By Lindsey Besecker
Graphic Correspondent
FLORENCE-This week I have received a lot of phone calls and e-mails concerning the evacuation we are having this week because of certain social forums being held in Florence that have a history of uprisings.
But I don’t know if I would really call it an evacuation.
Since when are students evacuated to Venice and Verona?
Oh yeah, Mom and Dad, I get to go see the amazing city of Venice and take the tourist-trap trip to Verona this week. And all the planning is taken care of for me.
My parents sure loved reading that letter sent by Pepperdine. At least there wasn’t a bill attached to it.
I grew up in San Diego and the only place I could think we would be evacuated to would be Riverside. Big whoop-dee-do (sorry to all you 909-ers out there). But this time, the evacuation is going to be amazing.
Don’t think we are just skipping classes because a bunch of people are gathering here for a forum. We have plenty of work to do while we are gone. For instance, I have to go see “Pinocchio” starring Roberto Benini for my Italian class. And I have to write a paper on my favorite thing in Venice for humanities.
Are we all living in a dream here? These opportunities seem too good to be true. On top of it all, most of us are going out on our own in a month for the entire Christmas break to see all that we can see. Personally, I hope to make it to Sweden and Norway. Never in my life did I think I would be given this opportunity. In a few weeks some of the students here are going to Egypt for our Thanksgiving break.
I love talking about this to everyone at home. I will never get to do anything like this ever again. My friends are all insanely jealous (as they should be) and tell me that they are living vicariously through me.
So while you all talk about the Dashboard Confessional concert last week, you can think of the Florence program as we travel to Venice and take the infamous gondola rides.
However, I don’t think the Dashboard concert could even top the show I saw on Monday night. Eight of us went to see Moby and Royksopp (don’t worry, you won’t know who they are), and I would not be lying if I said it was the best concert I have ever seen in my life. I was literally 10 feet from Moby and loving every minute of the nearly two-hour set. Oh yeah, and for those of you still waiting to see Jimmy Eat World, I can tell you all about their live show after I see them in France next month (just thought I would try to rub it in a little more).
Despite what we are doing here, I know that a lot of us miss the Malibu campus. We received our package from Malibu last week and have probably watched the video a dozen times each. Well, after we watch all of our skydiving videos, that is.
November 07, 2002