The Autobiography of a Mortal

It's 2007. So What's the Big Deal?

2007-01-03T20:46:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year! You know, this is the first year in a long time that I've actually made a New Year's Resolution. Here it is:

GET MARRIED OR BUST!

Haha.

Seriously, I am so excited when I look at my planner this year. It's so neatly divided: first six months devoted to engagement, last six months devoted to marriage. By this time next year, my life will be completely different from what is now. I'll get to share it with the guy I love best in the whole world. How amazing is that? I can't believe that I've finally arrived at this part of my life where I really get to make this commitment, the one that will shape and define the rest of my life on this earth. That's no small thing, but I'm not really nervous about it at all. I am completely confident that we are honoring God with this decision, and that He will see us through, no matter where we go and no matter what life looks like on the other side. I know very firmly in my heart that I'm doing the right thing, and that gives me a very solid sense of peace and rest amid the pre-wedding craziness.

And believe me, it is craziness. I keep looking around at all the married people I know and thinking to myself, "Well, they survived. I guess that means we can, too." Lol. Planning, pictures, details, decisions, blah blah blah...not to mention all the other things in my life that kept me busy before this whole engagement thing happened. Whew. But I know we'll make it. :)

In the midst of it all, I've been going through some old memory boxes in preparation for making our scrapbook. Here are some blast-from-the-past pics I really like:

This one's from my sophomore year, not long before we started dating... (with his sister Ellen)

This one is also from back when we were just friends... (with my brother Dale)

Here's a bit of recent history, from my brother's wedding. I particularly like this picture because, well, we're dancing. It's cute. But more than that, it means a lot to me because Eric hates dancing. He was willing to get out there and tromp around simply because I wanted to do it. I'm very grateful that he is such a sweet and thoughtful guy.

So anyway, 2007 is going to be a great year. And the years to follow will be wonderful too, as many as the Lord sees fit to give us...

Happy New Year.

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

2006-12-24T18:13:00.000-08:00

(It's a trite title, I know, but I have that song stuck in my head. I have a Rosemary Clooney version that I really like...but that's beside the point...)

Galations 4:4-5
"But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons."

How amazing is it that we are adopted as sons? Verse seven goes on to say that we are no longer slaves, but sons and heirs through God. We are privileged, and cherished, children of the Father.

The pastor at my hometown church preached on this passage this morning, and it just really touched me. This Christmas is a special one for me; it's the only one I'll experience as an engaged person, and is the last one I'll celebrate as a single person. I'm busy this year (wedding stuff), worried this year (what's the future going to look like?), and sad this year (my brother couldn't come home, and my grandfather, the one still living, is seriously ill), but ultimately it all points me to God, and for that I am thankful. I am particularly aware of my own insufficiency, and of my constant need for his guidance, love, and strength. At the same time, I see and appreciate the many things He has blessed me with...a loving family, an unbelievably wonderful fiancé, and most importantly, the greatest blessing of all: fellowship with Himself. I have never been more blessed than I am right now.

My prayer is that this Christmas you will see Him in His beauty, no matter what situation you're in...and that you will love on your families, because you never know how much time you'll have with them on this earth.

My God's love cover you all...

Merry Christmas.

South Carolina Continued

2006-12-16T20:36:00.000-08:00

Well, we visited downtown today!

Here's a church where supposedly Robert E. Lee visited a few times while he was in Charleston.

And here's a typical "Charleston house." Notice how the narrow side is facing the street, while what we would consider the "front" is facing south. They all face south. Something about the breeze off the ocean being good for your health or something. And none of them have windows in the back, to preserve the next house's privacy on their porch. Kind of interesting.

"Feed the birds, tuppence a bag..."

Here's a super-cool bridge that takes you over the Cooper River, which separates Charleston from Mount Pleasant. I normally get nervous when I'm on bridges, but this one didn't scare me. It's pretty sturdy, I guess.

Hey look! A pelican!

A nice sunset-on-the-dock view from Mount Pleasant. Just imagine a shrimp boat playing Jimmy Buffet in the background (no kidding, they really were), and the scene is complete.

Well that's all I have for this installment. Charleston's a pretty nice place, I suppose, if you have to leave the Lone Star State. More later!

More Adventures...

2006-12-16T08:21:00.000-08:00

Well, here I am again from South Carolina, hanging out with my brother and my sis-in-law:

Yesterday we went all over the place, visiting the military base where my brother works, and the hospital where my sis-in-law works, et cetera. In the evening we went to this super cool Christmas lights festival, a 3-mile drive through a county park where they set up these great lights. The pictures don't begin to do it justice, since I'm terrible at taking night pictures.

Here's a little patriotic one--the stars actually were blinking on and off but the camera got them all with the slow shutter speed.

And this being South Carolina, they're still proud of their Civil War heritage.

This was my favorite one, even though it's not a picture...just a tree.

But yeah, it was extensive and super fun. I was wishing my parents could have seen it, since in my family historically we get very excited about Christmas lights, despite the fact that we never put any up ourselves.

Later, we went to eat pizza at a local joint (think One Guy's; it wasn't quite as good but it was kind of the same atmosphere and so on). We were having fun with the fact that we all have rings on now:

After that we went downtown to a little coffee/ice cream/hooka shop that is run by this Italian man. Dale and Erica wanted me to speak Italian to him, but unfortunately he wasn't there. The hooka smokers were there in droves, though. We had ice cream, sitting outside in December. Fortunately it just doesn't get that cold around here. I took a picture of one of the many gas lamps they've got downtown:

And that's pretty much it from yesterday. Here in a little bit we're going to go downtown again so we can see it in the day time. :)

And by the way, it is really weird around here. I have been looking and looking, and I have yet to see the South Carolina state flag flying anywhere. I saw a few American flags, but very few. I had to wait and wait and wait and finally: "There's one!!" And it was on a post office, so that doesn't even count. :( So apparently these people don't go for patriotism / state-ism quite the way we Texans do, but I guess I kind of knew that already. It's still weird to see, though.

The city is really twisty, with roads that obviously weren't planned snaking around every which way. And there are so many trees, I feel like I can't see anything. There are 2 rivers (not one, but two) so we drive over these big bridges occasionally. Whoa--bridge over a body of water. Foreign idea! Anyway, one bridge is a drawbridge, and I keep hoping that a boat will go under it while I'm here, but my brother says he has yet to see the drawbridge up, and he's been here for months. Apparently all the boats come in and out at roughly the same time, so if you're not there early in the morning or at night when they're coming in, you're out of luck. :(

Oh, and the people talk funny around here. Not super weird, but of course there's definitely a difference. I heard a car commercial yesterday that cracked me up. And, can you believe it, this whole city only has two country radio stations? I don't know how they survive. ;)

Okay, time to go explore again. I'll be back later...

South Carolina...

2006-12-14T20:45:00.000-08:00

Well here I am in the lovely city of Charleston, South Carolina. Mostly all I've done is eat seafood, and boy howdy. It is GOOD.

Of course, we are near an ocean now. Mmm mmm mmm... bacon-wrapped shrimp. It's to die for. So are the huge scallops that melt in your mouth. The random plate of coleslaw (apparently coleslaw comes with everything around here): not so exciting. Could I have a salad? No? Okay, never mind...

Oh, and I am not a fan of sweet tea. Blech. If I wanted something that sweet, I'd order a Coke and pour about 5 packages of Sweet-N-Low in it.

This is all I have so far. Today was mostly a bunch of flying and an interminable layover in Dallas. So more adventures later! Good night!

Announcement!

2006-12-10T00:02:00.000-08:00

Yes, it finally happened. Eric and I are now engaged. I am sooooooo excited!

And by the way, the ring you see in the picture was designed by Eric himself, and he got it custom made just for me. It is, of course, perfect.

It's rather late (er, 2 am), so I'm trying to go to bed (not that I'm going to get any sleep whatsoever, but it's a noble effort, I suppose). If you want my fiance's version of the story (I'm having lots of fun typing that word...hehe...), you can check out his blog here.

I'M GETTING MARRIED! YAY!

P.S. Eric's mom wrote us a poem. You can read it on his brother's blog here.

Would You Wear a Guillotine?

2006-12-07T17:07:00.000-08:00

My job provides me with some of the most random conversations ever. Our mental patients are priceless because they'll blurt out some of the oddest things--sometimes funny, sometimes sad, sometimes just confusing.

Today I had one of those confusing moments. As I helped one young woman at the cash register, she pointed to the silver cross charms we sell and said, "What's this? A symbol of the crucifixion?"

"Yes," I said. "It's just a charm, not a necklace or anything. Just kind of a reminder."

She wrinkled her nose. "I don't know about you, but if I got executed I don't think I'd want people reminding themselves with little charms. Y'know what I mean? Like, if I got my head chopped off, it'd be kinda gross if people ran around wearing little guillotines."

At this point I was so caught off guard and baffled that I just gave my usual response to Random Confusing Mental Patient Statements: the straight face, the nod, and the noncommittal "Hmm."

Now I'm wishing that I had been quicker on my feet, because if she really thinks of the cross as just a macabre reminder of some guy's execution two thousand years ago, then she's pretty much missing out on the meaning of life! Hello! Why could I not open my mouth and say something?

But even now, I'm not sure exactly what I should have said. How do you explain the Gospel to a mental patient? It's hard enough for us to really get it even when we're not mentally handicapped...not because it's all that complicated, I guess, but just because we don't want to understand it. We don't want to think that we're not in control of our own lives.

So I don't know, maybe the mental patient thing wouldn't be as big of a factor as I think. Maybe I just need to learn how to speak up when something needs to be said.

Last Day!

2006-12-06T07:22:00.000-08:00

Today is the last day of classes. For me, it's the last day of class in my last fall semester. Whoo-hoo!

Don't get me wrong, I love college, but it's very exciting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Of course, "last day of class" means the beginning of finals, but that's okay with me. I don't really worry that much about finals, and mine are pretty evenly spread out this year, so no big deal. I actually enjoy finals week a lot, since everyone's still around, but a lot of us (engineers being a major exception) have more time to goof off than we did during the semester. After finals, though, everyone goes home, and I'm stuck here just working. It's relaxing, I'm sure, but tragically boring.

I do have one really fun thing to do during the break, though. I'm flying to South Carolina next week to go see my brother and my sister-in-law. This is the first time I'll see my brother since he got married in May. Whew. It's been forever! I think I'm finally starting to get used to life without him, but it's still hard sometimes. This trip will therefore be a very welcome treat. Plus, I love travelling to new places. South Carolina may not sound very exotic, but my bro says things are definitely a bit weird over there. Before he went into the service and was stationed in the South (Alabama and now SC), I always imagined that Southerners were pretty similar to us Texans in most ways, with maybe a few slight variations in accent and dialect from region to region. We're all kinda similar, us non-Yankees, right? WRONG. From what my bro says, I ought to bring my passport to get down there! Even the food is totally different. He says he's going to make me try boiled peanuts (apparently a local favorite, but it sounds disgusting, doesn't it?), although we can stay away from the so-called "barbecue." Haha. There will be pics and posts for y'all when I get back, of course.

Well, I could keep rambling for a while, but whatever. A lot is going on outwardly in my life right now, but nothing particularly worth writing about. I've also been living in my head a lot, but none of that is particularly good posting material either. So I'm quitting while I'm ahead. Don't want to be late for my last Greek class, anyway...

:)

Advent

2006-12-04T16:33:00.000-08:00

The Christmas season, for me, is/has been/will be absolutely amazing this year.

In the Bible study I've been teaching this fall, we've been going through the Old Testament, looking at how God was showing grace to His people through the old covenant. During our last session, we focused on the minor prophets and their Messianic prophecies. After being immersed in Old Testament writings, and looking, as it were, through the eyes of an ancient Jew, these advent prophecies stir my heart in a way I've never experienced before. Celebrating Christmas, and the birth of the promised Messiah, means more to me now than it ever has. My prayer for you this Christmas is that the Lord would stir your affections as well, as you contemplate just how amazing it is that our Savior, the Son of Man, humbled himself to put on flesh and live on the earth as one of us. How awesome is that???

Zecheriah 2:10-13
10 "Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion! For behold, I am coming and I will dwell in your midst," says the LORD. 11 "Many nations shall be joined to the LORD in that day, and they shall become My people. And I will dwell in your midst. Then you will know that the LORD of hosts has sent Me to you. 12 And the LORD will take possession of Judah as His inheritance in the Holy Land, and will again choose Jerusalem. 13 Be silent, all flesh, before the LORD, for He is aroused from His holy habitation!" NKJV

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow

2006-11-30T04:47:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving! Yum!

2006-11-21T13:13:00.000-08:00

I might actually get a chance to sit down and write a little over Thanksgiving, but just in case I don't, here's my holiday post.

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Thanksgiving. It's my favorite holiday, even more than Christmas, when it comes to the actual celebrating. (Christmas kicks its butt, though, in the music category. Just ask Robin. Thanksgiving songs are usually either boring, or stupid, or a combination of both.) My family always celebrates Thanksgiving Day with our favorite friends, a family who lives about 45 minutes away. We go to their house, chatter all morning, eat a HUGE Thanksgiving feast around 2:00 (heck yeah baby), then settle in for the Cowboys game while we digest (the women not interested in football usually opt for a nap instead). Then maybe a movie, then after we've recovered from all that turkey, out come the board games! I really like games that involve lots of hollering. I remember last year we laughed till we cried when we were playing Outburst. (More was bursting out than just words, if you take my meaning.) Mad Gab is a favorite too. It's just the best day ever. My only problem this year is that my brother won't be here to celebrate it with us. I'm not gonna lie, I'll probably start crying at some point. But it'll be okay. I'm going to see him next month, so it all comes out alright in the end.

Feel free to share any fun Thanksgiving traditions of your own (if you haven't already documented them on your own sites, like good little bloggers).

I'm going to class now. Last one before the break!

Want a Recipe for Fun?

2006-11-19T16:59:00.000-08:00

Here's an idea: hand a digital camera to a four-year-old who's bright and creative, and watch what happens.

Side note: I haven't written much in a while. At some point I'll have to rectify the situation, but not today. :)

Better Now...

2006-10-29T18:28:00.000-08:00

"Let the word out
I've got to get out
Oh, I'm feeling better now..."

Seriously, I can't ever say that I'm "feeling better now" without getting that Collective Soul song in my head. And considering how often I use the phrase, I guess that means that "Better Now" is the theme song of my life (and not just a Special K commercial). Haha. Oh well. It's a good thing I adore the song. Someday if I ever make it to one of their concerts, I'll be waiting all night for them to play it, just so I can scream "THE WORLD'S DONE SHAKING ME DOWN" at the top of my lungs.

Okay, that was totally random. Maybe I ought to start this post over. But really, all I wanted to say was that I'm mostly over being sick now. Apparently my head hasn't recovered yet, but whatever. I'm mostly here.

Oh, and another thing: GO SEE THE PRESTIGE. It is very good. It kept me and my boyfriend guessing the whole time...and that's saying something, since he can usually spot a plot twist a mile away. Yeah, it's a crazy movie, well written and well executed. I haven't been to the theater and left that satisfied in a long time.

And anyway, who can resist a Christian Bale movie? Apparently I can't. Friday night as I was walking into the lobby to meet my friends to see it, I got a call from my sister-in-law. She said, "Hey, we're just looking at movie listings, have you seen The Prestige yet?" When I told her I was on the verge, she laughed and said, "Well, we knew if you hadn't seen it yet you'd be going pretty soon! Can't resist that what's-his-name!"

It's true. He's the best.

I Smell Like Menthol

2006-10-26T22:44:00.000-07:00

I am sick. My nose is runny, my head is stuffy, and I’m quickly developing a cough, which of course has the potential to become a sore throat, and then of course there’s the inevitable development downward into the nasty chest cold. It happens every year.

I hate being sick. Besides the fact that I feel bad physically, there’s something about the fatigue (or something) that makes me feel not-quite-here, disembodied somehow, lost in the meanderings of my own mind. Like I’m the main character of a really badly written novel. A stream-of-conscious one at that.

Also, I feel very guilty anytime I’m sick. If I’m coughing in class, sneezing all over the pharmacy counter, or forcing my poor roomate to listen to sniffling and nose-blowing all night long, I’ve effectively become a nuisance to pretty much everyone I come into contact with. (My roomie hasn’t complained yet, I just always feel a little paranoid about such things. I hate being an annoyance.) When I cancel plans with friends in order to stay home and rest, then I become an annoyance to the people I haven’t come into contact with. It’s a good thing most people are sweet and sympathetic toward me at such times, much more so than I have a tendency to be.

But anyway, that’s the story. Yesterday and today I’ve been trying to rest as much as possible, and that’s all very well, but I’m getting bored. I love having a chance to relax, but there’s only so much you can do before you start feeling a teeny bit restless. I’ve been passing the time by watching movies, and perhaps I’d be a little more content if I’d chosen better films. Haha. The one I watched yesterday was Nanny McPhee, a kid’s movie with Emma Thompson and Colin Firth. I’d been wanting to see it because I like those two actors, and it looked cute, but, enh. It wasn’t so great. Mary Poppins is the classic nanny-whips-kids-into-shape-and-then-after-she’s-no-longer-needed-mysteriously-disappears story. This one just feels like a cheesy repeat. And there aren't even any fun songs or chimney sweeps to liven it up! :( So, not terrible, but certainly unexceptional. The kids were adorable, though.

Then today I saw Underworld. I like sci-fi, and action, and all that, so it seemed like it’d be a good choice. And while the script definitely has some interesting possibilities, none of the really interesting things are fleshed out nearly enough, and at the same time there’s way more than enough fighting, shooting, slashing, etc. The special effects are straight from The Matrix, along with the general look in some ways. That would be okay, though, (a good idea can be used more than once) if they hadn’t way overdone it all. This is a common problem with action movies, it seems to me. You have to trust the story to be compelling enough to excite the viewers—if the story needs endless action sequences to be interesting, then it’s probably not a good story. (The same principle applies to songs. A good song should be good even when it’s just a guy playing his guitar—studio magic can be a nice enhancement, but the song has to be a good song to start with.) You should leave the audience wanting more, not less. And in the space where you’re not overwhelming us with shooting, etc., you should develop the characters to the point where we actually care whether or not they get shot. Action’s a bore when you don’t give rip about anyone involved.

So anyway, all this to say I’ve been a completely worthless bum this week. It hasn’t been all bad, but whatever. This is my griping post. :)

Oh the Pain!

2006-10-21T15:09:00.000-07:00

I have a friend whose favorite saying used to be, "Oh the pain!" I find myself saying it a lot these days, since my shoulders and back are in constant pain. Muscle tension. Yowch. I am wearing these medicated (menthol) patches right now, which are helping some, but overall I'm a little annoyed with them. First of all, they're insanely sticky, so I get all this sticky goo on my hands every time I put one on, no matter how careful I am. Second of all, if you put one in the wrong place, it doesn't exactly peel off neatly. Yeah, it's a big mess and a wasted patch. Third, they stink to high heaven. I think I smell like a big walking cough drop right now. Eww. Mental note: no more patches.

But other than that, life is going well. I went out with my boyfriend to have pizza and play the arcade yesterday, and I think that went well. He beat me at air hockey, and I didn't even care all that much. :) With our tickets that we won, I got a bouncy ball with a fake $100 bill in it (why not?), and he got these hilarious fake plastic teeth. They're like hillbilly, or maybe pirate teeth. When he put them on and started doing a rambling impersonation of white trash ("Well, I was down at the truck stop the other day...") I thought I would die laughing. I'm pretty sure it's the funniest thing I've seen all year. Unfortunately, the rest of you missed it. You should ask him to break out his fake teeth sometime. :)

Carino's for lunch: amazing. I love Italian food, even the Americanized version. :)

And now I'm just relaxing for a while. Tonight a couple of my girlfriends are coming over to watch movies. I haven't sat down and watched a movie since...well, okay, my boyfriend and I watched one last night, but before that I hadn't watched in movie in several weeks, at least. That's crazy for me. I mean, I haven't even caught up on the movies I missed this summer yet (X-Men 3, Pirates of the Caribbean 2, Superman). I've got some ground to make up!

Lately...

2006-10-20T07:47:00.000-07:00

Not much has been happening lately of note. I enjoy my life, but that doesn't make it interesting to write about. I've just been doing the whole studying thing (sort of...kind of didn't study for that last Latin test...), teaching, hanging out with various people. The usual.

I'm also wondering why, every time I check my email, I have about 10 junk emails telling me to lose weight and stop being obese. I don't think I've signed up for/bought anything lately that would suggest that I'm fat, but who knows. Apparently someone got that idea, lol.

Maybe it's all the pie. Haha I've cooked four pies (2 peach, 2 apple) in the last week. I guess I'm just turning into the Little Baker that Could. I didn't eat all that pie, though, I promise.

Tonight is the night that my boyfriend and I are celebrating our 2-year dating anniversary. Dating anniversaries sometimes seem silly to me (I remember one time on a trip in high school when my youth minister & his girlfriend were celebrating their 10-month mark, which meant he was on the phone all day. I remember thinking, 10 months? Who cares?), but two years is a really long time. I think it's definitely worth celebrating.

That's all. I'm going to class now.

Incoherent Babbling...

2006-10-09T21:25:00.000-07:00

I suck at life.

How do I get out of this?

I know that God is the only answer, but it’s like, I pray, but can’t mean it. I can’t fully believe that He is sufficient and my highest good. I can’t surrender myself to His control, because I’m selfish, self-absorbed, ambitious, individualistic, stubborn.

I hate myself for all those things. But I cherish them too. Losing my stubbornness might mean losing my identity. Can’t have that, right?

Who cares? Why is my “identity” so stinkin’ important if it sucks? Why cherish my personality traits, when they are undesirable? When they make life harder? When they put barriers between me and God, not to mention between me and the people I love the most?

I just don’t want to change. I don’t want to make sacrifices. I don’t want my life to go a direction that isn’t my first choice. I don’t want to be broken, convicted, confronted. I want to be ME, and then everyone else love, adore, and cater to me.

And ultimately, that attitude is the result of not believing the Gospel. Truly believing the Gospel, believing in God’s ultimate beauty and worth, just kind of naturally makes self seem unimportant. I know this. But I have a hard time arriving at that perspective. From my concrete, here-and-now, self-absored perspective, it just looks like life is too hard. I lash out in frustration, screaming, “Why can’t life be easy? Why can’t I be happily self-absorbed and immature?”

Shallow self-absorption doesn’t bring fulfillment. I’ll never live life to the fullest, or experience joy, as long as I think that way. I’ll kill myself chasing after things that have no true value, and then wonder why life seems so empty.

I need help. Help in thinking differently. Help in seeing things the way they really are. I pray, but can’t figure out how to articulate what I need. The Bible says that in such times, the Holy Spirit groans in our behalf. I need that.

Not that I deserve any such attention. I’m a dirtbag, I really am.

A dirtbag that God chose to redeem, for some crazy reason that I will never understand. He showered His love on me when I had done (and still have done) nothing to deserve it. He offers joy, and life, and love that I can’t even comprehend. And this is the only thing that gets me through times like this, or life in general.

I have no worth, except in what Christ has given me. And that is the greatest worth of all.

Out of Fuel

2006-10-06T19:56:00.000-07:00

I've been masquerading as an extrovert lately. In my new routine this semester, I spend tons of time every single day with people...teaching, counseling, hanging out. I love it, and I love exploring new possibilities (Me? Teach?), but a large part of me is still the reclusive bookworm I always have been. Let's face it, I'm an introvert. After several weeks of a very active and people-oriented life, I can't take it anymore. I need to be a misanthrope this Friday night.

I skipped the Homecoming bonfire tonight, even though I have never gone, and this was my last chance to go as a student at Tech. It sounds sad, to say it that way, but I couldn't have enjoyed it if I had gone. I've just been stretched too thin. I needed to stay home for once, to put on my PJs at 7:00 and just enjoy the peace and quiet, the hum of the refrigerator, the creak of my rocking chair, and the occasional swish of a turned page.

Is it supremely selfish to be a hermit? I am afraid it is, but I can only go so far without crashing. I am sure that most of you introverts out there can relate at some level, but times like this make me wonder what the equivalent feeling is for someone who is extroverted and therefore can't relate. Do they feel this same desperate feeling of almost not existing after being alone for long periods of time?

Well, that's my bit of navel-gazing for the night. I almost forgot I had a navel.

I Shouldn't Admit to This...

2006-10-05T17:05:00.000-07:00

I told my roommate yesterday that the books I've been buying lately are the kind that I wouldn't want people discovering on my bookshelf. Naturally, she asked if they were porn or something, and naturally, I acted scandalized and said, Of course not!

They aren't morally objectionable (mostly), just tasteless. I couldn't resist visiting the "Teen Fiction" section of Barnes and Noble the other day (and naturally, "visiting" means that I bought a few books). Any self-respecting college senior (especially an English Lit minor, for heaven's sake) shouldn't be caught dead in that section of the store, but the temptation was too strong. Reading ought to be fun, after all, and most teen fiction isn't out to make some profound (and depressing) statement about the human condition, or some such nonsense. (I think I ought to write some, in fact.) It's mostly either really shallow girly stuff (there's actually a series called Gossip Girls), or sports stories, or school-age comedies, or adventure novels, or...fantasy.

Ever since Harry Potter became such a runaway success, there's been a glut of young adult fantasy on the book market. I, for one, am ecstatic about that. Fantasy is good stuff, and young adult fantasy is usually even better, as it is generally unencumbered by the "mature" ("depressing") themes or the sexual material you often find in adult fantasy.

The first book I devoured was Artemis Fowl, by Eoin Colfer. This one's a romp. I highly recommend it to anyone who's looking for a fun, quick read. I read it in 4-5 hours, and while I do read a bit on the fast side (although it's a dinosaur gait next to my boyfriend, who's got some sort of Turbo-Read gear he uses to read Harry Potter books), it's an easy couple of days' work for just about anybody.

The story centers around the enigmatic character of Artemis Fowl, a 12-year-old boy who just happens to be a genius, a millionaire, and a criminal mastermind. It's sometimes hard to tell whether or not we're supposed to be rooting for him; he seems like more of an anti-hero than your average teen fiction protagonist, but every story needs a fascinating villain, no? (Much like the Harry Potter series, the Artemis Fowl books aren't appropriate for younger children, who need a clearer demarcation between good and evil. For teens and up, though, they're great fun.)

In this particular adventure, Artemis is trying to exploit the extraordinarily well-hidden, underground race of fairies that still lives near the Earth's core. Far from intending to expose their existence to humanity, Artemis is only interested in their Ransom Fund: one ton of 24-karat gold. He may have one or two more endearing interests as well, but you'll just have to read the book to find out. Besides the twisting and turning plot (which I couldn't always predict beforehand), another source of fun is the tongue-in-cheek narration and the sassy sarcasm of several of the characters. However, that could be seen as a weakness, too: all the characters have the exact same sense of humor. Haha I enjoy sassy sarcasm, though, so I didn't mind a bit. The style in general reminds me very much of David Eddings, although not nearly as long-winded.

As an added bonus for the nerds among us, the book has a code written along the bottom of every single page. If you're smart enough to crack the code, presumably there'll be some kind of message for you, a rather long one, in fact. I haven't cracked the code yet, because I'm trying very hard to resist the urge. My past experiences with codes have always been very disappointing. For instance, when I was a kid, my brother and I were really into this computer game called Command and Conquer: Red Alert. The game manual had Morse code along the bottom and sides of every page, so my brother and I spent hours decoding it. It rambled on and on about big ants or something...eventually we figured out the clues and found a hidden part of the game where you fight really big mutant alien ants, instead of tanks. I'm sure you can imagine my disappointment. All that work, just for a stupid ant-fighting scenario! Or just think about A Christmas Story, where the kid works really hard to crack the code, and all it says is to eat your vegetables, or something. Boo.

I'm sure I'll eventually give in to this code-cracking temptation, though. I'm not the sort of person who can leave any challenge unconquered, even a cheesy stupid one like this. Ah well. Then it'll be on to the next book: The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants. Think of me what you will, I'll just enjoy my romp in immaturity. :)

Reasons to Love the Fair

2006-09-28T20:47:00.000-07:00

Vegetables.

FFA projects.

Livestock.

Fried Pies! Not to mention fried cheese on a stick, roasted corn, cotton candy, corn dogs, carmel apples, and...

...turkey legs!

And last but not least, my boyfriend's amazing painting. He must have found a really gorgeous model or something.

Senioritis, or Something

2006-09-22T16:36:00.000-07:00

I had the craziest thing happen to me today.

Well, it wasn't so much an outward thing that happened, so much as a thought that ran through my head. I was tempted to quit school.

Don't worry, I have absolutely no intention of throwing away all my hard work for the past 3 years. I fully intend to get this degree. But it was just one of those thoughts, that you don't even entertain seriously, but can't help but be attracted to. "I'm not pursuing a career in Classics. I just want to be a writer and have kids or something. I don't need a degree. I could really use more time to research/write the things I've been wanting to write..."

