day 8: steps and fountain

[note: yes, i fudged the date on this post, but it's neater if it matches the appropriate day]

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good old Foto Express man

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the day's events:
and more copy/paste, laziness prevails =P

today was my first Saturday here. the most daunting aspect of that is that i'm not fed by the amazing Centro cooking staff. i slept in and once i got up waited for enough people to congregate to make a pizza run. it turned out to be me, Alicen, Kerry, and Kimberly. i got what turned out to be spinach, broccoli, and sausage. it was quite delicious but spinach is a very tricky pizza topping.

the four of us then went into the city to the spanish steps and the trevi fountain area. we waited an eternity at the transfer stop at p.za venezia for a little shortbus, the 119, to take us there. in that time we could have easily walked the short distance over, but we didn't know. there were mobs of people at both the steps and the fountain, including some interesting characters. we spent a little time at each and then decided to wander back to the bus station and grab some gelato on the way. we made a detour to the supermarket in the monte verde area, but were keeping an eye on the clock so we would get back to the Centro in time to watch the Lazio calcio (soccer) match. while i was standing in the juice aisle of Sidis, the grocery store, some elderly italian lady started accosting me. i didn't know what she wanted so i just kinda shrugged. then i realized it looked like she was asking for help getting down this large bottle of water. i went over to help her, but that just made her angrier. totally confused, i just walked away. i did manage to get my juice after she went to another aisle though =)

Prof. Walsh has us all hooked. he's a huge Lazio fan and now about a quarter of the Centro is rooting for them. he's really surprised at how we've taken to it, so he's going to organize a trip for us to go to the next home game. however, i think he's getting pretty pissed at me and Alicen, because we seem to bring them nothing but bad luck. we've watched three games, all of which have been draws. the officiating was very unkind to Lazio today. two players got red cards, one legitimately but one on a horrible call. another got a second yellow card in a two-game span, so Lazio will have three players suspended next sunday. and finally a close but probably improper offisides call negated a go-ahead goal late in the second half. it's so much fun to watch the games with Prof. Walsh though, because we get to see a completely different side of him. i admire the fact that he'll watch with us, his students, and scream "goddammit!" and "fuck!" when the calls don't go Lazio's way.

that card to Liverani was complete bullshit. a 1-1 home draw to Cagliari was the result. sigh.

day 7: the climb

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i menzioni d'onore

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the day's events:

friday was a no class day except for the art history field trip. therefore it was very quiet around when i got up. those who were on the trip had already long since departed and most everyone else was still asleep. gradually people turned out. meg, megan, heather and i had lunch in the garden. once the art history group returned we got a group together and went to the vatican to climb to the top of st. peter's. it was 4 euro to get up into the cupola but it was worth every eurocent. the climbing the 500-odd stairs was a trial but incredibly fun, and definitely rewarding once we reached the top. we couldn't stop taking pictures. the views were simply remarkable.

we did have to stop on the way up. Megan was getting a bit claustrophobic as i remember (and i couldn't blame her, i was a little bit that way too). we stopped at a little landing with a tiny grated window, through which i took this photo.

when we climbed back down into the main part of the church it was late afternoon. mass started at the far end of the church at 5pm. we wondered why we were being herded out of the way by security when suddenly a group of 5 cardinals came walking through. we left before we became engrossed in mass since we had to figure out the return bus system and get back in time for dinner. we wandered out of st. peter's looking for a fermata (bus stop). we didn't find any until we were on the road right along the river. we waited and waited and were just about to give up and have to climb the stairs back up the Gianicolo, but just then one came. we rode back to monte verde, made a quick stop at the enoteca (wine shop) and headed to dinner. a large group went out after dinner to the irish pub (some of them have been there 4 times already i think) but several of us have heard that the expense isn't worth it, so stayed in. party in the Centro, and we're not ashamed.

maybe a little ashamed? i'm generally pleased with how things went tho.

day 6: low key

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i don't really remember any of this stuff, i'll be honest:

thursday was a pretty laid back day. no morning class so everyone got up for lunch. i spent some time reading in the garden before italian class.

