My Tuesday morning did not go quite as well as my Monday morning. Bodies and Burials was on site this morning and we were meeting at a metro stop in Testaccio. I planned on walking, but ran into Sasha, a girl from my class, on the way so I took the bus with her. We chatted on the bus ride, and were surprisingly not accosted by old men. Once we arrived at the metro stop my morning turned sour, I realized I had forgotten my purse, meaning two things: I had no money to buy a metro ticket, and had no key to get back into my apartment. I asked Sasha if she would lend me two euros for my tickets and she kindly obliged. This was my first time on the metro, mostly because you can't get away with not paying, and partly because the metro system is not very effective. It's so difficult to build that the city has stopped trying. Every time they attempt to dig they find artifacts, ruins, all kinds of things that slow the process down by years if not halting it completely. We took the metro to the E.U.R. the 'New Rome'
that Mussolini had built to showcase fascist architecture. It never took on, and resulted in an area on the outskirts of the city that looks a lot like a metropolitan area of Florida. Tall office buildings, palm trees, and open multi-laned lend to the Florida feel, and with the exception of the palm trees, are very un-roman. I had been wanting to visit the E.U.R since we discussed in in my tribes of Rome class very early on. It is very difficult to get to, however, if you don't use the metro; so i was quite pleased to learn that we had a class field trip there. We were actually spending the day in a museum, one that studies ancient skeletons. We walked up many flights of stairs to the laboratory and were left with a young woman scientist who showed us how to age and sex skeletons. She also showed us a bunch of neat anomalies in various bones, and even had us try to assemble a skeleton (we were way off, we had the radius as a clavicle). It was a really neat day that delivered on the course descriptions promise of bone handling. After the lecture I had to bust my buns to get back to my apartment in time to talk to Stuart at the beginning of his day. I made it, and then headed off to Italian class, we talked about the low birth rate in Italy and its causes. There are definitely aspects of this culture that I don't understand, especially the value of material objects. Americans are know for materialism, but it certainly doesn't affect our birth rate. One of the many causes is that Italian parents want the best and most expensive things for their children so they can fit in, and they can often only afford this luxury for one child. There are many other reasons that are lowering the birth rate as well, fear of losing freedom, late start, and the churches stance on pregnancy outside of marriage. It was an educational class and it passed
quickly. On my walk home I was surprised to see that at the base of the stairs of death a huge tree had fallen across the road. Everyone was standing outside watching the fire department cut it up so it could be hauled away. I took a few pictures and continued on my way. Becca and I had signed up for a cooking lesson with the 'res grads' on campus. We met them just up the street from us and walked about a block to their apartment. Stephen was there as well as several other girls, some of which I knew. We were making spaghetti alla bolognese, which is spaghetti with a red meat sauce. We each took different jobs for the sauce while one of the res grads cooked the meat. No one wanted to chop the onion, so Stephen and I were left doing it. Neither of us had done it before, so it was a learning process. We did a pretty decent job and laughed (and cried) in the process. By the time the sauce had cooked down and the pasta boiled we were all ready to eat, the wine and water on the table hadn't been quite enough of an appetizer. We met a bunch of really nice girls that I had never even seen on campus which is impressive given the size of our school. After the delicious and filling meal everyone was heading down to the pastry shop just below the res grads apartment. Stephen, Becca, and I chose to venture over to the cookies and cream gelato shop and try one more time. We were in luck! it was finally open. When you order gelato in Rome you pick a size and then your flavors, two or three depending on the size, Becca ordered her gelato by saying,"biscotto" (cookies and cream in Italian) upon which the man behind the counter would scoop the biscotto and look at her for the next flavor and she would then say biscotto once again, and the process would repeat. By the time that it was my turn to order the man looked at me and said, "let me guess, biscotto?" We were amused with ourselves. As it was dark our Stephen walked us to our tram stop. We said goodbye as it pulled up, and due to a hug, I missed the tram and Becca didn't. Stephen had given each of us a hug, I went second leaving Becca on the tram and me off. As I banged on the door in shock, I noticed a girl from my class who was traveling alone with a bottle of wine, with a look of horror on her face. She looked more upset over the incident than Becca and I combined. When Becca and I talked later we put together that it was 4/20 pot day. The tram sped away without me on it, and Stephen very graciously offered to wait with me until the next one arrived. I was very glad. Mostly because of the creepy lady standing next to us who was whispering to herself and the rat in her hand. She was frightening. This time I made the tram and luckily scary rat lady did not. Becca was waiting for me at our tram stop and we walked home together with no further incidents.
