Venerdi
Got up this morning and went to our tour of museums at Villa Borghese. One was of a really cool museum of modern art and the other the house of sculptor. After that we caught the bus back to Campo de Fiori. From there I walked all the way past the Vatican to get Old Bridge gelato for lunch and then back home to work on our presentation on Easter for class today. We finished our presentation, caught a bus back to class and went to the Rome Center. We all gave our presentations, had a quick meeting with Claudio and Ruggero about moving to Rogliano next week and then we had our class about Ancient Rome. About ten minutes into the class, Ruggero's computer decided to shut down for no reason, officially ending class for the day. Then we headed home to just chill for a while, we had dinner, watched the Bourne Identity on TV, got friended by my host mom on facebook (Giusy Angotti) and am now headed to bed.
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Mouth of Truth, Freak Rain Storms, and Dinner with the Teachers
Wednesday:
We got up and went to class where we had our last grammar lesson with Ruggero. Starting next week Claudio will begin teaching us for the rest of the quarter. Then we headed back home to eat lunch and work on our presentation on "Easter in Italy" that we had due today. The weather was super hot and muggy, but very sunny. Then at 3:30 Claudio was leading an informal optional tour of Rome to the Boca della Verita and Santa Maria di Cosmedin. We all met up for that and then started walking. I got picture with the mouth of truth and we toured the inside of the church and then walked up a hill in Rome to see the garden of oranges at the top. Right as we got to the top it started to sprinkle rain. It started to rain a little harder so we decided to end the tour for the day and head back to Campo de Fiori. But right as we started walking back down the hill a full on deluge of rain started. Claudio actually took cover underneath a bush and a bunch of us followed him. Then we started hearing thunder and seeing lightning so we, in all our infinite wisdom, realized the downpour wasn't going to be stopping any time soon so we decided to make a run for it back down the rest of the hill. At the bottom we took refuge in a small church with some nuns for a few minutes before deciding to keep going. I had my rain jacket on, but not my hood because it was full of water and one of the guys, not realizing it was full of water, tried to put it on my head and a ton of water just went streaming down my back. Whereas before I was relatively dry beneath my jacket then I just became soaked. The roads actually started flood as we ran across them trying to get back to Campo and finally by the time we got close the rain started to lighten up a little bit. We were all so soaked at that point that a few of us decided that "what the heck"why not go to the Pantheon to see it rain through the occulus. So me and a couple of the others kept going while everyone else went back to the boys' apartment to dry off and we ran to the Pantheon. Of course by the time we got the Pantheon it was just sprinkling rain again, but there were a ton of people inside who must have been watching it during the downpour. I bet it was really cool to see. Then three of the boys and I decided that naturally, since we were so soaked, why not go get gelato at a really great gelateria nearby? So we split off and went and got gelato. We got so many stares from people everywhere. All the tourists and Romans were either under cover or using umbrellas. Of the group, I was the only one wearing a rain jacket; the boys were just wearing thin button up shirts. We were absolutely sopping wet. The guys who sell umbrellas kept coming up to offer umbrellas and then realizing it was a lost cause since we were obviously too far gone for an umbrella to help. It was quite entertaining. After we finished our gelato we went back to the boys' apartment because the whole program (including Claudio and Ruggero) was coming over for dinner that night and we were helping to make it. Once we got there, I immediately begged for the boys to spare me some clothes which the other girls making dinner had done the same. We all looked ridiculous in the super oversized basketball shorts and t-shirts. Then we all made dinner and hung out. One of the guys tried to teach me how to play guitar and then took my iPod and put over 400 songs on it that he believes I need to listen to. By that time a bunch of other people started showing up so we girls changed back into our now warm and dry clothes from the dryer. Ruggero and Claudio showed up an hour late (typical Italians :P) and it was a really fun and entertaining dinner. We were eating off of plastic plates and of course within the first five minutes I managed to crack my first plate at the bottom so hot chicken sauce spilled all over me so then I got a second plate to put beneath it, which then broke about 20 minutes later so I had to get a third. My pants were covered in sauce by the end of the night. Then I helped one of the boys make cannoli's for everyone. Claudio and Ruggero ate their cannoli and then took their leave of us. After that we were all just hanging out until some of the guys and girls decided to go to the Irish Pub for discount night and the rest of us went home to go to bed.
We got up and went to class where we had our last grammar lesson with Ruggero. Starting next week Claudio will begin teaching us for the rest of the quarter. Then we headed back home to eat lunch and work on our presentation on "Easter in Italy" that we had due today. The weather was super hot and muggy, but very sunny. Then at 3:30 Claudio was leading an informal optional tour of Rome to the Boca della Verita and Santa Maria di Cosmedin. We all met up for that and then started walking. I got picture with the mouth of truth and we toured the inside of the church and then walked up a hill in Rome to see the garden of oranges at the top. Right as we got to the top it started to sprinkle rain. It started to rain a little harder so we decided to end the tour for the day and head back to Campo de Fiori. But right as we started walking back down the hill a full on deluge of rain started. Claudio actually took cover underneath a bush and a bunch of us followed him. Then we started hearing thunder and seeing lightning so we, in all our infinite wisdom, realized the downpour wasn't going to be stopping any time soon so we decided to make a run for it back down the rest of the hill. At the bottom we took refuge in a small church with some nuns for a few minutes before deciding to keep going. I had my rain jacket on, but not my hood because it was full of water and one of the guys, not realizing it was full of water, tried to put it on my head and a ton of water just went streaming down my back. Whereas before I was relatively dry beneath my jacket then I just became soaked. The roads actually started flood as we ran across them trying to get back to Campo and finally by the time we got close the rain started to lighten up a little bit. We were all so soaked at that point that a few of us decided that "what the heck"why not go to the Pantheon to see it rain through the occulus. So me and a couple of the others kept going while everyone else went back to the boys' apartment to dry off and we ran to the Pantheon. Of course by the time we got the Pantheon it was just sprinkling rain again, but there were a ton of people inside who must have been watching it during the downpour. I bet it was really cool to see. Then three of the boys and I decided that naturally, since we were so soaked, why not go get gelato at a really great gelateria nearby? So we split off and went and got gelato. We got so many stares from people everywhere. All the tourists and Romans were either under cover or using umbrellas. Of the group, I was the only one wearing a rain jacket; the boys were just wearing thin button up shirts. We were absolutely sopping wet. The guys who sell umbrellas kept coming up to offer umbrellas and then realizing it was a lost cause since we were obviously too far gone for an umbrella to help. It was quite entertaining. After we finished our gelato we went back to the boys' apartment because the whole program (including Claudio and Ruggero) was coming over for dinner that night and we were helping to make it. Once we got there, I immediately begged for the boys to spare me some clothes which the other girls making dinner had done the same. We all looked ridiculous in the super oversized basketball shorts and t-shirts. Then we all made dinner and hung out. One of the guys tried to teach me how to play guitar and then took my iPod and put over 400 songs on it that he believes I need to listen to. By that time a bunch of other people started showing up so we girls changed back into our now warm and dry clothes from the dryer. Ruggero and Claudio showed up an hour late (typical Italians :P) and it was a really fun and entertaining dinner. We were eating off of plastic plates and of course within the first five minutes I managed to crack my first plate at the bottom so hot chicken sauce spilled all over me so then I got a second plate to put beneath it, which then broke about 20 minutes later so I had to get a third. My pants were covered in sauce by the end of the night. Then I helped one of the boys make cannoli's for everyone. Claudio and Ruggero ate their cannoli and then took their leave of us. After that we were all just hanging out until some of the guys and girls decided to go to the Irish Pub for discount night and the rest of us went home to go to bed.
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Assisi #3 and the rest of the week-McDonalds, Trains, La Bella e La Bestia, e Qui Da Noi
Monday morning we all woke up when one of the girls, who had woken up early, came back to let us know that checkout was in half an hour. We all frantically jumped out of bed and packed up all our stuff, turned in our sleeping bags, checked out, and then went to go shower and change in the campground bathrooms (which had no toilet paper or soap, by the way). After that we had a quick breakfast at the campground and then hiked back into town to catch the bus back down the mountain to the train station. Once we got there, first the ticket machine was broken so we had to wait until people arrived at the ticket window a half hour later and then we bought the first tickets out of Assisi. We still had an hour and forty five minutes to kill after that and we were all starving so we ended up going to McDonalds (Yuck, yes I know, I didn't want to do it). McDonalds was completely packed. It took us a good 30 minutes just to get through the line and the food was more expensive than in the states, but it also appeared to be much better quality. I got a fried chicken sandwich that was actually quite delicious. Then we headed back to the train station to wait for our train. Our first train ride only lasted 10 minutes and then we had to to transfer to a different train for the rest of the trip. Not too bad. We ended up getting back into Rome by 6 and we just hung out, did homework, and watched Inside Man (which happened to be in English on our TV for some odd reason) with some of the boys that had come over. They finally left and we all went to bed.
