"It kind of makes you appreciate flatness"

Fridays we normally don't have class but yesterday, our Italian class had an all day field trip. At first we were all a little bummed at having to have "class" for 10 hours starting at 8 am, but it turned out to be amazing! We drove about an hour and a half north to this organic farm that makes cheese, wine, olive oil, honey, etc. One of the workers showed us where the sheep live and how the milking process. In case you were curious, mungere means to milk something. After this, we got to go make our own cheese. We took a big jug of sheeps milk (Jake and Zach were the only two brave enough to drink fresh straight sheeps milk) and heated it up to I think about 38 degrees C. When it got that warm, the man added a certain amount of lamb stomach enzymes from a bottle. 

Then we let it sit for 40 mins. We got to walk around and pet the goats and donkey. There was also a bamboo forest and a playground. Being the mature, 20 something college students that we are, we played crouching tiger hidden dragon in the bamboo and then had a who can jump off the swing the furthest contest. When we got back we had to finish the cheese. I got to stir the milk which was now really thick and more like flan or pannacotta (which would make sense since I finally realized panna cotta means cooked cream). When it was all broken into smaller pieces, we scooped it into little cup sized colanders and used our hands to press out the liquid which we collected into a pot. When that was done, we salted it a bit and then took it out the the colander and we had cheese!! We then used the collected liquid and reheated it to make ricotta (ri-cotta means cooked again). They gave us bread and foccaccia and we all just ate massive amounts of this cheese which was just amazing! I never thought I would be eating cheese that had been milk less than an hour earlier. When the ricotta was done we got to eat it while it was still warm. So so so delicious.

After lunch we drove to Bomarzo which is a tiny town that is famous for its Parco dei Mostri, or Monster park. It is this incredible park in the woods and there are these gigantic stone monuments of mythical creatures all around. It's beautiful and a bit eerie. http://www.parcodeimostri.com/ You should go look at it if you can't fly out to see it. We all had to do a one minute presentation on one of the monuments. After this, we stopped and played on the playground there. There was one of the playground spinny things, that's kinda like a teapot ride but way faster. Also we went on the see-saw. Our professor thought we were really funny. I guess she wasn't used to 5 year old college students. On the ride home, all of us fell asleep pretty much immediately, we were pretty tuckered out. 

Today is the start of CARNEVALE! There are a bunch of parades and street performances and then there is stuff going on until March 8 (Martedì Grasso)!!!

"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.

"So'd you guys hear about that Alchemy? Pretty neat, huh?"

Kim has a friend from school who was born in Anzio so she was a little curious about the town. It is a small beach town about an hour train ride outside of Rome. We decided to go there on Saturday and just walk around. It cost a grand total of 3,20 euro to get there. When we got to the station there, we asked for a map and the man gave us the largest map in the world. It was probably over 3 feet wide and included every other small town in the area since there really wasn't anything in Anzio. Also, we got there around 3 in the afternoon, so everything was closed. The central piazza was filled with Carneval-ing children. They all had their costumes on and were just running around with confetti and silly string. There were a lot of princesses, a lion with a sword, some witches, and a spiderman with a cape. We walked around a bit more and saw the harbor. Actually, we smelled it first and then found it. Up the coast from there was the beach which was fairly crowded. It is still way too cold for the beach but there were 2 guys surfing. Mostly there were just people playing soccer or walking dogs. There were a few groups of old people bundled up in heavy winter coats walking around (it was over 60 degrees). Kim and I found a bunch of cool shells and then my sneakers got wet when I tried to rinse the sand off the shells. We saw on the map that there was a large park called Villa Borghese. Since there is the famous one in Rome we wanted to go see this one but it was completely walled off and locked up. We ended up going to the cafe/bar/tabacchi in the train station and eating a bunch of weird European snack foods while watching on the other soccer matches. I don't think either team playing was even Italian.

When we got back to Rome, Kim went to babysit/hang out with some family friends and I went off to get dinner. I met up with Will, Jake, Maria, David, Jillian, Annie, and Michelle at St. Peter's obelisk and went from there to La Cucaracha. It was this little Mexican restaurant right on the north side of the Vatican walls. It was a culturally confusing dinner. We were all speaking English, the waiters were Italian, the menu was in Spanish, and the large table next to us was all French. The food was technically Mexican but tasted very Italianized. I got a good burrito but it tasted exactly like what it was: an Italian burrito. We all had a lot of fun though and the restaurant was really nice. I was just happy to taste something that wasn't bread and mozzarella. After dinner we all went to this cool dance place called Circolo degli Artisti. It was out of the center so there were mostly Italians there. I didn't actually hear any other English speakers there. The music was really crazy. Retro American music and then Italian techno pop. We got to dance to Elvis and the Beach Boys which was just fun and silly. We also decided that we needed to make up a really silly/stupid dance move and say that it is really popular in the States and see if by May anyone else is doing it. 

Sunday we were going to go to Porta Portese to look for postcards and things for Carnevale (which starts in 1 week!!!!), but we over slept. Then Sarah and I were going to cook a big lunch but the grocery stores were all closed. I ended up having a lazy day and tried to read the Italian constitution for my class. Also yesterday, Kim and I met up with Will and Jake and some of Will's friends from the States who were visiting Rome for the weekend. We went to Peanut Bar which was chill and pretty empty being early on a Sunday and it was raining. Giovanni, the owner, was really nice and put on Shakira and then Tiziano Ferro when we asked. When Tiziano Ferro came on, the few Italians that were there all groaned and got up and pretended to leave. I guess he's a sophisticated taste. Giovanni was very impressed that Kim and I knew all the words to one of his songs. 

