Once in a Blue Moon...(You See a Crypt of Bones)

Okay, so maybe we decided to go on a Rome adventure for the morning/early afternoon and then return to campus and do homework for the rest of the day. I’m kind of glad we did.

We went into Rome with no particular plan except to explore. Turns out as soon as we came out of the metro (avoiding an aparent riot or strike comeplete with smoke bombs), we arrived right in front of the Museum of the Capuchin Monks and the Bone Crypt. On a whim, decided to go check it out, and let me tell you it was the best 6 euros I’ve spent so far! The museum featured paintings, artifacts and histories of the Capuchin monks. Everything was just breathtaking, and the stories of these monks, many of whom are saints, were just beautiful. The highlight of it all was the Crypt of Bones. Turns out, the entire crypt was decorated with the bones of the deceased Capuchin monks. As eerie, gross and creepy as it may sound initially, it was actually a very cosmic, peaceful experience. I was probably just as slack-jawed as I was in St. Peter’s (these Catholic places are really good at doing that to you). The crypt made me realize how dead to the world these monks were and how the life in this world is passing and has no comparison to the spiritual, eternal life that awaits us after death. The experience of seeing all those bones will serve as a reminder that we must be dead to the world, live in the world, and never be of the world and devote ourselves to the service of God, regardless of our personal vocation in the world.

 

After that incredible experience (which felt like a dimension all its own), we strolled through Rome and finally stopped for lunch. Sure, the pizza may have been a bit over-priced, but the flavor was unlike any I had ever tried. Pizza Hut, I will never return! And then it rained. A lot. I’ve always wanted to see it rain in Rome, and I now I’ve seen it! *checks off bucket list* Oh, and I actually managed a conversation with an Italian saleswoman who already indicated that she could speak English, but I chose to speak in a mixture of Spanish and Italian. “Spitalian?” “Itanish?” However you want to call it, the conversation went smoothly without using a single word in English. Success! *fist pumps* *checks off of bucket list* At this rate, I’ll be going skydiving and bungee jumping before the semester is up! Haha, maybe not.

It did take awhile to get back to campus, maybe a good hour and a half, but we made it back safe and sound. I’m at least happy that we have a much better understanding of how the metro works. Rest of the day consisted of homework, and dinnertime consisted of maybe eight students? All we know is that at some point, the number of UD professors and staff outnumbered the students. Guess that only happens once in a blue moon.

Speaking of which, I’ll be up in the outdoor atrium watching the blue moon tonight. Goodnight, moon!

(Not an actual picture I took of the moon. I just thought it worked.)

 

TGIT! (Thank Goodness It's Thursday)

Thank Goodness It’s Thursday! No wonder TGIT became a UD tradition. Classes are over on Thursdays and the long weekend begins. Lots of students left for Cinque Terre, up in the Northern parts of Italy, while the rest of us opted to go on our own excursions, be it France or somewhere local in Rome or Castel Gandolfo. As for me and a couple of gals, we opted to stay local when we missed the booking opportunity for Cinque Terre with the rest of the group. But that’s going to work out fine since we’ll be getting homework and Rome planning done on Friday. Saturday will be our day to go out and explore Rome from top to bottom.

As for this Thursday evening, we watched Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing (it was the one with Emma Thompson) and it had us cracking up for a great deal of the film. I REALLY enjoyed it, and that’s saying something because I generally don’t like watching movies that include romantic relationships or the setting up of relationships and such. This one surpassed all of my expectations. Thus far, this has been my favorite Shakespeare play.

Thus concludes my TGIT, writing my blog in the outdoor third-floor atrium under a glorious full moon. Another day of good work tomorrow and I’ll be free to enjoy Rome without limit. Grades before parades, y’all!

Git 'R Done!

FINALLY! I’ve become more limited on time. So now I’ll have to sum all of the highlights that have happened since Tuesday in a single paragraph. Okay, here it goes:

Tuesday:

1) Attended survival Italian class for the first time. I’ll be auditing that class since I don't want to use up too many of my credits.

2) Fire drill timed perfectly at the end of Art History class.

3) Traveling tips session with the RAs after another fun soccer game. I'm seriously hoping that my dreams of visiting Ireland, Scotland and the rest of the UK works out.


Wednesday:

1) First People and Places outing where we visited the famous Hadrien’s Villa roughly 20 miles from Rome. Pretty awesome time and very interesting history. Hadrien is the kind of guy you respect, and then despise, and then don’t know what to do with him. Oh well, at least he had good taste in landscaping.

