A whole week has gone by since I last wrote. So much has happened. On Monday had our last lecture and then went back to the hotel because we couldn’t get a tour until late and we had a bus ticket to use. On Tuesday we went on a full tour of the underground lab with David Montanari. He’s really funny and the tour was fun. We could have gone around more but the chill or the altitude was giving me a very bad headache. We went back to L’Aquila, had lunch, packed, shopped a bit. For supper we met one of Barbara’s friends near 99 fountains. Very nice meal and the owner spoke English so we weren’t completely in the dark about what we were ordering. We came back to the hotel for our last night when it got too cold outside to stand it anymore. We got going at 5:30ish in the morning to catch the bus to Rome. All of the Italian students families were standing around to see us off. Slept on the way to the airport. We were early so we wandered around the place. Our flight got delayed by about an hour by the time we finally took off. The ride back to the US seemed to take forever. Grey took the window seat and I think having one toward the middle helped my motion sickness. I talked to some of the Italian guys (Francesco and others). I’ve had such a hard time remembering everyone’s names. I was glad when we finally touched down because the weather wasn’t so great and I wanted to move. We got through customs eventually…they checked my bag for imported things. When we stepped outside is was like swimming through air. Extremely hot and rainy. We got checked into the dorms at Princeton and ran to supper. Grey and I spent the night trying to finish papers and do laundry. The Italians think all we do is work since we were sitting in the hall trying to get things done. Today is actually much like the weather we had coming in…extremely hot and I’m glad I’m not outside right now since it’s storming. We had our first lesson with Cristiano over trig and calc stuff Thurs morning. The Italians have classes in Italian so we won’t join them for most of the classes. After lecture we tried to work a couple problems and then we had to finish our papers and email them to DSU and we had to put together a powerpoint for our meeting with Governor Rounds. We spent part of the evening sitting outside finishing up. Friday morning we rushed to put the final touches on our presentation and then we went to eat breakfast with Governor Rounds. It went pretty well. It sounds like 10 students will get to come next year. We toured a lab and then went over to the old President’s house for lunch. There we all collaborated trying to figure out what the best approach to next year’s program would be. The food was really good. That afternoon we had Cristiano explain how to approach the physic assignment he had given us. I just got my homework done completely today. This next week is going to be more intense. We study thermodynamics. Friday night we went to a Trenton Thunders game. It was fun to hang out with the Italian guys there. They agree with me that baseball is a boring game to watch. Saturday we went to New York. It was amazing to shop in the big city. We went up to the 86th floor of the Empire State building. It was an amazing sight. We went to where the twin towers use to stand. Very humbling experience. Rode the train both ways…I like that better than the plane. Went to church at St. Paul’s today. Very nice town of what I’ve seen. We have a party to go to tonight so I need to get ready for that. Hopefully this next week goes well. More later.
Sarah 
Looks like a great time!! Very cool!! Maybe someday you’ll take me with!!!