It's hard to study when you're abroad.

Let me just start this off on a sad note. I got wind that the Jayhawks lost to Mizzou last night in a basketball game. Now I've been disconnected for a month or so but when I last left the Jawhawks after watching their win against Tennessee at Allen Fieldhouse I thought we were on the upswing. Regardless - MUCK FIZZOU you dirty SOBs. Apologies.
Well I've finally felt a personal connection to the downfall of the economy. Okay that's not entirely true, but I was 'laid off' from that job that I told you all about just recently. That's right, I sent the first leg of the project to my boss (the associate dean of students) and he responded w/ 'Great work, Elise! But I've already handed out the rest of the tapes. I'll pay you when I can this week and will see if I have any work I can find for you over the rest of the semester.' What an ass. I do an excellent job for him and was very excited to continue and complete the project. I also spent a lot of time trying to clean up his reputation w/ the students (he comes off as sort of an...asshole to put it lightly) but I will no longer defend him as he has pretty much screwed me over.
This week I've started to feel the heat - people that have studied abroad in the past rarely ever mention the actual STUDYING part. In fact, if I remember correctly they said school is easy as all get-out and can hardly be taken seriously. Problem is I decided to sort of 'take it easy' these past few years and have no room left to do so. So while everyone else is out taking day trips and drinking Peroni, I'm stuck inside studying when I take breaks from 'surfing the 'net.' It's just hard not to want to plan a bunch of trips when I have kayak.com and ryanair at my fingertips. In fact in two weeks I think I'm going on a long awaited trip to Monaco - one of the richest places on this earth (cue laughter). It's kind of ridiculous sounding and fantastical, but I just have to visit it, if only because of the name. Plus I'm staying at a friend of a friend's condo of some sort and I can't pass that up.
(Side note: my friend Joe just walked in, WASTED, after doing karaoke in the cafe downstairs. He traipsed down the hall in his teeny boxers and low cut shirt. I just want him to read this at some point. He just tried to hop down from my bed and said "Whoopsy, ball sac!" because he fell down. HAHAHA). Okay I'm sorry, that's borderline inappropriate.
Today I went down near the Vatican w/ my friend Mark as we embarked on what turned out to be quite an adventure to the Sistine Chapel. Both of us have very little spatial intelligence, and as Rome isn't necessarily laid out to suit someone unfamiliar, we got somewhat lost. We got to the Vatican and found out that no, the museum which houses the Sistine Chapel is not underneath St. Peter's Basilica. It was closed by the time we figured out where it was, so we made our way to the Napoleon exhibit in Trastevere. But then we didn't know how to get there, either...so we ended up in this beautiful more suburban part of Rome and wandered around in search of McDonald's (the kid loves his euro menu cheeseburgers). Couldn't find it so we headed home w/ just enough time to eat dinner in the cafeteria. Mensa has never tasted so good.
Tomorrow I have class from 8am-6:15pm and then calcio w/ a test on Thursday. That means no beer and pizza tomorrow night at calcio, and I could really use it.
This weekend I'll hopefully take a day trip to Florence to see The David and several other cool things I'm unsure of how to spell. We also - and I'm going to document it here so it's law - are GOING TO THE G.D. FLEA MARKET ON SUNDAY. Hope to find you all some nice treasures.
Till then --