2) I briefly explored the UD

3) Finally coming down with an evening routine. Reading/studying late afternoon (or at least 2 hours before dinner) either at the pool, the Belvidere balcony or wherever I feel like for the day, followed by dinner and a fun soccer game with some of the UDers, Zoe Osborn and Dr. Osborn if he’s not too busy or if he’s not teaching Tragedy & Comedy. From there it’s back to studying until bedtime. I do want to put the Rosary back into that routine. It was working for a couple of days, but somehow I lost it. I need to get that back.

Anyway, back to homework then. Farewell, explorers!

The Best Professors Since...Well...Ever! (Part 1)

Suddenly I wish that Philosophy class was my first one of the day. Dr. Nelson, the Phil. Of Man professor, is the funniest professor ever! He’s so hyper and energetic when he teaches, I daresay even so early on in the semester that Phil. Of Man just might be my favorite class.

Dr. Osborn is everything I anticipated a Lit. Trad. Professor to be and more. He reads so eloquently and when he’s trying to get a visual point across, he’ll even go so far as to act something out with a little dance or something. As “monotone” as his voice can be sometimes, he’s very intriguing and delivers excellent lectures.

Then there’s Dr. Lisot, our Art History instructor. She’s very strict and goes through the slides like she’s wrapping up the class. Nevertheless, she’s a great instructor. Actually, since I’ve already taken Art History I and II, A lot of this feels like review to me. I think it’ll make that class a bit easier.

Other than those three classes for the day, the last big highlight was playing an exhilarating game of soccer with about a dozen of the UDers and Dr. Osborn and his oh-so-spunky daughter, Zoe. Those Osborns can really knock ’em dead on the field.

In other news, I think I’ll try auditing Survival Italian this semester. . I mean, you can get by with Spanish and it’s dramatically easier for the Italians to understand what you’re trying to say than when you speak in English, that’s for sure, but I think it’d be nice having a bit of Italian on hand out here rather than Spanish alone. Also, a few of us tried to book a trip for Cinque Terre, but due to the steep pricing, we decided that we’ll probably stay local this upcoming weekend and pick out a number of places that we’d like to visit. But I still have plenty to look forward in the coming weeks: Two big weekends on the Amalfi Coast!

What I Missed

Sunday today was a free day, so I could have gone to visit Rome or Castel Gandolfo or something, but I opted to stay and catch up on the homework I’d missed this weekend due to so many campus activities. In a way, I’m kind of regretting it because some of the girls who went to Castel Gandolfo got to see Pope Benedict XVI come out to say the Angelus with the people and bless them!!!!! I know I’ll get to see him this semester as we have a scheduled papal audience, but it would have been nice to see him more than once. Oh well, reading at the pool wasn’t too bad today though. We thought it would rain due to the dark clouds that came nearby, but it didn’t. Good study day though. Maybe next weekend I'll chance to see His Holiness...

Rome Red Wine

Rome Sweet Rome! With the help of the RAs, we took public transportation into Rome and explored there awhile before beginning our scavenger hunt through the Eternal City. The churches were just breathtaking, particularly Santa Maria Maggiore and San Giovanni. If I hadn’t seen St. Peter’s Basilica, I would have thought these to be the biggest churches in existence. Not even my camera could capture the sheer size and grandeur of these sacred houses.

 

The scavenger hunt went well for the first 15 minutes or so, until our group ended up horribly lost on some deep south side of Rome. We ended up walking for the most part, and found only 8 items in the end. With all that sun and heat, I ended the trip with a mild headache for the rest of the evening, though I did continually drink plenty of water. I wish there were a next time for the Rome scavenger hunt, but I had to remind myself that there wouldn’t be a next time. But at the very least, our team had gained plenty of practice in crossing the precarious streets of Italy and navigating through the metro stations. Heading back to catch a charter bus ride home, I gave the remains of my lunch (including an untouched juice box, apple and bag of crackers) to a man begging on the street corner. I’ve always wanted to do that, but I’d never had any food on me.

 

 

After we arrived back on campus, we took fast showers, dressed up and enjoyed a fine evening of wine tasting. The Rome staff talked us through the history of wine and the art of wine tasting using the senses. I didn’t realize how much went into drinking wine. It really is an art form of its own. The symphonies of smell and flavor were just incredible. I was even amazed at how a single glass of wine could be one flavor in one sip, and an almost entirely new flavor on the second, third, fourth sip and so on. I think that each bottle of wine should have its own poem inscribed on the back label describing the experience of tasting that particular wine. We tasted three different wines: a white wine from Castel Gandolfo, another white wine from Campania (Amalfi Coast), and the third was a deep red wine from our local area. Now, knowing me, I’m the kind of person who is incredibly antsy about the idea of drinking. I mean, I know how to space out the drinking and the importance of having food with it and whatnot, but I think it would have been pretty comical to see me on my first attempt of drinking:

RA pours wine into my glass filling it about 3/5ths of the way.

