(not your average) Venetian Adventure

Friday the 23rd
Everyone in the monastery, with the exception of Hannah, Carissa, and myself, had left before 8am on Friday. One group went to Florence, one to Cinque Terre, and another to Perugia. Our train didn't leave til 11:50, so we had a nice morning here getting things ready. When we left, it was pouring, but luckily we were on a train so it didn't affect us much. On the train, Hannah and her excellent Italian befriended Maria, an older Italian woman. The picture here is of Hannah reading The Little Prince in Italian and Maria helping her with pronunciation.
We arrived in Venice at around 5pm. Rene Seindal, my contact there, met us at the station. Because of the Vaporetto (waterbus) strike, we had to walk through the town to San Marco Square, where we were able to board a Vaporetto to The Lido where Rene lives. That evening we went out with Rene for drinks and then for dinner, which was nice. At dinner, he ordered us two appetizer plates of "antipasto pesce" which was basically a seafood taster dish.
I would like everyone to know that I ate squid, smoked salmon, sardines, and prawns. If you know me at all, you know that's not something I'd normally do. It was certainly interesting.

Saturday the 24th
Kayaking! In the morning, we got some pastries for breakfast and then walked down to the beach. It was beautiful. At 1, we left with Rene, got a gelato, and headed down to the other end of The Lido where the kayaks were. We were on the water by about 2pm. We got to take a roundabout route to Venice, through marshlands and such. When we finally got to the city, we were met by three british travel writers/photographers. They were writing for an airline magazine, doing a big article on Venice and were including Venice Kayak in it.
We paddled through canals for a few hours (which was just gorgeous) until it got dark. At one point, we stopped in the Grand Canal and were able to listen to an old man on a gondola singing Volare, accompanied by an accordian.
We stopped at around 7 for dinner at a local restaurant, where Hannah and Rene both got spaghetti with squid and black ink sauce...which was interesting.
After that, we headed back into the kayaks, geared up with paddling jackets, headlamps, and glowsticks. Which was awesome. We got to paddle down the Grand Canal at night which was beautiful.
By the time we made it back to The Lido and got the boats out of the water, it was midnight. By the end of the day we were absolutely exhausted and sore, but very happy. It was a wonderful day of paddling and a terrific experience.
Sunday we took our time getting ready, and wandered around the city before heading back to Orvieto. Where, of course, Hannah befriended another old Italian woman, who gave her her number so Hannah could come visit.
When we got back, we met Michelle Arnold, the new painting teacher.

Dante with John Skillen started this morning...and I'd just like to say, I miss Julia Kasdorf. The poetry class was vacation compared to this:
2 papers, a group presentation, a test, and 30 lines of text to be memorized IN ITALIAN. It's gonna be a long couple of weeks. Ah well. They don't call it Inferno for nothing.