Today was an interesting day! First off, I would like to say that we got an extension on our Art History term paper; instead, it is now due tomorrow morning as we board the bus to go to Florence.
In Italian class, we received our check test/pre-test today and it was not really that bad. I did not get an A or a B but in my opinion, average is okay for a preliminary test; it just means I need to study a little harder.
Lunch was nice today even though John Rose had left us to go show the trustees, faculties, and alumni around in another city with Dr. Bailey. Instead of John Rose sitting at the head of the table as always, Mr. Ed sat there. Everyone starts to pass all the food down to him and Jackie took a funny picture just for John Rose; the picture was quite funny but for John Rose’s sake, it was kind of cruel.
Before Art History had started, we were able to see Barbra set up all of her jewelry for the jewelry show and sale for the trustees, faculties, and alumni. We got a sneak peak for when we have time to buy her gorgeous work.
A package had arrived for Dr. Banker and Dr. Webb had asked me and Amanda to wrap it for her as a gift to him. We wrapped it all up neatly and I added a cute little bow on top in the Meredith ribbon colors. It was time for class. As class started, Dr. Swab, Mr. Ed, Chelsea, and Dr. Webb marched in with Dr. Banker’s gift. It turns out that the gift in the box was a set of books entitled Sassetta: the Borgo Sansepolcro Altarpiece: Volumes I and II; the Sansepolcro Altarpiece by Piero della Francesca was the one that Dr. Banker had found documents on and helped write this reference with a few other scholars. It was an important day for him. We were all so proud and lucky to have such a great history professor as well as his wife for our art part of the class.
After class, I had an hour to do as much homework as I could before the wine tasting had begun.
Here come all of the trustees, faculties, and alumni in the dining room for the tasting. It was very crowded but still fun nonetheless. There were snacks in between to add or heighten some taste of the wine. There were a total of three wines to taste; and according to our accountant/wine tasting host, there is a specific technique to taste wine. First, we were taught the correct way of holding a wine glass; who knew there was a wrong way. The correct way was to scissor the base of the glass at the bottom with a thumb on top to stable the glass. Apparently, the way we hold the glass is important because our host said that if we hold it at the bottom of the glass where the wine is, we would taste more like the soap on our hand then the actual taste of the wine. Then we were told to hold the glass of wine up to the light to see if the wine was clear and is not contaminated by any other substance. Next, we looked at the color of the wine. If it was white wine, the color varies from a slight green yellow color to amber. If it was red wine, the color varies between the hues of red from bright red to deep burgundy red. The color of the wine tells the age of the wine. Thirdly, we smelled the aroma of the wine to determine its contents; whether it contained flowers or fruits. When we smell the wine, it has to be a big sniff and normally it is the aroma of the first thing that came to mind. The first whiff was the most important so that the aroma does not disappear or gets dispersed throughout the room. Then we swirled the wine to see the consistency of it and to determine if there is a high alcohol content of a low one. The faster a leg drips the less alcohol it has to one that would drip slowly. The next step was to taste it! I am not so fond of wine, but I had fun tasting the different types and I had a lot of fun learning the techniques to a successful wine tasting. And the wine was not that bad either; they were actually pretty good for my taste. It was a lot of fun sitting in between “Double Trouble.” They were just a blast to converse with and their personalities were so much fun to have around. I will truly miss them.
It was time to get some more homework done before Dr. Jackson takes us girls out for gelato. As we walked around towards the Goblin, all the usual restaurants and stores were closed; even K Café was closed. As we got to the piazza, we then noticed that the Goblin was closed as well. Then we went to check the gelateria in front of the palazzo, and it too was closed. Since all these places were closed, we decided to go another day and we all headed home to finish up our homework.
Well it is time for me to finish my term paper for Art History and I can’t wait for Florence tomorrow!!!