Tuesday:
Tuesday morning we had to get up early to go on a tour of Villa Torlonia. We had no idea where we were going and Ruggero wasn't answering his phone so we ended up just getting on a bus and hoping it was the right one to take us where we wanted to go. Luckily it was and we ended up at the right spot, but it was looking pretty sketch there for a while. The Villa Torlonia was really beautiful and entertaining. The original owner had become an aristocrat through gaining wealth rather than by blood so to make his property more prestigious he added fake ruins and erected gigantic fake egyptian obelisks. The house on the property was really cool, each room had been dedicated to a different art style through the ages so it was kind of a mish-mash but cool to see all the different styles. The last owner of the house actually rented it out to Mussolini for 20 years before the end of WWII and then the American troops took it over in 1943 which also happens to be when the house sustained the most damage (whoops). Then there was another house on the property dedicated solely to stained glass. Absolutely gorgeous. So much craftsmanship goes into those things. After the tour we had lunch in the Piazza Bologna at a delicious Pizzeria and then I went back to the Rome Center to study for a quiz we had that day. Then we had the quiz and a break where I got a nutella crepe with strawberries (delicious!) then a short culture class and the school day was over. After that we went home and chilled, made dinner, and then Irma and I got ready to go to a play. Irma and I went to see La Bella e La Bestia (Beauty and the Beast: the musical). It was so amazing. My favorite night in Rome so far. The acting, singing, and dancing were all absolutely fantastic, the costuming was gorgeous, and even when I couldn't understand what they were saying (since it was in Italian) the play followed the storyline of the Disney movie so I understood what was going on. My favorite song was "Qui Da Noi"-the italian version of "Be Our Guest". It looks very cool on stage. I ended up buying the soundtrack afterwards (I can never resist a good soundtrack). Then we left and got gelato, then went home, did homework for a little while and went to sleep
Tuesday:
Tuesday morning we had to get up early to go on a tour of Villa Torlonia. We had no idea where we were going and Ruggero wasn't answering his phone so we ended up just getting on a bus and hoping it was the right one to take us where we wanted to go. Luckily it was and we ended up at the right spot, but it was looking pretty sketch there for a while. The Villa Torlonia was really beautiful and entertaining. The original owner had become an aristocrat through gaining wealth rather than by blood so to make his property more prestigious he added fake ruins and erected gigantic fake egyptian obelisks. The house on the property was really cool, each room had been dedicated to a different art style through the ages so it was kind of a mish-mash but cool to see all the different styles. The last owner of the house actually rented it out to Mussolini for 20 years before the end of WWII and then the American troops took it over in 1943 which also happens to be when the house sustained the most damage (whoops). Then there was another house on the property dedicated solely to stained glass. Absolutely gorgeous. So much craftsmanship goes into those things. After the tour we had lunch in the Piazza Bologna at a delicious Pizzeria and then I went back to the Rome Center to study for a quiz we had that day. Then we had the quiz and a break where I got a nutella crepe with strawberries (delicious!) then a short culture class and the school day was over. After that we went home and chilled, made dinner, and then Irma and I got ready to go to a play. Irma and I went to see La Bella e La Bestia (Beauty and the Beast: the musical). It was so amazing. My favorite night in Rome so far. The acting, singing, and dancing were all absolutely fantastic, the costuming was gorgeous, and even when I couldn't understand what they were saying (since it was in Italian) the play followed the storyline of the Disney movie so I understood what was going on. My favorite song was "Qui Da Noi"-the italian version of "Be Our Guest". It looks very cool on stage. I ended up buying the soundtrack afterwards (I can never resist a good soundtrack). Then we left and got gelato, then went home, did homework for a little while and went to sleep
Assisi #2-La Massa di Pasqua, Santa Maria, and more wanderings
Wow I'm falling behind so fast!
