Medieval Island Cities, Roman Birthdays, and Macho Points
The past week has been another good one, another fast one.... let's see. I don't remember what we did last Thursday (last update) other than go to Mickey's (ND hangout restaurant) with Theresa and Kim- Thursday's becoming a fun girl's night tradition.
Last Friday we headed out early in the morning on yet another field trip, this time to Bagnoregio and Viterbo. Bagnoregio is an old city that was built on rock that was on top of softer rock, and the area around the city has fallen away. Now only 10 or 15 people live there, and we had to walk about 2 miles and across a crazy steep bridge over a valley to get to the old city. It was pretty awesome though, like a ghost town kind of minus the ghosts. It was pretty Scooby Doo though, not gonna lie. After a quick drawing assignment, we rushed back to the bus and went to Viterbo, a larger city nearby. Brian and I got some delicious Kebabs for lunch and explored, followed by a frustrating lecture by my professor who had never been to the city before, made more frustrating by the fact that the other prof doing the lecture is one of the top 5 experts in the world on the city's history. Ah well. It was interesting anyways. For example, i learned that 'conclave' means 'with key' because of a medieval papal conclave where it took 33 months to decide on a pope, so St. Bonaventure encouraged the police in Viterbo to lock the Cardinals into the building and not feed them.... needless to say, they hurried up and decided. Too bad their choice didn't last very long- he died when a roof fell on him. Dang it. Anyways, Viterbo was cool. Friday ended with watching Edward Scissorhands with a sleeping Brian.
Saturday and Sunday I basically wasted a lot of time and got a lot of sleep and did a little work... highlights of the weekend include a great run with Theresa and watching the boys play football on the Circus Maximus. Saturday night my professor invited our class to his apartment where we sat around, ate appetizers, drank wine, and listened to him and his Asian architect friend play guitar. Good times. Afterwards, i sat on the Pantheon and talked with friends. Only in Rome.
Monday was just a lot of studio work, laundry, and shopping. Bought a cute shirt for a good price. Made a decent taco salad for dinner. Ok, it wasn't that great but I attempted. Also found out that Jenny and Clay are going to visit and that Mary's engaged... crazy! In sadder news, one of the grad student's sisters died and he had to fly home and bury her. I feel horrible- what a nice kid, too. He went to USC for undergrad and naturally i had to make fun of him but actually got to know him a little and realized that maybe USC isn't allll bad. Just mostly. Anyways, that sucks. Went to mass this morning in the crypt of St. Peter's Basilica in remembrance. (while we were there, we got to see John Paul II's tomb, and St. Peter's fake tomb- we get to see the real one for Theo class in november!)
Yesterday was my birthday and I had a great day. Theresa wasted no time at midnight finding me in the library, then writing on my facebook wall like 10 times over the course of the day, although i was in the next room.... got some sleep and then for class we went to the Imperial Forums for Urbanism and explored the ruins of some ancient Roman temples, basilicas, and markets. Pretty dang sweet. Every day is like a field trip really, and i don't think i've enjoyed class this much since about 4th grade. Afternoon was spent reading history, trying to talk to mom and dad, and pretending to study theo. Then Brian cooked me a delicious dinner and we finally set off on the big mystery date- after walking a bit, we arrived at a beautiful church, St. Paul's Inside the Walls, where we enjoyed an amazing opera concert by a famous Venetian opera group. Best date everrr. Mrs. Droste, if you're reading this, as I've heard you do, you must have done a lot of things right :) Now I have only one month to come up with something good for his birthday... hmm. Anyways, after the opera concert, we came back to studio and Theresa and Kim surprised me with cake and fragolina, yummm. A few of my other friends got me a big bag of chocolate covered espresso beans, as well, so needless to say, I'm set for a longggg time on the sweets. anddd the running shoes will be coming back out very soon.... ah well.
Today it was back to class and work and adjusting to being 2 decades old... class was really interesting, though. Some highlights: In History, my professor, Ingrid explained: "The process of life here is to rack up macho points... the whole point is to get enough points so that you feel like a winner, otherwise you might as well just go home." She also said, "I guess because Little House on the Prairie used to make me want to barf, Little House of Literatures makes me want to barf, too... [The mayor] is like the little geeky guy that always likes to follow you. (makes face)" EXCELLENT. And in theology, we discussed (ok more of a heated argument really) why women can't be priests. I don't get it, all i understand really is that apparently male genitalia is essential for the priest to feel like Jesus when he does the liturgy of the Eucharist. Ok i don't get it at all, and spent my afternoon arguing with a monsignor about how he makes no sense. He also said that the woman's right movement may just be a fluke. I had to take a nap to calm down. Phew.
