Week 5 - The Last Week.

Wow this last week breezed by fast. Amazing end to a wonderful travel. More than anything I want to thank my parents and people on the trip that made it an amazing trip.


Day 29 - Monday: The start of the end
Monday was an long day. We started off with jeff leading us on the pilgrimage walk to the vatican. Though it is a little different now, it still was an impressive look on how to get to the vatican and how impressive st. peters looks from the walk there. Entering into st. peters square and the actual church, it was crazy awesome amazing. crazy awesome images, and views of the artwork that ties it all together.

Nick G., Nick C., Emma, Marcus, and myself headed to the copula and were blown away by the crazy not square, square looks from the top. After a quick lunch between the copula travel and checking out the necropolis. The necropolis is the crypt under st. peters, that originally was built in ancient times. later it was modified by hadrien so that he could build st. peters. Also it was discovered that st. peters was buried there. I returned to work on my project for a bit. before heading out to have dinner I hung out and worked on my project till really late. I enjoyed it, mainly becuase I was closer to being done, and never seeing some people again. Though I complain allot about my group, this is a very small problem for the travels. The focus seems to be on it, but actually that is just because I am venting. Headed right to sleep when I jumped into bed.

Day 30 - Tuesday: Panorama Additions
Waking up was interesting. Though I did not get that much sleep, I was up and awake. We walked to Victor Emmanuelle monument. It was very impressively gaudy, but gave us some nice views of the city. This building of unity that the monument was suppose to do is something that we see all around us in companies trying to build brand unity. I am right now in london, and watching the mtv like channel, which is reminding me of the whole advertising thing. After walking down, we headed along the street modified by Mussolini for Genesis's presentation on fascism. Lots of people wore black shirts for it. ha ha. We returned to do some cleaning and packing before working on projects. I dont remember what I had for lunch. it could have been some left overs from the dinner that I made last night, but I could also had some pizza. Today while taking breaks, I would make more panoramas from st. peters, st. pauls and random other shots from the last year. I stayed up late again to finish the rest of the presentations. Hanging out with luke is interesting, he is a very interesting character that I wish I knew better. I also spent a large amount of time looking though youtube for background music for the presentation. Though originally I thought the music in the background was not going to work, The music that catharine picked out worked decently well, but I still would have gone with Tycho - Past is Prologue.



Day 31 - Wednesday: Presentation Time and Night Clubs
Oh fuck presentations. Everyone in the morning was pretty stressed out. Again even though I headed to sleep late, I found it interesting that again I was awake like the cocaine known as cafe, without it. I finished the rest of my islam paper while watching the other islam presentations. After class I grabbed some lunch at the forno, and helped every one exchange music with isynctunes, before heading out to group project it. This is one of the first group project times that went well enough to be called decent. Listening to the chill music probably helped, and at times people were nice to me. ha, what an interesting life we lead. continuing on we gave our presentation second, which went very well, and I enjoyed it mainly because kathie liked the overall theme that I choose for it. My one red image, I dont think was as bold that I though it would be. Good enough though. Now I need to add some citations as well as re read my papers for islam and migrations.

After the presentations we packed and cleaned the apartment. It looked pretty amazing after all the cleaning. We headed out to see the dark knight, but it was sold out, so we headed back and started drinks. Sydney was chilling with us, which was pretty cool since it reminded me starting college. She is pretty cool, but shy. Most of us headed out to have dinner at monty carlo and then gelato at theato. amazing. I bought into Nick's mix drink, and it was decently good. I still am not drinking that much, but I get a decent buzz going and enjoyed the night. However I sobered up too quickly since we headed out to the night club. I am an awkward dancer. Meh. We were heading out to a different night club, but I bounced at 2am since we were lost like marcus said we would. meh. overall an amazing night of discotechaing, drinks, and fun.


Day 32 - Thursday: The Last Day
Today was our last day. and we all were amazingly happy since all the presentations were done except for Luke. We awoke to Luke's music. I must have slept through my alarm, meh. showered had a small bite of cereal with Andy's milk since mine was gone. We started the day off looking at the barberini gallery and seeing the art-history research that lisa was doing and a whole bunch of amazing ceiling paintings and wall paintings. Pretty amazing palace and artwork. Afterwards, we checked out this swank staircase that we got a group picture on. Following a short walk we listened to Luke lecture on water, the aqueducts and the infamous trevi fountain. Great lecture, and photos, another panorama to continue the tradition of the week. Lisa treated us some gelato at san crispinos, which was amazingly nice. Too bad that I did not learn of this place prior to today. I guess I should have known about it since on the ryan air flight to London, the Magazine had a little article written up about this place and how it has amazing gelato. We headed back, Luke and I had lunch at the mini forno. We dropped off our keys for our deposits, and then I headed out to shop with marcus, Megan, and Andy. Ended up with some shirts and jerseys and some david boxers. rofl.

