Spring Break 2010: Tunisia

So. Spring Break 2010: Tunisia. Where to even begin? I mean, North Africa! Let me start by saying that the ten days I spent on this school study trip comprise one of the best experiences of my life so far. Looking back on break, I can't believe I did all the things I did and experienced so much. I'm dividing spring break into two entries, because one is just too tiring to write or read or comprehend all at once.
Our story begins at the JFRC (the J-Force, the J-Frick, the Jo-FeRoCe). After an embarrassing near-emergency in which I almost embarked on a 10-day journey without my glasses or any contacts besides the pair of dailies I was wearing, I have since learned that packing takes much more time and attention than I had given it. So we 70 students piled into coach buses and headed for Fiumicino, from where we flew a direct Rome-Tunis flight in.. less than an hour? Nice. And boom, I was in Africa. My third continent before I even turned 20! So many statistics flew through our heads as we took our first steps off the plane (in Africa), had our first bus ride (in Africa), ate our first meal (in Africa), and so on. After landing in Tunis, Tunisia's capital city, the first stop on our agenda was.. the US Embassy! He's a silly (read as: nerdy) guy, but I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. So after that, we headed to our hotel and, after a delicious dinner buffet there, went out to a hookah bar in Sidi Bou Said, compliments of the JFRC.
The next morning everyone put on their best business casual and we sat down for a presentation by a notable Tunisian scholar, which would have been wonderful, if a painfully strong language barrier and not enough sleep were not the two overriding factors in this equation. Afterwards it was off to a luncheon with a large group of Tunisian law students, followed by another presentation on Islam and women. We young adults of the world walked through the medina a bit, and that was it for the day. Important to know, by now I had already fallen in love with Tunisia. That night I don't remember what we even did, but I'm sure it was fun, exciting, and slightly adorable.

That Sunday morning we headed out from our hotel for the Bardo Museum in Tunis, full of ancient Roman mosaics and statues and whatnot. After lunch in Le Kram, we began our rainy tour of Carthage. For the next few hours, we hopped on and off our humid buses and explored the ancient Carthaginian Empire. Stops included a child necropolis at Tophet, the Roman forum on Byrsa hill, and the Antonine baths and some other ruins along the coast. Next we visited the U.S. WWII Cemetery and Memorial of North Africa, where fallen American soldiers from the North African campaign are laid to rest. After our time in the greater Tunis area, we set out for out hotel in Sousse, another city on the Mediterranean coast.
The next morning we woke up, now in a new part of Tunisia. This Monday was a busy day! Our time in Sousse was brief, and we headed straight to El Jem. Once there, we visited the amazing Roman amphitheatre (you know, like a colosseum, except only the Colosseum should be called that). It was breathtaking, especially not yet having been inside the largest and most famous one "at home" in Rome. It was my second amphitheatre after the one in Pompei. Tunisia continued to prove itself to be a gorgeous country. Of course, we stopped at another mosaic museum before piling back into the buses and moving down to Gabès.
There, we visited a spice market where I bought cinnamon and saffron (qerfa and zafaran), and I'm excited to cook something with them when I return home. On our way to Matmata and our hotel, we stopped (semi-invasively) at the home of this old Tunisian woman. It was cool to see the place though, and afterwards we arrived at a (the?) Star Wars bar. I don't remember the films much, so I couldn't conclude that we were being misled or not when they said it was the actual set from the bar scenes. Regardless, we enjoyed ourselves immensely, and spent the night in a neat hotel with a similar cavey theme.

