photos, as promised:

here is a link to my recent centro adventures:

http://wellesley.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2032849&l=349e1&id=2103003

so...i fail at keeping a blog.

things just got so busy!

campania was amazing. the weather could have been better, but it was definitely the experience of a lifetime for a classics dork like me. i have posted pictures (captions coming soon!) that can be viewed here: http://wellesley.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2032557&l=c0040&id=2103003

after campania my mom, virginia, and marisha came to visit. it was great to see them, and to have some time to be a regular old tourist. i saw quite a few things with them, and they saw even more on their own. i was able to give them a tour of ostia, the roman and imperial fora, and downtown rome in general. we had a thanksgiving feast at the centro, which is something none of us will forget. hopefully i will get pictures for this week up soon. towards the end of their week in rome, i got pretty sick with a sore throat and fever, which put a damper on things. luckily, i was able to slack off and rest over the weekend, so i was better for this past week.

week thirteen was intense, as usual. it was hadrian (my emperor!) week. we visited hadrian's villa at tivoli, republican temples in the town of tivoli, and the villa d'este on tuesday. it was a beautiful day, and i took a lot of photos (which i will post when i can). wednesday we managed to visit both monte testaccio and the vatican museums in a half day. it was a miracle, i swear. the trip to the vatican made my life complete, mainly with the combination of the Prima Porta Augustus and the Sistine Chapel in the same morning! We also had a special permisso to see the Cancelleria reliefs (from Domitian's damnatio memoriae) and the unbelievably vast epigraphy collection. thursday was another intense half day field trip in rome. we saw domitian's stadium, the pantheon, the temple of deified haddrian, the column of marcus aurelius, and the mausoleum of hadrian all before lunch! it was a lot of information, and it rained (a common theme for this month), so i was pretty wiped out by last night.

tomorrow emily, liz, and i have decided to go to florence for the day. it is only an hour and a half, or so, on the fast train, and we all want to get to the museums (and shops) there. i'm really looking forward to it, since things have been pretty academically intense lately.

next week is my last week of classes. i honestly can't believe it! it is going to be an insane week, and i know that it will fly by. tuesday we are having an all day field trip to the forum, which has been organized as "forum prom - imperial finery a must." this gives some insight into why i love my study abroad program so much. we are going on our last all day field trip in dresses and ties (and safe..ish shoes!). how much does that rule?

i think thats all i've got for now. i will post links to photos as i upload them, but i might not have time for another written update. we'll see.

i can't wait to see everyone when i come home! much love!

this is not a real update...

just another post to say that my life is insane and i can't really update as much as i want to, but i will try and give a brief overview of recent events.

i made it through the insane weeks of exams and my big presentation. everything went alright. i won't say that it went well, but (all things considered) i did my best. the day of my presentation was really, really intense. we basically saw everything related to Augustus in Rome, which is a TON. like... ten hours non-stop of monuments and art and amazing propaganda. we visited (and got to go down into) the forum of augustus. i was excited beyond words, since i got very into a paper i wrote last semester about the forum of augustus (and temple of mars ultor, located there), and how it was the equivalent of the shield scene of Vergil's Aeneid. Anyway, I took a million pictures there, which I will post a link to.

after my presentation, though, i got pretty sick with a cold. let me tell you, having a cold at the centro is a miserable experience. i made the poor choice to attend our all day field trip to ostia, despite feeling pretty awful. it rained on and off the whole day, it was cold, and i was not a happy camper. after that i took things easy, getting a lot of rest and focusing on getting over the cold quickly. I was pretty much out of comission on Friday and Saturday, and stayed in my room and did work. Sunday was mostly devoted to me begining my big research paper on portrayals of Augustus in sculpture. It is due in about 2 weeks, but I want to pretty much finish it by Friday, because on Saturday we are going on another week-long field trip.

This field trip is a visit to Campania in mid-southern Italy. We'll see Pompeii, Herculaneum, and other sites in that area. I'm really looking forward to it, especially since when we get back my mom, ginny, and marisha are coming to visit for the week. they'll be here for Thanksgiving at the centro, too, which should be fun. After they leave the end will be in sight, and I'll just have a Latin paper, Italian presentation, and my three finals to worry about. I'm really, really looking forward to going home. While this is a great experience, and I truly love my friends here, I am homesick beyond belief. I have made the decision to spend Wintersession at Wellesley (for a number of logical reasons), but definitely in part because I can't wait to be back.

so...that is all. i'm not sure who is reading this, but a comment with an update on how you are would be much appreciated. i feel very disconnected from everyone at home sometimes, and it would be nice to hear how everything is.

