Rain Rain Rain

Laura twirling in front of the pantheon

I'm terribly sorry that I didn't post yesterday. I don't even remember what happened yesterday. Oh yes, it was a lot of paperwriting. And juggling. Oh YES now I remember! I presented on Eastern European immigrants. Well, there isn't much to say about that except that it happened and now I'm done.


Amy barefoot in the rain.

Now, onto more interesting matters, namely, rain. It was my first rain in Rome. And boy, did it rain. It didn't just rain. It poured. Some of my friends were absolutely ecstatic to get a taste of Seattle here in Rome. In fact, their enthusiasm bordered insanity as some points. But it was all good.

We also saw St. Peter's Bascilica in the Vatican today. I actually like it more in the rain. It is more gloomy, and makes the interior more tangible and real. When it's sunny and all the gold is shining, I find it incomprehensible. The clouds made St. Peter's bascillica more real.

Some cool facts: part of the cross Jesus was crucified on is in the Bascilica. In addition to the cross, part of the spear Christ was stabbed with as he was on the cross is also in the bascillica. There's a lot of cool stuff there.

Pigeons and Swordfish

I think I could sum up the interesting portion of my day using two images: pigeons and swordfish:

Pigeons


We went to the church of Santa Maria today, a church supposedly dedicated to the virgin Mary. However, given all the family emblems and family imagery, it looked more like a church built for the glorification of its commisioners. In the front of the church was a fountain with a bunch of pigeons drinking, bathing, and striking all sorts of funny poses. This was one of them.

Swordfish

After seeing a giant fountain on the top of a hill, I ended up wandering around Rome on my own again. I found this awesome swordfish near the campo and took a shot. It felt so out of place in the campo--a spiny, dark, solemn figure amid florid joy and ignorance.

Most of my time was devoted to writing up a presentation. I'm actually very excited to share all the stories I've collected in the past week from various immigrants. The stories are fascinating; everyone has something to share.

Oh, and I went for a run at around 10 pm with Jenn, which was refreshing. It's nice to finally burn off some of the gelato I've been eating.

La Notte Bianca

It was people. It was many people. The people spilled onto the streets so that cars could no longer get by. It was crowds. It was getting pushed in every direction all at once and barely being able to move. It was a colorful barge towering over a sea of heads.

It was beer bottles strewn on the floor. It was beer after beer for those foolish enough to get drunk on such a night. It was joy, it was sorrow. It was people partying until morning. It was those same people rolling on the floor in agony a few hours later.

It was coffee and gelato until morning. It was sitting in cafe's and just chilling. It was walking from one end of Rome to the other, seeing all the performances there.

It was color, it was light. It was purple, blue, red, green, yellow. It was a night of every color. It was a white night.

A Yellow Day

Carrissa was having a hard time coming up for a way to describe the day. She spent about 15 minutes trying to figure out a way to describe the day. This was a very hard day to describe. Eventually we settled on "today was an indescribable day". Well, I have news. I found a way to describe the day.

(A stylized version of my broken clock. I spent an hour trying to fix it, but nothing came of it except a fun little snake and a funny photo)

Today was yellow.

Why yellow? Well, first of all, it was hot, and everyone knows that hot things are yellow. The sun is yellow, summer is yellow, and fire is yellow.

We also visited a jesuit church today--Il Gesu, which was very yellow on the inside. It was so yellow and gold that I remember a student (who shall remain anonymous for security reasons) remarking that this amazing interior was "too yellow for me".


And, the bowl with the best salad I've had in Italy so far that we made for our apartment's group dinner (which Carrissa, who is not from our apartment made. Thank you Carissa, it was delicious) was yellow.

By why else? Well, according to bout.com, "On the one hand it denotes happiness and joy but on the other hand yellow is the color of cowardice and deceit." I know I am extremely happy here in Rome, but for some reason I feel like there might be some sort of deceit brewing in the back alleys, as is natural for a group of this size that's forced to be together for a month. Why was today a cowardly day? It wasn't really. But, one thing I have noticed lately is that many people do things in groups. It takes a lot of courage to go and do something on your own, and it sometimes seems like we're all sort of cowards in that way.