After a pretty productive walk of searching for stuff we headed back and chilled. I finished packing. I showered up and got ready for the group dinner. I wore Andy's shirt since I did not bring any really fancy shirts. It was pretty swank with the Florence tie. I wish I brought/bought some hair product since my hair was crazy. Dinner was amazing. I sat with a table filled with girls, but the cooler girls which was very nice. It was pretty chill to talk to Lisa and learn about her work and the sort. The food was amazing, but smaller portions than I would have liked, but by the dessert I was a happy camper. Group pictures, and good byes. However the night with the professors ended here on a bad note. Some italian dropped some fruit from an apartment window near to the square where we were eating, and it hit Lisa. Crazy ending note. She was shaken but ok. Some of us headed home and ended up getting drinks before hanging out at Megan's Apartment. It was quite a fun ending to the evening since we played games, and talked about the craziness of the trip. Amazing. Heading back, I showered, and waited around talking with people since I did not want to go and disturb Andy. I ended up disturbing them for a second getting my bags to head over to Genesis's apartment. The taxi stand was closer to her apartment so I was going to sleep on the couch. I sorted some images before playing boggle with the girls. Katie, Lauren, Nina, and Genesis, are an amazing bunch, and awesomely fun to hang out. (damn remember me trying new adjectives. well failure[This lack of vocab also caused a failure of boggle]) I am not sure how boggle started at this apartment, but hilarity! I fell asleep for an hour.

Day 33 - Friday: I am hot cuz I am FLY.
I am not sure why, I always seem to offer to help people move. Most of the time, it is ignored and people still find me a jerk. but here is for trying. I helped katie move her bags before falling asleep again for another 30 min. I trooped down with genesis to get to the airport. It was pretty swank and decent ride there. However at the airport, it was all about the hurry up to wait. My line for ryan air did not open till two hours before the flight so i had to wait an hour. I was second in line, but when they switched the staff from a different line to ours, I jumped up and was first since they opened up three lanes. swell. then security. It was pretty simple, but I had to scan my bags twice since they wanted me to take out my laptop. I did not mind since they were actually nice about getting me to do it. I continued along, but found out that this long line of people that I was passing I needed to be in since it was passport control. fuck. ok wait another 30min for passport control. then I was at the gate. wait no, I was at the gate for the bus to the airplane. ok wait for bus, and then fly. Overall not too bad since I had music and lots of people to watch, but tiring. Actually while waiting for the bus I saw Genesis. boarding her flight.

At london, I proceeded to wait again for passport control, and then getting my bags. However the bus to heathrow was simple. long kinda warm, but nice to see the country side and stuff. At heathrow I tried to check in. However BA only allows internet checkins. mehr! so I bought some internet to do so and let the parents know that I was ok. So I checked in, and tried to drop off my big bag, but they would not let me until tomorrow.

I headed to the hotel because of the changed flight. The hotel was amazing. Like the hotel in Florence, it was nice to be in a hotel after living in a dorm like apartment. Dont get me wrong, it was pretty pimp getting to know everyone, but at times it is nice to be alone. The shower was amazing after being in airports for the day. I headed out to grab some McDonalds for dinner. I passed it on the bus to the hotel. Though it was no Tuscan food, I was something that I have been missing all year and it was good. damn good. I watched the BBC news and TheHITS(like mtv) and headed to sleep early. amazingly good ending to the trip.



Day 33 - Saturday: I am so FLY.
I had lots of fluids and some breakfast before heading out to the airport. It was really good. I made some coffee, tea, hot coco and OJ. damn i needed to use the bathroom at the airport. I took the closer bus to terminal 5. Terminal 5 was crazy impressive new. I really liked the express train that was free to terminal 1,2,3(central heathrow). I then took the connect back to terminal 4. I checked my bags, checked out all the shops and got a sandwich for lunch. My gate was finally posted an hour before, and then they called for boarding 30minutes before. I walked quickly to get there since the gate was far from the central airport. While waiting, I talked to a consultant for microsoft. He was pretty interesting. My seat was great, nice quiet people sitting around me, no babies, lots of decent food, and drinks. I ended up with two gin and tonics, and a rum and coke. Listened to lots of music that I learned about last night on theHITS. Heart Estelle - American Boy. I also watched Batman Begins since I was going to watch it in Seattle. great movie. But Airplanes are missing those pixels that I love so much.

Seattle was cold, and cloudy. wtf. where did the summer go? Passport control, Customs, and getting my bag was decently easy. Tram to the main terminal, and then car to seattle. Though I wanted to better adjectives, Best trip so far in my life. Great ending back in London. Got me thinking and concluding a little bit about life, women, and school. Parents you are amazing for helping me with everything and supporting me. I am going to be in Seattle for a few days, then it is island hopping before the start of being a graduate student. I cannot think of a better prologue to being a graduate student. I feel bad that I am bouncing after befriending all of these chill people, but as so is life. For anyone interested enough in my life to be reading this, there is an open invitation to come kick it with me in San Diego.




ps. 6,647 Total pictures enumerated on Powershot. ROFL, I am so paparazzi.

Day XX - London

I am in London.

See ya in the states soonly.

Day 28 - Lazy Sunday

"Lazy Sunday, wake up in the late afternoon. "

After chatting, blogging, and watching some starcraft last night, I watched the SC2 trailer before passing out quickly on my clean sheets. I slept in today. it was crazy beautiful. (I am trying to try some new adjectives, but they seem to be failing)

Cereal for breakfast. I wanna have some eggs for breakfast at some point but it has been nice to get my milk in because it is really tasty here. Headed to the Rome Center. Forgot my headphones which lead to some more walking before chatting, and not doing the work that I was hoping to get done. ok. fine, here we go. no. ok fine fuck it. I dont want to deal with it any more. The apartment gets fixed, for the travels, there is always next time. but the project is just a mountian that needs to be moved. I wonder if i could find the magical island mover in LOST to deal with these people so that I don't.

Random interjection in the middle of this stream of consciousness. Talking to the drunkenness is pretty interesting. Mainly the ability to see this other side of people. This stems through the chats from yesterday and with Andrew a few nights ago.

