Site Visits and Slacking
Let me preface this by saying that I have been shrugging off the complaints of others that I have not been blogging enough, by rationalizing that it's only been a week and blogging once a week really isn't that bad. My discoveries today have been twofold: 1) it has not been a week, but rather two weeks and so I have realized that my concept of time is severely and irreparably skewed 2) my dreams of becoming a professional blogger will most likely never come to fruition. On this note, we embark:
We can start off with a couple of weeks ago when a bunch of us went out to a club called La Maison, lots of fun. Lina didn't want to have her picture taken. Times 2. Or else that's a gang sign.
The weekend after the visit to La Maison I went on an excursion to Pompeii. Three and a half hour bus ride there, 5 hours spent running around and a four and a half hour bus ride back. Very draining. But I did come out with this cool picture of me standing in front of Mount Vesuvius.
Here we have a picture of my Ancient Roman Art teacher (who led the tour in Pompeii) being utterly adorable and teaching us something about wall painting, or impluvia or compluvia... maybe a peristyle or two.
I like this picture of Lina, for reasons that are not abundantly clear to me at the moment. I think it's because it captures her essence... whatever that means.
The reasons for why I enjoy this picture are a little clearer to me. Basically, ancient porn is funny since serious people have to study it just because it's old. Doggie style anybody?
This is a pretty picture from the bathhouses in Pompeii. I like it mainly because of the light, but the bathhouses were quite interesting as well.
The famous 'beware of dog' mosaic. Cave canum!!!
The week after Pompeii I had two midterms, one for Ancient Roman Art and one for Italian. Ancient Roman Art required copious amounts of studying, but it paid off in the end. I also rented this BBC television show called I Claudius from the library at my study center at the recommendation of my Art teacher. Ashley and I rationalized watching it as studying, but we really just enjoy it. We're almost done with the whole thing. Here's a recap of what has happened so far: Augustus was cool but quasi-stupid, Livia was a compulsive murderer, Tiberius was a crybaby/sex fiend (never a good combination), Caligula was f-ed (nuff said), and Claudius was cool (if not also quasi-stupid). I'll keep you posted of any major developments. My Italian test was on Thursday and was easy.
I also had another site visit on Wednesday, this time with my Renaissance Literature class to Castel Sant'Angelo. It was beautiful and interesting. Although, according to my teacher, our guide was uninformed and unintelligent. So apparently I spent the entire two hours being amused by lies. Oh well, we stuck it to them by playing with their ancient cannon balls.
I also stuck it to them by taking forbidden pictures. Here are a couple for your viewing pleasure:
Here's a view from the top of Castel Sant'Angelo. Apparently Benevenuto Cellini made sculptures and also fired cannons off of this structure during the Sack of Rome. Now that's a Renaissance Man.
My next site visit was on Friday and it was to Sperlonga and Terracina to see an old temple and Tiberius's (yes the same crybabysexfiend mentioned above) villa. Here's a picture of Ashley, Linnea and I all being cute among some of the temple ruins. Gotta be cute among temple ruins.
My first time standing in an ancient Roman temple! Well, what's left of it anyway...
This is what Tiberius saw every morning when he woke up. I know right? A**hole... (as a sidebar: check out how good I am at taking pictures!)
This is inside Tiberius's grotto. Now, see that grassy square surrounded by water (water teeming with fish, might I add)? That was where he and his guests ate dinner. They would pick a fish from the water and the servants would grab the fish and serve it to them. He did suck, but at least he knew how to live.
After our little grotto adventure, rain started pouring down on us as we ran to the museum. Here you can see my teacher soaking wet, as we all were. All in the name of art.
My next site visit was to the Pope's summer house (henceforth referred to as the Pope House). I went with my Science and Religion class and had a blasty blast. Here's a picture of the lake that the Pope wakes up to every morning during the summer. How about that vow of poverty?
Hey look, it's the Pope-o-scope!
I asked Ashley to do something Pope-esque and this was the best she could come up with.
I then did my best interpretation. What we have found is that our ideas of what the Pope does with his spare time differ drastically.
Also an interesting story from the Pope House: right to the left of me in that picture you see above is a very inviting looking staircase. Inviting in the sense that you're definitely not supposed to climb it. I saw my friend Anne coming down from the staircase after taking the picture and asked her what she had seen. She mentioned a bronze cupid a flight up, but also said that she didn't go any farther because she was afraid of getting in trouble. Well, the only thing I could say to that was, "Let's go crash the Pope's pad" (literally, that is what I said). So I led her up a huge flight of stairs which ended in a series of columns and nothing else of much interest. There was also another large flight of stairs. Anne wanted to turn back. I said no way. We tiptoed quietly up the next flight of stairs and found ourselves in a hallway of sorts and I suggested Anne take a picture. We then leapt our way back down the stairs and were just getting outside when a Vatican guard happened to be walking our direction. He looked menacingly at me and I smiled broadly and greeted him, "Buon giorno!" He started laughing and then our priest-teacher came around the corner and jokingly said that he was getting ready to shoot us (at least I hope he was joking). Anne and I walked away unscathed for the time being. A few minutes later, the Vatican guard came out of the Pope House and asked to see my camera. I was in the clear, showed him the camera, va bene. But then they wanted to know who was with me, I told them I didn't remember. Unfortunately, padre did. He outed Anne and the guard forced her to delete her photographic contraband. Sad but true. But it was fun and I saw a part of the Vatican that no one else gets to see, whoopee! Apparently Pope John Paul I died relatively close to where we performed our illicit photoshoot. These are the memories we cherish.