Sunday-
Early Sunday morning, me and 3 others woke up early (disturbing everybody else with the super squeaky bunk beds) got ready and headed to Easter mass at San Francesco. I had never been to mass before so it was a whole new experience for me. We walked in the church and it was absolutely packed with people. The the service started and everybody started singing and crossing themselves and we had absolutely no idea what to do. Once the actual sermon started I could kind of follow it because it's easy to figure out the word "Cristo" and "Gloria" "Alleluia", etc. There was standing room only and we ended up standing right behind this family with a little boy. He looked to be about 4-5 and he was the cutest darn kid I've ever seen. You could tell he was really bored because he kept trying to find stuff to do. At one point he ended up playing "I can't see you until I peep my head around my dad's leg and then I'm going to hide again as soon as you see me" game. It was so adorable. Then his dad picked him up and he leaned around his dad's neck and kept playing peek-a-boo. I love little kids. Then during the service there was communion and then one last song and it was over. I was very surprised because it was only about 45 minutes long. When we had first gotten to the church it was really rainy and overcast, but when we walked out of the church sunlight was just streaming down around Assisi. I looked up and the clouds had parted in a perfect circle just around Assisi but everywhere else there were clouds as far as the eye could see. It was totally cool. After that we all went and got lunch at a little restaurant and then wandered around Assisi, accidentally running into the rest of the group. They then went and got lunch because they hadn't eaten yet and we wandered some more around the town. We saw the building where San Francesco was born and we had pretty much covered the whole town within a couple hours. Then we caught back up with the rest of the group at Santa Chiara, saw the tomb of Santa Chiara and then wandered around the town some more. We ended up at the top of the town overlooking a gorgeous view of the surrounding area. Right next to the spot where we were was a little church called Santa Maria della Rosa. We went inside and instead of a church it was an art exhibition. The artist had created this statue of the Virgin Mary out of 33 different kinds of wood from all around the world to represent the unity of christianity and the age Christ was when he died. Depending on the direction you're looking at the statue it represents different parts of Mary's life, such as, the annunciation, being pregnant, carrying the baby Jesus, and holding her arms open to protect and love the world. On it's side it represents a dove. There was big giant version, supposed to represent Mary and her love and protection for the world and a little tiny one that can fit in the palm of your hand to represent Mary and her love and protection for you. It was a very modern statue, but very moving. I ended up buying the smallest version of it because it was just haunting me when I first left the church. After that we wandered a bit more around town before going and eating dinner at this restaurant near San Francesco that overlooks the entire valley. It was a little pricey but we got to sit out on the balcony and the food was absolutely amazing. I had handmade ravioli and chocolate mousse for dessert. It was the most delicious dinner. After that we walked the long walk back to our bunkhouse and stayed up late playing Mafia, drinking wine, and just in general being silly and ridiculous. Then we all went to bed.
Sunday-
Early Sunday morning, me and 3 others woke up early (disturbing everybody else with the super squeaky bunk beds) got ready and headed to Easter mass at San Francesco. I had never been to mass before so it was a whole new experience for me. We walked in the church and it was absolutely packed with people. The the service started and everybody started singing and crossing themselves and we had absolutely no idea what to do. Once the actual sermon started I could kind of follow it because it's easy to figure out the word "Cristo" and "Gloria" "Alleluia", etc. There was standing room only and we ended up standing right behind this family with a little boy. He looked to be about 4-5 and he was the cutest darn kid I've ever seen. You could tell he was really bored because he kept trying to find stuff to do. At one point he ended up playing "I can't see you until I peep my head around my dad's leg and then I'm going to hide again as soon as you see me" game. It was so adorable. Then his dad picked him up and he leaned around his dad's neck and kept playing peek-a-boo. I love little kids. Then during the service there was communion and then one last song and it was over. I was very surprised because it was only about 45 minutes long. When we had first gotten to the church it was really rainy and overcast, but when we walked out of the church sunlight was just streaming down around Assisi. I looked up and the clouds had parted in a perfect circle just around Assisi but everywhere else there were clouds as far as the eye could see. It was totally cool. After that we all went and got lunch at a little restaurant and then wandered around Assisi, accidentally running into the rest of the group. They then went and got lunch because they hadn't eaten yet and we wandered some more around the town. We saw the building where San Francesco was born and we had pretty much covered the whole town within a couple hours. Then we caught back up with the rest of the group at Santa Chiara, saw the tomb of Santa Chiara and then wandered around the town some more. We ended up at the top of the town overlooking a gorgeous view of the surrounding area. Right next to the spot where we were was a little church called Santa Maria della Rosa. We went inside and