Sunday, November 26, 2006
In Santa Croce with No Baedeker
Ciao! Since I left the school a lot has happened. I arrived in Rome after a rather stressful trip on Monday. I took the bus from Montella to Avellino where I was planning to take another bus to Rome. When the bus pulled in to Avellino, the bus park was mobbed with kids who apparently had just let out of school and were hanging out before they caught their public trans home (just like the septa kids at Philmont). It was a somewhat intimidating situation, adding that I had two huge suitcases and had no idea where the bus to Rome was nor the bigletteria (ticket office) nor the language. So I found the bigl..., having been informed that the Rome bus departed at 2 (it was about 1:45), and went up to the guy and said in doubtlessly horrible Italian that I needed a ticket for the Rome bus. What I received in response were many words that I didn't understand sprinkled with "no", a shaking head and furrowed brows. From there I went up to another guy behind a desk which said "Information", which was such a tease because, no to mention hardly anyone speaking English in Rome, rest assured absolutely no one spoke it in this small southern Italian town. I pleaded with this guy and heard "a Roma alle due". That's what I thought, so I went back and barbarically indicated that the other guy said that the Rome bus was at 2 to which I received basically the same as before. So I left the office and walked through the lot hoping that something would happen. Soon I saw the Rome bus and the driver delivered the same frustrating response as the ticket guy, except this time I picked up a series of syllables that seemed to be present in each of these discourses which was "completo". Ohhhh...full! I see. So I went back to the biglie... and I finally understood that he had been trying to tell me all along to take the Naples bus and then take the train to Rome which I did with no trouble and even managed to non-parlo-Italiano my way into riding first class the whole way. Rome is huge and exciting and noisy and mean and huge. I've been to the Colosseum, Palatine hill, Circus Maximus, St. Peter's, Vatican Museum, Piazza Campo di Fiori, Piazza Navona, Pantheon, Trevi fountain, MacDonald's, Piazza del Populo, Via del Corso, and several hours in Termini train station. I've shopped at supermercato, done laundry and made a few friends. In Rome, I've been staying at the family run "Hotel Athena" which is a "two star" hotel which puts it in good stead with econo-lodge. The lobby has tongue and groove wood paneling and stinks like cigarettes. My room is literally 6 by 10 and half the bathroom smushed up against my bed. It does, however, have a bathroom and I have grown to love it (although there's no fan in the loo and the duce does tend to linger). Over the four night's I've met most of the family.
I left Rome on Friday for Florence. What a change of pace. I had a wonderful lunch at a beautiful Tuscan trattoria on a narrow cobblestone street about five seconds from my hotel. I've seen the Duomo, Santa Croce, gelato, David, the tomb of Machiavelli which reads "tanto nomini nullum par elogium nicolaus machiavelli obit...," which basically means "no eulogy is equal to so great a name...." I rather disagree. Anyway, my favorite place so far was the Church of San Lorenzo. It had beautiful paintings and was simple and breathtaking and it refreshingly lacked the pomp of many others, especially where the Medicis were involved. Good gracious those men were full of themselves. On Saturday evening I arrived in Venice. My hotel was not on the main island so I took the train in, hoping to hear some classical music (secretly hoping that I might happen upon a performance of Gabrielli in San Marco with a double choir, but slightly doubtful). Taking the water taxi was weird and took forever, but I finally arrived at the glorious piazza San Marco and no luck. I kind of looked for some other music but not really and mostly just wandered through the maze like wonderland of narrow corridors until I crossed the grand canal and then again until I reached the other side and then took the water taxi back to the train. I had planned on spending Sunday in Venice and staying a second night, but I kind of wasn't that into it so I took a train to Siena and here I am on Sunday night writing this blog. On the train ride a young guy sat opposite me and started chatting loudly on the phone resulting in him getting yelled at by an old lady sitting across the isle. He then proceded with extravagant show to churn out a steady stream of the most annoying sound ever from gum chewing to cell phone game with sound up playing to cup tapping to burping and grunting. Although all this was not directed towards me, I was it primary victim and lamented over the next two hours. I tried very politely to indicate that I would be nice if he stopped but to no avail. Finally another man complained and he moved. At any rate, Siena is all my boyhood medieval dreams come true, and so far I've only seen it at night. I emailed the American University in Rome on a whim about taking a class in the spring and I received a response that it may be possible. I've posted some pictures on Flickr and theres more to come. I can't wait to see you all.
