Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Last Week In Roma =(

[As I’ve mentioned before, this is me typing up my adventures from my journal. I know it’s a bit late and it’s going to come as a slew of consecutive posts. I apologize for that!]

I can’t believe it—I am at the end of my study abroad experience. This program flew by and I am going to really miss the other 14 members of Plan II in Rome 2009.

There are a lot of things I wish I had discovered earlerier about Rome and I also wish that our program overlapped more with the Vignacce Dig Group. We really got to know one another in our last week (Kristin, Kellie, Malcolm, Erica, Kenny and Andrea!) More about these kids later. Here’s a quick view of the week:

Monday- Our day to be archaeologists. Sadly, the dig site wasn’t ready for us. Italians and their permit business, hmph! (I really wanted to find an ancient coin) But anyways, the site is an old villa/bath complex and they’ve been working this dig site for quite a few years now (but only in the summers). Since none of the digging had started, we got to do some yard work--(See Mom and Dad, you’ll be proud of me)—I pulled weeds in Rome. After some quality gardening time, we went and climbed aqueducts (yes, on top of them!) with Albert. I even got to sit in the canal through which water used to once flow. The Romans were ridiculously good engineers: these aqueducts were colossal structures that extended for miles and miles. Also, I wrote my last paper (6th) for the semester! DONE. For dinner I had a calzone—my first one in Italy. Here it’s pretty much a pizza folded in half, so it’s pretty huge, but it was very, very tasty (it had my new favorite cheese: ricotta). Also Albert, our HUM class professor, is coming to visit Austin (ummm…class reunion!) in October.

Yardwork
AQUEDUCTS!
In the canal of an aqueduct
A really big aqueduct
On top of the Aqueducts!
Hook 'Em
More climbing on Aqueducts
The random herd of goat that we passed--they stopped for us
More aqueducts, sorry!

Tuesday we visited various sites that had cult activity during Roman times: Tiber Island (present day location of Rome’s hospital) and 2 Mithrea (cult of Mithras). I think it would have been pretty cool to be a member of the Cult of Mithra: secrecy, levels of membership, initiations, etc. Sounds like a modern day fraternity,but a whole lot cooler—Eyes of Texas, anyone? Well we got our own taste of zesty-ness: we had our own initiation experience, if you can call it that. And we had to endure it twice because Vicki and Alex were late to class [jk ;)] The alarm that was the security system of the Mithraeum and we were only allowed to enter after a certain time. If you entered any earlier, you got deafened, and there is no way to bypass its circuitry. It really reminded me of our apartment’s fire alarm that went off whenever Dave or Law cooked. Tonight, after our final papers were turned in, we finally went dancing. (@ Anima) It was way fun!

Initiation/Alarm at the Mithrea
Pics of the Apartment: (Finally, I know!)
Mine and Christopher's Room:
Common Area
Kitchen

Wednesday: Probably my favorite day of class by a guest lecturer by far. Irene Baldriga is a professor of Renaissance and Baroque art (my forte) She took us around to 3.5 churches (.5 because we couldn’t go into Sant Ivo) around Piazza Navona. We saw grand ceilings, ornate facades, the influence of science on baroque shapes and motifs (ellipses) and much more. Her passion for the subject just shone through her words. I’m sure she’s going to be a great contact for my Junior Fellows project. I saw Rapahel and Caravaggio paintings and Michelangelo sculptures. The Michelangelo statue was on an excursion that Apu and I took to the only Florentine Gothic Church in Rome. (Santa Maria Sopra Minerva) I also took today to finish the last bit of the touristy sites I had to hit before leaving Rome (this city seriously has so much to offer!) I saw the view through the Knights of Malta keyhole—this has by far been my favorite vista in Rome. The green archway of the garden frames the dome of St. Peter’s perfectly when you peer through the hole. It was hard to find but I highly recommend this site. I also stuck my hand into the Mouth of Truth and I still have my hand. Legend has it that untruthful people get their hand hacked off it they put into this really ugly face’s mouth…For dinner a few of us went to Africa, an Ethiopian and Eritrean restaurant and the food was really good. (On weekends you’ll need a reservation.) 

Baroque Church #1
Calling of St. Matthew! (Caravaggio)
Baroque Church #2
Mouth of Truth
Knights of Malta Keyhole

Thursday was kind of an adventurous day. We got special permission to enter a privately owned Jewish Catacomb. This was the real thing: pitch black and labyrinthine. (Here’s our confession KG) We had our own little adventure at the back of the group by turning off our flashlights to make our trek seem more Indiana Jones style. We then went to the Christian Catacombs where we were herded like a flock of sheep by Father Owen Mason (I really like his name).

Adventuring in Catacombs
Last day of Class =(

Friday was filled with finals, shopping, dinnering, and good-byes. I got some fun finds at an antique print market (you can see them in my room next year!) and went to see the last of the Angels and Demons sites on my list: Santa Maria Della Vittoria, house of Bernini’s Ecstasy of St. Theresa. It was splendid. Also a few of us went to Santa Maria Maggiore, which was big, but really nothing special in my opinion. Then came our final 6 course Goodbye Dinner from AIRC. The food was ahhhmazing:

1st: Proscuito (ham) wrapped cantaloupe [the 4 vegetarians just had plain cantaloupe—which is grown outside of Rome in Cantaloupa]

2nd: pear, toasted bread, honey, fresh ricotta [my favorite Italian appetizer]

3rd: pasta with basil. Olive oil, and tomato

4th: pasta with zucchini flowers

5th: salad with apples

6th: dessert-fresh cream with wafers and caramel of chocolate sauce

After dinner we said our goodbyes and we all went dancing one last time (the Vignacce kids came along too!) I had to say most of my goodbyes that night because of our early train to Naples the next day. The best part of dancing was Daniel handing out Purell on the dance floor—LOL. Thanks to KG, Albert, and Lynda for making this summer program amazing. Thanks Plan II and Melissa for getting all of this together and prepping us (and for us) in Austin.

Goodbye Dinner!
Us with Dar & Lynda
I’m really going to miss Rome and Via Rasella (the street we lived on and it was only on the last night that Adam figured this out…haha) I’m going to miss the interactive class environment and our awesome professors.

No comments:

Post a Comment