München

And now, for my German weekend in the wonderful Bavarian city of Munich. Friday evening consisted of our flight in, and after a brief train ride from the airport into the city, we were in München! I had my first German pretzel in the train station, and this began the food-filled weekend. We stayed at the Jaeger's Hostel, where part of your check-in includes a free (well, "free," included in what you paid) shot of Jaeger. After getting settled in, we decided to go looking around a bit (read as: wandering the red-light district), but when we noticed that everything was a bunch of casinos and closed sex shops, we decided to head back to the hostel. It was this night I used the lobby computer to read my e-mail, and found out about getting the RA position for next schoolyear. Excited, I went to bed so I could experience the next day fully.
Saturday morning we woke up in our squishy but comfortable beds, and headed out to find some breakfast before the free walking tour started. And what did I find? Only the most delicious thing ever. Arriving at a bakery on one of the main streets downtown, my eyes fell upon a heavenly strawberry pastry of some kind, called something like Erdbeer Royal. It was basically this: think of a soft, flaky, delicious croissant, and then stuff it with Bavarian cream, and lastly top it with strawberries. After enjoying this taste of heaven, we headed over to Marienplatz (the statue, of Mary, pictured to the left, is in its center) in time for the noon glockenspiel show. You know, glockenspiel, as in that large cuckoo clock that plays music twice a day. Next we went on the city's free walking tour (with tour guide Mark, from Essex). We saw most of the important stuff in the center of the city, from town halls and churches to historical locations such as where Hitler was arrested when he first tried to take over. The end of the tour meant some more wandering around and semi-shopping.
Being hungry college students, we had dinner at the Augustiner Bierhalle, which was DELICIOUS. We started off with a basket (a basket!) of soft pretzels, as if it was pre-dinner bread, and to appreciate the culture of course, Augustiner beer. They set down a small pot of mustard in the middle of the table, which just amplified the godliness of the pretzels. For the meal, I ordered sausages with potato salad, and of course utilized the mustard with the sausages. The meal was wunderbar. After a rest at the hostel, we went on, surprise, a beer challenge organized by the same company that provides free tours of the city. The challenge took us to four places, consisting of two bierhalles, one bar, and the bar inside the hostel next door to ours. One of the bierhalles was the famous Hofbräuhaus. Apart from its beer and entertainment, it has the history of being where Hitler himself spoke many a time. That's.. weird! And I was in that hall! Thankfully the atmosphere was very friendly and accommodating, and not authoritarian like its most famous patron.After our beer challenge evening, back in the hostel it was time for bed, or so I thought. I decided to go back down to our hostel's bar for some water (what a smart/good boy!) and it ended up having a few people sitting around. The night continued later than I'd thought it would, and after lots of socialization with Brits and an Irishman, falling right asleep in our room.
Our sadly last morning of the Bavarian weekend, on Sunday, started with an altogether-too-early checkout, which also meant carrying luggage around for the rest of the day. Being a Sunday morning, everything was closed until noon/after church, but since we were hungry we partook in a Burger King breakfast, the only place that was open yet. After that, we wandered around stuffing our faces even more (Bavarian cream doughnuts, chocolate doughnuts, topfenstrudel, apfelstrudel). The main destination of the day, which we decided moments before actually going, was an art museum called the Alte Pinakothek. Pretty neat stuff! Then, sadly, it was time for the train station. Before leaving, I indulged in the station's Starbucks for my first European frappuccino, and also ate two (effing amazing) brats. Then, it was leaving for airport, our flight back to Italia, and coming home. I'll miss Germany, and wish I had the time to visit other cities, Berlin especially, but I know I'll get around to that one day. My last trip before spring break was an absolute success, leaving me content, but also excited for ten days in Tunisia!

Mercati, Dolci, e Fori Fascisti?

So where do I pick up? Life in Rome is pretty great! I've finally had a few more evenings out in the city, trips to bakeries, etc. In my attempts to find nightlife that isn't catered to Americans, I've done alright, but then again, I still haven't been leaving campus as much as I'd like to. It's so easy to stay inside this building for a week at a time, even on my days without class. Pretty upsetting.
Regardless, I'm loving my semester. Although Mensa food (mensa as in cafeteria) is repetitive, at least I'm eating plenty and also enjoying food downtown (I love this one bar by the Sunday market and twice now we've gone there and afterwards gotten desserts in the bakery attached to it). As far as my knowledge of the public transportation goes, let's just say I still have far to go.

