Pictures of my suite

It's the end of the world as we know it...

And I don't really feel fine. Now I must be honest, there were times during finals when I would have gladly taken the next available flight back to the U.S. but that was a gut reaction to flee finals, not Rome! So while I am still VERY excited to get home and eventually back to Houston... I am greatly saddened to leave. The fact that I have packed up most of my things and have a cab coming at 6:45 tomorrow morning is entirely surreal. I'm not ready to leave, because I don't know how to let this experience end.

The last few days have been busy. I finished my finals on Wednesday and although they were tough I think they'll turn out okay. Thursday was a day of recovery and in the evening since everyone had finished finals it was a night of celebration. A few of us had a very relaxed time at a Birreria. On Friday, Rachel and I wandered around the city, doing last minute "Rome" things. We went to Giolitti's for the best gelato in town, walked past a couple obelisks, and each threw a coin into Trevi Fountain. Friday night was the "Farewell Dinner" with (as to be expected) amazing food and everyone together for one last time. After dinner there was a slideshow put together from a bunch of student photos. The guy who made it spent a lot of time on it and the end result is amazing. It really encapsulated the semester. I took a couple pictures from it for this post and if anyone wants to see what my abroad experience was really like (with a bunch of inside jokes) ask me to show you the slide show. After that everyone went to the wine bar in our neighborhood where we tend to go. It was crowded with all of us there at once, but so worth it to have everyone in one place.

A lot of people left this morning, with the rest of us leaving either tomorrow morning or later in the week. A few people are traveling before returning to the U.S. It's hard to watch people go, and the thought of leaving tomorrow makes me tear up a little bit.

Here are a few things I'm going to miss about Rome and my program:

The 44 & 75 buses
The breakfast/lunch/dinner bell
Speaking (poor) Italian and having people understand me
Umbrella Pines
Nerdy Inside Jokes (Lambda!)
Walking to the Roman Forum for class
The fantastic drinking water
Gelato!
Seeing the Colosseum out of a bus window
People watching at a bar (again bar = cafe) with a delicious cappucino

Now on a positive note, some things I'm excited to return to the U.S. for:

Sushi, Tex-Mex, and Chicken Kitchen
Driving
Hanging out in Borders with a Coffee beverage
Going to Target to buy contact solution and leaving with some apples and a new skirt
Getting voicemail messages (a.k.a. having people call me)

I am very very excited to have my cell phone back. I used Skype a little bit to make some calls but it's so cumbersome to have to call from a computer and the time change always made things so tricky. Plus not receiving calls is kind of sad.

Now for some final photos:

This is a pic from Halloween. My costume is my hair, that's about it.

This is a tree in Campania (somewhere...) that is actually growing upside down into a cave. Eric is hiding(?) in it.

Me inside the Colosseum. See, I was in Rome!

This is Lauren being attacked by a pigeon in Venice. To the pigeon's credit she is purposefully feeding it.

The Centristi "trying" to move a giant stone drum.

Our terrific professors posing on a rock.

ICCS Fall '06

Alright well it's time for me to get more things together and eventually have dinner. I'll be leaving for the airport in about 12 hours, which is kind of terrifying. This will be my last post since this is called "Emily in Rome." Thanks to anyone reading and especially anyone commenting. You all lit up my days with your words.

Goodbyes make me introspective...

The hardest part about leaving is giving up the potential of this trip. When I found out I was accepted to my program in Rome last spring I was ecstatic. There's so much excitement and promise surrounding going abroad. From March on I had the next 9 months of my life planned out(and for me having a plan is fun): finish spring semester, live in Houston for the summer working and planning O-Week, actually *do* O-Week, then go abroad for 3+ months and have the time of my life in Rome. All of those things have come and gone so quickly and now I'm more than halfway done with college and only two months away from my 21st birthday. These things are pretty obvious facts, but I'm not very familiar with them and so I feel like I have to write them down anyway.

There are very few actual milestones in life. Maybe I'm not saying this correctly, but what I mean is that there are no real fresh starts. There are birthdays, New Years, graduations, etc. but it's hard to really distinguish my life before and after these alleged turning points. There's not a single day that sticks out to me from the past 6 months as a "milestone," but I can say that somewhere in that time I've grown. It's like that creeping feeling I get when I look back on something I wrote in high school, or remember how a song made me feel a year ago, and it makes me realize I've matured or at least changed in some way.