that Mussolini had built to showcase fascist architecture. It never took on, and resulted in an area on the outskirts of the city that looks a lot like a metropolitan area of Florida. Tall office buildings, palm trees, and open multi-laned lend to the Florida feel, and with the exception of the palm trees, are very un-roman. I had been wanting to visit the E.U.R since we discussed in in my tribes of Rome class very early on. It is very difficult to get to, however, if you don't use the metro; so i was quite pleased to learn that we had a class field trip there. We were actually spending the day in a museum, one that studies ancient skeletons. We walked up many flights of stairs to the laboratory and were left with a young woman scientist who showed us how to age and sex skeletons. She also showed us a bunch of neat anomalies in various bones, and even had us try to assemble a skeleton (we were way off, we had the radius as a clavicle). It was a really neat day that delivered on the course descriptions promise of bone handling. After the lecture I had to bust my buns to get back to my apartment in time to talk to Stuart at the beginning of his day. I made it, and then headed off to Italian class, we talked about the low birth rate in Italy and its causes. There are definitely aspects of this culture that I don't understand, especially the value of material objects. Americans are know for materialism, but it certainly doesn't affect our birth rate. One of the many causes is that Italian parents want the best and most expensive things for their children so they can fit in, and they can often only afford this luxury for one child. There are many other reasons that are lowering the birth rate as well, fear of losing freedom, late start, and the churches stance on pregnancy outside of marriage. It was an educational class and it passed 
quickly. On my walk home I was surprised to see that at the base of the stairs of death a huge tree had fallen across the road. Everyone was standing outside watching the fire department cut it up so it could be hauled away. I took a few pictures and continued on my way. Becca and I had signed up for a cooking lesson with the 'res grads' on campus. We met them just up the street from us and walked about a block to their apartment. Stephen was there as well as several other girls, some of which I knew. We were making spaghetti alla bolognese, which is spaghetti with a red meat sauce. We each took different jobs for the sauce while one of the res grads cooked the meat. No one wanted to chop the onion, so Stephen and I were left doing it. Neither of us had done it before, so it was a learning process. We did a pretty decent job and laughed (and cried) in the process. By the time the sauce had cooked down and the pasta boiled we were all ready to eat, the wine and water on the table hadn't been quite enough of an appetizer. We met a bunch of really nice girls that I had never even seen on campus which is impressive given the size of our school. After the delicious and filling meal everyone was heading down to the pastry shop just below the res grads apartment. Stephen, Becca, and I chose to venture over to the cookies and cream gelato shop and try one more time. We were in luck! it was finally open. When you order gelato in Rome you pick a size and then your flavors, two or three depending on the size, Becca ordered her gelato by saying,"biscotto" (cookies and cream in Italian) upon which the man behind the counter would scoop the biscotto and look at her for the next flavor and she would then say biscotto once again, and the process would repeat. By the time that it was my turn to order the man looked at me and said, "let me guess, biscotto?" We were amused with ourselves. As it was dark our Stephen walked us to our tram stop. We said goodbye as it pulled up, and due to a hug, I missed the tram and Becca didn't. Stephen had given each of us a hug, I went second leaving Becca on the tram and me off. As I banged on the door in shock, I noticed a girl from my class who was traveling alone with a bottle of wine, with a look of horror on her face. She looked more upset over the incident than Becca and I combined. When Becca and I talked later we put together that it was 4/20 pot day. The tram sped away without me on it, and Stephen very graciously offered to wait with me until the next one arrived. I was very glad. Mostly because of the creepy lady standing next to us who was whispering to herself and the rat in her hand. She was frightening. This time I made the tram and luckily scary rat lady did not. Becca was waiting for me at our tram stop and we walked home together with no further incidents.
No comments:
Post a Comment