"Help a Father out?!"

So it's Thursday night, and I have obviously fallen behind a little in posting things. I guess it's catch up time. Not ketchup time. I wish. Italians only have a weird really sugary version of ketchup. And no cheddar cheese. I have been making grilled cheese with provolone.

Monday was a pretty good day. Not too much to report on. We had a guest lecturer in Politics talk to us about the differences between the Italian and American constitutions. It was really interesting. The Italian constitution is really really specific. It goes into all sorts of details besides just structure of government. It also includes all the things we have in our amendments. And then it goes on and on in more detail. Monday was also my first photography field study. We went out to the bridge and then St. Peter's and took photos for 2 hours. It was exhausting and confusing and we'll have to see if any of them are any good. Our homework is to pick 5 to send to the professor along with a descriptions of the settings we used and why we liked that particular picture. I took over 200 pictures and am not sure I have 5 that I like. 

Tuesday was a fun day. I went to Fratrellini bookstore to buy some more text books. Slowly but surely I am getting them all. At the store, which is basically the Italian Barnes and Noble, there was a computer you could use to look up a book and on the keyboard they actually had 2 emoticon keys. Instead of having to press 3 keys to get the happy face :-) you only had to press one. It was weird though because I don't think I have ever needed to use an emoticon when looking up a book. Before Italian, a bunch of us went to Gelateria del Teatro, which is definitely some of the best I've had in Rome. We also went to buy some masks for a supposedly themed pre-carneval party that night. One of the ISCs lives in a huge apartment with a chandelier, a piano, and a huge balcony. All the ISCs went and brought their Americans. We only went for 20 minutes though because we got there late and everyone was getting ready to go sing karaoke at an Irish pub in the center. Dinner that night was Trattoria Tuesday!!! That's why we were late to the party. Dinner turned out to be at the same place as the week before which was a little disappointing because they promised some place new, but it was definitely still delicious!

So I was getting ready to talk about Wednesday, only to realize that the Politics guest lecturer wasn't on Monday. He actually came yesterday. So, Monday, normal politics class. To read about Wednesday, scroll up. My field study for Archaeology was to the Roman Forum. That was incredible. I had walked by it a few times already but really hadn't seen it yet. Before going in, our professor took us around the corner and showed us the oldest thing in the city. It was dirt. Just dirt. But (I don't actually remember the year) it was older than the volcanic rock that was used to build the most ancient parts of the city. You can see it in the bottom picture, along with my professor's shadow. I think it's amazing that I get to have a class in the Roman Forum! Instead of just reading and listening to the professor talk about things, we actually get to go see it. The text book has a passage that describes what it would be like to walk around the Forum and what you would see, and here we are really doing it. The cool thing about our professor is that he is still an active archaeologist. He showed us the part of the Forum is is actually working on right now! Overall, Wednesday was a really good day though. Lucia got me housing for the fall!! My Emory assigned time was 10:35 pm which means 4:35 am here. She did it for me though and let me have my good night's sleep and a great apartment in the CRC. I also got a free bottle of water in the vending machine and thus saved 40 euro cents.

Thursday is today. I had my first meeting at La Sapienza for my internship. I was really nervous and did not come out of there feeling good about it. It's going to be hard and frustrating, and I really don't know what else to expect. Sonia is cooking us dinner now, and I have to go set the table.