The calm before the storm is over. Now that we’re all acclimated to life in a foreign country, we’ve remembered that we have to try to squeeze two classes’ worth of work in between sightseeing, wandering aimlessly, and gelato-gorging. Our reading assignments are intense, and, to be honest, a little bit dry. All the history is interesting enough, but one of the passages we read last night was a detailed description of every fresco we saw this morning at the Santa Maria Antiqua in the Forum. I read about half of it, but it all started blending together, so I skimmed the rest of it and moved on to Chapters 1, 2, and 4 of our textbook.
Yesterday, we took a day trip down to Tuscany to check out some Etruscan tombs. I knew exactly what they were talking about and what we were seeing thanks to Papalexandrou’s ARH 302 class from first semester. And people say classes aren’t practical. Tuscany’s a pretty rural area, so the most amazing part of the trip was the view – wide open spaces, sheep grazing in fields, cloudless sky, all against the backdrop of the Tyrrhenian coast. I need to set up a Flickr account so I can start posting pictures. I’ll put it on my to-do list. After our tour was over, we relaxed at the overlook for a while and then headed off to our free (!) lunch. Side note – gelato is no longer an indulgence. It’s an addiction. I spent the majority of last night catching up on reading for class. We had a hundred pages of reading due today, so I read fifty or so of them on Wednesday night so I wouldn’t be swamped. On the bus home, Professor Galinsky announced that perhaps the reading assignment was a little bit much, so he was canceling the first half to make the load easier. Mom and Dad – this is what happens when I’m proactive and get stuff done early:-)
The Americans from our building that keep us up all night? They’re Harvard grad students. Can’t ignore the irony of undergrads from America’s number one party school complaining about Harvard grad students partying too much. Classic.
Small victory: I can now make coffee in my flat. The maker that comes with the flat is pretty ingenious – it consists of two compartments screwed together in the middle with a double-sided filter in between them. You pour water in the bottom half, put the grains (I bought some Lavazza at Harrison’s recommendation, it’s epic) in the filter, screw them together, and put it on the stove. The water boils up through the filter into the top compartment, giving coffee. Now I don’t have to pay two euros at the closest café for my morning jolt. Speaking of, I have yet to strike up a conversation with a stranger at a café, something I’ve been meaning to do. There are almost as many tourists, most of them American, as Italians, especially in our neighborhood, so it shouldn’t be too difficult. Probably won’t turn out like Before Sunrise, but hey, I like meeting new people in general.
Everyone seems to be getting along pretty well so far. I have to say that, ‘cause odds are good that at least a couple people from our group are gonna read this, but it’s true nonetheless. We’re all laid-back and friendly enough that I don’t foresee any major drama over the next few weeks (famous last words).
One last random anecdote: Wednesday afternoon, Sherry, Dhananjay, Amanda Jones, Andrew and I ended up in a bookstore. Anyone who knows me at all knows that bookstores are my weakness – I can spend an hour browsing before I know ten minutes have gone by. It was a used bookstore run by this little old British woman who commended our taste as we checked out at the little desk in the corner. The whole place smelled like old paper, the shelves ran all the way up to the ceiling. I can’t remember the last time I used this word, but it was very quaint. The one thing I forgot to pack on this trip was leisurely reading. I didn’t bring a single book to read for fun, which is very unlike me. I bought two books, a collection of short stories by Thomas Mann, and a collection of essays by E.B. White (of Charlotte’s web fame). I’m about a third of the way through the Mann book so far; I’m guessing I’ll end up back at the bookstore before the week’s up.
Gotta go start writing my two five-page papers due on Tuesday. I have plenty of time, but as long as I have guaranteed Internet access, might as well crank at least one of them out. Ciao for now.
Friday, June 6, 2008
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Adjustment
Just realized I’ve been writing in real time, which will get pretty tedious to write and to read. Some highlights since my arrival:
Our flat (since we’re in Europe, I refuse to call it an apartment) is nice. Cramped, but nice. We have a gas stove, a sink, a fridge, plates and silverware, basic cooking utensils, so we’re set in that department. The shower’s temperature and water pressure fluctuates a little bit, but it’s nothing we can’t deal with. No AC, though, which has been killer for the past couple nights. It cools off quick enough with the windows open, but as Cheuk and I are quickly learning, Trastevere (our neighborhood) doesn’t sleep. Sunday night we got woken up at about 4 a.m. to Pink Floyd and the Beatles (guess I can’t complain), Monday night to construction and traffic, and last night to our neighbors, also Americans, having a party on the roof terrace, which is right above our apartment. Also, I’ve gone to bed at 11:00 (voluntarily) and gotten up between 7:00 and 8:30 every morning since I’ve been here. When was the last time that happened?
