Ok, here we go. The next week was sadly the week that I was sick. I missed the trip to the Pantheon but went another day. I was looking for a book store, (I had walked right past it), and found the Pantheon instead. Maybe it was hormones or the heat or who knows what but this was one of two places that hit me hard enough to make me cry. The Colosseum is impressive, the Forum is cool, the Pantheon is incredibly beautiful. Full of people to be sure and layers of Christian alterations from over the years but still jaw dropping. It took the people pushing past me to wake me up. I walked around a bit and took some pictures, my favorite of which is up into the light of the hole in the roof. Event the floors are stunning. Thats another thing about many of the old buildings, they don't neglect the floors.
Back to week two. We went to the Ara Pacis on Wednesday, that is 6/20. The Ara Pacis which was found in central Rome was right next to the Mausoleum of Augustus. For those who aren't familier the Ara Pacis is an alter to the peace brought about by Emperor Augustus. We spent the afternoon attempting to find various things on the alter then creating ridiculous Latin skits to describe the scenes on the alter. Let me tell you, the lady who 'guarded' the alter was straight psycho. She absolutely hated us, I thought we were going to get kicked out. It was like having some sort of very vicious animal staring you down as you walk around. Also, no offense to whoever designed that space but its waaaaaaay to white. Everything is white and with the light shining in the huge windows (which is very nice) its blinding. Just saying. After visiting the museum Viki and I wandered around the Mausoleum which is sadly not open for visiters. A large group of us ended up at a little buffet place about a block away.
Now my schedule says we went to a site visit to 'Renaissance Rome' which I don't remember. Lets see if I have pictures.... as she gets distracted by Facebook. Twice. Yea, ok, no pictures. Either I forgot my camera or didn't go. I found that after a week and a half of living with that many other people and being around the same 40 people all day long I really needed some alone time. It was days like that when I would take off into the city and get as lost as humanly possible. That really is the best way to get to know any city. Rome doesn't really have a 'bad area', not in the day. I was usually loath to take my camera out on these days and snap pictures because I could almost sometimes blend a little and not look horribly like a tourist.
On one such occasion I went in search of the library. Yes, I know. Nerdy McNerdison from Nerdville. I missed the smell of the books. So I took the train and got off and walked into the Rome National Central Library. No, Rome isn't a nation. Don't ask me. The take their books seriously, wow. To get in I had to present them with a copy of my passport and get a card then lock everything I had except for the card in a lock box before I could go in. Brilliantly, I walked basically directly over to a shelf and pulled the Aeneid in Latin off the shelf. Its inescapable, this language. I wandered around for a bit then went outside to smoke. I was sitting on the bench when a woman with a stroller came over and we somehow communicated that she wanted to sit down and that I didn't mind. This is an example of the interactions that really make international trips awesome and amazing. We spent the next few minutes, myself speaking no Italian and her speaking no English, fumbling through where I was from and how old the baby was and what his name was. Then I got on the metro and headed to school for sub arboribus.
I don't know if I've explained what that is. If I have skip this. Every Tuesday and Thursday we would have class from 4-6pm then have a break before regrouping. A few of us made a nice little tradition of going to the bar down the block and getting brandies and cognacs before coming back. They liked us at that bar, we kept coming back with more people. There was a pidgin there missing a foot, we named him Stumpy and spoke for him in pirate voices. Then we would walk back to the school and sit under the trees in small groups and speak nothing but Latin from 6:30-7:45. Sub arboribus. Under the trees. Awesome and really hard. Some of my proudest moments were under those trees. Constructing a multipul part sentence to say exactly what you're trying to say is very satisfying. It doesn't sound like much but when you're doing it in a language that you've learned by translating ancient texts its an accomplishment.
Ok lets stop for now. Ciao!
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