I apologize for being so tardy with my blog posts. I know most of you have been constantly refreshing your browsers waiting for another issue of Cheese Grits. I'm kind of a big deal in the blogging world, so I get your obsession with my blog. It's cool. I mean...I do have like ten followers. ;)
It's been a few crazy weeks over here. Last Friday was the final review of our first of two projects in Studio. This meant a week of little sleep and little time to stay connected to my life outside of Rome. But, in comparison to the amount of time I had to put into a final review in South Bend, one week of working really hard seems like nothing.
I was able to take a break from the final push on my project on Friday (now almost 2 weeks ago) when a freak act of nature blew through Rome...SNOW! According to one of the administrators at school, it hasn't snowed here since 1986. Wow. That's almost my lifetime. When the snow started coming down heavily, a group from my class ran over to the Pantheon to see the huge clumps of snow fall through the oculus (basically an open whole/skylight) of the dome. I was a little underwhelmed with the snow inside the building, but was in awe of the sight outside. Just as the piazzas are intended in Rome, a crowd of people started filling the space in order to see the once a quarter-century event. It was was sa-weet. This is another item I can add to my list of "I didn't know I was going to grad school to ___." In this case, I didn't know I was going to grad school to move to Rome to see a beautiful snowfall that many Romans can say they've never seen before. It was kind of sad when only a after a few short hours of winter bliss, the sun came back out and melted the little bit that stuck. It's funny to me that I'm writing about how beautiful the snow is here when I almost cried the first time in snowed in South Bend. I knew there would be no turning back after the first snow...and let's be honest...snow in South Bend, Indiana is not the same as snow in Rome. Even though it's cold here, I'd rather be cold in Rome than South Bend. Right?
It's been a few crazy weeks over here. Last Friday was the final review of our first of two projects in Studio. This meant a week of little sleep and little time to stay connected to my life outside of Rome. But, in comparison to the amount of time I had to put into a final review in South Bend, one week of working really hard seems like nothing.
I was able to take a break from the final push on my project on Friday (now almost 2 weeks ago) when a freak act of nature blew through Rome...SNOW! According to one of the administrators at school, it hasn't snowed here since 1986. Wow. That's almost my lifetime. When the snow started coming down heavily, a group from my class ran over to the Pantheon to see the huge clumps of snow fall through the oculus (basically an open whole/skylight) of the dome. I was a little underwhelmed with the snow inside the building, but was in awe of the sight outside. Just as the piazzas are intended in Rome, a crowd of people started filling the space in order to see the once a quarter-century event. It was was sa-weet. This is another item I can add to my list of "I didn't know I was going to grad school to ___." In this case, I didn't know I was going to grad school to move to Rome to see a beautiful snowfall that many Romans can say they've never seen before. It was kind of sad when only a after a few short hours of winter bliss, the sun came back out and melted the little bit that stuck. It's funny to me that I'm writing about how beautiful the snow is here when I almost cried the first time in snowed in South Bend. I knew there would be no turning back after the first snow...and let's be honest...snow in South Bend, Indiana is not the same as snow in Rome. Even though it's cold here, I'd rather be cold in Rome than South Bend. Right?
After the winter wonderland, the same group I described in my last post (including Angelo, our bus driver, and his re-tarded TomTom GPS) ventured down to southern Italy to visit Pompeii, Palestrina, Naples, Sorrento, and the island of Capri. We had to leave at 6 am (again) Saturday morning in order to pack in all these cities within the two day/one night trip our studio professor planned for us. First stop: Palestrina. Honestly, I was still half asleep when we stopped here on our way south, so I couldn't really tell you all the historical background of the city that I should have learned. I can describe to you in two words what I remember from the 7:30 am visit: icy steps. Palestrina is in the mountains and obviously got the worst of the weather that rolled into Rome the day before. Have I mentioned how many steps I've been climbing lately? So, for once, the physical exertion wasn't what got me on these bad boys...it was the snow and ice that covered the entire stepped pathway to the top of the city. I clung to the ancient walls for dear life trying not to bust it and tumble all the way back to the street below. I was mostly successful with a few near-busts. I don't know why they don't salt the ancient roads. Could it be because the salt would destroy what history has preserved for thousands of years? Eh - maybe. On that day and in spite of my obsession with historic preservation, I was still voting for salt.
After Palestrina, we went to Pompeii, the ancient Roman city that has been unearthed in the last century. This place was pretty sweet to see. Because the entire city was covered in the ash of nearby Mt. Vesuvius for thousands of years, this preserved the structure of the ancient city enough that one can walk the streets of a Roman town, step inside the forum where the citizens socialized, politicized, shopped, and worshiped, and inhabit the huge amphitheaters they built with their bare hands. The fact that what these people built over 2 thousand years ago still stands and still displays lessons of urbanism should make us really question the stuff we build today. Why is it that in America a building is only built to last maybe 20 years? Talk about unsustainable... Ok, I'll get off my soapbox now. That was not my intention for this blog.
From Pompeii, we ventured on to Naples, one of the largest cities in Italy. We arrived around dinner time Saturday night, and I got the vibe that this city was filled with kids and partiers. I kind of wanted to join in their "Carnavale" (basically Mardi Gras) celebration, but instead, my class went to dinner with just about the entire professorial staff for the ND Rome and Graduate program. I forgot to mention that between frantically finishing drawings for our review, we had to meet with a representative from the NAAB (the accreditation board that is reviewing the ND program this year to ensure they're teaching us all the stuff they're supposed to be - this is a really big deal, by the way) and the Dean of the School of Architecture since they were in town to review the Rome program. Our trip to Naples coincided with the undergraduates' weekend trip, so the six of us graduate students were able to walk the city and have a real Neapolitian pizza dinner with all these wonderful professors. Unfortunately, we had to leave the next morning, so what we saw in the dark was it. That was enough for me though. I got the vibe that Naples wasn't the city for me.
Sorrento and all the small, water-front towns on the Amalfi Coast that we visited the next day made me feel right at home. They were beautiful and had some of the most spectacular views to the Mediterranean. We missed the early boat to the island of Capri, so we weren't able to make it over there, unfortunately. But, the long, scary, treacherous drive we took overlooking the cliffs of the Amalfi Coast more than made up for not seeing Capri. I hope you look through my pictures on picasa (coming soon) to see just how amazing this road trip was.
After stopping in the town of Amalfi for a quick tour and a cup of coffee at a gourmet cafe, we all climbed back in our van to notice that Huaxia bought a beautiful piece of tiramisu. She proceeded to eat it off the tiny napkin while bouncing around in the back of the van. Meanwhile, our spacey professor realized she's eating something delicious without turning around from the passenger seat. In typical Huaxia style (she frequently says things in English in a perfectly reasonable order or way, but, to us, it sounds funny), she told our prof to "turn around his face" to see the tiramisu. He didn't quite follow what she is told him to do (I suppose he could have been focusing on the winding roads, but regardless, he didn't turn around to look at her while they were having this broken-English convo), so she continued to tell him to "turn around his face" as the rest of the group is dying laughing at this phrase she's substituted for "turn around." As usual, this was hilarious, and, since, we all have enjoyed using this phrase in everyday conversations with each other.
I think I've written enough for this post, so I'll save my new stories about Belgium, where we've been for the last 4 days with a different professor, for my next post. Stay tuned...
