Day 45/136
There's so much I want to talk about that I don't even know where to begin.
So I guess I'll just start with the mundane. Classes have started again, and while I greatly enjoy three out of four of them (Travel in Italy, Ancient Roman Art, and Beginning Italian), I really dislike the last (Science and Religion). This is a bit sad to me because not only is this class in my major, but it's also a class on religion, taught in Rome.
But I suppose that's the root of my discomfort with the class--it's taught by a Reverend, who is decidedly un-un-biased. Every example references religion, and when it doesn't do that, it doesn't reference anything at all that has to do with the class. He has no grasp of the philosophy that he teaches.
Anyway. I should stop being a downer. Also, I really hope he doesn't read this, since he's in control of my grades (though to give me a bad grade just for writing this would be an expression of his tendency to let his personal beliefs get in the way of his teaching, in my opinion.
Rome is beautiful, now more than ever. The European sun has finally come out to play and I'm loving it--somehow, it makes everything so much better than usual. Also, I have my DSLR now, thanks to my wonderful father, so I'm experimenting with photography, and WHERE better to do it than ROMA? (:
Thanks, Dad!
Speaking of my dad, he was indeed here in Rome for a while. He just left this Monday, but he was around for a little over a week, and it was a very nice change of pace to have him cooking for me (HOMECOOKED CHINESE FOOD OMG). It also helped me realize that cooking asian food in Rome is not as hard as I thought it was in the beginning of the program--it's just a matter of knowing what to cook and how (also, he brought a suitcase full of asian food--including a WHOLE PEKING DUCK. OMFG.)
Delicious food...I wish I still had some!
We ended up visiting London last weekend, where I took my DSLR for a spin. It was fun using it even though I had NO IDEA how to, really (my dad bought it when he was in Beijing, so the manual is in Chinese, which I am DEFINITELY not proficient enough in to read). Since then I've experimented enough to have a better grasp of it, but I'm defintiely definitely still in the early early early stages. I seem to be repeating words a lot in my head, sorry f-listers.
London Eye + Misc. Love this place. I'm glad I'm coming back soon...
Still though, even with my lack of knowledge on the intricacies of the camera, the quality of photo itself made it much more fun to use than my older canon, a regular digital point-and-shoot that, while I greatly love, pales in comparison to the power and amazingness of my new one. You might, by the way, notice that I've been posting a lot more photos on my entries: you might say that I was inspired by something one of the girls in my program (and a fellow blogger of sorts, you can find her here on tumblr. She and I were talking about blogging (sort of) the other day and she mentioned having stumbled across my lj via facebook. I think her exact quote was "There was just so much text!"
She didn't mean it as anything but commentary, and I laughed at the time but it's TRUE! I put so much blablabla here and, as they say, a picture's worth a thousand words, and when it comes to traveling, I think it's even more so. It's hard to express the beauty of the places that I'm lucky enough to go to in words, so I'm taking a page from her book, and resorting to photos now. I really encourage you all to take a look at her tumblr though (I hope she doesn't mind) because it's very fun to read and look at, and it's a lot more of a travel blog than my small little LJ here is (I'd say mine's more diary than anything else, sorry guys).
Anyway...so expect more photos in the future. Please tell me if the photos clog up your f-lists. That's the last thing I want and if this entry is a little too intense for your browsers/layouts to handle, let me know and in the future I'll limit it to 2 or 3 pictures or put it all under an lj-cut. (: But I like it out here, that way you can scroll through real quick and see the gist of my post without necessarily needing to read all the mumbo jumbo I type out.
Besides, who doesn't like photos? It's 3 am now, so I should sleep, but I promise I'll update more (this promise is inspired by my travel in Italy class). I leave you with one of my favorite photos from London, even though it's not of anything particularly spectacular. Something about it just endears me to it. I don't know...it's just some spur-of-the-moment shot I literally took while I was walking down the street (I didn't even stop walking).
