To those who said studying abroad would be a nice break from "real school" have not experienced the trifecta of Jan, Fr. Gunter, and Paolo. This week was entirely devoted to our profs cramming the last bit of knowledge into our already full brains before finals next week.
We met with Paolo on Tuesday at St. Peter's Square. He gave us the 25 questions that could be on the test to study (he will be picking 2-3 to put on the exam) and reminded us to study the name, artist, date, and location of everything we have seen with him over the past weeks. We've been studying like mad as well as writing the two papers (on the Vatican Museum and Michelangelo's David) due on the day of the exam. Tuesday will be a bit rough...
Father Gunter took us out two times this week: once to see the church of Saint Clement and the other to see the Basilica of St. Paul. He also has us officially terrified for the exam on Monday. We are to write two essays in an hour and a half on questions we do not yet have (although he did give of us general topics). The scary part is we are expected to memorize at least 4 quotes from our text to put in each essay (even though we don't know what we are writing our essay's on... it's hard to gather evidence when you don't know what you are arguing). It's quite overwhelming.
Jan had us running around three times this week in history, including yesterday at Ostia Antica- the Roman port we pass on the way to beach. It was pretty interesting seeing all the ruins of the ancient city. Other than not being destroyed by a volcano, it had striking similarities to Pompeii. I am extremely relieved I am just auditing this class. I believe his quote was "the war in Afghanistan is a piece of cake compared to my exams." I don't think I could handle another massive test. I can't believe I am saying it, but I kind of miss writing papers...
Italian shouldn't be too bad. We had our second quiz on Thursday, and our final sounds like it will be pretty much on the material from both. I also have Wednesday to brush up on my verb conjugations.
At least we don't have to worry about Jean's class (until Greece that is) or Carmella's literature class. We had our final on Thursday for her on Petrarch. It's nice to have that out of the way.
In other news, just one week left and I GO TO SPAIN! Our plans are Barcelona, Seville, Madrid, and possibly Toledo. It should be a blast, provided I survive this next week!
Wish me luck!
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