first days of the semester...

1/26/11

SO. Today is officially the 3rd day of class! Hooray! Except the homework load is already a bit staggering. I can't imagine taking two language classes like most people here are doing (Advanced Latin and Intermediate Greek OR Advanced Greek)...I suppose I qualify as a slacker of sorts here. Fine with me, as long as the professors don't think that.

On Monday we had our orientation in which we met our advisors (one of the 4 profs) and had a tour of the neighborhood we're in. My advisor is Chris Gregg from George Mason University. He's more of an archaeology focused prof, so I'm every happy about that! There's a BEAUTIFUL park just up the street that's absolutely enormous, and extremely green. I've heard tales of soccer fields there, so I plan to go on a run this afternoon and find them. Wonder if they'll let a girl play soccer here? Haha. Hope so!

Yesterday was our first official field day, where we went out into the city for class. Instead of going as a large group for lectures, we were split into 11 teams of about three people and given the task of finding an assigned obelisk (look it up) and doing a short presentation on it to the class. The real point was to acquaint us with getting around the city, as we were also given a second obelisk to visit, though not to present on. My group got the obelisk in St Peter's Sqaure-- yes, the VATICAN St Peter's square. It's a short, simple walk from here to there, so we just walked along the Aurelian wall until we saw the dome of St Peter's Basilica (here are some shots from our journey).

The Aurelian Wall

St Peter's Basilica!

Almost there...

The Vatican!

For anyone who has read Angels and Demons, Dan Brown does get his facts on the location of the obelisk right. However, he does neglect to mention that there is a large nativity scene in front of the obelisk...not really to my taste either. But I digress. I won't get into the presentation, but a few fun facts about the St Peter's obelisk:

• It was made in Egypt and erected during the 5th dynasty at Helipolis
• It was moved to Alexandria by emperor Augustus, and then moved to Rome by Caligula
• Rumor has it that it was in the Circus (area-esque thing) where numerous Christians and ultimately St Peter were martyred. As such, it stands as the last witness to the martyrdom of Peter
• Pope Sixtus the fifth (yes, that was really his name, haha) had it moved a few hundred feet to where it now rests today

Today is a lecture day, with language classes (which means my first greek class here, yikes!), and tomorrow will be a field trip to Palantine Hill and the Roman forum. More to come, if I ever have time!