On Friday a couple of us decided to go find the Olympic Village. Being our adventurous selves, we walked there. Seeing as we live up on Monte Mario, the walk is almost two miles of hilly, winding roads. Fun stuff, right? Needless to say, I looked less than fabulous before, during, after this excursion. It was a pretty cool experience, I certainly got my work out but also saw a local site. There were a ton of schoolchildren.. exercising? Field tripping and being athletic? I'm not sure. The complex is interesting, and with plenty of Mussolini-style "Italians are the greatest" motifs. The beautiful city of Roma hosted the Summer Olympics in 1960, but there was also some use back in the Thirties for all kinds of Fascist fun in the sun.
The weather has been getting nicer! When the sun is out you can actually feel warm, which is wonderful. I even saw a class or two in the courtyard. This slight warmth is quite an early spring for a Chicagoan like me, but I also have to keep in mind that my travel elsewhere in Europe doesn't mean it will feel like central Italy wherever I go.
Coming up on the travel agenda is München, all of spring break in Tunisia, and so far, Malta and Greece are also planned! Should be exciting since I'm almost out of weekends during which I'm actually staying in Italia!

Pompei in a Day

This past weekend's travel consisted of a day trip to Pompei[i]. Interesting story behind that spelling, actually. In English, the ancient city of Pompeii has two I's. The modern town, not the ruins, but the restaurant and hotel-filled town just south of Napoli/Naples, is spelled Pompei in English. In Italian I've gathered that it's spelled Pompei no matter what, for I have not seen a differentiation of spelling between modern town and ancient city. In Latin, the town's name is spelled Pompeii. This can be a bit confusing, since I prefer to call (and of course spell) the places I go according to how the locals do. For example, I went to Firenze, not Florence, and I'm headed for München, not Munich. So what do I for a city that no longer has a population? Technically, the ancient "locals" would have spelled it Pompeii. Yet now, the only signs I saw all read "Pompei." I've decided that one i is just fine.
So, we all know the story of Pompei. Ancient Roman city destroyed and buried by a volcano eruption in 79 CE. Although a lot of the information I learned that day was oozing back out of my brain by evening, I still found the trip interesting. The town was founded by the Oscans, but was conquered through the ages by groups like the Etruscans, Greeks, and finally Romans. In 62 CE, a major earthquake destroyed most of the buildings and infrastructure in the area, so Pompei was still in an ongoing rebuilding process when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 CE.
The city was taken by surprise and as we all know, many perished. I was surprised and almost upset that I didn't see as many bodies as I expected to be there. The same goes for frescoes, mosaics, just paintings in general. That's because a great deal of stuff is in the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli. Which is great, I'm all for the preservation of such important artifacts, but in my opinion it leaves Pompei a little.. bare. Anyways, it was still a neat place, and I'm glad not only that I can say that I've been there, but that I had a professor from school telling me what I was looking at.
For example, Pompei is home to the world's oldest amphitheatre, 150 years older than the Colosseum. I can't even comprehend yet that I stood inside it. That's how a lot of things go over here. The night I found the Trevi Fountain. The morning I saw the David. Needless to say, I am so incredibly fortunate.

SNOW!

Video from YouTube

Photograph: Alessandro Di Meo/EPA
As you have seen from the video and picture and the frantic Facebook statuses of all of your Rome Center student friends, it snowed last week! Numerous mixed statistics arose, such as some of the Italian staff members claiming it hadn't snowed like that since the sixties, or others saying 1985 was the last big snow, or incredibly detailed Internet sites claiming 2005. Either way, the JFRC freaked out.

I love seeing snow on palm trees. I didn't even mind being woken up to knocking on my door by Dan and Matt and them opening my window to show me the winter wonderland outside. That morning and afternoon included snowball fights and the building of a snowman, although I was lazy and stayed inside because I take forever to get ready in the morning. Typical me!

