7 dayssss....

I can't believe it's the last week of my study abroad experience. The thing I've been looking forward to for the past 3 or 4 years is over? What? The last few weeks have been weird with that thought hanging over all of our heads. We saw some villas and some baths, but it's been clear during our last few field trips that we're nearing the end; No one's really taking notes, and we spent most of last Thursday's field trip frolicking in the fields by our sites.

Race to knowledge? Nope. Just racing.

When we got back from Campania it hit me that we really don't have much time left, and there were things I wanted to do in Rome that I hadn't done yet! One of these things- soccer match! So, on Saturday night me and 4 of my friends went to see a Roma-Napoli game. What an experience. People waving flags and throwing smoke bombs every 5 minutes (which was completely normal), and yelling chants that we mumbled along to because we didn't know the words... It was great. Unfortunately the game was tied 2-2, but that didn't stop fans from continuing their celebrations after the game ended... the bus ride back was quite an experience in itself... 

See all the smoke?

Sunday was quite exciting as well- Dylan came to visit! It was great to hang out with a friend from home, and it made me realize how much I miss everyone else... but also how accustomed I've become to my friends here, and how I've changed here and there during the semester... 

I took Dylan on a 3-hour tour of basically all of the important things in Rome, which I'm sure (or rather, hope) he repeated in detail the next day. On Tuesday, since it was Labor day, we decided to check out what was advertised as 'Free rock concert, 2PM-11PM'. When we got to the location, it was just a stage with giant speakers, blasting pre-recorded american songs while Italian youths drunkenly danced... so we left. We climbed the Aventine, where there is a very cool gate- if you look through the key-hole, you can see St. Peter's dome!

We also took advantage of the day's 1-euro museum entry fees and went to the Palazzo Altemps, where we saw lots of Roman statues... 

Dylan left Wednesday morning, and we went on a fieldtrip to EUR, the facist-designed area of the city. We saw a lot of interesting and slightly shocking Facist art (nazi salutes all around) and ended at the Museo di Civilta' Romana. The museum is filled with models of different statues, monuments, and other things from Roman history, and a giant plastico map of Constantinian Rome. It was like walking through a video montage of our semester, and spending an hour looking at the giant map, being able to identify most buildings on it, made me realize just how much I've learned here. 

The over-all aura of finals and endings has gotten me thinking a lot about going back. Of course, I still have a week in Paris and a week in Dublin before I get back to the States, but the actual ICCS program ends in exactly one week. It's a very bitter-sweet feeling, as these things always are. On the one hand (men), I am very much ready to never ever have a Centro field trip again. On the other hand (de) when I woke up Thursday morning and realized the day before had been my last ever Centro field trips, I felt a little bit empty inside. There are a lot of things I'm excited to go back to in the U.S., like burritos, burgers and toilet seats. But there are more things I'm sad to leave behind- pasta, coffee, the Pantheon... And of course friends. It's funny to look at my first post on this blog, where I wrote about my fear of coming to a strange place where I know nobody- and now I'm leaving a city I know quite well (at least the ancient version!) and some great friends. Now, instead I worry about what it will be like going back. The thought of $1 bills makes me confused, and the idea of understanding what people around me are saying is strange. My friends back at school have spent a semester without me, and naturally friendships and dynamics have changed completely, which will be weird to return to, being totally out of the loop. Also, after spending 3.5 months in the Classics bubble, I worry what I will seem like to my friends, and what I will do when people don't understand my Latin grammar jokes and why Tufa and Opus quadratum are hilarious. 

Wow, this has been quite depressing... I'm gonna get back to finals studying now!

French Week in Italy, Part 2

Here I am at 11 PM again, blogging. I never learn...
Time for the second half of my Campania trip! Where did we leave off? Monday? Monday!
So, Tuesday! We went to Benevento, where we saw a really cool church with a lot of weird angles and arches and such, called the Church of S. Sofia. We also saw an arch of Trajan, but the rain added to the hour or so we spent just standing in front of it kind of took away from the general excitement...
After a rainy lunch we drove on to Sepino for an autoptic. I must say, the two dogs mating while I was trying to figure out how a tomb showed a man's power was quite distracting.
Wednesday! Wednesday was kind of a fail of a day. We said goodbye to the Villa Vergiliana and drove to Pozzuoli. After seeing the macellum (or rather, the kittens by the macellum) we were supposed to go into the amphitheater and see the tunnels underneath, but we weren't allowed inside. After this, we were supposed to go climb a volcano. But there were too many children/tour groups there, and the professors inexplicably decided that this was a good reason not to go, and to rather give us about 5 hours of free time in Naples. If you read the last post, you know I did not really enjoy Naples the first time around. So this made me sad. One good thing Naples does have to offer is the Archeological Museum, which has many wall paintings from Pompeii and interesting sculptures from Rome.
That night we stayed at the Motel Villa Dei Misteri, where the food, unfortunately, could not measure up to the food at the Villa Vergiliana. But really, could anyone?
Thursday was Pompeii day! We spent about 10 hours there, so instead of talking about it, I will just post some pictures.

