Life after Spring Break/Venice

So once the wonderful vacation of Spring Break was over, we had to come home to a lot of work. The first couple of weeks back I had to get through many presentations, papers and other assignments. They have certainly kept us busy these last couple of weeks. I have had many assignments, presentations, papers and projects. In fact, for my last couple of weeks, I have had to write three seven-page papers, given three presentations and (so far) taken four finals. (I have one more to go tomorrow)  This is all in the last two weeks. Besides the work, there hasn't been much going on. We had a long weekend the weekend before last and I just stayed at home working most of the time. However, one of those days, my roommate Nick and I decided that we would go on a day trip to Venice. Neither of us had been before and it was the last trip of the semester. We woke up early in the morning (about 7 or so) and headed to the train station in order to make it on time. Luckily we got to sit in first class for the way there and we actually had seats for the whole time. We knew we were getting close when the scenery from outside of the windows changed from mountains to water. When we first got a look at the city, after leaving the train station, it was like nothing we had ever seen. There were no cars in sight. There were vehicles of every kind for the water-water taxis, fire rescue, ambulances- but not one car. The whole city is an elaborate maze of canals that create a really unique experience. We had no idea where to go and what to see so we just picked a direction and started going that way. We ran into many people going on gondola rides around the city but we decided not to because it was very expensive and a little too bro-mantic. We walked around for a few hours, taking pictures of just about everything we saw. We eventually became hungry and decided to eat at a place that was right on the water. They were having a special "tourist" deal in which we had 3 items of food for just 14 euro. Because we were in Venice, and they were famous for their seafood, I decided that I would have the spaghetti with cuttlefish, stewed in its own ink. This plate of food was as black as the night. It was one of the weirdest things I have seen served on a plate, but it ended up being delicious. I also had fried calamari and some french fries. After lunch, we made our way to one of the main attractions of the city- The Piazza San Marco and the Basilica di San Marco (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Mark%27s_Basilica). We had seen, pretty much, the entire city at this point, so we started walking back to where we had started at the train station. We bought our train tickets back and we had another hour or so to kill. We decided to walk up the other direction and see what was there. (More photo-worthy things) When we made it back to the train station, we were waiting in a big group to see what platform our train would be arriving at. As soon as the number appeared, a massive crowd dashed for the train. It was complete pandemonium. We eventually ended up standing (all crammed together) on this train for about 2 hours. It was completely brutal. Eventually, these very nice people let us have their seats when they were leaving so we were able to sit down for the last hour or so. Needless to say, we were quite tired at this point. We came back to our apartment and made some delicious chicken/pepper/cheese quesadillas and called it a night. After this trip, like I said earlier, we have just been going to class and working. I only have a few more days in this glorious town and on this incredible adventure and it is certainly hard to come to terms with that. I have been taking all the opportunities I can to walk home instead of taking the metro, in order to take in as much of the city as I can. Tomorrow is my last final and then hopefully I can get some packing done before we have our farewell dinner on Thursday. (I leave Friday) Please don't make me go.
Luke