week three and counting...

What a hectic week it has been. Two days a week we have three-hour walks to yet another amazing site in the city -- all of which so far have been within fifteen minutes from my apartment. We went to see Michaelangelo's Campidoglio, which unlike everything else we've seen so far, was actually smaller than I imagined. It's still a great urban space, just not quite as shocking as some of the other places I've seen since I've been here. For this site we focused on strategic urban planning and looked at edges, axes, datum, foci, etc. It gets very interesting when you start picking a place like the Campidoglio apart and noticing how it's not an ideal space -- certain things are offset to create a more complex space.

Our second walk that same day was to the Pantheon. We had already been there before to sketch, but it's still breathtaking every time you walk in. From the exterior you can barely tell there's a dome, and when you walk inside you feel as if you just shrunk to a very tiny person. It's all very inspiring.

Our second day of walks was to Piazza Santa Maria in Trastevere and a few places right on the other side of the river including the Arch of Janus and a now church that used to be three temples that I can't remember the name of right now. Piazza S. Maria in Trastevere is in the same area as my apartment, and we went there to start a drawing assignment on it. It was actually kind of fun -- we had to measure our paces and hands, etc. so while we were there we could measure things without a ruler or tape measure handy. It is similar to the Campidoglio in that there are certain aspects about it that don't line up and you would expect to line up. There isn't much of an attempt to make it seem like a regular space, however, so it's more obvious that things won't be exact. The temples were interesting. We got to go underground to the old infrastructure of the temples. It was kind of creepy though -- there were some bones down there.

Besides that, Italian has been going well. It's a fun class and good to balance out the architecture load. Unfortunately other things have not been going so well -- besides petty things like my hair dryer frying and I think my straightener may have died too, even though I used it with the proper converter, my bank account basically got hacked into. It's a total mess, and the normal way to work everything out would be to go into a branch because there's a bunch of things I would need to sign and I'm the only person on my account. Since I'm in Italy, it's all very tedious and difficult and not something that's easy to deal with when I'm still adapting to a completely new culture. It's a lot to take in, but it will all work out soon and everything will be great. 

Now I must continue my homework since it's now Sunday afternoon and my Saturday wasn't quite as productive as planned. One other quick thing -- in about a week and a half we have our first travel study to the Campania region (southern Italy) that ends on a Friday afternoon, and after that for the weekend there's a bunch of us going to Sicily. I'm quite excited!

Ciao!

is the vacation over yet?

One week down and about fifteen more to go. I still can't believe I'm actually here! The first week was full of long walks and tours around the city and the whole time it felt like a short vacation -- once the week ended it would be time to go home. Actually living in Rome is such a surreal experience. Leading up to this amazing experience we were told about culture shock and how it would most likely be emotionally difficult to get used to such a different world, and when I got here I seemed fine. I still am fine, but there's little things that make me feel better about being so far way from reality. For example, even though I wasn't necessarily feeling homesick or anything, I found a comforter for my bed that looks almost exactly like the one I have at home, and it just made me feel a little bit better. That was nice.

It's also been a very different experience being with all the architecture kids just about twenty-four/seven. Back at home we all have classes together but generally have other social lives, but in Rome we're together for everything. It's actually kind of nice though -- I'm getting to know all these people I've technically known for almost three years now but really didn't know anything about them before this. 

The walks we took this week were absolutely amazing. The first one was to Palatine Hill, the Forum and the Colosseum. It was so crazy seeing the Colosseum first hand. I was in complete awe at how big it actually is -- pictures just don't do it justice, as most of the things in Rome I have discovered. The second walk was to Tiber Island and through the Jewish Ghetto. Although none of the things we saw along there are exactly textbook buildings that everyone knows about, they were very interesting. It seems like almost every time you turn there's another piazza or ruin or simply something you'll never find in the States. We also saw the Pantheon after that walk, and unfortunately it had stopped raining by the time we got there. In pictures and even from the exterior it seems like just a decent size, but once you go in it's simply breathtaking. I honestly can't comprehend how people spent so much time or had the patience to make such great monuments when the world was much less technologically dependent. The last walk was to the Piazza di Popolo and back towards the Spanish Steps. 

Once my feet and legs were about as sore as they have ever been, we finally got to have our formal welcome dinner. I was very excited for the seafood menu they had planned for us -- that is until I found out what exactly they meant by seafood. The way Italians eat seafood is very different than the way Americans eat seafood. The "salad" portion of the meal was some seafood patte, with some spinach cake looking thing, and a little seafood salad of squid and octopus and I'm not even sure what else. The second course was some kind of cheese and artichoke lasagna, which for some reason I wasn't a fan of either -- I think maybe it was because I still had the foul smell of the first dish on my mind. It also had a pasta with it -- which also had squid and octopus and whatever else in it. The third course was a tuna steak and actual salad, which was delicious, followed by a chocolate muffin with a cream on top that was absolutely delicious.

I will post again soon, but now I have to get back to some homework so I can get to bed at a decent hour. 

Ciao!

travel day.

I woke up this morning at four o'clock to start my long journey to Italy. It seems like yesterday when Italy was a distant thought, something I had months to prepare for. This day came very quickly and unfortunately am aware that my time in Italy will go by far too fast.

My whole experience leading up to today was new, exciting, sad, and overall a total whirlwind. I have never traveled outside of the country before, so that in itself was very intriguing. Then going through the process of getting everything prepared -- my passport, visa, documents, packing four months worth of stuff into two suitcases -- was hectic, a lot of checking and rechecking. However, I know it will all be worth it, and the craziness of preparing was nothing compared to what is now less than twenty-four hours away.

I am sad to leave home but so thrilled to be embarking on something new and unforgettable. This will be one more mile marker in my life, and I hope to have many more. I will miss all of my friends and family greatly, but it won't be long until I'm back and hopefully with a multitude of amazing stories to tell.

Five more hours in the Logan Airport and I will be on my way to Roma via Frankfurt. Arrivederci!