I think what I've learned most thoroughly over the last several months is that growing up is accidental. If given the choice (especially at this junction when I don't have any of the rest of my life planned out) I would choose not to grow up. The thing is, growing up is hardly a conscious process. Instead it's going through things that are hard or unpleasant and surviving. It's crying for hours about something and feeling like things will never get better, until they do get better. And then using that for the future. I hate to admit this now, because I never believed it when I was younger, but there are a lot of things in life that you just have to live through to understand.

I wish I knew where my life was going. Not knowing at 16 or 18 was fine, because hey I hadn't even started college, and you figure things out in college. Well now I'm in college and I've been in college for a while now and at the very best I've found a few things that I don't want to do with my life, but I certainly don't have a five year plan or anything. What's frustrating is that I know everyone goes through this, and for some reason that bothers me. I don't want to be one of the befuddled mass of undergraduates! I want to be self-possessed and focused, because being unsure makes me afraid that I will end up in a cardboard box. I want to get a job because I'm tired of school, but maybe I need more school to get a good job!

At the moment I think my priority should be to not fail my finals, so I should do a little studying. I have my final paper completed but I still have three finals in the next three days. Eep.

Two posts in one week? I must have something very important I'm avoiding....

It's true. I have a lot to do, and little desire to do anything. I had a good last week of classes, it contained four field trips, an oral presentation, and a quiz. Now I have three finals and a final paper and I'll be finished with everything in less than a week! I leave a week from Sunday and a week is a rather small unit of time.

This semester has been wonderful. I hope that from my stories and pictures everyone has gotten a small sample of what I've experienced. I've been so lucky to see the things I've seen and visit everywhere that I have visited. What's even more amazing is that I've had a lot of wonderful people visit me! My mom, aunt, and cousin, Sofia, Jodi, Valerie, and this weekend I have the pleasure of seeing Sarah and Amy who are visiting from Salmanca and Aix respectively. We had a delicious dinner last night and spent time discussing the similarities of Spanish, French, and Italian. Our little table was filled with a strange combination of those three languages as well as lots of English.

Today (instead of rewriting my paper... whoops I guess there will be time for that later tonight) I went to meet them at St. Peters and by chance we saw a papal address! None of us are Catholic so we didn't realize that this Friday was a holy day of obligation. It was fortunate that we were there because we got to see the pope from his window and hear his address. It was one of the cooler things I've seen in Rome. After we had lunch we went into St. Peter's (no lines!) and looked around. It's truly magnificent inside. Alright time to get some things accomplished before dinner. Enjoy the pictures:

Guarda, e' il Papa! (I circled the Pope's window in red for you.)

St. Peter's Basilica




Dome of St. Peter's



Tomb of St. Peter



Amy and Sarah with a view of Rome in the background.

Did you miss me?

I miss all of you!

I have a million things to write about, so prepare yourself for a massive post. You might want to tackle it in parts, the way I would my Latin translation...

In exactly two weeks I will be on a plane flying back to the United States, which means my study abroad experience will officially be over. It's a very weird mix of feelings. At the beginning of the semester 3 and a half months felt like an eternity. It seemed as if I would live in the land of pasta, ancient ruins, and frantic gesticulation for all time. I went on field trip after exhausting field trip, and the weeks slipped by. Now only four field trips remain and we only have one more trip on the bus!

I am very anxious to come home. Absence truly makes the heart grow fonder as there are things I never expected to miss, that I am absolutely homesick for, like an American grocery store or simply listening to the radio. I am not so foolish to wish the rest of my time here away. The moment I step on that plane my adventures abroad will be over (for now), and that is a sad thought. I am lucky enough that I will probably return, but there are no definite plans. I doubt I can even imagine all of the things (and people!) I will miss when I leave. Over the course of my semester I have often wished that I could be in two places at once and I can imagine that that feeling will continue even after I return.