And so on.

Maybe this doesn't seem earth-shattering to most of you (most people I know gripe about school at some point or another), but for me, this is unprecedented.

My life has pretty much revolved around school, for years. It wasn't just a means to an end (I've really never been career-driven), it was an end in itself. I devoted my entire high school career to earning the scholarships I would need to pay for college; and once I got here, school remained the number one priority. I devoted the vast majority of my energies to achieving perfection in every single class; partly because I enjoy learning things (I honestly do), but mostly because I was driven by an unhealthy perfectionism (the 4.0 was an absolute must) and a need for some kind of goal to direct my life.

Last semester I was dead set on going to grad school after I finished my degree, not so much because I need a master's degree, but just because I was terrified of having to deal with a life in which all I had was a pharmacy job or some other repetitive, endless career. Life without school was this terrifying vaccuum.

In recent months, God's really been showing me just how skewed my priorities have been. (That first B I earned last semester, and my completely irrational devastation that resulted, kind of forced me to reevaluate.) I've come to recognize that I've been pretty much insane this whole time. I used to justify it in my mind, and with other people, by saying that my relentless study was the result of a desire to glorify God in what I was doing, and there may have been a grain of truth there, but I was mostly just trying to find fulfillment in school in itself. As nutty as that sounds. (Seriously, I don't expect you guys to identify with this situation. I'm not the only one who thinks I'm crazy.)

So today, when I was tempted to quit school, I was a bit disturbed on one hand, but pretty encouraged on the other. Wanting to be through means that I'm getting over this need for school as some sort of crutch. It means I view other things in my life as more important. Maybe I've turned a corner!

Or maybe I'm just a senior. :)

My Incredibly Complex Personality

2006-09-21T17:16:00.000-07:00

I finally got around to taking the Jung typology test, and I'm highly amused/impressed by the accuracy of the results. If you've ever had a hard time figuring me out, read on.

"To outsiders, INTJs may appear to project an aura of "definiteness", of self-confidence. This self-confidence, sometimes mistaken for simple arrogance by the less decisive, is actually of a very specific rather than a general nature; its source lies in the specialized knowledge systems that most INTJs start building at an early age. When it comes to their own areas of expertise -- and INTJs can have several -- they will be able to tell you almost immediately whether or not they can help you, and if so, how. INTJs know what they know, and perhaps still more importantly, they know what they don't know.

INTJs are perfectionists, with a seemingly endless capacity for improving upon anything that takes their interest. What prevents them from becoming chronically bogged down in this pursuit of perfection is the pragmatism so characteristic of the type: INTJs apply (often ruthlessly) the criterion "Does it work?" to everything from their own research efforts to the prevailing social norms. This in turn produces an unusual independence of mind, freeing the INTJ from the constraints of authority, convention, or sentiment for its own sake.

INTJs are idea people. Anything is possible; everything is negotiable. Others may see what is and wonder why; INTJs see what might be and say "Why not?!" They are rather rare, comprising no more than, say, one percent of the population. INTJs can rise to management positions when they are willing to invest time in marketing their abilities as well as enhancing them, and (whether for the sake of ambition or the desire for privacy) many also find it useful to learn to simulate some degree of surface conformism in order to mask their inherent unconventionality.

Personal relationships, particularly romantic ones, can be the INTJ's Achilles heel. While they are capable of caring deeply for others (usually a select few), and are willing to spend a great deal of time and effort on a relationship, the knowledge and self-confidence that make them so successful in other areas can suddenly abandon or mislead them in interpersonal situations.
This happens in part because many INTJs do not readily grasp the social rituals; for instance, they tend to have little patience and less understanding of such things as small talk and flirtation (which most types consider half the fun of a relationship). To complicate matters, INTJs are usually extremely private people, and can often be naturally impassive as well, which makes them easy to misread and misunderstand. Perhaps the most fundamental problem, however, is that INTJs really want people to make sense. :-) This sometimes results in a peculiar naivete', paralleling that of many Fs -- only instead of expecting inexhaustible affection and empathy from a romantic relationship, the INTJ will expect inexhaustible reasonability and directness."

Are there any other INTJs in the house? ;)

Okay, so maybe I'm opinionated...

2006-09-21T13:40:00.000-07:00

This is why I shouldn't read the newspaper.

Column: Poser Christians need to actually represent values
"Drinking, body piercing, tattoos, drug use and premarital sex; what once were cornerstones of vice and sin now seem to be part of the entrance exam into college. ...Even here at Texas Tech, which is located in the second-most conservative city in the United States, these things have become more common in the past couple of years. Perhaps most disturbing, however, is that they have found their way into the activities of what once were God-fearing Christians."

"With every drunken night you can't remember, piercing you add, or person you sleep with, you might as well be handing nails to the Roman soldiers to affix Jesus to the cross."

***

Dear [Columnist],

Hi! My name is [MullTrain], and I'm a senior here at Tech. I read your editorial on Poser Christians today, and since I'm well aware that you'll be getting some hate mail in response, I thought I'd give you some more constructive feedback.

First, I'd like to say that I feel a great concern for this issue, both as a Christian myself and especially, in more recent months, as a leader in one of the university ministries here in town. I've seen this type of behavior among some of our students there, and it bothers me a lot. It's very easy for young Christians to fall into, and it's also a huge turn-off for non-Christians who have contact with those students. So I'm very glad that you have the ability to recognize, and the gumption to write about, this problem.

I would also, however, like to offer a couple of suggestions for any future writing (or speaking, etc.) you might do on this topic. I've found that any time I teach about a moral issue in my Bible study, it always begs the question of "why?" Why should students follow what might seem like arbitrary rules, one might ask, especially if they are aware that they can never be perfect? So it is always very helpful to mention reasons beyond just the outward, "American-society-is-crumbling" type of argument. I agree with you there, but make it more personal and concrete. Remind people that Christianity isn't just about outward action; it's a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Be sure to mention that obedience is a natural outflow of a true Christian's love for God and desire to reflect His perfect nature. This makes a lot more sense than just a call to follow some rules.

And speaking of rules, my only other suggestion is to be very careful that you only condemn behaviors that are clearly spoken against in the Bible. I felt that you damaged your case considerably when you condemned tattoos and body piercings right next to clearly unbiblical behaviors like drunkenness and fornication. The Bible never clearly and unequivocally speaks out against either tattoos or body piercings, although there are certainly verses that tell us not to over-emphasize outer adornment. It's one of those issues that isn't clearly black and white, and as such needs to be handled delicately and with charity toward other Christians who could legitimately disagree with you (Paul addresses this in Romans 14). I am not saying that your viewpoint has no merit; but I would suggest that in a medium such as the newspaper, it is better to stick to clearer issues. The danger here is that someone will read a statement like "With every...piercing you add...you might as well be handing nails to the Roman soldiers..." and (legitimately) disagreeing, say to himself, "Dude, that guy is absolutely insane!" and then completely disregard the overall message, which was very important and very good. So, in other words, don't ruin a good overall message by stirring up needless (and ultimately unresolvable) controversy!

So having said all this, I just wanted to encourage you to keep speaking out on this topic. I commend your sincerity and your zeal for change! Just be sure to use caution and discernment to maximize your effectiveness.Thanks for reading all this!

Sincerely,
[MullTrain]

Fun at Small Group

2006-09-20T19:49:00.000-07:00

Tuesday night's small group cluster is so much more than a Bible study. Check it out.

The girls like to do a little modelling...

While the boys do a little cleaning...

And some hardcore rockin' out...

And even a bit of, um, gymnastics...

No one's gotten hurt yet! :)

People Watcher

2006-09-13T07:38:00.000-07:00

People are interesting. Do you ever just sit and watch them doing their thing, figuring out things about them just by observing? I think it's a fun pursuit...especially in certain settings, like the Rec Center. I go to the Rec every Monday and Wednesday morning for walking class, and as I spend an hour walking in circles around the indoor track, bored out of my mind, I like to watch everyone else work out. It's really funny, because they all look very serious and absorbed by what they're doing, but they are also all keenly aware of the fact that other people might be watching them. The combination of seriousness for the task, and seriousness for showing off, always provides me with much amusement.

Today before we actually walked, our teacher told us that if we have a tendency to make fists when we walk, we ought to concentrate on relaxing our wrists by touching our thumbs to our middle fingers as we walk (something about lowering blood pressure or some such nonsense). Later, I saw one of my classmates on the track, and she had taken him quite seriously...so much so that she wasn't even swinging her arms or anything, just walking along with her hands sticking out in front with her thumbs and middle fingers together and all the rest of her fingers sticking straight up. It looked really retarded--I had a hard time not laughing out loud as I walked by her.

And now I'm in the library, watching a guy across from me study. He's wearing a shirt that says, "Lefties have rights too!" I like the shirt, but he's writing with his right hand, so I'm confused. Maybe he's just an ally...

Cowboy Symposium

2006-09-09T05:57:00.000-07:00

Every year, Lubbock holds a fun little event we like to call the National Cowboy Symposium, a celebration of all things western and cowboy-related. Last night my boyfriend and I made it out there to one of the shows, to see one of our friends who was going to be performing some cowboy poetry. As a *former* English major, I'm well aware that most cowboy poetry has little to offer in terms of artistic merit, but I have a soft spot for it anyway. Andy has a great laid-back style that ends up "sneakin' up on ya" (as one of the cowboys put it last night) and being very funny. Hopefully this afternoon I'll get to take in some more. Last symposium I went to, I remember seeing several cowboy poets and laughing till my sides split. Not a bad way to spend the afternoon, if you ask me.

Besides the poetry last night, there were also several musical acts. Most weren't really exceptional (this is just local folks we're talking about here), but the two acts I liked the most were both accompanied by Washtub Jerry. Haha. The name comes from the fact that he plays a washtub bass. It's a metal washtub turned upside down, with a brake cable attached to the tub on one end and a tall wooden stick on the other. Washtub Jerry stands on the tub and somehow manages to play different notes by just pulling the wood stick closer or pushing it farther away from him as he plucks away. It's a sight to be seen (my camera wasn't working last night, more's the pity). Apparently he's a western music fixture around here--the first act he played with introduced themselves and then said, "Yeah, and y'all all know Washtub Jerry, he's gonna play some bass..." Lol.

Like I said, the music wasn't anything to write home about, but I do also have a bit of a soft spot for western tunes. My parents raised me partially on western music, acts like the Sons of the Pioneers or Riders in the Sky (though I doubt most of you have heard of them), and although I don't really listen to it regularly now, it still has nostalgic appeal for me. "Don't Fence Me In," or "Tumblin' Tumbleweeds"...it's just pretty good stuff.

I can only take these things in fairly small doses, though. Last night I left fairly early after the show because I felt kind of cowboyed out, if you know what I mean. Still, I'm looking forward to going back this afternoon. I may not be a cowgirl or anything, but I see the value in celebrating and preserving our western heritage--if nothing else, it's fun to see all these cowboys' enthusiasm! Hopefully the camera will work today...

Week 2: Creation in Alienation

2006-09-05T20:56:00.000-07:00

Here is the manuscript from tonight's Bible study lesson, just in case anyone is interested to see what we're studying. Since I bother to write the thing, for my own benefit, I might as well post it, I guess. Keep in mind that this is just my notes, and that the study is discussion oriented, so this isn't some kind of serious treatise or anything.

Genesis 11:1-9 The Tower of Babel

Last week, we talked about the creation of the world, and this picture in Genesis 1-2 of man in perfect fellowship with God and each other. We discussed our created purpose as creatures who are designed to be in fellowship with God, and thought about ways that this perspective could help change the way we view our nonbelieving friends and family—that is, to help us view them as people who are missing out on the only thing that can fulfill them and give them purpose, both in this life and in eternity.

Sunday, Dusty talked about the isolation effect of sin upon mankind. As a result of Adam and Eve’s sin, a fracture was created, both in man’s fellowship with God and in relationships between humans. It is in this broken world that we live today. God responded to this fracture by promising a great plan of restoration and redemption that will someday restore humanity back to its original and perfect state of union, both with God and with each other. This great promise has already seen fulfillment in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and at Jesus’ second return will come to full fruition in the new Heaven and the new Earth. Dusty also pointed out that, unless we feel the sting of our treason against the Creator, we cannot understand or receive the grace and restoration that is offered. Our sin is real, and we must take responsibility for it.

This week, we will be looking at another passage illustrating sin and its ability to separate men from God and each other. Read Genesis 11:1-9, the story of the Tower of Babel. This story is one of my favorite Old Testament passages, mostly because of my interest in ancient languages and cultures. It’s easy for me to focus on the “facts” of this passage as a battle against modern anthropological models of language dispersion and so on. Just as it’s dangerous to view creation only through the lens of combating Darwinism, it’s also not a good idea to view this story in such a limited way. Let’s think about what this story would have meant to the Israelites at the time it was written. The Israelites would have approached this passage as a.) an explanation of how mankind got from Adam to their present, that is, their connection to the past, b.) an explanation of who all the other nations on the earth were and where they came from, and c.) an example of what happens as a result of a people’s unified rebellion against God. Since we skipped some chapters in between, let’s situate the passage in its context within the book. This story occurs after the great Flood. God, in judgment against the growth of mankind’s sin, wiped out all the earth except for Noah and his family. Thus, all these people are Noah’s descendants, and in chapter 9, verse 1, God charged them to multiply and “fill the earth.” This story apparently happens several generations later, when they’ve multiplied quite a bit but apparently haven’t spread out much.

Obviously, God was not pleased with the people’s choice to build a tower. But why was building the tower a sin? Was it the tower itself, or what? Well, first of all, let’s make sure we know what sin is. What does sin mean, exactly? Is it an action? Does it simply mean “doing bad things”? Sin is, quite simply, any attitude or action that goes against God’s will or His nature. Paul says in Romans 14:23 that “whatever does not proceed from faith is sin;” in other words, doing things that are not motivated by a desire to glorify God is sin. Augustine wrote in the 3rd century AD that he saw sin, or evil, not as a thing in itself, but as the absence of God’s goodness. So as you can see, sin is not merely confined to individual acts; it is a way of thinking that leads to acts that go against God’s stated will. So how does this definition of sin affect the way we view or deal with sin in our own lives? In the lives of those around us? Does it change the way we approach evangelism?

So now that we’ve defined sin, let’s look at why the building of the Tower of Babel was a sin. Buildings aren’t sinful objects in and of themselves; but motivation is everything. (I think it’s important to interject here that they were not trying to literally build a tower that reached heaven, despite the fact that we often hear that in Sunday School. They were, however, trying to accomplish something great.) What were the people motivated by? They state a desire to make a name for themselves, and a fear of being dispersed in the whole earth. These motivations are actually very natural to humans: they wanted to establish an identity for themselves, and they wanted a sense of community and civilization as protection against loneliness. Although these desires are not necessarily wrong, the people at Babel are going about it all wrong—they’re in unified rebellion against God. Instead of finding their identity in God, they seek to set up their own name, and establish their own importance. And instead of spreading out in the earth like God commanded them to, and trusting Him to meet their needs, they are refusing point-blank to do as they were told. Just like Adam and Eve in the garden, they’re convinced that God is holding out on them, and they are therefore making much of themselves, and trying to make their own way, instead of worshiping the God of creation.

So how does God respond to this rebellion? Do you think He felt threatened by the power of this civilization? Verse six sort of makes it sound that way, but we know that the Creator of the universe is not threatened by anything we humans can do. Why then did God decide to stop the construction of the tower and confuse the languages? Was He just “playing the language card” since He had already used up the whole flood idea (and had promised never to do that again)? God knew that such a work was only the beginning of what a unified, rebellious culture would seek to do. A humanity that believed nothing was impossible for them would be motivated to explore all kinds of new ways to glorify themselves. God knew the totalitarian evil that would result in such a situation. He knew that the people of Babel would eventually self destruct! Therefore his decision to stop the construction of the tower was an act of mercy. By making His name great again in the minds of the people, he prevented them from killing themselves in an evil civilization. Have you ever experienced God’s discipline in your life? Has He ever had to do something drastic to get your attention and divert you from a destructive path?

It’s important to realize that God’s creation of the different languages and cultures was not an afterthought or something He came up with off the cuff. The theme of God’s heart for the nations is a major one that we see throughout the entire Bible, starting here. God had a plan for nations from the beginning, and the diversity of mankind, along with its eventual reunion at Jesus’ second coming (Rev. 7:9-10), brings great glory to God and is an essential part of His plan of redemption, in which He used one nation as a means of blessing the others (we’ll see this idea coming up next week, when we talk about Abraham and Jacob).

So how does this concept of “the nations” affect our lives as Christians today? It’s a huge part of our calling as New Testament believers! Let’s look at Matthew 28:18-20. Does this Great Commission affect the way we live, on our campus and in our world? God has a heart for the nations, and so should we!

Rain is Good for the Brain

2006-09-03T13:44:00.000-07:00

What a lovely afternoon. Although I had to sacrifice seeing my friend the Sun, I have enjoyed this cloudy, dreary, rainy day. Sometimes I feel like I think better on cloudy days. My boyfriend and I were just discussing it, and I think there's something intellectually stimulating about rain. It's the sort of thing that either drives me to curl up on the couch with a book and a cup of coffee (mmm...), or the type of environment that becomes conducive to metaphysical speculations. I'm feeling both of these little tugs at the moment, but since I have to go to a leader's meeting in about half an hour, I decided to write instead. Writing seems to fall under the rain-stimulated category as well. If I ever become I writer, I ought to move to England, so that I could be stimulated 'most every day.

If I ever become a writer...you know, I think someday I'm going to do that. Writing is another one of those unexplained impulses I've always had--just like traveling and teaching--that I've always been kind of afraid to pursue. After all, it takes a bit of gumption to write...and it's a pretty lonely pursuit, since no one else can really participate in the actual process. But I am pretty sure that I can do it, and that I ought to try my hand at it. I didn't think I had the ability to teach or the gumption to travel, but in recent times I've proved myself wrong on both counts. Both of those pursuits have proven rewarding in many different ways. Writing will be my next thing to conquer, I've decided.

This doesn't, of course, mean that I have any clear ideas of what I want to write, or to what end. All I have right now is this vague desire to write as some sort of creative outlet. Not that I'm very creative or anything (if I were, coming up with something to write wouldn't be the problem). It also doesn't mean that I'm planning on doing anything too concrete in that direction right now. I have to finish school first, and at present school, work, and teaching occupy all the time that I'm willing to give to "working" activities. After I graduate in May, though, I think I'll be getting a lot more serious about starting a project. Maybe by then I'll know what I want to do. Fiction or nonfiction? Something historical? Some sort of fantasy/myth? Surely my knowledge and interests can combine somehow to produce something worthwhile. I just don't know how.

Anyways, maybe someday I'll be hit with a lightning bolt of inspiration. In the meantime, I'll just blog.

I think I ought to warn y'all in advance that this blog just might become an outlet for my thoughts in preparation for Bible study. Heck, I might even write out some sort of loose approximation of what I want to cover in that week's session, as a way of organizing my thoughts. Writing it out in conversational paragraph form tends to help me to do that, even better than outlining. Anyway, if a lot of these posts turn into loosely organized rants on Old Testament passages, you can't say I didn't warn you. You don't have to pretend to be interested or anything. :)

Our leader meeting this afternoon could be a sleepy affair, with all the rain (since it seems that most people's tendencies on cloudy days are opposite of mine; I may be the only one who feels intellectually brighter on these days). I am going to try to liven up the discussion as much as possible, but I find that hard to do, usually. It may sound odd, but I have a hard time talking in group discussions, even though I have very little problem leading them. I suppose I am not confident enough when I don't feel like I'm supposed to be talking a lot. Or something. Who knows. But this meeting, we're discussing teaching approaches to the Tower of Babel, which is one of my favorite passages in the Old Testament. (It may sound like an odd passage to be one's favorite, but keep in mind that I have an abiding interest in ancient languages and cultures. This is where they all got started!) We're also discussing sin, how to define it, how to approach it, etc. Should be good stuff. I'm ready to jump in (see above: rain as stimulation for metaphysical speculation).

So I guess I'd better start heading that direction. More posts to follow this week...I'm not planning on being MIA all semester!

A Thoughtful Week

2006-09-01T16:44:00.000-07:00

I have been remiss, I believe, in not posting this week, since so much has happened. But right now I don't have the time, so in lieu of a real post, here's a little list of what's been going through my head:

a.) Walking class at 8 am is not the evil one might imagine it to be, but it is rather boring.
b.) Birthdays rock. I now own every appliance I need, and then some.
c.) I like to teach the Bible.
d.) Retaking Greek might be a good idea in the long run, but class-long discussions on the alphabet are enough to make me crazy.
e.) Why does sin exist? What is sin? Did Adam and Eve have sinful natures?
f.) Bipolar disease-I went to a conference on it, and actually found something besides the free food worth paying attention to (those pharmacy meetings tend to be rather laborious).

Yeah, so that's some of what's been running around my brain lately. Maybe some of these will be fleshed out into real posts someday. Oh, and here's another one:
g.) I like my boyfriend.

We're going out to dinner tonight. :) Happy birthday to me...still...

I Love Weddings!

2006-08-26T20:55:00.000-07:00

...especially ones that are done right. Tonight was the wedding of two of my friends, and it was lovely. It was a very God-centered, good ceremony, followed by a reception where great fun was had by all.

I got to see several good friends of mine, including Laura, shown here:
The ceremony was held in this really historic and pretty building downtown. It's got a balcony all around the main room, and most of the college kids got to sit up there. One of my girl friends, who was sitting in the balcony with a whole group of us, dropped her purse over the railing and it hit some guy on the head who was sitting down below. Lol we're pretty sure he was okay, though. Then, not long before the ceremony, there was apparently an exploding toilet episode (the guests were cleaning up toilet water), but it was resolved in time for the important stuff to go perfectly smoothly.

Afterward, they had a great reception. There was real food there (you should have seen Jonny packing it away), and a dance, and the bride and groom mingled with everyone. We did the hokey-pokey (sp?), followed by a rousing game of musical chairs:

Then, my boyfriend--amid fierce competition (wink)--ended up catching the garter. He's wearing the dark coat, while his roommate Brent is looking on in amusement, wearing the white shirt:

You know, that's the second garter he's caught in the space of 4 months. Hmm. I have a suspicion that these things keep getting aimed at him. :)

So anyway, it was a fun evening. One of the highlights for me personally was when Brent, completely out of the blue, hollered at me, "Jenny! I'm loving the dress!" I had just bought it earlier this afternoon, since I wanted something appropriate for the occasion. I believe I had some of the girl friends compliment it too, but Brent's comment was the best, since guys (unlike girls) will never compliment your dress just because they can't think of anything else to say. They pretty much will only say something if they mean it. So I consider that one a very high honor. :)

So that was tonight. Good food, good fun, and I wish Alissa and Andy all the happiness in the world. I'm very confident that they will go the distance!

Now it's time to put the roast in, and then to bed. Good night!

My Lake of Shining Waters

2006-08-22T20:19:00.000-07:00

About a year ago, I wrote this post about the pond I live next to. Last week, I suddenly realized that since I now keep a digital camera around (thanks to my very obliging boyfriend), I can now show you what a lovely little place I live in:

That picnic table is one of my favorite places to sit and do homework or read on a nice spring afternoon. In August it's a bit toasty for that, but the lake is still a lovely presence, always there in the morning when I leave and in the evening when I come home from work. I know that if I ever move somewhere else, I will really miss my little pond.

Spiritual Gifts Inventory...Bah Humbug

2006-08-20T20:11:00.000-07:00

The other day, when I was visiting my friend Lee, we got to talking about spiritual gifts. She had a spiritual gifts survery handy (she's a minister's wife, she's got all kinds of resources), and she asked me to take it when I got home. I did, and I've been thinking about it for the last few days, and discussing it with Lee, my parents, and my boyfriend.

The result of the survey said that my top gifts are Teaching, Knowledge, and Administration. Administration seemed kind of random, but I guess since I've never really been placed in an administrative position, there's no way for me to know whether I'd do well at it or not. Other than that, the results aren't anything I hadn't been expecting. But you know, I don't really think that a "spiritual gifts inventory" is really the best way to figure out where I should be serving.

I don't mean to be overly cynical, but who decided that we all needed to "discover our spiritual gift" anyway? I mean, when Paul talks about spiritual gifts in the New Testament, I don't think he's saying that we need to go on some sort of inward quest for spiritual enlightenment, in order to discover our purpose in life. Instead, he is trying to keep Christians from judging each other and competing with each other because of the different ministries they are focused on. He's reminding the people that, if church member Joe is not as focused on evangelism as church member Sam, it could be because he has the gift of administration instead. Sam shouldn't think less of Joe and abuse him just because he doesn't spend as much time visiting people at their homes and handing out pies; he's updating the church's member database instead. Paul's point is that different people are gifted for different aspects of ministry, and we need all those gifts to keep the Church running smoothly.

So this whole "spiritual gift quest" doesn't seem Biblical to me. It seems like a reflection of a more modern, secular idea...this whole thing about "find your inner voice" or "discover the truth within," and that sort of mumbo-jumbo. And the "inventory" seems more like a personality test than a true evaluation of how the Holy Spirit has gifted you. Spiritual gifts aren't the same as personality traits! They may be related, of course, but a personality test, even a super-spiritual one, is really not going to tell you a whole lot that you didn't already know.

I think that the best way to approach spiritual gifts is to try different areas of service. If you gravitate toward one area, and seem to get good results and good feedback from the people you're serving, then that's a good indication that it's one of your spiritual gifts. You can then thank God for His provision, while keeping in mind that it doesn't mean you're "off the hook" for any other type of service. I may not have the same gift for evangelism that my friend Matt has, but that doesn't mean that I don't need to tell people about Jesus. I may not have the same gift of mercy that my friend Karen has (see previous post on the subject), but that doesn't mean that I don't need to work on developing compassion for people. At the same time, if you don't seem to gravitate toward any one area, and can't figure out what your gift is, don't sweat it. You don't need to label yourself to serve God effectively. Just love God and serve Him, and He'll show you opportunities to use whatever it is you're good at to serve His kingdom.

Does that make sense? Maybe it's not even that important of an issue; I just don't like to see people stressing over this spiritual gift question, and feeling like there's something wrong with them if they can't "find their gift." I've been there in past days, and I know how stressful that feeling can be. Following the narrow path is a difficult enough task without adding unnecessary burdens!

Lee and the Kiddoes

2006-08-17T21:21:00.000-07:00

Alright, time for a real post. I don't have time to ramble tonight (I ought to be in bed already), so I'll just let the pics do most of the talking.

My best friend in the world is seven years older than me. People always think it's a bit strange that we were inseparable when I was in junior high and she was in college, but it's true. My friend Lee knows me as well as anyone in the world, and we've always been thick as thieves. I was a bridesmaid in her wedding (when I was fifteen), and now she's a happy wife and mother of 3 beautiful boys. Here they are.

Levi, the oldest, is 3 years old:

Levi is a very sweet child. He is very sensitive to the feelings of those around him, especially his mom. He is always trying to make sure she is feeling happy. His sensitivity can also be rather funny, however, when he (often) comes crying to Lee over the slightest physical injury, real or imagined, and usually receives her "tough love" response: "Oh, you're fine, stop crying and walk it off!"

Jonah, the second son, will be 2 years old in September:

Jonah is the toughest little kid ever. He goes tumbling off of tables and things, and he never cries or misses a beat. It's unbelievable, and rather comical next to his big brother's sensitivity. He is also very articulate--he speaks in sentences already, and he's not even 2 yet! Amazing kid. As you can see in this picture, he likes tomatoes.

And last but not least, Malachi (we call him Mickey) is six months old: He's the most laid-back child I've ever seen. He likes to be held, or just to sit and watch the world go by, as his mom would say. Even when he's unhappy, he just cries so quietly. He's sweet. When I go to see them, I like to hold Mickey the whole time. I'm so glad he doesn't have stranger anxiety yet. :)

When Lee took this picture of me and Mickey, Levi demanded to see it. When we showed it to him on the camera, he declared with firm approval, "Oh, that's cute!" Haha.

Well, time for bed. Good night!

Soundtrack of My Life

2006-08-16T09:24:00.000-07:00

Alright, I'm jumping on Karen's and Cassie's and Jill's bandwagon.

Here's my soundtrack...it wasn't done at random, of course. You guys know I could never allow something so important (lol) to be done at random--and besides, I listen to a lot of classical music, which would never do for this. Soundtracks need lyrics. I said once that I could make one using only Collective Soul songs, and I hold to that, but I decided to branch out for this one.

So here's what a little thought and a few decisions came up with:

Opening Credits: “Another Day” by Steven Deloupolos
“I nursed my coffee till the dawn
And waited for another day...”

Average Day: “Breathe In” by Frou Frou
“I have to be somewhere—
Now where did I put it?”