Day 27 - Saturday Shopping and Slacking

Actually writing about the day that happened. Weird

After an amazing sleep, in the clean sheets, with the Air Conditioned room. Wonderful! I showered after Luke was done in the bathroom. We headed down a bit early and I had my pick of breakfast. I filled up with a cornetto(sp), two cafes, a cheese and ham panini, cereal, yogurt, and orange juice. It was a good start to the day. I waited around for Luke to get back so that I could finish packing up and then rolling outside. I went into the church across from the hotel to check out the interesting artwork and altar before class started. We all met up and then headed to the Palazzo Vecchio to see the fake david and talk about the political uses of the palace. We continued along and saw the Basilica di Santa Croce. It was pretty amazing to see all the tombs and artwork.

After checking out the basilica, half of us headed to get some gelato at Lisa's second gelato place. I liked the first perchè no!... better than the second place which I never got the name of. meh. Gelato was pretty good non the less. Walked back to the standard shopping area to get a wallet and possibly another tie if i liked them. I looked around for a bit before heading to the central market to do the vinegar and oil tasting. It was amazingly good and I dropped some cash getting stuff there. Afterwards I headed out to look at more stores and get some food. I met up with some others before heading out and grabbing some more gelato and food. I had a mozzarella and tomato sandwich for lunch which hit the spot. Time was running out so I rolled back to the hotel to grab my stuff. I did so and then headed out to the train station with the others. It was pretty nice day over all. Very relaxed and the happiness continued from yesterday.

We rolled out on the 3:30 train back. I mainly just pumped the music and dozed while intermittently waking up to photos, passing trains, or to look out the window. It was a pretty quick ride. At Termini, I bought anouther bus ticket because of my gut. I rolled out and jumped on the 40 back with some other students. I watched the world roll by and thought about things. I think the main thing that I thought about was the immature interaction of people. The role of dealing with conflict through not talking to the other person and how I hate that so much. Post bus surfing and thinking, I jumped off the bus to grab some food at despar. Back at the apt, Did my laundry, showered, I made some food, and talked to the parents. I made some gnocchi with cheese and a red sauce. It was ok, the sauce was not as good as I expected. My flight plans keep changing and it is getting worrying for me. I did allot of uploading and updating for the evening. I rolled out for a bit, but mainly just updated thing and kept it an easy night.

ps new pictures on picasa.

Day 26 - A Friday Spent in Firenze

Today we started early heading out to Firenze(Florence). Small Cereal breakfast and shower and finishing up packing before heading out to the bus. The tobacco shop that sells the tickets was not open so we headed out without tickets. yey for free bus ride. bad us, but meh.

At the train station we met up with the girls and professors. Train was ontime and quickly we were off. I sat with Luke and Lauren and Nick and some Italian women. Everyone passed out after doing the reading. I worked a little on my personal project before the end of the train ride. The Italian woman fell asleep as well, so i sketched a picture of her as well.

In Florence, it felt like a larger more touristy version of cortona. Don't get me wrong, I liked the place, and the shopping and architecture. We first walked to the hotel to drop off our stuff. It was an amazing hotel to be in. We got maps and dropped off our bags before meeting up before heading out to talk about the gates of paradise and churches. The domo was amazing as were the churches. I wished people wanted to head up to the cupola, but the gelato was amazing. I tagged along with Nick and Emma for the gelato and lunch of a roasted pork and truffle sauce sandwich. It was amazing. We then headed to the academia, for our appointment with David. It was one of the most amazing sculptures along with the Bernini Sculptures that I have seen so far in life. After the sculptures we headed back to the hotel and Luke and I took the double apt. I am so happy that I did so. After moving our stuff, We rolled out and did some shopping with Lisa. It was nice to see all the purses, but I did not see anything that I think people would like so I abstained. I did end up with a Tie and tee-shirt. After all the shopping, I walked back and had an amazing shower. I felt so clean and happy. There was allot of water pressure, as well as seeming to be cleaner water. Then walked into the ACed room, I was in heaven. I put on khakis and a polo. Andy had an hilarious idea to put on ties with the shirts, so I did and then headed out with the rest of the guys. I found it interesting that besides me, Luke and Marcus most of the guys could not tie a tie. weird. meh, so I helped out the other guys before dinner at Za Za's. OMG IT WAS AMAZING. we had a price limit, but omg the good so was worth it. I liked ever bit. it blew me away. I had some ravioli with creamy truffle sauce for my first course, and then a sausage and potato plate for my second, and then a chocolate tart with Za Za cream sauce. OMG food-gasm. Beyond amazing. After dinner we walked around the city before another amazing shower, and the sleep in the air conditioned amazing room. overall, awesome. If Cortona had this hotel and if the hotel was cheap I would be in heaven.

Day 25 - A Thursday.

I probably should have written this day prior to leaving to Frienze, but lets see what I can remember.

Woke up. Cereal and yogurt for breakfast. Shower was nice. We did alot of walking to check out some churches and a meridian line. Along the way to the churches we checked out another obelisk from Augusts. We continued along to see two churches from Bernini(San Andrea del Quirianle) and Borromini(San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane) which were pretty amazing. the ovalness of the churches was much different than the normal basilica style churches that I am use to seeing around. I really liked them, but mainly because it so different and much more feeling of connectedness.

