Goodbye to Rome

Today is the day that I leave Rome. I absolutely cannot believe that my time here is already up! I still distinctly remember my first day here, the first time I got lost, the first people I met, the first "real" Italian I spoke...they are things that I will never forget. My time here has been amazing, stressful, and crazy all rolled into one. Rome is an extraordinary city, one that I still don't understand, and doubt I ever will. You can hate it or love it, and most of the time I hate it AND love it, the people, the public transportation, the everything. I know I didn't experience everything to offer here, but who could? This city is a secret to even those who have lived their whole lives in it.
As sad as I am to leave, I know that I will be back, and that keeps me going. I have to come back, to continue experiencing and attempting to understand just a little more what makes this amazing city "tick". Despite that, I am ready to go home. And excited to see friends and family!! Also, the use of simple appliances would be nice (like a dryer, microwave, or toaster for starters)!

“When we have once known Rome, and left her where she lies, like a long-decaying corpse, retaining a trace of the noble shape it was, but with accumulated dust and a fungus growth overspreading all its more admirable features, left her in utter weariness, no doubt, of her narrow, crooked, intricate streets, so uncomfortably paved with little squares of lava that to tread over them is a penitential pilgrimage, so indescribably ugly, moreover, so cold, so alley-like, into which the sun never falls, and where a chill wind forces its deadly breath into our lungs, --left her, sick at heart of Italian trickery, which has uprooted whatever faith in man's integrity had endured till now, and sick at stomach of sour bread, sour wine, rancid butter, and bad cookery, needlessly bestowed on evil meats,-- left her, crushed down in spirit with the desolation of her ruin, and the hopelessness of her future, --left her, in short, hating her with all our might, and adding our individual curse to the infinite anathema which her old crimes have unmistakably brought down,--when we have left Rome in such mood as this, we are astonished by the discovery, by and by, that our heart-strings have mysteriously attached themselves to the Eternal City, and are drawing us thitherward again, as if it were more familiar, more intimately our home, than even the spot where we were born.”

-Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Marble Faun

Goodbye Roma! It has been an unforgettable experience.

And Ciao all! Thank you for reading all semester!

My Last Weeks in Rome

These last few weeks have been such a whirlwind! I know I promised I would update you all on the goings-on in my time in Rome a bit ago, so here it is!


Floor bricks we separated at the dig and put in formation



When I came home from the vast adventure of Fall Break, I really needed a little me-time, so I decided to go to the new Van Gogh exhibit that was showing at the National Museum in Piazza Venezia (right near the Coliseum). My school (University of Richmond) reimburses me for "cultural events" that I clear in advance, so I basically "booked" myself some time there. It was so interesting to see all of Van Gogh's work in one place! Well, almost all of his works. Starry Night was missing! That was a bit of a let down, but other than that it was really kind of...grown-up to go to a museum by myself. I know that sounds corny, but thats how it felt. The exhibit was amazing, with so much that I had never seen by him, from paintings from Van Gogh's time in the Netherlands, to the complete change in artistic style when he moved to impressionistic Paris.

Despite an extremely boring start to my internship, things got pretty fun and interesting in the last few weeks of my time there. Of course, a lot of the best stuff came after I had already turned in my field journal for the course that went along with the internship itself, but oh well. We finally were able to power-wash the pottery, which made things go A LOT faster, both the time and the actual work itself. It was also pretty amusing. I was also taught how to label the individual pieces of pottery, bricks, and miscellaneous pieces of clay using a fountainpen (sooo hard to write with), making sure to keep the material from different parts of the dig separate. I also learned, along with two other interns Sam and Rosalie, how to separate how different kinds of building materials, and we were entrusted with placing them in different containers, and making new labels, and putting together possible formations of them. When you think that these materials, like stone from floors, and different kinds of tiles for roofs, were buried within the Mausoleum (which itself was built 2000 years ago), it just makes things all the cooler, and makes it so much more important. If we know what they were using at the time of building the Mausoleum, we can use that information to date a lot of other construction materials that have been found at other sites just like ours. There really is so much we can learn from them.

  A friend of mine from school who is studying in Perugia (about 3 hours by train from Rome) this semester came to Rome on a class trip a few weekends ago, and I was able to spend a little time with her. It was so crazy to think that we were in Rome hanging out! It was also nice to get out of my routine here--it is so easy to think "home-school-grocery store-home" and not get out of that mould, so when people visit, it really is the best. We ended up going to the biggest Jewish temple in Rome, and going on a tour of the Jewish Museum. The history of Jews in Rome is a long and sad one, and it felt good to finally learn more about the people that make up a pretty significent portion of the city population. I've shared this city with them, so it was about time I learn a little bit more about how they came to be in the situation they are in, or have been in.

Thanksgiving in Rome was so much fun! While it was sad not be with the people I am normally with during this holiday, it was good nonetheless. We made a makeshift Thanksgiving dinner with about 13 of us, a mix of Americans and Italians. I cooked apple crisp (a first for me, it was actually pretty good!), there was turkey and all of the fixings, candied yams, asparagus, and of course, pumpkin pie. It was great to get together, and really appreciate our time in Rome, and be thankful for everything I have been able to do during my time here.