instead of a church it was an art exhibition. The artist had created this statue of the Virgin Mary out of 33 different kinds of wood from all around the world to represent the unity of christianity and the age Christ was when he died. Depending on the direction you're looking at the statue it represents different parts of Mary's life, such as, the annunciation, being pregnant, carrying the baby Jesus, and holding her arms open to protect and love the world. On it's side it represents a dove. There was big giant version, supposed to represent Mary and her love and protection for the world and a little tiny one that can fit in the palm of your hand to represent Mary and her love and protection for you. It was a very modern statue, but very moving. I ended up buying the smallest version of it because it was just haunting me when I first left the church. After that we wandered a bit more around town before going and eating dinner at this restaurant near San Francesco that overlooks the entire valley. It was a little pricey but we got to sit out on the balcony and the food was absolutely amazing. I had handmade ravioli and chocolate mousse for dessert. It was the most delicious dinner. After that we walked the long walk back to our bunkhouse and stayed up late playing Mafia, drinking wine, and just in general being silly and ridiculous. Then we all went to bed.
Monday, April 25, 2011
Assisi#1- Roughing it, San Francesco, Castles, and "That's hella defensive" Mafia
Saturday
Early on Saturday morning we got up and went to the train station to catch our train to Assisi. We bought our tickets, met up with the boys and caught the train. On the train ride over I slept and read and chatted with everybody. Once we got to Assisi we had to catch a bus from the train station up to the old medieval town on the top of this big hill. The buses were packed and two of us actually got pushed out because everybody was pushing and shoving their way on. So Rosin and I ended up taking a different bus (much nicer, with very few people). Once we got off the bus and met back up with the rest of the group only to discover that the road we had to take to get to our hotel was all uphill for at least a mile. An exhausting hike up to our hotel and when we finally get there they told us we couldn't check in yet. So we left our bags there and wandered around the property for an hour. The area had a hotel, a youth hostel, a campground, and several bunkhouses on it, along with a kids playing area and several miniature donkey pastures. We went to the kids area first and played on a spinning wheel thing and the slides first before going off to go find the miniature donkeys. I loved this whole area because it smelled strongly of pine trees, which remind me a lot of home. When we found the donkey pasture we found a momma donkey with her little albino donkey baby. Most adorable thing I've ever seen. Then we saw a dog that looked almost identical to Brandy (my dog at home for those of you who don't know) and I petted her for a long time before we finally went to lunch. Lunch at the hotel was decent and cheap, which is always a relief. After lunch we decided to go explore Assisi. We walked back into town and decided to go see the fortress castle at the top of the hilltop first. That was amazing. The climb up there was beautiful, but that's when my camera battery died and I had no way of charging it all weekend. :( We walked up to the castle and then wandered around inside. It was a really old and cool medieval castle. We wandered around all the tunnels and towers before we ended up sitting on this wall at the top of it that overlooked the entire surrounding area of Assisi and all of the region beyond. Absolutely gorgeous. That was my favorite part of the entire weekend. It was drizzling rain a little bit, but it was just so peaceful and beautiful that a couple of us stayed up there for a long time just talking about life. After the castle we went down into the town and explored all the churches there. The churches were all very old and beautiful. My favorite was la Chiesa di San Francesco. The church itself is part of a franciscan monastery and it has two basilicas on two different floors along with the tomb of St. Frances beneath. The painting inside were all gorgeously done medieval art and the entire church was just fantastic to see inside and the multiple floors made it especially cool. After we finished wandering around the town we walked back up to our hotel to check in. That was an interesting experience. Because there were 10 of us, the only place they had for us to stay was this tiny bunkhouse in the middle of the property. We walked in and there are 12 bunk beds with no pillows or blankets and no heating system. None of us knew it was going to be like this so none of us came prepared. We ended up having to ask the hotel for blankets and luckily they were able to lend us enough military style sleeping bags for everyone. Then we decide to go check out the bathrooms on the property and of course they have zero toilet paper and soap, most of lights don't work on the bathrooms and there are bugs everywhere. We were truly camping. After we finally settled in we went back to the hotel restaurant for dinner. I had the most delicious hot chocolate there. It was essentially like drinking a cup of melted chocolate bar. Amazing. Then we ended up going back to our bunkhouse and played Mafia and drank wine until late into the night. I fell asleep long before everybody else and apparently they kept yelling my name to wake me up but I was so out cold that I didn't hear them. I did wake up in the middle of the night though, completely terrified, having no idea where I was and believing that I had no idea where everyone else was. It took me a good 10 minutes to figure out I was still sleeping in the same room as everybody else and that nothing bad had happened. Totally weird.