We then walked towards Termini and saw Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri. A meridian line was built into the church which was very interesting to see. We then had lunch and eat at a nice Chinese place that Lisa recommended. It was a bit pricer but still very good. A few of us, walked back and worked on our projects before dinner. The project group sphere is the the first of my three complaints of the program. The second is the living arrangements, since the stuff keep breaking, not because of the people. The guy's apt is amazing, I have been enjoying hanging out with all of them. Actually mostly everyone is really awesome to hang out with here in Rome. There are the few bad apples, but that is the group project sphere issue so I am going to leave it at that. Finally the third issue is this whole issue with traveling with people post Rome. I am probably making the right choice in going home, but who knows what will happen in my future to know.

After working on the project for a bit, I was told that I had to go out and interview people. So I looked, but there was a large police presence, so I talked to some artists and then headed back to the apt. Read some news, and cleaned up and got some food for the large group dinner that we threw at the guy's apt. Luke made a polenta and chicken and salad dinner. It was amazing. The Oregon Girls joined us which was interesting to talk to and see their side of the world. Emma and Megan made some pretty amazing brownies. They were very chocolaty and fluffy and amazing. We had some drinks before starcraft and then heading to sleep for the long day tomorrow.

Day 24 - These numbers are getting too big.

This is Wednesday. I am way late like a high schooler turning in a paper.

In any case, I have been crazy busy doing things and dealing with things. So Woke up mad early with some yogurt and shower and hanging out with Luke before heading out to the RC to deal with the presentation. I am pretty happy to get the presentation over, but before I woke up I was dreaming about the presentation and how I was thinking that this presentation was not going to be what the professor wanted.

The presentation was ok. I found a laser pointer, but nobody used it for the parts that were needed. OH MY why? One of the group members, added a photo to the presentation which was anonymous, but stated it done by somebody else. WTF dealing with this problem is getting annoying.

So after the presentation and review of the presentation, most rolled back to the apartment to chill. I find it really funny that some of the other people are playing starcraft. rofl. Most of us rolled out for the gardens at the same time. We ended up rolling out with others and bussed out to the gardens with the professors. Andy gave a nice presentation about some amazing pieces from Bernini. The artwork was amazing, with the motion, and lifelike and told an amazing story.

We rolled back on the short bus as well. Short buses are fucking hilarious. Along the way home Lisa was waiting for us at at a stop and then told at us to get off the bus to see a bone church. That was pretty crazy since she jumped on the bus and left us there. The bone church was interesting, but we were still very confused. Some then bused back, I and others walked. I had some gelato and cafe before the lecture that evening. Lecture was ok and raised some interesting points.

After lecture we headed out to this small pizza joint which was nice. "Nearly all of us dined at an excellent pizzeria called Monte Carlo Pizza, which seems to be a fairly well-known establishment in Rome. We invaded the better part of an interior dining room and enjoyed an excellent, relatively inexpensive meal."Dinner was great and nice to hang out with some people. Others were not dealing with the evening so well, but whatever. We headed back and had an invisible strawberry before heading home and hanging out. It was a nice evening hanging out with the guys and Lauren's apt people. Andrew was hilarious by the end of the night.

Day 23 - Living this world

I am not sure how this whole life is going. But I am doing ok at the moment. THat is ok, I guess that is how live goes, minute by minute, finding out who we are.

Meh. So today was an interesting day. I awoke a bit early since I was dealing with the whole lack of showers things, I rolled out to get some cafe and cornette and then joined the people to head out to the Art history presentations today. Dan gave a interesting presentation on the Jesuit order which reminded me of the walk to the gardens since there were allot of simiar churches around the walk to the gardens. The art was pretty amazing and different than anything else that I have seen in a long time. The fake dome was pretty swank, and amazing that they did that since for half the church it looked not normal.

Nina's presentation on the obelisks were nice to actually learn about since I have seen then all over the place. There are 13 major obelisks around rome, and I think I have seen allot of them. My Background on my computer has been the obelisk in Piazza navona, which has been nice since it is a pretty nice area to see.

After class, we headed to a nice lunch place wiht 3.5E pizza sandwiches that Lisa recommended, which was mad good. In any case, we headed back to home to finish the sandwiches and chill before class. Class was pretty interesting. I was going to hang out and take a nap, but "awesome" people wanted me to deal with the fact that their picture that they overruled me on was not going to work. ha. "Amazing people". So I dealt with the "people" and switching up the project focus they day before the project. So after worring my ass off about the project since it lacked any focus, I watched Lisa's Presentation which was pretty interesting and involing, I headed back to the guy's apt, since Emma was making the AMAZING chicken sandwiches. it was quite a nice dinner before having to deal with "people" again. I headed back to the rome center to be yelled at since people dont deal with stress well. I was wrong about suggesting the whole course/food theme for the presentation, but whatever. I finsihed my part pretty early but freaked out since every one bounced before actually going over the presentation. I am pretty sure that the presentation did not go well. so "meh". I headed home and fell asleep pretty late.

Meh.

PS. Pictures after the end of the week. Since florence is going to pile up the pictures.

MidMorning worring

O-Me-O-My. Why does life seem to rush up and ambush you all at once. This week is starting to be unbearable. I just want to hide out and find some great food. Parents you are great, but sometimes worry me more than needed. More than ever: "I went to NY, it was crowded". and dealing with "Things" is never fun. Fine Bedtime i guess.

Day 22 - Class and gardens.