“Oh wow! That’s…a lot.”

*getting all nervous about drinking so much wine. I’d barely been able do drink a milliliter of wine earlier this week for crying out loud!*

Ryan Reedy of the UD staff then proceeds to explain to us the steps of enjoying a drink of wine.

“…swirl the wine around in the glass…get the smell…and drink,” he says.

Eeeps! *first sip* “Mmmm, not too bad.”

This continues for the next minute or two and then…

*PANIC* “I’ve already had four whole sips of wine and I haven’t eaten anything since lunch!! I’ll be tipsy in the next few minutes if I don’t eat something quick!”

*Snatches some nearby potato chips and consumes them quickly, almost without even attempting to taste them*

“Okay, I think that should suffice for the moment. But I need to eat something else! Where’s the cheese? And water! I need to drink some water to help slow my BAC levels.”

 

Yep. That’s me, over thinking it as always. But in the end, the wine tasting experience was an unforgettable one, taking us from the pool to the vineyard and ending with a nice dinner on the back patio with the most amazing desert I’ve tasted so far in Italy - a cream puff doused in chocolate. Delish! After drinking 2 and 2/3 glasses of wine altogether by the end of the evening, I was still completely lucid with only the slightest warp in the corners of my field of vision and a slightly more augmented headache than I’d had when I’d first started drinking. I can’t say I liked the effects of drinking, but then again, I hadn’t gone very far in the drinking process, unless I have an unbelievable capability of drinking without being affected by alcohol hardly at all. I’m inclined to think otherwise. Then again, my being tired already from a long, hot day in Rome didn’t help either. Regardless, I now know the formal method of wine tasting and I’ve resolved that from now on (even after I return home), I’ll be saving drinking for special occasions or as a luxury drink rather than an every day indulgence. Saves me my money and my sanity. Cheers!

It's the Small Towns That Have It!

Another day, another adventure! At about 3pm local time, we all went to visit the charming towns of Castel Gandolfo, Adolfo, and Nemi - beautiful areas around the retired volcano on which the UD campus sits and where the best wine in Italy is produced. Everything was amazing: the scenic views, the churches, the water, the gelato (lemon and strawberry!), the miniature strawberries of Nemi, and the charm of the towns was just….mmmm! It was everything I expected of the small Italian towns and more, not to mention the kind of place in which I could have pinched my self a thousand times but would never have woken up. Eating out at an Italian diner overlooking Lake Albano was a perfect way to end the day.
 

Seriously! These are places I only dream of or get to see on postcards. And now I'm living in it? You are so real, God!

Thus far, making friends hasn’t been as hard as I thought it would be, especially so early in the semester. I guess it shouldn’t bee that surprising because we’re on such a small campus with only around a hundred twenty students or so. I’m actually amazed at how many people actually know my name. I mean, as someone who was perpetually invisible and living in the art village back at the Irving campus, I’m VERY surprised. Well, I guess the Capp Bar may have helped at UD, but still people whom I’ve hardly known for 4 days already call to me by name. There’s just something so refreshing about hearing my own name mentioned to me. Just saying.

Time to head off to bed. Rome scavenger hunt is tomorrow and I need to be all rested up for that long excursion. This is the Wandering Sapphire, signing off with the smell of leftover wine wafting through the air (that was everyone else drinking while I was writing this blog. I’ll wait for tomorrow’s formal wine-tasting event before dipping my taste buds into any wine other than what I’d had for the first time on Monday).

Homework Never Smelled So Good

Waking up at 6am isn’t all that bad it Italia. I get a beautiful, cool morning with a calm pink sky and a gorgeous view out my window. Today consisted mostly of first-day orientation for my five major classes. I already like my instructors. Even the subjects I don’t like seem to promise a good time. And we FINALLY received homework for the first time. Yay! After a couple of days of having nothing constructive to do during breaks between orientation sessions, homework has become the one thing to which many students have been looking forward. I'm glad it's finally here!

When all of our long orientation sessions were over, I spent the afternoon reading our Western Civilization homework at the pool with my feet in the refreshingly cool water on such a hot day. According to Dr. Osborn’s daughter, Riley (whom I’m guessing is about 12 or 13 years old), this week was supposed to be one of the hottest this August, ranging between 36-40 degrees Celsius (translating to the upper 90s to low 100s in Fahrenheit.) So yes, while it’s been horribly hot, and at times unbearable, the shade isn’t so bad. I’d compare it to humid California weather. No matter how hot it gets during the day, it’s relaxingly cool in the evenings with a light breeze to add to the peaceful ambiance. Every evening is perfect!

