Apologies for the lack of a post last week. There really wasn't anything new to update on, and I kept meaning to post something, but I never got a chance to sit down and write. It's two weeks before midterms and my teachers are just piling on the homework and information before them. I've been super busy.
This weekend however, I am not doing homework or walking around Rome, taking everything in, because I'm in Florence for the weekend! Because of my Friday class, myself and MariaJose, another ISA student in my class, had to take a train to Florence instead of riding the bus that ISA provides. We got to the train station early, so our train platform hadn't been announced yet. We were waiting for it to show up when an information guide (or so we thought) came up to us and showed us the paper version of the train departure schedule, and showed us to the platform. MJ and I were both very grateful, until she started asking us for money, but she was chased of by one of the Termini station guards. However, we never actually saw the platform that our train was actually departing from. The train that was at Platform 6 was the same type of train, same destination and everything, it was just leaving eleven minutes after. However, MJ and I did not realize it was the wrong number until it left and the train number was flashing on the screen that we were on the wrong train. Luckily, the train conductors didn't make us pay for new tickets.
We finally got to Florence and dropped our bags off at the hotel, and met up with Andrea, one of the ISA Rome staff who is super helpful. He met us in front of the fake David outside of the Uffizi Gallery, where the rest of ISA was. We went inside and saw so many beautiful paintings, by Botticelli, Raphael, Leonardo, and one by Michelangelo. They were all paintings I had studied in Italian Renaissance Art last semester, so the tour guide wasn't able to give me any new information about them, but it was still amazing to see them in person.
I haven't had time to really stop and really look at the Duomo, and Giotto's bell tower, but I have walked past them multiple times already. It's breathtaking, and the Duomo is soo huge, it's larger than life. Brunelleschi really wasn't messing around when he designed it and built it. Tomorrow we get to tour the Duomo and climb to the top of the bell tower (413 steps...) or the dome (436), as well as visit the Accademia Gallery to finally see the real David!
I'll post again when I return from Florence, to make up for last week's post, and to share pictures.
Ciao!
Friday, February 27, 2015
Saturday, February 14, 2015
Pictures from the Vatican, as promised
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| The introduction of pottery among the common items of daily life, of the Neolithic Period in Syria-Palestine. |
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| Apoxyomenos, depicting an ancient Greek athlete scraping off the oils used to anoint the body before competitions with sand and a spoon, called the strigil. |
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| A sarcophagus, depicting a battle between Greeks and Amazons, with the leaders Achilles and Pentesilea. |
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| The close up detail of Achilles and Pentesilea. It amazes me how much detail the artist is able to use, I can't even begin to imagine how long a piece this detailed would take to complete. |
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| Apollo del Belvedere Johann Joachim Winckelmann: "of all the works of antiquity that have escaped destruction, the statue of Apollo represents the highest ideal of art." |
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| Laocoön was said to have warned his fellow Trojans against taking in the wooden horse left by the Greeks outside the city gates. Athena and Poseidon, who were favoring the Greeks, sent two great serpents to kill Laocoön and his sons. |
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| The Belvedere Torso, which inspired Michelangelo, Raphael, and other greats |
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| The ceiling in the Room of Heliodorus, of the Raphael Rooms |
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| The ceiling in the Room of the Segnatura, in the Raphael Rooms |
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| The School of Athens, in the Room of the Segnatura |
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| Raphael painted himself into The School of Athens. He's the one in red with the black beret. |
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| Raphael also painted Leonardo da Vinci into The School of Athens, disguised as Plato |
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| Raphael did the same for Michelangelo, disguising him as Heraclitus |
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| The Disputation of the Sacrament, in the Room of the Segnatura |
Everything up to this point was beautiful, but nothing was as breathtaking as the Sistine Chapel. I have never seen anything so beautiful in my life. I stayed in the Sistine Chapel for at least 30 minutes, just taking everything in and trying not to bawl. It was much more emotional than I expected it would be for me. I'm not overly religious, but I have wanted to see these paintings in person since I first learned about them in high school. Taking Italian Renaissance Art last semester gave me the background and the ability to truly appreciate the paintings. The few pictures I was able to discreetly take don't do the paintings justice. They are breathtaking and detailed and larger than life, and I'm so glad I've had the opportunity to see them in person. It's one thing to learn about them, to see slides and pictures of the paintings, and something else entirely to be able to be in the same room as them, to see them in person, and to just experience it in real time.
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| The Sistine Chapel ceiling |
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| The Creation of Adam |
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| The Last Judgement |
Friday, February 13, 2015
Ciao!
So Wednesday night, I booked a flight to Berlin for the first weekend in March to visit Jenn in Germany. I spent quite a few hours searching for flights, because we had originally planned to meet up in Paris during our spring breaks, but the flight and hostel stay to Paris alone would have been about €200, not to mention how much it would cost for food, transportation, and all the touristy things, like the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre. So I will have to go to Paris another time.