Today is still going, but I am thinking that I should keep it written down before I forget about it like my "Lazy Sunday". After the marathon of classes in the morning, I decided to walk alone to the gardens. It was very nice. the walk there was around an hour, but it was very windy and very nice temperature wise. I followed the shopping street(via del courso[sp]) and got some silk ties. they were pretty nice, and only a few euro. I continued up to this crazy piazza, and then walked up the hill to the gardens. it was a nice view over the city, and now I wished I headed up to the copula of the Vatican. I guess I will hit it up at some point. I walked around the gardens for two hours and did not even get half way through it. There was this amazing pond and statue thing up there, with ducks and geese(sp) gooses(sp), err whatever. In any case, I had a nice little lunch near the pond, of pizza and some coke. I walked back in a very meandering way. I saw the Spanish steps and then some gelato on the way back. All in all nice lunch. After getting back, I checked some email and then headed to sleep for an hour before the movie. Downloaded my pictures and then headed to the required movie night. I have typed the above while listening to the super hyper people waiting for the movie and light dinner. fun fun fun. I am not sure if it because everyone took a nap, or the cafe that I had before hand, or the gelato. Honestly I would put money on the nap since everyone is awake like not dead people...

I am not sure what I am going to be up to tonight, but probably something not so fun. we will see. I also talked to NinjaCharlie. He seems to be reading this blog, Good times. Hello, Hello!

ps. Ciao for everyone else who is reading this blog.


So after heading to the wonderfully long movie, we headed back. I then headed to the rome center to write up my project that eneded up being rejected since my group has interesting "Dynamics." People who I have been chatting with, will know what I am talking about which might be change my whole travel experience more than anything. We will see how this goes after the rome. After that I walked some people home, and the headed to sleep.

Day 21 - Lazy Sunday.

Chilled allot. Had some good food that I made. umm it rained for a few minutes. umm did some work. umm walked around and explored around the river. not very memorable. umm meh.

Picasa died, but I am uploading the photos now.

EDIT: umm. I wish the iphoto upload plugin, would allow me to comment on photos. meh.

Day 20 - Vatican and More amazing food.

There are three things that I will remember from this trip:

1. Heavenly Food
2. Amazing Architecture and Art
3. Intelligent and Interesting collection of People.

Today we woke to jump on the bus to the migrant Market. This market was filled with foreign foods and people. We walked around allot to check out and learn about the people and get some good food. We bussed back for a quick lunch before heading out to the vatican. The Vatican was amazing. We started with the painting collection which blew me away, lots of amazing renaissance art. then we passed outside to get to the sculpture gallery. The muscular carvings of the masters was so bold, and emotion filled.

The hall of maps and and tapestries was long. ( we breezed through it, but the ceilings were nice.) Walking though Raphael's rooms. I enjoyed the School of Athens so much, and actually off of his frescos since they envoked so many emotions and looked so amazing up close and in real life.


Afterwards I was again blown away by the Sistine Chapel. For me, it defiantly lived up to all of the hype of the artwork from hearing about it for a while now. After looking at it for a while we then headed back. I wanted to head to the top, but Nick ended up bouncing so meh. I guess it will be a personal pilgrimage sometime this coming week.

Nick, Dan, Megan, and myself walked back. I bought a cheap pair of sunglasses to replace my broken pair. I guess I will have to start putting in my contacts. Heading back, I chilled, got more photos up, and did some reading before heading out to Lauren's for a group dinner. IT WAS AMAZING. She cooked up some southern food, which blew me away. Fried chicken, mashed potatoes, peas, tomatoes, and Mac and Cheese. So good. and then to top of the wonderful dinner, she made a peach cobbler. omg heart. I had seconds and it was amazing. I for sure am gaining weight, but it is worth it. After dinner some left, but others chilled and played some crazy games. The first from Marcus was an intelligent game. After setting teams, your goal was to get your team of four onto the couch. The individual with an open spot to the right of the person would call a randomized name. the person who was holding the paper with the name would move to the open spot and then switch tags with the person. It took us a long time because of the amazing dinner and long day. Afterwards people played a korean game of mimicking. To a rhythm, you would say a number and hold up a number of fingers different than the number you were holding up. and then the next person in the circle would then say the number that you were holding up and then hold up a different number. if you said the wrong number or the same number as you held up, everyone else would instant replay the mistake and then point to you and say "Dummy!" "Dummy!". it was pretty fun to watch this one since I failed allot at it. Heading back I fell asleep.

Day 19 - Orvieto

Today was filled with Hill hopping and the finding of fantastical foods.

We started the day off early heading out to the portone at 8:00am. Cereal and some bread and cheese for breakfast. I rolled with notes, water bottle, and iPod for the train. The guys met up and ended up rolling with Lisa, Resat and Kathie to the train. The bus ride was pretty fun but it was kinda packed. We met up with the rest of the group at Termini and then jumped the regional to orvieto. The car that we took was pretty nice and ACed. Most everyone and me included headed to sleep. I enjoyed my Music and Sleeping, but people and the rolling of other trains past ours woke me up from time to time. Arriving we jumped on a gondola up the hill and then a bus to the cathedral. It has to be one of the most interesting and different churches that I have seen in along time. Crazy amazing artwork. Beautiful architecture and wonderful weather.