Now to finish the last of my homework, which finally seems possible now that I don’t have any studio art classes to take up so much of my time.

St. Peter's Basilica & Rome Tour

5:00am local time. Wake up call. That’s right. Everyone woke up at 5am in order to be among the first to arrive at St. Peter’s Basilica where we celebrated Mass and marveled at the sheer size of the church. We were pretty much slack-jawed from the first moment of walking through the great portals. So many relics in one place was just overpowering! And everywhere you turned, a Mass was in session, so we couldn’t really turn anywhere without genuflecting. Everything was so grand and beautiful, I could almost hear the very heartbeat of the bride of Christ. We even encountered some Swiss guards, who allowed us to photograph them. What an amazing experience of being right at the core of the Catholic Church, where everything we believe in is summed up into one grand city. I’ll need to re-visit the Basilica again, and soon!

After our visit to St. Peter’s, we began our tour of Rome starting at St. Peter’s Square and wandering off into the many delightful streets and alleyways. We visited so many amazing places, including the Pantheon, the Church of St. Agnes where we were able to see the actual skull of St. Agnes herself, the church of St. Augustine where we visited St. Monica’s tomb and saw a couple of Caravaggio paintings. Exciting! We also visited Capitoline Hill and a couple of other Piazzas whose names escape me at the moment, but nonetheless they were all so charming. And by the way, the Roman water is the clearest, freshest most delicious water I have ever tasted! They had water fountains scattered everywhere throughout Rome so we were able to continuously fill up on water. We did stop to get some gelato which was absolutely delicious. I tasted mint chocolate chip, nutella, and a kind of java chocolate chip gelato.

  

I’m super pumped now for the semester to begin. We’ll be visiting the ancient Roman sites again very soon. I am already convinced about the validity of the notion that all who visit Rome are forever impacted by that experience. And it’s only day 2 on campus!

Entering the Eternal City

What an exciting trip! 24 hours of non-stop travel, but the jet lag wasn’t too bad since we flew into the nighttime when we flew over the Atlantic (passing not too far away from the Titanic site) and I slept for most of that time. 1400+ miles later, we made it to Rome, the Eternal City, safely!

The UD Rome campus is just charming! There are so many opportunities for taking brilliant pictures and plenty of nice areas for taking a nice walk or jog. I’ve yet to explore the vineyard, but it looks beautiful, particularly after 5pm.

The entire staff is just fantastic. The RAs gave the students tours and even pointed out that if you look hard enough from one of the balconies (I'd say its name if I could remember), you can see the dome of St. Peter's basilica.

The water, as the previous UDers had said before, is not very good. It tastes like a flat carbonated water with no flavor. Adding ice, however, does make it a little more durable. The food isn’t all that bad though. And they did serve us wine at dinner time. It was a white wine and I probably only drank a milliliter or two. It smelled way better than it tasted, in my opinion. I think a lot of this is going to be an adjustment (including the drinking.) Maybe I'll fare better with the red wines.

I’m looking forward to visiting St. Peter’s basilica tomorrow morning for Mass. It’s going to be exciting!!

Until the morrow,
The Wandering Sapphire

The "Wandering Sapphire" to Depart for Rome

Well hello, you!

Kathleen here. Thanks for dropping by. Things have been pretty busy lately as I am preparing for my study-abroad trip to Rome with the University of Dallas this fall semester, 2012. It's going to be the adventure of a lifetime!

On this blog, I will be sharing my adventures with you by posting updates and occasional pictures of my many excursions. I expect that my posts will be rather sporadic as I will be incredibly busy, but this will probably be the easiest way for me to keep you updated on what the rest of the Romers and I are doing. I'm hoping to have at least one post and/or photo out each week, but don't be too discouraged if it doesn't happen. I'll try to practice responsibility and diligence with this blog. But remember, school always comes first.

What's with the blog title, you ask?

"The Wandering Sapphire" refers to myself because my birthstone is the sapphire (my birthday is on September 14th) and I will be doing a lot of wandering around in Rome and all of Europe. This is going to be incredibly exciting. I can hardly wait to share my experiences with you via blog.

I will be leaving for Rome on Sunday, August 19th, 2012. Don't forget to keep in touch and follow this blog!

Until departure, this is the Wandering Sapphire, signing off.