P.S. The random post titles are usually recent (funny at the time) quotes that were said by me or friends

Caffe Corretto

Today is Friday and that means NO CLASS! I've never not had class on Friday and it is very exciting! I got to sleep really late and then watched an episode of Jersey Shore while I ate some Frosted Flakes. Kim and I also tried to clean our room. This afternoon Maria and I wanted to go practice taking pictures since we have our first photography field study on Monday and neither of us really know how to work our cameras. Kim and Will came to and we started off near Isola Tiberina. I finally got to see the turtle fountain. I actually didn't know we were near it but we saw this cute fountain and before I even noticed the turtles, it looked really familiar to me. I remember when I was 7 Papa telling me and Daisy that we were going to go see a turtle fountain that day. After that we just walked around Trastevere and got some amazing pizza followed by some amazing gelato. I may have actually lost count with the gelato counter already. Oops.

Yesterday, was another easy day. Because of my internship, I dropped the Catholic Church class and therefore didn't have any class until 4:30. Sonia made lunch for me and another ISC came over. We ate artichokes which are a huge staple here in Rome. Today when walking around we saw several restaurants get huge deliveries of artichokes. My pizza today was mozzarella and artichoke hearts. Last night a big group of us went to a Jazz club at the top of the Spanish steps. It was 8 of us from our Italian class and it was so much fun! They added on 5 euro per person to the bill though for the music. It was annoying because they didn't tell us before that there was a music charge and I don't even like Jazz. Oh well, the night was definitely more than 5 euros of fun. After the jazz we headed for Trastevere, but Kim and I forgot to get off the bus because Sonia and Caroline got on at the same time and we accidentally went all the way home.

One funny thing I saw today was a Carabiniere drinking on the job. He was standing next to his car with a to go espresso and then he snuck out a small flask and made it "un caffe corretto!" The Italian police are very strange. There are the Carabinieri, the Polizia, and the Guardia di Finanza.  The Carabinieri are the scariest because they will walk around carrying automatic weapons and then just chill in the squares. They are the most stylish though. The Guardia di Finanza are fun to watch though because they basically patrol touristy areas and make the illegal street vendors scatter.

"I am a guy who can tuck away a lot of peanuts"

It has just started to rain for the first time since coming here. Supposed to rain for the next three days. I guess with the weather we've been having it is about time for April showers. This is more like an April wind and rain storm though. It's pretty loud outside the window.

We've finally started classes. It's weird to only be two days in while people at Emory are already starting midterms! I really like all of my classes. I'm really excited about the Contemporary Italian Politics one because of all that's going on with Berlusconi right now. I think it is going to be extra interesting. Apparently today the courts decided that he will have to go to trial but he refuses. I also had my class about Contemporary Issues in the Catholic Church which I think sounds amazing. The teacher kept trying to get students to drop the class though because he thinks there are too many of us. He offered to bribe us and tried to scare us by lying about the amount of work and credits. I actually will drop it though because I got an internship at La Sapienza! I will be helping start an advising program for Italian students looking to get a masters or PHD in America. 

Tonight was Trattoria night with IES. You could sign up and pay 10 euro to go to dinner. About 10 of us went. We got 3 kinds of bruschetta, roasted vegetables, pizzette (funnel cake dough with pizza sauce and cheese), potato soup, pasta and pesto, pasta and red sauce, tiramisu, and wine. All of it was so so so amazing. By the time we got to pasta though, I was stuffed. I didn't want to be rude though especially since the owner kept coming out to check on us. My friend Will helped finish the pasta off. I did eat all my tiramisu though. I don't think I have ever had some that good. It was incredible. After dinner (which took 3 hours), Will and I went towards Piazza Navona and met up with Jake and Maria at what Maria called "Peanut Bar." We had never heard of it and were excited, only to discover that it was in fact "Steeler's Bar," which we all already knew. The Bar is actually called Boticella but it labeled "Vino Olio." This is the problem in Rome, or at least with the study abroad students, we never know places by their actual names. Anyway, one cool thing about Peanut Bar (the name we all decided was best) is that you can get an "Asciugamano Terribile" or terrible towel. They were sold out because of the super bowl but should have some soon (don't worry, Daisy and Steve, I'll get you one).

Tomorrow we have "field studies" which are basically on site classes. Our political science class is visiting Roma Tre and my archaeology class is headed to one of the museums. Details to come.

Buona Notte!

San Valentino

A friendly thing to see on Valentine's Day. TVTB a ME! Anche a voi!

 

Daje!

Here is a little post about a proud moment I had. It also contains a little grammar lesson: 

Last night I had my first spontaneous Roman slang outburst along with a combined pronoun command. Sounds complicated but I said it all without thinking. There were some folks with a dog who had a water bottle in his mouth. They took it and put it on top of the trashcan and told him to wait. I guess it was some sort of trick, but they made him wait for so long. I felt bad for him because he was clearly upset. Without thinking about it I said "Ma daje, daglielo!" Which basically is "Come on, give it  back to him." Daje (pronounced "da-yeh") is the Roman version of "Dai" which means "Come on" or "Go" etc. You'll especially hear it a lot at sports games. "Daglielo" was the other accomplishment because it had the combined pronouns "gli" (to him) and "lo" (it). Usually it takes a bit of thinking to get these right and our homework for Tuesday is 3 worksheets about them. 

 

Today I went to find some new jeans because mine ripped yesterday. I did not end up finding any but I did stumble into the women's protest against Berlusconi. It was really cool to see. I couldn't understand all their chants or signs but they were basically saying that his behavior is disrespectful to  all women and that he is stealing dignity from women. I think they were protesting more than just that, but I will have to wait and try to read about it in the paper tomorrow. Also went to the top of the Spanish steps.

 Here is a picture of a bag of cookies. I thought they looked cute. "Abbracci" means "hugs" in Italian. They were very delicious. On the back they suggested having 5 cookies for breakfast...