Papering

Nothing exciting happening this weekend...I'm staying in Venice, which is always great because clearly i kind of like it here (and by like i mean LOVE) but i'm not getting to enjoy the city that much because I have to write a paper. I'm trying to get at least one paper finished before my next spring break so that I only have 3 ten to fifteen page papers (one in italian) to work on while my family is here...So far the first paper is going well, hopefully i'll finish half today and half tomorrow.

I did go out to dinner last night to a fantastic place. It's actually just up the calle from my house and it's fantastic, it's like eating at your crazy, old, smoker, grandmother's house...and being served by a crazy, old, smoking grandmother. This women was so cute, she would start talking to us (in venetian no less) and then walk away mid thought. The food was fantastic! I only had chicken because i had already had pasta that day, but my friend had a delicous gnocchi.

Also this morning while i was waiting for my friend to get ready to go get coffee (an essential start to any day) i was looking through some of the memory books. Every year students write their parting thoughts in these beautiful leather bound books, dating back 20+ years. There was one random white binder which suprised me because all of the other books are gorgious themselves. I looked through the binder and realized it was a record of the purchase, restoration and decoration of this house. I wish i had known about it earlier, and I think everyone should have to look at it before the move in here. While it was an American consulate by the time Wake Forest aquired the house it was not in good condition. There was significan restoration done and it was so touching to see how much effort these 3 very wealthy older women put into decorating this house for the future Wake Forest students. So much of the decorations and furniture where more expensive then i realized. Everything was thoughtout, planned, restored, donated. The fabrics were donated by Fortuny fabrics and the were sewn with Peggy Guiggenhiem's sewing machine! I think many of the students are taking for granted what we have here and this was a nice reminder of how amazing this opportunity it, not only to be spending a semester abroad anywhere, but specifically in Venice and in this estate that people put so much time, effort and money into making nice enough for us?!