I’m still getting my bearings. I’m relatively, more-or-less sure that I know how to get from our flats to AIRC headquarters, but I’m not confident enough to try it on my own yet. I don’t need another repeat of the first couple days in Spain, when I got lost two days in a row by myself, four hours each day. Our group has wandered around the city a lot (a LOT, my feet are killing me and it’s only day five), so we’ve seen a lot of the major sites already. The window of our classroom provides a textbook view of Trajan’s column and the Victor Emmanuel Monument (which we’ve nicknamed “The Wedding Cake”). Last night, all fifteen of us met up at about 9:00 p.m. and hiked over to the Trevi Fountain. It was just as amazing as it was the first time. We took plenty of pictures, threw coins over our shoulders, etc. It’s fun to fall into the stereotypical tourist persona every once in a while.
On Sunday, as the first official “field trip” for our TC, we went to the Roman Forum. The only thing I can really say is that it was overwhelming – there were so many buildings, temples, monuments, and ruins that we could’ve spent a week there and still not have discussed everything. I managed to pick up some details here and there, but I had to read about it on Wikipedia later to be able to put names with the pictures I’d taken. We’re going back a couple more times to discuss some specific areas for our classes, which is good. I almost wish we could have taken a class this past semester like the Shakespeare at Winedale program does so that we’d be more prepared; I don’t like how 75% of the information we get during tours washes right over us.
Speaking of classes, they’re pretty straightforward. Nightly reading, two five-page papers a week, discussing any two subjects we’ve learned about in class, a twenty-minute oral presentation on the subject of our choice, a midterm, and a final. Not easy, but not tricky. It seems like a lot, but we’re getting six credit hours in four weeks, so I guess we have to do a substantial amount of work. It happens.
Food is expensive. Let me rephrase that: food is crazy expensive. We’ve been to a couple “nice” restaurants so far, and I dropped 10 euros on cheese pizza and water. Cheuk and I stocked up at the local grocery store so we wouldn’t have to eat out every meal, but with the appetites we get from walking around all day, it’s not going as far as we thought it would. We’re currently keeping a list of close-by restaurants that we can squeeze into our budget. They’re all pizza places, though, so I might be sick of pizza by the time I leave (never thought I’d say that). I think we’ve all just accepted that most of the money we’ve budgeted for souvenirs and museums and stuff is going to be diverted into food. My two guilty pleasures, I’ve already decided, are going to be gelato and coffee. The gelato is godlike, and the cappuccinos and espressos are everything I hoped they’d be and more.
That’s about it for now. I’m actually supposed to be researching for our presentation right now, but mine isn’t until the last week, so I’m cutting myself a little bit of slack. Now that we’ve fallen into a daily routine, Internet access won’t be quite as hard to come by as I originally thought. Hope everything’s well in the States. Take it easy, everybody.
Our flat (since we’re in Europe, I refuse to call it an apartment) is nice. Cramped, but nice. We have a gas stove, a sink, a fridge, plates and silverware, basic cooking utensils, so we’re set in that department. The shower’s temperature and water pressure fluctuates a little bit, but it’s nothing we can’t deal with. No AC, though, which has been killer for the past couple nights. It cools off quick enough with the windows open, but as Cheuk and I are quickly learning, Trastevere (our neighborhood) doesn’t sleep. Sunday night we got woken up at about 4 a.m. to Pink Floyd and the Beatles (guess I can’t complain), Monday night to construction and traffic, and last night to our neighbors, also Americans, having a party on the roof terrace, which is right above our apartment. Also, I’ve gone to bed at 11:00 (voluntarily) and gotten up between 7:00 and 8:30 every morning since I’ve been here. When was the last time that happened?
I’m still getting my bearings. I’m relatively, more-or-less sure that I know how to get from our flats to AIRC headquarters, but I’m not confident enough to try it on my own yet. I don’t need another repeat of the first couple days in Spain, when I got lost two days in a row by myself, four hours each day. Our group has wandered around the city a lot (a LOT, my feet are killing me and it’s only day five), so we’ve seen a lot of the major sites already. The window of our classroom provides a textbook view of Trajan’s column and the Victor Emmanuel Monument (which we’ve nicknamed “The Wedding Cake”). Last night, all fifteen of us met up at about 9:00 p.m. and hiked over to the Trevi Fountain. It was just as amazing as it was the first time. We took plenty of pictures, threw coins over our shoulders, etc. It’s fun to fall into the stereotypical tourist persona every once in a while.
