My birthday!

Well, today I turned 20 years old, which was fun, and kinda weird. More importantly, though, this marked the conclusion of my first week of classes!! This is very exciting. I am taking some very interesting classes: Italian I, Art in Rome, Baroque Art, Italian Film, and Human Rights: the View From Rome. My first week of classes was somewhat stressful. I am slowly getting accustomed to the whole "class" lifestyle again after winter break. Its weird to adjust to living here at the John Felice Rome Center more so than anything else, because it seems very protective and small. There are only about 200 people in the program and everything to do with the JFRC is in one building. We sleep, eat, study, and go to class in the same building... so it gets a little stifling. Lunch and dinner everyday is in the Mensa (cafeteria) and there is not much variety. We can get Pasta Pomodoro everyday or whatever the special selection is: usually something like Pomodoro with herbs, peppers, or oil. Not bad, but it gets old fast.

Today I went on a study trip to Ostia Antica and the Catacombs. Ostia Antica is the old port city to Rome at the mouth of the Tiber River. It is not as preserved as the ancient cities of Pompeii or Herculaneum, but there are still alot of intact buildings and structures. We ate lunch in the theater of Ostia, which was sweet! The acoustics were incredible. We spread out all around the ampitheater and I could hear everything that everyone was saying. The view was cool... over miles and miles of old ruins that looked like a low maze throughout the fields. Dr. Nicholson led the tour, which was good, because he knows an awful lot. He is my teacher for two of my on-site classes this semester. After we left Ostia Antica we went over to the Via Appia Antica, otherwise known as the Old Appian Way. Last semester in Communication Theory my professor Dr. Sproule had us read a book called "Murder on the Appian Way." This book was a very good way to prepare for studying the ancient civilizations of Rome, which I didn't appreciate until after the final. Anyway though, we went to the San Callisto catacombs outside the city of Rome. These catacombs are run by the Salesians (oh hey, Mary!) and contain the tombs of nine old popes. It was used as a cemetary between 200 A.D. and 500 A.D. It also used to contain the tomb of St. Cecilia before it was moved to the crypt in the Basillica of St. Cecilia.

After we returned to campus from the trip, we decided to heed the advice of some wise SLA's (Student Life Assistants... aka an international version of RA's who already graduated) and head down to Trasevere. Trasevere is a fun nightlife neighborhood south of the Vatican. We took the 990 bus to Piazza Cavour and caught the 280 and met a wonderful German girl who told us exactly where to get off and where to go. We walked around and found a good restaurant that had delicious carciofo all romana. It also had wonderful pizza. We walked back to the Piazza Cavour to catch the 990 back to campus in Monte Mario before the buses shut down at midnight. Buonasera!!