Well that was a long one and it was just one day so I'll stop for now and write the rest tomorrow.
Early on Saturday morning we got up and went to the train station to catch our train to Assisi. We bought our tickets, met up with the boys and caught the train. On the train ride over I slept and read and chatted with everybody. Once we got to Assisi we had to catch a bus from the train station up to the old medieval town on the top of this big hill. The buses were packed and two of us actually got pushed out because everybody was pushing and shoving their way on. So Rosin and I ended up taking a different bus (much nicer, with very few people). Once we got off the bus and met back up with the rest of the group only to discover that the road we had to take to get to our hotel was all uphill for at least a mile. An exhausting hike up to our hotel and when we finally get there they told us we couldn't check in yet. So we left our bags there and wandered around the property for an hour. The area had a hotel, a youth hostel, a campground, and several bunkhouses on it, along with a kids playing area and several miniature donkey pastures. We went to the kids area first and played on a spinning wheel thing and the slides first before going off to go find the miniature donkeys. I loved this whole area because it smelled strongly of pine trees, which remind me a lot of home. When we found the donkey pasture we found a momma donkey with her little albino donkey baby. Most adorable thing I've ever seen. Then we saw a dog that looked almost identical to Brandy (my dog at home for those of you who don't know) and I petted her for a long time before we finally went to lunch. Lunch at the hotel was decent and cheap, which is always a relief. After lunch we decided to go explore Assisi. We walked back into town and decided to go see the fortress castle at the top of the hilltop first. That was amazing. The climb up there was beautiful, but that's when my camera battery died and I had no way of charging it all weekend. :( We walked up to the castle and then wandered around inside. It was a really old and cool medieval castle. We wandered around all the tunnels and towers before we ended up sitting on this wall at the top of it that overlooked the entire surrounding area of Assisi and all of the region beyond. Absolutely gorgeous. That was my favorite part of the entire weekend. It was drizzling rain a little bit, but it was just so peaceful and beautiful that a couple of us stayed up there for a long time just talking about life. After the castle we went down into the town and explored all the churches there. The churches were all very old and beautiful. My favorite was la Chiesa di San Francesco. The church itself is part of a franciscan monastery and it has two basilicas on two different floors along with the tomb of St. Frances beneath. The painting inside were all gorgeously done medieval art and the entire church was just fantastic to see inside and the multiple floors made it especially cool. After we finished wandering around the town we walked back up to our hotel to check in. That was an interesting experience. Because there were 10 of us, the only place they had for us to stay was this tiny bunkhouse in the middle of the property. We walked in and there are 12 bunk beds with no pillows or blankets and no heating system. None of us knew it was going to be like this so none of us came prepared. We ended up having to ask the hotel for blankets and luckily they were able to lend us enough military style sleeping bags for everyone. Then we decide to go check out the bathrooms on the property and of course they have zero toilet paper and soap, most of lights don't work on the bathrooms and there are bugs everywhere. We were truly camping. After we finally settled in we went back to the hotel restaurant for dinner. I had the most delicious hot chocolate there. It was essentially like drinking a cup of melted chocolate bar. Amazing. Then we ended up going back to our bunkhouse and played Mafia and drank wine until late into the night. I fell asleep long before everybody else and apparently they kept yelling my name to wake me up but I was so out cold that I didn't hear them. I did wake up in the middle of the night though, completely terrified, having no idea where I was and believing that I had no idea where everyone else was. It took me a good 10 minutes to figure out I was still sleeping in the same room as everybody else and that nothing bad had happened. Totally weird.
Well that was a long one and it was just one day so I'll stop for now and write the rest tomorrow.
