Study Abroad Posts

Rome Posts

 

London Posts 

A work of art: The Ceramic Poppies at the Tower of London:

I believe these red poppies are a work of art. Certainly a piece of art that impressed me the most while staying in London. Not only are they beautiful and breathtaking when you first see them, but the positions they are put in is what makes them art. The poppies flowing out of the windows symbolize the "overflow" of murders that took place in the first war. The red of course represents bloodshed, but what is even more incredible is how each poppy represents a man killed in the war. Seeing that many symbolized deaths is pretty gruesome, yet we can still look at it and find it breathtakingly beautiful--isn't that the definition of art itself?

 

A museum, monument, church, park, or public building:

The Royal Gardens near Buckingham Palace:

I was blown away by this park. This photo captures my feeling about it. There is the lush greenery that surrounds every bend and corner, and then way in the distance and ghostly looking castle peeks its head out between the trees. London feels full of magic to me, and this mystical castle shot I was able to shoot (gratefully) will get framed and put on my wall to remind me of this park. I wasn’t necessarily interested in the palace perhaps like some, but what surrounded the palace is what made me feel like London grabbed me and wrapped me in its whimsical arms, and the feeling London left on my skin I can’t possibly imagine not feeling. Although we just got back, it feels forever ago since we were there, seen all that we had seen, yet I can feel down to the goose bump what this park’s energy did to me, and I hope never to forget it and return one day soon.  

A Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare at The Globe Theater:

 

I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed this production of A Comedy of Errors. Although I love Shakespeare’s stories, I sometimes find it challenging to sit through a three-hour play and still have it hold my attention. However, this play kept me entertained to the end, of course this could be contributed to the Globe’s reputation and high expectations to which have been met! I thought it clever that since Shakespeare meant for this to be a very funny and lighthearted play, the production began the story in this way with the man trying to obtain the pair or trousers or underpants at the top of the ceiling. This of course wasn’t a part of the screenplay but it fit very well and set the tone immediately for the audience. This cast was fantastic and even though I cant imagine having to stand that whole time for a play, I thought it was great the Globe was able to keep that tradition of having groundlings, reminding us all of where this all came form in the first place and how Shakespeare really created the theater for all to enjoy.

The British Library:

Jane Austen's Manuscript

 

Wow. I still cannot process everything we had the privilege of seeing at the British Library. What an experience! Not only was I able to learn about how the Library came to be (George III) but I had no clue we were going to get to see the manuscripts we did . . . Bronte, Beowulf, Plath, and of course, Jane Austen. My emotional reaction was too much for me; I could not control my tears and only hoped that I could weep in the corner as I stared at Austen’s manuscripts. After roaming through all the manuscripts in the display room, I kept being pulled back to Austen’s book. I have NEVER felt so privileged in my life to see what I was able to see. I am beyond grateful and will never forget it.

“When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library.” (Pride and Prejudice)

DUE August 30th

Goethe’s reaction to Rome visit:

November 10, 1786

I am living here now with a feeling of clarity and calm that I have not had for a long time. My practice of seeing and taking all things just as they are, my constancy in keeping a clear eye, and my complete rejection of all pretenses are proving very useful again, and make me quietly very happy. Every day a new remarkable object, every day some new great, extraordinary pictures, and a totality that is past imagining, however long one might think and dream.(110)

Rome couldn’t come at a better point in my life. This sort of distraction, or “extraordinary” life, we will be thrown into is something that I’ve been craving. I can sense Rome will be much to me like it is to Goethe: calming, clarifying, and develops great serenity as to come back home with a deeper meaning and understanding of our history and life in general. 

Rome at night

The Art of Travel by Alain de Botton

“He can gaze at old buildings and feel ‘the happiness of knowing that he is not wholly accidental and arbitrary but grown out of a past as its heir, flower and fruit, and that his existence is thus excused and indeed justified’. (110)”

Is there anything else to say?? Perhaps this is why Rome is so overwhelming to people who travel there, for more reasons than culture shock or the sensory overload.  There is so much history in Rome that gives us part of a beginning that has evolved into our lives now, what we know of the world, where we came from essentially. This is a huge feat to absorb, really. 

