i have to say when i got home from class today i was in a pretty bad mood. i was about to come and rant on here right away, but decided to take a break and read expats and some blogs first. definitely a good idea - great way to relieve stress.

we had a presentation today. not of a final project, but just of what we've been working on. Still, this presentation took a long time to put together (and im sure as hell not looking forward to having to do a formal presentation of our process every week for the next month and a half, as its a huge waste of time to format it all!). I've been working on this project everyday for the last week. And not just a couple hours. yesterday I woke up at 8, was at school at 9 and started working. at 6 i left and went across town to make a copy of the key for the gate on the street (as i lost my keys a couple weeks ago, and apparently there is only one shop in all of milan who can make copies of this particular key), then stopped by the store on the way home. I got home at 8.15. Fede showed up five min later, and we started working while cooking dinner. continued to work while eating, and didnt stop working till 1. I got to sleep at 2, and woke up bright and early again this morning for class. At least we had a good presentation.

I hate presentation days though. no one here has any respect for the work that anyone else has done. during the presentations everyone talks the whole time, is on their computers checking email, watching movies, doing whatever. I went up to the front row, and could still barely hear what the presenters were saying. I'm sorry, but we all did a lot of work, and we all deserve the respect of the attention of the others while presenting. and it drives me crazy that the prof never does anything about this.

i could go on with this rant about a lot of other things that happened today, but honestly i just dont feel like it. reading back over this, its a bit of a wimpy rant. oh well. that's a good thing i suppose, as i have calmed down from a couple hours ago when i was yelling at my group (im not a teacher, im sure as hell not being paid to teach, and i dont see why i should be expected to try and sum up concepts that i spent five years learning into a one minute explanation for the rest of my class. not only is it impossible to do, but if the prof wants the class to do it, then he should explain it to them, not me. of course i think that would go against the rules of the school, as it would require actually teaching something.)

the good news is that our presentation kicked ass. the annoying part is that people in my group who have done almost no work, complained about the working process that im making us use (the process that the prof wants us to use, but did a shitty job explaining, im just fortunate enough to have actually learned it before). and it drives me crazy when one member of my group who we havent seen since thurs, and who has done no work, shows up today and decides that he doesnt like our concept. im sorry, but you get as much say in it as the effort you put in. if you dont work, if you dont meet with us, and dont tell us that you're not coming, you can not just come in and decide that you dont like what we've done. we then had to spend an hour explaining the entire concept over to him, to convince him that it is good, while i try to explain the difference between an idea, a concept, and visual language, and that they are definitely not the same thing. to sum up, we got no new work done today, its almost 7 now, and ive still got way too much to get done tonight. ugh

okay, so it looks like a did go on a bit more. whatever. I think its time for dinner and a hot shower before getting back to work. i need a break. oh, and just because ive had such a frustrating day, im gonna be a rebal and not dry my hair after my shower! ;)