Friday, April 22, 2011
"Leave the gun, but take the cannoli"- The Godfather
Thursday-
Thursday morning we got to sleep in because we didn't have class until 2. Yahoo! We just chilled, ate breakfast, and headed to the Rome Center in time for class. Class was interesting because we talked more about the roles of women in Italian society and how that has affected italian law. Only recently were laws abolished that stated 1. If you caught your wife, sister, or daughter in an illicit relationship and you killed her, you could only serve up to 7 years maximum in prison because you were defending your family honor. 2. A woman that got caught by her husband in an affair could be sent to jail for 1-2 years. 3. If a man raped a woman, in order to "restore" the family honor he could offer to marry the woman. If she accepts, all honor is restored and life moves on. If she refuses than shame and abuse was heaped upon her for being a) dishonorable to her family and b)no longer pure because of the rape. Crazy stuff, I'm telling ya. After class I walked to the grocery store to buy some food and then went back to the apartment to make dinner and then got ready to go out for the night. There was a "Ladies Night Out Pub Crawl". This was quite an interesting experience. We went to two bars and one club and then got a free t-shirt. The bars were fun because we got to meet a bunch of foreign exchange students from Australia, Germany and England. After the bars though we went to a club that was just awful. It was packed with people, everyone kept stepping on my toes, smoking was allowed inside and I swear a guy almost lit my hair on fire when he was lighting his cigarette. Then a guy came up and danced with me and I kept having to push his hands off me and then he grabbed my face and tried to force me to kiss him which is when I just walked away. So gross. Then another guy came and danced with me who was absolutely terrible at dancing which is always a buzz kill for me. After that we decided we were done with the night out and we wanted to go home. We went and grabbed our pink "Ladies Night Out" free t-shirts and hopped a taxi for home.
Friday-
We had to wake up early on Friday (today) which meant we got an average of 4 hours of sleep from going out the night before. We rolled out of bed on time though and headed to class, downing some capuccinos along the way. Today's tours were of 4 churches in Rome near the Rome Center; 3 Baroque churches and the only Gothic church in Rome: Santa Maria Sopra Minerva. The first two churches we went to were the two first Jesuit churches in Rome and they were incredibly ornate and decorative, very much in the baroque style. I liked Santa Maria Sopra Minerva the best because it was a Gothic church, which happen to be my favorite style. I like the tall ceilings with flying buttresses and lots of stained glass windows. This church also happened to have the body of St. Catherine which was cool to see. Then we saw a french church that housed some Caravaggio paintings and finished our morning tour. After that we were all hungry so went and grabbed a quick lunch of pasta. Then we went back to the boys apartment to chill until 3 pm, when we had a movie day in the Rome Center watching the Godfather. I had never seen the Godfather before and boy was it an interesting experience. I can definitely see though, why it has received so many accolades because it is a very well made film. After that we went to get dinner and then tried to go to the Coliseum where the Pope was putting on a torchlight processional for Good Friday. We got there a little late though and it was completely packed so we ended up being so far away that we were able to see nothing but a burning cross they had placed on a hill across from us. That was cool, but we got cold after a while and headed back to the boys apartment to grab our stuff from earlier. This ended up with us staying at the boys apartment for another hour or so playing the childhood game Mafia (which is actually a very fun game). Then we caught the bus home to pack for Assisi tomorrow since it's rise and shine in just a couple hours so we can be at the train station by 7AM. Oh joy. I'll write when I get back on Monday.
Thursday morning we got to sleep in because we didn't have class until 2. Yahoo! We just chilled, ate breakfast, and headed to the Rome Center in time for class. Class was interesting because we talked more about the roles of women in Italian society and how that has affected italian law. Only recently were laws abolished that stated 1. If you caught your wife, sister, or daughter in an illicit relationship and you killed her, you could only serve up to 7 years maximum in prison because you were defending your family honor. 2. A woman that got caught by her husband in an affair could be sent to jail for 1-2 years. 3. If a man raped a woman, in order to "restore" the family honor he could offer to marry the woman. If she accepts, all honor is restored and life moves on. If she refuses than shame and abuse was heaped upon her for being a) dishonorable to her family and b)no longer pure because of the rape. Crazy stuff, I'm telling ya. After class I walked to the grocery store to buy some food and then went back to the apartment to make dinner and then got ready to go out for the night. There was a "Ladies Night Out Pub Crawl". This was quite an interesting experience. We went to two bars and one club and then got a free t-shirt. The bars were fun because we got to meet a bunch of foreign exchange students from Australia, Germany and England. After the bars though we went to a club that was just awful. It was packed with people, everyone kept stepping on my toes, smoking was allowed inside and I swear a guy almost lit my hair on fire when he was lighting his cigarette. Then a guy came up and danced with me and I kept having to push his hands off me and then he grabbed my face and tried to force me to kiss him which is when I just walked away. So gross. Then another guy came and danced with me who was absolutely terrible at dancing which is always a buzz kill for me. After that we decided we were done with the night out and we wanted to go home. We went and grabbed our pink "Ladies Night Out" free t-shirts and hopped a taxi for home.
