Preparing for November

The trees along the Tiber have turned a beautiful color!

The chill of fall has fully settled in, and with that all of the rain I was warned about! During this first week of November, I experienced my first serious storm, complete with thunder and lightning.

November, however, is also that month in the fall semester where everything begins to pile up: I’m keeping up with photography, preparing to write my paper for Roman Art & Archaeology, practicing my Italian, and translating Plato, Cicero, and Varro. While constantly putting out my best work for five classes (which is one more than I’ve ever taken in my past four semesters at Holy Cross), I’ve found that I’m struggling to make time for myself. These have largely shaped my goals for November:

Seek recommendations. Ask professors and classmates for their favorite museums, restaurants, shops, and general places to visit. Asking friends and professors for recommendations not only saves me time, but will likely expose me to places I wouldn’t look for on my own! I’ve made a folder on Google Maps of places I want to visit, but many of them are far enough that I would need to save them for a weekend trip. Which leads to my next goal…

Plan at least one weekend trip. Planning a trip is a daunting task, especially if going alone: Buying a train ticket there and back, securing a place to stay, choosing what activities to do… There’s a lot to take into account! Even if I don’t travel this month as the semester wraps up, I at least want to have some trips planned for the spring!

I’ll keep this post short, as my past posts have been quite long! I look forward to seeing what November brings me!