Group dynamics really interest me. I also really like to see how a large group of people divide themselves. Here, the students on the semester program me have split into the obvious groups: there are the cool kids (whose company I was in last night - more on that in a second), the ostracized kid, the girls that never go out, and then two smaller groups whose members are happy just being with each other. The interesting thing is, because of my living situation (I live with no one from the semester program) I have hung out with each of them.

Cool kids. They are essentially all of the people Nicole and Vincent decided they hated solely based on their facebook pictures plus a few extras. I personally like most of them. So yesterday was the 21st birthday of one of them and I was invited to meet at one of the apartments to meet before going out to this reggae discoteca. The pregaming consisted mainly of drinking (I had a glass of wine and half of this really awful mixed drink), some talking, picture taking, the girls being really into a Sierra music video, and the guys being really into this Obama girl youtube video. Then we took the bus to near my apartment, which is right on the edge of the part we actually consider the city. Then we had to take a taxi to the discoteca, which was outside the city near woods. Then we had to get a membership card for five euro that lasts for the year (oh boy!), which involved filling out a form that asks us for all this random information in Italian. None of us were really sure what all of the parts of the form wanted and all responded in different ways, but they were apparently fine with it. Now to discuss the actual place. Okay, we all know a discoteca is not particularly my scene, but my God. First of all, people were allowed to smoke cigarettes (and I think weed) inside, which was disgusting. I reeked of smoke when I came home. Second, the music. The song that was playing when we walked into the place was "Beautiful Girls" by Sean Kingston, which gave the illusion that we'd recognize some of the songs being played. No. Around 2 a guy with a guy and a girl back-up singer started performing. The people there went nuts for him. I don't understand. He was awful. Every song was exactly the same except for the words. But people were raising up lit lighters and jumping up and down shouting. It was crazy. Around 2:45 a large group left. I left at 3 with a group of seven, leaving three girls still dancing. I mean to say, we tried to leave at 3. We tried calling for a taxi for an hour with no luck. I was the only person with information about the place (like the address and name of the discoteca - Senzatetto, which means homeless by the way) and was relaying it to the different people on the phone trying to call different taxi companies. They kept us on hold for 10 minutes and said they had no taxis and to call back 5 minutes later. Finally, we went inside the place where we got the membership and one of the girls asked one of the guys there if he could call for us and he got us two taxis. I got home at 4. Not a terrible night, but I can't say it was my favorite Bologna experience.

I went to Padova yesterday and San Luca (which is a really nice church that's up high a little outside the city) today. Check out the pictures on facebook!