First Date: “I Should be Sleeping” by Emerson Drive
“I should be sleeping ‘stead of keeping
These late hours I’ve been keeping,
I’ve been pacing and retracing every step of every move...”

Love Scene: “The Way You Look Tonight” by Michael Buble
“With each word, your tenderness grows,
Tearing my fears apart,
And that laugh that wrinkles your nose,
It touches my foolish heart...”

Breaking Up: “Life Got in the Way” by Sister Hazel
“And I wanted you so much
Just like I do right now,
I wanted us to be the ones
The poets write their books about,
I wanted it to last,
I wanted to grow old,
But life got in the way...”

Long Night Alone: “I am a Rock” by Simon and Garfunkel
“I am a rock, I am an island...
I have my books and my poetry to protect me...”

Getting Back Together: “Brighter than Sunshine” by Aqualung
“I never understood before
I never knew what love was for,
My heart was broke, my head was sore,
What a feeling...
What a feeling in my soul,
Love burns brighter than sunshine...”

Life’s Okay: “Better Now” by Collective Soul
“Oh I’m newly calibrated,
All shiny and clean,
I’m your recent adaptation,
Time to redefine me...
Let the word out, I’ve got to get out,
Oh I’m feeling better now!”

Driving: “Next Homecoming” by Collective Soul
“I cleared the road wide open,
So put your hand on the wheel and steer...”

Learning a Lesson: “Sorry” by Bic Runga
“I’ve been looking ‘round the pantry for a box of sorries,
I’m all run out, yeah, I’m all run out...
It’s not that hard to say, I know,
It’s not that hard to say, so why can’t I say it now?”

Partying: “Ready for the Good Times” by Shakira
“I’m ready for the good times,
I’m ready for the good times,
Now that I’m not alone...”

Happy Dance: “E Raffaella E Mia” by Tiziano Ferro
“E Raffaella canta a casa mia,
E Raffaella balla a casa mia...”

Regretting: “A Long December” by Counting Crows
(although almost any Counting Crows song can fit into this category)
“I can’t remember all the times
I try to tell myself to hold on
To these moments as they pass...”

Death Scene: “With Hope” by Steven Curtis Chapman
“We can cry with hope,
We can say goodbye with hope,
Because we know our goodbye is not the end,
We can breathe with hope,
Because we believe with hope,
There’s a place where we’ll see your face again...”

Closing Credits: “Holy Sunlight” by Steven Deloupolos
“Holy sunlight, holy rain
Lead me for salvation,
The distant gospel train...
Oh the ocean’s deep enough to drown,
But I feel the sailboat’s close around me,
He will find me in time...”

My Brains are Scrambled

2006-08-15T05:45:00.000-07:00

For some reason I couldn't sleep well last night. My sleep came in fits and starts, so now my thoughts are all disjointed.

I had a disturbing dream right before I woke up. My friend Lauren, one of my better friends from high school, died suddenly earlier this summer. This morning I dreamed about her, and even though I had not forgotten in the dream that she had died, she was out walking around anyway. The explanation was that she had been in a coma where everyone thought she was dead, but now she was okay. (I read too many fantasy books, I swear.) In this dream she was taking great delight in scaring a bunch of people, and then she and this friend of hers started chasing me. They eventually ambushed me on this narrow staircase, one in front and one behind, and they were trying to kill me. Somehow the attack ended but it was never resolved. It was a very disturbing, Donnie Darko-esque dream. I woke up thinking, "Lauren was so much nicer before she died...wait..." and had to figure out all over again what had happened in real life. It was too weird.

Then, on top of that, I woke up with a Backstreet Boys song stuck in my head. I know, talk about a rough night! I haven't even heard it in years. It's the one that goes,
"I don't care who you are
Where you're from
What you did
As long as you love me..."

I am angry about having this song in my head. Not only is it offensive in its lack of musical merit, it's just dumb. I think it may be one of the absolute dumbest relationship songs ever, one that should sit next to the Beatles' "All You Need is Love." Please. Too many people listen to songs like that and really take to heart this naive idea that love is all you need to make it. Nope, sorry. Eventually they get knocked down by life and learn it the hard way; or they never learn it at all and wonder why their relationships never last and their lives are in shambles. I care a whole lot about who my boyfriend is, where he's from, and what he's done in the past, along with other criteria like what his faith is like, how he treats his family, etc. The fact that he loves me is just one of many criteria speaking in his favor. I have to look at it that way because marriages are built on more than love. Songs like this one ought to be rated SC-10 for "Stupid Content" and burned. That probably wouldn't prevent people from being dumb, but hey, there's no need to celebrate stupidity in music!

Alright, I'm getting ready for work now. Just needed to vent.

Heartless

2006-08-14T16:39:00.000-07:00

Lately I've been non-busy enough to become rather introspective and do a little soul-searching. One never really likes what one finds as a result of that activity (generally speaking), but I am most appalled by a weakness I'd never really identified as such before.

I have so, so little compassion.

When I think of Jesus and the life He lived, and the way He died for the sins of humanity, one of the first words to jump to mind is "compassion." Compassion is one of the most important qualities for any Christian to aspire to. Compassion for the lost, compassion for the needy, compassion for the downhearted. But I have very little compassion for anybody. Why am I so heartless?

Take the last few days, for instance. This weekend one of my least favorite coworkers got fired, and my reaction was excitement, something along the lines of "Ding Dong! The Witch is Dead!" I felt slightly guilty about that, but only because I was well aware that people aren't supposed to enjoy it when other people lose their jobs, and that slight guilt really didn't change the fact that his termination made my week. Then today, when my boss told me that he had called crying (he really is in a bad situation now), I laughed. I wasn't laughing to keep from crying, I was laughing because I thought it was funny. "Ha ha, what a pansy. His girlfriend must've given him a black eye." How ugly is that reaction? Then when I got home, I read on my friend's blog that her car had gotten broken into and her credit card and ID got stolen. The first thought that ran through my mind, instead of concern, was "Why did she leave her credit card and ID in the car in the first place?" (I'm sorry Karen. I really am sorry you lost those things, and especially your Bible.)

So you see the pattern here? I'm absolutely heartless, there's no way around it. I rarely offer sympathy to anyone who comes complaining to me. While that's not always a bad thing (people who are really being ridiculous don't need to be coddled), I really don't like this pattern. I think Jesus needs to change me.

Just throwing that out there. I might find some other things that need to go while I'm at it.

A Weakness of Mine

2006-08-13T16:06:00.000-07:00

I have a weakness for fantasy novels. Yes, I admit, even bad fantasy books provide me wtih endless entertainment. They always have, at least as long as I've been able to read something besides "See Spot Run." I'm not sure why that is, exactly. Maybe it's because I like to read books in series (single novels end too quickly), and any self-respecting fantasy story comes in at least a trilogy, or a series, or a cycle, or whatever. After all, if you are going to go to all the trouble to create an entire world, populated with creatures with outlandish names, you might as well milk it for all it's worth, right? One of my favorite series is ten volumes long, with two "companion books," and I must admit that I own them all. (Yeah, I'm pathetic.)

My latest weakness came in the form of Eragon, a fairly recently published work that was a runaway success a few years ago, and whose sequel Eldest (it's a trilogy, of course) is currently on some bestseller list or other. I expected it to be terrible, but I was curious, especially since the movie comes out this December (starring Jeremy Irons and John Malkovich). It wasn't exactly something to be placed next to Lord of the Rings on one's bookshelf, but I am not gonna lie, it's a guilty pleasure of mine, not a victim of the scathing review I had jokingly promised. I liked it enough to go out and buy Eldest, while Eldest still isn't in paperback yet. Grr, yes, I gave in. :)

Perhaps I enjoy it because I'm aware of the fact that it was written by a teenager. Christopher Paolini wrote Eragon when he was fifteen and sixteen years old, and it had achieved some serious success (including the New York Times Bestseller List) by the time he was nineteen. When you take that into account, it's an incredibly complex and ambitious work. Not perhaps the most original, but after all there's a lot of more worthless drivel that gets published every year. And if he's borrowing flagrantly, at least it's from the good stuff. His ideas about dragons and their riders come straight from Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern series, his ideas about magic strongly recall Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea Cycle, and the coexistence of elves, men, and dwarves naturally brings Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy to mind (and some of the names are so similar to Tolkien's, it makes me laugh). Naturally, I've read all of those books and their endless sequels, so I'm fantasy-savvy enough to see what he's doing. If I weren't such a voracious reader of fantasy myself, I would have no idea how little of Eragon is actually the creation of its author. Therefore, it doesn't surprise me that it gets such a positive reception from its mostly teenaged audience. (Apparently because of the fact that it was written by a teen and isn't raunchy, it's been relegated to the kid's section of bookstores and libraries. However, like the Harry Potter series, it is far too complex and mature for anyone younger than, say, twelve or thirteen to read and appreciate.) Still, I have to admire Mr. Paolini for his ability, not only to sit down and write such an ambitious project, but to follow through on publishing and publicity and all the rest at such a young age. And, amazingly enough, he even looks like a halfway normal person in his photograph (I was expecting a far more pitifully geeky type). Kudos to him, really. Hopefully this is just his juvenalia, and he'll develop more complexity, originality, and polish as he gets older. But then again, even if he doesn't, he'll still have helpless fantasy addicts like me buying his books. :)

"Living in Fear Will Drive You Mad..."

2006-08-11T19:27:00.000-07:00

"The ancient road you thought was new,
It's all we have to make it through..."
--Steven Deloupolos, "Me Died Blue"

Something about travelling broadens one's perspective. I used to have no interest whatsoever in anything that was going on outside the city of Lubbock, or at most the state of Texas. If it didn't directly affect me or my loved ones, what did it matter? But now I'm keenly interested in some worldwide events. I want to know some of the stuff that's going to affect my friends in Europe...because the Europeans, and pretty much non-Americans in general, aren't just hypothetical to me anymore. They're real folks, and nice ones too. I say I'm interested in some events, because I'm still not the most informed person in the world (ha), but I do pull up news sites and peruse the articles about Israel and Lebanon, and especially the recent events in England. Can you believe that they just prevented another September 11th? Most people don't seem to really grasp the seriousness of the situation. When people in the pharmacy talk about it, they're just kind of like, "Huh. Good thing we outsmarted them." And then on with daily life, and the usual complaints about the weather and gas prices. Hello, we could have been bombed again! On the other hand, though, what other reaction can a person really give? We can't go around being scared of every Muslim on the planet, or wake up in the morning looking for terrorists around every corner. But you have to admit that it's a crazy and unsettling world we live in. If I had been in Europe for 4 more days, I might still be there now. All things considered, I'm so glad to be home.

But then that whole "broadening" effect kicks in, and I feel like my roommate's beta fish. I've tasted the ocean, and now I have to go back to this teeny tiny aquarium and eat little bland flakes for breakfast and supper. Haha okay, so maybe the analogy only goes so far, but I'm actually pretty serious. Suddenly my small world, that used to be all I ever wanted, feels suffocatingly small. I want to be out moving around and learning things and rubbing shoulders with people from other cultures, and I can't.

But this is all part of the readjustment period, I'm sure. I'm pretty good at adjusting, usually. And it's not like I have no opportunities to meet interesting people here. My church has an internationals ministry that specifically reaches out to foreign students who are here at the university. If I have time this semester, I'd love to get involved. My "broadening" can benefit me right here, even if I never travel again. The Lord has blessed me with this experience, to help me to see the world more like he does, and not just as this irrelevant blank area on my mental map.

And it's times like these when I am especially grateful for the Lord's blessing, in so many ways. I can live in confidence that, no matter how crazy the world seems to get, God is in control and is not surprised by any of it. More than that, He's got a perfect plan that will work for the good of those who love Him. I don't have to live in fear, no matter what. And that is more valuable than anything else I know.

Striking Out in the Book Department

2006-08-09T08:43:00.000-07:00

This morning I went to get my books for school this fall. I'm a senior this year (which feels weird to say for some reason), but I still feel pretty enthusiastic when I go get my textbooks. Something about the academic potential of a new semester always gets me a little excited. But today, I only came out of there with one little book. This is because my roommate already has the book I need for one of the classes, and I either already have the books for the rest or I will have to wait till I get to class (small classes usually don't bother to stock the books in the bookstores). I suppose I should be overjoyed that I don't have to spend much money on textbooks this semester, but somehow I couldn't help but be a little bummed out that I didn't have a nice stack. Oh well. :)

Yesterday I went back to work, and it was kind of weird, but good. It felt good to be back being productive again, and I hadn't forgotten how to do my job or anything (lol). My coworkers were glad to see me back, and I found a huge pile of paperwork for me to do. It's a job that I usually handle, and I had left instructions so they would know how, but since they were shorthanded with me gone, it just piled up. I didn't really enjoy going through it all last night, but hey, it makes me feel important. Lol. And goodness knows I need to be working toward getting back in the black (this trip put me majorly in the red). So yeah...good times.

After work I went to get groceries, and I was struck by how HUGE the grocery store is. And the aisle with the Italian food cracked me up, because it's like a whole aisle of spaghetti sauce, which was next to impossible to find in Italy. You could find a whole aisle of tomato paste, but Italians do not believe in pre-made sauce. They spice up their own. I had to search high and low to find the one bottle of lazy-man spaghetti sauce in the whole place. Haha. Anyway, the grocery store in Texas was a whole new experience, and just rubbing shoulders with my fellow Texans felt good in a way. Since I've been people-watching for six weeks, I am now seeing these Lubbockites with new eyes. I've decided that they're a lot more interesting than I previously gave them credit for. Also, I feel that my faith is being restored in Americans in general. I don't know if it ever came out in my blog or anything, but I severely disliked almost every American I met over there, besides Rachel and a couple of my roommates. They were the whiniest, most annoying, loudest, snobbiest, most demanding, stupidest people ever, and I always thought to myself that if I were an Italian, I would hate Americans. But you know, the Americans who travel overseas aren't the best cross-section of society. They tend to be the rich snobby ones who are used to having everything their way. The study abroad kids tend to be the rich snobby ones whose daddies pay for everything, and therefore tend to take pretty much everything for granted. But now I'm back in the real world, where people actually have jobs and work hard and appreciate what they have, and are generally nice, good people. I knew there was a reason I liked Lubbock. :)

I have also noticed that studying abroad has made me a lot bolder. I find myself conversing with random people on planes, with the checkers and sackers at the grocery store, with our customers in the pharmacy, etc. I used to never strike up random conversations with people, but now I figure I might as well. Haha extroverts have more fun, there's no doubt about that. I don't know if I would quite classify myself as a complete extrovert or anything, since I'm still a pretty reserved person by nature. But something about running off by myself and being forced to meet a bunch of new people has made me a lot less intimidated by the whole process. I figure that's a good by-product, mostly. Hopefully it doesn't mean I'm obnoxious now or anything!

Well it's time to put the scrubs on. Off to work!

Maxwell House and Mini Wheats

2006-08-08T07:17:00.000-07:00

Well...I'm back. I didn't feel all that different when I was gone, but now that I'm back I feel so weird. Everything just seems so surreal. I keep being weirded out by things that used to be normal and unquestioned ("Dang! Look at all these HUGE cars!"), and I keep being distracted by the fact that I can understand all these conversations going on around me...to the point that I find it difficult to keep a conversation going. Lol. I drove yesterday, and had a hard time because I'm not used to having to pay attention to where I'm going. Agh.

And breakfast just ain't the same when I can't go to the Caffeteria Emo. Sigh.

It's not quite as bad, but it's almost the same "culture shock" feeling that I had in my first couple of days over there. Things are at least familiar, but everything is so different, and my life has completely changed again. It's a little depressing...partially because one never really wants to completely change all at once, and partially because it's coupled with the knowledge that I will probably never go back; and even if I did make it back over the ocean, I wouldn't be able to live there long-term again. It's so sad!

All the same, though, I am so happy to be back with people that I love. I spent yesterday driving back from Dallas with my dad, and it was great. Then my mom came to my apartment and joined us after she got off work. Dad took me to Rosa's, upon my request...and laughed a lot, saying I was acting like I'd been in prison for twenty years or something. Hey man, Rosa's is exciting stuff when you haven't had it in six weeks! When my mom got there, we went to get soft pretzels at the mall (another random thing I missed), and then afterward I opened my red wine and cheese I had brought from Tuscany, and we enjoyed a little taste of Italy. Maybe we were drinking the wine out of mason jars...but hey, you work with what you've got!

Now I'm feeling a little overwhelmed by all these details of my life that I need to get back in order. The real world is back! And I'm going back to work today. So, I'm off!

Arrivederci, Roma

2006-08-04T08:46:00.000-07:00

Oh, dear. There's a song called "Arrivederci, Roma," and now it's stuck in my head. I never thought it was a sad song before I got here, but I also didn't know that arrivederci meant "good-bye" before I came, so...now I think it's sad. :(

This will be my final post from Rome. Tomorrow will be spent mostly packing and cleaning the apartment, and hopefully going out with the roomies to eat some good food. I took my final exam today, and I came back to school to turn in my cell phone, so after today I no longer have any reason to come to this lab! I'll be home on Sunday night. Er, Stateside, that is. I'll be in Lubbock sometime Monday afternoon. I'm looking forward to seeing all of you again!

Today, as I said, I took my final exam. I ended up not studying at all, lol. I kept trying after I got home last night, but Claudia kept talking to me, and then Nancy kept talking to me, and then I got sleepy. Enh, it happens. I did fine, I'm sure--it was mostly essays. So anyway, after finishing my class, I did some last-minute shopping for the souvenirs and gifts I've been eyeing all summer (and had not yet acquired), and for a few things at the grocery store. As I was walking back to the apartment, I kept wondering why everyone and their mother was asking me for directions (I sent at least 4 in the direction of the Vatican Museum)...until I realized that I was carrying a sack of groceries. Makes me look like I live here or something.

As I was hanging out in the bus, I started to realize that I'm on the brink of being able to understand Italian. (Great. I'm leaving just as I'm starting to be able to communicate.) For instance, yesterday at the beach a lady in the line for the bathroom asked me if she could go in front of me since she was eighty years old and needed to go right now...I told her sure, no problem. That was all in Italian. Today two ladies on the bus were griping about some lady they met yesterday who couldn't understand Italian (haha). One of the ladies kept saying she couldn't understand why this lady was doing something (not sure what). On another bus, a man was recommending a restaurant to the lady next to him, telling her what they usually served, where it was, and how much it cost. On the metro today, the doors kept not being able to close because someone in another compartment was standing in the way; a man in my compartment kept hollering that they needed to hurry up and move. "Avanti! Let's go!" I understood him, too. (Haha then, he stepped out of the train so he could yell at them some more, and the doors closed right then, and everyone laughed. I guess he was stuck waiting for the next train. Ti sta bene!--serves you right!). Anytime people talk about places, or use numbers, or mention their families, or talk about food, I can understand...although I may not understand what they're saying about all those things. And I can talk to people about where I'm from--including why Texas is better than the rest of the US--things I like, why I'm in Rome, etc. So you see why I'm frustrated? I have just now reached the point where I can talk and understand some things and read stuff. Ah well.

(On the subject of communication, I found a new favorite example of bad English. The sign next to the driver on one of the buses says, "Not to disturb leading." I'm pretty sure that means, "Do not distract the driver"...)

As I was walking home from shopping, it was around noon, and I was thinking to myself what a lovely day it was...so cool and breezy. A second later I realized how ironic it was that I was thinking that while sweat poured down my back. :) I actually felt quite cool, though, so I decided, I'll take it! In Rome, cool is relative.

After lunch I went to say good-bye to a few of my favorite places.

Bye, Pantheon.

Bye, Colosseum and Forum and Appenine Mountains.

I visited the Vittorio Emanuele Monument again too, climbing all those hundreds of stairs again, because I like it. I'm not gonna lie, I got a little misty for a while there, thinking about all the things I've loved so much here, that I will most likely never see again. I did throw a coin in the Trevi Fountain, which supposedly means I'll come back...so I guess I can always hope, right?

So that was pretty much it for today. After my legs felt like rubber, I came back to school for some final business. Tonight my roomies and I are having dinner here in Trastevere, buying lemonade from the Beautiful Man in the lemonade stand (he's legendary among the females here at JCU, but I'm too much of a chicken to take his picture), and walking along the Tiber.

I think that at some point I will want to write about the trip in general, about what I learned and how I felt about it overall. I was planning on doing that in this final post, but I am not up to it today. I'm just feeling sad and empty and overall uninspired. Perhaps that's best left for when I get back home.

So until then...I love you all so dearly.

Arrivederci, Italia. Ti amo.

Ostia Antica! and Ah, the Beach!

2006-08-03T09:43:00.000-07:00

It seems like every time I post something, I keep saying, "This is maybe my favorite thing of the trip so far." I need to stop saying that, because I keep coming up with new favorite things. My current fave is Ostia Antica, which we visited in class today. Ostia was the seaport of Rome from the 4th century BC onwards (we're not sure where the port was before that, although we know they had one). Today, the ancient site is 4 km from the sea, because the coastline has receded that much. Also, the Tiber no longer flows by the site because it changed its course. These things are mildly interesting, but very important in terms of the site's preservation. Because they no longer had the sea or the river, the people of Ostia moved and built elsewhere, leaving us an entire town of ruins to explore. Unlike Rome, where we have to dig through the layers of subsequent habitation, Ostia is a great picture of what an ancient Roman town would have looked like. It doesn't have many monuments, but there are lots of business areas, apartments, and places where people made things / stored things. It is amazing. Here are some pictures:

Rachel and I, enjoying cappuccino before class at a bar in Ostia.
A fairly well preserved public restroom. It was a whole room with these benches with holes in them, lined up around the walls. Apparently going to the bathroom, like bathing, was a social activity. My professor even went on to inform us that people used sponges on sticks instead of toilet paper, and slaves were in charge of cleaning them for the next people. Can you imagine? "Please, master, don't put me on sponge duty! I'll do anything!" Lol.
In the center of the town, there's a whole commercial area, a square lined with stalls. Each stall had a mosaic in front that was the "sign" of the businessmen or corporation that ran it. This one is the stall of a group of shipbuilders.

A very nice and well preserved theater, completely covered with OGSNPs. Yeah, that's right, they were there. In droves. Somehow they were managing to completely mob both Rome and Ostia at the same time.*As a side note, one of the OGSNPs was climbing where he shouldn't have been, and my professor yelled at him. She was quite indignant that he was "offending the ancient ruin." I'm sure the ruin was beside itself, so we're glad she said something.

This is my wonderful teacher, Professor Fuhrmann. She is pretending to be a bartender in this amazingly well preserved snack bar, which is much like the ones you'd find in Rome today. "Caffé? Margarita? Beer? Ja, for good luck, this bar is very well preserved!"
So that was Ostia Antica. It was absolutely fascinating, and not the sort of thing I've ever studied in books (not flashy enough), and I just love the ability to walk through the actual corridors and see what it would have looked like for a person who lived there. :)

After we fully explored the ruin, the rest of the class went home while Rachel and I went the other direction, to go to the beach. Ostensibly we were going to the beach to study together for our final tomorrow; however, both of us knew that we were only saying that to rationalize our trip, and that once we got there we would no longer need to rationalize it and therefore wouldn't study a lick. :) Rachel studied some of the men on the beach, if you count that. We had lots of fun, because we get to talking and can go on for hours. Rachel is one of those really opinionated people, and she's a complete liberal in many ways, so I disagree with at least half of what she says. But she can always tell you why she thinks something, and she is always willing to listen to and respect my viewpoint...so this is why we get along so well despite being extremely different. I will listen to her, and while I don't always agree with her conclusions, I can always see how she got there, so I respect her a lot. Such a relationship is rare, at least in my experience, so I think it's great fun. We discussed everything from homosexuality, to Catholicism, to evolution and atheism, to reincarnation, to politics, to our families...you get the idea. And if we ever had a lull, we could always rant about how those OGSNPs were everywhere. They didn't have their neckerchiefs on at the beach, but they were not hard to spot...just look for the blindingly white teenage people who speak loud German. :)

We didn't get into the water until the very end, but that was, um, funny. The water was very choppy, with lots of huge waves. I got in about thighs deep, and the waves would come up to my shoulders. Everything was all hunky-dory until this exceptionally big one came in...I saw it coming, but it still wiped me out! We're talking completely prostrate, face down in the sand. It was hilarious! Fortunately, I didn't breathe in / swallow any of the water, or get it into my eyes. A little went up my nose and burned a bit, but that was all. Mostly it was just funny. :) I decided I'd better stay ankle deep after that...I'm such a helpless landlubber, and obviously can't handle the ocean. I didn't want to die. :)

On our way back to Rome, Rachel and I started a list of the things we'll miss. A lot of it centered around food, like some of the things I've mentioned before. Some of it is just the beauty of the place we're in...or the character of this wonderful city. We'll even miss the river. Rachel was like, "Oh Tiber, I will miss you...you big green stinky thing!" Lol.

So yeah...I have a final tomorrow. It's almost 8:00 and I still haven't studied a lick. Ah well. But I guess I need to quit rambling here. Ta ta for now!

"The World's Done Shakin' Me Down..."

2006-08-02T06:03:00.000-07:00

Currently Listening:

"Better Now" by Collective Soul from Youth
(because I'm pretty sure I could create an entire Soundtrack to My Life using only CS songs)

I am glad to inform you all that I am no longer depressed. Haha those things never last long, because it's not fun to be depressed. Nancy was right when she said that homesickness increases with physical discomfort (I might even add that it increases exponentially). I started feeling better, having finally cooled off, around 5:00 yesterday, and my current book makes me laugh, so that helped. It's one of those books that you have to read somewhere besides a library. I was in the library and having to choke back my laughter to keep from disturbing everyone, and as it was, the people in the same room with me were giving me funny looks. I don't know why people always look at me like I'm an alien when I read something funny. Has it never occurred to them that humor is a device that could be employed by an author? Of course, sometimes I laugh at things even when they're not supposed to be funny. While I was reading Angels and Demons in my apartment, one of the many plot twists (I won't say which one, just in case you haven't read it and want to) was so far-fetched and downright crazy that I just threw my head back and howled with laughter. "Please!!! Hire me! I could come up with something better than that!" My roommates seemed to think I was delirious or something, but sometimes things in books are just funny!

Okay, anyway, I'm feeling better now. Even the Obnoxious German-Speaking Neckerchief People can't bring me down today. Have I told you about the OGSNPs? They are apparently having some sort of conference in Rome this week, attracting hordes and hordes and hordes (I'm telling you, thousands) of teenagers from several different countries (mostly German speaking). I have battled with many a tourist army while here in Rome, but these people are by far the worst. They go around in groups of 20 or so, all wearing matching T-shirts and hats and with neckerchiefs tied around their necks like Boy Scouts. Each little group has a different color scheme, and usually one of them is waving a big flag of some sort. I am not sure whether the flags are to keep the group together or for spirit...I think it must be spirit, because these people are the most annoying, spirited people I've ever come into contact with. (They remind me greatly of the hordes of high school StuCo nerds I met at the Texas Association of Student Councils one year. I'm sure many of you have heard me tell that story...trust me, these people are just as bad.) They go around chanting things and singing. I'm thinking, "No! Tell me you are not walking around Rome singing!" Ugh. Yesterday they were everywhere that my class was trying to be, being obnoxious and doing crazy things like jumping in the fountains (I could tell my prof was about to go say something to them. She's Austrian...I wish she had). Last night they were hording around the bus stop just across my street, chanting and singing so loudly that I couldn't sleep. Today when I got off one bus to switch to another, I took one look at the hordes camping out at the bus stop and realized that there was no way I'd fit on the next bus, so I walked the rest of the way to school. And naturally, everywhere I turned I kept finding more...and more...and more Obnoxious German-Speaking Neckerchief People, always in my way. Apparently they are under the impression that sidewalks are places where you stand around in large groups, looking stupid and hollering German at the top of your lungs. In such cases, I have found that I get the best results when I play the part of the indignant local: "Permesso!" Don't get me wrong, I'm not really trying to be anti-German. I am sure that if you brought that many American teenagers here, they'd be at least as bad. But whoever they are, these people are seriously out of control. They make for a fun rant, though.

I actually started this post to tell you about my fun morning on the Appian Way. I got up very early to go see it in the cool of the morning. My roommates were up early as well, but they went to see the pope this morning. I had no desire whatsoever to go with them...so for those of you who wanted me to say hi to the pope for you, sorry. I just knew that I would be a.) bored and b.) annoyed the whole time, since it's all in Italian, and those Obnoxious German-Speaking Neckerchief People were guaranteed to be there in droves. I think I got a much better deal seeing the Appian Way; it just might have been my very favorite part of this whole trip. So anyway, off I went on a long train ride followed by a long bus ride, to get out of central Rome.

The Appian Way is the most famous road from antiquity. The Romans were excellent road builders, and the Via Appia was the regina viarum, the queen of roads, because it was the smoothest, widest, fastest road in the Empire. It heads south out of Rome, and armies on campaign usually were sent out or greeted along this road. Many Romans built their funerary monuments near it, because burials had to be outside the city, but the nobles wanted their monuments to be highly visible.

