Classe e Calcio

Since my last post, school has started and I'm beginning to deal with the fact that I'm in Rome not only to experience the city, but also to acquire knowledge of its language and its history. I'm currently on day 3 of 15 days of Italian language intensive class for 3:30 hours a day (with a 30 minute break after the 2nd hour. Class is from 3-6:30pm). Lucilla, la mia professoressa, is really fun and a great teacher. She claims to not understand or speak english in class, but we all know that she can. I'm in a class of about 11 with everyone who has finished at least 2 quarters of Italian through their respective universities. Obviously, the more I become immersed in the language, the better I'm going to get at it, so these first 3 weeks will be key to establish a good base for the rest of the semester.

Besides class and homework, I've still been keeping busy checking out all the sites. (And sidenote: I never ended up going to that film festival, but it's going on through September so I'll have plenty of time). On Monday before class, I took a little hike by myself through the area known as Janiculum, west of Trastevere. Armed with my backpack filled with my camera, a map, a water bottle, and a few books in case I found a good spot to hang out and read, I departed from my apartment and headed past the Vatican and up to Janiculum. The streets are definitely confusing, but I found my way with few wrong turns (I even gave 2 Italian women directions) and ultimately made it to stop one of my destination... the Garibaldi Monument and its park (the pics with the horse and the view). After asking a couple to take a few pictures of me, I headed back down the backside of the hill to find the botanical gardens and ended up seeing a few sites/fountains I didn't even know existed, as well as the outside of the Villa Farnesia (I was too cheap to pay to get inside). Once I finally made it to the gardens, I was a little more than disappointed at the apparent lack of actual "garden" in the area, plus I had to pay 4 euro to get in. After that, I made the long trek back to my place to grab lunch and head to class, with the entire journey taking about 3-3.5 hours with no stops. Needless to say, I was drenched in sweat.

On Tuesday, my Italian class went to the market to practice with food vocabulary, etc. and did a little worksheet in the late morning and then we had a 2 hour break between our next meeting time at 3pm. Taking advantage of these 2 hours, Phil, Yvette (girl from UCLA), and I took off for the Piazza Navona, the Pantheon, and the Trevi Fountain.. this time I didn't forget my camera. Piazza Navona is shaped like a gigantic oval (due to the fact there used to be horse races around the circle) and the buildings surrounding the piazza were perfectly picturesque. Unfortunately, the main fountain in the center of the Piazza is under construction, taking away from the overall ambiance, but I couldn't complain too much. The Pantheon was absolutely amazing, an incredible feat of architectural genius. It was even more enormous in the daytime than when I saw it at night. Phil had to get back to a lecture after that, but Yvette and I continued on to the Trevi and a church adjacent to it. I threw the token coin over my shoulder into the fountain to ensure that I will return to Rome at one point in my life. On the way back to school, we stopped by Trajan's Column, which pretty much depicts his life story around the column in the form of mini-sculptures. Its hard to tell from the picture, but there is extraordinary detail that must've taken many painstaking hours.

Last night, our landlord Gianni took about 14 of us in an 8 seater van (the record is 26) to play soccer. The place where we played was set up like a huge country club, with our field set up like an indoor field, in which we were enclosed on all sides but there weren't actually solid walls to play the ball off of like in the States. It was more like a fence. Emmanuel (aka Manny) and I were clearly the only ones with soccer (il calcio) experience, but everyone was having a good time playing 5 vs. 5 (4 watched from the stands). Gianni said he could take us more often, and we may even be playing basketball next week which would be a lot of fun.

While on the topic of soccer, some of us here are planning to see the AS Roma soccer game on Sunday when they kick-off their season against Napoli. Still not a guarantee, but I really want it to happen, so I'll keep you posted.

That's it for now, not a whole lot new to report as like in my other posts, but what can you do. Ciao.