This week just flew by. The mere thought of my weeks going by this fast has made me realize how quickly the rest of my time here is going to go. It's been a month already! I feel 100 times more comfortable here than I did the day I arrived trying to figure my way around the airport and completely overwhelmed with my Italian (or lack there of). My Italian class, although still incredibly difficult for me, is becoming more bearable and I'm understanding more and more each class.
Monday's theology class was on-sight. We went to San Giovanni's, the first catholic church in Rome. I really liked the inside. There were statues of all 12 apostles. The sculptures of the apostles were huge, just like the ones on top of Saint Peter's. I found it really interesting that they chose to decorate the church in such away. Each statue was equipped with the symbol connected to the Apostle. These statues weren't added to the nave of the church until renovations were made, but nonetheless they are pretty neat.
I'll just add some pictures to show you. The outside looks like a political building. Interesting fact though, this is where the Popes lived for awhile.
After learning about the history and taking it all in, we went to Santa Maria Maggiore, the second church of Rome, but because it had undergone less renovations than San Giovanni's it looks much older. Inside Santa maria Maggiore is a relic. Enclosed in fancy art, but visible, is a piece of wood from the Manger.
We went to a third church, much smaller, that use to be the baths of diocletian. It is called Santa Maria degli Angeli. It looks so old from the outside, but again the inside is really "done up". The church has some astronomical points. There is a bronze line that supposedly tells you what the day is depending on where it fell. I may be a bit off with my description of that, but I think that's the gist of it.
We ran out of time, which meant we weren't able to go to the Jesus stairs...the stairs that Jesus walked on when he was condemned to death by Pontius Pilat. You are suppose to walk up them on your knees. We all plan on going back sometime next weekend.
Tuesday's tutoring went really well. I decided that just using the books is boring. What girl really wants to do worksheets to learn English. Of course, we have to do these too, but we were able to practice conversation for part of the time, and I found out some of the things she liked. This really is good practice for what I will have to do for Speech Pathology. And guess what? Yep, she likes Harry Potter; it was definitely a bonding moment. And she plays sports. I feel like next week I can come up with something to make the tutoring more fun. She also likes the Simpsons, I'm pretty sure when I was 13 I wasn't allowed to watch that...
Art in Rome was also on-sight and we went to the Pantheon and Ara Pace. The Pantheon amazes me. The dome weighs over 5000 tons and the building is still standing. The Dome wasn't added until later, but it such an impressive piece of architecture. Raphael is buried there. The only downside was how freezing it was inside. Although, I'm sure any of you reading this are probably thinking you'd rather be inside the Pantheon than in the negative degree weather you're stuck with at home.
The Altar of Peace was pretty neat too. I think I appreciated it more so than others because of my Latin Days. It is located in a modern building. To me, this takes the importance and significance of it away. It probably would have overwhelmed me more had it been in it's original spot, not surrounded by modern walls.
Wednesday night was my first soccer game. Indeed, I did sign myself up for soccer. I thought it would be fun, and a good way to meet even more people. I hate not being good at a sport, but I think I'll catch on quickly. My team's pretty good though. We're the black the team and call ourselves The Blackout. We didn't win our first game, but it was close (we weren't losing until the very end). Too bad you have to excel at soccer to play in college, because there are definitely a lot of pros to the sport. Soccer is more fun than erging, although erging would have helped me keep my abs from all the carbs here. Soccer is also cheaper than crew. There are no weigh ins for soccer...big stress reliever. You get to run while playing soccer. I forgot how much I liked contact sports. We play at night, not at 5am. Too bad I don't have the skills to continue this at MU. Soccer:6 Crew:1. I'm looking forward to our next game.
Some Interesting Thoughts
1. When you enter San Giovanni or Santa Maria Maggiore you are no longer in Italy, because the Property still belongs to the Vatican...even though it's not near Vatican City.
2. John Felice Rome Center use to be a convent. I bet NONE of you thought I would ever live in a convent. Goes to show anything's possible.
3. Rome has more of the Egyptian Obelisks than Egypt does.
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