I'm not sure if Italy's current political state has hit the new stations in the United States, but yesterday was an absolutely crazy day in Rome. Berlusconi, the Prime Minister and pretty much the head of government, had a vote of non-confidence called against him by people from his own party. The vote was yesterday, and ended in him winning "confidence" by 3 votes. THREE VOTES. The final count was 314 against 311. Really, Italians? Immediately after the vote, there were aleady allegations that Berlusconi had bought votes, which is pretty easy to understand and accept, but I'm sure that will never be proved. While there have been protests throughout Rome and Italy (but mainly Rome) against new education bills that the government is trying to pass these past few weeks, yesterday there was a demonstration of more than 50,000 people already planned to protest against the current government. When the news the Berlusconi had somehow passed the vote, and that the government would not fall as some had hoped, the protests turned into violent riots, and the center of Rome was pure mayhem. My school, which I was thankfully not at, was vandalised amidst the rioters (as students were blocked inside) by protesters with baseball bats. They ended up breaking the front door, and painting graffiti all over the building, along with a lot of buildings in that area. Piazza del Popolo was locked down after a couple of cars were set on fire. There was tear-gas, 1,500 police, and angry protesters who were absolutely out of control. Just another day in paradise, right?

Despite all that, I will always love Rome. How could I not? Maybe just not Berlusconi...

I wish I had more pictures for you guys but the upload process is taking forever! Ciao and see you soon!!

Grenoble with my French Family!

Two weekends ago I visited Grenoble to see my grandmothers brother (Pascal) and his wife Martine. I was a little nervous going into the weekend--my French is not as good as it once was (it never really was that good anyway) and it was the weekend before my Italian finals, so I was already a little stressed. But I am so glad I went!



My Sleeper Cabin...my bed was on the left!

I left Thursday evening, on a night train to Dijon Ville, France, where I was planning on buying another ticket for a quick train to Grenoble in the morning. Easy, right? Wrong. France ended up getting hit with a pretty big snow storm, so my already 12 hour train ride turned into a 15 hour train ride, forcing me to miss my connection, and beginning one of the longest days of my life! I was blessed with a good family in my sleeper cabin--a group of 5 Italians on their way to Paris, who were very conversational and funny. That helped. Also, a gentleman I met while getting increasingly annoyed with train security (after they said it would be a half hour to the train station, 2 hours later we were still sitting on the tracks...) who spoke Italian and French and was able to help me onto a train to Lyon (and then I would change to Chambery), which was absolutely amazing. Of course, things couldn't actually go as planned, again, because at Lyon I was stopped because of MORE snow, with more and more trains delayed and cancelled. By the time I made it onto my train to Chambery, I was still working on getting ahold of Pascal, and because my French is so bad, he couldn't understand a thing I was saying! Thankfully, a girl sitting across from me spoke French and English, so she was able to talk with him on my behalf. Once I got to Chambery, the snow was still so bad that I had to take ANOTHER train to finally get to Grenoble, since Pascal could no longer drive on the roads that far to get me. What time did I finally find Pascal and Martine at the Grenoble train station? 6 pm Friday. Twenty four hours it took for me to finally get there.

EVERY TRAIN WAS LATE.



All was forgotten, however, when I was able to sit down and eat a real meal with Pascal and Martine. A real meal! One that wasn't based around pasta, or cous cous (a specialty of mine now...), with a main course, cheese, and dessert, a.k.a. so exciting! That night, Pascal brought out old family photographs, and I was able to see pictures from when I visited them when I was barely three years old (with my parents of course). It was actually a lot of fun to look through. To top it off, I was able to use Pascal's free long distance to call my step-mom on her birthday, which I'm pretty sure she enjoyed.

The next day, we all went with Nicolas (Pascal and Martine's son) and his girlfriend to Annecy, a small town about an hour by car away from Grenoble. Annecy is easily one of the most awe-inspiring, beautiful places I have been (and that is saying a lot). The Alps frame the most picturesque lake, and with the snow having just fallen, it was out of a storybook. We ate lunch at a great restaurant, where I ate pate and other foods that I'm not all that interested in actually knowing (I would rather not...), and we went to a Christmas Market where Martine bought me the cutest little stuffed lion that is filled with lavender and can be heated up in the microwave. So sweet! All in all, it was an amazing day.



Annecy, France



On Sunday, we walked into Grenoble and went to the local market. It was gorgeous out, and reminded me so much of Vermont! The Mountains are literally right on top of the town, which was pretty intense, and the snow and slight chill just made the sunshine feel even better. That afternoon, I unfortunately I had to leave, after such a short time visiting! I left at around 2 and arrived back in Rome around 10:30 the next morning, just in time for three classes, and an Italian oral presentation to start off the week.

Forty-four and a half hours I spent travelling to see my family, and I don't regret any of it--it felt so great to finally "meet" them (despite having seen them before). Now I desperately want to go back! It's my mission to practice my French so that I will be able to actually talk with Martine (who doesn't know as much English as Pascal, and Pascal doesn't know a huge amount of English to begin with), and really spend time with them. They are such great people! Also...they had coca cola in their fridge--if it had been Diet Coke, I never would have left!

Me, Martine, Nicolas, and his girlfriend, in Annecy!