 Awesome body casts of people suffocating in the ashes

Villa of the Mysteries

 Pompeian street

 Brothel, of course

Amphitheater

Just to explain the blog title- there were SO MANY FRENCH PEOPLE in Pompeii. And everywhere else, for that matter, but Pompeii especially. So much so that the cashiers in the snack bar were speaking french. It was culture week in Italy, meaning everything ancient was free, basically. Free=french, apparently? Anyways, end rant...

Friday morning we all woke up, took Advil for our feet (Pompeii was painful!) and went to Herculaneum. We spent most of the time there doing autoptics on different houses, which was cool. Many of them still had the 2nd story, which was something we hadn't really seen before.

We had lunch at a pasta factory, and then got to go on a tour. The tour itself was cool, but by far the best part was the coat and shower-cap type things they had us put on to go inside. Everyone looked like a lunch lady, in the most unflattering way possible. 

After that fun, albeit random, tour, we visited the Villa in Oplontis, another area affected by Vesuvius. It was fun walking around a mostly intact villa and getting a better idea of what they would have been like in ancient times, wall paintings and all. 

Saturday was pretty laid back, as it was our last day of the trip. We started the morning by seeing the mithraeum and amphitheater at Boscoreale. We finally got to go underneath the amphitheater! Cool stuff.

the secretive under-tunnels of the amphitheater

In the afternoon we went on a tour of a Bourbon palace in Caserta. Since there was really nothing ancient in there, apart from one statue, no one really listened, including the professors. I did make note, however, of how many rooms in that palace had nothing in them but chairs. Who could possibly need that many uncomfortable chairs? Rich people... After the tour we had some time to walk around the giant gardens in the back, so my friend and I strolled around speaking in British accents and pretending we are the rich ladies who live in this palace, our 'early autumn home'. Yeah. We're normal. 

We got back to Rome for dinner that night, and to celebrate Rome's birthday, I went to sleep early. I know, livin' large. 

Well, that's Campania done. At some point I'll write about last week... it wasn't terribly exciting, but (spoiler alert) I did go to a soccer game!

French Week in Italy, part 1

PompHEY GUYS
I spent this last week in Campania, which includes exciting things such as Pompeii, Herculaneum, and a bunch of other towns no one's ever heard of/cares about! The trip started on Saturday, when we visited Terracina. As a city built on a cliff over-looking the ocean, it should've been a beautiful place. Unfortunately, we spent most of it undercover or battling umbrellas in the wind, as it was raining quite hard. It was still pretty, just... in a gray way. After that fun experience, we continued on to Sperlonga, where Tiberius (I think) had a really cool dining room/fish pond inside a huge grotto. With the rain and fog and all, the grotto looked a lot like the horcrux cave from Harry Potter. By the end of the visit, I decided that a grotto will be one of the many features of the Roman villa I build. Just as soon as I become a rich Roman emperor.

This was in the museum. There's also a pope on the side I didn't get...

You can almost see Voldemort if you look closely

That afternoon we had an autoptic in which, as a group, we had to draw a plan of a small town we had never seen before. It was a painful experience. 

That evening, and for the next four nights we stayed at the Villa Vergiliana. It's basically the Centro, but in Campania, run by Franco's sister. While the food was amazing, and there were baby goats in the yard, it was quite an old building, and the bouncy bed and cold showers made the experience not as enjoyable as it could have been...
On Sunday we went to 'the Flesh-Pots of Baiae', an ancient Roman sulfur bath resort thing. It was cool, but by far the most exciting thing we saw was this UPSIDE DOWN TREE. Seriously, how is that even a real thing?

 WOAH

After the biggest lunch I've ever had, we went to the ancient site of Cumae, where we saw, among a bunch of ancient stuff, the place where Franco and his wife Pina would run around when they were 'courting'. Adorable. 

When we got back to the Villa Vergiliana, it was baby goat time! Here's a picture- no words needed.

So fluffy!!!

Monday was an Art History day. We walked around Naples while the art history professor lectured about different churches and such. While it was very interesting, it was also very relaxing- since I'm not in the art history class, I didn't have to take notes, and was able to just enjoy the sites and information without the stress of a quiz or a test. Unfortunately, apart from the old stuff, Naples is pretty icky. We had an unnecessarily long lunch break which was not the most fun.... ah well. Not every Italian city can be awesome. 