The Temple of Saturn stands at the end of the Capitoline Hill in Rome, built in 497 BC. I’m receiving mixed information on if this or the Pantheon is the oldest standing ruin in Rome.

The Aeneid by Virgil (Rome Packet)

“[Dido] prayed then to whatever power may care, in comprehending justice, for the grief of lovers bound unequally in love” (670).

There is a lot of talk about priestess’ and goddesses and gods in Virgil’s The Aeneid. I’m not familiar at all with the time when paganism shifted to Catholicism in ancient Rome, but this intrigued me because I felt it shocking to read about Dido’s behaviors with this passage above that seems to me to be a spell. She has an altar, there are “three hundred gods,” rare herbs that were bathed in moonlight, “sprinkled drops from the fountain of Avernus,” bronze scythes, venom, love charms, etc. etc. These are all pagan things! Then, when looking around for a photo to post, this one below broke my heart. I feel it’s powerful and symbolic of not only how the church took over, but knocked paganism down to fall in a million pieces, as if it was worthless and weak. I’d like to learn more about this time, as my heart goes out to Pagan Rome, really.

This is artwork in the Vatican, where Raphael paints a picture to show how Catholicism has taken over Pagan Rome. The idol has crashed to the floor and is replaced by the cross.

Preconceptions, ideas, and hopes for the trip:

Stonehenge

Honestly, I am so overwhelmed it is difficult to cohesively put together what my pre-concieved ideas for this trip will be. I imagine a lot of amazing times with my peers, teacher, and friends. I imagine being scared from being so far from home, culture shocked, guilt from not wanting to ever return home again. I can't help but imagine swimming in the Mediterranean, drinking wine at sunset, and drinking coffee watching the city wake up. I imagine countless times of being embarrassed from the language barrier. I imagine everyone will be there to help as a team, a unit who is in this together. I imagine we all laugh off frustrating days that do not work out as we initially intended them to and resume working together rather than be upset with one another. Although I want to do everything, I understand we are limited in all we can do; however, I do want to try and make a visit out to Stonehenge. I'm worried that unless I put in full effort to make it out there, I might regret it. I think I could go home and rest easy if I know at least I tried going even if I don't make it. I'm worried I will not be able to touch everything I will be wanting to touch, I find magic in energy and touch and I might just be the handsy one!

Due August 15th

Doerr, Anthony. Four Seasons in Rome: On Twins, Insomnia, and the Biggest Funeral in the History of the World. New York: Scribner, 2007. Print.

Without habit, the beauty of the world would overwhelm us. We’d pass out every time we saw—actually saw—a flower. Imagine if we only got to see a cumulonimbus cloud or Cassiopeia or a snowfall once a century: there’d be pandemonium in the streets. (53) 

Beautiful, simply put. Although the way I feel about my travels to Rome and London can verge on being frightened that I will forget everything I see because there is so much to see, I naturally don’t want to take a second for granted. Even the everyday behaviors are something to watch: eating, walking, shopping, like Doerr says becomes new all over again.  There is pandemonium in my stomach and mind every day we get closer to our departure; can this experience really be something I’ll be a part of? I can hardly get through the reading at a decent pace because I have become so enveloped in what Rome is all about and its history I have to stop every other sentence to look up images or more information that wasn’t delved into within the text. The Piazza Navona, which Doerr talks about prior to the quote above, is only one thing that I can’t imagine seeing in real life. It contains so much: the shops, Bernini’s fountain, the beautiful architecture, the people! I can’t imagine ever becoming accustomed to these surroundings, at least not in the couple of weeks we will be visiting.

