warmer rome

Well the sun has been shining since we got back from Sicily, and it's been around 60 degrees with just beautiful sun and clouds. We've had to go out and paint for our graphics class and the sun feels so nice while you're sitting there trying to paint, but it's so bright that it just makes everything so white it's a challenge to paint. The other thing the change in weather means is tourists. I know I was one, and still kinda am, but it's really funny now that I'm used to the Romans to pick out the tourists. The other day there was a guy who was trying to be italian by wearing nice pants, since the italians tend to dress up, but he paired it with a "Honolulu marathon" shirt with flowers on it that no Italian would ever be caught wearing. Plus, it was short sleeves, and despite being 60 degrees it's waaaaay too early for an italian to even think about short sleeves (I mean, they're still wearing jackets). Tourists also love to watch people painting- you have 2-3 hours of random people trying to discreetly stand behind you and crane their necks to see what you're doing. I generally don't mind, but it gets really humorous when you only have 2 lines on your page and they are just watching intently. My favorites are the people who come up, crane and stare, then retreat a couple of steps and try to discreetly take a picture of you, your picture, and what you are painting.
Off the subject of tourists- I've decided that I'm going to try and switch my flight out of rome to one on April 29th that goes to Chicago. Hopefully then I can visit everyone at ND for a couple of days and catch a flight out of South Bend back to BWI. That seems to be the best option for seeing everybody and getting back cheaply- my current flight has me arriving in New York JFK around 5 pm, so by the time we clear customs and get our luggage all the flights to BWI would be in a rush and around $300, so I'm not particularly keen on doing that if I can help it. Anyway, studio is about to start, so I'd better look productive...