Today, the road is still there. It's called Via Appia Antica now to distinguish it from Via Appia Nuova, a different road nearby.

It's still used; people live on it and drive their cars on it. There are stretches, like this one, that are still mostly paved with the same ancient stones:

I went to see the archaeological stuff but was struck by how beautiful the whole area was. I would love to live in this house! The whole road was lined with cute old houses, surrounded by old medieval stone walls overgrown with ivy. It was lovely. And you'd be surprised how much cooler it is when one is away from the pavement, pollution, and people in the inner city.

This is the tomb of Cecillia Metella. She was the daughter of the triumvir Crassus (first triumvirate: Pompey, Crassus, and Julius Caesar). It is very large, and it was converted to a fortress in the middle ages, hence the crenellated top (hard to see in this pic).

Some remains of the Circus of Maxentius. Maxentius was the emperor defeated by Constantine in the 4th century, at the battle where Constantine claimed to have seen a vision from God. Constantine, of course, subsequently legalized Christianity in the Roman Empire.

A funerary monument, probably of a family of freed slaves. Freedmen tended to build monuments like this, showing themselves wearing the toga and and the ring, both of which symbolized Roman citizenship. In the days before Caracalla, Roman citizenship was a big deal, and freed slaves were naturally quite excited about it.

I'm not sure why the Italian Air Force decided to appropriate a large park-like area containing random medieval structures...but it would sure be a wicked place to play paintball.

I explored the road for most of the morning, covering (I think) about 3 miles of it. I know that there is cool stuff all the way to the 11th milestone, but I couldn't walk that far and didn't feel like renting a bike. I saw enough, though, to make me grin. It was sooo beautiful, and so quiet and peaceful. I hardly saw any other humans, while I heard jillions of birds and saw several lizards. It was nice.

That's the story from here, I guess. This post is entirely too long already, so I think I will go ahead and close off. Those of you who have actually been reading all of these posts in their entirety...bravo. Summarizing is not one of my strengths!

Let Me Go Home...

2006-08-01T06:37:00.000-07:00

Currently Listening:

(because it's just too appropriate--the ultimate "I'm-depressed-in-Europe" song)

I think I'm ready to go home now, guys. I must sound schizophrenic, wanting to move to Italy one day and wanting to leave the next. But I'm just inexplicably depressed today. I want to go home to the people I love and the things that are familiar. It's really not so much that I'm tired of Italy; Italy is still wonderful, I just need to go home.

The heat doesn't help things. Agosto has come in all his fury; even the native Romans know better than to stay in the city during August. They close their businesses and leave the city in droves, heading to the beach or the mountains for almost the whole month, usually. I can see why. It's so hot today...I am pretty sure I'll never be able to fully explain the utter misery of being outside today, but trust me when I say it's the worst it's been this whole trip. Even my professor, who until today had us convinced she was made of iron, was struggling and ended up calling class early because the heat and humidity were unbearable. And yet, we still had to bear it...On my way back to school, I wondered if I would ever get there. I don't know what it feels like to pass out from heat, but I'm pretty sure I was close to doing it today. Rachel was asking me if I was going to make it!

So yeah, I overheated pretty badly, and I still don't feel well. That probably is why I'm down. I want to go back to the apartment and sleep, but going home takes at least 45 minutes, either baking at the bus stop and in the bus-turned-sauna, or walking home. And I know that once I get there, I'll just be sweating anyway, since of course there's no air conditioning. The fan helps, but it's not enough today. So I can't handle going out in the heat now. I feel kind of stuck here, bored, nauseated, head aching, and depressed.

I normally don't allow myself to post thoroughly depressing things like this, I suppose because I don't want to bring people down, but that's really all I've got today. Sorry.

This computer lab is kinda hot, so I'm going to take refuge in the (slightly) cooler library. Lots of love to you guys...

Just Another Day in Rome...

2006-07-31T06:24:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone, I've had a fairly interesting morning...

When I finally got out of bed this morning and finished my breakfast (for some reason I was dragging in a major way), I decided to go check out a couple of minor sights that are listed in my guidebook, but which I had not bothered to visit yet. First stop: the Capuchin Crypt. This crypt, connected to the Church of the Immaculate Conception here in Rome, is one of the most amazing / disgusting things I have ever seen in my life. It's several different rooms lined with the bones of hundreds of monks, who were buried here between the 1500s and the 1800s. And when I say lined with bones, I mean turned into macabre artworks. There were skulls piled high, designs made out of pelvis bones, vertebrae arranged artistically on the ceiling, a delicate little lattice made of ribs...it was, um, interesting. A couple of the rooms had complete skeletons dressed up in their monk robes, holding crosses and such. Some of those complete ones still had skin on the faces and hands...eww. I wasn't allowed to take pictures down there, so I googled a couple for your viewing pleasure.

I bought one of Rome's most interesting postcards at the gift shop...it shows a different view of what's in the second picture, the little toddler skeleton that is hanging facedown from the ceiling in the last room, holding a sickle made of arm bones and shoulder blades, and one of those weight-scale things made of finger bones and, um, I'm not sure what. It's overlooking a sign that says: "What you are now, we used to be; what we are now, you will be." Way to be creepy, guys.

Is that not the most bizarre thing you've ever seen? And as crazy as the finished product is, I am really wondering how on earth it came about. Who woke up one day and decided to create an exhibit out of monk bones? And can you imagine the logistics of actually arranging the bones? I'm picturing some rough guys in workclothes, nailing and gluing. "Hey guys, I've run outta thumbs over here. Could somebody please gimme a hand?" Lol. Of course, the next question is, who on earth would go to visit such a thing...but they got me, and it's obviously a money-maker for someone!

So after being thoroughly disgusted / amazed by the monk bones, I headed over to the Forum to see the Mamertine Prison. This prison supposedly held both the apostles Peter and Paul (at different times, of course). Regardless of whether they were actually held here, it is certainly a very old Roman prison. I was surprised at how small it was. It was one circular room that you could barely stand up in, made out of huge stone blocks. And it had no door, just a round hole that they used to lower the prisoners through (or maybe they just threw them down there, who knows). I could just imagine the prisoners huddled in there with the rats, awaiting slow deaths. (Even today, it doesn't smell great down there.) There's a stone column that is supposedly the very one that Peter was chained to. When I was down there, a lady was kneeling at it, saying a prayer.

Like most relics of the sort in Rome, it's been worn almost completely smooth by the touch of the faithful.

So that was interesting and worth a look. On my way to and from the Mamertine Prison, I walked by the Colosseum and got to see some of the preparations for a huge concert they're having tonight. Billy Joel and Bryan Adams are performing in a free outdoor concert just outside the Colosseum.

When I walked by on my way there, the big street was already closed off (yay for being ped-friendly...that street is normally lethal) and they were starting to have sound checks. I heard them testing the microphones with the usual "one...two...three" and all I could think of was "Bueller...Bueller...Bueller..." Lol. Then on my way back, I got to see the musicians themselves, as they were all out on stage playing stuff for the sound check. Billy Joel kept playing Beethoven on the piano, and Bryan Adams was doing his best Mick Jagger impersonation while the band warmed up to "Start Me Up." Oh, the random things I see in Rome, right?

By the way, if you're wondering, I'm not planning on going to the concert tonight. I don't care if it is free, I really don't like crowds, especially concert crowds in foreign countries. I am not even that big of a fan of either Billy Joel or Bryan Adams, so whatever. Now if it was Collective Soul, that'd be a different story...but anyway, no concert for me. I was kind of wishing they would have the concert somewhere else besides next to the Colosseum. I mean, I know it makes for an amazing photo-op, but seriously, this is an old monument, and I don't think it's a particularly good idea to have ground-shaking concerts (the ground was sure trembling this afternoon) next to ancient structures. Sure, the Colosseum is pretty solidly built, but still. I'd like it to last another thousand years, please.

Anyway, after all that fun, I went back to the Anglo American Bookshop. I have almost finished one of the novels that was supposed to be for my plane ride home. I'm saving the other one, which means that in the meantime, I'll have no reading material to help me while away the hours during the heat of the day. So I went back to get another book...and found another supercool thing to add to my collection!

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, the Ancient Greek edition. Not modern Greek...Ancient Greek. Is that not amazing???

Okay, how many people (besides me) are both Harry Potter fans and students of ancient Greek? I confess that even I don't know any, and I run in the Classics circles. And my next question is, what scholar would bother to sit down and translate Harry Potter into Ancient Greek? And who besides me would actually sit down and read it? Seriously...

So now I've decided that I need to collect an "international set" of the Harry Potter books. That is, get all seven books (when the last one finally comes out), each in a different foreign language. I've got number 1 in Ancient Greek and number 3 in Italian now...so now I just need to start finding the others. (I just ran a search, and I am excited out of my mind to report that number 2 [Chamber of Secrets] will be released in a Latin translation in December 2006. Is that amazing or what???!!!) It'll be a fun thing to collect, I think, and I'll find a way to display them in my house. The last one will have to be special. I was thinking maybe it should just be the British version, since the books are after all British...but that seems kind of boring. British English may be a little funny, but it's hardly a foreign language. I'll decide later, though. :)

So...now that I've fully impressed you with my absolute nerdiness, I think that's all I've got for the day. The day is about to start cooling off again, so I might could venture outside for a while. Who knows what I might find next in this city?

"Italian Fast Food" = Oxymoron

2006-07-30T07:02:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! I now have some pics uploaded from this weekend.

Here's a random guy kayaking on the Tiber. I found it picture-worthy because it's the first time I've seen anyone actually doing anything with the river. The Romans for the most part seem to have no use for the Tiber; they built their bridges across it and apparently have no interest in it. I read somewhere that they "turned their backs on their naughty river" after it flooded really badly several years ago. It seems unlikely to me that the people would still be holding a grudge, lol, but it's true that you never see any boats or anything.

I took this picture on Friday evening in Piazza del Popolo. I like piazzas, since they're very pedestrian-friendly, and often quite lovely as well. Good people-watching places, for sure.

Saturday's beach visit: a little cloudy and choppy. I never got a really good picture of the waves breaking, so this is the best I've got. It was perhaps not ideal conditions, but I assure you these people were having a ball, jumping into the waves and, of course, ignoring the lifeguards.

So that was this weekend. Today I just went to church for my last Sunday *sigh of regret* at Rome Baptist with my roommate Claudia. Then Renato, who couldn't eat lunch with us, took us out for cappuccino freddo (cold sweetened cappuccino) instead. It was very sweet of him. I asked him, "Isn't cappuccino a breakfast drink? I mean, don't people laugh at you if you drink it past noon?" (I had read that, in Italy, cappuccino is a travesty past 11 am.) He just grinned and said, "Oh yeah, I'm sure the guy who made it is laughing at us right now, but I love these things, so I don't care. I'll have it any time of day! With pizza, even! And you're Americans, so you have an excuse!" I loved it, too. It's like frappuccino, basically, only better. That's one thing I'll really miss about Italy: the espresso drinks. Here, it's the only kind of coffee you can get, and it's so much cheaper than in the US. My cappuccino at the cafè every morning is 0.70 €, or maybe $0.85 US. It's a sight better than a $3.50 one at Starbucks (tastes better, too, because they make it stronger)! Yeah, I'm kind of grossed out about the thought of going back to brewed coffee (uh-oh). And the cheap amazing pastries for breakfast...I'm feeling a bit nauseated at the thought of going back to dry cereal and Pop-Tarts for breakfast (uh-oh again). Ah well.

After our quick coffee with Renato, we said goodbye and went down for lunch to a place called Spizzico on Via del Corso. This place intrigues me, because it seems to be a strange mishmash of Italian and American cultures. It's the only place I've seen here (besides McDonald's) that even remotely resembles the American idea of fast food. The workers have their matching embroidered polo shirts, caps, and white plastic nametags (fortunately for me, Mauro spoke English), and the place has that industrial look to it. They even serve you your food on a plastic tray. I was also quite impressed with the fact that you could get french fries (although it was weird eating french fries with pizza), and the drinks weren't microscopic. My "grande" Coke was only slightly smaller than what would be a medium on the Tech campus. That's huge by European standards. But the place is still very, um, Italian. This means that the workers don't actually hurry (I'm not sure Romans know how to hurry), so you have to wait in line for quite a while. And, actually, you're not waiting in line because Italians don't do lines. They just kind of form a mob around cash registers and ticket booths and that sort of thing. You just have to hang in there, push, maybe throw a few elbows, and be patient yet assertive. Being polite just means you will wait forever, more than you're waiting already. And of course, you don't get refills on your fountain drink. (I'm sure if you asked, the Italians would be wondering why on earth such a gigantic drink wasn't enough to satisfy you.) So yeah...Italian fast food is a really weird experience, and not necessarily pleasant. What's the point of fast food if it isn't fast, right? (Although I admit, it tasted pretty good, especially the much-missed french fries.) It's just as fast, and less of a mob scene, if you just duck into the corner snack bar and get a pannini or a piece of pizza. Considering the circumstances, I don't see why any Italian would choose to go to McDonald's or Spizzico or anything like that, but who knows. :) Haha, I'm really not complaining though...it's certainly an interesting experience.

After lunch, Claudia and I waited an hour at the bus stop for our bus to come and take us to school. Ah, the joy of Roman public transportation. Let's see, what was that they said about the "joy of doing nothing"? Haha. Fortunately, I had no particular plans and therefore no reason to be stressed out about it. No place is perfect, right?

Well, that's about all the social commentary I've got for now. I do think I ought to mention that Rome is good for my health. I haven't had a single allergy issue or stomach bug, my freaky feet rarely bother me despite the fact that I'm on them quite a lot, I sleep like a rock, and I haven't had to use my asthma inhaler since the very first day I was here. In short, I've never felt better. I don't know what it is...must be something magical about the Mediterranean breeze...I seriously ought to live here. We should all pack up and move to Italy.

Maybe I'd even learn to speak Italian...

Blowing Sand, etc.

2006-07-29T09:14:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone...I'm back from the beach! I don't know what it is about going to the beach, but I am always utterly exhausted when I get back. Isn't that kind of a reversal of the way it's supposed to be? I mean, isn't the beach supposed to be one of those places where you relax and unwind and recharge? I think maybe it's just being out in the sun so long, or something. I used to get headaches almost daily from sun exposure when I first got here; and while I don't get them anymore, I still don't have the typical Mediterranean's love affair with the sun. He makes me tired. But anyway, we did the beach today. Because of the approaching storms, the sea was very choppy, and the lifeguards were trying to watch the swimmers very closely and keep them in a fairly small area. It was comical to watch, because Italians famously have a complete disregard for authority, and apparently that includes high-school age lifeguards. It seemed like no amount of whistling and waving made any impression on the swimmers whatsoever, although in the end most of the people ended up within a fairly close distance of where the lifeguard was pointing. Perhaps they just didn't want to look like they were paying any attention...it was funny. I also enjoyed watching the two silly girls who persisted in standing next to said lifeguard and flirting with him despite his obvious preoccupation with the rebellious swimmers. Teenage drama...some things don't change no matter what country you're in. Other than the amusement provided by the lifeguard, though, I must admit that it wasn't the best beach visit ever. We knew the storms would be coming this evening, but we weren't counting on the blowing sand this afternoon. I, of course, was better prepared to deal with it than Claudia was ("it'll be alright girl, just close your mouth to keep the sand out of your teeth..."), but it wasn't as pleasant as it could have been. We only stayed for about an hour and a half, and Claudia has decided that she got no sun whatsoever. Oh well.

My boredom yesterday ended up being quite wonderful. The Italians have a phrase that means "the sweetness of doing nothing" (I don't remember the Italian off the top of my head) that they enjoy putting into practice. I find that slowing down and joining them can result in the most rewarding moments of this trip. Those moments, like last night, will always be the ones I recall the most clearly. Picture this:

I'm sitting on a bench, in the shade of ancient trees, with Hadrian's ancient mausoleum quietly looming only a few yards away; buried in a novel, yet at the same time taking in the sounds of the wind rustling the leaves overhead, the pit-pat-pat of a fat pidgeon's feet as he searches for food beneath my bench, and the prickley feeling of a tiny caterpillar crawling across my hand. I just sit and enjoy being alone. But the beauty of Rome is that one is never really alone. The crinkle of the newspaper coming from the other end of the bench as the plump Italian lady with impossibly red hair and garish sequined pink heels works the crossword...the musical cadence of the voices of the couple on the next bench as they cheerily converse about their day...the coos and giggles of the little two-year-old boy who is enjoying an early evening stroll with his young father...this are ever-present reminders that, in Rome, while one can be profoundly alone in thoughts or purpose, one never has to suffer the boredom and emotional discomfort of being actually, physically alone. No matter how much I groan about hating crowds or hating people (as I am apt to do occasionally), I need to see human faces around me while at the same time I need space to just be by myself. Rome is perhaps the best place for that...I'm surrounded by beautiful faces all the time, yet completely liberated in my anonymity.

I'm pretty sure I was going somewhere with that, but now I've just drawn a blank...and I'm running out of time. Ah well. Maybe I ought to go write that novel now.

Lol!

Not Much Goin' On

2006-07-28T02:55:00.000-07:00

I'm updating my blog today despite the fact that I have nothing to report. :) Something about being overseas has turned me into an obsessive blog-updater. I wonder if that will carry over when I get back? Actually, I wonder a lot of things when I think about going back. Will home feel different? Will I feel different? I don't feel like I've changed over here at all, but people keep telling me that travel changes your life. I suppose that remains to be seen. I'll get back to that topic once I've been back in the States for a while. :)

Today is a day of relaxation. Without a paper to work on, and without the gumption to shop or sight-see, not much is left but to relax and enjoy life. I don't know if I'll get that gumption back anytime soon. I mean, I've shopped and seen sights for several weeks, and what do I have left to see anyway? So I am just feeling totally lazy...maybe I'll stroll down some little streets in Trastevere and people-watch, maybe I'll take a book and sit by a fountain in a piazza, maybe this evening I'll go get gelato. (I love gelato here. I figured it would be overrated, but it most assuredly is not. I don't even eat ice cream at home, usually, but this stuff is amazing.) Maybe I'll go sit in the park next to Castel Sant'Angelo and watch the Tiber flow by. I relish the choices, relish this feeling of complete laziness. I know it'll never really be this easy for me again...I'm getting too old to be irresponsible like this. The real world's coming back soon, so I'm enjoying this while I can.

Claudia and I ended up chatting for a long time this morning as we had breakfast and then waited what seemed like an hour for our bus. We started talking about food back home, and she shocked me by asking me what brisket is, what chicken fried steak is, and what sour cream chicken enchiladas are. Oh my lands. Pennsylvania must be an awful place to live. She and Nancy stared at me blankly the other day when I said that the difference between two things was "six one way, half a dozen the other." Is that a southern expression? Or is that a family expression? I don't know, but I thought it was standard. Guess I was wrong. I'm trying to think of the other sayings I've baffled my roommates with, but they're not coming to mind. But anyway, they are always being amused by the things I say. I had no idea I was so...quaint. (At least they don't make fun of my accent.) America is a weird place, apparently. Maybe I should travel more. But then again, if they don't even know what barbecued brisket and chicken fried steak are, I'm not sure I'd want to go!

Mmm that's making me hungry. I miss homey food. But I'm still not tired of Italian pizza and pasta and lasagna and...everything. :) Claudia and I are about to go eat when Molly gets here to meet us. It's just the three of us this weekend, since Nancy went to Venice and Courtney went to Greece. (Yes, I'm turning green with envy. Someday I must come back, for some other Italian cities and definitely for Greece.) Tomorrow we're thinking about going back to the beach, since my back isn't lobster-red anymore and we have nothing else to do. The weather says we'll have a 90% chance of rain in the evening, but hopefully in the morning we'll do okay. I'm definitely remembering to put sunscreen on my back this time!

Oh, I forgot to mention yesterday that I randomly met some guy from Morocco in the metro. It was kind of funny, because I was just talking with one of my classmates, and after she got off, I was continuing on to my stop and he was standing across from me. He asked if I spoke English (haha he'd been listening to me the whole time, but I guess you have to start a conversation somehow), and I started looking around to see if he was trying to distract me, or trying to flirt with me, but he wasn't. He was just curious about where I was from and what I was doing in Rome and if I liked it, etc. It was marvelously uncomplicated. Usually in Italy, if a guy randomly starts talking to you in the metro, he has some kind of agenda that you need to keep your guard against. But then again, this one wasn't Italian. Not that Italians are all bad, it's just that the ones who are nice will mind their own business and leave you alone. Anyway, it was interesting to talk to him because he's from Morocco, working here in Rome. I've met people from everywhere while I've been here, seems like. Rome seems to be the center of the civilized world, even today.

Well, I'm still sitting here rambling just because I'm bored, so I'd better stop rather than completely wear out your patience. I will probably update sometime tomorrow, although if we go to the beach there's no guarantee. Anyway, lots of love to you folks, and I'm starting to count the days to when I get to see you again!

I'm Melting

2006-07-27T09:50:00.000-07:00

Today has been an absolute scorcher. And I’m speaking by Roman standards. Yes, today is one of those hot, humid, muggy, nasty days where your main thought is just to survive until sundown. It’s one of those days when even the Italians sweat. It’s one of those days when you seem to be exerting superhuman effort just to move from one side of the tram to the other. It’s one of those days when fanning yourself only makes you hotter, so you resign yourself to your fate, let your eyes glaze over a little bit, and ignore the sweat as it trickles down your nose. It’s one of those days when you drink water like a steam engine, then find yourself realizing at five o’clock that you haven’t been to the restroom since this morning. Yeah, days like today are scary. Fortunately, they happen relatively rarely here in the city: usually either the temperature or the humidity is lower, or there is at least something resembling a breeze to help you cool off. Today, all the elements are against us. And I don’t suppose I need to point out, yet again, that air conditioning is a rarity here in Rome. There is no relief, except in unconsciousness.

All this, of course, means that I haven’t done just a whole lot today. My class seemed interminable, but we saw only the city model at the Museo della Civilità Romana, and the Baths of Caracalla. The Baths are absolutely immense, so that was pretty cool. In fact, the part of the Baths that used to be the caldarium (hot water room) has a huge stage in it, and it is the site of the summer season of the Roman Opera. Tuesday night some of the students were attempting to see Aida when the torrential rain came, and it got cancelled. But that might give you some idea as to the size of this place…since the caldarium was only about a tenth or less of the entire space of the original complex.

Here is a picture of my classmates gathering in an immense alcove to discuss the architectural intricacies of the paelestra:

And just another shot of the incredibly high walls:

On our way from the museum to the metro, I had to stop and take a picture of this, despite Rachel’s mocking (“You are such a dork!”):

Ha. I bite my thumb at thee, wench.

Just kidding. We actually started talking about different plays and how much we liked / disliked them. She may lose points for hating Hamlet (seriously, who could hate Hamlet?) but at least she loves Julius Caesar. You can’t beat that one.

So after class, I had to go home to hang up my laundry. This is one thing that really annoys me about Europe: no dryers. Not because of the inconvenience of having to wait a few hours for your stuff to dry (I can handle that), but because of the lack of dryer sheets. Is that trivial or what? But I must admit, line-dried clothes just don’t feel or smell right (or look right, half the time), and it just doesn’t sit well with me. I’m being a baby complaining about it, of course, but I am also amused by my own pettiness in this area. We all have our quirks, I suppose, and international travel can sometimes bring them to the surface. Dryer sheets are a must for me! …even more than air conditioning. :)

Then, after taking care of the laundry and my tummy, I decided to go book shopping. Haha some things don’t change about me, no matter what side of the ocean I’m on. I don’t suppose I really need any more reading material, but I felt like I did. I have a 10 hour flight, followed by a 3 hour flight, coming up very soon, and I’m supposed to stay awake the whole time to avoid jet lag. One always needs something sensational to read on the plane…so I went shopping for mindlessly entertaining books (as opposed to the books I already have, consisting of textbooks, poetry books, overly erudite fiction books, Bible analysis books, guidebooks, phrasebooks, books in Italian, and a copy of Angels and Demons that I finished days ago...oh, and an old ESPN magazine, who cares if it isn't current, right?). I will also admit that I was partially motivated by my knowledge of the fact that the Anglo American Bookshop has air conditioning. I love bookstores. :)

So I went and shopped for about an hour and a half, and really loved the fact that, despite the establishment’s name, and the fact that all its books are in English, I heard only Italian spoken the whole time I was in there, and I spoke Italian to check out. Funny how that works. It’s the same at JCU…all the employees at the university speak Italian among each other, and about half of them don’t speak any English at all…despite the fact that it’s an American university populated with English-speaking students. It works just fine, though. The student services people speak English with the students, so that’s all we really need.

In case you’re wondering what “sensational” books I ended up with, I got Eragon by Christopher Paolini and a new novel called Cleaver by Tim Parks, one of my favorite non-fiction authors. (I’m going to see how he does at fiction.) Eragon is an extremely popular fantasy novel…in fact, I’ve heard rumors that it will be a movie fairly soon…and this Paolini guy wrote it when he was a teenager. I have heard both good and bad things about it, and I love fantasy, so I’m curious…I’m sure that, even if it turns out to be sub-par, it will at least entertain me and provide fodder for scathing reviews, to appear on this page after my return (stay tuned). Upon close inspection, both of these books turn out to be British imports, which will provide even more amusement as I mentally make fun of those silly Brits who can’t keep their S’s and Z’s straight (analysed, criticised, eulogised), and who have such a glut of U’s that they feel the need to throw them in where they think they won’t do any damage (colour, labour).

Well, I think that’s all I need to say in this post. I’m being an insufferable smarty-pants, so I ought to stop now, don’t you think? The heat’s addled my brains. I’ll be back, and nicer, tomorrow. Until then, arrivederci…

I'm Finished!

2006-07-26T10:06:00.000-07:00

With my paper, that is. I no longer have to worry about school, unless I decide to actually study for the final. Nah. (*wink*)

And now I have a few pictures to show you. First of all, I finally managed to get a good picture of my other two roommates. Courtney on the left, Molly on the right:

As you can see, our entire apartment is full of American cuties. I took this picture last night, when we went out to eat for Courtney's birthday. Unfortunately, we ran into torrential rain while we were waiting for the bus, but we did the best we could and counted our blessings. Rain may get you wet, but in Rome it's wonderful because it cools the place down! I had a soggy sleeve by the time we got to the restaurant, but whatever. At least I hadn't bothered to curl my hair. And sometimes you make friends with random people that you share your umbrella with. :)

Later, we had a very good meal at a little place in Trastevere--my lasagna was heavenly. I don't even like lasagna back home, but here in Italy it's to die for. And the restaurant is located in one of my favorite places in Rome, the Piazza di Santa Maria In Trastevere. It's a great, people-friendly square with a nice fountain to sit around, live music most nights (but not ridiculously loud, so you can ignore it if you want), and various interesting things that happen. For instance, last night during dinner we were watching this ninja-type guy who was doing all sorts of cool things with fire. The piazza is also great during the day. Just a while ago I was sitting by the fountain to eat my snack, and lo and behold, they're having a book fair. Most of the books are in Italian (of course), but I found a really cool one that I'm debating going back for. It's a nice collection of 14th to 19th century engravings of the ancient Roman monuments--you know, the kind of thing that people did back in the days before photography so the people back home could see what they were talking about. We study those a lot in class to see how the monuments have changed over time...they're really cool...and the text is in Italian and English...but I don't know if I will get it. The good thing is, in Trastevere nothing stops until 11:00 at the earliest, so I can go back tonight if I decide to. People like to hang out late this side of the Tiber.

So anyway, that was last night. Today Nancy and I decided to go explore a part of Rome that just looks like a big green spot on our map...and it turned out to be a nice big park. A lot of the land turned out to be part of the property of the Villa Medici, which we saw. It was huge, but I didn't take a picture because it was too big, and it's right up against a severe drop-off, so there was no way to scoot back to get a decent shot. Anyway, the villa is of course huge, and the grounds are very nice to wander around in...a little grove right in the heart of the city. It was nice and cool and shady. I enjoyed it, and Nancy did too, although she classified our sight-seeing today as "Granny stuff" because it wasn't particularly exciting. Haha I'm an old lady on the inside, so it suited me just fine.

Right on the edge of the park, there's a nice view:

And here's a picture of one of the roads through the area.

Later, we found a big round fountain that people supposedly swim in all the time. No one was there when we got there, but Nancy hopped in and I took her picture for her. She smelled like chlorine and algae for the rest of the day, but she figured it was worth it for such a great new Facebook picture. :)

Then she took me to this little place, just off Via Margutta, which is kind of an artsy shopping street. Supposedly this is Gregory Peck's apartment in Roman Holiday.

