Oh look, it's another symbolic representation of Jesus.

On Sunday there was a school-sponsered trip to Ravenna, so of course the three of us signed up to go. It was a really long day, but worth it I think. Ravenna, as you may know, is famous for its early Renaissance mosiacs, especially the well-known Justinian and Theodora mosiacs. They are truly beautiful, so vibrant and colorful and surprisingly detailed with a three-dimensional quality. And so large! Seeing the pictures in books and online definately does not do these mosaics justice, any of them. You just lose the vibrancy and sheer size of them. After about 7 hours of looking at mosaics though it gets tiring and a little repetitive, as can be expected, and all the symbols really don't have to be explained any more, though the history professor leading the trip really wants to re-explain all of them. But it was interesting and fun, and getting to see another city was really nice. Ravenna is much quieter and emptier than Florence, and seems much more like a "real" Italian city... not all tourists and immigrants and international students. Since it was a Sunday, when we got to the main Piazza of Ravenna around midday, it was full of middle-aged and older men, all standing around and chatting while their wives at home made the Sunday meal. It was really interesting to see, and we, with our 50 or so students, were as much a spectacle to them as they were to us.

This Friday Emily and I will be going to Bologne with our classes to a contemporary art fair, which should be pretty interesting. Another long day, but completely worth it.

The following weekend is ROME!!! 30 Euros for the weekend- not too bad, considering thats hotel, train, museum, Vatican, and the Colloseum. I'm pretty excited about it.

We have a new President!!!! It was crazy trying to watch the inaguration last night, but we managed it. The internet was a little slow, of course, so we mostly just got the sound, a little choppy. The picture was there sometimes, but nothing consistant. It is so exciting, for all of us. Even the Italians are excited about it. We don't have to be afraid to say we're Americans anymore!! And we can be slightly more certain of our willingness to come home at the end of the semester...

That's all for now, I've got class soon and stuff to do! Hope all is going well there- feel free to shoot emails this way with updates, stories, pleads to return, bribes to buy you things, etc. We will definately update about Bologne and any other interesting activities!

Much love to all,

Katy