pictures from recent field trips:
http://wellesley.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2031626&l=259da&id=2103003

i'm sure i'll post after campania, if not sooner. until then...

more photos

even if i don't have time to post- you can keep up with my photos.

two new albums this weekend.

this one is assorted field trip photos that i've been meaning to put up:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2031227&l=60353&id=2103003

this one is from my visit to the palazzo massimo museum with emlem and emily this weekend:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2031231&l=65765&id=2103003

much love to all.
emily

the centro is kicking my butt right now. i am swamped with schoolwork, so it might be a little while before i have time to update.

i miss you all like crazy!

week eight:

part of me feels like, "oh my god, how is it already week eight," but another part feels like, "oh my god, how is it only week eight."

i guess thats to be expected, though. the homesickness is definitely starting to sink in. but, still, i feel completely in love with the centro (class, professors, friends, everything!).

academically...we're hitting midterms-time. in the next two weeks i have a quiz, two exams, and an individual presentation (which means a research paper due two weeks later...), on top of the already insane schedule of homework and field trips. while i know it will all get done, i can't help but think of how exhausted i'm going to be for the next month or so. but thats just me whining.

this past week was my fall break. it was really, really nice to take a little break from classics, and see a little bit more of europe. i visited paris (during the crazy transportation strike) and venice with my friend genvieve. again, i'm going to be lazy and just post the link to the album i made of my photos.
http://wellesley.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2030937&l=e92fa&id=2103003

it was a nice week, but i'm definitely glad to be back to my routine here at the centro.

i probably shouldn't update too much longer, though. i have a lot of homework to do tonight, and i'm pretty exhausted from today's 11 hour field trip. We visited Alba Fucens (an important Roman colony), the Aqua Claudia (a huge ancient aqueduct), and the supposed Villa of Horace (a Latin poet). I would say the best part of the trip was walking for about 20 minutes inside the Aqua Claudia (which is basically a giant underground tunnel). the whole day was really great, even if it was freezing cold, and very long.

okay, now i really need to get to work. i promise another post soon!

back from sicily!

Hello all-

I am back from Sicily. It was an amazing week. I cannot even begin to put into words how much I experienced.

I visited a number of interesting sites where several cultures (greek, italian, native sicilian, and carthiginian) met. these cultural meetings were visible in the remains we visited- temples, towns, museums of artwork, etc.

I have posted over 100 (of the 400) photos i took on the trip in two albums on facebook. Below are the public links to these albums.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2030562&l=93db9&id=2103003
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2030606&l=45097&id=2103003

i really have so much to do while i'm in Rome for a couple of days. I leave for Paris very early on Tuesday morning, and will be gone until Sunday the 21st.

If i have time I will post again with some of the more interesting stories from Sicily. If not... I will post when I get back from Paris and Venice.

I miss you all very much!

my life is out of control!

i don't even really have time to update this now, but i thought it would be nice if i just posted really quickly.

i have had a really great week. the thing about life here is that the days feel unbelievably long, but the weeks FLY by. With that being said... The Sicily Adventure is upon me.

Tomorrow morning I leave Rome, via bus, with 35 students, 4 teachers, and 1 administrator. We are driving to SICILY. That is...really, really far. Its going to take 2 full days to get there. Granted, we're stopping along the way for a couple of minor archaeological points of interest, but still! I am going to be gone from the 5th until the 13th. I will have to make a SUPER long post upon my return.

After that I'll be in rome for a couple of days to get situated...do laundry...and maybe do some homework? Then I'm going to Paris on the 16th with my friend Genvieve. We'll be in Paris for 3 nights, and then we're going to Venice to meet up with our friend Emily for 2 nights. I am so, so excited. I will have so many pictures when I get back, it won't even be funny.

Once I get back from break my time here in rome will be about half done. That is so hard to believe.

Anyway, I'm loving life here. I seriously cannot believe how many amazing people are here with me, both students and professors. I hope everything is well back in the US.

Talk to you after Sicily!

photo update:

view from the residential area at Cosa

yours truly standing by an ancient wall on the Arx at Cosa

view through the collapsing wall of the basilica at Cosa.

acting like a fool inside the temple of Mater Matuta at Cosa

the beach we visited after hiking all over the mountain at Cosa.

quick update before dinner:

Back from a longgg field trip to the Roman colony known as Cosa. It was so beautiful. There is a small museum there, but the whole archaeological site is open, so you can walk around and see how a Roman colony was set up. Cosa is about 2 hours north of Rome, on a mountain on the coast. The location (aside from being a great natural defense for the Latins) made for some gorgeous views. The funny thing is that in Italian the word "cosa" means "what," so trying to tell people that we were going on a field trip to Cosa was pretty sweet. "We're going on a field trip." "Where are you going?" "What." "Where is the field trip to?" "What." Good stuff. Anyway, I took a lot of pictures, so I'll post those as soon as I can.