I have never seen Roman Holiday, so I wouldn't know. I recorded it off TCM before I left, but never felt like watching it. I suppose I'll watch it when I get home, though. Maybe I'd better do it alone, because I can imagine that I would be absolutely obnoxious if I watched it with someone else, yakking through the whole thing saying stuff like, "Hey! I've seen that!" blah blah blah. In fact, I'm probably just going to be obnoxious in general for a week or so after I get back anyway, so let me just apologize in advance. I'll try to keep a lid on it...

Last but not least, I thought you ought to see how ubiquitous those soccer players are. Ever since they won the World Cup, you see them everywhere:

They're fairly good looking, though, so who's complaining?

Alright, it's time for dinner. I have been wanting to try the pizza at a little place here close to the school, and I think tonight's the night. I'm celebrating! No more papers! ...for, um, a few weeks. :)

Texas-ness

2006-07-25T05:57:00.000-07:00

I have a friend named Rachel, who is in my class. I've mentioned her earlier...she is from New York, and we amuse ourselves sometimes by talking about how different it is in her part of the world than in mine. She finds several characteristics of mine to be baffling, and these things she blames on my "Texas-ness." I am not sure that my being a Texan is to blame for all of them, but I don't really argue with her. Her New York-ness might become intimidating if I did, lol. Here are a few examples:

The fact that I don't sweat/moan constantly about the heat: Texas-ness
The fact that I do always think it's humid: Texas-ness
The fact that I'm conservative: Texas-ness
The fact that I don't wear sunscreen, except at the beach (and haven't gotten sunburned, except at the beach): Texas-ness
The fact that I don't seem to notice the blowing dust that is blinding everyone else: Texas-ness
The fact that I don't get particularly worked up over late buses/bad sunburns/roommate drama/overly friendly Italians/ultra slow tourists/etc: Texas-ness

Hmm well, she must think Texans are impervious to heat and dust and sun and drama. I think she's a bit misled...the fact that I'm not griping about the heat doesn't mean I'm not hot, and just because I'm not visibly sweating doesn't mean I don't have it trickling down my back (I usually do, not that any of you really wanted to know that). The dust thing, sure, but that's a Lubbock rather than all of Texas thing. And being laid back in general is, I think, the result of how happy I am to be in a place where I have all the time in the world, and very few responsibilities. Why get stressed out? I'm on vacation! Life is easier if you just decide to relax.

So anyway, just thought that might amuse some of you Texans back home.

I have very little to report today...I had a very interesting class, although a rather strenuous one. My professor apologized for the "big walk," and before we headed to our last monument, she asked us, "Do you have any more power?" Haha. I love the fact that her English is perfectly undertandable, yet often amusing. The other day she made a comment about a statue of a naked Venus who is attempting to cover herself (but not succeeding, of course): "Yes, she is trying to cover her pieces." Rachel and I couldn't help ourselves and started laughing. Fortunately, our prof has a sense of humor and didn't seem to be offended. She's sweet.

Anyway, my class visited the Forum of Nerva, the Forum of Augustus, the Forum of Trajan, the Forum of Julius Caesar, the Pantheon, the Temple of Deified Hadrian, and Hadrian's Mausoleum (aka Castel Sant'Angelo). All of it making me happy, but the pizza Rachel and I got afterward made me even more content with the world.

So life is good for me. The roommate drama mentioned earlier is something I've been having to deal with lately, and there's a chance it might get ugly tonight, although I doubt it really will. I won't go into all the details, because it's tedious even for those involved...but suffice it to say that putting five girls into a 2-bedroom, 1 bathroom apartment was a recipe for drama from the beginning. By now I have two different roommates ranting to me on a regular basis against the other two roommates...and I don't really give a hill of beans about the whole situation either way. I'm not going to be here in a week and a half, so I'm willing to just let my roomies do whatever, but I am getting a little tired of having to listen to the drama. I say, if you have an issue, spit it out to the person you have it with. There's no reason not to, especially since after these few weeks you'll never see them again. That advice, however, goes unheeded every time. Ah well. Girls will be girls. Alisha, I can't wait to go back to living with a sane woman again.

So that's my roomie rant. Haha.

And not much else has happened lately of note. It's been even hotter than usual the last couple of days, so I've been taking it easy. Tonight all the roomies are supposed to go out for Courtney's birthday (hence my concern), and I'm determined to have fun if possible. I'll be working on a paper tomorrow to get it out of the way, but maybe I'll have some more adventures to talk about later in the week. Anyway, ciao for now!

Fantascienza!

2006-07-24T04:30:00.000-07:00

The Italians have a wonderful word for "science fiction." Fantascienza combines fantasy and sci-fi, and covers both. Cool, huh? And apparently, some Italians like the genre as much as I do. Check it out, there are some Trekkies here:

Heck yeah! And, apparently, we've got a few Potterheads as well:

I bought this copy of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban just this morning. :) If you are thinking to yourself, "That was a silly purchase, since she already owns a copy of the book and can't really read Italian anway," well, I won't argue. But rather than thinking about how idiotic it is to buy something you can't read, just think of it as a collector's item. People collect all kinds of things that are completely and utterly useless. Some collect stamps, some collect teddy bears, some collect Barbie dolls, some collect Precious Moments...and I collect books. Maybe it'll only sit on a shelf and collect dust for the rest of its existence, but it brings me all kinds of happiness to own it! I also thought about purchasing an Italian copy of Il Signore degli Anelli (The Lord of the Rings), but none of the copies I found were pretty enough to tempt me.

I did buy one more book this morning, because it was too cool. Here's a picture of it:

It seemed very appropriate, since I just visited Shelley's and Keats' graves, and they were all Italophiles. I love all their poetry...and this book isn't quite so impractical. It has the English on one side and the Italian on the other. I love comparing the two and trying to figure out the Italian words. There's no doubt, the Italian sounds much more musical when you say it, but I bet something gets lost in translation. How could you really translate the magic of Byron?

Well, as you have figured out by now, I've spent most of the day so far shopping. La Feltrinelli is the name of the big books and music store here, and although I had visited it before, I still found it necessary to poke around in it for an hour and a half this morning. If any of you have been unfortunate enough to be dragged along while I book shop, rest assured, I'm just as bad here. Fortunately, none of my roommates were with me, so I wasn't torturing anyone! I also picked up a few souvenirs to take back to my family and a couple of postcards to add to my collection (they're going on the wall when I get home). So it's been a very productive morning, but unfortunately, not much of an interesting narrative can come out of it. I need to study for tomorrow's quiz, though, and catch up on some reading for class, so I guess I better wrap up anyway. Buona giornata!

So Much Fun, I Nearly Died

2006-07-23T07:41:00.000-07:00

I'm joking, I didn't nearly die. I just exhausted myself this weekend!

Friday, after doing all that sightseeing I talked about in the last post, I went out with some friends, and we stayed out really late. Here is a picture of the crew during our stop at Hard Rock Cafe. (Did you know there's one in Rome? They're everywhere. The others said I ought to buy a shirt because it was my first visit to any Hard Rock Cafe, but I kind of felt like it was overrated, so I didn't.) Left to right-- Renato, Katie, Nancy, and Claudia:

And yes, our dessert really was that huge. I mean, it was closer to me than to them when I took this picture, but it was definitely a good size. We had a hard time finishing it between the five of us. Renato took us to a few different places that he knew, just to let us get a feel for Rome's fun nightlife without feeling like we were risking our lives! So we had dessert at Hard Rock, a drink at a pub called Abbey Theater (an Irish pub in Rome, if you can believe it), and danced a little at a place called Anima. It wasn't a club per se, since it was small and didn't have cover charge or anything, but you could dance there and they had live DJ's, so it was a pretty fun place. We met a few Italians and a guy from France, all of whom were quite nice. The Italians were of course extremely friendly...that is to say, almost too friendly...and we girls were the only Americans in the place, and the guys outnumbered the girls there, so naturally they all wanted to dance with us. Well, dancing with an Italian is only a good idea if you are willing to be downright mean to make sure they don't get too touchy. Of course, Renato being there helped, but I still had to spend half the time enforcing my rules. ("Oh no you don't!") It's partially a cultural thing, and partially just the club environment. I decided afterward that it was fun, and interesting to meet the people, but not an environment I could ever really be comfortable in, so I'm not planning on doing anything like that again. But Alisha, you should be satisfied now. I danced with Italians, and that's all you could ask for, right?

That cultural thing I mentioned is one of the funniest things about Italy. Italians just don't have the same ideas about personal space...they don't mind getting right in each other's faces, and even the guys are a lot more willing to touch each other here than in the States. Italian guys will dance with each other, especially if there is a girl shortage, and you'll see groups of guys hugging and putting their arms around each other and just generally seeming to be all over each other by American standards, but here it's just normal for friends to be affectionate like that. (They don't usually kiss each other, though. I've seen movies with Italian guys kissing each other on the cheeks to say hello, but I haven't actually seen it much here. The women are usually the ones who will greet each other with kisses.) We talked about the whole issue with Renato, who said, "Americans, especially American guys, are way too self-conscious about that." I dunno, I kinda like my space, but it is also nice to see people who aren't afraid to be affectionate.

Italian couples certainly aren't afraid of being affectionate. Good grief. I don't think I've seen more make-out sessions per day in my life. And this is not the club I'm talking about. Italians make out on buses, trains, in the middle of the street, in restaurants, etc., and we're talking about the serious, are-they-ever-going-to-come-up-for-air kind of making out. It's actually kind of awkward for us Americans to witness, but the other Italians don't seem to either notice or care. It's weird, but they're just more open about stuff like that.

Well, anyway, Friday night we stayed out late, and the bus ride home capped it all off. The regular buses stop running at midnight, but there are night buses, just fewer and farther between. The first bus we had to take, to get to the main bus station, was so packed that it took everyone a while to shift and squeeze to the point that the bus driver could get the doors shut. Talk about a sardine can. But to wait for the next bus would have taken at least half an hour, so we just crammed ourselves on. When we finally got to the bus station, Renato put us on the bus that would take us home, and it was kind of the opposite extreme. I think only two other people were on it, and nobody needed to get off until late in the route, so our driver was having way too much fun careening through the almost-deserted streets of Rome, flying around corners at breakneck speed. Have you guys ever seen Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban? If you have, just imagine Harry's Knightbus experience and you'll have it pretty close, except that ours wasn't a double decker. I kept waiting for a little shrunken head to start screaming "Take it away, Ern!" Claudia was unwise enough to stand up before we reached our stop, and she ended up flying across the bus and landing on another passenger's lap. Poor little lady. It was pretty darn funny, though. :)

So we got home around 3 am, then got up at 8 because we had plans to go to the beach!

It was just the four girls, Katie, me, Nancy, and Claudia. We rode the train to Ostia, which is about 30 miles away, on the west coast of the peninsula. Ostia is the site of Rome's ancient port city, because it's where the Tiber meets the sea. I didn't see any of the ancient stuff, because we'll see it later during my class field trip, but I'm looking forward to it. Anyway, we went to the beach, and it was fun. This beach is better than the one at Tarquinia: I only saw one topless lady the whole time, and the only people running around completely naked were little children. I tried to document the experience, but I only have one picture to show you. I can't in good conscience post some of the other ones I took, since after uploading them I saw that they contained some very scantily clad beach goers.

This one is pretty safe because it mostly depicts young men, who usually wear long boardshorts much like the guys in the States, and are therefore safe to look at. The men over, say, 25, wear really short shorts, and the ones over 40 or so tend to go for the speedo-type things. And all the women wear string bikinis. So yeah, ironically enough, the young men are pretty much the only safe ones on the whole beach! Haha.

We were tired, so we pretty much just played in the water some, and laid on the beach for the rest of the time. I used sunscreen, but for some reason forgot my back, so I have a really red circle on my back now. Lol it's better than my face, I guess, but it hurts to lay on my back or lean back against chairs. I've had lots worse, though, so I know it'll be just fine in a few days. I'm actually surprised that I hadn't burned earlier, considering the fact that I'm in the sun a lot and rarely use sunscreen. I guess I'm just increasing the freckle density ratio--since I know I don't tan. :)

So that's pretty much the story from here. Claudia and I went to church this morning, then went to the Porta Portese flea market, which is the biggest in Rome. I bought a new purse, since the one I had was white (keyword: was white) and not really a good one for staying safe against pickpockets. The bag I bought was nice and big, since I like to carry around a lot of stuff. Let's see, what's in my Mary Poppins bag now?

Camera
Cell phone
USB cable
Powder compact
Bible
Phrasebook
Guidebook
Wallet
Chapstick
Inhaler
Hairbrush
Sunglasses
Medicine
Kleenex

Yeah, it's a lot of stuff, but I just like to be prepared, you know? And I don't care if having a huge purse makes me look like a soccer-mom. I don't know anybody here, so no big deal. :)

Alright, I'm through. I love you all, see you later!

Pyramids and Confederates?

2006-07-21T03:16:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone. This morning I've seen several really cool things, and Blogger loves me today, so you get to see it all. :)

I have a guidebook that exhaustively lists every attraction in the city, even kind of obscure ones. Today I was on the obscure path, and it was pretty cool. I had to take the metro to a stop that was pretty far out, off my tourist map, but I found my way. The stop is called Piramide after the large pyramid that's just outside, next to the Porta Ostiense, shown here:
I had to google that one, since for some reason I forgot to take a pic myself. The Porta Ostiense is one of the few remaining gates from the Aurelian wall, the city defense wall that the emperor Aurelian built during the 3rd century AD. You can go inside the gate to wander the ramparts and see a little museum (not too impressive, but hey, it's free). Apparently someone lives directly above the entrance gate:

Haha I wonder how much their rent is. That would be pretty cool right?
"What's your address?"
"The Aurelian Wall, number 12."
I would totally live there. Anyway, I also took this picture of the pyramid from up there:

The pyramid was built by a 1st century BC Roman magistrate named Gaius Cestius, who was fascinated by all things Egyptian (it was very much in vogue, since the whole Mark Antony-Cleopatra scandal was going on at that time). He decided that he wanted to be buried in a pyramid lke the pharaohs...and although this isn't exactly as great as the ones at Giza, I figure it's the closest I'm ever going to get!

Directly behind the pyramid is a great little place called the Protestant Cemetery. As the name implies, it's the place where non-Catholics who died in Rome (mostly foreigners, of course) were buried. It had to be outside the city wall, and initially the grave stones were not allowed to make any mention of heaven (since apparently Protestants don't make it there). At some point that changed, but I don't know when. I don't actually know if people are still being buried there today, although I saw some gravestones with dates as recent as the 1970s. It's a very well kept, lovely place:

And it has the graves of some famous people. I was thrilled to find the grave of English poet John Keats:

For some reason he didn't want his name on the tombstone. The full inscription reads:

This Grave
contains all that was Mortal,
of a
YOUNG ENGLISH POET,
Who,
on his Death Bed,
in the Bitterness of his Heart,
at the Malicious Power of his Enemies,
Desired
these Words to be engraven on his Tomb Stone
Here lies One
Whose Name was writ in Water.
Feb. 24th, 1821

So, ahem, needless to say I thought it was supercool! I love Keats' poetry. And it's like him to be theatrical like that...a drama queen to the end. Those poets are always nutty. And here's his Romantic era colleague, Percy Bysshe Shelley, who wrote that he was "captivated by the fatal charms of Rome" and found his end here:

Lord Byron actually lived here in Rome for a while as well, in Piazza di Spagna, before he died fighting in some Turkish war or something. He was crazy, too, of course. There's a little museum next to the Spanish Steps commemorating the three poets, I just haven't gotten around to seeing it yet.

So anyway, seeing the graves of those poets was really a thrill. But I also spent a lot of time wandering around and reading the stones of various other not-so-famous people. (They're mostly English and American, so the markers are for the most part written in English, although I saw a few German, Russian, and Norwegian markers as well.) It was really interesting. Every stone in that graveyard represents a human, and every human has a story. For instance, I was particularly moved by a marker for Ruth McEvers, who was from New York and came to Rome for the sake of her health in 1803, but died here within a few months. She was eighteen years old, "the delight of a fond mother and family and of an adoring husband." And here's one I found particularly fascinating:

"H. Jefferson Page, Jr., Major of Artillery in the Confederate States Army." He's buried here along with his sister. I am very curious as to why he was in Rome, especially since in 1864 the Civil War was still going on...unless they moved his body later? The marker doesn't offer any explanation. Who knows?

So anyway, I'm still finding all kinds of fascinating things here in the city. I sometimes regret that I can't afford to go travelling every weekend like most of the other students do, but then when I get to see cool stuff like this, off the beaten path in Rome, I realize that I'm really not missing out. I'm just getting to know Rome a little better than everyone else. There are several other things that I haven't explored yet, so I'll have plenty to see in the next couple of weeks.

Yeah, the next couple of weeks...I'm already depressed about the fact that this trip is quickly approaching its end. No! I don't wanna go back! Haha I really do miss home, but I love it here so much. I'll just be desolate without Rome...

Never a Dull Moment

2006-07-20T05:40:00.000-07:00

Hey y'all...I've had several interesting things happen to me, both good and bad. I suppose I should start with the bad. Don't be concerned, it wasn't that big of a deal...I just caught some boys trying to pickpocket me this morning. They were actually very skillful too, the little boogers. I was wearing my backpack because I was going to class (I carry my archaeological guide to Rome, plus pen and paper to take notes), and I usually keep it in front of me when I'm on the crowded bus and metro to prevent anyone from stealing stuff, but since I was just walking down a wide sidewalk I went ahead and put it behind me. This boy materializes out of nowhere and asks me what time it is, and while I'm trying to convince him that I really don't have a watch, I feel something and turn around to find another boy unzipping my backpack. They ran away as soon as they knew they were caught, of course. I wanted to yell at them, but all my Italian left me, and even in English I was pretty much speechless anyway. Fortunately for me, I'm not stupid enough to keep anything valuable in the outside compartments of my backpack, so they didn't take anything. I did have my wallet in the backpack, but I keep it in the compartment closest to my body, plus it's in my purse, so there's no way anyone can get to it (even me) without doing some serious rummaging around. All the same, though, I'm doubly paranoid now.

But I'll be alright. As long as you are careful, as I *usually* am, you can escape the bane of the pickpockets. Don't worry guys, I'll be extra careful.

I have better news from last night. I went to church and had an absolute blast. As promised, here's a picture of the hole-in-the-wall entrance, sandwiched between two shops:

And, for good measure, the plaque on the outside of the door. The times and pastor's name have changed by now, but anyway...

And here's a picture of me with Katie (left) and Maria (right). Katie is the student intern for the summer...she's from Indiana but goes to school in Kentucky. She swears she doesn't have a Southern accent, but drawls while doing so. Lol. Maria is from Jamaica (so she has that supercool Jamaican accent), but she's been living in New York City for several years and then Rome for the past two years, getting her MBA. Today she's flying back to Jamaica for good. I'm kind of sad that I only got to know her for a few days.

So anyway, I went to church last night at 7:00 for prayer meeting, and afterward made plans with Katie and a guy named Reinato to go out Friday night. Reinato is Italian, but he's going to college in the States. He's here in Rome right now to visit his family. He says he didn't really know much English until right before he left for college...but I'm not sure I believe him. He doesn't have any trace of an accent when he speaks English; he just sounds like an American. It's unbelievable, really. He seems very cool, and he says Katie and I have to experience Rome's nightlife, so he's going to take us out to some fun place (we don't know where yet) and then make sure we get back home safely. That's always the biggest concern for us girls, especially late at night when the buses stop running. But anyway, I'm rambling...

After visiting for a while at church, Pastor Dave and Kathy (his wife) asked if we would like to join them in handing out clothes and toiletries to some Afghani refugees that are camped out next to the bus station. We said sure, and hopped on the bus with some other people to go help out. On the way, I met this great little lady (from the church group) named Zaheidi (Zi for short). She is currently working on getting her doctorate in Classical Archaeology, so we had a lot to talk about ("You like the Roman Republic? I'm more of an Imperial chick, myself..."). But we didn't just talk about Classics stuff, we ended up chatting about everything, from our plans for the future, to relationships, to our families, to what God's doing in our lives, etc. She is absolutely wonderful. I will make a point of getting a picture of her, too. And her husband Kahim is really cool, too. He looks a lot like my college pastor...in fact, it's uncanny how much he looks like him. But I'm rambling again.

When we got to the place where the refugees stay, we started handing out what we had, and it was really fun. Most of them are from Afghanistan, and mostly they're young men, working in Italy and sending the money back to their families. They were very grateful and generally sweet, although it was an adventure communicating with them, since they speak only a little Italian and even less English. I was trying to talk to a group of them in Italian, and eventually they had to round up somebody who could ask me in English, "Where you from?" They were excited about the fact that I was from Texas (for some reason), and when I told them my name they started chattering about Jennifer Lopez. It was pretty funny. We handed out lots of toothbrushes, shampoo, soap, and clothes, and then stayed around talking to them for a while, while Kathy gave out tracts and Bibles in various languages. Then we all headed home, although when we got to the bus stops at Piazza Venezia we all stood around visiting for a long time. Maria took me under her wing and made sure I got on the right bus that would take me home. By the time I got back to the apartment, it was midnight and all my roomies were asleep already. Lol I'm usually the one conked out at ten. It was great, though. Again I say, this church is the absolute highlight of this trip. At some point I'd love to sit down with Kathy and ask her about how it got started, and how she and Pastor Dave decided to come, and what particular challenges come up in such a unique ministry. I haven't had a chance, though, because I keep meeting all these other really cool people. It's a good problem to have!

This morning, after not really sleeping enough (it was so worth it, though), I went with my class to the National Museum of Rome. I think they make these museums too big: I feel desperate looking at all the stuff we're just walking by, but by the time we get to the end of our selected items for discussion, I've expired and can't handle anymore. The Vatican Museum is of course the worst when it comes to that...but this museum is pretty packed with amazing stuff, too. Here's a statue of Apollo...he's pretty famous:

And a detail from one of the jillions of Imperial age mosaics they have on display:

The coolest part, though, was too dark for a no-flash picture. They have the original wall paintings from the triclinium, or dining room, of the villa Augstus' wife Livia inhabited. They took them and displayed them in a room the exact same size and shape, and the effect was incredible. The paintings are depicting a lush green landscape, and the colors have been preserved really well, so it is an amazing riot of color. And they're from the 1st century BC! Talk about wow factor. I may have been kind of sleepy, but that was an eye-opener, and no mistake. There were of course jillions of other paintings, frescoes, mosaics, and sculptures...so much so that I couldn't take them all in. It was awesome.

After that...pizza! I took a picture of my lunch because I realized it might help when describing Italian pizza to Americans. You won't find pepperoni or Canadian bacon or even "Italian sausage" here. They're big on vegetables, and a lot of times the pizza doesn't have tomato sauce. So my lunch this morning was pizza with crust, some cheese, then large thin slices of eggplant, with fresh tomatoes and black olives and whatever that green leafy stuff is, on top:

Molto bene. There are lots of other choices when it comes to toppings, of course, and you can get meat sometimes. It's usually prosciutto (cured ham). You can also get margherita pizza, which is pretty close to American cheese pizza, although the crust and sauce and cheese are all slightly different. It's good, too. I am so not tired of pizza. :)

Alright, enough rambling for today. Now I am going home to put up my feet. Love you all!

The Montemartini Museum

2006-07-19T06:48:00.000-07:00

This morning, I got up and hit the Metro first thing to visit the Montemartini Museum. I liked it a lot. It's pretty far from the center of the city (it was a long subway ride), so it's a pretty peaceful place, not mobbed with tourists. It was the best 2,50 € I've ever spent. It's full of ancient sculpture, and interestingly enough, it's a converted 1930's power plant. So here, we have a headless Aesculapius in front of a defunct control panel:

In other areas, they had blueprints of the powerplant, etc. It was kind of an interesting duality, but it worked for me.

Although none of the sculptures and things are as famous as the ones you might find in the Vatican or Capitoline Museums, there were lots of pieces that made me very excited. I was in there for almost two and a half hours. Here are the highlights:

This fresco is from a tomb painting that dates to the 3rd century BC, probably that of a consul who, here, is pictured with his colleague celebrating their victory in the Samnite Wars. It was the most exciting thing in the whole museum to me. The period of the Roman Republic (6th to 1st centuries BC) is my favorite period to study, and this fresco is precious because it's one of the few paintings that survive. It shows up in pretty much every Roman history textbook. You can even barely read some Latin captions (maybe not in this pic, but in real life), mostly just the names of the people depicted.

Mosaics are amazing. They've been popular around the Mediterranean for hundreds of years because they are impervious to the humidity that destroys paintings, frescoes, etc. This particular one is a fragment of a huge picture that depicted all kinds of fish. It was the floor of a bath complex dating from the 2nd century BC. The detail in the fish's scales is breathtaking: some of the tiles are only about 1 mm square. Can you imagine how much time and skill it must have taken to create this?

My favorite type of ancient art is portraiture, especially of families and normal people (as opposed to the emperor--I've seen so many statues of Augustus, it's hard to care after a while). This was one of many Republican-era portraits in the museum, and I particularly enjoyed it because it's a husband and wife who look like they could live next door. It's kind of cool to look at the faces of the ancients and speculate what they might have been like when they were alive.

Haha, Julius Caesar looks kind of evil without his nose, I think. Maybe he just looked evil anyway...who knows.

So anyway, I had a great time, and pretty much had the whole place to myself. :)

I better get going now...it's taken forever for me to upload all these, and I have some homework to do before I go to prayer meeting tonight at RBC. I'll have more later!

More pictures

2006-07-19T06:33:00.000-07:00

Here's some cool stuff I've seen lately:

Etruscan tomb paintings, Tarquinia. The picture turned out well, but too bad it doesn't carry that eerie, musty tomb-smell with it.

A view from the top of the Gianicolo hill. Roman builders aren't allowed to construct anything that is taller than the dome of St. Peter's (we wouldn't want to obstruct the view), so that's why Rome has no modern skyline. I must say that I kind of like it.

In the Fountain of the Four Rivers, by Bernini, located in Piazza Navona, I found some bits of home. An armadillo...

...and some cactus. Who would have thought, right?

Un Cavo USB

2006-07-19T06:11:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! I finally managed to get to our little Accessori PC shop while they were open (I swear, they're worse than a bank) and bought a USB cable, so I'm in business again! I was very proud of myself that I managed to speak Italian the whole time. Anyway, I have a few days of pics to catch up on, so here's a few to start.

Part of Friday's Tarquinia trip was some time on the beach. Here Nancy and I are enjoying the breeze coming off the Tyrrhenian Sea. Trust me, it's a good thing those background figures are so far away. They aren't wearing much.

Finally! I saw the Colosseum! (Side note: I'm currently reading Dan Brown's Angels and Demons, because it's set in Rome, and it amused me greatly when he mentioned the "Coliseum." Lol. It also amuses me that his characters keep "listening for a dial tone" on their cell phones. Yeah, I don't think anyone ever accused him of being the best writer of his generation, just the most popular, apparently.)

A visit to the Pantheon on Monday. It was incredible.

I'm sure everyone who visits the Pantheon takes this picture, but it's just so cool. The hole in the top of the dome is thirty feet wide. Usually the updraft in the building keeps the rain from coming in, but just in case, the floor slopes gently and there are drainage holes in the floor.

No More Strikes, Please

2006-07-18T06:35:00.000-07:00

So here's a funny and pathetic little story. Last night was not a good night for me. There are several reasons why I was stressed out mentally (not being able to get one of my credit cards to work was one of the major ones), but by the end of the day, my physical exhaustion had caught up to me as well. For brevity's sake, I didn't in my last post explain all the walking I had done that day, and I won't do so here, but trust me, it was a ridiculous amount. I was insane, really. So I decided to ride the bus home, and even though I waited at the bus stop for a long time, and it was getting dark, I stayed there because my legs felt like stones and I just knew I couldn't make it home if I tried to walk. So I waited...and waited...and waited...for probably over an hour, and my bus never came. I'm not sure exactly what happened, although I found out today that the taxi drivers were striking yesterday (again), and that usually messes up the buses because the crowds block off some of the major stops, the buses get packed because no one can take a cab, etc. Anyway, not knowing why my bus hadn't come, I was still there, stranded on the curb, by myself, in the dark. Great, I thought, this is where I get mugged and die. Rome is actually a pretty safe city by American standards, and most muggings are carried out by pickpockets (no violence), but it's still never a good idea to be out after dark if you're female and alone.

But there I was. I realized I needed to get home ASAP, so I decided to walk. I suppose this post would get really tedious if I actually tried to fully describe my exhaustion to you in words, so I won't try. Suffice it to say that I was so tired I could hardly see straight, and I kept thinking that I absolutely could not make it all the way home. When I got to St. Peter's, I sat on the steps of the square for a while, and when I say "sat" I mean "sprawled." Lol I'm sure I was a sight: the weight of my backpack had pulled me backward, and I couldn't summon the energy to sit up straight, so I was just lying there with all my limbs flopped all over the place. Eventually I saw a nice old Italian couple walking by and looking at me with concerned faces, and I realized that if I didn't start looking alive, they'd probably call an ambulance. Lol. I wish I could have a picture of that moment, I really do.

