Wait..I have to go to class?

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Soooo my classes here in Italy are FANTASTICCCC!

On Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays i have my Italian class from 2-2:55. The teacher is really nice and funny and super approachable however, i dont like her teaching style. Back in high school, my french classes were taught with alot of structure and steps. Here we immediately just get thrown into learning phrases before even learning the basics. its really overwhelming and frustrating because im not understanding it right away. when i keep wanting to say something, i keep remembering it in french (which is cool so when i go to paris ill remember!) im just going to have to try really hard at this class, and i mean it does help that i need to know it to get around here in italy but its a very hard language in the sense that the sounds and melody to speaking is completely different than in english.

then on mondays i also have my roman catholicism class. its from 3-5:30..so its a longgggg one. i took this class here bc i figured it would be best to take this class while im in rome but i also took it bc loyola requires me to take two theo classes :/ i looked at the syllabus and all of the topics are stuff that i covered in ccd..but just like ccd i hate going to this class. i dont mind it most of the time but sometimes it gets a little to preachy for my liking. but my teacher has studied all over europe and is a very dorky man. he really isnt able to keep my attention for the whole 2 and a half hours, but then again most teachers cant. it was interesting tho when he was talking about how different faiths differ from roman catholicism..it got me thinking if i want to convert or not. when people ask what faith i am all i respond with is "i was raised roman catholic but now i dont consider myself catholic". i was thinking about maybe talking to the different pastors here and jesuits to find out what the differences are exactly between the different faiths, but then again i thought what i believe really isnt one faith..its just a mish mosh of a bunch of different ideas. i draw from many faiths and believe what makes sense to me. but my teacher told me that thats fine if we dont consider ourselves a certain faith but if we have gone thru the sacraments then we are that faith regardless..needless to say that irritated me that he basically told me i am something because i went thru sacraments even if i dont believe in them..yeah irritating.

then on tuesday i am in Baroque art and its an on site class meaning that almost every other class period we dont go to class but instead go to the spanish steps, or the vatican or the pantheon etc etc. so that class will be really cool..and its my only early class. every day i start school at 2pm but on tuesdays its 9:30-12 . i already had some reading for this class and it was really interesting. i love history and learning about art is basically history because you learn about so many different aspects of it. tomorrow im going to the vatican for class and i cant wait because i havent been there yet!!

then on wednesday i have my modern art class...FOR THREE HOURS (2-5). needless to say its brutal. i dont care what im learning about for three hours, it could be the most interesting thing in the world but this is awful. its SO LONGGG. and i mean my teacher is fantastic. the first day of class we went around the room and we had to say our name, where we went to school and where we were from. of course lots of ppl didnt go to loyola or werent from chicago and he had literally been to every single place ppl named. and not only had lived there before but had studied there. he no joke probably has about 10 different degrees. oh and he can speak a few different languages fluently and sing, its insane. but yeah modern art is a really neat class but its just reallly long but i am still looking forward to it 😊

taking classes here kinda woke me up and made me realize that maybe i should have majored in something else. i mean business is a practical degree, no doubt. but i wish i did international studies or international business and then minored in a foreign language. or paired a business degree with something doing with international. being here made me realize that there is so much more outside of the united states. there are so many other cultures, and people, and languages and food that not thinking about all this stuff made me very closed minded before.

all in all, i really like my classes here and they are a nice compliment to studying abroad. i feel like all of my classes here just enhance my studying abroad experience, sure doing the work sucks but it adds value. i learn about the stuff in class and then just take a bus ride to see it in person. 😊

ciao, thanks for reading 😊

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