I have been busy (always so busy!) the last month. We took our second all program trip, this time to southern Italy in the region of Campania. I saw the beautiful Naples, and also went to Pompeii. Visiting the archeological park at Pompeii was definitely a highlight of my whole semester. We spent a full day there (from when it opened until the sun set and the park closed) and it was truly amazing. Of course spending that much time outside wandering around was tiring, but I really did enjoy all of the time. As soon as I got back from Campania, my friend Valerie, who is studying in Paris, came to visit Rome and I got to spend quality time with her for the weekend. It was nice to catch up and just be in the same place as her for a while, I'm definitely looking forward to next semester when we'll be suitemates! The following weekend my friend Jodi, who is working in London, came and we had an amazing time hanging out, and as an added bonus I finally got to see the Sistine Chapel. I believe that catches us up to this weekend, which was a bit of a disappointment. I had planned all along to visit Sofia O. in Florence this weekend, but our plans were foiled by a strike of the Italian train workers! I'm even more thankful now that I got to see her in Rome, she won't be back at Rice until next fall!


This the Forum of Pompeii. In the background is Mt. Vesuvius, which is the volcano that erupted and covered the city in ash, tragically killing everyone, yet preserving all of the structures.



One of the amazing aspects of my program is that it has been around for several decades and has cultivated relationships with a lot of people. Because of this we get special permission to see things that are not open to the public. Above is a mosaic from inside a bath complex in Pompeii, that most people never get to see!


This my friend Rachel and me looking into the sun as we take a picture. We're at a villa in Pompeii.


This is a wall fresco from one of the "exclusive" villas we were allowed to see. The coloration and detail is so amazing but it was made before 79 AD when the volcano erupted!


This is carbonized bread that was left on a table during the eruption. The museum had several other artifacts like carbonized grains, fruits, and many personal items.

This is a shot taken on the bus. We spend so much time on the bus it seemed like an important thing to include.


This is a row of fountains taken at a Villa we stopped at. It's not classical and I don't really know anything about it... except that it's pretty!!


This is a structure I gave a report on. It's the Serapeum at Hadrian's Villa. The half-dome ceiling is actually constructed "like a pumpkin" as an ancient architect criticized. The dome is alternated between four sections of flat roofing and four sections of concave roofing. Water would stream down the walls by a complex series of piping, and they would hold dinner parties here. I could tell you more but even I'm getting bored....




Here are two crazy Centristi (Lisa Geiger and Grant) posing on statue bases.


We saw this sign on Thanksgiving. It struck me as pretty hilarious. I have not eaten at a McDonalds in Rome, but I hear it's actually pretty tasty. It's also kind of expensive 6 euros or something...


This is Trajan's column (in Rome) we were going to go up into it (there are stairs inside!) but it was apparently a safety hazard or something.

These are the remains of the Temple of August. Nikkei is doing a good job to show the scale of the temple.


Alright I'll try and post more before I leave. I've already made a list of things I'm looking forward to and things I'm going to miss!

Chronologically Inaccurate, but Aesthetically Pleasing...

Things have been so busy here lately. I had a midterm in Italian, my mom, aunt, and cousin came to visit, we had three field trips this week, etc. etc. My time has not been entirely my own lately. This weekend is a little bit better however I have two presentations to prepare for and we're leaving for our program's trip to Campania next Saturday!

I'm looking forward to crawling into bed with a good book. (It's very cold outside and in bed seems like the best location to be.) But to tide you over until I muster some actual narrative content here are some pictures.

So if you are good at keeping a timeline you know that I went to Sicily before I went to Greece, but I was on such a Greece kick when I got back I had to post all of my Greece photos. Here are a few more from Sicily.


This was one of two beaches we visited in Sicily. Apparently while we were swimming at the beach it was snowing in Chicago!
This is a shot from inside a stone quarry. I couldn't even tell you where we were in Sicily at this point. That whole week has merged together.
This was in Taormina, where we saw Mt. Etna. He's a street performer who is usually perfectly still hanging out on a stoop having a cigarette break.
This is a Greek theater, as it is built into a hill. Roman theaters tend to be freestanding.