Anyway, after a long and miserable climb up the hill and then down the Mordor steps, I finally made it home, and here I am still safe and sound. I even got my credit card woes fixed, so I'm doing great today. :) I had the most awesome class this morning, as we explored the ruins of Domitian's palace on the Palatine Hill and went into the Colosseum. It was amazing, all of it. I have been in Rome for almost 3 weeks and still hadn't seen the inside of the Colosseum, because I knew we'd get there in class eventually; but I was starting to get impatient. Rachel was excited too: she declared that the Colosseum is "the monument of my happiness!" Lol. Unfortunately, I still haven't replaced my USB cable (it was the least of my worries yesterday), so I can't show you my pictures yet. They're coming, though, I promise! My teacher led us up the stairs to the upper level, saying "Pull up your togas! We are plebeians today!" She's so cute. Try to imagine a little Austrian lady saying that in a heavy accent, and you might get the idea. :)

So anyway, life is better for me today. :) Now I'm going to keep working on that project, since I don't feel like any more rambling would be productive without pictures. Stay tuned, though!

Procrastination...

2006-07-17T06:49:00.000-07:00

My feet hurt. I have been on them pretty much all day. I must say with regrets, at the outset of this post, that I still haven't located my USB cable yet, so no pics today. It's too bad, since I visited the Gianicolo hill and the Pantheon and Piazza Navona...but they'll have to wait.

I actually got myself out of bed this morning early enough to enjoy the cool period before the rush. I have always intended to get going early, but have never found the motivation until today. I ought to do the same thing every day. It's so nice and cool at 7 am, and the only people you encounter on the streets are the Romans going to work and the occasional kamikaze tourists power-walking to their destination, usually the already-mobbed Vatican Museum. I decided to walk to the Gianicolo hill, which is just a scenic area of Trastevere not far from my school. It's a long climb, but the city views from the top are amazing, and it's a nice area with lots of trees, and a park on top. A nice break from the craziness of the Roman streets. I ended up taking the longest possible route to the top, but fortunately I found a shortcut on the way back that didn't show up on my map. Yay for random staircases.

Afterward, I went home to go grocery shopping and then met Nancy at the Pantheon. My class is planning on visiting it next week sometime, but I wanted to take a look for myself. It was amazing, of course. I can't wait to show you the pics, which don't really capture it. Those Romans were incredible. Then Nancy and I headed to Piazza Navona, which is the site of the emperor Domitian's stadium. Although the stadium is gone, the Piazza retains the shape of the original horsetrack, and it has some fountains designed by Bernini in the middle of it. Pretty cool stuff.

And now I'm back at school, about to begin work on my 12 page research paper! Yeehaw. No really, it won't be too bad, but I'd rather be doing, um, anything else, really. Oh well. I did come here for study abroad, after all. :)

Rome Baptist Church

2006-07-16T08:39:00.000-07:00

Well folks, I finally went to church today. (I know, I'm totally losing spirituality points by admitting that. I've been into several churches along the way, though...!) My program, Study Abroad Italy, provided a handbook that included a list of religious services in English that we could attend in Rome. I found the one Baptist church that exists in all of Rome...I was really hoping it would be called First Baptist Church of Rome, but it's just RBC: Rome Baptist Church. I decided to go hunt it down yesterday, since I didn't want to be searching for it on Sunday morning and be late. I had its address, and I had to find this piazza that was microscopic on my map. I found it though, and the entrance looked like nothing but a little hole in the wall. If I hadn't been looking for it I would never have seen it. (I promise I will post a picture of at least the outside, but I felt like it would be kind of awkward to start taking pictures today, so I left the camera in my bag.)

This morning I found it again, in time for Sunday School. I must say that this church has been one of the most amazing experiences I've had thus far in Rome. The church is an incredibly diverse body of believers. Although the services are conducted in English, and the members all speak English, they are mostly people from non-English-speaking countries. The sweet lady who showed me around this morning, named Divina, is from the Phillipines, and she told me that about 30 Phillipinos are currently active in the church. There's also a substantial contingent of African (from various countries) and Chinese members, along with several Italians and a few British and Australian members. It was amazing to sit in Bible study, and in the sanctuary this morning, worshiping with all these people who seem to have nothing in common except for their love for Christ and each other. When we sang, "Every knee shall bow, every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord," suddenly the words had a new weight and meaning for me. I have always known about people in other countries who worship God, especially since at my church we like to focus on international evangelism, but I guess it just hits home a lot harder when you can get outside of your country and region and see for yourself how God works in other countries. It may look very different from the West Texas way of doing things, but it's still so beautiful. For instance, I found myself being hugged and kissed on the cheeks by Italian and Phillipino members during greeting time...instead of shaking hands. I think I would have had a heart attack if that happened to me back home, but here it was just kind of different, and pretty cool.

But it wasn't as different as you might think: it was very Baptist, too. It made me laugh a lot when Pastor Dave (who is from Colorado) made a reference in this morning's sermon to the Baptist love for food. I guess it's universal! Hahaha. We sang songs that I knew very well, like "To God be the Glory" and "Amazing Grace," straight out of the Baptist Hymnal, just like the ones in my hometown church. And it was about the same size as my hometown church, with about 120 people showing up for worship service. I felt completely at home while at the same time completely amazed. It was very cool.

At the end of the service, the members were asked to sit while the guests were asked to remain standing and introduce themselves. I was surprised to be put on the spot like that, but I didn't really mind. After the service, I met several really amazing people. Pastor Dave is amazing, along with his wife. Katie, a student from Indiana, is the intern at the church this summer, and she invited me to come have gelato with her after prayer meeting on Wednesday. And right after the service, a nice young guy named David came up to me and said, "You're a student from Texas? So am I!" He is from Dallas and goes to SMU, and is currently studying at Loyola University, which is another American university here in Rome. We talked for a long time about the things we liked about Italy, and the things that were weird, etc. He told me he was really glad to meet someone who was enjoying it, since apparently all the other kids in his program are whiny, too. (What is it with all these American college kids?) He told me that he found the church when, just on a whim, he searched for "baptist church rome" on the internet and their website came up. Who would have thought, right?

So anyway, church this morning was amazing, and I can't wait to go back. Being away from home has taught me just how much I need the fellowship of other believers...just how valuable that is. I miss my church at home so, so much. But coming to RBC was just what I needed today. I am so glad that God has given me a chance to see Him working here!

Feel Bad? Go Shopping!

2006-07-15T04:32:00.000-07:00

I'm joking, of course. I would never recommend either shopping or eating as productive ways to handle emotional issues...despite the fact that they do indeed work, temporarily. (You know what I'm thinking, Mom: Patsy Clairmont. "That's it, I'm going shopping!")

Today I woke up and cried because I was homesick. It's the first time I've really been hit by it, although I knew it would happen eventually. I've never been this far from home in my life, and I've certainly never gone for more than a couple of weeks without seeing my family, so this whole trip is a pretty big stretch for me. Of course, being away for this long would be easier to deal with if I could have dispensed with the nightmare I had this morning about a family member dying. Hello, not a good time for that sort of dream! I feel better now, of course, but maybe that's because I went shopping. Lol!

No, seriously, I just went shopping because that's what my roommate was doing this morning. We strolled down Corso Vittorio Emanuele II, which is a pretty big street with lots of shops, going between the river and Largo di Torre Argentina, another commercial area. We found a shop that sells Birkenstock shoes...about half as expensive as in the U.S. (They're made in Germany, so it's a lot cheaper to get them in the EU rather than imported.) I tried on some, because I have heard people rave about them, but I didn't think they were that great. Granted, I have peculiar feet and therefore peculiar needs, but they just didn't seem to live up to the hype. But anyway, Claudia is excited. We found a panetteria (bakery) where I bought a little pastry called a crostalina. It looks kind of like a tart, and it had apricot filling. Mmm it was good. Then we shopped around for clothes and souvenirs. I got a tank top on sale at United Colors of Benetton, and at a souvenir shop I found a World Cup t-shirt (it says Campioni del Mondo) and an Italian flag for my room. I had been planning on getting all of those things eventually...so don't think I just ran around buying up the place to make myself feel better!

It worked, though. :)

I can't post pictures today, unfortunately, because somehow my USB cable has disappeared. It could be hiding somewhere in the apartment, but I'm afraid I might have left it at the computer lab the other day. If I did, it might be in the Lost & Found on Monday, but it's probably gone forever. There's a computer accessories store in my neighborhood, though, so I can replace it. I just probably won't be posting pics for a few days. Sorry.

I did go to Tarquinia yesterday, and it was nice. The other kids were of course complaining (rich and spoiled, most of them), but again, I enjoyed getting out of the city and seeing something new. It wasn't an incredibly exciting trip, but hello, it was free. We toured some Etruscan tombs and the Etruscan museum, both of which were interesting, but unfortunately I was dead tired from having been out late the night before, and our guide's English was difficult to decipher, so I ended up not really getting as much out of it as I was hoping. Still, I got to see lots of ancient relics, so that was cool. The pottery was just unbelievable in its intricacy, with various mythological scenes and figures, and our guide explained that they had to fire it several times, and do the decorations in several steps, and if they ever made a mistake they had to start over. I was quite impressed. Next to the Etruscan stuff, the Roman pottery of that period looks like the product of kids with Play-Doh. We also saw some of the wall paintings on the actual tombs, and that was pretty cool too.

After the whole museum thing we had lunch and went to the beach. It's only the second time in my life that I've ever seen an ocean, and Claudia argues that I still haven't seen one. The Gulf and the Mediterranean don't count in her opinion. I say that salty water as far as the eye can see is an ocean no matter what its name is on the map, but whatever. I've seen the sea. I really enjoyed wading along edge of the water and feeling the waves come in, washing the sand out from underneath my feet. I did not enjoy burning my feet on the sand and having sand in my socks and shorts all the way home, but I guess that's just part of the beach experience. Claudia and Nancy decided to go to Ostia this afternoon, which is about 30 miles away and has a beach, but I wouldn't go. Enh, one afternoon at the beach is enough for me. All that water makes me kind of nervous (I'm such a landlubber), and people-watching is kind of hazardous around there. That is to say, most of the Italians are wearing pretty much next to nothing. The women all apparently own tops to their swimsuits, but whether or not they're wearing them at any given moment is a bit of a gamble. They also usually have thongs for the bottom portion...and the men either wear Speedo type things or thongs also. It's rather disconcerting to be flashed everywhere you look! So I'll stay in the city today, thanks. :)

That's the story for now. I hope you are all doing well across the ocean. Ciao!

Pax and Pulchritude

2006-07-13T05:03:00.000-07:00

Today, in my class, we went to see (drumroll, please!)...the Ara Pacis Augustae.

I realize that the drumroll and the name and everything probably means nothing at all if you're not a classics major, but let me just explain that this was the one monument that, as I was thinking ahead to my trip, I was most excited to see. Not the Colosseum, not the Pantheon (as exciting as those are)...the Ara Pacis Augustae. Whew. It's amazing stuff. Here's a pic of one of the relief sculptures on the outside (which I didn't take--again, taking notes requires two hands):

Now, as for why this monument makes me so happy, it's hard to explain. Basically, it's just one of the many peaces of propaganda that the emperor Augustus put up to commemorate his own wonderfulness. Ara Pacis Augustae means the Altar of Augustan Peace. He's celebrating the fact that he brought peace to the empire (by slaughtering a bunch of enemies and destroying the democratic workings of the Roman Republic...but it stopped the bickering, now didn't it?) by setting up an altar to the goddess Pax (Peace) and placing it on one of the main roads into Rome. I don't know why this altar in particular makes me happy, aside from the fact that I love sculpture, and it's covered with it. I guess it's the whole family thing. The sculpture in this picture is portraying the Imperial family. I like it because it shows everyone--men, women, and children--together, which is rarely the case in any other forms of Roman art. Usually Roman art shows important men like the emperor or important senators or representations of the "common man," no women except maybe the Empress or the occasional goddess, and no children. So I guess I just really like seeing a portrayal of the more everyday existence of Roman society.

With that said, of course, history tells us that these particular people gave a whole new meaning to the term "dysfunctional family" and therefore are really not all that accurately represented as normal and peaceful looking. Still, one might could imagine other families perhaps looking like this. :) Anyway, I got to see it in real life, after studying pictures in textbooks for years! It's pretty big, too...the figures are about 3/4 life size. I like the way their shoes stick out over the edge of the frieze, like they're about to step out and start walking around. It's cool.

Okay, enough nerdy rambling about sculptures. I'll just ramble about life or something.

I ride the bus nearly every day, to get around the city, and the bus is always hot. Lots of people plus 90+ degree heat plus no A/C plus humidity equals furnace conditions. But you know, these Italians always look as cool as cucumbers. They usually aren't visibly sweating. It makes me very jealous. I personally have gotten used to the heat so that I don't sweat nearly as much as I did the first week (and mentally don't think of heat as unnatural torture, just the normal mode of summer life), but I have yet to reach that cucumber level. I'm not sure that I ever will.

And here's another thing about the Italians that makes me jealous: they're sooooo beautiful. Rachel was observing that while every 1 in 10 Americans is pretty good-looking, the ratio is more like every 1 in 1.2 here. Lol those are her numbers, but I pretty much agree. What is it about Italian genes that makes them all so gorgeous? I don't think I've ever felt more ugly than I do here. The Roman women are always dressed up in high fashion--and high heels--even if they're just going to the grocery store, and as mentioned earlier, they're not covered in sweat all the time. And they all look like models. I, on the other hand, always have on relatively slouchy-looking clothes and tennis shoes and no makeup (because it would just melt off anyway) and my hair just randomly yanked out of my face (because it wouldn't hold curl in the heat anyway, and I can't handle using heat-producing appliances in this weather). No pretty points for me. The Roman men are just beautiful, and the fact that they also dress impeccably and are always remarkably put together probably helps a lot too. No fair! Of course, the Roman men are also extremely flirtatious, and I've been told more than once by some random Italian that I'm beautiful, but that doesn't really mean a whole lot. Italian men will tell you you're beautiful if you're female and you have all your limbs and you are somewhat young. It's not reserved for girls with supermodel status or anything. They'll whistle at you, or say "Ciao, bella!" or something in English if they know any, and pretty much it's kind of an FYI sort of thing. They aren't stalking you, they're not going to follow you home, they're not even really expecting you to necessarily respond to them, they're just letting you know that they're aware of your existence and they think you're somewhat cute. Ok guys, thanks for the info.

It takes a little getting used to, but it doesn't bother me anymore. It's pretty much the only self-esteem boost I get in this country of beautiful people. Again I say, it's not fair. What can you do though?

Well, I guess that's my rant for today. I'm not doing much today other than doing some cleaning in the apartment and stuff. I think we're going out tomorrow night, but that depends on when we get back from our day trip to Tarquinia. I'm excited about the trip. Tarquinia has a bunch of old Etruscan ruins (so naturally I'm interested) and it's also reputed to be amazingly beautiful. We'll see! I'll post pics probably Saturday.

Until then, ciao ciao!

Castel Sant'Angelo

2006-07-12T09:01:00.000-07:00

I love living in Rome. On days like today, when I don't have class, I wake up in the morning and think, "Hmm, what should I do today? Maybe I'll go see [insert amazing place here]." It's awesome. Maybe I should go sightseeing, maybe I should take a nap, maybe I should comb the streets for bargains...the possibilities are endless.

Today I chose sightseeing, specifically the Castel Sant'Angelo. The Castel was originally built as the emperor Hadrian's mausoleum, during the early 2nd century AD. For over a hundred years, Roman emperors, from Hadrian to Caracalla, were buried there. (Well, their ashes were buried there. Cremation was the way to go in those days, to prevent disease.) The bottom part of the structure is still the ancient tomb, but the top part was built on later, during the medieval period, when the place was used as a fort by popes who were often besieged. Therefore, the top part is lavishly painted as papal apartments, much like the Raphael rooms in the Vatican Museum. After all, a pope couldn't be expected to stare at blank walls during long sieges! I was forbidden to take pictures inside (they severely chewed out a tourist lady who didn't notice, or didn't pay attention to, the no-pictures sign), but here's a picture I took today of the overall structure:

The name Castel Sant'Angelo comes from the story of Pope Gregory, who supposedly in 590 AD saw a vision of the archangel Michael over the fort, sheathing his sword to signal the end of a plague. Therefore, the name of the place was changed to celebrate the "holy angel" and the statue on top (see below), plus a couple more statues and paintings inside, show the angel sheathing his sword. I like the way old statues show figures wearing armor, and yet their muscles and stuff show through anyway. It's funny.

I took this picture of the angel, and the Rome view below, from the terrace on top of the fort. I got my workout climbing stairs and ramps today, that's for sure.

Afterward I was hungry and tired, and managed to find a place that served (gasp) salad. Veggies are hard to come by around here, so I got excited and took a picture. It was seriously the best salad I've ever eaten. Maybe that's because I was hungry, maybe it's because I was malnourished...but maybe it was just awesome. It had "shrimps" and a dressing that the English translation on the menu simply called "pink dressing," which was awesome. I suspect that it was some kind of creamy tomato basil...but I actually don't really know. Anyway...lunch.

After lunch, I went sightseeing again. See below. For some reason Blogger only lets me upload 4 pictures per post (when it lets me do any at all), so that's why I do separate posts on the same day. Anyway, read on!

San Giovanni in Laterano

2006-07-12T08:45:00.000-07:00

This afternoon I went to see yet another church. Haha--some friends who had been to Europe before told me that I would get "churched out" in Rome because there are so many lavish churches...but I have enjoyed them all so far. This one, San Giovanni, is my favorite, I think. St. Peter's definitely the biggest and most lavish, but San Giovanni is a much more, um, friendly structure. And it's interesting because of its history. Although most of what we can see today was built during the Renaissance and Baroque periods, the original structure dates to 318 AD. This church was the first Christian church in the city of Rome! Imagine how jubilant those early worshippers were when it was finally opened, a real house of worship for the first time after Constantine had legalized Christianity. :)

The current façade and the design of the nave (both pictured below) were designed by Francesco Borromini, the rival of Bernini. I like the style a lot. Only the ceiling doesn't match the Baroque style--it's still that hideously garish Renaissance style because the pope at the time liked it. Eww. But the statues of the apostles, stepping out of the alcoves in the pillars, are really cool. There's also a little box over the altar (it's that shiny gold thing in the middle of the second picture) that contains two statues, of Peter and Paul, that supposedly contain remains from their heads. Kind of gruesome, eh? Word on the street says that the DNA from Peter's head here, and his body at St. Peter's, don't match. Surprise surprise...but of course I don't know that for certain.

This picture right here shows the coolest part. These huge bronze doors are actually the doors from the ancient Roman Senate house in the Forum! Aren't they amazing? (I made Nancy stand there for scale. Granted, she's 5'1", but still. They're huge.) These particular doors were probably cast sometime in the 300s, after a fire had destroyed the previous ones--but they would have been exact copies of the originals. Those Romans were big on tradition and continuity. Anyway, the Church moved the doors from the Forum to this church building to signify the shift of authority in Rome to the Church and the papacy, and away from the old pagan Senate. It was a pretty effective way to get the point across, I think.

This is kind of funny. Lots of churches in Rome have modernized to the point that you don't physically light a candle anymore. You put a coin in one of these little machines, and a light bulb will come on in one of the fake candles. I think it's really corny, not to mention commercialized--if I were inclined to light candles, I would probably feel a little cheesy turning on a light bulb. But whatever floats their boat. I guess it cuts down on fire hazard, right?

Well, I guess that's it for today. Ciao, ragazzi!

Shopping and Other Boring Things

2006-07-11T07:17:00.000-07:00

Well folks, I haven't done anything all that interesting over the last couple of days. My apologies. Monday was spent shopping with my roommates, because there were saldi (sales) all over Rome. For some reason everybody in Rome (or maybe in Italy) has a sale the first weekend in July, every year. It's convenient for us, I suppose, but I didn't buy anything. I don't have all the moola in the world, and most of the stuff looks pretty much like things I could get in the States if I wanted/needed them. I'd rather spend money on food and, er, museum entrance fees or something. Haha. I did try a few things on, though, which is always an interesting experience in Italy. Italian salespeople have zero concept of personal space. They'll come bursting into your dressing room without warning to see how stuff looks on you (and if you're not dressed, they don't apologize and leave, they'll just stand there and chat), and they'll grab you, turn you around, and yank the clothes in various ways to see if things fit well. Before you even go in, they'll critically eye your selected articles and starting yanking things away, saying "You don't try this, it is too big/small. Here, you try this one!" It's a little bit overwhelming the first time, but I'm used to it by now. I find it highly amusing as a general rule.

I did buy a couple of t-shirts today. Because I have plenty of time here in the city, and because the souvenir shops vary widely in price (despite being right next to each other), I decided to shop around for the best price, and I found these for 3,90 € each. That works out to about $5.20 each. Not bad. (By the way, the comma is intentional. Europeans have switched around the commas and periods, so to say eight thousand one hundred twenty-eight Euro and ninety-five cents, it would look like this: 8.128,95 €. Weird, huh?) One of them is an imitation of the Coca-Cola logo, where instead of Coca-Cola it says "Ciao Ciao." The other one just has a design that says "Roma" and has a picture of the she-wolf emblem. They're pretty cool. Again, I had to work hard to convince the lady in the shop that I really needed a larger size ("This for you? This fit you! This fit you!" "No, really, I want it to fit looser.") Now I just need to find an Italian flag and a Roman flag (it has a kind of shield with SPQR written on it), and I'll be set. :)

Hmm not much else has happened of note. Today I just went to class and enjoyed gazing at various sites, with and without visible ruins (including the general area where Julius Caesar was assassinated, that is, the ancient Theater of Pompey). Then Nancy and I went to St. Peter's to see if we could get a ticket to see the pope tomorrow morning. When the pope is in town, he gives a public audience every Wednesday morning, and you can get free tickets from the Swiss Guards. We had to wait in line and go through the airport-style security there at the church to get to the right doors, only to have the Swiss Guard we talked to courteously inform us that the pope is out of town until the 2nd of August. Bummer. I actually had no interest whatsoever in seeing the pope (Nancy just didn't want to go alone), but I was bummed about doing all that waiting for nothing. Still, getting close to, and talking to, a Swiss Guard was kind of cool. Click here to see a picture of their crazy uniform, which supposedly was designed by Michelangelo. It just goes to show that famous sculptors aren't necessarily cut out to be fashion designers. But anyway, the Swiss Guards may dress like clowns, but they take their jobs very seriously. I was quite intimidated. They're interesting, though. There is an exhibit going on all month celebrating the Swiss Guards and their history with the Vatican. I haven't had a chance to go yet, but I'm going to try to get down there sometime this week.

Well, now that I've thoroughly bored you, I am going to go back to the apartment to do my homework. Here are a few more pics for your enjoyment. Ciao!

Bella Toscana. Another picture I took on the Tuscany trip, just for grins.

Bella Roma. I took this picture at sunrise from my bedroom window at my apartment.

Last night the World Cup celebrators were out again. Not quite the pandemonium of the night before, of course, but the enthusiasm was definitely audible from all parts of the city. This is hard to see, but it's a guy on a motorcycle holding an Italian flag (at a stoplight, the only way I could get a picture to turn out). I don't know how they manage the insanity of Roman traffic while being spirited at the same time, but they do it somehow.

The Italian Center for American Studies. Am I the only one who finds this ironic?

Under the Tuscan Sun

2006-07-10T10:32:00.000-07:00

Sunday I took my first trip away from Rome. It was awesome, aside from a little motion-sickness that was the result of the bus ride (for some reason those fancy charter buses, where you ride really high, make me queasy). We drove for a couple of hours through the Italian countryside, which very scenic indeed. It reminded me of Kansas, from when I used to live there. There where wheat fields (mostly already harvested), several sunflower fields, hay bales everywhere, and that kind of thing. It's not as flat as Kansas, of course, because we're near the Appenine Mountains; the medieval stone buildings on every hilltop aren't reminiscent of the Midwest either, but still. :) I was kind of surprised to see how sparsely populated this area of the country is. When I think of Europe in general I think of people all squished together, living practically on top of each other because there's not enough land. But Italy obviously has miles and miles of rural areas with only a few farmhouses here and there. It was nice to see.

Our first stop was at a little hilltop town called Pienza. Unlike pretty much every other Tuscan town, Pienza does not have a medieval look. It was remodeled during the Renaissance under the direction of Pope Pius XII, who was from there, so it has a very Renaissance look to it. It is seriously the cutest little town I've ever laid eyes on. The people there, who are really sweet and friendly, keep it immaculately clean, and there are little flower pots everywhere...wandering up and down the little streets, stopping at the shops, I just fell in love. I would totally live there. It was wonderful! And the entire town is surrounded by its medieval-period wall, which you can walk down and enjoy a breathtaking view of the gorgeous Tuscan countryside. It's like heaven on earth. It even smells good: you can smell cheese (from the wine and cheese shop) or flowers everywhere you go. :) I bought a couple of postcards that I'm not going to send: they're going to go on my wall when I get home!

After leaving Pienza, we drove for a little while and stopped at another little hilltop town called Montepulciano. This town is known for its cheese and wine. While we were there, we visited a wine cellar called Città Sottereano, which means Underground City. It had a tiny little entrance, but a huge underground maze was underneath it, dating to the fifteenth century. There they showed us where they kept the wine in huge oak barrels, aging it for at least two years before they bottle and sell it. Then they let us sample the wines (there were many kinds) and cheese and salami and biscotti. I liked most of it, except for the dessert wine. Blergh. I bought a bottle of red wine (the best wine I've ever had in my life...although that's not saying a whole lot, lol) and a bottle of white wine, along with a small piece of "walnut and laurel leaves" cheese (aged one year, they tell me) and a bottle of olive oil. All the finer things, eh?

After our long stop at the wine cellar, we all loaded up and drove over to a little restaurant on the top of yet another hill. This restaurant is run by a Tuscan lady and her 18 grandchildren. They treated us to a 4 course meal plus dessert. It was great. The view was terrific, and the food was awesome, including the wine, which happened to be the red wine I had just purchased. Oooh, it breaks my heart that I only bought one bottle. But anyway, I loved it. I think I'm perfectly suited to Italian dining, because I'm such a slow eater. The rest of the girls with me were stuffed by the end of the first course, but I eat so slowly that I never finished anything before the waiters started taking away our plates and bringing the next course. By the time we were finished, I was just comfortably full. :) I love Italy. For those who are interested, the meal went as follows:

1.) Toast topped with fresh tomato slices, with some sort of amazing seasoning on top. I normally can't stand fresh tomatoes, but this was awesome.

2.) Spaghetti, I guess. It had spaghetti-type noodles, but they were a lot thicker than any spaghetti I've had in the States. The sauce was of course incredible.

3.) Fettucine in a mushroom sauce. Heck yeah.

4.) Cheese, prosciutto, and salami.

5.) Biscotti with dessert wine (I refused the dessert wine--eww--and stuck with the dinner wine)

After lunch we just headed back to Rome, getting stuck in traffic on the way. We ended up seeing most of the World Cup game, though (see below). It was overall just an amazing day. And as much as I loved being out, I was soo happy to see Rome again. It's become a home away from home. Who cares if it's occasionally dirty, stinky, or covered with graffiti? I love it here.

In parting, here are some pics:

The "road of love" in Pienza. Awww.

That's me, standing in one of Pienza's main streets, with the town hall in the background. Isn't it the cutest town you've ever seen? I didn't doctor this photo, honest.

Dude, that's a big barrel of wine. I couldn't afford it and had to settle for a bottle.

This is the view from my seat at the restaurant. Seriously. It's not a painted wallpaper backdrop, it's real. Tuscany is so beautiful.

That's all for now! Love you all!

"We Are the Champions!"

2006-07-10T09:01:00.000-07:00

Yes, that's right. The Azzurri (blue guys--it's what they call the soccer team) are now the campioni dil mondo (champions of the world). How fortunate am I? Not only was I here during a world cup year, I was here, in the capital city of Italy, on the night when the Italians won the World Cup! Who cares if I hate soccer? This is something I'll be telling my children and grandchildren for years to come...haha.

I actually experienced the game at a popular local sports bar down next to the river called El Ritual. The place has several different screens, including one really huge one. We weren't able to get there until after the game started (we got caught in traffic on the way back from Tuscany), so by the time we arrived, it was packed. Standing room only. So there we were, jockeying for position, standing the whole time, surrounded by tense smoking Italians (have I mentioned that they smoke like chimneys around here?) who were shouting things at the screen. A lot of it, of course, I couldn't understand, but I did understand the shouts of "Ugh! Brutto!" during close-up face shots of a French player (brutto=ugly). There were some other rather obscene things that didn't need translating either--these I mostly heard after the same French player head-butted one of the Italians, and was a given a red card. Needless to say, that caused a lot of ruckus with my crowd. It was soooo much fun just watching everyone. I wish I had a picture of the group of teenage guys who were shirtless and covered with paint, just like some of our own Red Raiders at football games. Sometimes they, and then the whole crowd, would randomly start screaming "Italia! Italia!" and various other chants. It was great. The end of the game was really exciting, and when the last Italian (whatever his name was) made the last goal, the crowd went CRAZY. Naturally, they'd just won the world championship! We were caught up in the celebration, screaming and hugging and all that kind of thing. It was amazing.

