All Roads Lead to Home

Flight leaves at 9:50pm tonight from Rome to Milan, where I pretty much stay the night, and then Milan to Frankfurt at 7:25am, and then at 9:45am I fly out of Germany, out of Europe, across the ocean, across much of the continental United States, and land in Portland at 11:20am. Then I unpack, wash clothes, buy running shoes, repack, try to remember how to play clarinet and deal with middle-schoolers, and drive to Salem for YMA. Then when I get back, I call this Mike guy that good buddy Trevor Wunn has buttered up to hire me working asphalt this summer where I apparently start at $10.00 an hour, get plenty of hours, and will hopefully make enough money to be able to live like a person while at the University of Aberdeen, in Aberdeen, Scotland, whence I received my official acceptance e-mail today. It's been fun, I have enjoyed Rome immensely, I will post all of my pictures on a post or website for further perusal for those interested, and stay tuned for my fall travel blog, most likely to be titled along the lines of "I'll Take the High Road."

Veni, vidi, victus sum.

Rome-ward Bound + Rome for the Holidays

Those were the titles of my last two entries, but I had to condense them into one since I haven't had great internet access and now I am both back in Rome, and my birthday/Father's Day are over. I was also going to post pictures on this entry because I came back to the Rome Center to pick up some of my luggage and take it to my hostel where I am staying until I leave on Thursday, but I somehow forgot my camera. I'll either find some internet later this week, or post them after I get home.

Rome-ward Bound:
Friday I left Florence and visited Pisa. I saw the Field of Miracles, the Duomo, the other building, and the ever-popular Tower of Pisa. I wasn't going to climb the tower because the line looked huge, they only let 30 people in every 20 minutes, and I pretty much just wanted to go back to Rome and rest for a while. I bought a ticket anyway, because I realized they queued the visitors, and went and had a nice lunch at a restaurant that was showing a some professional track meet on their TV, which was fun. A new 100m record was set last month, I think. Then I climbed the tower, and it was a nice view, everyone kept exclaiming about how weird it was to be walking at an angle, when I didn't see what the big surprise was...it's leaning...it's a leaning tower...you're going to be walking at an angle. Most of the people had to stop at some point and catch their breath, too, which was also a little annoying. People need to walk up stairs more often. 294 is not that many. I realize I'm in pretty good shape, even for someone my age, but people need to get out more, seriously. Speaking of which, is anyone at home working Dunc's butt? Or is he still a sea lion? Someone had their pug at the Field of Miracles, but I don't think they allow them up the tower. Oh, speaking of pugs, I forgot to tell this story a while ago. I think I was in Venice, but I was walking somewhere and a guy was walking his pug with his (assumed) wife and her friend, and the pug looked pretty tired. Then the pug just laid down. The guy stopped and pulled on the leash, but the pug didn't budge. He just laid down, his legs sprawled out, his tail totally straight, panting, looking at the guy like "Seriously? Keep pulling the leash. This pug is going nowhere until he's had a drink, a six hour nap, and some Cheetos." It was pretty awesome; he was very much the definition of pug. But I digress. After Pisa I took a train back to Rome, and stayed in a hotel for two nights, then checked into the vastly cheaper hostel down the road (most of the hostels were full for the previous two nights).

Saturday was fairly uneventful. I pretty much just walked around Rome and became reacquainted with the city, reading a book all day.

Rome for the Holidays:
Yesterday was my birthday. I am 21. It was fun. I had lunch at the restaurant below the Rome Center, and went out to dinner at 7:45 with Stephen, one of the guys from my program who's still in Rome, and Robin, the TA for the Greek class while we were here. I had spaghetti as a first course, and my "secondi" was basically a plate of prawns. But it was all good, and we had some wine with dinner. We walked to the Trevi Fountain after, stared at it, got some gelato, and then we parted ways and all went home. Holiday"s", because it was also Father's Day. My phone is dead and Robin's wasn't working to the U.S., so I was going to call but was unable to last night. But Happy Father's Day, dad.

So now I'm in Rome, and I will pretty much just hang out and enjoy myself until I leave on Thursday. Days that look nice I might take the 20 minute train out to the beach, tomorrow or Wednesday I'm heading to E.U.R., the super fascist city that was supposed to be the model for the fascist world or something, to see the museum there, where is housed the Plastico, a plastic model representation (that's huge) of ancient Rome. We were supposed to cover that in the program, but we went on a Monday, and most museum are closed on Mondays. Stroup's informant had told her that the museum would be open, but like most museums, when we got there, it was closed. The train takes a while to get there, so there was no way she could take us back (it was the last week of class), so I'm hoping to go on my own before I leave.

My plane leaves Thursday at 9:50pm, and I'm going from Rome to Milan, Frankfurt, Portland, I believe, and I should get in to Portland around 11:20am on Friday, I think. Just enough time to get home, unpack, wash clothes, repack, and head to YMA. I might be able to squeeze in saying hi to the family. Hopefully I'll have access to internet again before I leave, and can post some pictures, but if not then I'll post again once I'm back in the U.S.(S.R...).

Latin Word for the Day: dominus, domini (tr: master)

Valete, amici.