After the cathedral, I rolled with some others to check out the stores and then had lunch. scrumptious rabbit and pasta for the main course. Then Lauren and I split up the Tiramisu. It was the best Tiramisu that I have ever had. OMG AMAZING. I wanted to get another just for my "Fat kid" self. After we finished lunch we learned about doing some wierd things with our hands from Marcus. Hilariousness ensued. After lunch we walked down to the lower part of the hill to see the city, and also the "crazy shit" as i called it. We checked out the view and got some group photos, before heading to check out the well. The well ended up being quite lame, so we just jumped back on the gondola and waited for the professors before training back to Rome. That evening, Luke make some AMAZING gnocchi that I had some of, as well as some cheese and other food but nothing as amazing as lunch or the gnocchi. Got said food at despar after the bus back from Termini. After this I posted some pictures and researched a bit about my II project. I watching people play some starcraft, before heading out with Jeff, Cindy, Genesis, and Kevin, to get photos for the MM project. After a while, and three interviews, we headed back, and I watched people play a game to late into the evening. It was pretty amazing to see the other side of the coin after these past few weeks. Lots of interesting pictures that wont be posted of the latter part of this evening, but more importantly thoughts that cannot be expressed on this blog. Headed to sleep late.

Day 18 - Chilling with the Emoticons

I guess I am finally dealing with issues that have been in my life for a while now. I was hoping that this would not happen till after the program.

Nice.

Well, today was pretty nice. Cereal for breakfast, wonderfully cold shower, and some reading. MM class was really awe inspiring. There was a guest lecturer that so much impressive knowledge and incite into Islam, and migration. After class, I got another sandwich and then did some uploading and updating of the blog. I napped for an hour or so. I was originally going for 30min, but snoozed past my alarm, and woke up right around class and made it on time. We headed out to learn about the Jewish Ghetto and the Piazza del Campidoglio. Pretty amazing presentations today, which is nice. After heading back, I chilled for a bit before heading out with Nick to get some dinner at Jenny's place. Their fridge went out so we ate up the food, we had some interesting pasta and good ice cream. Chatted it up for a bit with Catharine, Katie, Miriam and Lexi, before heading out to the required movie about migrants and their music and other stuff. The movie was pretty funky, but interesting. After Getting back I finished up the rest of the picture uploading while watching the others play some starcraft. Bed time before a long day tomorrow.

Day 17 - Peaceful in the Head

Today was a pretty chill day. I awoke early to finish the reading as well as shower, and get some breakfast. I had gotten milk yesterday and new italian shampoo, so I had some cereal after my italian shower. I finished up my reading before heading out to class which was early at 9am. II was pretty interesting, and quite an interesting look at islam and the whole clash of civilization idea. After class I had some lunch which was a sandwich at the mini-forno. it was very very very tasty. It was a tomato-mozzarella sandwich. After lunch, I chilled for a bit reading the news. I headed out, to take pictures for the MM class, and to go exploring around the area. It was really hot, but very chill just being able to walk around the area without dealing with lots of people.

I headed back and washed off before heading out to the AH class. We toured around to check out the different street shrines, and then bussed out to check out santa Prassede. It was really amazing to see all the early christian artwork. We bussed back to see Resat's presentation about islam. It was very interesting. Afterwards I headed out with Catharine to explore and grab some dinner. We found this very Italian looking place, but found out that it was actually german/italian. The food we had was italian, but the menu was also in german. and the waitress looked german. My group for the MM class, might head back there at some point to get an interview about migration and work. We explored some more looking for some desert, but ended up only weird restaurants, a concert, and Magnolia's fake tiramisu. All in all a very fun evening of exploration.

Day 16 - A decent Post

The honors program requests us to make an actual blog post for the "Daily diary". So today's post is going to be there:

Daily Diary


Mirror:


Alexander Mendez
July 8th, 2008

Today, I started the day off with a nice bit of fruit bought fresh from the Campo di Fiori, a macchiato from Magnolia, and bread from the Forno. We started the cloudy day off meeting at the portone at 9am, to head off to the bus to the Catacombe di Priscilla. Taking the bus in Rome is always an interesting experience filled with interesting driving, vibrant smells, and the rush to get tickets validated.

After a small stroll from the bus stop, we arrived to the Catacombe di Priscilla. Due to the limited space in Roman times, it was located in a quarry far from the center of Rome. Andrew presented the background and history of the catacombs. The Catacombs of Priscilla were used for Christian burials from the second to the fifth century. The impressive 13km (8mi) of caverns were tunneled into a soft stone that hardened when it contacted of air, allowing for simple but tough construction. Along the walls of the tunnels were upwards of 40,000 niches that spanned from the floor to the ceiling. These openings, known as loculi, would contain the desist and then be covered up with tile and cement. The similarity of the sizes of the tombs removed the hierarchy of individuals, which built the idea of community, uniting the early Christians. The feelings of unity and community of Christianity was one of the major factors that spread Christianity.

Interspersed in the galleries of niches, were cubicles containing artwork of early Christian imagery. This early Christian artwork, built upon the simple architecture and contained many examples of pagan artwork that has been adopted for a Christian role. The Velatio located in one of these cubicles contains some of the most well preserved early Christian artwork. Painted in a fresco is an interesting image of Christ as a beardless shepherd carrying a sheep, which represented the soul. We also find images of three stages of a woman’s life, marriage, childbirth and of her soul after death. Peacocks and quails also in this fresco representing immortality and the earth.

The Catacombs of Priscilla are also famous for one of the first known frescos of the Madonna done in the 3rd century.

The Greek Chapel is another important and interesting cubical. This artwork symbolized resurrection, salvation and baptism, all strong themes in the artwork. The story of Susanna being saved from adultery (salvation) is found along side of a phoenix (rebirth). The sheer size of the catacombs was breathtaking, like the hot day that greeted us after leaving the cold underground.