I didn't end up getting to go to the RetakeRoma event, because around 3am on Sunday morning I woke up and was sick, until about 6am. I slept on the couch, because I didn't want to wake my roommate up each time had to leave the room. I think I got food poising from a little fruiterria around the corner from my apartment, a few of the strawberries I had eaten tasted a bit weird, and even though I stopped eating them, I still managed to get sick. So I will definitely be going to the next event, because I was really upset that I wasn't able to help out.
I had my first test in Italian 102 on Thursday. I wasn't confident going into the test, but I think I might be okay. A lot of the verb endings still trick me up, especially the irregular verbs. Each verb and noun has a different ending based on the form of the sentence. We're also doing past tense with verbs, which means I need to know if the verb uses avere or essere, and then figure out which form of avere or essere needs to be used in front of the verb. It really isn't that difficult, it's just memorization, but I still struggle with it.
I'm really enjoying my ECPO class, the Introduction to the European Union class. My teacher is Aldo Patania, who is a very interesting character. He lectures in class, and then at the beginning of the following class, he has us close our notes and then he "picks our brains" to see if we actually learned it, or if there is something that was unclear. I'm learning quite a bit about the EU. We've gone through the different types of integration, from horizontal when a member joins the EU, to vertical when an idea/concept is added to the focus of the EU. We've also talked about the four stages of economic integration: Free Trade Areas, Customs Union, Common Market, and Economic and Monetary Union. The only way for the EU to integrate further would be politically, which many countries are against. My teacher told us that Federalism is "the f-word" of Europe. But regardless, it's a good class. Even though I think my teacher is a bit of a neo-liberal when it comes to economics.
In the MUN class today, we practiced informal caucusing and consensus building in class. We, in the scenario, had to determine which of two crises the General Assembly was going to create a resolution for. The first crisis was ISIS threatening to behead another hostage, unless they received the ransom. The UN resolution would require all governments not to pay ransom for hostage release. The second crisis was about climate change, and that one of the principal obstacles to addressing are the structures of governance, even though there is a growing consensus scientifically that it is a real problem now. The UN resolution would define the way forward that addresses structural weaknesses in our system of governance at every level to address climate change. We as a group came to the conclusion the climate change was the issue that needed to be tackled first, after quite a bit of discussion. I'm getting more and more excited about the actual conference, the more I learn about India and the more we practice.
I'm also going to the Vatican tomorrow. I'm very excited to finally see Michelangelo's paintings, and to tour the museum. I'm going by myself, as most of ISA is travelling to Venice for Carnevale on Saturday, but it's probably for the best, because seeing a Michelangelo in person is a big deal for me, and I want to be able to just take it all in, without having to worry about wasting anyone else's time. I'll probably post a separate picture post from the Vatican.
Until next week!
So Wednesday night, I booked a flight to Berlin for the first weekend in March to visit Jenn in Germany. I spent quite a few hours searching for flights, because we had originally planned to meet up in Paris during our spring breaks, but the flight and hostel stay to Paris alone would have been about €200, not to mention how much it would cost for food, transportation, and all the touristy things, like the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre. So I will have to go to Paris another time.
I didn't end up getting to go to the RetakeRoma event, because around 3am on Sunday morning I woke up and was sick, until about 6am. I slept on the couch, because I didn't want to wake my roommate up each time had to leave the room. I think I got food poising from a little fruiterria around the corner from my apartment, a few of the strawberries I had eaten tasted a bit weird, and even though I stopped eating them, I still managed to get sick. So I will definitely be going to the next event, because I was really upset that I wasn't able to help out.
I had my first test in Italian 102 on Thursday. I wasn't confident going into the test, but I think I might be okay. A lot of the verb endings still trick me up, especially the irregular verbs. Each verb and noun has a different ending based on the form of the sentence. We're also doing past tense with verbs, which means I need to know if the verb uses avere or essere, and then figure out which form of avere or essere needs to be used in front of the verb. It really isn't that difficult, it's just memorization, but I still struggle with it.
I'm really enjoying my ECPO class, the Introduction to the European Union class. My teacher is Aldo Patania, who is a very interesting character. He lectures in class, and then at the beginning of the following class, he has us close our notes and then he "picks our brains" to see if we actually learned it, or if there is something that was unclear. I'm learning quite a bit about the EU. We've gone through the different types of integration, from horizontal when a member joins the EU, to vertical when an idea/concept is added to the focus of the EU. We've also talked about the four stages of economic integration: Free Trade Areas, Customs Union, Common Market, and Economic and Monetary Union. The only way for the EU to integrate further would be politically, which many countries are against. My teacher told us that Federalism is "the f-word" of Europe. But regardless, it's a good class. Even though I think my teacher is a bit of a neo-liberal when it comes to economics.