Well, that's about half of the trip. Since it's 11 PM and I have not done any work today, I'm going to cut this in half. I'll be back soon with more about Campania, and back less-soon with this week's adventures!

No Pope This Time

First off- that chocolate egg I said would last for weeks? It was gone by Tuesday morning. We're still trying to solve that mystery...
Anyways... this week's been exciting! Monday was a weird day- since the day after Easter is a national holiday in Italy, we had no food served at the Centro. It made the day feel like a weekend, because we were feeding ourselves, yet we had classes... What a hard life.
Tuesday we went to Ostia! As my professor described it, it's 'Just like Pompeii, but without the terrible people!' Now, I personally disagree. I haven't actually been to Pompeii, but from what I've heard and seen, it's pretty damn cool. And 100-500 years older, which pleases the antiquity elitist in me...
But that's not to say Ostia is not a cool place! We got to see a theatre, some houses, flour mills and latrines. And- most exciting- the most ancient synagogue found in the western world! For our Ancient City course, we each have to give a 10 minute presentation on something at one of our field trips, and mine was on the synagogue. Which was amazing. I think the presentation went well- I was told I have a good 'radio-line' voice.

Post-presentation Inbar is happy and in synagogue

Menorah, shofar, lulav and etrog. FROM 2,000 YEARS AGO

While Ostia was quite awesome, after 10 hours there we were all close to crawling on our way out... On the train ride home, we all admired/pointed out each other's lanyard tans (we have to wear our headphone-radio machine things on our necks all day...) Mine is more a burn than a tan... Ouch.

Wednesday was graciously left free of field trips, probably to avoid any riots. When I decided not to wake up for breakfast, I was woken up instead by my friend Quinn clambering (with much difficulty) into my (top bunk) bed yelling, 'you weren't at breakfast!! I missed you! I'm falling!!' The day could only get better from there... But really, I did nothing all day, except go to one class. It was just what I needed after Ostia.

Today we finally went to the Vatican Museums! Since there was an unusual amount of crowds (even for summer, apparently) our visits to certain things took longer than planned, and the professors had to leave before we saw everything we wanted to. Fortunately I planned to stay later, so I got to see the Laocoön statue and the Sistine Chapel, which was pretty underwhelming. I'd imagined it would be much bigger. And less crowded and loud. (the guards 'shhhh'-ing everyone all the time didn't help). In true Centro fashion, of course, we got to go into a whole bunch of closed-off rooms while crowds of tourists stared in curiosity, or, as always, tried to follow us in only to be turned away by guards.

This evening we had a lecture about Campania to prepare for our week-long trip next week. After a short intro to the Naples Museum, we had one of the strangest lectures from our Italian professor/PhD student, Massimo. It involved 100 slides (about 20 of which were covered in the hour we had), google-earth, elaborately illustrated cartoons of people burning alive in Herculaneum, a Discovery Channel volcano-making website, and warnings about how Vesuvius could erupt any moment. Hardly any Pompeiian history, which was what the lecture was about. But we'll learn it all there, I guess? During our 11-hour day on site in Pompeii... 

Parent's Week and the Pope

Since I just realized I'm sitting in my room watching a video titled 'Mini Kittens Pat Things,' which is exactly what it sounds like (Don't judge, I know you're looking it up on youtube right now), I decided I'd at least be pseudo-productive and update my blog! My parents were here last week! Things happened! I saw the Pope! All this and more- right here.
My parents and grandparents got here on Saturday, which was very exciting. On Sunday morning, after they had settled in and all that, we went to the Porta Portese market, which, after all I've heard about it, was pretty disappointing, Mostly just a flea market with normal street-vendor things... ah well. After that, we walked around and made it all the way to Piazza Navona and Campo Dei Fiori. After a much-needed afternoon nap, we headed over to the Victor Emmanuel monument and went up to the top- WOW. I've gotten so used to Rome and seeing all the beautiful monuments that I've almost forgotten how beautiful they all are when put together in this city. From the roof of the monument, though, not only can you see the whole landscape and how it works together- you can't see the crowds. It was amazing.

Hey... I live here!

It was also fun walking around all of the forums, explaining them, and actually knowing what I'm talking about, and being able to show that I've learned stuff this semester!!

Monday, as usual, was uneventful... 

