Every New Beginning...

I don’t know if Blogs are meant to have endings, but I seem to find myself at one.

Here I am once more, 30,000 in the air, on the return path of my flight 112 days ago.  So, what did I do?

I survived.

I survived living in a different country with a different language and a very different culture.  I survived jet lag and traveling almost every other weekend.  I survived very different classes and professors with limited English vocabularies.  I survived a rumored earthquake that was supposed to level half of the city on May 11^th.  But I did a lot more than that.

I ate incredible food, half of which I still don’t know exactly what I was eating.  I saw amazing views, beautiful works of art, and miraculous architecture.  And I made some unbelievably great friends to share it all with.

I lived.

Last night was my dear friend and roommate Dorothy’s 21^st Birthday and our last night in Rome.  I woke up at 7:00am Friday morning and have been laughing, crying, and hugging ever since.  Apparently, sleep did not fit into our busy schedule for our last 24 hours.  We finished our exams, got dressed up, and had one last dinner in Trastevere.  There were countless toasts, a few tears, and summer and fall reunion planning.

It was an incredible semester.  Thank you to all of my family and friends from home who sent their love half way around the world.  Thank you to all of my readers, I hope you had as much fun reading as I did writing.  Thank you to all of my friends in Rome, you did the impossible and made the semester even better than I could ever imagine.  And, as always, thank you Mom and Dad for this incredible opportunity and your unconditional love and support.

Goodbye for now, my Italy.

Wrapping It Up

In six hours, I will be leaving Italia.

Since I can't deal with the emotional magnitude of that statement just quite yet, I am going to summarize what I've been doing for my last few weeks in Rome.

Way back in the beginning of the semester, I believe I said something about weekly blogging about onsite classes.  It turned out those blogs were few and far between.  Even though I took my last exam this afternoon, here is an update:

Art History

"If it ain't Baroque, don't fix it!" As the cheesy music T-Shirt slogan goes.  The last half of my on-site art history class dove into the world of Baroque.  Notable Sites: Il Gesu was the model for pretty much all of the churches after the 1500s.  The ceiling of Il Gesu was painted by Gaulli in the late 1500s and represents the merging of the art forms.  It's hard to tell where the architecture, sculpture, and painting start and stop.  The rest of the semester was filled with even more beautiful churches, incredible works of art, and an awkwardly dramatic documentary series on Carvagio and Bernini, one of those that has an art expert with a British accent narrating the timeline while semi-famous actors that are in a rut do dramatic walking scenes with very little actual acting.  Informative and slightly hilarious, but beautiful.

Sociology

So, it has become clear that my Sociology professor is...interesting.  After the Midterm, he told us he does not believe in Passports, he thinks anyone should be able to live and travel where they want, and he firmly argues there is no such thing as "preserved nature."

The second to last week of class, he took us to the Mouth of the Tiber river.  Literally.  We took a tram to a bus to a train all the way to the end, then we took a bus to the pier and walked to the very entrance of the river.  The lecture was only 20 minutes long before we had to start the trek back.



The week before that, he took us to meet his friends.  His friends are gypsies, most of them without papers, living in illegal housing on the outskirts of the city.  While it was fascinating to see how these people live, it was difficult to communicate.  I felt guilty because they made us lunch and everything.  "Hi, I'm really interested in why you had to leave your own country and come to Italy, but I'm just going to sit here and eat your food because you can't understand me. :\ Two hours after we left, there was a police raid of the camp.

Finally, my very last Rome activity, Vatican Museums Under the Stars.

While most visitors pack into the museums and spend hours being shuffled along by tour guides, I had the entire museum almost completely by myself, with galleries lit by candles and moonlight.

What an amazing way to end the semester!

A Weekend in Paradise (The Amalfi Coast) Day 3: Pompeii

Day 3: Pompeii

We woke up to the breakfast bell of 7Hostel on our last day in the beautiful Amalfi Coast.  After scrambling to pack and locating all of the key cards for check out, we grabbed a pastry and walked to the buses.  After an hour of playing I Spy, I'm Going on a Picnic, and other fun car-ride games from our childhood, we arrived in Pompeii.

There is not much to Pompei (The current Italian city).   The Bus2Alps guides pointed out a pizza place where we had lunch, and then we wandered around the piazza at the entrance to the ruins.  There were a few rows of tents where vendors were selling souvenirs.  We walked by one very Italian looking old woman who had a large display of coral necklaces.

I must have lingered because within seconds she was telling me about her jewelry and pushing a small photo of the Virgin Mary into my hand.  "Yes, you are so beautiful, let's find a necklace for your beautiful mother!" Well, mom would actually probably like one of these, I thought to myself.  She picked one out for me, we bargained the 40-euro price down to 20, and I handed her a 50-euro bill, the only thing I had on me.  Oops.  She looked at the bill, looked me and said, "I have just the necklace for you, you need a beautiful necklace too because you are so nice, so beautiful." Before I could blink, I was down to 15 euro and two coral necklaces.  Oh well. When in Rome, or, Pompeii. And they are very pretty necklaces.

