Monday, Monday

I got from the Cassia to Trastevere in a record one hour this morning! A reasonably pleasant cappuccino, and it would have been more pleasant if my chocolate cornetto was the flat rectangular kind rather than the more common croissant kind. Additionally, the flat rectangular kinds are filled with melted chocolate chips, which are much better contained and easier to eat than the croissant stuffed with messy, messy Nutella. The bar I go to here in Trastevere in the mornings is not the one right across the street from John Cabot, where I find the people a little not nice, but rather one farther away from everything where the only people who go there are Italian. Commuting has become infinitely more pleasant since school is over and therefore the buses are not packed with students + backpacks every morning... Just this student and her backpack, which is more comfortable for everyone involved.

Yesterday I did nothing terribly important, but had some nice talks online with Anna and my mom, and on the phone with Peggy, which is all very important keeping-in-touch. I've also devised a preliminary schedule for my time between the end of Calabria (20 July) and when I come home (3-4 August), but all of it is still highly tentative since I need to see if I can actually change my ticket the way I would like. Arguably there are some other ways of doing it, and I'll work all of it out as best I can, since I really do want to go up to Forked Lake this August, as per usual. It would be a very pleasant epilogue to the summer. Still, I need to make some phone calls later this afternoon and make sure the money is coming and when it's coming, so that I can start making these plans concrete. The whole situation is reasonably complicated by the fact that the Orzali's are like, "so you're coming back here after Calabria, right?" and I am still so unsure of everything and they understand. Finally, I must say that it is so fun to work out these hypothetical travelling situations for myself, doing things the way I want to do them, for me.

Finally, today or more likely Wednesday, I've got to go to CTS, the student travel place, to get a student ID card for travelling this summer. The discounts are too good so it's worth the €30 it costs to get it. I'm not going tomorrow, because tomorrow I've decided I will get up like at the same time that I do to come here Mondays and Wednesdays, and then I'll go to Ostia Antica with a book and picnic lunch and I will enjoy the day. As I said to Fulvia, non per vedere ma per stare; not to see it, but to be there. It costs nothing to go down there, and entry is minimal, and I'll take a lunch with me -- this is overall one of the most pleasurable and least expensive sorts of things I can do here.

Alas, ahimè, it is time to begin to prepare for the Michelangelo class. At least this is our last class in the classroom, because after this class Wednesday's is cancelled, and Friday and Saturday we're in Florence, and then next Monday and Wednesday we're out in Rome, and then that's quite unfortunately it.

Tempis fugit.