On Tuesday, we had quite an exciting field trip. We started at the Forum of Trajan, which we got to go inside (once again... I'm the only one excited by this, aren't I?). After lunch we went to the Pantheon, and after learning that 'if you measure the distance from one end of the circle... to the other end... so to say, the diametrical distance...' (classics majors aren't good at math!!) we got to go INSIDE THE WALLS OF THE PANTHEON. That's gotta be exciting to someone other than me, right??? 

See the wall. And Professor Bucher walking into it.

The rest of the day was full of other, less exciting, things. You know, the usual 2,000 year old temples and such. I did manage to drop my pencil into a ditch in the temple of Hadrian... that'll confuse future archeologists! Hehe. 

After the field trip I met my family at Trevi fountain and we walked over to the Spanish steps. After 2 months, I finally saw those! (I fail at Rome...). 

On Wednesday we toured the remains of the Baths of Diocletian, which was cool, because they're located within different buildings spread out through the area, like churches and even a planetarium! Then we went to the epigraphical museum, which wasn't too exciting. I found an inscription with hebrew on it, which was nice, and we got to see the inscription that is our final project for latin. Which wasn't nice. 

Thursday was, once again, uneventful. On Friday my parents, sister and I went to Florence! Honestly, Florence in February, despite the unbearable cold, is much nicer than Florence in April. SO MANY PEOPLE. It was interesting to compare walking into the Uffizi in February, buying tickets on the spot and getting in right away, to waiting in the reserved tickets line in April... hmmm. I saw David and Venus again, and got some leather goods. That was the good part of the trip :). 

Sunday was Easter! With his magical powers, Franco managed to have an unlimited number of tickets to the Easter Papal Mass, so I went with my family. We got there a bit late, so we didn't get seats. But I got to kind of see the Pope? 

I'll admit- this is my friend's picture. But I was there!

That evening I said goodbye to my parents, sister and my winter coat and headed back to the Centro. Where a 16 pound chocolate egg was sitting in the living room. Franco and Pina are the greatest. Unfortunately I missed the throwing of it on the floor to open it, but there is still plenty of chocolate... and will be for a few days. 

Finally, the Colosseum!

Sorry, I've been behind my unnaturally good blogging schedule. We have the first draft of our term paper due tomorrow night by dinner, and everyone is very very stressed. So, let me tell you about the last two weeks!
Last week we had yet another day on the Palatine. This is probably the 4th time we've been there. And yet, we still saw things we've never seen. The Palatine hill, right by the Roman Forum, is just a giant mess of ruins that I will have to somehow make sense of before my final... quite intimidating. After wandering around Nero's giant house, spending more time trying to orient ourselves on our maps than actually looking at the ruins, we saw the arch of Titus, which was cool because that's where Israel got the design for the menorah that is now the seal. And then, as promised, we went to the Colosseum! ...which we only saw from outside. There was a mix-up with our tickets and reservations, so we did not actually get to go in. Instead, we had a pointlessly long lunch break, and then visited a museum by Termini, where we saw Pontifex Maximus Augustus. It was a nice 9 hour long field trip to ease us back after Sicily and spring break...

What a great guy, huh?

Wednesday, surprise surprise, we were back at the Forum/Palatine. This time we went into the (special-access!) Temple of Peace, from where we walked to the Forum of Nerva, and then, in a wonderful surprise, they decided to let us into the Forum of Augustus. We saw it a few weeks ago from outside, and it was terribly exciting to actually be inside (especially since we got to see the tourists looking on from where we had been standing last time). Oh, and we also got to go inside the Colosseum! Our professor worked it out so that 13 students were allowed to go in with our ticket, and I responded to the email in time, so I got to go! It definitely lived up to my expectations- amazing, but after 2 months in Rome I've definitely seen more amazing things. If only it wasn't full of tourists all the time. 

Yayyyy

On Thursday night we had a speaker who researches Jews in Rome, and part of her talk mentioned something very close and related to my term project. Apparently I, along with 2 other students, have a meeting with her sometime next week (not by my doing, but hey, I'll take it!) so that will be helpful for life! 

The weekend was very laid back and anti-social. I was collecting my energy for this week, which is the busiest one I've had in Rome yet.
This Tuesday we visited Portus, the ancient port city of Rome. We saw some ruins of warehouses and columns. Not the most interesting day, in my opinion. On Wednesday we had Esquiline day, wherein we walked around the entire Esquiline in the morning, seeing the Baths of Trajan, an arch, a fountain and aqueducts, among other things. And today, Thursday, we went to Isola Sacra, right by Portus, where people used to bury their family members. We had a fun scavenger hunt which involved walking around and into the tombs to find certain things. We do a lot of tomb-invading here... 

Here is tombs

Between all these field trips, I've been going to classes, eating, sleeping and WORKING ON MY PAPER. And trying to keep sane. In light of my attempt to keep my sanity, here is a list of GOOD things:

-My family is coming in 2 days!