In 79AD, Mount Vesuvius violently erupted, spewing poisonous gases into the air for 4 days.  When the volcano finally calmed, Pompeii, a port town at the base of the volcano, was deserted.  Most inhabitants had fled, but about 4,000 had remained and died of poisons.  The city was buried by landslides and earthquakes in the years that followed.

Since 1400, excavations have cleared about 3/5 of the city.  During one particular dig, an archeologist found a hollow space surrounding human bone.  He discovered the space was left by decayed flesh and by injecting plaster, he could make molds of the bodies of the victims.  These molds are so detailed, some even show the pained expressions on the victims faces from their final moments.

Our tour guide was Antonio, a 60-something Italian man who grew up in the area.  His tour was informative and thorough, and he made sure we understood his English.  We saw the markets, the forum, the baths, and the red light district, which was the aspect of the ruins that most of the sketchy street vendors seemed to focus on.


It was a beautiful, informative, and fun weekend.  I got home and saw "11 Days Left in Roma" on my computer.  I can't believe it's almost over, but I can't wait for my last few days in this incredible city with my amazing friends.  It's going to be epic!

See photos of the entire weekend HERE!

A Weekend in Paradise (The Amalfi Coast) Day 2: Positano

Day 2: Positano

If you ever get a chance to visit the Amalfi Coast, DO IT!  However, prepare to do a lot of walking.

We woke up Saturday morning snug and warm in our 7Hostel beds...to a thunderclap.  All week we had been biting our nails and carefully watching the "chance of precipitation" fluctuate.  When we asked our Bus2Alps leaders what we would do in case of rain, they always quickly replied, "Oh, it won't rain."  Always the optimists.

We had already paid for the bus so we piled on and drove down to Positano.  It was one of those "OH-MY-GOD-SLOW-DOWN-THE-BUS-IS-GOING-TO-FALL-OFF-THIS-CLIFF-COULD-YOU-TAKE-THAT-TURN-ANY-FASTER?!" rides, but the view was beautiful.

We got off at the top of the coast and looked down at the beach below.  Remember when we went up all those stairs in Capri? We went down them in Positano.  Hundreds of wet, slippery stone steps later, our knees were shaking and our legs were ready to collapse.

In Northern Michigan you don't really go out in the rain (unless you are troopers like Anna Mae, Linda, and Travis and run around Mackinac Island anyway).  If anything, the library is a good place to spend the day, but mostly we just turn on a heater and curl up with a book or a movie.  I suspect Positano is the same way.

The town was quiet and almost deserted apart from Bus2Alps and a handful of tourists.  Our shoes got soaked in a matter of minutes and soon we were shivering by the shore.  A few of us ducked into a restaurant mainly because it had heat lamps.  It only took a few seconds of menu browsing before we found something that sounded like heaven: Ham, Egg, and Cheese Crepe.  Soon we were forgetting our frozen toes and reveling in warm, cheesy goodness.

After brunch, the boys took their football and the girls hit the shops.  As expected, the economy in Positano is comprised mainly of sunglasses, beachwear, and jewelry, all incredibly expensive.  We had a lovely couple hours window shopping and daydreaming of a time when our broke college days are over and we can spend our days lounging on a yacht.

Our Bus2Alps trip leaders decided to bump up our departure time, so we headed back to the hostel around 3pm.  I jumped in a hot shower to thaw before participating in our unscheduled group activity for the day: Nap Time.  No one felt like going anywhere, so 7Hostel arranged a 9-euro all-you-can-eat pasta buffet for dinner and invited a live band to play in the club.  They specialized in feel-good 90s music and we rocked out to some Shania Twain until we had to head up to bed.

Next up: Pompeii!

See photos of the entire weekend HERE!

A Weekend in Paradise (The Amalfi Coast) Day 1: Capri

It's official.  My life-long love affair with Italy has begun.  From the rolling hills in the north to the beautiful coast in the south, Italy is the most beautiful country in Europe!

For one last trip, I visited the Amalfi Coast this past weekend with a few of the most amazing people in Rome!  Around midnight, we arrived in Sorrento at 7Hostel, our base camp for the weekend.  7Hostel is a Bar/Club on the first level, a youth hostel on the second, a hotel with private rooms on the third, and a open roof bar on top.  It was clean and beautiful.

Day 1: Capri

Friday we got up at 7am, had breakfast downstairs, and walked about a mile down to the marina.  Unlike the gently sloping shores and sand beaches of my beautiful Michigan, the coast is almost completely tall rock face.  Steep paths wind back and fourth down to the water. No buses allowed.  But the view was beautiful, so we didn't mind.  At the bottom, we boarded our ferry.  All I could think about was how much I miss the boat back home and how great it was to be back on the water.  I don't think I could ever live in a land-locked state.