Just some vendor roasting chestnuts.
So I guess I'll just start with the mundane. Classes have started again, and while I greatly enjoy three out of four of them (Travel in Italy, Ancient Roman Art, and Beginning Italian), I really dislike the last (Science and Religion). This is a bit sad to me because not only is this class in my major, but it's also a class on religion, taught in Rome.
But I suppose that's the root of my discomfort with the class--it's taught by a Reverend, who is decidedly un-un-biased. Every example references religion, and when it doesn't do that, it doesn't reference anything at all that has to do with the class. He has no grasp of the philosophy that he teaches.
Anyway. I should stop being a downer. Also, I really hope he doesn't read this, since he's in control of my grades (though to give me a bad grade just for writing this would be an expression of his tendency to let his personal beliefs get in the way of his teaching, in my opinion.
Rome is beautiful, now more than ever. The European sun has finally come out to play and I'm loving it--somehow, it makes everything so much better than usual. Also, I have my DSLR now, thanks to my wonderful father, so I'm experimenting with photography, and WHERE better to do it than ROMA? (:
Thanks, Dad!
Speaking of my dad, he was indeed here in Rome for a while. He just left this Monday, but he was around for a little over a week, and it was a very nice change of pace to have him cooking for me (HOMECOOKED CHINESE FOOD OMG). It also helped me realize that cooking asian food in Rome is not as hard as I thought it was in the beginning of the program--it's just a matter of knowing what to cook and how (also, he brought a suitcase full of asian food--including a WHOLE PEKING DUCK. OMFG.)
Delicious food...I wish I still had some!
We ended up visiting London last weekend, where I took my DSLR for a spin. It was fun using it even though I had NO IDEA how to, really (my dad bought it when he was in Beijing, so the manual is in Chinese, which I am DEFINITELY not proficient enough in to read). Since then I've experimented enough to have a better grasp of it, but I'm defintiely definitely still in the early early early stages. I seem to be repeating words a lot in my head, sorry f-listers.
London Eye + Misc. Love this place. I'm glad I'm coming back soon...
Still though, even with my lack of knowledge on the intricacies of the camera, the quality of photo itself made it much more fun to use than my older canon, a regular digital point-and-shoot that, while I greatly love, pales in comparison to the power and amazingness of my new one. You might, by the way, notice that I've been posting a lot more photos on my entries: you might say that I was inspired by something one of the girls in my program (and a fellow blogger of sorts, you can find her here on tumblr. She and I were talking about blogging (sort of) the other day and she mentioned having stumbled across my lj via facebook. I think her exact quote was "There was just so much text!"
She didn't mean it as anything but commentary, and I laughed at the time but it's TRUE! I put so much blablabla here and, as they say, a picture's worth a thousand words, and when it comes to traveling, I think it's even more so. It's hard to express the beauty of the places that I'm lucky enough to go to in words, so I'm taking a page from her book, and resorting to photos now. I really encourage you all to take a look at her tumblr though (I hope she doesn't mind) because it's very fun to read and look at, and it's a lot more of a travel blog than my small little LJ here is (I'd say mine's more diary than anything else, sorry guys).
Anyway...so expect more photos in the future. Please tell me if the photos clog up your f-lists. That's the last thing I want and if this entry is a little too intense for your browsers/layouts to handle, let me know and in the future I'll limit it to 2 or 3 pictures or put it all under an lj-cut. (: But I like it out here, that way you can scroll through real quick and see the gist of my post without necessarily needing to read all the mumbo jumbo I type out.
Besides, who doesn't like photos? It's 3 am now, so I should sleep, but I promise I'll update more (this promise is inspired by my travel in Italy class). I leave you with one of my favorite photos from London, even though it's not of anything particularly spectacular. Something about it just endears me to it. I don't know...it's just some spur-of-the-moment shot I literally took while I was walking down the street (I didn't even stop walking).
Just some vendor roasting chestnuts.