Whoo many things to catch up on. I'm just going to start and I this probably won't be in any order.

First, and most pressing, is the fact that its been snowing here for the last 4 days. Like, there's been a foot of snow here all weekend. Look at this!

These are the steps out of our apartment. Eek.

Some adorable Italians made this Snowcat.

All the tiny European cars are straight up buried!

I think the Italians handle it pretty well, there's no mass panicking or anything, but all the produce at the store was gone. They also cancel classes here pretty easily since many people have to drive in for a ways away and its much harder to do that here. So, no art class for me Friday but our classes at the AHA building still happened. 

My art history professor (who is also the director of the program here and one of the most knowledgeable people I know) took our whole class, all 4 of us, to visit two abbeys about a half an hour outside of Macerata. We've been learning a lot about Romanesque churches and their architecture so it was nice to see it in application. Plus they were both super gorgeous. The first one was called Chiesa di S. Francesco and had 3 apses.

It had two levels, a man who takes care of the church let us see the upper level while trying to convert us to Catholicism in Italian.

Oh, plus a bunch more fresco stuff. Filiberto made a comment about Joseph being painted a bit upset that his wife was having a baby even though she was a virgin. 

The second I don't remember the name of but it had Maria in there somewhere. Of course. It was ridiculously pretty and Filiberto said there were a lot of weddings there. All four of us girls became stupid girly about it immediately. Oh the staircase! Oh the facade! The entire interior was made up of cut stone, like the arches were perfectly cut. It was so crazy cool. These pictures look radioactive, but the sun was just hitting my iPhone a weird way. 

Food has continued to be eventful. We had a cooking class for Cross Culture class with our professor Angelica (who is Filiberto's wife). She showed us how to make two different sauces and pastas and we also made a Sicilian salad. It was cut up oranges with olive oil and salt and olives. It was kindof gross but I liked it too. We also tasted some goat cheeses, old and new. We put honey on the old one and I decided I liked it.

On Friday we learned how to make homemade noodles at a local restarant that has good connects with the program. We just made a single serving batch with one egg, flour, and olive oil. It was really cool and then we got to take them home to eat. After that lesson, Filiberto and Angelica treated us to pasta, salad, and an assortment of pruscetta (pork based meat). I was so ridiculously full by the time that was over. It had been snowing all day so Filiberto was sweet and drove us home. Those two are such nice people, we're lucky to have them around! They called and checked up on us this weekend to make sure everything was going okay with the snow and all. 

I'm getting an affinity for artichoke here! The other day I got a slice of pizza at a place we go to often for lunch. It was tuna and artichoke and sooo gooood. We've also been getting cappuccino art lately. Yum.

So finally, I've decided to stay in Europe for an extra month and do some babysitting for a family friend in Berlin. I'm so excited to live there for a few weeks! I was able to change my flight time, but still have to fly out of Rome, so that should be interesting...But anyway, for now I'll be done in Macerata on the 21st of April and then I'l be in Berlin until the 25th of May. I know its going to be so fun, I'm a little worried about homesickness, but at least I'll have some more culture shock to deal with that will keep me distracted. Still, I can't wait to see everyone!

I'm going to finish adding pictures to this Monday because the internet connection here gets really slow when I upload photos.