-I booked flights to Paris and Dublin!

-I have a great lottery number for housing next year!

-Anna is back from the Pacific and I can post on her facebook without feeling bad about it.

-We had the delicious carrot pasta for dinner this week!

That's it... it's the little things... 

6 Days, 6 People, 6 Languages

Time to write about spring break! Here we go. Barcelona and Brussels!

Let's start with the adventure of arriving at the airport. Forgetting it was Sunday and that the Italian bus system is, well, Italian, we left the Centro at 1:45, 4 hours before our flight. We waited quite a while for the 75 bus, and by the time we reached Termini station the shuttle taking us to the airport had left, meaning we had to wait for the next shuttle, which left us with very little time to check our bags, go through security and get on the plane. But we made it against all odds! Finally, after all that excitement we reached the Barcelona city center. Where we had no idea where to go. We got the help of a friendly old couple who spoke only Spanish, and by the time they finished their argument about where our metro station was, we could have already been on the train and two stops down. It's the thought that counts...

Our hostel was wonderful. It was in a nice safe neighborhood, close to a bunch of stores and restaurants and a metro station. And free breakfast! Anyways, we settled down and went to get dinner down the street. Turns out that every single restaurant in Barcelona is a Tapas restaurant. So we had tapas- the traditional tapas that basically every place has are called Patatas Bravas, basically roasted potatoes with garlic sauce. Yum Yum. 

Monday morning we got up early, some of us (me) with a stomach bug, and headed down to La Rambla, the main street. The market in there is insane. Stands covered with fresh fruit and different juices, and candies, and meats and cheeses and everything ever. 

Mmmmmmmm

We got some lunch and walked around more, and ended up inside a mall on the boardwalk, where we spent some time shopping. We wandered back up another street where we saw a large Gothic cathedral, and after some confusing misunderstandings about cafés in Barcelona (you can't sit outside if you only get drinks?) we sat down for some Sangria and afternoon Tapas. The rest of Monday was uneventful for me, as I spent it sleeping off the stomach bug.

On Tuesday we went to the Sagrada Familia, which is actually insane. It's a church designed by Gaudi and still being built. It's designed to look like a forest, but is also architecturally crazy. Some pictures:

After that we went back to the market for lunch again, and went back to our hostel for a nap. That afternoon we walked around our neighborhood stores and I spent another terribly exciting night sleeping off the bug.

On Wednesday (finally healthy) we had lunch in our neighborhood and then walked around Barcelona looking at the rest of the crazy Gaudi architecture. It is all insane. Also, we went into maybe 5 H&Ms... We had delicious Paella for dinner and went to the boardwalk for some drinks. Thursday was mostly spent in airport travels, which are not our forté... let's leave it at that.

Skipping those fiascos, we reached our hostel in Brussels! Which, conveniently, was across the street from the Grand Place, the center of Brussels. We decided the most important thing to do straight away was get some french fries. When in Brussels...

Can you see them under all the mayonnaise?

We wandered a bit and walked into a chocolate shop. And now,the story of the amazing chocolate shop French man. Since it was late evening and we were the only ones in the store, the (beautiful) guy working there offered us some free samples and was asking us where we're from. The he turned to my friend Quinn, and in true European political correctness style said 'You are a little bit Chinese, no?" After explaining Quinn's ethnicity he told us about how he left France for Belgium because 'it's like France but without French people.' Then, after Quinn asked him what his favorite food item in the store was, he went on a strange little violent rant about some almond biscuits, which went something like 'there are almonds inside, and you bite into one, and it makes you want to get your weapon, AND GO TO THE COMPANY AND... hehe, yeah.' (Quinn went back in and bought the biscuits.)

Anyways... Friday morning we got breakfast and embarked on our search for the Manneken Pis. Which we only found because I stopped at a nearby waffle stand... So here that is.

In his Irish army uniform for St. Patrick's Day

We spent the rest of the day walking in and out of chocolate shops. That's really all we did all day. At one point we took a nap... we got beer... chocolate... fries... That's all. 

For dinner we had the obligatory moules-frites, mussels and fries, and after a drink to celebrate Mariah's 21st birthday we headed to bed. 

On Saturday we got up, had more waffles, and spent about an hour sitting on benches, wondering what to do. Brussels is quite boring. We ended up finding a Starbucks-type restaurant except with more food, where we could sit for 3 hours with our suitcases and not get kicked out. After another beer (to celebrate Belgium and St. Patrick's day) we left for our final airport adventure! Which, after much traveling, ended us up at the Centro. So lovely to be back...