On Sunday, as the first official “field trip” for our TC, we went to the Roman Forum. The only thing I can really say is that it was overwhelming – there were so many buildings, temples, monuments, and ruins that we could’ve spent a week there and still not have discussed everything. I managed to pick up some details here and there, but I had to read about it on Wikipedia later to be able to put names with the pictures I’d taken. We’re going back a couple more times to discuss some specific areas for our classes, which is good. I almost wish we could have taken a class this past semester like the Shakespeare at Winedale program does so that we’d be more prepared; I don’t like how 75% of the information we get during tours washes right over us.
Speaking of classes, they’re pretty straightforward. Nightly reading, two five-page papers a week, discussing any two subjects we’ve learned about in class, a twenty-minute oral presentation on the subject of our choice, a midterm, and a final. Not easy, but not tricky. It seems like a lot, but we’re getting six credit hours in four weeks, so I guess we have to do a substantial amount of work. It happens.
Food is expensive. Let me rephrase that: food is crazy expensive. We’ve been to a couple “nice” restaurants so far, and I dropped 10 euros on cheese pizza and water. Cheuk and I stocked up at the local grocery store so we wouldn’t have to eat out every meal, but with the appetites we get from walking around all day, it’s not going as far as we thought it would. We’re currently keeping a list of close-by restaurants that we can squeeze into our budget. They’re all pizza places, though, so I might be sick of pizza by the time I leave (never thought I’d say that). I think we’ve all just accepted that most of the money we’ve budgeted for souvenirs and museums and stuff is going to be diverted into food. My two guilty pleasures, I’ve already decided, are going to be gelato and coffee. The gelato is godlike, and the cappuccinos and espressos are everything I hoped they’d be and more.
That’s about it for now. I’m actually supposed to be researching for our presentation right now, but mine isn’t until the last week, so I’m cutting myself a little bit of slack. Now that we’ve fallen into a daily routine, Internet access won’t be quite as hard to come by as I originally thought. Hope everything’s well in the States. Take it easy, everybody.
So It Begins
I’m gonna be in Rome, Italy for the next four weeks, and even though Internet access here is a bit spotty, I’ll do my best to update this at least a couple times a week to keep everyone in the loop on my adventures. It’s as much for myself as for other people – I’ve long since forgotten the details of my trip to Spain (July 2004) and Il Viaggio (June-July 2005), so I’m making a conscious effort this time around to document the daily goings-on of our group. On the other hand, over the past couple summers, I’ve lived vicariously through several people’s travel blogs; the least I can do is return the favor, or at least pass it on.
I woke up at 6:30 on Friday morning to catch an 8:30 flight to New York City. Breakfast at McDonald’s, slept on the plane, caught a shuttle that took me from LaGuardia to JFK. I got to JFK at 2:00 and my flight didn’t leave till 5:00, but lucky for me, the terminal I was in had wireless access. I killed time sending a few e-mails, Facebooking, and reading Lostpedia, the waiting area filling up around me as I did so. Every once in a while, I looked around, wondering which one of these fellow jetsetters I’d be sitting next to for the next eight hours. I was talking with my friend Brian once, who also nonrevs a lot, and we agreed that the most exciting part about flying is the anticipation of sitting next to a cute girl. Most of the passengers were young, college age, but then again, who else would be flying to Rome in the middle of the summer?
I didn’t get my ticket until everyone else had already boarded the plane. I always have to dress up when I fly in case the only seats open are in business class, which never happens. Not this time, my friends. Not this time. I was in seat 5A, and let me tell you, first class is a cushy way to travel. The seats recline like Lay-Z-Boys. On the seat in front of you, where there’s normally a tray table, there’s a TV screen (a touch screen) where you can select from a wide variety of movies, TV shows, music videos, and games. They serve steak, potatoes, and hot fudge sundaes. They give you a hot towel to wipe your hands with after you’re done eating. The blankets are as thick as comforters. Needless to say, it was a good flight.
Next to me was a girl who appeared to be about my age. We didn’t start chatting until about six hours into the flight because of the aforementioned TV screens and then naptime. We talked over breakfast, though, and kept a patchy conversation going for the rest of the flight. Her name was Annie, she went to Trinity College in Connecticut, and she would be in Rome for the next six weeks. It was nice to meet someone I had so much in common with (both college students, both knowledgeable in pop culture, etc) instead of a businessman or a little kid. Made the last half of the flight go that much quicker.
