I have to keep reminding myself that this is the opportunity of a lifetime. The record high temperatures here, and no AC in our hotel, make it hard to feel enthused. Today's high should be 92. I know, though, how lucky I really am.

I managed to get a few pictures uploaded.

Here are Kim and her friend Lorilynn. We met her while we were both living in Ames, and she and Kim became great friends. Lorilynn met us at JFK during our layover and brought lunch, including cannoli!

The Irish eat a hearty breakfast. Egg, three kinds of sausage (including blood), homemade soda bread.

Kim, Nicole and our Irish host Marion having tea and scones at Powerscourt in County Wicklow.

Me with the most photographed woman in Ireland, Molly Malloy.

THIS is what every university should post. I shot this on the door of Trinity College Dublin's library.

No picture can do justice to the crushing crowds in the Rome subway during rush hour.

This is the subject of the documentary: the dome of the Florence cathedral. This is actually the view from one of the student rooms in the hotel (not ours) -- zoomed a little, but not tremendously.

The cathedral museum contains the unfinished Michelangelo's Pieta - not the better-known one in Rome, but one he wasn't very pleased with.

One day during our class in front of the cathedral, a march by a political party took place.

A suitable ending shot - sunset in Florence.