Thursday, November 16, 2006
Dies Tertius
I'm feeling better about things now, but the thought of staying here for the entire year is still not at all appealing. The people are really nice here, but I really miss home a lot. I realize that my entire career in Latin has been like a trickle compared to this flood. The regular schedule is about six hours of class beginning at 3pm with two half hour breaks. There is no English spoken, ever. Magister Miraglia mirabile auditu est; i.e. he can fill two hours with flawless rapidfire Latin. His manner of speaking is so clear and his syntax so pristine that, dispite the velocity, I can understand him better than the other teachers, one of which, if your not listening closely, you would think was speaking Italian, and the other is from France and thus speaks Latin with a French accent. I'll bet you can't guess what langauge they speak in Greek class. Oh yeah, it's what you think. What's really amazing is that some of the students here are just out of high school and can speak Latin valde fluenter.
There is no wireless internet here as I thought, ergo no pictures yet until I have the time to get them onto the computers here. Check out pics of the Keefer's party!!
Thanks for your comments:
AKirk: I'll try not to! I hope you're doing well and I'm praying for you all and your Mattie.
Gnette: It's pretty crazy how the most common phrases, such as 'perhaps' and 'I don't know' are being replaced in my mind by thier Latin equivalents. I'm praying for you and Chris and Ellis. What's up with Chris' job. Tell him to email me or post or some junk!
Josh: Consider foot duly lodged. I am praying that your studies are going well. I am seriously going to miss Sunday afternoons. Please email me.
Preacher Josh: That blog belongs to some teenage girl, unless there's something I'm missing.
Becki: I'm praying for you and D. Sola Dei Gratia!! You guys must watch so much TV now. Do you watch like a movie a night (where is the stinking question mark on this stupid martian keyboard, ahg... oh, there it is)?
Mama D: You're in the blog!! Whoah! Sike. Yeah, I did finish, but I'm curious to know what you both noticed!
Tempus est dormitum ire (dormitum: asleeping). Bonam vobis omnibus noctem.
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
Dies unus
Here I am in Italia. The journey was long and arduus and I still haven't caught up on sleep. So far I've helped an Italian lady carry about eight pieces of luggage, been given wrong directions on perpose and made a taxi driver nervous about getting lost. The people here are nice. I'm pretty much at the bottom of the heap when it comes to speaking ability. We're only aloud to speak in Latin, so it gets frustrating not being able to communicate with people. I guess I should give it more than one day. Today we wen't to a an archeological site called Paestum which was originally a Greek town and then was taken over by the Romans. There were three temples which were bene conservata and huge. It was amazing. I forgot my camera, so sorry for no pics. I miss you all a lot.Tuesday, October 31, 2006
It's really happening
Salvete Omnes!! Here is the first entry in the chronicle of my crazy trip to Italy. If you are new to the saga, I am going to a small town just south of Naples called Montella to live in a bording school type thing and learn to speak Latin. It's sort of like a humanist monastary. Moree details are forthcoming...
It's really happening: the tickets are bought, the visa is (almost) approved and my dreams are weirdening. There's still much to be done before I go mainly being grad school apps for next year and reading through the two volume Latin text book series Lingua Latina by Hans Orberg. I am fairly convinced that this is the best approach to Latin pedagogy, but I'll talk more about that throughout the year. Thanks to all who planned and came to my going away party. Although it was slightly weird to be the center of attention (I should qualify. I'm often the center of attention, that's not weird at all, it's just the formalization of that attention which is somewhat weird), it was wonderful that so many friends showed up. Pictures will soon be posted on my flickr page.
Here is the famous inscription over the oracle at Delphi (Latinized of course). The original is γνώθι σεαυτόν which means "Know Thyself!" So did this guy know himself or not? Maybe it's saying that if we know ourselves, we'll understand that life is fleeting and death is the ultimate reality for everyone. Or perhaps it's saying if you don't know yourself, you'll end up like this guy.The oracle plays an important role in many ancient Greek stories and working the incription into one's interpretation always yields fruitful layers of meaning, e.g. Oedipus and Croesus. I agree with John Calvin who begins his institutes by saying that a person needs to know himself to know God and needs to know God to know himself.
Valete! Iam enim tempus est dormire. Yes there will be Latin peppered throughout this blog. Feel free to ask me what it means and I'll be happy to translate.
Monday, October 30, 2006
Flickr Test Photo
This here picture being from my DDR party last spring is worthy to test photoblogging from Flickr. Flickr, by the way, is the best photo sharing site out there and is, incidentally, probably the only site which prevents my web identity from being completely googlized.
Wednesday, December 07, 2005
Plutarchi nobisque: gaudium cum lacrimis
Apud superos, ad dexteram Athesis ripam, in civitate Verona Transpadane Italie, XVI Kalendas Quintiles, anno ab ortu Dei illius quem tu non noveras, MCCCXLVIn the sight of all, at the right bank of the Athes, in the city of Verona in Transpadanine Italy, June 15th, in the year from the birth of that God whom you never knew, 1345. --the signature of a letter from Petrarch to Cicero