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...