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.