that was the first and last time i ever read our lovely city course textbook, the infamous BGT

after class was dinner and then everyone decided what to do for the rest of the evening. i left with one of the early groups, spearheaded by Eli, to go to a bar that does karaoke on thursdays. i mean, after all, what's funnier than a bunch of drunk italians trying to sing along to a bunch of probably american songs? it was a great plan, except we couldn't find the place. we wound up taking a nice long walk down v.le quattro venti and then meandered back thru monte verde semi-lost until we found the Centro again. at that point however, the other groups had already left, so we decided to just chill for a while. they all came back eventually and we had a little party in meg and megans room. they got lucky: they have the only room that's not a tiny little cell. so it lends itself to staying up until 3am talking. at that point we got tired and all headed to bed.

anyone else have anything to add to that? i got nothing. tomorrow was more exciting i promise. [ <-- haha that sentence is great from a linguistics perspective ]

i'm done now, i swear.

day 5: boring

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apparently the first Wednesday at the Centro was fairly dull. city course must have been lecture (good considering the weather) and i suppose i had Greek too. the evening was spent like good Laziali, staying home and watching the midweek game.

wednesday was not a particularly exciting day, so no new photos. it was our first day of real classes, and it was pouring rain as well, so no one ventured outside during the day. after dinner some groups went out to bars, and others of us stayed in to cheer Lazio on to a 1-1 tie against Messina.

day 4: the great obelisk hunt

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i menzione d'onore

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the day's events:

through a combination of me being lazy and really burned out right now (in 2007) i am going to merely quote what i wrote a year ago, which tells everything in at least as good detail as i could right now. and it's kinda funny to see how awestruck i was then.

assignment 1 at the Centro: go find a big stone pillar in a city you've never ever been in before. despite how bad it sounds like it could be, it was actually extraordinarily fun. we were divided into groups of three, assigned a place, and told to go and report all we could about the obelisk that's there. i for one didn't really even know that rome had much in the way of obelisks, but apparently it has more than any other city in the world.

my group was assigned the obelisk in Piazza di San Giovanni in Laterano. we had no idea how lucky we were. we got the biggest*, oldest, coolest obelisk in the world, and furthermore it was right next to what i think is the largest basilica on the planet. we had to take the bus, since it was 6km from the Centro. we changed buses at the Piazza Venezia, as our jaws dropped at the immensity of the buildings there, and oh yeah, Trajan's column off to the side. on the 85 bus on the way to P.za di San Giovanni we passed the Flavian Amphitheater, the Forum, the Ludus Magnus and other things that none of us really believed actually existed. welcome to Rome.

we found our obelisk with no trouble and decided to poke our heads inside the basilica. needless to say (i.e. look at the pictures!) we spent almost an hour in the church itself. we also decided to check out the adjoining baptistry, which is the site of the first Roman church and the current building dates to the 14th century. we tried to get in but we thought the door was locked, even though the sign said that the baptistry was open. a beggar woman outside the door started yelling at us as we walked away. we looked back and saw two people leave from the baptistry. it turns out the door, which had an obvious pull handle, pushed in, and the woman was telling us that we were morons. we went inside and saw some wondrous old art, obviously more worn than the stuff from 300 years later in the main basilica. we didn't take pictures in the baptistry, mostly out of reverence. it was not receiving the same tourist attention that the main basilica was. in return for the beggar woman's kindness and our own stupidity, on the way out i gave her 0,50 euro. we finished our work on the obelisk and ate lunch in the plaza outside the main entrance to the basilica.

after some debate on whether the bus made a loop or a two-way line, we got to the proper bus stop. we waited and waited for an 85 bus, but none came. finally an 850 came and we were ready to get on. the driver pulled up, stopped, and apparently because we weren't aggressive enough in boarding, never even opened the door and drove off. we took the next bus, a different route, but it got us back to P.za Venezia and in turn back to the Centro.

upon return we gave presentations on the obelisks, had another fabulous dinner, and then set to work on the advanced greek assignment. that was not fun. we gave up at 12 30 and headed for bed.

day 3: (dis)orientation

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the day's events:

starting with a quote from that old blog: "today was an orientation type day. we got a syllabus rundown of the city course and general rules and regulations. then we took a walk around the Villa Pamphili and the rest of the Monte Verde neighborhood where the Centro is located. whenever one of the professors said 'so do you know where you are now?' my answer to myself was invariably "no i have a terrible sense of direction." the prof in question was Maas, for the record. the one part of the orientation spiel i remember was Franco telling us that we would all gain 10 kilo during the course of the semester and we should prepare for it.

