The past few days have been more than a little tiring, and it poured rain for about two days straight. I have more reading to do than when I was taking 4 substantive law classes. We received a huge packet of "supplemental reading" for each class, and that makes up most of the assigned reading. Not the little textbooks.

So we have been coming home around 2 (after class and lunch) and reading until about 11 at night, on and off. But no matter how well we do in these classes, as long as we pass, we get credit based on a pass/fail system. So I shouldn't ruin my trip by stressing out too much...but it is still time-consuming.

This afternoon we took a break and had an unplanned apartment nap time. We got up around 9:30 pm and went out to find dinner. Then we returned and have been reading/preparing for class tomorrow for the past few hours...

This afternoon I was stopped by a girl who asked, "Do you speak English?" She was a lost American student. I showed her how to get where she needed to go. I'm wondering where that line is that you cross from being a tourist to being a resident (even if a temporary one). I think I'm getting closer to that line. Except for the speaking Italian part...but I'm getting much better at understanding it.

The other day, Cristina was out and bought something in a store. As she turned away, the girl behind the counter told her coworker, in Italian, how she hated the stupid Americans in their bad Italian always coming into the store. Cristina heard her and retorted, in Italian, "at least Americans try to speak Italian." The girl was shocked that Cristina understood and Cristina left the store (while she's not an expert at Italian, she is pretty good).

The Italians here make fun of the tourists, which I think is weird because tourism supports this economy. If it weren't for tourists, Florence would be a decrepid old tiny city. In DC, while tourists would get annoying because they don't pay attention to where they're walking because they're looking around, I never made fun of people taking pictures, and I never saw anyone else do that either. And tourism is not even crucial to the economy of that area. Today Danielle and I saw three Italian women making fun of tourists (not us this time) taking pictures - "Peek-chur, peek-chur!!!" - and it was disturbing. I know they want us all to go away, but the tourists are the ones paying the equivalent of $50 USD for a sandwich, drink, and slice of cheesecake. It is kindof like biting the hands that feed you. I understand being annoyed. Even I am starting to get annoyed at the tourists here, stopping in the middle of the sidewalk to look up, as I am becoming more and more like a local every day, but to make fun of someone taking a picture of a national landmark (DC) or an ancient famous building (Florence) seems uncalled for.

Do the Florentines really want us all to go away? I bet they wouldn't be able to get away with charging 79 euros ($135 USD) for a shirt in a department store that is also located in the USA and charges $39.99 for the same thing. I also bet that the gelato shops on every corner that sell nothing better than softened ice cream would start to close down too (there are actually few really good gelato shops and I haven't tried any of them yet). After all, who would want to pay 2.50 euros ($4.25 USD) for a half a scoop of ice cream in a cup?

The tourists would. And they do.

This tourist is going to BED because she has to get up before 8 and has classes from 9:30-12:45. She also has to do a presentation on the canon law background of the European civil code tradition.