In the MUN class today, we practiced informal caucusing and consensus building in class. We, in the scenario, had to determine which of two crises the General Assembly was going to create a resolution for. The first crisis was ISIS threatening to behead another hostage, unless they received the ransom. The UN resolution would require all governments not to pay ransom for hostage release. The second crisis was about climate change, and that one of the principal obstacles to addressing are the structures of governance, even though there is a growing consensus scientifically that it is a real problem now. The UN resolution would define the way forward that addresses structural weaknesses in our system of governance at every level to address climate change. We as a group came to the conclusion the climate change was the issue that needed to be tackled first, after quite a bit of discussion. I'm getting more and more excited about the actual conference, the more I learn about India and the more we practice.
I'm also going to the Vatican tomorrow. I'm very excited to finally see Michelangelo's paintings, and to tour the museum. I'm going by myself, as most of ISA is travelling to Venice for Carnevale on Saturday, but it's probably for the best, because seeing a Michelangelo in person is a big deal for me, and I want to be able to just take it all in, without having to worry about wasting anyone else's time. I'll probably post a separate picture post from the Vatican.
Until next week!
Friday, February 6, 2015
Non riesco a pensare a un titolo...
Ciao!
I've started part of my cultural immersion this week. I signed up for the Volunteer Club, and we had our first meeting yesterday during lunch. We discussed what sort of organizations we'd like to assist this semester, and three ideas seemed to be the most popular. The first is Retake Roma, an organization/group of people who go around and remove old posters and graffiti in the area. They leave the nice graffiti, like the one I posted on this blog, but take down the tags/ugly graffiti. So on Sunday, I'll be helping to clean up Piazza Rosolino Pilo and the surrounding area.
The second idea the Volunteer Club had was to help out with a local dog shelter, by walking the dogs, playing with them, cleaning up kennels, etc. I'm very excited about this one, because I miss my chocolate lab Cali and playing with surrogate dogs will help with that hopefully.
The third idea was to help L'Associazione Peter Pan Onlus, an organization for families of child cancer patients. The Co-presidents of the Volunteer Club are attempting to reach out to this organization, but it looks like we would be helping the children with English, by reading to them and visiting them certain days of the week.
We're also planning a bake sale around midterms, and the money for that will either go to the dog shelter or Peter Pan Onlus. Last year, they were able to raise almost $500 for Aura's House, to help sponsor a girl in the Philippines emergency education fund.
I also think my Italian is getting slightly better. I'm still struggling with all the different forms of verbs, but my vocabulary is getting bigger, and I'm able to use phrases I learn in class at the grocery story and at the bus stop when people ask me for directions. I'm glad I look like I know where I'm going, but I don't really know how to direct people, since I usually don't understand where they want to go. Non lo so is becoming one of my most used phrases.
I also found out today that in the Model UN conference, I will be representing India, in the Environmental Commission. My classmate Beatrice is also representing India, but on the Human Rights Council, so some of our country research will be similar, but with a different focus in the end. My other classmates are representing South Africa, Mexico, Sweden, and one classmate, who has been to an MUN before, is representing New Zealand on the Security Council.
Until next week!
I've started part of my cultural immersion this week. I signed up for the Volunteer Club, and we had our first meeting yesterday during lunch. We discussed what sort of organizations we'd like to assist this semester, and three ideas seemed to be the most popular. The first is Retake Roma, an organization/group of people who go around and remove old posters and graffiti in the area. They leave the nice graffiti, like the one I posted on this blog, but take down the tags/ugly graffiti. So on Sunday, I'll be helping to clean up Piazza Rosolino Pilo and the surrounding area.
The second idea the Volunteer Club had was to help out with a local dog shelter, by walking the dogs, playing with them, cleaning up kennels, etc. I'm very excited about this one, because I miss my chocolate lab Cali and playing with surrogate dogs will help with that hopefully.
The third idea was to help L'Associazione Peter Pan Onlus, an organization for families of child cancer patients. The Co-presidents of the Volunteer Club are attempting to reach out to this organization, but it looks like we would be helping the children with English, by reading to them and visiting them certain days of the week.
We're also planning a bake sale around midterms, and the money for that will either go to the dog shelter or Peter Pan Onlus. Last year, they were able to raise almost $500 for Aura's House, to help sponsor a girl in the Philippines emergency education fund.
I also think my Italian is getting slightly better. I'm still struggling with all the different forms of verbs, but my vocabulary is getting bigger, and I'm able to use phrases I learn in class at the grocery story and at the bus stop when people ask me for directions. I'm glad I look like I know where I'm going, but I don't really know how to direct people, since I usually don't understand where they want to go. Non lo so is becoming one of my most used phrases.
I also found out today that in the Model UN conference, I will be representing India, in the Environmental Commission. My classmate Beatrice is also representing India, but on the Human Rights Council, so some of our country research will be similar, but with a different focus in the end. My other classmates are representing South Africa, Mexico, Sweden, and one classmate, who has been to an MUN before, is representing New Zealand on the Security Council.
Until next week!
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