Just Another Day in Rome...

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

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.

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

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

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!

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

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!

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

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?

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

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

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

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

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

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...

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

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!

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

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!