Visiting the Vatican; Everyday Life

So. Last Wednesday, classes were cancelled and we were encouraged to attend a papal audience. At least half of the student population went and we saw Pope Benedict XVI, flanked by various cardinals (who I would now like to affectionately refer to henceforth as Bennie and the Jets). Bennie was great, starting the show off with a cough or two, which the audience promptly oohed and ahhed at. Then we were greeted in Italian, French, English, German, Spanish, Portuguese, and Polish. Each cardinal read a verse or five from the Bible. Next, Bennie talked on for at least 15 minutes in German-accented Italian. I'm gonna guesstimate that 20% of the audience dozed off at one point, myself included. Next, the cardinals introduced in their various languages the "pilgrims" of each language who were present that day. Loyola University Chicago was the last group listed of the English-speaking groups. We cheered, looked cute. Didn't prepare a song like many of the other groups did. I'm going to give the award to the group from Nigeria for Best Vocal Performance, but an honorable mention goes to one of the French-speaking groups. They had color-coded accessories.
Along this vein, at one point a manic Polish woman grabbed me by the arm and began posing for a picture, taken by her also-middle-aged-Polish-woman accomplice. The entire time she was rambling on in Polish, which I don't happen to speak. I kept saying, "Non capisco polacco," "Cosa stai facendo?" but just as I don't speak Polish, this determined woman doesn't speak Italian. In an adrenaline-pumping spur of the moment decision, for my own personal safety and for the betterment of Western civilization, I decided to give the camera my best half-smile. Afterwards she thanked me in another wave of Polish gibberish, despite our physical struggle in front of the whole crowd with her latched onto my arm. The only word I understood was "Dziękuję" (Thank you) and this still doesn't help my comprehension of the situation very much. A nun, sitting a row or two back from this moment, laughed at me. She definitely spoke Italian because her laugh was provoked by my asking the woman, "Cos'hai fatto?" with a bewildered expression. I still don't know what happened. We later decided either I look like someone she knew, she mistook me for a celebrity, or she enjoyed my outfit.
Somewhere in Poland, a middle-aged woman is uploading a picture of me to her computer. Should I be concerned? Possibly. But I'm not. What good is a visit to the Vatican without a totally unexplainable anecdote?
And then there's my everyday life at the John Felice Rome Center. I have to admit, during the week there are days I don't leave the building. One day last week I spent about sixty seconds outside, and that was to pick an orange off a tree and walk back inside. Have I mentioned either of those aspects of my life? We have everything in one building complex: our rooms, classes, cafeteria, computer labs, blah blah everything. Also, we have fruit trees in the courtyard. A row of trees with clementines, and one other tree with blood oranges. Oh, and this short tree with some lemons on it, but I'm not so interested in that.
On the weekends, it's hard to say yet what I typically do. I've now stayed here for three weekends (well, let's not count that arrival weekend) and traveled for one, too. Yes, of course I've gone out. Of course I've stayed in. I apologize that I haven't described it in more vivid terms. I'm making attempts to make my life more exciting. Anywho, I've been downtown more than before and am just starting to get a big picture of the city. It's certainly not the hold I've got on Chicago and its mass transit system, but it's a start. Until then, I plan to keep on roaming Roma. Below is an example of something I happened upon this Saturday. I noticed that barricades were set up all over the place, but wasn't sure what was going on. Then, after stepping out of H&M (no, I didn't buy anything, I was with friends!) I saw a parade passing by. Renaissance people on horses, jugglers, random Carnevale stuff like that. Neat!

Florence: Under the Tuscan Rain

This is another delayed entry, but a week ago tonight I was newly returned from the wonderful city of Firenze (Florence). It was an enjoyable weekend trip up to Tuscany and although I kept myself relatively in motion, I decided by the end that I had to go back once more this semester in order to get the most out of the city.

In two words, it rained. The city was at least somewhat damp the duration of my visit, but the Friday I arrived and the Sunday I left had some sun. Saturday, however, was a morning of rain and a wet rest of the afternoon and evening. Regardless, I still managed to enjoy myself that weekend at my hostel, a discoteca, a walking tour, and the Galleria containing Michelangelo's David. And the best part? The city is basically flat, unlike Assisi and Gubbio. Even flatter than sweet home, Roma.
So what else about Florence? It's a beautiful city, somehow, despite being a few different yet repetitive shades of brown, off-white, yellow, and cream. That is, at least, until you see the Duomo (and there's no avoiding this mammoth cathedral) and you allow your eyes to enjoy the light brick and dark green accents on the greyish building. Ponte Vecchio (above) looks so pretty yet possibly unstable from up or down the river, and then you walk onto it and realize it's just like any other street, lined with shops.
In summary, my first travel weekend was a success. I have some goodies lined up for later in the semester, but a lot has yet to be booked. Confirmed so far are: a day trip to Pompeii, a weekend in Munich, and my entire spring break spent in Tunisia! I'm excited for those but to be honest, I think I need to explore Roma more and especially get away from this campus alone for once. Big groups and evenings out are fun, but I have yet to spend an afternoon downtown, alone, soaking in the city. Hopefully soon I'll be posting another "everyday life" blog, so stay tuned.