Week 4 Is Over Already!!

     Week 4 quickly came to a close yesterday and it was eventful to say the least. On Monday, I was supposed to do my walking tour with my roommate, Danielle, but unfortunately I was too sick to even get out of bed so she had to do it by herself, tear. :'( Everyone said that it went well but it was sad not be there and enjoy giving the tour since we had worked so hard to put it together. On Tuesday, we went on a student-led walking tour of the Pantheon and surrounding area by Rachel and Aimee. They did a fantastic job and it was very interesting. The Pantheon was way bigger than we had all expected. It was very interesting to be there and to see how amazing the building really was. I really enjoyed it, pictures to come soon!!
     On Thursday, we went to the museum of the mind right outside of Rome. The museum used to be a mental health hospital in the 1900's. It was very cool to be there and to see what it was like to be in a mental hospital back then because it so much different than the way that we are today. We got to hear stories of people that went into the hospital and most of them were not even sick, they were just orphans. By the time that they had spent so many years in the hospital, they had gone crazy from being around so many mental patients. It was sad to hear peoples' stories about how they had gone into the hospital and had to stay there because they were seen as 'crazy' because they had a learning disability. The hospital was very interesting and I am very glad that we got to go there and see it.
     We left for Florence on the fast train on Friday morning and it only took about an hour and a half to get there. The train ride went by quickly since most of us slept the whole way. We got to our hotel and it was by far the nicest that we have stayed at this trip. We went on a short walking tour of the city with the group, professor, his wife, and Danilo. They showed us around and then we got free time to explore the city on our own. We went shopping of course, it is a leather capital. :) We went out that night to an Irish pub and it was very interesting to see so many different people there not only Italians. The next morning, we got up and went to the Uffizzi Museum as a group. This was an amazing place, there was so much art there and we all enjoyed it a lot. We got to spend 2 hours there, but I could have spent the whole day there. After we left the museum, we went to the Academia to see the Statue of David. It was amazing to see it in real life since it was so much bigger than anyone had thought it was. We did more shopping and then on Saturday night we had a traditional Tuscan 4 course meal, it was DELICIOUS!! We left on Sunday after having a little bit of free time and none of us wanted to leave since we had such a great time. We all became closer on this trip and are becoming such a big family!! During this trip, we got lost as a small group and found ourselves seeing a lot more being lost. This just goes to show M=EA (Mishap equal Excellent Adventure).