So mel and I didn't make it out of italy before the volcanic ash destroyed everyone's travel plans, so there was no budapest or vienna in the cards for me. Melissa finally made it out on a train 5 days after her scheduled departure and Katie got a flight out of bologna airport this afternoon. Instead of waiting in bologna for the travel mess to cool off (more like the volcano) we skipped town to Perugia for a bit, where I'd stayed in a farmhouse hostel with joey over new years.

Not only was april 15th to 21st quite a complicated travel period, but I also managed to screw up/find out a lot of screwy things. I didn't get the Beinecke, that huge graduate fellowship I applied for, which is fine in the end I think, cause i guess in a lot of ways i don't have to worry about having to get a PhD in Italian, so awesome. I can just do this master's and see what's up after that. I'm in a bit of a pinch academically and really need to get to studying, but for some reason my attention span is just destroyed. I cant do anything longer than 15 minutes without getting restless. I'm actually starting to really start worrying about leaving Italy and going into really intense academic environments--I can only imagine how the kids from last term must have adjusted.

Anyway, so no Vienna, no Budapest. Next thing on the agenda is an exam in may, and Barcelona may 22nd.