The Last Supper

Today was a somewhat sad day for us all as we packed our belongings away and cleaned our rooms in preparation for tomorrow morning, when we leave Santa Chiara. This morning we were all a bit confused as to the time and location of our first meeting, but eventually, we all gathered in the courtyard and listened to a rousing speech given by Mr. Altendorf on the subject of leadership. In small groups we discussed some of our strengths and weaknesses and how they relate to others. Next we roleplayed a situation in which a certain Dr. Miller (played by the lovely Taylor Orr) was up for reevaluation of her tenure at the university. After much dilberation, she was given a one year probation in order to increase her amount of research as well as better prepare her students for upper level chemistry courses.

After lunch we all had a period of free time in which we all did laundry and prepared our rooms for checkout. Some people had life-mapping sessions while others slept or went exploring the town for one last time.

Before dinner we gathered to discuss our exciting plans for Venice tomorrow. Most of us are not so excited about boarding the bus at 7:00 AM tomorrow. We also took a group photo in the courtyard (awwww...). For our "last supper" at the Center we enjoyed pasta with tomato sauce and mushrooms, meatballs, assorted vegetables, and watermelon for dessert.

After dinner, we all headed down to the Coco-Palm for one last cono/cuppetta of gelato, (which we shall all miss dearly once we leave Italy) and headed back to the center to watch a fabulous talent show put on by the students and faculty. Mr. Altendorf, "The Master Illusionist," opened with an excellent magic act that baffled us all. Leah performed a wonderful rendition of "Our Song" by Taylor Swift, followed by a hip-hop dance exhibition given by Mouheymen. The acts ranged all over the place, from classical piano music played by Alex, Meghan, and Tall Andrew to a capella rendition of "Say" by John Mayer. We were then given our spending money for Venice and told to get a good night's rest for the long day tomorrow. All in all, today was fairly uneventful, but we all look forward to the adventures we will no doubt be having in Venice in the days to come.

With Shallow Humor and Little Risk to Life and Limb,

David and Victoria