orientation finished before lunch. afternoon was the greek placement test (damn, i forgot that even happened. thank you, old blog, i wish i had kept you better.) as i recall, it destroyed me. i'm pretty sure Sick Nasty (who was at the time not yet Sick Nasty) was the only person who didn't get totally reamed. the evening was occupied mostly by the welcome dinner, in the first floor classroom. that was the first time we ever encountered the Klaassen and Sgariglia children, as i recall. i was also blown away by the food that would become the status quo. damn i miss Pina's cooking.

free wine at that dinner was also a plus.

day 2: arrival

at the great risk of sounding corny, i'd like to preface this by saying that thinking back to this day is a very strange feeling. one year ago i met 40-odd people who certainly changed my life, almost exclusively for the better. all things start somewhere i suppose.

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the day's events:

arrived early morning at Fiumicino with Boss Meg (who i guess already was Boss Meg, but i didn't know to call her that yet). claimed our bags, passed through passport control and the essentially nonexistant customs. so much stuff in Fiumicino (including some advertisements) is in English that culture shock hadn't set in at all. we were able to find the taxi stand pretty well, but had a little trouble communicating where we were going. i had it written on an index card, an address that i now have committed to memory: Via A. Algardi 19. the cab driver and another man at the taxi stand tried to figure it out, they were looking in some sort of directory that looked like a small phone book, and they eventually decided that the place we were going was near the "American School" (which i now understand is the American University of Rome, about 4 blocks from the Centro). on the autostrada, Meg tried to strike up a conversation with the driver, who, truthfully or not, responded that he didn't know English beyond the business he'd already transacted with us. we rode in relative silence into the city, along roads that i could probably recognize now. as we got close to the Centro neighborhood i though it looked like a bad place to live. now i realize that it just looked urban, which is bad in the US but not in Italy.

when we got close to the Centro, Meg spotted it by sight and the taxi stopped just outside the gate. we rang to get in, and Letizia came out and helped us bring our bags in. i think we were the first arrivals that morning, but there were a few people already there. i had heard that the corner rooms were largest so i was excited when i was shown all the way to the end of the hall. too bad i had drawn the wrong corner. i was less than impressed with the size of my room (which was probably about as big as my single the previous semester).

after dropping off my bags i went around trying to meet people. i remember meeting Megan, but no one else stands out particularly. we went up to the terrace and were chatting when Luke came in. he came and joined us after that.

for lunch we went down to the pizzeria on Ottavilla. Megan led a whole group of us...man we were bad at ordering. i think i mumbled something that wasn't quite italian and just pointed. thank goodness we chose the friendliest of the local pizzerie. from there we walked up to the park, sat down in the grass and had lunch. after lunch we wandered the park and i took a bunch of photos. umbrella pines were at that point still a novelty. we took a long walk...i don't think i ever ventured as far into the park as i did that first day (later on i stuck to the shade trees right near the villa proper)

i'm not sure how i spent the afternoon. [update: duh i remember how i spent the afternoon. i watched my first ever Lazio game. i believe i actually semi-misconstrued Walsh as a student because he was sitting in the lobby like he was supposed to be there (and i hadn't seen any other profs all day) and he must have got a haircut recently because he wasn't looking too grey. so, in my complete ignorance, i sat down and watched the calcio. (i did figure out who he was.) Lazio drew with Parma 1-1 (yeah i had to look that up).] i did some unpacking (including a hilarious battle with the cable ties on my luggage. why couldn't the TSA have opened the one suitcase that had scissors in them? i wound up hacking it off with my house key.) i can't remember when exactly Brett arrived, but it wasn't until fairly late in the day.

in the evening there were two groups that decided to go to dinner. long story short, i sided with the wrong one, we couldn't find a restaurant (it was Sunday after all), i stepped in dog shit twice (in my new shoes), and i went back home tired, hungry, and cranky. apparently (i have no recollection of this): "back at the Centro i turned on the late NFL playoff game and dozed off in the second quarter, so i went to bed. i hear carolina won."