Death of a Laptop

Monday night, after many an effort, I finally had to admit to the complete corruption of my laptop. Its death brought about first anger, then woe, then anger, then stress and frustration, and eventually the costly solution. The system restore discs, with the aid of my roommate in Ohio and my mom, are being shipped to the Hotel in Ascoli, so I can have my computer (and a little sanity) back for the rest of my Italian tour. I feel bad that I have such a need and want and attachment to my computer, especially when there are so many things to do here, but at the same time, not having it creates some personal obstables when it comes to getting my school work done. The Luckiness of the situation? Before I left Ohio, I dumped all of the photos and personal files onto DVD's, and everything that I have from Italy has been backed up on my flash drives, so I am not losing any vital information, just some time and effort to get everything running again.

Anyway, yesterday when we were up at the Architecture school, tired from 9 hours of working on our architecture project with our Italian group, we were preparing for the hike back up to the hotel when they graciously offered us a ride in their car. Amazing. This was the greatest thing since sliced bread. It was so different viewing Ascoli from a car rather than by walking the city, as we have been doing for the last week. The roads are small and windy, and the street signs unfamiliar. But from the "car" roads, which are not part of historical center of the city the views from above and around the city are far more different than looking at the city from the inside perpsective. The view from inside an old Mercedes, going around the hills listening to Italian pop music, is an experience so different than walking up and down hills with a heavy pink packpack, looking for food and dodging cars. Everyday is a new experience, can't wait for tomorrow.