We started walking home pretty quickly after the game ended, because it was late and Claudia had class this morning. As we walked along the road, the Italians started hitting the streets in full force, zooming down the road, waving their flags and honking the whole way. When they passed us (dressed in our Italia t-shirts) they would wave at us and scream "Yaaaa!!!! Italia numero uno!!!!" etc., and we would wave and holler back at them. The buses were miraculously still running, and the bus drivers would honk at us and pump their fists while we waved back. It was incredible. We did that all the way home (it's almost an hour walk) and then, of course, the noise kept going for hours afterward.

I hope you listened to the audio post. The phone only picked up only a fraction of the noise that was actually blaring in the background (because it's a good phone...darn it...), but it can still give you some idea of what it sounded like in Rome after the victory. It was unbelievable!

Time to celebrate! Break out the bandiere italiane!

Oh, those crazy Italians. Believe me, they look way calmer in these pictures than they actually were. Haha it was amazing!

Nancy, me, and Claudia: all smiles after the victory.

But the best part of the Cup win, for me, happened this morning. When I went down to Caffeterià Emo for my cappuccino this morning, everyone was excitedly discussing the victory, pointing to the pictures in the newspaper and so on. I couldn't actually understand anything that they were saying (oh, how I wish I knew more Italian), but I could just feel their excitement and loved it. The bartender there, who speaks no English, is always very nice to me despite my inability to communicate anything beyond what I need and how I'm paying for it. When I paid out and was about to leave, he grabbed a plastic replica of the World Cup trophy that was decorating the counter, held it up to me, and called out (in a very thick accent), "We are the champions!!!" It was a priceless moment that I'll never forget. Grazie, Italia, for letting me share this victory with you.

Pandemonium

2006-07-09T15:21:00.000-07:00

Alone...

2006-07-08T07:08:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! Today has been a somewhat quiet day for me, since all of my four roommates are out of the city on trips. Courtney is in Florence and Nancy, Molly, and Claudia are in Pompeii today. I actually could have signed up for the Pompeii trip as well, but I didn't think I could afford both it and the Tuscany trip, and for some reason I wanted to go to Tuscany more than Pompeii. It's kind of odd, when you consider that I have been planning to see Pompeii since I started planning this trip...but for some reason, once I got here, I decided that I would have quite enough archaeological stuff here in Rome (and in books), and I wanted to see more of what modern Italy is like. So anyway, no Pompeii for me. I've been left to my own devices today.

Last night was lovely--a storm came blowing in. Since I am living in a sort of valley between two ridges, one of which is in this picture (hence the long climb up the Mordor stairs every day), the thunder rumbles and echoes back and forth between the two hills. It sounds really cool. I probably spent about an hour on the terrace last night just watching the lightning and hearing the thunder. (Ah, the joy of having nothing in particular to do. Some call it boredom, I call it rest and relaxation. A little boredom never hurt anybody.)

Then, after the storm, at about 11:00, there were fireworks on the hill, in the same place that they had World Cup celebration fireworks. These were also the green, white, red, and blue...but I haven't the faintest clue why they set them off last night. Italia doesn't play until tomorrow night. Kind of random, but whatever.

Today I decided to do a little exploring. This morning after my usual morning cappuccino I hopped on the metro down to Piazza Barberini and walked a few blocks to the Chiesa Santa Maria della Vittoria (Church of Saint Mary of the Victory). This church is lavishly decorated like every other church here in Rome, but the real draw of Santa Maria is the Bernini statue of The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa. (Again, Blogger hates me, so Google it if you want to see what I'm talking about.) Bernini is the same guy who designed the square at St. Peter's, and the Baroque façade of the basilica itself (although Michelangelo designed the dome, etc.). Sculptures amaze me, and they are especially incredible when you can see them in person, walking around to see them from every angle. The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa is kind of creepy in subject matter (an angel is stabbing her with an arrow), but it's an incredible sculpture.

In keeping with my sacred sculpture theme, I hopped back on the metro to go to Chiesa di San Pietro in Vincoli (St. Peter-In-Chains). This other St. Peter's (not to be confused with the monstrosity across the river) is yet another lavishly decorated church, but its major draw is Michelangelo's Moses:

Interesting in a photo, but intimidating in real life. Moses has just come down from the mountain with the Ten Commandments in his arms, and he's just caught sight of the naughty Israelites worshipping the golden calf. He's just about to jump off his chair and go set them straight. The statue's pretty big; if Moses stood up, he'd be 13 feet tall. The bulging muscles and even veins, plus the incredible long flowing beard (this is stone Michelangelo was working with), make this sculpture pretty much unbelievable. In my opinion, anyway. St. Peter-In-Chains also houses 2 sets of chains that they claim held Peter: one set from when he and Paul were in the Mamertine prison in Rome, the other set from the story in Acts 12 where the angel leads Peter, who thinks he's dreaming, out of Herod's prison in Jerusalem. I suppose it goes without saying that this girl is not at all convinced of their validity, but that's what they say.

Incidentally, while I was there, I noticed another interesting sculpture on the wall:

I don't know about you, but if my church put up life-size sculptures of winged skeletons with sickles, I'd be a little creeped out. Of course, I'd also think it was pretty creepy if the former preacher's dead body was on display, like the dead popes in St. Peter's...there's some wacky stuff in these old churches.

So anyway, after being thoroughly creeped out in the churches, I went home for lunch and to hang up my laundry, then rode the bus over to Largo Argentina, because my next class meeting is there and I wanted to make sure I could find the place. Once I found it, I saw a big book/music store across the street and couldn't resist doing a little shopping. I've been wanting to shop for Italian music since I got here, and this is pretty much the only music store I've seen in my wanderings. It was like a really big Borders. I had a lot of fun browsing around and listening to samples of crazy Italian pop. Italians actually listen to a lot of American music, I'd noticed. I've heard lots of American stuff playing on the radio, like Evanescence, Shakira, Dido, Coldplay (well, they're British, but whatever), Cher, LeeAnn Rimes...the list goes on and on. In the store, the rock/pop section is almost entirely English-language stuff, and they keep their Italian music in an "Italiana" section, which is significantly smaller, although still decent. It's kind of weird. You can buy pretty much any CD here that you could in the States. I could have bought that Collective Soul CD I haven't gotten around to buying yet. But because it's imported, it's much more expensive. 26€ for a CD works out to about $34 U.S. Yikes.

I ran around listening to various things and eventually settled on this one by Piero Pelù:

In Faccia, as far as I can tell, means something like, "In Your Face." Lol. He's kind of like an Italian version of Scott Stapp or something. I like it. :)

Well, I think the computer lab is about to close, and in any case I need to go eat something. So I'll wrap this up and update again later, probably Monday (tomorrow I'm gone to Tuscany!). Love you all!

Dins, Churches, Pictures

2006-07-07T06:48:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I think I must have overdone it, because today I couldn't stop sleeping until almost 1 in the afternoon. I did get up in the morning to go get breakfast and groceries, but then I just came back and crashed again. And I'm still sleepy now. Mental note: one museum per day from now on! I was also up late yesterday, because we had a concert at school that evening and then a reception afterward. The group was the Harvard Din & Tonics, which is an accapella singing group from Harvard (naturally). They are currently taking a world tour, stopping in Rome between gigs in Greece and Germany (or something). They were absolutely great. It was 13 college guys in tuxes (with bright green socks), and they were both incredible singers and consummate entertainers. They sang songs like "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off," "Delovely," "Glow Worm," "Copa Cabana," etc., but always with a little twist. ("Let's Call the Whole Thing Off" included impressions of Elvis and Mozart...) Then they had "impressions," where they would athletically form themselves into different positions to poke fun at various things, like Oreo Cookies, popcorn, McDonald's arches, etc. For us, their Rome audience, they did an impression of Michelangelo's "Creation of Adam" from the Sistine Chapel, which of course received a great reaction. In addition, they punctuate all their songs with off-the-cuff jokes--absolutely hilarious. After the concert, we had a reception, which at JCU means wine, cheese, meatballs, etc. (Mmm.) Nancy and Claudia and I visited with a few of the Dins until almost 11:00 and then had to take the long journey home. It was great fun for all, but a late night indeed. :)

Well, since today is yet another day of doing nothing (no energy!), I will post a few pics. In response to Mindy's request for a look at the roomies, see below. I have 2 other roommates, and I'll try to take a picture if I can ever get them to sit still (they're always running around, those two). Also, I wanted to respond to Cassie's request for an Italian church service description by saying...I actually haven't been to one yet. I went to St. Peter's last Sunday evening with the intention of going to the 5:30 mass, and I went early, but by the time I got past the airport security, the modesty enforcers, and the mobs of tourists (and pigeons) in the square, mass had already started and there was no place to sit in that part of the church. So I just wandered around the building while listening to the place echo with the music. St. Peter's inspires one of the biggest "wow moments" in Rome, and probably all of Europe. It's an amazing building (it's HUGE), but it's kind of depressing too. The gigantic dimensions and unbelievable splendor were paid for by poor serfs who thought they were buying their grandmothers' ways out of Purgatory. Corruption in religion is an ugly thing. Also, watching the current-day folks who worship the building (and various statues and relics within it) is depressing too, because they are missing the point. No building, created by men, should inspire such worship and adoration. It breaks my heart to see people loving what man has created and seeming to miss the God who created man. Don't get me wrong, I am convinced that there are true believers in the Catholic church, I just cringe at the veneration of objects. (see Romans 1.) But in any case, it's an amazing experience and an incredible work of art. I'll go to a church service at the Baptist Church of Rome somtime, but not this Sunday because I am taking a day trip to Tuscany and then watching the World Cup Final that night at a sports bar next to the river. (Heck yeah. France is going down.)

So that's the story for now. Here are those pics I promised!

English translations around here are sometimes a little clumsy. I'm just glad I can read it at all.

The Trevi Fountain is absolutely gorgeous at night. This picture doesn't really capture it, but it's the best I could do.

My roomies/buddies, Nancy and Claudia.

That's me, in front of the School of Athens. I like to hang out with old smart dudes.

I've Been Everywhere, Man...

2006-07-06T09:21:00.000-07:00

Today I think my feet are angry with me. I was on them nonstop for about 12 hours, doing activities that involved lots of standing, along with a rather long powerwalk to the metro. Maybe I don't blame them. :)

It's been a very fun day, though. First, I went to my class, which I love. I may be the only person in the class who isn't bored out of his/her mind, but I say it again: people who can't handle heat and history should go somewhere else. JCU students have a tendency to be whiny and spoiled and rich, they tend to be marketing majors, and they tend to want to spend all their time in Campo de Fiori shopping and/or getting drunk. Watching their misery extend over the three and a half hours of my class twice weekly is pretty amusing. Oh, the poor poor little fashion models. Life is so hard for you.

But anyway, as I was saying, I adore this class. It's fascinating. Today we explored the Roman Forum. We took the Via Sacra (holy road), which is the original road (with the original paving stones) going through the Forum, the road that all those generals and consuls marched down for their triumphs, leading the captives and spoils of their battles. Reconstructing the Forum in your mind takes a lot of imagination now, since so many of the buildings are now reduced to their foundations (curse those medieval and Renaissance popes), but I have a little bit of that. Our teacher encourages us to put ourselves mentally into the clothes of an ancient Roman; today, for a fleeting moment, my linen capris turned into flowing robes, and I was a Vestal Virgin taking the Via Sacra down from the temple of Jupiter back to my living quarters at the other end of the Forum next to the temple of Vesta, after the triumphal procession of Scipio Africanus celebrating his defeat of the Carthaginians. (It was only a fleeting moment because Rachel, who was walking next to me, suddenly went crashing down on the uneven pavement...oh well. She was okay, by the way.) Yeah, so I admit, that's pretty much nerdy beyond belief, but there is something magical about walking down the paths of the ancients. If you were here, you might feel it a bit yourself. Walking through the forum, and looking up at the temple of Saturn towering over the Via Sacra, it isn't hard to understand why the Romans had such a strong collective ego. Walking on a daily basis among that sort of splendor and engineering prowess would definitely instill a strong sense of superiority in your average Roman, especially when you realize that most other peoples were still living in huts at the time.

I didn't take many pictures today because I was taking notes, but here's one of the arch of Septimius Severus, at the end of the Forum next to the Senate House:

After our adventures in the Forum, we went into the Capitoline Museum, which was also amazing. I saw several pieces of ancient sculpture I've been dying to see, including the symbol of Rome (despite its being an Etruscan product), the Capitoline Wolf, and one of my favorite sculptures of all time, the Dying Gaul. I wish Blogger would let me post pics (seriously, it gets cranky nearly every time). For the moment, you'll just have to Google them yourself if you want to see what I'm talking about. Anyway, it was absolutely fascinating. Pretty much everything we saw was amazing, but I don't have the space, and you don't have the patience, for me to describe it all. Suffice it to say that I was in Classics Nerd Heaven On Earth.

After class, Rachel and I went to eat, and then I went to the Vatican Museum. Haha. Rachel was like, "Are you insane?!" Maybe that was a little crazy, but Claudia wanted to go, so I went with her. I knew I'd have to go back sometime, alone...because no one would want to hang around with me for as many hours as I'd be able to spend there. And the fact that the Etruscan Museum was closed off today is another incentive to go back. So...today was a nice overview, and I'll be back for more details. I was absolutely thrilled, however, to be able to see Laocoon, Apollo Belvedere, and a real Egyptian mummy. Not to mention the School of Athens and the Sistine Chapel...which were okay but not thrilling. Renaissance paintings are alright, but they all start to look the same after, oh, five minutes. Give me the ancient sculptures any day...or Egyptian papyrus, Roman sarcophagi, etc. :) I did take my picture in front of the School of Athens, so I'll post that tomorrow when I have my USB cable.

So yeah, I've seen tons of cool stuff today. And after the miles of the Vatican museum, and walking here, plus all that walking this morning...I think I need to go refuel. Speaking of which, I must admit that my diet here consists of pizza, pasta, panini, and croissant. Coffee and Coke and water to drink. So is that healthy? Maybe not, but I really don't care... I'm off now to get a Marina, which is a panini sandwich at the place down the street. It has breaded chicken breast, mozzarella, scamorza cheese, and spicy eggplant slices, all hot and toasty on panini bread. Mmm mmm mmm!

P.S. Watch this flash video about Italy. I nearly split my sides laughing at it because it's so true (traffic in particular).

Miscellaneous notes...

2006-07-05T09:25:00.000-07:00

Hey everybody! I didn't do much of anything today worth blogging about (just went grocery shopping and studied for my class), so I'll just post a few pics and write a few miscellaneous facts. Pictures first:

This is the entrance to my apartment, sandwiched directly between Caffeterià Emo and a hairdresser's shop. Doesn't look like much, but we call it home.

The view from our bathroom window!

The Vittorio Emanuele Monument. I visited it Saturday by accident! It was built in the early 20th century to celebrate Italy's unification in 1870 and named for her first king. This picture does not even begin to capture how huge this thing is. I must admit that, despite its modernity, I am very fond of this monument. The view from the top is amazing, too.

Italy's tomb of the unknown soldier, at the Vittorio Emanuele Monument. If you don't act reverent enough around it, the polizia will blow their whistles at you, and escort you out.

Random observations:

Italians don't wear hats. I actually didn't pack a hat for this trip because I wanted to see what Roman women were wearing and follow their fashion. But when I got here, it soon became apparent that "following their fashion" means skipping the headgear. I don't know why, but neither the Roman women nor the men ever wear hats in the summer. Maybe they think they're dorky. In any case, if you see someone in a hat of any kind, you can instantly label them a tourist.
One of my favorite local foods is called an arancino, which is a fried snack usually served as a primo piatto, or first course (what we might call an appetizer). It looks like a really round fried cheese stick, but it has spiced rice, mozzarella, and tomato sauce on the inside, sometimes with Italian sausage too. Arancini are soooo good, and Italian in origin. But they're expensive: at your average pizzeria, it's 1€ for just one small one.
So you're hot and thirsty...how about some effervescent mineral water? Here in Rome the bottled water is often carbonated and so packed with minerals it tastes like dirt. Blech. So if an Italian asks you if you want your water "with gas," say no!
One thing I have to get used to here is the fact that Italian keyboards are laid out differently than American ones. The letters are in all the right places (thankfully), but the symbols are all over the place. The key where you would expect to find the apostrophe gives you this: à and the key for the semicolon gives you this: ò and so on. The symbols above the numbers are all different, too. Quotation marks are above the 2. It's getting easier, but I still forget sometimes, so if you see me write something like "my roommateàs sunglasses," that's why.

It's Hard Work Getting Lost

2006-07-04T09:22:00.000-07:00

Well folks, I had quite an adventure today...doing something that seemed like it would be really simple. Who knew shopping for textbooks would be such an ordeal?

I went to class today for the first time, and although I'm not particularly looking forward to our 12 page research paper, I think it's going to be a really great class overall. My professor is from Austria, and although the accent is a little thick, I got the hang of listening to her after the first half hour or so. It was so cool, talking about early Roman history while we stood right next to the island in the Tiber and pointed at all seven of Rome's hills. We walked across a bridge that was built in 62 BC and is still being used today. We saw the mouth of Rome's original drainage system, also 1st century BC in origin. There may be gypsies camped out around it and graffiti everywhere, but it's still really cool to see the origins of such a great civilization. We saw a couple of early temples today, too, and talked a little about the Etruscans...yeah, so I'm nerdy, but I'm really excited about this class. Tomorrow we're going to Museo Capitolino, the Capitoline Museum, so I am excited about that too.

But yeah, my adventure today started when my classmate Rachel (she's from New York, incidentally) and I decided to go get our books for the class. There's a bookstore here called the Anglo American Book Shop, which sells English language books for John Cabot students and presumably any other British or American expats in Rome. It's really not that far off the beaten path, but John Cabot's map and directions were wretched beyond description. First of all, it gave the completely wrong bus number we were supposed to take...Rachel and I were just forunate enough to meet an English-speaking Italian lady, who just happened to know the correct bus route. Then, once we got the right bus, the directions told you what bus stop to get off at and then just said, "Walk 250 meters to bookstore." No clue what direction, what street, nothing. We walked a while in one direction, then turned around and went the other way...finally I had to call my program coordinator for help just getting the address, and then we had to ask several passers-by to get us pointed in the right direction. I don't know how anyone given those directions could ever find the place, but whatever. We finally found it, and I got my books, groaning at the price tag (over 100 US dollars, for one class...I know, I know, that's not unusual even in the States where they don't have to import the books...but still...). By this point we were exhausted and stressed out, but the best was yet to come. My roommate ran into us in the bookstore, and she told us a better way to get back to the school than the way we had come. We took the metro, then got on bus 271 to get back to JCU. Well, somehow we got on bus 271 going the wrong direction, so we ended up in Suburbia Desert. Rachel and I were both starting to get scared...and then we reached the end of the line and the bus driver told us we had to get off. Lol we had no idea where on earth we were or what had gone wrong...but eventually we found the next bus going the other direction, and eventually it took us to our JCU stop. It was a long, long ordeal, punctuated by nearly getting run over, fighting with metro ticket machines, etc... not to mention gallons of sweat. I love Italy...but boy am I tired now.

So here are a few pics...

I went to the Trevi fountain! This was on Saturday. I was so tired I thought I might fall in, and the place was so crowded...but I threw a coin in and made a wish like you're supposed to. I think I'm going back with the roomies tomorrow night to see it lit up, which is supposed to be quite beautiful.

The area around the Spanish Steps is known for its fancy shopping. Hey, at least these guys are upfront about it, right?

Yeah, I couldn't resist taking a shot of the Colosseum.

Everyday stuff...

2006-07-03T07:01:00.000-07:00

As much as I love sightseeing, and as much sightseeing as I have done lately (see below), some of my favorite things about Italy are the things that I deal with just in everyday life. Going to the grocery store, for example, is an entirely different experience in Italy. I have to spend a lot of time looking things up in my Italian dictionary because I can't read any of the labels (exception: mustard. French's mustard is an import and thus printed in English, but also expensive). For instance, today I almost bought bubble bath when I wanted shower gel. Here are some examples of my Italian products:

Cling wrap, shower gel, and face soap

Bug spray, bathroom cleaner, shampoo

This morning I had one of my favorite experiences so far when I went to an open-air food market a few blocks away. It was a huge area, filled with all different vendors selling stuff, mostly fresh fruit, vegetables, meat, or bakery products, from their little cubicles. (By the way, open-air does not mean baking in the sun. It's shaded, so the food doesn't spoil.) This market is not a tourist draw, it's just a place where the Romans go daily to get the fresh food they need. (I didn't take any pictures this morning because I didn't want to draw attention to myself. I will be back many times, though, so maybe I'll get brave later.) The produce is better and cheaper at this type of market than at a supermercato (grocery store). I got 2 apricots, very large and good ones, for 0.25€. Eating cheap is easy when you know where to go! I also got some bread at a bakery (0.30€) and shopped around for other things. Of course, market shopping like this is more time-consuming and more difficult than just going to a grocery store, especially when you figure in the language barrier, but I know enough Italian phrases at this point to generally get my point across.

"Quanto costa?" = "how much is it?"
"Vorrei questo" (pointing at an object) = "I would like this"
"Non parlo italiano molto bene. Mi dispiace." = "I don't speak Italian very well. I'm sorry."

And so on. Sometimes you have to be creative and start playing charades, but it's usually enough to point and pay. The Italians respond really well to you if you start out speaking--or trying to speak--Italian. I've noticed this just from my own experience. If you go in a store speaking English, or if the first words out of your mouth are "Parla inglese?", they'll sometimes refuse to speak English to you even if they know a little. I think they just get tired of arrogant Americans expecting to be catered to. But if you take the time to learn a few words and start out with Italian, they'll meet you halfway with every English word they know, and they'll be much more friendly. In fact, they're usually quite taken with me when I try to say things in Italian. All you have to do is make some kind of effort. And really, you don't have to know much except the word for what you want, plus a few stock phrases. :) I wish I could speak Italian, though. Every day I hear the Italians around me boisterously shouting at each other (despite the fact that they get right in each other's faces to talk) and I wish I could understand what they're saying...not to mention visit with them about their country and everything. Oh well. I learn as much as I can.

Well, Blogger's refusing to post my pics again (it gets cranky every once in a while) so I'll just end this here. I will be back with more later!

Ancient stuff

2006-07-03T06:29:00.000-07:00

I have done so much in the past few days that I hardly know where to start. So I'll just kick it off with a few pics that I took on Sunday's Roma Antica tour that I went on, with 20 other JCU girls (most of whom were bored and whining the whole time...seriously, people, go to France or something if you can't handle heat and history). I was soo excited to be seeing all this stuff, but it was really just a brief overview. Hopefully for my class I'll return and spend more time at all these sites, getting some more in-depth information. So anyway, just a few pics for ya:

Trajan's column, in Trajan's Forum, just down the street from the Colosseum. The entire structure is covered with carvings depicting the emperor Trajan's conquest of Dacia (present-day Romania). It's hollow and used to have Trajan's ashes in the base. This is one of those things I've been drooling over in the textbook, and now I've seen it!

This is kind of cool. This temple, just across from the Forum, was originally dedicated to the deified emperor Antoninus Pius (2nd century) and later converted to a medieval church. See where the bottom of the green door is? It's several feet above the bases of the columns. That's how far it was buried in medieval times, so the floor of the church is several feet above the original, and now excavated, ground level.

The Arch of Titus. In the 1st century AD, Titus was the general who sacked Jerusalem and carried the treasures of the Temple back to Rome. Later, he became emperor. This is just one frieze in his huge triumphal arch near the Forum.

Ancient + Modern = Rome

(Theater of Marcellus, 1st century AD, plus who-knows-when add-ons)

These pictures, of course, only give little pieces of the whole experience. It's a pretty cool thing to walk along those ancient stone-paved roads and see the actual places where the movers and shakers of ancient Rome did their thing. Sure, there isn't much left, but it's exciting to me just to sit among the rubble. I'll be back, for sure.

More Pictures!

2006-07-01T04:00:00.000-07:00

Okay, here are a few more. I haven't actually taken that many, so this is pretty much all I have to offer at the moment. Stay tuned though.

The view out of my bedroom window. I am standing on the little balcony taking this, surrounded by Nancy's clothes hanging on the lines to dry (no dryers in Italy)...

John Cabot University is a converted monastery, so this type of thing can still be seen in places. This particular one is in the main courtyard. Our dean's office used to be the dwelling of a beatified nun, but she (in an English accent) informs us that "even the nun's influence won't prevent me from flying through the roof, accompanied by some rather unpleasant verbiage, if you do not show up for finals!"

Don't walk.

Walk.

But, uh, be sure you look both ways first. Italians think red lights are suggestions...

Random car parked on a median. They do it all the time. It's hilarious.

Soccer Anyone?

2006-07-01T03:39:00.000-07:00

I cannot believe my luck! Here I am, in the capital of Italy, during a World Cup year, while Italy is playing (and quite well, I might add). I am not actually a soccer fan myself, but I love seeing the Italians' enthusiasm. Because let me tell you, these people love their soccer. Last night I was on the street talking to my mom on a payphone during the game. When Italy scored their first goal, I knew it immediately! Of course, everyone was in bars and the like watching it, and the windows are always open...so there was this roar of "Goal!!!!" all up and down the street. Some people came out onto the sidewalk pumping their fists and honking their little horn things and waving Italian flags. And that was just for one goal! I couldn't watch the game, but I knew about all 3 goals (Italy won 3-0 over Ukraine) because of the noise...and then after the game, it was unbelievable. Fireworks were going off outside my window (green, red, and white...plus a little blue for the team's jerseys, I suppose):

And the chorus of car horns was incessant. Italians honk at each other a lot anyway, but this was entirely different. This was a chorus of celebratory honking, with pretty much every car and scooter flying up and down Via Angelo Emo honking all the way, many sporting Italian flags (even the scooter riders somehow managed to hold these huge flags while they drove). You could hear people walking down the sidewalk screaming "Ya!!! Italia!!!" when the cars weren't drowning them out. And this celebration went on for at least 2 hours after the game was over! I can't imagine what these people will come up with if Italy wins the cup. I really hope they do, so I can be here to see the fun. (As a side note, I ought to mention that none of these crazy celebrating Italians was drunk. Italians have a very, very strong social taboo against being drunk...ever, in any situation. You never get drunk. It's just not acceptable. This is why they have no drinking age or any drunk driving laws to speak of. Social pressure takes care of the issue. So the craziness...it's completely unaffected by alcohol.) Go Italia!!

Pictures!

2006-07-01T03:10:00.000-07:00

Well, this is all I could put up before Blogger got cranky. More to come!

Yes, I always look this sweaty and tired. That's life here in Rome. This was taken yesterday on one of the pedestrian bridges over the Tiber (Tevere) River, when Nancy and I were on our way to the bank and to Campo de Fiori for shopping.

SPQR = Senatus Populusque Romae (The Senate and the People of Rome). Since ancient times, the Romans have used these initials to mark their territory and assert their power. Today you'll find it on bridges, storm drains, grates, manhole covers, etc., etc. Everywhere, in other words.

I took this photo of the Vatican Museum entrance. We walk by it at least twice a day. The lines are usually unbelievable. Word to the wise: don't even think about coming on a weekend.

The steps into Mordor! Just kidding. It's a staircase we climb every day to get anywhere. It's not really daunting, just annoying. But it's a great shortcut.

This is the little hole in the wall called JCU. Not much to see, but lots of great resources. This computer lab is such an amazing blessing.

Long walks & dinners

2006-06-30T00:29:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! So much has happened since my last post, it seems like...and there's so much to describe--I'm kind of stumped about where to start. I guess I'll just start somewhere, but if you guys have any questions about what stuff is like, etc., leave me a comment or something. I don't know how to get it all in!