Piazza Navona (Photo Credit)

What has Italy taught me? Not to count on too much. Any minute a trio of jets will come screaming over the apartment  . . . Transportation workers strike at will. A beggar’s tin can lurches from nowhere. Count on sun and it rains. Look closely and the picturesque inevitably cracks apart and becomes more interesting. (190)

Meg has mentioned more than once that we need to be ready to go with the flow, be ready for changes, things may become unpredictable. This story by Anthony Doerr certainly solidifies this thought. I feel more understanding and connected  to the inconsistencies that Rome will have to offer us after reading this book, the little tidbits about stores being closed at random times, holidays every other day, waiters taking their time to send the bill on over. Yet, I feel if we can stay in the present moment each day that we are there, not count on too much and just go with the flow as Meg says, then maybe something even more magical that just being in Rome will happen. Doerr imagines, “If enough of [Roman light] enters our eyes, if we look at something long enough, maybe we incorporate it. Maybe it becomes part of us. Maybe it flashes around inside of us, endlessly reflecting, saturating everything” (199). As we have heard stories from Meg and other study abroad travelers, some of the most beautiful and remarkable moments came upon them by these inconsistencies or disappointing turn of events. After hearing these stories and reading this book, I can only hope that our trip will be full of twists, turns, and unpredictability so that we can absorb Rome for everything that it is: good, bad, and remarkable.

Imagine getting lost and stumbling upon this . . . The Trevi Fountain

Hughes, Robert. Rome: A Cultural, Visual, and Personal History. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2011. Print.

 

Giuseppe Gioacchino Belli

   












"Truth is like the shits—
 

When it gets out of control and it runs

You waste your time, my daughter, clenching your ass,

Twisting and trembling, to hold it in.

In the same way, if the mouth isn’t stopped,

Holy Truth sputters out,

It comes out of your guts,

Even if you vowed silence, like a Trappist monk." (172-73)

 Although this is ridiculously hilarious, I think what I find more interesting that a man could write these some 2,200 sonnets showing an anti-image of papal Rome, is that Belli turned conservative later in life and began working for the papal government. It seems these hundreds and hundreds of sonnets that are clearly strongly worded were just shrugged off as a guy “radical in his youth.” I suppose I always assumed that Romans would fight for what they believed in till the death, whether it is for or against the church and government. I am violently curious why he chose a life against what he wrote about and actually helped in repressing Shakespeare’s work because it was an “enemy of religious order,” when really if Shakespeare and him were of the same lifetime, I think they would have been amazing writers together.

“[Alberti] began to collect all the knowable facts about the city’s monuments and to present them in a way that made preservation possible, if not easy. His friend, [Nicholas V], was all in favor of that work of memory” (208).

Leon Battista Alberti

Although Hughes’ Rome is incredibly interesting, it is dense and a little draining. However, I perked up when I read that the pope was a bibliophile and was a “ravenous” one at that. He was so intent on collecting books that price didn’t matter; his love for books is clearly obvious. I feel thankful reading about this because it seems that he may very well be the reason that our collection of Greek and Latin books began in the first place. He thought ahead about the future of books, about their importance, when he hired scribes to copy books and translate others. It was Alberti who became friends with the pope and it was Alberti’s love for the facts about the city’s architecture (a whole new interesting subject on his excavations!) which lended a hand into these two men collecting books. Hughes doesn’t really talk about this for more than a page or two, but to me it opened up a whole new avenue of information to be researched that will aid in my understanding in Rome and its foundation. 



DUE August 1st

London Reading Packet

"The History of the Kings of Britain" by Geoffrey of Monmouth

“Then Brutus called the island Britain, after his own name, and he called his comrades Britons. In devising these names, he hoped to be remembered forever. Thus in later days, the language of the people, which was originally called Trojan or crooked Greek, was known as British” (56).

