Can't believe how it flew by...

Well here I am, on my second-to-last night (not counting when my parents get here!) in Perugia. Someone needs to explain to me how this happened. I know every semester, even at Maryland, seems to go by faster than the one before it... but I feel like I just arrived in Perugia yesterday in some ways. In other ways, it seems like forever since I was imagining what this semester would be like, or since that day when I arrived in Fiumicino by myself looking for the Umbra group to take me to Perugia.

I haven't had any time to really catch my breath this week, because the day I arrived back from Prague I was immediately thrown into the mix of the International Journalism Festival here in Perugia. I'd signed up to be a volunteer when I was still in the U.S. The moment I saw they had such a thing as a journalism festival in this town, I knew I had to be a part of it.

There were more than 200 volunteers here this week, mostly from Italy, but also from around Europe and the world. Unfortunately a good handful couldn't make it because of the Icelandic volcano, but some, like me, managed to find creative ways of getting to Perugia. I was assigned to be on the "logistics" team for Teatro Morlacchi. This is the gorgeous Perugian theater where I saw a play in Italian before spring break. It was the venue for the most prestigious events of the festival, including the speeches by Al Gore and Roberto Saviano, and Marco Travaglio. I'll explain who those last Italian guys are in a second, but here in Italy, they're almost like celebrities.

For my part with the "logistics" me and a group of about five other Italian kids had to arrive several hours in advance of the events to set up the stage, bring water bottles, notepads, etc. Then during the event, when there was a translation, we handed out and returned headphones to the audience. And let me say, that last part was a lot harder than it sounds!

A lot of other volunteers were busy 8 a.m. to midnight the whole week (it lasted from Tuesday to Sunday), writing articles, doing interviews, or just doing logistics at other locations. But a benefit (for me) of my responsibility was that I didn't have anything required to do until Friday. This was perfect, because I had an Italian final on Friday, and a lot of sleep to catch up on! Not to mention I had a final yesterday and today!

But from Friday til Sunday, I was kept very busy and ended the week feeling pretty much exhausted! I am so happy that I chose to volunteer, though. I met a ton of amazing Italian (and European) students like me, who are passionate about journalism. Everyone was so nice-- people who I only just met during the week went so out of their way to be friendly, were so enthusiastic about getting to know the other volunteers. Yesterday I had planned on studying for my film final all afternoon, and instead I ran into a couple volunteers who were still in Perugia, and before I knew it I was traipsing around town with them, completely oblivious to the "plans" I had made. That's something I learned pretty quickly here-- plans don't really happen. You leave your apartment setting out to do one thing, but there's always some kind of distraction or temptation that ends up turning your day (or afternoon) in a totally different direction. I kind of like it, though-- spontaneity is a refreshing thing for me.

Although I did volunteer at Al Gore's speech, and I was at the theater something like five hours in advance, I still didn't get to meet him! Haha oh well...it would have been a cool experience, but definitely not something I needed to happen. I felt lucky to just have a spot secured in the audience! People waited outside the theater in the cold/wind for four hours to get a spot at the event. It was complete madness. The fact that Gore was speaking with Roberto Saviano, the author of many books including "Gomorra," added to the celebrity factor. "Gomorra" was turned into a blockbuster movie in 2008, and it deals with the mafia and the destruction it causes here in Italy. I actually saw the movie with my Italian class a couple weeks ago. It was hard to understand what was going on, because the actors spoke in heavy Campanian dialect...there were English sub-titles, but to me (and my class) the movie was just like three hours of people needlessly shooting each other and getting high. Definitely not something I'd want to see again, but it proved a point. In a place as seemingly peaceful as Italy, it's hard to imagine things like that actually taking place...but it's reality. And it's pretty scary. Apparently since writing the book, Saviano has to constantly be under police protection and move from place to place, because clearly the Mafia wasn't very happy with what he wrote. People in Italy (at least in Perugia) love him, though, and really admire him for risking his life to expose the ugly truth about organized crime here. I have to say, I really admire him, too.

Al Gore mostly spoke about this project, Current TV, which I had never heard of before. Apparently it's in the U.S., The U.K., and Italy, and it sends reporters out to cover sometimes dangerous subjects that other networks don't cover. Since Gore spoke in English, most of the audience wore headphones to understand what he was saying. It was interesting to see a prominent figure from the U.S. talk to a group of foreigners... he kept on using phrases like "in my country"...I'm not sure how I felt about that. To be a little critical of him, at times I just felt like he was really only there to promote his TV network... he really didn't have anything substantial to say about journalism. Nonetheless, it was really cool to see him talk in person, and his TV network does sound like something worth keeping an eye on.

The other important speaker was at Morlacchi the night before, and people also lined up hours in advance to get a seat for the show. There were literally people kicking and punching the door to try to get in afterward... it was crazy. This was for Marco Travaglio, a really respected Italian journalist who founded il Fatto Quotidiano last year.

Like I wrote, I just had two finals in the last two days, and now I am really officially done. The next time I take a class, I'll be a senior. Unreal...

Today I had my last day volunteering at the high school teaching English. We listened to "I Gotta Feeling" by the Black Eyed Peas and the kids tried to fill in the prepositions and translate the lyrics. I was so sad to say goodbye to them, and to the teacher! They were a great group, and having this experience was incredible for me. I never would have known what an interest I have in teaching, and particularly in teaching English to foreigners. We'll see if that will give me some ideas for where I'll go/ what I'll do post-college.

Tomorrow I'm heading to Florence for the day! Believe it or not, I'm only two hours away by train and have passed through several times en route to other destinations, but this whole semester I haven't once actually spent time there. It's crazy, because when I went to Italy in high school it was my favorite city! I guess I just took for granted how close it was here. That's why I made sure to squeeze in an end of the semester visit. It'll be nice to just relax and be a tourist for a day, after this past week of craziness. Although how can I really complain? I've been in Italy this whole time, and that in itself is always relaxing! Ahhh I'm going to miss it...

On Thursday my parents and Melissa get here, and then we'll spend some time in Perugia before making our way to Frascati and Salerno. I probably won't post until I'm back in the U.S. after May 10. Until then... thanks for reading! :-)