Doric temple in Paestum. My friend Hannah was kind enough to give it scale. Paestum has some of the most well preserved Doric temples in the world.
Theater in Taormina, with Mt. Etna in the background.
That's Franco, our program coordinator, he's the go-to guy in Rome. He's standing between two medieval structures at the top of a Greek theater.

That's Mike standing in some Roman housing ruins.
This is Tom, he goes to WashU and knows Priya! Behind him is the Mediterranean.
This is a Greek theater... psych! Actually it's a comitium where the senate would vote.

This is my friend Rachel sitting in the medieval castle. She said she wanted to buy it and live in it so for the picture I told her to look "homey." I think it worked.

Home Sweet Rome

There is something amazing about sitting still, and especially knowing that you can remain in one place for a looong time. My trips to Sicily and Greece were both amazing, but I am so overwhelmingly excited to be back in Rome right now. My trip to Athens and Napflio was very relaxed and restful, but part of me is still a little worn out. Looking at the schedule for the week (A three field trip week) and looking ahead to my reports and tests... I'm quickly wearing away at the peace I stored up on vacation.

Here are a bunch of pictures from our trip, with captions to contextualize them.



This is a view of Athens from the Acropolis. The weather was a bit chilly and it was overcast both days we were there. Compared to the views of Nafplio, Athens is pretty unattractive. Overall I enjoyed seeing the ancient sites in Athens as well as visiting the National Archeological Museum, but the city itself was not my favorite place to visit.


This is the Odeon of Herakles. Faith and I had fun discussing it's Roman qualities and being Classics nerds in general.


Temple of Hephaestus. It's a canonical Doric temple... woot!

This is Faith and me in Athens, with the Acropolis in the background.


This is the Parthenon lit up at night. My camera took a pretty blurry picture, but this one's better than the manual setting, which made it look like the Parthenon was on fire.


Ahh, now we have pictures from Nafplio. This is the view from our hotel room. It's a cute town on the Aegean coast. The town is conscious of its tourist appeal and defintely caters to them. We did a lot of shopping but not much buying since it was all overpriced. It was the perfect place to relax for a few days.


More beautiful Nafplio.


The mountains turned purple at night!


This is our room at the Pension Mariana in Nafplio. The view alone was enough to satisfy me, but the cute decor, clean sheets, and tasty breakfast were also greatly appreciated.


In Nafplio there is a fortress from the 18th century on the top of a hill that is allegedly up 999 steps. We had been advised by our professors (the same professors who march us around Rome relentlessly) to take a taxi or bus up to the top, but with all the time in the world we decided to go up, counting the steps. Faith did most of the counting, I just asked, "What are we at now?". The result was 912 with an error margin of 5. This is me still perky before we start the climb. The fortress is in the background.


This is step 587. Slightly less perky.


This is 587 as well I think. We got tired by the end but it really wasn't that bad.


The views definitely made it worth the trek.


Look, it's me... in Greece!


Our hotel is in that picture. If you find the pine tree closest to you, the big one in the middle-ish of the screen, go back to the next big one and then find the yellow building just to the right of
that pine tree and you have the Pension Marianna! (If you actually found the hotel from that horrible description serious kudos for you.)


When we were traipsing around the fortress we found this really fun tunnel. Faith was sad that she was actually smaller than it was.


This is physical evidence that I am taller than Faith.


But it's okay, Faith found a tunnel that she was taller than as well.



These are the two cannonballs that mark the entrance to the stairs up the hill. We sped all the way down the stairs(it was 3:00pm and we were hungry for lunch)but our leg muscles were a little shaky afterwards.


In other news: JONES BEAT SID IN POWDERPUFF!! I'm sorry to my Sid friends (Jenny already chastised me for this) but I have to celebrate. Sid had been undefeated for something ridiculous like 34 games, spanning several seasons. And we finally beat them! This bodes well for playoffs, although I'm sure they'll be out for blood then... Anyway congrats to my powderpuff girls, you kick ass.

I have work to do, things to read, translate, learn etc. My mom, my aunt, and my cousin Katelyn will be here at the end of this week, so that's very exciting. And if we can work out details I think I get to see Sofia O. this Friday? Then more visits, trips, and work. Then Christmas, New Years, and back to Rice. How did I just summarize several months in two sentences....