After a discussion of the imagery and symbolism contained in the artwork, I picked up two postcards from the gift shop. We left the catacombs to catch a bus to Termini for lunch, and our visit to Joel Nafuma Refugee Center at St. Paul’s Church. Arriving at Termini we split up for lunch. Walking for a few blocks, Nina found her boutique, and we found a small pizza place and had a delightful pizza lunch. A few of us headed out to grab a café and gelato before walking to the Center. Nearing the center we discussed the Venetian influenced architecture of the Church.

Visiting the Center was an eye opening experience. We were first greeted by the reverend Dr. Michael L. Vono and learned a little bit about the history and background of the center before meeting with a refugee and now coordinator for refugee services Akbatan Abdullah (Tuana). The center is the only day center in Rome for refugees, and mainly focus on helping individuals who are political asylum seekers from middle eastern countries such as Afganistan, Iraq, Iran and others. This center is a haven for refugees to get advice and aid, spend time with people of the same language, and learn new languages, and computer skills. The reverend Dr. Michael L. Vono continued with a discussion about the history and mission of the church and Center.

We either bused or walked home from the center. Before the Italian and Islam class, some took a small siesta, while others finished up their readings for the class. In class, we discussed our projects and then readings. We discussed the rise and main themes in the artwork and ideology of the Renaissance. The cultural diffusion prospective of the Renaissance that we discussed was an interesting viewpoint.

After class, some of us headed out to get some groceries. I cooked some tortellini di carne pasta in a red sauce with sun dried tomatoes for dinner. I ate dinner with some of the other guys in the guy’s apartment while discussing the reading for tomorrow.

Day 15 - Slow Day of Classes.

Today was a pretty slow day. Honestly nothing stands out, besides a wonderful lunch with a pretty amazing sandwich. It was from the mini-forno next door to the forno in the campo. Before lunch I had class, and then after lunch I had more classes. After all of these classes. Lauren made dinner for a group of us. It was some porridge polenta with sun dried tomatoes and some feta cheese. I am not sure what else happened today. It was kinda forgotten from the amazing time known as Cortona.

Week 2 - The most amazing week ever.

This past week, has been the craziest and best week so far! For most of the week I was in venice, but spend the weekend in Cortona, and adored it. I cannot wait to go back there and fully experience it.

Day 8 - Today was pretty chill.
We headed out to see the arch of constantine, pretty early. It was a hot day, but interesting to see all of the interesting design and thought that went into the arch. Ended up with some Pizza Bianaca and then chilled at the rome center finishing my paper and getting pictures downloaded. I think I also got my sim card for my unlocked phone. it was sweet. After some II and AH classes, I packed, and headed out to get some bug spray for venice. I also got some nutella in a nice collectors case. Catharine and others in the 6-girl apartment, prepared a group dinner, which was amazing. I am not sure what was in it, but it blew my socks off. Little did I know that was only the start of the amazing food this week. When Andrew showed up, the other guys had convinced him that he had been asleep for 12+ hours, and that it was 7am, not 7pm. this fun lasted for a few hours, as we ate the wonderful dinner, which he thought was breakfast. I brought some vino, which was amazing.


Day 9 - Heading out to Venice.
Traveling to venice was a alright day. We jumped on a bus to get to the Termini station to take the Eurorail train up to Venice. A few of us headed out on the first bus so that we did not have to wait for the others. We jumped on the train with minutes to spare. The train ride was pretty nice with AC, and slightly reclining chairs. We continued along the train to learn that we were going to be two hours late. I am not sure why but we would always slow down before passing a train, which i guess slowed us down allot. We ended up there, and happy since they give us a partial refund on the money that we payed. Venice blew me away. After seeing all the movies, and pictures, I could not believe that we were actually there. We had venice cards, so that we could just jump on the water taxies(busses) and travel to any one of the number of stops around the islands. We headed first to the dorms and dropped off our stuff so that we could explore san marco unhindered. Afterwards we had a quick lunch, a few of us ended up at a supermarket to get some snacks and sandwiches for lunch. The crackers and cheese was amazing and so was my sandwich. I quickly scarfed it down, and changed for church. We headed out and walked to san marco through the academia bridge. it was amazing to see all the little streets, bridges and gondolas. When we got to san marco, we were in awe of the Byzantine(San Marco), and gothic(Ducal Palace) and Renaissance(Libreria Vecchia) architecture all around the square. There was an abundance of pidgeons and birds around as we talked about all of these amazing works. We were able to have a private tour of San Marco. The mosaics and immense size was staggering, and we were able to see the crypt and the inside of the church alone without tourists. we could walk around freely, and explore the amazing structure. After checking it out, I headed back with lauren and others to a gelato place that she notes as being the best ever. The creamyness of the lemon and melon blew me away. it was very good, but not the best as i would soon see. We left and headed back to the apartment. With some others, I took some night time pictures of Venice. and found an amazing sculpture of a skull.

Day 10 - Rialto.
Today, after the free breakfast, which was filling but not too good except for the cheese, we jumped on a boat to the Rialto. It was and is the main market and trading station for the islands. We started with the fish market, which had so many fresh fish, and shell-fish, it was larger than pike's place. There is allot of eastern influence which we explored in the market setup and others. After heading to san marco square again, we checked out the amazing artwork in the museo correr. We found some stuff for our project in the II class. Afterwards I did some shopping and picked up a teeshirt and gifts, and had some lunch with a spritz drink. We chilled and checked out the area, and then found the church. It was good. Afterward some more walking around we headed to the church of santa Maria Gloroso dei frari. The church was less impressive than the tombs inside. The crazy use of different materials as well as artwork was beyond amazing.