Ahhh well i've procrastinated work quite enough. Back to it. Ugh.
Last Friday we headed out early in the morning on yet another field trip, this time to Bagnoregio and Viterbo. Bagnoregio is an old city that was built on rock that was on top of softer rock, and the area around the city has fallen away. Now only 10 or 15 people live there, and we had to walk about 2 miles and across a crazy steep bridge over a valley to get to the old city. It was pretty awesome though, like a ghost town kind of minus the ghosts. It was pretty Scooby Doo though, not gonna lie. After a quick drawing assignment, we rushed back to the bus and went to Viterbo, a larger city nearby. Brian and I got some delicious Kebabs for lunch and explored, followed by a frustrating lecture by my professor who had never been to the city before, made more frustrating by the fact that the other prof doing the lecture is one of the top 5 experts in the world on the city's history. Ah well. It was interesting anyways. For example, i learned that 'conclave' means 'with key' because of a medieval papal conclave where it took 33 months to decide on a pope, so St. Bonaventure encouraged the police in Viterbo to lock the Cardinals into the building and not feed them.... needless to say, they hurried up and decided. Too bad their choice didn't last very long- he died when a roof fell on him. Dang it. Anyways, Viterbo was cool. Friday ended with watching Edward Scissorhands with a sleeping Brian.
Saturday and Sunday I basically wasted a lot of time and got a lot of sleep and did a little work... highlights of the weekend include a great run with Theresa and watching the boys play football on the Circus Maximus. Saturday night my professor invited our class to his apartment where we sat around, ate appetizers, drank wine, and listened to him and his Asian architect friend play guitar. Good times. Afterwards, i sat on the Pantheon and talked with friends. Only in Rome.
Monday was just a lot of studio work, laundry, and shopping. Bought a cute shirt for a good price. Made a decent taco salad for dinner. Ok, it wasn't that great but I attempted. Also found out that Jenny and Clay are going to visit and that Mary's engaged... crazy! In sadder news, one of the grad student's sisters died and he had to fly home and bury her. I feel horrible- what a nice kid, too. He went to USC for undergrad and naturally i had to make fun of him but actually got to know him a little and realized that maybe USC isn't allll bad. Just mostly. Anyways, that sucks. Went to mass this morning in the crypt of St. Peter's Basilica in remembrance. (while we were there, we got to see John Paul II's tomb, and St. Peter's fake tomb- we get to see the real one for Theo class in november!)
Yesterday was my birthday and I had a great day. Theresa wasted no time at midnight finding me in the library, then writing on my facebook wall like 10 times over the course of the day, although i was in the next room.... got some sleep and then for class we went to the Imperial Forums for Urbanism and explored the ruins of some ancient Roman temples, basilicas, and markets. Pretty dang sweet. Every day is like a field trip really, and i don't think i've enjoyed class this much since about 4th grade. Afternoon was spent reading history, trying to talk to mom and dad, and pretending to study theo. Then Brian cooked me a delicious dinner and we finally set off on the big mystery date- after walking a bit, we arrived at a beautiful church, St. Paul's Inside the Walls, where we enjoyed an amazing opera concert by a famous Venetian opera group. Best date everrr. Mrs. Droste, if you're reading this, as I've heard you do, you must have done a lot of things right :) Now I have only one month to come up with something good for his birthday... hmm. Anyways, after the opera concert, we came back to studio and Theresa and Kim surprised me with cake and fragolina, yummm. A few of my other friends got me a big bag of chocolate covered espresso beans, as well, so needless to say, I'm set for a longggg time on the sweets. anddd the running shoes will be coming back out very soon.... ah well.
Today it was back to class and work and adjusting to being 2 decades old... class was really interesting, though. Some highlights: In History, my professor, Ingrid explained: "The process of life here is to rack up macho points... the whole point is to get enough points so that you feel like a winner, otherwise you might as well just go home." She also said, "I guess because Little House on the Prairie used to make me want to barf, Little House of Literatures makes me want to barf, too... [The mayor] is like the little geeky guy that always likes to follow you. (makes face)" EXCELLENT. And in theology, we discussed (ok more of a heated argument really) why women can't be priests. I don't get it, all i understand really is that apparently male genitalia is essential for the priest to feel like Jesus when he does the liturgy of the Eucharist. Ok i don't get it at all, and spent my afternoon arguing with a monsignor about how he makes no sense. He also said that the woman's right movement may just be a fluke. I had to take a nap to calm down. Phew.
Ahhh well i've procrastinated work quite enough. Back to it. Ugh.