another weekend

The weeks are truly flying by. There is something about how our week is structured that lends itself to such flying, a very busy monday through wednesday, and then an easing through until the weekend.

this weekend in the city has been wonderful, lots of exploring, trying of new things, and even..shopping? well for like shampoo and stuff, so i guess that doesn't count. The store where i got shampoo gave me all of these little like fragrance samples that smell really weird, although one of them actually smells kind of good. this afternoon i went to a park i hadn't gone to explore and took some lunch there. very crazy statues with shrubbery grown around them but then carved away.

i'm starting to think about spring break plans, and in a whirlwind of investigation this morning i debated a number of things...sicily to tunisia to the southern tip of italy? rome to istanbul? rome to berlin to amsterdam? rome to amsterdam to florence? rome to marseille?? sicily to malta to sardinia? ATHENS? athens then the greek isles?

we go to sicily very soon for a week long field trip. the other day i learned about wine and was able to tell (before i was told) that there was a hint of vanilla in the white wine that we tried. i really like vanilla, and as a result i was probably too tipsy for dinner.

tomorrow is another monday!

my band has released our cd on oberlin campus, sorta like a little pre-release.

to end with an interesting little tidbit from a roman historian:

I mention this for the sake of the improvement of the readers of this history. For there are two ways by which all men can reform themselves, the one through their own mischances, the other through those of others, and of these the former is the more effective, but the latter less hurtful. Therefore we should never choose the first method if we can help it, as it corrects by means of great pain and peril, but ever pursue the other, since by it we can discern what is best without suffering hurt. Reflecting on this we should regard as the best discipline for actual life the experience that develops from serious history; for this alone makes us, without inflicting any harm on us, the most competent judges of what is best at every time and in every circumstance. Well, on this subject I have said enough.

pretty much saying....look: when something horrible or unexpected happens to you, you have the opportunity to learn a good lesson and change in some way for the better. this way of changing is fairly dramatic, as something has just happened to YOU. another opportunity is given by studying what happens to other people (through history). he says you never choose the first way of change (because you can't choose to have something horrible and unexpected happen to you), but we can choose to learn through studying history, and this is a safe and unharmful way to improve yourself.

not sure how i feel about that, but i thought it was pretty interesting.

gabe

today

Today we visited a few very interesting sites. After looking at Etruscan sites last week, we have since moved on to Latin sites. The Latins were indigenous occupants of Italy who were eventually subjugated by the Romans. We visited three sites today, the first of which was a place called Lavinium. The archaeological site is somewhat unique and disastrously situated in its environment. To the right is an air force base, and to the north is a very important water buffalo herding area wherein some of the best water buffalo mozzarella cheese is produced (from what i could gather from our italian guide who knew very little english). To the south is a factory. In any case, we looked at a tomb that was rumord to be the tomb of Aeneas, the famous hero of Virgil's Aeneid. Probably a hoax invented in antiquity to attract pilgrims to the site, but interesting nevertheless. Aeneas, after all, is said to have landed amongst the Latins when he finally reached Italy. Then we hit Tusculum where we got a fantastic view of the Italian countryside and looked at the place where hotshot elite Romans constructed their villas for out-of-town use. They could just go to Tusculum to escape the craziness that is Rome and still be able to hang out with a few select friends. We checked out a museum with a bunch of remants of Latin culture, they liked to bury stones carved into all manner of things..pomegratines, penises, feet, and apparently a uterus (it just looked like a lump, might as well have been a banana). Some people in our group could not obey the rules and often stepped over the yellow boundary markers in the museum and set alarms off. VERY LOUD. Tomorrow we go to a museum in Rome, and then we have language classes. Should be relatively peaceful...and then another full day trip.

Sometimes I think I could use a Tusculum every once in a while :)

the roman forum

preface: for some reason i couldn't get those weird blue underlines out of my text! weird..

The other day we went the the ruins of the roman forum. Walking on the same street that Cicero walked down, viewing the door to the building that Cicero's hands would eventually be nailed to...quite an experience. The backdrop of the modern city against the ruins is quite striking. Even for me, a classicist not being as interested in material remains as some of my colleagues, this was truly a sight.

As for tonight:

Pone merum et talos. Pereat qui crastina curat.
Mors aurem vellens, ‘vivite’, ait, ‘venio’.

Set down the wine and the dice, and perish who thinks of tomorrow!
Here’s death twitching my ear, ‘Live’, he says, “for I’m coming.”

etruscan necropolis

weekends

My first weekend here was lots of fun.

During the day I started working on my assignments for Wednesday so as to not feel the crunch on Tuesday night. At night- hit the town. Because they don't feed us on the weekend, we all need to learn the fine skill of getting good food cheaply in the city, without eating only delicious pizza all the time. So far I've pretty much been okay with eating delicious pizza all the time.

The nightlife in our area Trastevere is hopping. We decided to become regular patrons of one bar, the "Bar Belli", due to the friendliness of its employees and warm ambiance. First taste of Gelato today, Italian ice cream, and it was absurdly good. Coffee flavor.