Okay, so how about the stuff we did yesterday...it was a very full day. I started it off by having breakfast at the Caffeterià Emo, which is a little snack bar pretty much directly downstairs. (It's located on a street called Via Angelo Emo, hence the name.) I tried Italian espresso (which is what you get if you order caffè--just a warning in case you come sometime) and it was sooo good. Very strong, though, even for my taste. But it did solve my caffeine headache, even though it was only a couple of teaspoons. :) The people at the caffè are very nice, and when I asked them the names of things in Italian (cornetto = croissant) they were very helpful and seemed to think it was charming or something. I actually just feel like an ignoramus in moments like that, but I guess they don't get much contact with confused foreigners, so they think it's cute or something. So anyway, after breakfast and some wandering around the neighborhood, my roomies (Courtney, Claudia, Nancy, Molly) and I decided to be adventurous and try to find the university and the restaurant we would be eating at that night. It took us about 2 hours total to find John Cabot...but that included getting lost 4 times and stopping for gelatto around 1:00. It was fun though, and here are some of the things we will pass every day on the way to school:

St. Peter's Square

Vatican Museum

We actually walk right through the middle of Vatican City (Città di Vaticano) every day to get down to Trastevere, where the school is. (By the way, sorry I haven't posted any of my own pics yet. This internet cafe doesn't have the connections for me to do that.) Rome is incredibly hard to get around in, actually. We had detailed maps and directions, and five brains, and we still got lost several times, as I mentioned. Rome doesn't have the street numbers \ alphabetical names system. The streets just seem to be named random things, and they change names all the time. For instance, the street the school is on is named Via della Lungara, until about a block past the school, where it magically switches names to Via de la Scala. Same street! Plus, none of the streets are really all that straight, so they might curve you around until you're going in completely the wrong direction. I was wondering how the Romans themselves find anything if they've never been to a certain store before or something, but I think they probably just get lost and wander around a while, too. Or ask directions. A good map is essential to getting around, but you're still going to get lost a few times. It's fun though.

Okay, so eventually we found John Cabot. I am trying to upload a pic of the entrance, but it's not working. Oh well. Suffice it to say that, from the outside at least, it looks like a little hole in the wall. I haven't seen the inside, but yeah, not exactly an imposing or impressive entrance lol. But in Rome, who has room for that? Later we found the restaurant for the welcome dinner that evening (La Fraschetta), which is right in the heart of the fun, yet rather touristy Trastevere quarter. Then we just killed time until dinner...

Dinner was an event, let me tell you. In Italy, a dinner out with friends is an entire evening's activity. We were there for four hours. And it was wonderful! There were about 20 of us (only 18 students came with Study Abroad Italy this semester), and we had appetizers and pizza and dessert, with wine of course, and an extremely strong (50 proof) lemon alcoholic drink at the end that all the students decided tasted like Thera-flu. Only Paul, from Georgia, seemed to enjoy it. It was a great meal (seriously, the best pizza I have ever eaten. Period. It was pizza con funghi e prosciutto, that is, with mushrooms and ham. Not Canadian bacon, but really big, thinly shaved pieces of this interestingly spiced and cured ham. Multo bene.) and a great time for everyone to meet each other and relax. It helps a lot with the whole culture-shock thing, when we know each other and can talk about our experiences.

So...then we walked back, and that took, oh, 20 minutes or half an hour. Lol it's a lot easier when you know your way! Rome is surprisingly well lit at night, and I loved how everyone was still out at 11:00 and midnight. Not just weirdos and young people, but everyone, sitting at tables outside, smoking, talking really loud (there's no other way here in Italy). It makes sense, of course: take advantage of the cool hours! So the five of us didn't feel like we were in danger walking home at that hour, even though we did have a few Italian guys whistling at us and trying to get us to stop and talk with them. "Ciao! Hello!" Whatever, guys. They're not threatening, just amusing.

Okay, so I need to get going. We have orientations today, so we need to get walking! I love all of you and I will try to update as much as possible!

Buona giornatta!

In Rome At Last

2006-06-28T08:00:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! Well, I finally made it. I am sitting in an internet cafe in the beautiful city of Rome, Italy. And when I say "beautiful," I mean "crazy"...

The flights were perfectly fine, for the most part. We had a 2-hour delay on the flight from Dallas to Toronto, resulting from some sort of mechanical failure that the pilot discovered after we were all on board, so I ended up being on that plane for over 5 hours. Then I had about an hour and a half layover in Toronto, during which I ran around feeling scared and lost, but in real life I did just fine finding my terminal and gate. I must say that I didn't get all that great of an impression of the Canadians, but then again, if I worked in an airport I probably wouldn't be disposed to be particularly friendly either. I also was disappointed that Toronto's airport wasn't somehow strikingly Canadian...aside from the occasional Canada t-shirt, and Michael Buble playing EVERYWHERE, you would have thought you were in the US. But you can't judge a city by its airport, I always say. So then after that, I boarded my flight to Rome, and promptly fell asleep (thanks to a little Benadryl) for about six hours. The flight was eight and a half hours long, so the rest of the time I just relaxed, ate breakfast, and so on. Air Canada is a pretty nice airline, and it amuses me that every single announcement has to be made in at least two languages, English and French. On the plane to Rome, they announced everything in English, French, and Italian. Needless to say there was a lot of announcing going on...

When we landed in Rome, I just followed the herd of passengers around, through a looooong line for passport checks (I was giggling at the disgruntled New Yorkers who couldn't figure out why there wasn't a line specifically for first class), then customs, where they looked at nothing whatsoever, and through baggage claim, which was a claustrophobic scene verging on shoving matches at certain points. My bag was one of the last ones to appear on the carousel, and it took forever, so I was really scared that my bags were lost...but it turned out ok. Then I found my program coordinator easily, and waited for another girl to show up. Once she did, they packed us into a little semi-SUV thing...and this is where things got interesting.

First of all, the driver spoke no English whatsoever, so we really had no idea where we were or what was going on most of the time...and second, Italian drivers are absolutely crazy! I spent the first half an hour of the drive not even looking at the scene, but just fearing for my life. After a certain point, the drive didn't get any less harrowing, but I just got used to the fact that Italians drive really fast, cut each other off constantly, miss hitting parked cars by inches, etc. Apparently Romans have no respect for lane markings: this is especially true of the motorcycle riders, but it's true of the cars too! Sometimes you'll see one going the wrong way down a street to get ahead of a traffic pile up, then squeak over when a car comes. People honk, but they do that constantly anyway. Honking, and throwing their arms in the air like, "You idiot!" then turning around and doing some harebrained move themselves. (My driver was no exception.) It's highly amusing. And you'd be amazed at the way people park around here. Maybe it's a mark of their desperation, but the cars are sometimes double parked on the sides of the streets, and sometimes parked in the medians! I'm pretty sure that's technically illegal, but what do I know? The cars themselves are, of course, all very small. Lots of little Volkswagens, Audis, Fiats, and jillions of those tiny little Smart cars, with the occasional Ford Focus thrown in. They need to be small to navigate these tiny winding streets, and to squeak through traffic.

So needless to say, I won't be driving anywhere.

My driver finally got me to my apartment building, but I had no idea what to do at that point. My coordinator had told me that someone would meet me there with the key, but no one was to be seen when I got there. The driver ended up just leaving me there sitting on the step! I eventually managed to get in touch with someone and figure out how to buzz my roommates, but it was kind of scary for a little while there. Once I did get up to my apartment, I found two of my roommates, along with mucho heat and humidity. Lovely! Lol, I was prepared for that though. My roommates apparently weren't, but we bought fans tonight at a little shop around the corner, so I suspect we'll do just fine. (Incidentally, the internet cafe I'm in right now has AC. I'm gonna be a regular.)

I learned only a very few little phrases in Italian before coming here, since I was told by many sources that most people speak English, so I didn't really need to spend hours learning Italian. Ha. Whoever told me that has never been to my neighborhood. I am very close to the Vatican, just blocks away from St. Peter's, in a neighborhood just to the north and west of Vatican City. It's a really cute area, with lots of apartments and tons of neat little shops, but seriously, nobody speaks any English. Naturally, why should they? But I wish I had known that weeks ago: I would have spent more time on my Italian! But I'll pick some stuff up pretty quickly, I hope. I managed to buy some fruit and water this afternoon, and the aforementioned fans, by using the few words I knew and some hand signals, and I bet things will get easier as the days go on. These first two days are particularly awkward, I think, because we're just on our own in our neighborhood here, and we don't have orientations until Friday, so we have no idea what we're doing, basically. It's kind of fun though, a bit of an adventure. I liked walking around the neighborhood by myself this afternoon. The city is so densely packed, so old, so dirty (graffiti everywhere), but so charming at the same time. I like it a lot. :)

Well, I think I may be running out of time here. I promise I'll report again soon!

Last check...

2006-06-25T06:59:00.000-07:00

Currently Listening: "Better Now" by Collective Soul from Youth

Packing: done. Well, mostly. I'll throw in few extra things this morning after I get dressed for church. Despite Alisha's and Eric's concerns (wink), I was able to get it all done in one day with very little stress. Since I'm packing pretty light, it was pretty easy. Heck, I even took a trip to Wal-Mart for some last minute items, and didn't get Wal-Mart Rage. That's saying something.

So now I'm just wrapping things up here in my apartment...I gave Alisha free reign over any groceries in the fridge she might want, since in six weeks I'm sure none of it will be edible anyway. I don't have too much in there, though, since I've been working on eating all of my groceries...and haven't been to Market Street in over a month. In fact, I am so desperate this morning for something to eat that I gave in and actually warmed up some Bananas & Cream oatmeal. It came in one of those variety pack boxes, and I've been refusing to eat it for a couple of weeks now, since it sounds gross. It actually is gross, too, but I'm hungry. So oh well.

Alisha and I made an Arby's run yesterday for lunch, since I'm pretty certain there won't be any Arby's in Italy. That and Rosa's and Taco Bell will be the places I miss the most, I think. Those, and my mom's cooking and my dad's steaks. Just imagine...six weeks without a chicken fried steak...do you think I can make it? Lol.

So that's the story here. In other news, Alisha and I watched Bridget Jones' Diary last night on Bravo (yay for edited-for-TV movies). I thought it was amusing, but nothing too special, until the part where Colin Firth and Hugh Grant get into a fight. That was priceless.

Well, I really ought to stop rambling and start getting my stuff together for church and for leaving! I can't believe I'm leaving town today...I've been waiting for six months for this trip, and it's finally drawing near! So anyway, this is my last goodbye or whatever until I can next get to a computer, which will probably happen once I get there on Wednesday. I love all of you! Keep in touch!

Packing, Etc.

2006-06-24T09:22:00.000-07:00

Well, now that I've got my blog all rearranged to my liking (for the moment), I can actually update.

Today is the day I'm supposed to be packing for this trip. I actually haven't packed a lick, yet, (haha my roommate is starting to freak out a little on my behalf...) but that's because I am currently working on cleaning my clothes (it's hard to pack if they're all dirty, which they were). So first I'll just throw out some pics from last night's "Totally Happening Friday" Greek Food Extravaganza (there were about 20 of us there, but I only got a few pics):

J.P. and Evan

Bethany and Michael

Cassie and me

Do you see the "Bellydancing with Cheryl" sign behind my head in the last pic? Well, Cheryl was totally there...I suppose I should have taken a picture of her shakin' it, but I was too busy enjoying everyone else's awkwardness. Haha it was amazing! A "bonding experience," as Joe said. :) Great fun.

So anyway...packing...I have accomplished one bit of packing, the part which is, in my opinion, the hardest part. If you were going to a foreign country for 6 weeks and only had room for 24 CD's, which ones would you take? It's been agony deciding, but here's my list:

1.) Aqualung: Strange and Beautiful
2.) Bic Runga: Drive
3.) Counting Crows: Films About Ghosts (The Best Of...)
4.) Steven Delopoulos: Me Died Blue
5.) Lord of the Dance: The Soundtrack
6.) Collective Soul: Collective Soul
7.) Collective Soul: Disciplined Breakdown
8.) Collective Soul: Dosage
9.) Collective Soul: Youth
10.) The World's Most Relaxing Piano Album...Ever! Disc Two
11.) Maroon 5: Songs About Jane
12.) Josh Groban: Closer
13.) Boston: Greatest Hits
14.) Burlap to Cashmere: Anybody Out There?
15.) Frou Frou: Details
16.) King's X: Ear Candy
17.) Jewel: This Way
18.) Michael Buble: Michael Buble
19.) Paul Simon: The Collection
20.) Soundgarden: Superunknown
21.) Simon & Garfunkel: The Essential Simon & Garfunkel, Disc One
22.) Pearl Jam: vs
23.) Jason Mraz: Mr. A-Z
24.) Sister Hazel: Chasing Daylight

Yeah, that's a pretty good collection to get me through. There are a couple of albums I would take, such as Eisley: Room Noises, or Michael Buble: It's Time, except that I just downloaded those, and therefore have no CD of them (and I don't have a CD burner). But anyways, now you can all see my "excellent taste" in music. Whatever that means...I was just thinking lately about people's ideas of "good taste" associated with music, art etc., and they just don't make sense to me. People will say that someone has "good taste," implying that there is some kind of objectively "good" thing that this tasteful person has the intellectual and artistic acumen to recognize and appreciate. On the other hand, the girl who jams out to, say, Britney Spears has "bad taste" because she's just not cultured enough to recognize crap when she hears it. I object to that sort of viewpoint...since there's nothing objective at all in music and art, who's to say what's "good" and what's "bad"? I say things are a lot simpler: either you like stuff or you don't. There's nothing wrong with shakin' it to Britney Spears every once in a while, if you like it. My roommate and I find ourselves doing just that on occasion...and then on other occasions we study to Rachmaninoff pieces. Whatever. We just like all kinds of stuff. We don't feel like we need to like a bunch of obscure artists to have "taste." And that makes our musical lives much happier.

Okay, time to go get the laundry, eat lunch, and maybe pack eventually? Enh.

Currently Listening: "Breathe In" by Frou Frou from Details

Chalk Fairies

2006-06-21T06:05:00.000-07:00

4 college girls + 1 box of 52 Crayola sidewalk chalk + 1 sidewalk = fun stuff

Life, Love, Death

2006-06-17T20:30:00.000-07:00

I went to work this morning as usual, but the day turned unusual really quickly. My mom called and told me that one of my friends from high school died last night. A girl whom I had loved and respected...whose family I still love...we laughed together, decided we were both going to marry baseball players after high school (preferably Oakland A's)...went to each other's houses...celebrated each other's successes...and now, suddenly, she's gone.

I haven't seen this girl in the flesh in 3 years, since we graduated, but I've been living next door to her older sister for the last several months, and we had kept up with each other a bit over Facebook and our blogs. I have no doubt at all that she was a Christian, a true daughter of the King, so I'm not worried about the fate of her soul. But I'm just kind of in shock right now. And my heart breaks for her family...whom I know pretty well. What would you do if a close family member just suddenly died? No one knows what happened to her exactly...they'll do an autopsy this week sometime...something just went wrong. How does a mother, or a father, or a brother, or a sister, deal with that?

And if a 21 year old, healthy girl can die...I can't take my own life or anyone else's for granted.

But I feel guilty about being alive. Survivor guilt...it's totally irrational, but I can't help feeling guilty when I sit and watch a baseball game with my dad, thinking about poor Jon who doesn't have his daughter to watch baseball with anymore. Poor Jon who is about to have the worst Father's Day ever, tomorrow.

My life will go on...but I feel guilty about that. Yet I know that Lauren's life was exactly as long as it was supposed to be. It may seem to us like her life was cut short, but God designed her with exactly 21 years in mind. And she's with Him now. So all I can do is pray for her family...and thank God for the certainty and peace of mind He brings to his children, even in the face of death.

Get Your Hands Off!!

2006-06-15T19:33:00.000-07:00

Tonight I went to a boring little dinner/presentation thing with some of my co-workers from the pharmacy. We like to go for the free food (it was 50 Yard Line, y'all) and the CE credits (continuing education) we earn that help us renew our certifications. It was fine...mostly boring, but the food was okay. The only part I didn't like was our waiter. He was one of those guys who kneels down and gets right in your face when he takes your order, which kind of annoys me, but isn't too big of a deal. The thing that really got me was the way he kept touching me every time he came by our table. He would tap my arm or shoulder every single time. The last time he really made me angry, because he put both his hands on my shoulders for a pretty long time while he asked me condescendingly, could he get this sweet little girl a coke or something, since all her friends had wine? Aarrgghh. The condescending question I can deal with, but the hands on the shoulders just made me want to slap him. I actually didn't do anything except grit my teeth and say, "Really, I'm fine." But what is a girl supposed to do in a situation like that? At the time, I couldn't really think of a way to handle the situation except to either ignore it or snap something like "Get your hands off me!!!" Allowing a guy to be schmucky never seems like a good idea to me, but I certainly don't want to be a jerk, since one of my greatest responsibilities is to love the people around me! I suppose I need to come up with a carefully tactful way to request a no-touch zone, and have it prepared for the next time the situation arises. Any suggestions?

Audio?

2006-06-15T11:53:00.000-07:00

God's Food Pyramid

2006-06-14T05:31:00.000-07:00

Last night was a lot of fun, as Jonny and I talked over coffee at J&B's. We had met to discuss how we were planning on approaching Titus 1 in our Bible Study, but we ended staying for a few hours and touching on topics from sports to The Matrix to relationships. My favorite, however, was Jonny's rant on dietary topics.

It began on milk. Jonny explains that his frappucino drink, while good, is going to cause him some ill effects later because of the milk in it.
"Are you lactose-intolerant?" I ask.
"No, I just don't drink milk."
"How can you not drink milk?"
"It's bad for you."
"Jonny!" I exclaim. "It's in the food pyramid!"
Unperturbed, he retorts, "It's not in God's food pyramid."

He's really not joking, either, which is part of what made this conversation priceless. Jonny isn't the kind of guy to go around spouting statements like that without having something to back it up, so I let him explain all the reasons he thinks milk is bad for you. He's done exhaustive research, that's for sure, and, philosopher that he is, he knows how to build a convincing argument. I was intrigued but unaffected until he got to the part about how milk is bad for your asthma...he had me there. He says that his doctor tells mothers of asthmatic children to stop giving them milk and see if it doesn't help them breathe. And apparently, it almost always does.

As much as I love milk (as you all know), I hate my asthma worse. It's been flaring up more often and more seriously in the past few weeks than it ever has before, and at this point I'll try anything (short of going to the doctor) to help it get better. Jonny urged me to try abstaining from milk for a couple of weeks, claiming that it makes him feel better. "I'm either deceived myself or I'm telling the truth...the only way for you to find out is to see for yourself." Good point, Jonny. So, bemused, I find myself allowing him to convince me, and here I sit, drinking only coffee with my oatmeal (I wouldn't let him tell me why coffee is bad for me. Some things I just can't give up).

That conversation led into Jonny's belief that the Old Testament dietary laws served a purpose beyond encouraging obedience. He figures that if God ordered His people to eat a certain way, it was because He knew what would be good for them. And even though we no longer are under the old levitical laws, Jonny thinks that paying attention to them could still be profitable. So he does...he doesn't eat much beef or pork, hits the vegetables and fruits pretty hard, etc. He certainly looks healthy and happy...so who knows. I have no plans on giving up beef and pork, but he still may have a good point. I just smiled at him at the end of the evening and said, "Jonny, you're a complete radical, but that doesn't change the fact that you might be right."

La la la la la la life is wonderful...

2006-06-09T20:21:00.000-07:00

I am a very happy person. Perhaps this is why I have a hard time thinking of something interesting to blog about. Happy people are boring. This is why movies are only happy at the end...they'd get really boring really quickly if they kept going past that point where the couple kisses at the end and drives off into the sunset.

But I never said I wanted my life to be like a movie.

Other than working, and working out, I've just been doing some more preparations for my upcoming trip, hanging out with my roommate (whose life is a heck of a lot more eventful than mine...), reading a bit and studying my teaching materials, and spending time with various other friends. Tomorrow I am going home to see the parents, then coming back to have movie night with the Classics girls and later a concert at a coffee shop in which two of my friends are playing. Then Sunday is the usual church, leaders' meetings and hanging out with church folks...

So yeah. Boring. But great.

By the way, my first Bible study as a leader went beautifully. I felt like both Jonny and I taught effectively; we had some great discussion and ultimately, I felt, learned a lot in the process. Jonny is totally awesome (which I think I've mentioned before), and now I know that I'm not going to clam up and pass out next time I'm put in a leadership position...so it's great.

After Bible study was over, I was so exhausted, but it felt so good...because I know I'm doing something that I'm supposed to be doing, and I know I'm helping people in some way and contributing to God's glory here on earth. In a small way, to be sure, but still important. It's great.

And, in other news, I just received my housing assignment from Study Abroad Italy and discovered that I'm going to be staying with 4 other girls in an apartment. That will be interesting, to say the least... But I'm up for it! And I'm up for the no AC, no clothes dryers, no living rooms (apparently Italians live in the kitchen), and everything else they've prepared me for. I simply can't wait!

Currently Listening: "Ready for the Good Times" by Shakira from Laundry Service

Ego, Femina Sapientiae

2006-06-07T05:22:00.000-07:00

One of my wisdom teeth came in this week. Isn't that wild? I had no idea it was there until I suddenly felt something hard back there on Sunday. At this point, it isn't clear whether I'll have to get these guys removed or not. At the moment, I appear to have plenty of room, since they pulled 8 of my adult teeth during my braces stage...and the new guys don't seem to be pushing against my teeth or hurting or anything.

I hope I don't need surgery. In any case, it wouldn't happen until I got back from Rome...but blech.

So, in celebration of my wisdom teeth, I've decided to feel particularly wise this week. It's a good week to feel wise, since this is my first week as a Bible study leader with my church. Sunday was our leaders' meeting, and yesterday I met for the first time with my teaching partner Jonny, to prepare for tonight's study at our pastor's house. I am feeling well prepared and fairly confident (wise, yes, wise), especially since I have absolute confidence in Jonny to be a very capable leader. We actually just met each other on Sunday, about 30 minutes before we found out we were going to be teaching together. ("Uh, yeah, Nathan's not here so...why don't you teach with Jonny?") Lol. But anway, I think Jonny is awesome, and perhaps one of the best people in the entire ministry they could have teamed me with. We haven't had any major theological disagreements yet, although we jokingly considered holding a debate over the issue of predestination...just to see all sides of the issue, of course...and we both approach the Scripture in a similar way. We also have a lot in common just generally, since I'm a Classics person and he's a Philosophy person with a strong Classical background...so yeah, it's pretty cool. I think we'll make a great team. Hopefully he feels reasonably confident in me, too.

In other news, I've been transforming slowly but surely into a morning person (yeah, it's crazy, I know). I get up at 6:30 because I want to...I like to linger over my coffee and breakfast in the mornings before I got to work at 8:30. Who would have ever thought this girl would do something nutty like that? It's a good thing it's happening, though, because this fall I have 8 am classes Monday through Thursday!

Also, I've been heeding the principle of sanis mens in sani corpe (sound mind in a sound body), and trying to get myself back into something resembling shape. After an entire school year of neglect, because of lack of time, my poor body was getting a little flabby. I had to buy a summer membership to the rec center, but I think it's worth it. I'm certainly trying to get my money's worth...I go every day except Sunday, and I already feel much better (it's only been one week since I went back). Some days I swim, some days I run on the elliptical or ride the bike (or anything I can find that won't kill my knees)...and I meet my pastor there fairly often. It's fun.

Well, now it's time for me to get ready for work...

Have a great day!

New Post...?

2006-06-05T17:44:00.000-07:00

Maybe I ought to post something legitimate sometime soon.

Until then, you can all get to know my 5-point personality profile:

Your Five Factor Personality Profile

Extroversion:
You have low extroversion. You are quiet and reserved in most social situations.A low key, laid back lifestyle is important to you.You tend to bond slowly, over time, with one or two people.
Conscientiousness:
You have medium conscientiousness.You're generally good at balancing work and play.When you need to buckle down, you can usually get tasks done.But you've been known to goof off when you know you can get away with it.
Agreeableness:
You have medium agreeableness.You're generally a friendly and trusting person.But you also have a healthy dose of cynicism.You get along well with others, as long as they play fair.
Neuroticism:
You have low neuroticism.You are very emotionally stable and mentally together.Only the greatest setbacks upset you, and you bounce back quickly.Overall, you are typically calm and relaxed - making others feel secure.
Openness to experience:
Your openness to new experiences is medium.You are generally broad minded when it come to new things.But if something crosses a moral line, there's no way you'll approve of it.You are suspicious of anything too wacky, though you do still consider creativity a virtue.

The Five Factor Personality Test

They Tied the Knot!!!

2006-05-23T20:27:00.000-07:00

Hey all! I have had one of the most exciting weekends ever. I came out of it a little frazzled...but it's okay, since it wasn't about me. It was about my brother and his wife (it feels weird typing that...), and their beautiful wedding. I don't have any "official" pics, but here are a few preliminaries that my boyfriend took.

* * *

The handsome lieutenant (yeah, that's my brother y'all!) watches as his bride enters to "Canon in D" by Pachelbel

My dad reads scripture from Ephesians.

Bridesmaids (left to right: me, Stacie, Mary, Kristy)

Newly pronounced man and wife.

My roommate Alisha and I, smiling over cake at the reception.

My boyfriend Eric and I, tired after dancing but still liking each other... :)

The getaway!

In case you noticed, yes, the bride changed dresses. She wore her grandmother's gown for the ceremony and her mother's gown (with its more manageable skirt) for the dancing at the reception. I wish I had a picture of their first waltz together.* It was very sweet. The reception was a good, long party with lots of food, plenty of room, and lots of great friends, family, and of course, dancing! It was great. I hope the couple enjoyed it as least as much as I did!

I'm out!

*More pics courtesy Bobby:

* * *

The hit men.

The waltz.

I Knew It!

2006-05-17T19:04:00.000-07:00

You Belong in Rome

You're a big city girl with a small town heart, which is why you're attracted to the romance of Rome. Strolling down picture perfect streets, cappuccino in hand...And gorgeous Italian men - could life get any better?

What City Do You Belong In?

A Big Day!

2006-05-13T21:02:00.000-07:00

Well, today my brother graduated from college, then commissioned into the Air Force!

What a big day. I'm exhausted so I'm going to let the pictures do most of the talking (I took them all myself...)

Commissioning:

And I'm especially proud of this portrait of my future sis-in-law:

Well, that's all I've got right now. Update later...

G'night.

Whoa

2006-05-11T20:28:00.000-07:00

I'm mostly just practicing with the digital camera. (I'm borrowing my boyfriend's for the summer.) But this is also to document the fun of moving!

Yeah, whatever. I am a terrible photographer, but that's just the way it is!

Chaos...

2006-05-10T21:33:00.000-07:00

Well, a hurricane named Alisha hit my house...lol.

We are having fun already, even though unpacking etc. is a pain.

Dancing like fools in the kitchen to Broadway music...finding random things we each didn't remember we had...there's nothing like moving!!

I'm just glad I don't have to move my stuff. I did have to tear up my room, though, for the maintenance people to rip out the sheetrock and do something with some pipes. It's still not back to rights, but oh well.

I had a productive day. Six loads of laundry, new pairs of glasses, foreign currency ordered, a long lunch with my Bible study leader, a trip home and back to move some stuff, and a long time of unpacking and rearranging things so Alisha's will fit.

Oh yeah, and I did remember to eat somewhere in there.

I'm so tired. But I haven't cracked a book all day...yeehaw!

Good night.

The Autobiography of a Mortal

It's 2007. So What's the Big Deal?

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

South Carolina Continued

More Adventures...

South Carolina...

Announcement!

Would You Wear a Guillotine?

Last Day!

Advent

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow

Thanksgiving! Yum!

Want a Recipe for Fun?

Better Now...

I Smell Like Menthol

Oh the Pain!

Lately...

Recommended Reading

Incoherent Babbling...

Out of Fuel

I Shouldn't Admit to This...

Reasons to Love the Fair

Senioritis, or Something

My Incredibly Complex Personality

Okay, so maybe I'm opinionated...

Fun at Small Group

People Watcher

Cowboy Symposium

Week 2: Creation in Alienation

Rain is Good for the Brain

A Thoughtful Week

I Love Weddings!

My Lake of Shining Waters

Spiritual Gifts Inventory...Bah Humbug

Lee and the Kiddoes

Soundtrack of My Life

My Brains are Scrambled

Heartless

A Weakness of Mine

"Living in Fear Will Drive You Mad..."

Striking Out in the Book Department

Maxwell House and Mini Wheats

Arrivederci, Roma

Ostia Antica! and Ah, the Beach!

"The World's Done Shakin' Me Down..."

Let Me Go Home...

Just Another Day in Rome...

"Italian Fast Food" = Oxymoron

Blowing Sand, etc.

Not Much Goin' On

I'm Melting

I'm Finished!

Texas-ness

Fantascienza!

So Much Fun, I Nearly Died

Pyramids and Confederates?

Never a Dull Moment

The Montemartini Museum

More pictures

Un Cavo USB

No More Strikes, Please

Procrastination...

Rome Baptist Church

Feel Bad? Go Shopping!

Pax and Pulchritude

Castel Sant'Angelo

San Giovanni in Laterano

Shopping and Other Boring Things

Under the Tuscan Sun

"We Are the Champions!"

Pandemonium

Alone...

Dins, Churches, Pictures

I've Been Everywhere, Man...

Miscellaneous notes...

It's Hard Work Getting Lost

Everyday stuff...

Ancient stuff

More Pictures!

Soccer Anyone?