verse and pre-established forms, like the sonnet and villanelle, and I came out of the class with about 10 poems that I can share with you if you want (but I don't really want to put them all on my blog).

I've enjoyed getting to walk around the town more, whether at the time of "pasagata" (evening walks before dinner) down the main "Corso Cavour" (our main street), or along the edge of the cliff- about an hour walk. My people-watching skills have been coming in handy here, as there are so many interesting generations of families, tourists and shopowners that I see frequently here. In fact, I just started my travel writing course on Monday with a professor/writer named Scott Cairns. In his opinion, it is sometimes the people that make a place rather than all of the landscape, food and buildings. We've spent the first few days of classes people-watching! Asking, "Why is she doing that? What is he thinking? Where did they come from? What are they saying? Why is he wearing that? Where is she going?" This is a game I've been playing since I was in 6th grade (thanks Grammy!), so I felt really excited to do so for a class and be able to write down my observations and speculations. I'll be sharing what I write as it becomes more developed.

Nick came to visit me from May 6-14. We had a wonderful time sharing the town that is so signficant to both of us- he was here this same time last year for his semester abroad. I loved watching him interact with all of the people and places in town that he grew strong connections to. We had a great time playing "futbol" (soccer) with a group of students, having meals with his friend Alessandro (a man in our town whose whole family is an important part of Orvieto), taking walks around the cliff, and a weekend of hiking, seafood, and the beach in Cinque Terre. (Cinque Terre is a part of the Italian coast comprised of 5 villages that are part of a national park- absolutely gorgeous and refreshing!).

I can't believe I only have about 3 and a half weeks left here in Italy... it's hard to believe how quickly the time can fly when you're growing, learning, seeing, tasting and experiencing a new place such as Orvieto! I have a feeling that I won't be able to know exactly what I'll take from my time here until well after I am home. But I'm trying still to soak it all in, from every taste of gelato to the Italian sunsets over the vineyards. Thank you all for following along this journey with me! I'll try to update more frequently in my last few weeks here! See so many of you so soon!

P.S. Congratulations to my dear friends who just graduated from Gordon this past weekend! I'm so proud of all of you!! Wish I could have been there, but I was thinking about each of you during the time of the ceremony and your last few days on campus as Gordon College students!