I am so tired! Hiking up and down the mountain, as well as walking around all day completely wiped me out. Oh, I forgot to mention that we had an hour or so before we had to head back to Rome to be back in time for dinner, so we went to the beach. It was amazinggggggg. The water was clear and cool, and almost completely still. I absolutely love this country!

Pictures to come, I promise!

i kept promising to update all last week...

...but then i didn't. life is just so crazy here!

Last Tuesday I left the Centro at 8 am, came back at 5:30, left at 6, and then returned at 12:15. We had an all day field trip to Lavinium, Lake Nemi, and Tusculum. All of the sites were pretty cool. Lavinium is supposedly the location where Aeneas landed in Italy. It rained while we were there, so I got to wear my awesome poncho. Lake Nemi is in a volcanic crater, and the emperors used to have cruise ships up there for parties. The ships sunk in the lake, and were not able to be excavated until (our friend) Benito Mussolini drained the entire lake. The ships themselves were lost in a fire during the German retreat through Italy during the war, but there is still a really cool museum at the site. Tusculum was definitely the coolest site of the day, as it is on a mountain and was the location of many weekend/summer villas for the rich and famous of Ancient Rome. we saw the foundations of Cicero's villa, and then had time to hike around to check things out. Here are some photos from Tusculum:

the ancient citadel at tusculum (which we climbed)

an idea of the view on the way up

panoramic view from the top of the citadel

Anyway... then I came back to the Centro to clean up quickly for a Wellesley student/alum gathering in Rome! I mentioned this in my earlier post, I believe. It was very nice to see Hannah (another Wellesley student who is in a different program in Rome), and to meet some alums ('94, early '80s, and mid '40s). Professor Schecter was also very nice, and (as professors usually are) very interested in our areas of study and experiences so far.

The rest of my week seemed to fly by. We had our first field trip to the Forum, which was amazing. Part of our assignment for the aternoon was to spend at least 30 minutes wandering around the ruins trying to identify things from our readings using our book. I didn't take too many pictures, but I snuck a few. Here is one of my on some stairs overlooking the Forum:

I've had a pretty low key weekend, doing homework and exploring Rome. On Friday evening the Centro hosted a 2 hour wine symposium, where we learned all about how to select and drink wine while in Rome. Today I went to a well known flea market in Trastevere. It was enormous and somewhat overwhelming. I made a couple of purchases, but I will definitely be going back.

This weekend I also booked my plans for Fall Break. I am going to spend part of the week in Paris with one of my friends (who speaks some French, thankfully), and then we're going to meet up with our other friend for the end of the week in Venice. I'm excited! I feel like break will be here before I know it.

Anyway, I need to do some serious work this afternoon, so I should probably put my computer away. The week ahead looks pretty busy, but hopefully I'll find time for an update in the near future.

mondays are nice

i really enjoy my ancient city class. we meet 4 days a week, but only monday is an actual lecture. it seems like all of the lectures are just...really fascinating. like... i would sit and listen for fun in my free time...but instead i'm getting credit for 2 classes. Also, the workload is pretty fair when you consider that it really is two classes. there is a lot of weekend reading, but then nothing during the week. we have a weekly quiz on the reading and field trips, two on-site oral reports, a short (7-9pg) term paper, and a final.

my oral reports are on the form and function of the Roman Senate house and the statue of Augustus as Pontifex Maximus. for my term paper i'm going to explore the statue issue more, looking at representations of Augustus in sculpture. So exciting!

anyway, i have Italian class in two hours, so i'm going to try to get a good chunk of wednesday's latin homework out of the way. tomorrow is going to be a busy day. i have an all day field trip to Lavinium, Nemi, and Tusculum, which is supposed to get back at 6, but then i'm also going to this... Wellesley gathering on tuesday night. Several Wellesley alums, and Wellesley students abroad in Rome are getting together for a cocktail party to meet and talk with Professor Emeritus Alan Schechter, who apparently was Hillary Clinton's advisor at some point, and happens to be spending a few days in Rome. It should definitely be interesting, but it goes from 6-9, so there is going to be a mad rush to get over to the party (completely on the other side of Rome) as soon as I get back from the field trip. But still...very cool, gotta love that Wellesley network.

so yes... off to translate some martial!

photos!