So there, veni bloggy vici. I came, I blogged, I conquered. May your days be long and your nights longer. Ciao!
We can start off with a couple of weeks ago when a bunch of us went out to a club called La Maison, lots of fun. Lina didn't want to have her picture taken. Times 2. Or else that's a gang sign.
The weekend after the visit to La Maison I went on an excursion to Pompeii. Three and a half hour bus ride there, 5 hours spent running around and a four and a half hour bus ride back. Very draining. But I did come out with this cool picture of me standing in front of Mount Vesuvius.
Here we have a picture of my Ancient Roman Art teacher (who led the tour in Pompeii) being utterly adorable and teaching us something about wall painting, or impluvia or compluvia... maybe a peristyle or two.
I like this picture of Lina, for reasons that are not abundantly clear to me at the moment. I think it's because it captures her essence... whatever that means.
The reasons for why I enjoy this picture are a little clearer to me. Basically, ancient porn is funny since serious people have to study it just because it's old. Doggie style anybody?
This is a pretty picture from the bathhouses in Pompeii. I like it mainly because of the light, but the bathhouses were quite interesting as well.
The famous 'beware of dog' mosaic. Cave canum!!!
The week after Pompeii I had two midterms, one for Ancient Roman Art and one for Italian. Ancient Roman Art required copious amounts of studying, but it paid off in the end. I also rented this BBC television show called I Claudius from the library at my study center at the recommendation of my Art teacher. Ashley and I rationalized watching it as studying, but we really just enjoy it. We're almost done with the whole thing. Here's a recap of what has happened so far: Augustus was cool but quasi-stupid, Livia was a compulsive murderer, Tiberius was a crybaby/sex fiend (never a good combination), Caligula was f-ed (nuff said), and Claudius was cool (if not also quasi-stupid). I'll keep you posted of any major developments. My Italian test was on Thursday and was easy.
I also had another site visit on Wednesday, this time with my Renaissance Literature class to Castel Sant'Angelo. It was beautiful and interesting. Although, according to my teacher, our guide was uninformed and unintelligent. So apparently I spent the entire two hours being amused by lies. Oh well, we stuck it to them by playing with their ancient cannon balls.
I also stuck it to them by taking forbidden pictures. Here are a couple for your viewing pleasure:
Here's a view from the top of Castel Sant'Angelo. Apparently Benevenuto Cellini made sculptures and also fired cannons off of this structure during the Sack of Rome. Now that's a Renaissance Man.
My next site visit was on Friday and it was to Sperlonga and Terracina to see an old temple and Tiberius's (yes the same crybabysexfiend mentioned above) villa. Here's a picture of Ashley, Linnea and I all being cute among some of the temple ruins. Gotta be cute among temple ruins.
My first time standing in an ancient Roman temple! Well, what's left of it anyway...
This is what Tiberius saw every morning when he woke up. I know right? A**hole... (as a sidebar: check out how good I am at taking pictures!)
This is inside Tiberius's grotto. Now, see that grassy square surrounded by water (water teeming with fish, might I add)? That was where he and his guests ate dinner. They would pick a fish from the water and the servants would grab the fish and serve it to them. He did suck, but at least he knew how to live.
After our little grotto adventure, rain started pouring down on us as we ran to the museum. Here you can see my teacher soaking wet, as we all were. All in the name of art.
My next site visit was to the Pope's summer house (henceforth referred to as the Pope House). I went with my Science and Religion class and had a blasty blast. Here's a picture of the lake that the Pope wakes up to every morning during the summer. How about that vow of poverty?
Hey look, it's the Pope-o-scope!
I asked Ashley to do something Pope-esque and this was the best she could come up with.
I then did my best interpretation. What we have found is that our ideas of what the Pope does with his spare time differ drastically.
Also an interesting story from the Pope House: right to the left of me in that picture you see above is a very inviting looking staircase. Inviting in the sense that you're definitely not supposed to climb it. I saw my friend Anne coming down from the staircase after taking the picture and asked her what she had seen. She mentioned a bronze cupid a flight up, but also said that she didn't go any farther because she was afraid of getting in trouble. Well, the only thing I could say to that was, "Let's go crash the Pope's pad" (literally, that is what I said). So I led her up a huge flight of stairs which ended in a series of columns and nothing else of much interest. There was also another large flight of stairs. Anne wanted to turn back. I said no way. We tiptoed quietly up the next flight of stairs and found ourselves in a hallway of sorts and I suggested Anne take a picture. We then leapt our way back down the stairs and were just getting outside when a Vatican guard happened to be walking our direction. He looked menacingly at me and I smiled broadly and greeted him, "Buon giorno!" He started laughing and then our priest-teacher came around the corner and jokingly said that he was getting ready to shoot us (at least I hope he was joking). Anne and I walked away unscathed for the time being. A few minutes later, the Vatican guard came out of the Pope House and asked to see my camera. I was in the clear, showed him the camera, va bene. But then they wanted to know who was with me, I told them I didn't remember. Unfortunately, padre did. He outed Anne and the guard forced her to delete her photographic contraband. Sad but true. But it was fun and I saw a part of the Vatican that no one else gets to see, whoopee! Apparently Pope John Paul I died relatively close to where we performed our illicit photoshoot. These are the memories we cherish.
So there, veni bloggy vici. I came, I blogged, I conquered. May your days be long and your nights longer. Ciao!
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