The first week after we got back from Paris, we had a lot of studio work to do, so I barely slept, but I've been having a lot of fun developing my project, which is an urban farming center.  The picture below is my model...it's so cute... it looks bigger than it is, those trees are about half the size of a marble.  We had our presentations on Monday, and for the rest of the quarter we will be developing a smaller portion of our project in detail.  Our friend Mike who studies in Paris, also came to visit.

Since we've been back there have also been protests in Rome.  There is a new prime minister (Berlusconi) and there have been budget cuts for the education system.  Today we went with our friend who works at the French embassy to the protest.  We walked in rows arm in arm with a huge group of students from La Sapienza, the Italian University that our program is affiliated with.  Apparently there were around 300,000 students protesting.  The march started at the main train station and ended at the ministry in the center.  There were groups of students from around Italy all arriving to the station and self-organizing into groups.  There was a general aura of excitement, with everyone sporadically breaking out in song from time to time.  This kind of occurrence is rare in Rome, and we got to observe and interact with the youth of Italy in a meaningful way.  Soon I will post a picture from the protest, as well as a picture of Karen's cappuccino the day after election day: it says Obama '09 in foam!