Friday-
We had to wake up early on Friday (today) which meant we got an average of 4 hours of sleep from going out the night before. We rolled out of bed on time though and headed to class, downing some capuccinos along the way. Today's tours were of 4 churches in Rome near the Rome Center; 3 Baroque churches and the only Gothic church in Rome: Santa Maria Sopra Minerva. The first two churches we went to were the two first Jesuit churches in Rome and they were incredibly ornate and decorative, very much in the baroque style. I liked Santa Maria Sopra Minerva the best because it was a Gothic church, which happen to be my favorite style. I like the tall ceilings with flying buttresses and lots of stained glass windows. This church also happened to have the body of St. Catherine which was cool to see. Then we saw a french church that housed some Caravaggio paintings and finished our morning tour. After that we were all hungry so went and grabbed a quick lunch of pasta. Then we went back to the boys apartment to chill until 3 pm, when we had a movie day in the Rome Center watching the Godfather. I had never seen the Godfather before and boy was it an interesting experience. I can definitely see though, why it has received so many accolades because it is a very well made film. After that we went to get dinner and then tried to go to the Coliseum where the Pope was putting on a torchlight processional for Good Friday. We got there a little late though and it was completely packed so we ended up being so far away that we were able to see nothing but a burning cross they had placed on a hill across from us. That was cool, but we got cold after a while and headed back to the boys apartment to grab our stuff from earlier. This ended up with us staying at the boys apartment for another hour or so playing the childhood game Mafia (which is actually a very fun game). Then we caught the bus home to pack for Assisi tomorrow since it's rise and shine in just a couple hours so we can be at the train station by 7AM. Oh joy. I'll write when I get back on Monday.
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Fairly boring day
Mercoledí
Yesterday, we finally sent Kelsey on her way out of Rome. Casey and I were sad to see her go! She walked with us to school and then caught a bus to Termini while we went to class. Class was just an hour long so afterwards we went back and chilled at our apartment for a while and then later met up with a girl from the other apartment to go shop. Some of the girls wanted to buy dresses to go out clubbing in tonight. After that we went back to the boys apartment and made them dinner because it was our turn. We made spicy chili with noodles and bread. After dinner we went to get gelato at the gelateria the boys claimed was better than our gelato place. They didn't have blood orange and their cioccolato was substandard so I gave it a B-. They did have champagne ice cream though, which, surprisingly, tastes like champagne. I just tasted it though because I felt that buying champagne ice cream takes it a little too far. After that we wandered around to the bars which were completely packed because of the double soccer matches going on so we ended up back at the boys apartment playing card games until we went home and went to bed!
Yesterday, we finally sent Kelsey on her way out of Rome. Casey and I were sad to see her go! She walked with us to school and then caught a bus to Termini while we went to class. Class was just an hour long so afterwards we went back and chilled at our apartment for a while and then later met up with a girl from the other apartment to go shop. Some of the girls wanted to buy dresses to go out clubbing in tonight. After that we went back to the boys apartment and made them dinner because it was our turn. We made spicy chili with noodles and bread. After dinner we went to get gelato at the gelateria the boys claimed was better than our gelato place. They didn't have blood orange and their cioccolato was substandard so I gave it a B-. They did have champagne ice cream though, which, surprisingly, tastes like champagne. I just tasted it though because I felt that buying champagne ice cream takes it a little too far. After that we wandered around to the bars which were completely packed because of the double soccer matches going on so we ended up back at the boys apartment playing card games until we went home and went to bed!
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