We arrived in Marina Grande of the Island of Capri about an hour later, disembarked, and boarded a little tour boat for a loop around the island.  Our first stop was the Blue Grotto.  Ancient Romans used this cave as a private swimming spot.  The only light comes from the small opening at the front, reflects off the clear water and illuminates the entire cave in an eerie blue glow.  Next stop was the Green Grotto where the rocks give the water a beautiful green tint, and after that the White Grotto.  As the waves break along the coast, you can see vibrant orange and red coral, one of the symbols of the bay of Naples.  Finally, we went through the "Lover's Tunnel" and arrived back at the Marina.

The trip was organized by Bus2Alps, the same group that took me to Naples in the beginning of the semester.  Friendly and enthusiastic recently graduated students point out incredible sights and great activities.  Our guides told us we were going to walk up the island to meet our transport to Anacapri, the little town on the higher part of the island.  HUNDREDS of stairs later, with aching calves and sore knees, we arrived at the Augustus Gardens.  We had a quick look around and then hopped aboard some buses that took us to the top of the island.

Capri is famous for Limoncello, Chocolate, Red Coral, and Handmade Sandals.  So after lunch, we indulged.  Our trip leaders pointed out a small sandal shop where Bus2Alps has arranged a discount for their travelers.  We picked out sandal designs and sat to be fitted while tasting Limoncello and sampling chocolate. Mmmm.  Afterwards, we wondered through the shops and tents.  I found an Italian Horn red coral necklace and some little turquoise rose earrings.  Everything was tropical, fresh, and beautiful.

Next, we took a chairlift up to the top of the island where we relaxed and let the clouds wash over us like waves.  The view was incredible!

Once back down in Anacapri, we were faced with the task of getting back down to the marina to catch our ferry back to Sorrento.  Dan, one of the trip leaders, recommended a taxi.  So we climbed into a convertible taxi and raced down the picturesque coast as the sun was falling lower in the sky.  Beautiful!

Once back on the mainland, we went out to dinner with the Bus2Alps crew.  I had AMAZING grilled chicken in a gorgonzola and cream sauce with mushrooms and artichoke. MMMMMMM.  After dinner we walked to a nearby outdoor English beer garden for a relaxing evening with a pack of interesting and slightly creepy Italian men.  Falling into my hostel bed after a long but incredible day felt soooo good.

Next up: Positano! Stay tuned!

See photos of the entire weekend HERE!

A Few Words on a Historic Day

One afternoon when I was in 5th grade, my mom picked me up from school.  We sat down in the backyard and she told us,

"A terrible thing happened to our country today."

This morning I woke up and opened my laptop to check the weather.

"Obama Confirms Bin Laden's Death"

It was everywhere.  From CNN to Al Jazeera, Facebook to Twitter.  Big, bold letters bringing me back to that day in 5th grade.  It was on almost every computer screen and mentioned in every conversation at school.  I quickly saw photos of rallies in New York and DC.  By noon I had read articles and watched video clips.

This is a monumental event in our nation's history, there is no doubt about that.  But it is also incredibly emotional, political, and complex.  Events like these require us to gather all the knowledge we can, analyze it, and then figure out how we feel about it (which can be the most difficult step of all).  I respect well-formed opinions and I believe in everyone having and expressing their own.  Today, I talked to friends on both sides of the spectrum and everywhere in between.  Here is mine:

It is appalling that one human being can take the life of another.  Osama Bin Laden took the lives of over 3,000 innocent Americans in only one day.  An American took the life of Osama Bin Laden.  This event marks a closure for many people, and it will go down in history as a good day for our country and for people around the world.  However, I do not see this as a joyous celebration.

In the words of Harry Waizer, a 9/11 survivor, "I just can't find it in me to be glad one more person is dead, even if it is Bin Laden."

Do I think Bin Laden should have been killed?  I don't know.  I don't think that is a question I can answer.  Am I glad? In a small way, yes.  This is a very complex situation with layers upon layers of consequences that many of us cannot imagine.  I have faith that our government is doing what is best for the safety of its people and their rights and freedom.  I have a lot of respect for how President Obama handled everything in the public eye.  People did their jobs, and someone was killed.  I think this calls for solemn respect, remembrance, and peace.  I "celebrated" today with a moment of silence and a prayer.

That being said, however you chose to remember the events of the last couple days, I hope you will join me in giving thanks that we live in a country where we are free to do so.  United we stand, all over the world.  I encourage you to watch Obama's address from yesterday if you have not already.  It was very well delivered.

On a lighter note, related to recent political shenanigans, I found this quite amusing: