Midterms have arrived. I don't want to say I haven't been studious this semester, but I had planned this semester to be somewhat of a break from the usual rigor. Besides, I'm definitely doing my homework in my cooking and wine tasting courses! In all my classes for that matter, I feel like I supplement my time in class with my time outside of class. How can you not review for an art history exam when your rooftop overlooks the Duomo? And Italian language? Come on. That's a no brainer. My point is that I hadn't really studied...at all...until this past weekend before midterms approached. I had my cooking practical yesterday. I made homemade fresh egg pasta and my other group members perfected the tomato, mushroom, and zucchini sauce. My professor said our dish was perfect and reminded hiim of his grandmother's cooking--really?? I guess it doesn't hurt that I also purchased a homemade pasta maker. I went to a kitchen supply store near school to buy it. When I was looking for the cheapest one, the older store owner approached me and she started speaking Italian--awesome! I love being put in situations where I actually HAVE to use my Italian. She tried to tell me to buy the more expensive ones because they were better and more Italian. I appreciated her attempts, but of course I opted for the 30 euro machine. I also had my wine tasting midterm yesterday.
Today, I had my art history and political science midterms. They were considerably more difficult than my tests yesterday, but I think I did well on them.
Since we have midterms this week, I stayed in Florence (for the most part) this past weekend. We decided somewhat last minute to do a day trip to San Gimignano, a medieval town south of Florence in the Tuscan countryside that is famous for its Vernaccia white wine. On the bus ride there, however, we neglected to familiarize ourselves with the route, so we missed the stop that we were supposed to get off at and ended up in Siena. If you recall from previous posts, I have already been to Siena! But we had an hour to kill there before another bus could take us to San Gimignano, so we grabbed some gelato and walked around. And it was sunny then (compared to last time when it was cold and rainy), so we weren't altogether mad at ourselves! But San Gimignano was BEAUTIFUL! By far it was the prettiest town I have visited yet. We visited a torture museum--grotesque. And we also stopped in an enoteca to taste some local wines and manj a little bit.
My last midterm is tomorrow morning in Italian. I am not terribly worried about. So as of 9 A.M. tomorrow morning, I will be on spring break 2010!! Watch out, Spain!!
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Tell me about your wine tasting midterm, did it just consist of drinking various wines and discussing their flavors? I am infinitely jealous you are not suffering the wrath of midterms. LOVE LOVE LOVE, have some tapas for me in Spain!
ReplyDeleteSorry I am just now getting to see this! Spain got in the way, as did its tapas. In fact, one of the tapas made me sick, but I didn't let it bring me down!
ReplyDeleteFor my wine midterm, we described about 5 regions/wines of Tuscany. For instance, the questiong might be, "Summarize Chianti and Chianti Classico." Then, there were 50 true/false questions about Italy in general. Then, we blind tasted one red and one white. We have a list of adjectives and terms that we use to describe what is going on (visually, olfactory, gustatory). I will bring my notes home, don't worry!
Hi Ross,
ReplyDeleteYour posts are a delight to read. I have just returned from a brief trip to England to meet with the TCU studying there, and I also had one of those "a ah, I am really here" moments when I walked into the British Museum and saw the Rosetta Stone. It's a wonderful curious feeling to encounter things we have only read about, or seen pictures of. And you are so right about education. I know the midterms are a necessary challenge, but it sounds like you did well. But you are right that the most important parts of your education are taking place outside the classroom. Your blog is a wonderful demonstration of all the invaluable lessons you've learned. best, dan williams