Carnevale di Venezia e Primo Giorno di Lezioni

As you might have noticed, I was finally able to go back and add pictures to all of my previous blog posts so you can scroll down to see them!! No, I haven’t figured out my internet yet but I am able to transfer pictures onto my iPod using iTunes and then add them to the blog from my iPod. It is a huge hassle but I figured that you are reading this because you want to actually see some of the things I write about!

On Saturday I finally went to Venice for the most important day of their world-famous carnival and the island was just as beautiful in person as it is in pictures! The day started very early with a 6am cab ride to the bus that would take us to Venice. I tried sleeping on the 3.5 hour bus ride but was uncomfortable the whole time and was relieved when we finally arrived. For some reason I never really knew that Venice was an island (I guess I figured that it was a peninsula or something), but I realized it when we had to take a boat to get there! When the view of the island came into sight I immediately noticed 2 things: How beautiful it was and how crowded it was! It literally looked like there was an army of ants crawling on the stunning water-front streets.

Once on the island I started making my way toward the main plaza in Venice, Piazza San Marco, while I enjoyed the festive carnival environment. Many people were dressed in masks and there were bands playing music. Some streets were so crowded that it almost felt like Times Square on New Year’s (though I haven’t ever actually experienced it). It was also a lot of fun to see the gondolas in the canals since I had always seen them in pictures and movies. Unfortunately, everything was so crowded that it was hard to see a lot of the island but overall, the island was extremely beautiful and I would love to come back another time and spend a couple days exploring more of it! Some of the other things I saw included a costume show in Piazza San Marco, a fire show at night, and my first full rugby match at an Irish pub. I wouldn’t have normally spent a few hours in Venice in an Irish pub but after walking around for most of the day in the large crowds, it was nice to rest the legs and enjoy a cold beer. During the day I had pizza for both lunch and dinner with gelato for dessert. Some of the gelato I have had here isn’t as good as some of the ice cream from home, but the really good gelato is SUPERB! I am pretty easy to please, so the highlight of the trip was just walking through the streets and seeing all of the cool buildings and canals. The bus left for Milan at 3am so I didn’t get home until super late (or early) and spent most of the day yesterday sleeping.

Today was my first day of classes and it was super LONG! I only had 2 classes but one of them meets 3 times every Monday!! I’ve never had a class that meets more than once in one day but this one literally meets at 1pm and then 2 times later in the afternoon/early evening with the same professor! The class is called Management of Competition & Innovation in High Tech and fortunately, I really really like the professor. He is really young and energetic but also really knows the subject matter well and is very interesting to listen to. I also had my Alternative Investments course and that class also seems decent, although not nearly as interesting as the other. The professor also doesn’t speak English as well as he does, but she seems very nice and I am considering taking the class pass/fail so I am not too worried about it. This semester I am also taking Product Management and Intro to E-Commerce and E-Marketing and I really like that I don’t have classes on Friday. I am taking 1 finance, 1 mgmt, and 2 mktg classes and I think it’s a really good balance of a wide variety of topics. Last night I realized that my spring break is about 3 weeks long, which I am very excited for, although I might have a couple midterms during that time! I am motivated to do well this semester and once I get a lamp for my desk I will be ready to begin to study hard during the week so that I can travel and enjoy my weekends!!

I hope you all have a wonderful week and that you had a nice Valentine’s Day!

Buona notte!

cLo

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