School's (Not) Out for Summer

I talked a little about my classes in my last entry, but I thought you might want to hear more about what I’ve been doing here academically.

I have my Italian class four afternoons a week for an hour and forty minutes. The class is fun, my professor is a hilarious Italian woman who is always happy to make her opinion known on everything to the way American guys dress to the Italian system of garbage pick-up. She's also very interested in making the class about Italian culture so we can know more about the lives of the people whose city we're currently inhabiting. I wouldn’t call it a hard class, but we learn so much every day that I’m having a little difficulty remembering everything we’ve gone over. It is not helping that my head isn’t fully in class mode yet. Six months of co-op and an incredible city to explore aren’t really helping me focus on my studies. I’m going to take time today and tomorrow to really study what I’ve learned in the past week so I don’t far too far behind. It would be a shame if I couldn't remember the Italian names for various utensils and classroom objects. :-)

My archeology class, Monuments of Ancient Rome, is a completely different class from anything I’ve ever taken before. It’s an on-site class, so we meet around the city at 9am on Tuesday and Thursday, and then walk around to learn about ancient artifacts, buildings, paintings and everything else we pass until 1pm. The class is more or less a guided tour of Rome, lead by a crazy German archeologist. I have a few friends in the class which is good, we commiserate when our professor has us walk long distances and stand around Etruscan museums for four straight hours without a break. The class will be an excellent way to both see the city and figure out Rome’s transportation system (which I definitely haven’t mastered yet). This weekend I have to figure out a topic for a presentation and paper. I want to do something about concert halls or musical instruments in Ancient Rome. I have to do some research, let me know if you have any ideas.

Classes are good in general, just fast paced. They seem to pack even more material into classes than Northeastern’s summer courses. It may also be that I haven’t gotten back into the swing of classes, I’m hoping I’ll be better next week. I have trips planned every weekend after this, so I’ll need to devote more time Monday through Thursday to classes. Cross your fingers for me.

Another graffiti picture for Ian: