Saturday, April 29, 2006

Le cose ultime

The final things...
We had our final exam for Urbanism yesterday-actually a couple of days, but the review was yesterday. It was pretty evil; we had to come up with a proposal for basically an empty space in a neighborhood and fill it up, then have perspectives and plans and stuff nicely presented on paper, but we had a little over 24 hours to do this, and it was on the heels of our studio project. It resulted in me staying up the longest I have since freshman year, which was not fun. I also managed to sleep through about half of the review, so I barely showed up in time for mine. Angelo, another arkie, had to come and bang on my door to get me!
But I did eventually wake up and the project and review did eventually finish, and then I headed out to St. Peter's to climb the dome. The lines were not bad, but since they allow people up in waves it took quite a while before we started to climb the stairs. It was 7€ for admission if you took the elevator and then climbed 300 stairs, or 4€ if you climbed 551 stairs to the top, so that's of course what I did. I ended up in a group with 2 guys from Spain and Sweden, both of whom spoke english and were interesting, so we talked as we hiked up the stairs. It was pretty cool because first you hiked up to a point above the cornice around the dome, where you could look down and see inside St. Peter's- the top of the baldicchino, the different transcepts, and the throne of St. Peter. Then you actually started climbing between the shells of the two domes, and the walls were at what was probably an 80% angle towards the top, so you actually had to bend to walk as well! We ended up at the top, took pictures of the square from above, saw the backs of the statues on the facade, and then stopped on the roof before heading down. Being on the roof was pretty sweet as well!
Last night was movies, packing, and gelato. We walked out past St. Peter's to get gelato, and I realized that I'm looking foward to heading out now, but once the next school year starts I'll be wishing I had some cool destination to walk to. Saying "I walked past the main building!" doesn't have quite the same ring as "I walked past St. Peter's to get gelato!".
I'm headed out today to sketch, pack, and see the borghese museum before we have one final dinner together and probably do a "one night, all monuments" tour as our "cosa ultima".

Tuesday, April 25, 2006

Exam week

I overslept today, so my plans for going up the dome of St. Peter's fell through, but the sleep was so nice! I went souvenir shopping during the lunch break for the reviews and got a bunch of the stuff I wanted- some shirts and an Italian flag and a Pace (peace) flag too. I think I really see the pace flag more than the Italy one, which seems kinda weird, but that's Italy! I still want to get a certain sweatshirt I saw before and the clock for Mommom, but at least I got a bunch of stuff out of the way. I have my history exam tomorrow, so I need to study a bit for that, and then I think we have a pretty relaxed project as our final exam for urbanism on Thursday and Friday. Saturday I think will be pretty much devoted to packing. I think the rest of the time should be pretty relaxing. I feel like I might be the only person who really looks foward to exam weeks, but they really are the greatest!

Monday, April 24, 2006

A quick note...

I'm adding a link to John's blog, Sacra Cracovia, in my sidebar. John is a former arkie who decided after freshman year to be a theo and philo major if I remember correctly, and he's studying in Krakow, Poland right now for his semester abroad. He came out here for Easter with a bunch of his Polish friends on a retreat and we provided them with several batches of tickets! He's a very descriptive person, so he'll throw in some more details and analysis than I would have! Enjoy!

Post Review Celebrating

We finished our projects last night and had to turn them in at 9, so I finished at about 7:30 and went to mass. Tyng (another arkie) had a birthday party afterwards so we went out to Baffetto's pizzeria, which is really famous and is also where we went on the first night, so it kinda started to wrap up the year! My review was this afternoon at 3:45 and it went pretty well. They mostly liked my design and renderings, and they called my building "elegant", which was really good. They kicked me for a few things, but nothing too major, mostly just about retaining walls and incorporating gardens. Overall though it went really well and my stuff was done well enough that they could tell what needed attention in my design and not spend time trying to distinguish what wasn't painted well from what wasn't designed well. Next up: St. Peter's dome and the Galleria Borghese- and cathing some of the Roman sun!

Friday, April 21, 2006

Sorry...

But we have a project due Sunday night, so I'm expecting not to update until after then. We have our reviews and exams the next week before we fly out on sunday. Hopefully I'll be able to make some time in there to go walk around and do the rest of the things I want to do before I go! Until my next update then, assume I'm in studio plotting out how to do everything in my last 9 days!

Tuesday, April 18, 2006

Well...

Your Blog Should Be Blue

Your blog is a peaceful, calming force in the blogosphere.
You tend to avoid conflict - you're more likely to share than rant.
From your social causes to cute pet photos, your life is a (mostly) open book.


Well I sort of agree- I tend not to post a lot of opinions or controversial material- but I would definitely not call my life an open book! And while I wear blue all the time, it's not my favorite color. But I do like the snowflake!

Monday, April 17, 2006

Homily

This may or may not interest you, but here's the english translation of Pope Benedict's Easter vigil homily, which I did in fact hear, but didn't quite understand as much as these translators did!
Vigil Homily

Sunday, April 16, 2006

Buona Pasqua!

Happy Easter! Elise came in Friday night and we were able to sneak into the Lunetta hotel, so we just crashed there. Unfortunately, I forgot to tell Elise how much walking we would be doing, so she didn't bring any walking shoes (Elise would like to add that Angers is much smaller and she has no need of aforementioned walking shoes). Anyway, on Saturday, we went around to all the famous Rome sites- the Pantheon, the Spanish steps, saw a bit of the Trevi fountain in the midst of throngs of tourists and vendors, Piazza Navona, and more of the area around my hotel like Largo Argentina (where Julius Caesar was killed), and the Monument to Victor Emmanuel. We stopped sightseeing rather early and went to St. Peter's to line up for the Vigil Mass- we got there several hours before the gates opened and were plopped in the middle of a large group of Spaniards and Estonians. There was indeed a language barrier. I tried to pull out some of my high school spanish but it was a lost cause. I threw in about 70% italian and they looked at me strangely and in halting english said, "if you speak slowly english we understand". We had an exchange of emails though, so it can't have been that bad. While I was trying this, Elise was going and eating her first gelato at Old Bridge. We had just brought some carry out greek salad and gnocchi pasta with us for dinner, so we sat (in as little space as I can possibly occupy) and ate that in the midst of a whole group in St. Peter's square. Elise is an official convert to Italian food! Once the gates opened, there was a huge crush of people into the lines (there was a buildup for about 15 minutes prior with people shouting "VIVA PAPA!). We were squished, but not separated thankfully, and we sprinted to the door of St. Peter's and ended up with seats in the second row of chairs open to the public! There were about 15 rows of priests in front of us, but we could definitely see the pope celebrating. We were next to 2 Italian boys affiliated with Opus Dei who were from Turin and Milan, so we had a very interesting half english half italian conversation with them- about sports! (and italy and the US in general). The mass did start in near total darkness- only the statues in the wall niches were illuminated- and then we lit our candles, until when the Pope reached the altar, at which point they absolutely flooded St. Peter's with lights which line all along the cornice. The mass was cool, especially the baptisms and confirmations- there were 7 people, representing each area of the world, and they wore native dress, so there were kimonos and south american colorfully embroidered outfits. The mass got out around 1 AM and Elise and I were pretty tired!

We slept in on Sunday and then headed out to see some other sites; we walked through the Campidoglio under a path covered by wisteria, which was really sweet and allowed us to avoid all those horse steps Michelangelo put in, then went to the Forum and walked around the Colosseum. We ate lunch at Tosca so Elise could have pizza, and struck up a conversation with an italian man who told us that we were more Roman because we were more "open" than most foreigners! I love striking up those random conversations and being able to practice my italian, and Elise is just amazing at picking up phrases and pronunciations! We then decided to head out to St. John Lateran, which Elise really liked because it has more of a medieval character towards the back with the tower over the altar and a mosaic along the back wall. After that though we had to book it all the way across town to St. Peter's because we were meeting up with the Notre Dame kids to have dinner cooked by the ND students who study at John Cabot University here in Rome. Poor Elise got a few blisters from that walk and then the walk back later that night! After dinner we came back to studio, checked our email, and headed out to the Trevi Fountain with some limoncello. We just sat there and took pictures and talked and sipped our drinks and it was a lot of fun- a very good way to end the night.

Monday was much more relaxed, mostly because my plans totaly fell through! We were going to go to St. Peter's and see John Paul II's tomb and wander around the basilica before climbing the dome, but the line to get into St. Peter's was the longest I've ever seen it aside from masses- it went all the way around the colonnade inside the square. On our way there though, we heard the funniest line I've heard from a vendor yet- this guy working at a generic souvenir stand called out "we have a special today! Buy one, get my phone number!" Elise and I just about exploded with giggles! After we saw the line for St. Peter's though, we called that plan off and headed instead to the Gianicolo hill, where we could see the Acqua Paula and get a different view from above the city. Then we walked down, had some really good hot chocolate and cappucino at a cafe, and headed out to try and see the Cornaro Chapel and Bernini sculpture at S. Maria della Vittoria, but it was closed. So we headed back, ate a huge lunch at Insalata Ricca, and relaxed before getting some gelato and taking Elise back to Termini to catch her bus to Ciampino. I should have some pictures once Elise emails them to me, so hopefully you can see some more of Rome! I'm also going to try and aim to get more drawings done in my sketchbook ( I got one done while waiting for the mass to start in St. Peter's of the baldicchino) and borrow someone else's really sweet camera and just go around the city taking all of my favorite pictures. I'm sure I'll be able to come up with a ton of stuff I should do between now and the time I leave in 2 weeks, but that's the preliminary list. Now that the official tourist season has begun with Easter, I'm ready to be a tourist myself!

Friday, April 14, 2006

Holy Thursday

I went to the Holy Thursday mass last night at St. John Lateran, celebrated by the Pope, with a couple of ND kids, and I'm not going to lie, it was somewhat disappointing. It was definitely not a mass intended for huge crowds of people; St. Peter's does that much better. So we ended up standing for many hours along the center aisle so we could see the pope process in and out, but he copped out and entered and left through the side entrance! My highlights instead (I hope this isn't sacriligious!) were a woman who looked like I pictured Rita Skeeter (from Harry Potter) and a random man, about 60, who were clustered along the wall. The woman had a veil on and before mass was talking on a cellphone (using just an earpiece, so it looked like she was blabbing to the air) and simultaneously looking like she was praying the rosary. After mass started she climbed the lower rung of the railings and would periodically wave her handkerchief veil thing while leaning periously over the railing, but it was just the Rita Skeeter image that made it all perfect. She also at one point kissed the envelope provided for the collection, leaving a lipstick print on it, and waved it at the swiss guard! The other man was probably more of my favorite though. He sang everything, in the same note (I don't know how), and started every song 5 seconds early so everyone would hear 'ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh' before EVERY SINGLE song or chant. He also sang along with the greek refrains, although I don't think he knew a word of greek (it didn't sound like it). I didn't feel too bad trying so hard not to laugh aloud at him though because the nuns who were next to him were dying of laughter and trying so hard not to be too overt about it!

I finished this phase of my project, so now all I have left is painting, and I think we have about a week to do that, so I'm excited. The other studios are pretty far behind ours, so we should be in really good shape for the review and finals- much better than 2/3 of our class. I'm pretty excited about that, and hopefully I'll have some (gasp!) free time to go see a couple of museums that I want to check out.

Elise comes in tonight, so no work will be getting done this weekend (and also probably no updating). So, HAPPY EASTER!

Tuesday, April 11, 2006

Wheeeeeee!

I just thought I should blog this momentous moment... I tried cappucino today. I was walking by Sant Eustachio and I decided to try some since I've heard good things, and I felt like I should try some while I'm in Italy. Well, it didn't taste as bad as I thought it would- they added a lot of sugar!- but I still have that vile coffee aftertaste. Uggh. Worse, I think I'm about the last person that should ever be given coffee. I can definitely feel my heart beating faster and while I feel like I should be running around, my already short attention span has been cut in half. I had an IM conversation with Mara the other day that she subsequently put on her profile about how I managed to waste so much time:
Claire:
"I go sit at my desk"
"and drink my waterbottle"
"and then I realize that I have to go to the bathroom"
"then I come back and realize that I need to fill my waterbottle"
"then I come back and drink it and start again"
"I have the attention span of a peanut"
...And I now know that cappucino does not help.

Easter card



This is the card I sent out to Walsh and my family- it's watercolor, and no, I did not draw it off the top of my head. Google image searches are wonderful things!

Monday, April 10, 2006

Palm Sunday

Well, in Italy, it's not Palm Sunday- I guess it would be more accurate to call it Olive Branch Sunday (although I think they still actually call it Palm Sunday!) I slept throught the papal mass (oops!) so I went to the mass at the church next to studio, which was cool because I got to do the gospel reading. Grant was supposed to do it, but he went to the Assisi retreat this weekend so he asked if I could do it, and I figured you only get a few chances to read the gospel, since I'm not planning on becoming a priest, so I said sure. Chief priest Claire, that's me!

Friday, April 07, 2006

The sports center?

So the Terp women won the NCAA basketball championship, and the Orioles are at the top of the AL East (granted, they went 2-0 against the Devil Rays!)? Since when has Maryland decided to distinguish itself in sports other than lacrosse?

Thursday, April 06, 2006

Room picks

Well, it happened- room picks in Walsh were the other day. I ended up in a single which is really nice- apparently it's one of the 4 biggest singles in the dorm. It's on the Bond/Sorin corner, so my window looks out towards Bond. I'm not so keen on that- I had told Mara to pick me one that faced God Quad if possible- but those rooms tend not to be singles, so I ended up with room 238. I'm on the same floor as a lot of the other seniors, really close to Mara and Patricia. It's the first time not on the 4th floor! It should be pretty nice; now I just need to figure out how to decorate!

Tuesday, April 04, 2006

The memorial mass

I decided to skip studio in order to go to the memorial mass for John Paul II yesterday- it was the first class I think I've skipped voluntarily (I've slept through a couple!) and it felt really strange to ask my professor if I could skip! He said sure, I could take the skip since I haven't used it, but later he changed it to an excused absence since other teachers gave that to the students who went with me. We left from studio and met up with a seminarian named Chris, who's from Indiana and went to Harvard. He had gotten us tickets and we arrived about 2 hours before the mass started, so we went in and got really good seats. The mass started at 5:30, so we got a good 2 hours of afternoon sun, which felt very good, but the sun went behind St. Peter's right before mass started, and when the wind picked up I was glad I had brought my jacket (I got to break out the leather)! The mass was in Latin- I'd like to say it was a Tridentine mass, but since I've never been to one before, I wouldn't be able to say. They handed us out a booklet with the Latin printed on it and the Italian translation next to it as well, so between Chris translating and the Italian, I understood almost all of what was going on. I thought the neatest part was the Gospel, which was chanted in Latin. Now, I'm sure there are people I know to whom this is normal (Mary Liz and Elise!) but I've never heard the gospel either chanted or in Latin, so this was new to me and I enjoyed it. The reading they picked was from the gospel of John (I think) where Jesus while on the cross gives John to his mother as her son, and tells John to care for Mary as his mother. Pope Benedict really impressed me by comparing Pope John Paul II to John- trying to live next to Mary with her as his mother and looking up to and aspiring towards Jesus and the cross. I thought it was an apt comparison and one that I would have never thought up myself! I felt bad for Benedict though- he knows he has very large shoes to fill and they are shoes of his friend to top it off. The other night at the vigil I thought he would come out and lead the rosary, but he just came out to his window and prayed along with everybody- and I think it was because he just wanted to remember his friend along with the rest of the people who were there. It really struck me because I always have the picture of the Pope as a leader in my mind, and there he really looked uncomfortable in his robes up in the window, like he just wanted to be an ordinary person down in the square. Having the mass must have been rather difficult too.

I also managed to mail out my Easter cards to my Wild Women and good ole 9316! Family, enjoy! I'm addressing the one card to both you guys and Mommom because I didn't feel up to making another one. We're entering project crunch time now... so I'm logging out. Ciao!

Monday, April 03, 2006

John Paul II

I've read a lot that Pope John Paul II was greatly loved by people all over the world, but the realization didn't hit me until last night, when I went to the prayer vigil in St. Peter's square for the one year anniversary of his death. The Italians were very organized about it- there were people handing out free water to everyone as you walked in and boy and girl scouts passing out fliers with the songs and prayers for the evening, as well as candles. I went with Yacintha, and we got into the square easily. I didn't realize how big St. Peter's square is- they said there were 100,000 people there, but we weren't squished together. You could easily move around! It's hard to believe that 100,000 people would fit into a space and not be jam packed, but it happened. I was looking around and seeing all the lit candles and faces and rosaries, but nothing prepares you to estimate, "oh, that looks like 100,000 people, I'll bet." There were so many flags there- a lot of Polish ones especially. There was also a large banner from Wadowice, the hometown of John Paul. There was also a group waving American flags with a banner that said they were from the Polish community of Chicago- so we went and talked to them, and some of them didn't speak English! Good to be reminded that America is a melting pot, I guess!

The service was mostly in Italian- the Italians seemed to really claim John Paul as one of their own as well as the Poles- and there were some readings, like poems that he had composed during the papal conclave where he was elected about the church and how it was much greater and more eternal than he. There was a choir that sang hymns that they broadcast over the speakers and we all joined in, and there was the rosary. They would announce the mysteries in a bunch of languages (English was always about half the number of words as any other language!) and then say the prayers in Latin. Pope Benedict came to his window and prayed the rosary with us, but didn't lead any of it. He had a reflection afterwards though on the life of John Paul, which ended with a moment of silence at the 9:27 pm, when John Paul died. The whole thing was amazing, especially how everyone would raise their candles to greet the Pope or when something worthy of acknowledgment was said. Definitely a memory I want to keep... for some pictures, check out cnn's gallery.

Saturday, April 01, 2006

Happy Birthday Sarah- and other arkie news

Sarah Cannon just had her birthday today and so she decided to have a birthday brunch- where she cooked for about 20 people who RSVPd (we tried to convince her that that was backwards and we should do the cooking, but she likes it so she insisted). It was amazing- plates of french toast, chocoate dipped strawberries, mousse balls, pineapple, sliced fruits, pancakes, walnut rolls, chocolate fondue... yum! I ate my little heart out, but I had to skip out on the chocolate stuff because of lent.
We were sitting around the kitchen the other night and talking about Eric (kid who cracked his head in Naples) and apparently he was walking around the other day. Lots of people have gone and seen him which seems to really be helping and they hope to move him back to Rome soon, although still in a hospital. His mom left and went back to the states to work, but his dad is still there. Apparently when he first arrived though they only gave him a 30-40% chance of survival. Our teachers didn't tell us that- and I can't decide if I wish they had told us that or not. We probably would have refused to go on with the trip if we had known that, but if things had fallen the 60% way we would have been so devestated. That was pretty gutsy of the profs...
Initially they weren't expecting him to recover fully if he survived, but I think now they are anticipating a full recovery- pretty amazing.
Two other arkies had to leave this week because their grandparents died- Danielle and Steve. Any prayers would be great.
Also this week- the one year anniversary mass of Pope John Paul II. I might be able to go, although it's during studio, so I'll have to talk to my professor. I think that would be pretty neat though- it's pretty big news, especially over here. I've have to pull out my good church behavior though- the other day I was sneaking around the church close to the Lunetta, Sant Andrea delle Valle, and snuck through 2 chapels and a couple of side doors up an old spiral staircase because they were open- and I ended up in the choir loft! It was really cool because it was so much closer to the ceiling and the paintings up there looked so much closer and more detailed. I really wish I had had a camera on me, but I'll just have to remember it instead I guess. It reminded me of last year when Mara and I snuck up to the roof of Galvin at Notre Dame. Next stop when I get back- the bell tower of the Basilica!