just as a side note... the nuns from the church attached to the centro are having a party. the band is singing/playing the macerena right now. its pretty ridiculous.

anyway...pictures of my recent adventures:

mass produced tombs at cerveteri

large tumulus tombs at cerveteri

centristi bbq!

centristi at the beach

from left to right:
emily, emily, emily, amelia, emily

i fail at regular updates...

my life is so busy! i can't believe another week has gone by. it feels like the days go by slowly, but the week goes by quickly- if that makes any sense.

i guess i will try breaking things down by days this time:

monday- i had my lecture for the ancient city. it was two and a half hours long, but i enjoyed every minute of it. we learned about the etruscans, and then had a debate about some secondary articles we read. latin was painful. i feel very behind, somehow. i think it is a combination of the fact that i actually am behind in exposure to latin, and that i'm just rusty from not translating all summer. italian was uneventful. i don't particularly enjoy the class, but i feel like i need to be there.

tuesday- all day field trip. oh man, was it intense. we went to an etruscan museum and tomb-site in tarquinia, and then to different tombs at cerveteri. the tombs at tarquinia were crazyyy. they are very well preserved, and have great paintings on the walls. the tombs at cerveteri were cool in a different way. there were a bunch of different types of tombs, and we were able to actually go inside many of them. after our tomb explorations my entire study abroad program went to the beach. it was pretty great. i swam in the mediterranean, enjoyed the creepy black sand, and just tried to soak in the whole experience.

wednesday- took a field trip (a few blocks away) to the american academy library, where i am able to go and use this semester (SO COOL). we basically got a tour, and learned about the library policy. classes in the afternoon were fine. i slept through my italian class, which was embarassing and irritating, but oh well... can't do much about it now.

thursday- took a field trip to veii and the villa giulia museum, and made a quick stop at the servian wall. again, really interesting, but just so much info that i can't record it all here. i've been keeping a field notebook for trips, so that i won't forget anything. italian in the afternoon was fine. i realized that i needed to do some serious studying over the weekend, because we've been learning so much information, and i wasn't processing it all just from class and homework.

friday- no classes! i spent much of the day doing reading for class. dinner was amazing. i had really great company, and good cheap wine, and really good food (as usual). i stayed in and kind of hung out with people on my floor.

saturday- more homework! seriously, my weekends here are consumed by reading. i feel like i will be such a good classicist once i leave here, i just might not have a great social life. :) anyway, the really fun part of saturday was the centristi bbq that we had in the courtyard. 26/36 students got together and had a little cookout party in our backyard. i had some more great conversations.

sunday- hey guess what... more homework! i did take time to clean my room and organize for the coming week, but i need to do some studying and translating after i get dinner. the coming week looks exciting, especially since one of our field trips is our first visit to the roman forum!

anyway...thats my week. i'll post a picture update later, so you can see everything i've been up to.

i miss you all! much love.

big update!

first official week at the centro is done, so i think its time for a big update. i feel like i'm settling into the lifestyle here pretty well. they have us getting up pretty early (breakfast from 8-8:30), which means I'm usually asleep by around midnight. its quite a shift from the hours i'm used to at wellesley, but its not bad. so... i guess i'll give the update in categories, so i don't leave anything out.

food: oh my godddddd. amazing! we get three meals a day at the centro on weekdays. breakfast is decent (they know they have fussy american students, so there are definitely a variety of choices). the coffee is amazing, but should definitely not be consumed at night because it is so potent. lunch and dinner are pretty much beyond words. lunch is usually some combination of soup, salad, and pasta, with amazing fruit for dessert. and of course, bread. there are rolls at breakfast, lunch, and dinner. dinner is pasta to start out, then some kind of meat and vegetable, and then homemade dessert. i seriously am going to get so fat. this week we've had ice cream cake, fruit and ice cream, homemade pana cotta, and homemade tiramisu. glorious. on the weekend we have to get our own food. there is a little cafe up the street, where the owners/employees are very nice, and its so reasonable! i usually go there for breakfast. its usually 1-1.5 euro for an amazing caffe latte and pastry. there are several grocery stores within walking distance where i've gotten some good fruit, cheese, and cold cuts for lunch/snacks. i like to go out to dinner on the weekend, but there definitely needs to be more exploration of cheap restaraunts in the area, so its not always pizza.

man...i just wrote a ton about food. anyway, moving on.

classes: this program is amazing. all of the professors are extremely nice, and interested in the backgrounds and interests of the students. and i'm not going to lie... professor roman (yes, that really is his name. he's my latin professor) reminds me of professor reay, which is pretty exciting. anyway, the focus of the program is on the ancient city class, which is really exciting. i have class four days a week, and there are ancient city field trips on three of those days (one full-day trip, two half-day trips). there is a lecture on monday morning, and starting pretty soon students will be giving presentations when we visit different sites and museums. i'm giving my presentation at the very end of october. my topic? portrayals of augustus (the love of my ancient life) in sculpture. in addition to the presentation, i'll be exploring the topic more in depth by completing a research paper sometime in november. my latin class is reading martial's epigrams. they seem to be pretty tricky, but i'm sure once i get used to his style translating will be easier. my latin class is made up thirteen students. twelve girls, one guy. its almost like being back at wellesley. :) in addition to latin and the ancient city, i'm taking elementary italian. its quite a challenge. the last (and only) time i learned a spoken language was spanish one in middle school. i like the professor a lot, but its just a completely different way of thinking about language than i'm used to. there is quite a lot of homework (mostly reading) over the weekend, which isn't so fun. its just hard to be...in rome... but stuck in the library reading livy on reserve. i really shouldn't complain, though, since i'm IN ROME. and i'll get into a routine soon enough, i'm sure.

general life at the centro: i really like it here. i have a single room, which is nice after spending all day every day with the same 35 people. we have an amazing library- only clcv related books! (and -oh my gosh- we have unlimited access to the library at the american academy in rome.) beyond the library, the grounds of the centro are very nice. our building and courtyard are gated, so its very safe (although, the whole neighborhood is very safe). we have a beautiful courtyard with tables, a grill area, ping pong tables, and several fountains. theres a nice computer room, and a (somewhat sparse) exercise area on the top floor. i'm in love with our neighborhood, and there is a bus stop like...a block away where the 44 bus stops, and takes us right into the heart of the city. the other students here are very nice. everyone is making a concerted effort to be friendly towards everyone else, since this is it for the next few months. its also great that everyone else here is a HUGE dork. there are frequent discussions of historical and mythological figures. i also realized that nobody here questions the validity/usefulness of a classical civ/language major. nobody asks "what are you going to do with that." its nice. just as an amusing side note- i am one of four emilys in this program. we all live on the same floor. its pretty much the most confusing thing ever. :)

so...i think that is everything i have to say about my first week in rome.

tonight is a big festival thing in rome called "la notte bianca," where basically everything is open all night, and most of the museums are free. there was a little preview of it last night, and a bunch of us went to the capitoline museum. i have to say, at times i got a little teary. i can not even explain the overwhelming feeling of turning a corner, entering a room, and being face to face with the (huge) bronze statue of marcus aurelius on his horse. complete awe. i will post some pictures below. there was also a very strange art installation at the circus maximus. it was completely filled with...glowing orbs in assorted colors. i will post pictures of that as well.

the plan for today is to do some reading before dinner, and then go out to la notte bianca tonight. that means i will probably upload more pictures tomorrow.

so uhm...yeah. that is my life. i love rome.

marcus aurelius

capitoline she-wolf with romulus and remus

capitoline venus

the dying gaul

the cirucs maximus

more pictures from the first weekend:

first full day in rome

i had a great day exploring rome (west of the tiber) today. i went with a couple of other students to explore the neighborhood, and hiked up to the vatican with a larger group. there is a point on the walk where we were overlooking all of rome. it was completely breathtaking. it was also very strange to think that the city in front of me is going to be my home for the next few months. i guess it still hasn't sunk in. anyway, once we made it to the vatican we were able to go inside the basilica and see saint peter's in the late afternoon, which made for some glorious lighting. check it out.


we walked back towards the centro along the tiber, overshooting our neighboorhood to find dinner in the trastevere area. we took our time heading back, and wandered further through the trastevere neighborhood. we ended up getting to the piazza santa maria, which has a church and fountain, before heading home.

back at the centro we got dessert at a local gellateria, and enjoyed the amazing weather (about 66-68 degrees F at night) out in the courtyard.

basically, i am in love with my study abroad program, and classes haven't even started.

here!

i have finally arrived at the centro, safe and sound. everything seems great so far. the other students who have arrived so far are really nice, my room is clean (and a single!), and it isn't unbearably hot today for unpacking and exploring.

as for right now, though, i'm going to take a nap because i am EXHAUSTED.

more to come later. i promise.

first post ever!

I'm home from Cape Cod, just spending a few days in Rhode Island to get organized before embarking on my study abroad adventure to Rome! I decided that creating a travel blog will be more effective than trying to keep up with emails to all the important people in my life. My flight leaves in the early afternoon on Thursday, so I'm sure I'll make a big post sometime on Friday after my arrival.