Geoffrey begins this section saying the island was named Albion, originally. I looked this up before I finished reading the section because I like to have my visuals as I read along, and what initially came up first was that “Albion” was the oldest known name for the island of Great Britain. What struck me about this section too was how there is history weaved with myth when Geoffrey talks about how this island was uninhabited other than some giants who fled to the caves in the mountains and the rivers that were “teemed with fish.” It’s so simple, but paints a rich picture. Looking up some pictures (a couple below) I can appreciate that even though Geoffrey writes that they began building and cultivating fields so fast that the island was like it had been inhabited forever, these pictures of Great Britain show that it is still a land that holds secrets (perhaps there are still giants in those caves J I’d like to think so), and is rich with greenery and beauty. I can’t wait to experience it for myself!

Beautiful greenery and magic! Photo Credit

A Cave that Geoffrey's giants may have lived within in Cornwall

"Sense and Sensibility" by Jane Austen

“It’s quite a shame for such ill-natured reports to be spread abroad. Whatever Lucy might think about it herself, you know it was no business of other people to set it down for certain” (233).

Mrs. Jennings cracks me up. I had to throw this line in here, because as we know, she is guilt of the same thing! She is the worst (and of course for us readers, the best) type of gossip there is! When I looked up Bartlett Buildings I came across this portrait of how it looked at this time that Jane Austen is writing, the place that Lucy stayed when she was in London. They look like amazing apartments! Unfortunately, as I became more and more excited to visit this building, I learned that they were completely destroyed in 1941 from a bombing in the war. Also unfortunately, the only photos that I could come across that showed the wreckage were prints you had to buy so I was unable to copy them here. But here is the website if anyone wants to see them, it’s absolutely heartbreaking:

WWII destruction of Bartlett's Buildings

This is a print by Thomas Shepherd circa 1838 but it in effect shows Bartlett’s Buildings as they were when Lucy was staying there.

DUE July 25^th

Hughes, Robert. Rome: A Cultural, Visual, and Personal History. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2011. Print.

Bernini’s Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi (Fountain of Four Rivers)  Photo Credit

Can you think of an example of a stereotype we carry about the idea of continuous cultural “progress?” 

“Rome[‘s] . . . collective exoskeleton, the city itself—is a sublime and inordinately complicated object-lesson in the sustainability of buildings and other made things, in their resistance to abstraction.” (11)

“In their resistance to abstraction” feels key to Hughes’ statement about his “half –baked notions of historical progress (11)” because it sets Rome apart from other cultures. Particularly America, as a culture, is interested in technology and we seem to view all the rapidly changing technology as an imperative way of life, it’s become a huge part of our culture. America thinks this makes us better, changing, growing. But what is there in technology to link us to a rich history? I looked up the word “abstraction” for deeper meaning and it’s defined as “the quality of dealing with ideas rather than events.” So really, Hughes feels that Rome resists dealing with ideas and embraces their rich historical culture, whereas America it seems has a rich culture that bases everything around innovative ideas to make everything better, easier, the next best thing: America focuses on the future, Rome focuses on its rich past. Rome has a continuous appreciation and honor for their past and history, whereas it seems that America has this stereotype about progress all being about ideas for newer, better things. It is such a huge contrast between cultures.

“The daily superfetation of fruit and flowers, and the appetites they inspire, [remind] us that in the presence of Death we truly and absolutely are in Life.” (8-9)

This beautiful sentence wraps up the story of the statue in Campo de’ Fiori of the philosopher Giordano Bruno. This entire section in Hughes’ prologue had me in constant chills. This story has given me my first connection to Rome: Bruno’s fight against God as the center of the universe. I see Rome as beautiful, rich in history and art, yet I’ve never been pulled to Rome because it is also rich in churches and Catholicism is still very much alive. Yet, after reading this history of Bruno (although there are many like him), I was teary eyed, inspired, and chilled just seeing the pictures of this statue and thinking about the history this rectangle shaped piazza contains. I think about the difference in energy when I went to visit the Carolinas, all that death down there changes the atmosphere forever. I can only imagine that the deaths that have occurred in the Field of Flowers is going to feel that much more emphasized with overwhelming sensations; I’m not quite sure how I will be able to handle it. What am amazing way to honor Bruno’s death, with all this life that will hopefully forever surround him.

