I thought midterms were over?

Wow... this week was ridiculous. I had a 15 page paper due last Saturday, spent all of Sunday making notecards for my Brain and Behavior exam, had a Crim paper due Tuesday, had a Brain and Behavior exam on Wednesday along with a French paper due Wednesday and a Modern France class discussion on Thursday... let's just say I am very much looking forward to a weekend!This weekend should be fun. Mr. Stonehill is tomorrow night! I'm friends with almost all of the hosts so from the bits and pieces I've been able to weasel out of them, it sounds like an amazing show! Hopefully all of you are planning to go. The shows of the past have been hilarious and I know this year will deliver as well. Good luck to all of the contestants!

This week was also a big week for tour guiding... since Tuesday was Veteran's Day and most Massachusetts high schools got the day off, we had a TON of high schools here for tours that day. I was assigned Registration, the Info Session and a tour on Tuesday morning and it was CRAZY. We already had about 70 families signed up and I heard we had close to 50 walk-ins... which would make sense considering how big my tour was! The tours are starting to wind down for the semester but I know they'll pick up again in the spring.

I found myself missing my abroad life more than usual this week. I think it's because I know that one year ago, I started to realize my time in France was winding down and I began to cherish everything a bit more that I had grown accustomed to. This weekend, for instance, was my last weekend outside of France for the semester. 3 of my friends and I spent the weekend in Venice, Italy and had an absolute blast eating everything in sight, getting lost in the canals and trying not to freeze! Here are some of my favorite pictures from our Venice trip:

Frieda, Jen & I on the vaporetto headed onto the island of Venice!

A sight rarely seen- Charles SMILING for one of my photos!

Jen literally being attacked by dirty pigeons in San Marco's Square... while she and Frieda chose to have this torture thrust upon themselves, Charles and I wisely chose to abstain from such an activity.

In one of the pretty pretty canals searching for lunch... I was determined to find tortellini for my first Italian meal...

Unfortunately for us, we ran into a few dead-ends on our trek... Venice is SO CONFUSING!

This photo is funny for a few reasons. Backstory: I bought a map in every city I went to-- Copenhagen, Prague, London, Barcelona, everywhere, and I always used them. So of course we bought a Venice map and this was literally the only time we brought it out because the streets in Venice are so small and plentiful that not all of them are even on the map! Jen managed to capture the one moment of map-usage on this trip, so here is Charles and I scouring the map so we can get out of the passageways and find food!

Success! Here are the girls with their delicious pastas!

Haha, definitely one of my favorite photos from the trip! We finished our food sooo quickly...

The girls over looking the Grand Canal, the main and biggest canal in Venice

How Venice does taxis :)

Frieda and I in San Marco's Square at night, freezinggggg cold!

Yet again, freezing cold on the vaporetto home, brrrrrr

Eating real Italian canollis! I can't even count how many times we shoved food into our faces that weekend...

Last photo in Venice, looking over the Grand Canal from the Rialto Bridge.

As you can see, I loved my Italian extravaganza and I wish I could go back to any of it, just for a day :(

Unfortunately that part of my life is over and it's time to stop being sad and focus on what's right now. Like waking my roomie up from her nap so we can shower and get ready for another fun Friday night at Stonehill!