Afterwards, I chilled alone walking around the Rialto and then headed to the Academia to check out some more art.it was pretty overwelming, but still houses alot of amazing works. The setup and layout needed some work. We had a group dinner in venice, which was ok, but since the fish and seafood was fried, it hid the freshness that i was expecting. The clam pasta was amazing though.

Day 11 - Island Hopping.
Another free breakfast. some Cafe and cheese and bread and other things, so it was pretty damn good before hitting the water taxi to travel out to the different islands. We visited Murano mainly for their amazing glass art. I ended up with allot of presents for people. Afterwards we bounced through Burano, to get to Torcello. I say the Curch as well as the chair of Atilla the Hun. it was swell. Afterwards we had some overpriced Lunch before heading out to the Jewish Ghetto. It was very good, just overpriced. It was pretty interesting to see and learn about the interesting history as well as the see everything. We finished it off by looking at the Fondaco dei Turchi. After checking out the influences, Nick, Megan, Luke, Dan and myself headed back to get some AMAZING Falafels. It was one of the best dinners that I have had. Afterwards we walked along this large square, and found an interesting shop. Basically you bring in a bottle of some sort and pick out the wine, and they fill the bottle. We bought some water bottles from the supermarket for .17 a piece, and poured out the water, into a drain on the street. This causes quite the commotion(italians pointing with jaws dropped), but we ended up with 1.5 liters of wine, for ~4 euros. it was decent, but ended up making me sick. Meh, it was well worth the experience.

Day 12 - Tour and Travel.
Today was the fourth of July but for the first time, it did not feel like it at all. Standard breakfast before heading out to the Palazzo Ducale for a interesting tour of the palace and all that it held. The story of casanova was very interesting, and I did not know about it before hand. Afterwards we checkout the rest of the artwork, that was built into the palace as well as the collection of weapons and wacky chastity belt. Afterwards, Katie, Catharine, Laura and myself headed out to get some lunch (awesome pizza and gelato) and head back to the dorm to get all of our stuff. We took our last water bus back to the train station to head out. Since we had some trouble getting tickets, we were not able to take the right train. So we we had some extra time, I helped the other students get their tickets back to rome, and we got some more falafels and I found a Sexy Vixen cup. GIGITY! We headed back, got on the train and headed to Cortona. It was pretty easy riding, except when we got to Firenze. The train kept having electrical problems which caused problems and us to be pretty late in getting to our stop. Once we got there, we tried to exit, and could not get out. so we exited the next stop, and was able to take a taxi to our Hostel. It ended up being only 3 euro per person, so it was ok, for the distance we needed to go. After getting there, we got our room, and headed out to get some dinner. Dinner was amazing. one of the best meals that I have had ever. We walked from the hostel down the hill to the main street. it was pretty popular, and once we got to square, we found this nice restaurant that was still open, and they cleared of a table for us on the terrace overlooking the square. It was bomb. I had the gnocchi which hit the spot. It was one of the best dinner that I have had! After dinner we headed walked around. Lexi and Laura headed to bed, but Catharine, Cindy and myself walked to top of the hill to the Santa Margarita Basilica. As we were looking at the church, the police rolled up and we talked with them. They were pretty nice, and thought we were some of the U-georgia students. We found out later there is a UGA building there in Cortona. We watched the stars as well as looked at the city lights below. Wow I am such an astronomer...

Day 13 - The Vacation within a Vacation, within a Vacation.
We slept in till 10am. it was amazing, since we have been waking up early every day and staying up. We wandered around the City and saw the market and got some cafe, cornettes(sp) and got some sandwiches for lunch. We headed up the same hill, to check out the views and amazing country side. Near the church we found a little path that had shade so we had lunch there. The temperature has been amazing, not too hot, but sunny and dry, so it was very nice to explore everything with these nice temperatures and wonderful sites. We sat in the sun overlooking the country side for a while. Before heading up to the fortress (Fortezza del Girifalco) above everything around the city. it was amazing to walk around the walls and see the beautiful countryside. As we walked back we found the most amazing image of italy. It has a vespa, flowers, an amazing house, and clothes drying. see the photos to see it. We headed back for a nap/chilling at the Hostel before heading out to dinner. we booked reservations at this restaurant since the rick recommended place was closed for the summer. I had the Wild Boar Pasta which was amazing. After dinner we explored some more and took pictures of the moon and sunset. After some photos, we got some gelato and listened to some of the Music of the festival that was going on. After checking out the music we found this cafe/restaurant that had finnish writing. Lexi talked to the waiter and we are going back tomorrow to get the low down on the migration story for the MM class. Yey slowly closer to finding out what to do with these classes.

We headed up the hill again to some more star gazing and it was amazing. there were some fireworks going off in the distance which was pretty cool since it was the day after the fourth.

Day 14 - The Last Day, of amazement.
We woke up early so that we could check out and explore some more. For all this exploring the city and we did some hiking around the countryside. We found allot of different villas as well as flowers and bugs. We headed back and had lunch and talked with the owner of the restaurant and getting the story. Lunch was amazing again, like most of the food in Cortona. I had a truffle sauce on my sandwich and it blew me away. It was the crown jewel on the trip.

We grabbed our baggage, and then bussed and trained back to Rome.

All in all a great trip.