Giordano Bruno (1548-1600) Statue built in 1889            Photo Credit

 

         Campo de' Fiori ("Field of Flowers")              Photo Credit

Ancient Roman Public Toilet Photo Credit

“Cacator sic valeas ut tu hoc locum transeas (Do yourself a favor by shitting somewhere else)” (62), taken from the graffiti preserved under the ash of Pompeii.

This is fantastic. What a detail to learn about when really this “small” detail is huge to how Rome’s workings were at the time. It is magnificent to learn that there were laws at the time about injury of a person relating to throwing out your bed pot from a window, as it may hit someone below on the head. One would need to wear a helmet so as to not get this injury, but also to protect oneself from being hit in the head and drowned in the sewer from a mugger. As Hughes points out, this description of Rome is vastly different that we are perhaps used to. Rome was incredibly dirty, filthy, overcrowded, and obviously had a waste and garbage issue (as it all was thrown into the Tiber, which was their main source of water). Although Romans had limited means to deal with waste, I’m pondering why they would even bother with the washing hands (channel of flowing water at the feet of the toilets) after looking at these public toilets and learning how they truly lived rather than the cleaner image we have been fed! It is truly difficult for me to conjure up what it would be like to live in such a noisy, dirty place where it’s difficult to even walk from so much noise, mud weighing you down, people elbowing and hitting you in the head. Just phenomenal!

###

Forster, E M. A Room with a View. New York: Dover Publications, 1995. Print.

“About old Mr. Emerson . . . No, he is not tactful; yet, have you ever noticed that there are people who do things which are most indelicate, and yet at the same time—beautiful?”

“Beautiful?” said Miss Bartlett, puzzled at the word. “Are not beauty and delicacy the same?” (9)

It seems that the idea of beauty is being examined (and questioned) here, what it means in society, how people look at beauty, and how it is defined. I love this quote because it captures Lucy’s spirit. She is saying that she can see “socially” that being having no tactfulness is considered indelicate, yet she is seeing this type of social rebellion “beautiful.” This shows that perhaps Lucy is thinking about straying from the social norms of being tactful and do everything that is required by her or that she is pressured to do (such as we see later when she feels obligated to marry Cecil) because she admires the freedom of it so much. Then of course we see Miss Bartlett’s response that tells us she is on board 100% with the social norms claiming that delicacy is beauty (perhaps this is because Miss Bartlett is much older than Lucy), basically ignoring individuality that any one person may have because beauty in her eyes only comes when a certain person adheres to social norms.

The Hotel degli Orafi in Florence, Italy. It is one of the three locations the movie "A Room with a View" was filmed in representing the Hotel Bertolini because the original hotel had disappeared in Foresters time.

Photo Credit

Consider the distinct identities that are set up for the characters when they are in Italy as opposed to England:

“I think that you are repeating what you have heard older people say. You are pretending to be touchy; but you are not really. Stop being so tiresome, and tell me instead what part of the church you want to see.” (18)

Mr. Emerson says this to Lucy after she becomes lost in Italy. Lucy is acting politely and refusing Mr. Emerson and George’s help because it would be an “inconvenience” to them. What Mr. Emerson is saying here, really, is that Lucy mustn’t behave as she is “socially” told to behave. He wants her to look at part of the church that she wants to see and put away her “pleasantries.” I love how later he tells her to pull herself from things that she doesn’t understand (say, how people are “supposed to behave”) and go with what she feels.  We see that this book happens at a time in history when social boundaries are changing. We can see the contrast in Miss Bartlett, seeing her as so much more “proper” than Lucy comes off and has such a dated outlook on what is proper or “beautiful” as we see in the first quote. This is because Miss Bartlett is so much older than Lucy and adheres to these older standards. Fortunately, the “magic” that Lucy experiences in Italy vs. when she goes back to England and finds life very boring, pushes these social boundaries and we see her begin to behave differently than the social norms would have her behave.

The Santa Croce Church where Lucy visits with Mr. Emerson in Florence

Photo Credit