Success!

Today we turned in our first studio project of the year. My group finished in plenty of time, and we didn't even have to pull an all nighter last night. In fact, because of an interesting labor law Italy passed last summer, we aren't even allowed to stay in studio all night. While we're listening to lectures, taking notes, reading, doing normal class things, we're considered students, but as soon as we pick up a pencil and sit at our drafting tables, we're considered to be "working". Workers have to be supervised at all times, so Notre Dame had to hire a security guard to hang around in the evenings and come check on us periodically. They didn't want to pay for him all night, every night, though, and so studio closes at 2 a.m. (Except the night before our final project we'll have extended hours and still get to do the traditional and practically required all-nighter--but until then, we get to enjoy mandatory sleep!) Our next project will be introduced on Wednesday, so tonight and tomorrow we'll take it easy and enjoy the calm between the storms.

I think St. Peter's has been the subject of most of my blog posts so far while I've been here, but I have to add another quick note--I went to mass there last Sunday! It was awesome. We ended up at a Latin mass. It was a good reminder that Latin is a universal Church language, because probably very few people there were fluent in Latin, but people from all different countries were all sort-of familiar with the responses and stumbling along. And the books they gave us to follow along definitely helped:-) I'm still mystified by the kneeling patterns during the Eucharist prayer, because everyone tends to do what they're used to, I think, and so I don't think I've been to a mass yet with everyone doing the same thing at the same time.

I haven't done any major sight-seeing lately, so I don't really have any exciting news or stories to report...but I'll leave you with this thought, which also happens to be the subject of my facebook status right now--that proves how monumental it is. Last night, I started using authentic Italian toothpaste. Even better, I'm pretty sure it's off-brand Italian toothpaste. It tastes kind of funny, but it makes me feel way more legit.