A little Rome-sick

I'm not Rome-sick now, as I am in Florence and it's great, but I was definitely not terribly happy with Milan. I went up and saw Fulvio Del Tin and his shop on Monday, in Maniago (took the whole day to get there and get back for a 45 minute visit), but it was worth it for the swords, meeting the guy, and also to see a ridiculously rural part of Italy, right in the foothills of the mountains. It was really beautiful country, and the people were really nice and helpful. I stayed the night in Venice again, and the next morning was up early and off to Vicenza, where I saw some great architecture and really interesting buildings (more on this later when I can post pictures), and then to Verona where I toured a great castle with a super albeit small armory. Other parts of Verona were exciting, Vicenza as well, but I can't remember it all at the moment. I need to off of here in nine minutes, anyway. But I ended up in Milan that night, and I don't like the Milan train station at all. It's huge and fascist (I know the etymology of that word, but I won't divulge unless provoked), and it always looks like night time unless it's the middle of the day. I also arrived at dusk-ish, so it was getting dark and starting to rain, which could easily have added to its leeringness. That's when I really wanted to be in Rome, simply because Rome is always beautiful, rain or shine, daytime or night time. It's always nice. Milan got better in the daylight, but being the business and fashion capital of Italy, I didn't see the point in staying too long. I went to a couple of museums, walked around in the duomo (huge church) and then trained straight to Florence. Florence has been fun; I saw the David sculpture yesterday, and a ton of museums, and I'll do a few more today and then maybe see Pisa and Lucca or something. I want to see Sienna before I go to Rome, but I heard on Monday there will be a big festival of light or something and that's when should go, so we'll see what happens.

Latin Word for the Day: garum, gari (fish paste)

Valete, amici.

Ahh, Venice...

How's that for an "Indiana Jones" quote, R-Stoles? I don't know who else calls you that, but hopefully I didn't overstep any boundaries...been there, done that (haven't we all?), awkwardness. Anyway, time is money on the internet in this hostel, and if my freaking URL weren't so long this post would be more so. So sorry, I guess. Anyway, I was in Ravenna on Friday, which was great. It's a really nice, sleepy town, a welcomed change after the fast pace and high intensity of Roma. Now I'm in Venice, and it's beautiful. I can't help thinking I'm in Disneyland, though...the unbelievable number of tourists makes it seem very much less like a real city (but really...is it?). I'm down to two minutes so I'm just going to post so I know it worked. I'm safe, and I'm having a lot of fun.

Japanese Word for the Day: isogi (tr: hurry up!)

Sayanara

School's Out

Not that I've felt like I was in school too awful much, but the last couple of weeks got pretty intense in Latin, and in the Triumph class with my impending presentation (which was last week). But today was my last final, and it just ended. I have no more class, one more day in the Rome Center, two more nights here, and about ten days to travel wherever I want across bella Italia. I don't know how often I'll be able to post while I'm out and about, because I'm not positive how available internet is and my ability to find it/willingness to pay for it. But I'll try to put something up whenever I can...if I'm paying for internet time, pictures will have to wait as those take a while to upload, arrange, and caption. I think my finals all went fairly well, especially for being abroad and constantly distracted by things considerably more interesting, or at the very least newer than anything out my window at UW. Tonight there is a small unofficial after-party for everyone, and then it's a good night's rest because we don't have to wake up at all tomorrow. No morning walking class, no morning language class, no afternoon topography or triumph seminar. It's summer, and I'm in Rome. It's supposed to rain tomorrow and Friday, and tonight as well, I think, but it's not so bad. It's always really warm when it rains here. Tomorrow night is a final dinner with Professor Stroup; we're going to some fancy place right around the corner from where we live (living in the middle of the historic district, most things are actually right around the corner from us). I saw Indiana Jones a couple of weeks ago, and it was alright. It had an intermission. I don't know if Italians have small bladders, short attention spans, or chronic muscle pain, but none of them I think excuse shutting off an Indiana Jones movie right in the middle.

Monday night I went to a concert that Mario's dad got me a free ticket to see his old trumpet teacher, Nello Salza, who is the first trumpet player for Ennio Moriconne (famous Italian composer/conductor). The concert was really good, and I was glad to have a break like that during studying for finals, instead of just watching videos on Youtube or something brainless. The concert started with a Mozart, then M. Salza came out and played the Hummel trumpet concerto, intermission, he came back and played the Haydn trumpet concerto (which sounded pretty familiar, but probably just because I spend too much time with Mario), and they finished with a Haydn symphony. I think the best non-musical part of the concert was hearing real Italians yell "Bravo!" This post is probably a little random, but I got about two hours of sleep (this morning, not last night) studying for today's final. Most people actually went to bed right after, but I have trouble sleeping during the day, so I'm just going to wait it out until tonight. My plans for after the program involve me leaving the Pio sometime Friday morning for Venice, hopefully early, and spending the weekend there. Monday I have a date to go up to the small town of Maniago to visit Fulvio Del Tin and his shop, where he and his father have made some of the best historically accurate old world weaponry. Several of my favorite swords that I spent my childhood oogling in magazines and on the internet will be at his shop, so I'm really excited to get to see the actual swords, let alone to meet the man who makes them. After that I'll probably head back to Venice for the night, and then start out across north Italy, attempting to hit Padua, Verona, Mantua, Florence, Milan, and maybe a couple of others I'm forgetting. Once I get to the Cinque Terra, I think I'll spend a day or two there, depending on time just to slow down a bit and enjoy the beach, and then I'll head back to Rome to have my birthday dinner with one my TAs and a roommate that will both still be in Rome. My friend Jake, who is currently studying in Germany, might fly down for that weekend as well. The rest of that week I may go down to Salerno and visit papa Marino, spend a little time in Naples/the Amalfi Coast, and then it's back to Rome again for my flight out on Thursday. And now for something completely different:

This is a contingent of the topography class at the Appian Way...classicists work hard. Really hard. I didn't feel like rotating the photo, either, it's awkward angle anyway and would take a long time to figure out. Again. Classicists--we work hard.

In very exciting news, I shaved for the first time on the trip on Sunday. Da beard:

The aftermath:Latin Word for the Day: barba, barbae; f. (tr: beard)

Valete, amici.