Anyway, after we landed, I made it through customs and took a seat in the baggage claim area. I got there at about 7:15 a.m., other students were arriving on two flights over the next hour, and then a shuttle would arrive to take us to our apartments at 8:30. Turns out at least one of the flights got delayed – I sat there waiting long enough that I was starting to think I was in the wrong place or had gotten the time wrong, or something like that. The first person I saw was Priya at 8:45 or so. The two of us waited a little longer and finally decided to head outside on the off chance that we had missed people we knew going by. We met up with our driver and an AIRC (American Institute for Roman Culture, the sponsor of our program) representative outside of security. Turns out that one flight had been delayed and two other students had been delayed in the States thus missing their connecting flights, so we were only waiting for one other person, Magown. He came out shortly after and we left.
Quick cast of characters, simply because I’m gonna be using first names instead of full names or pronouns or epithets like “my friend” every time. There are fifteen of us on the trip – Amanda Jones, Amanda Longoria, Andrew Cross, Angela Barrett, Anne Thompson, Ashley Park, Cheuk Ng (my roommate), Dhananjay Jagannathan, Elaine Wang, Harrison Powers, James Magown, Megan Sanders, Priya Hora, Sherry Yao, and myself. I know almost everyone either from classes or from dorm life, so that’s kinda neat.
I woke up at 6:30 on Friday morning to catch an 8:30 flight to New York City. Breakfast at McDonald’s, slept on the plane, caught a shuttle that took me from LaGuardia to JFK. I got to JFK at 2:00 and my flight didn’t leave till 5:00, but lucky for me, the terminal I was in had wireless access. I killed time sending a few e-mails, Facebooking, and reading Lostpedia, the waiting area filling up around me as I did so. Every once in a while, I looked around, wondering which one of these fellow jetsetters I’d be sitting next to for the next eight hours. I was talking with my friend Brian once, who also nonrevs a lot, and we agreed that the most exciting part about flying is the anticipation of sitting next to a cute girl. Most of the passengers were young, college age, but then again, who else would be flying to Rome in the middle of the summer?
I didn’t get my ticket until everyone else had already boarded the plane. I always have to dress up when I fly in case the only seats open are in business class, which never happens. Not this time, my friends. Not this time. I was in seat 5A, and let me tell you, first class is a cushy way to travel. The seats recline like Lay-Z-Boys. On the seat in front of you, where there’s normally a tray table, there’s a TV screen (a touch screen) where you can select from a wide variety of movies, TV shows, music videos, and games. They serve steak, potatoes, and hot fudge sundaes. They give you a hot towel to wipe your hands with after you’re done eating. The blankets are as thick as comforters. Needless to say, it was a good flight.
Next to me was a girl who appeared to be about my age. We didn’t start chatting until about six hours into the flight because of the aforementioned TV screens and then naptime. We talked over breakfast, though, and kept a patchy conversation going for the rest of the flight. Her name was Annie, she went to Trinity College in Connecticut, and she would be in Rome for the next six weeks. It was nice to meet someone I had so much in common with (both college students, both knowledgeable in pop culture, etc) instead of a businessman or a little kid. Made the last half of the flight go that much quicker.
Anyway, after we landed, I made it through customs and took a seat in the baggage claim area. I got there at about 7:15 a.m., other students were arriving on two flights over the next hour, and then a shuttle would arrive to take us to our apartments at 8:30. Turns out at least one of the flights got delayed – I sat there waiting long enough that I was starting to think I was in the wrong place or had gotten the time wrong, or something like that. The first person I saw was Priya at 8:45 or so. The two of us waited a little longer and finally decided to head outside on the off chance that we had missed people we knew going by. We met up with our driver and an AIRC (American Institute for Roman Culture, the sponsor of our program) representative outside of security. Turns out that one flight had been delayed and two other students had been delayed in the States thus missing their connecting flights, so we were only waiting for one other person, Magown. He came out shortly after and we left.
Quick cast of characters, simply because I’m gonna be using first names instead of full names or pronouns or epithets like “my friend” every time. There are fifteen of us on the trip – Amanda Jones, Amanda Longoria, Andrew Cross, Angela Barrett, Anne Thompson, Ashley Park, Cheuk Ng (my roommate), Dhananjay Jagannathan, Elaine Wang, Harrison Powers, James Magown, Megan Sanders, Priya Hora, Sherry Yao, and myself. I know almost everyone either from classes or from dorm life, so that’s kinda neat.
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