If you know me even a little bit, you know that I have a ridiculously loud and “unique” laugh. I find it to be obnoxious and slightly abrasive, but I’ve been told that it’s a good one. News flash. I have met my match in the laughing department. His name is Jolly. Fitting name, right?! Jolly is one of the three boys on this trip. He is a big guy, like a teddy bear, with ginger hair and the most wonderful and contagious giggle I have ever heard. I don’t even know how to describe it, but it is so good! And our laughs together are solid gold. The other night, Grace and I sat with the three boys (Jolly, Leo, and Mauro) at dinner. Pretty much anything Jolly says or does makes Grace and I laugh, which makes Jolly giggle, which makes us laugh even harder. So, needless to say, our table was insanely loud with laughter during the entire meal. Moral of the story: Jolly and I shouldn’t sit together at meals because we are laughing so hard we can’t eat. And everyone else at the table can’t eat because they are laughing at our laughs. But it was still a beautiful experience.
On Thursday, Grace and I managed to get lost on the way back from our midday walk. (I know what you’re thinking, and yes, we are like a cute old couple.) This getting lost business would not have been that big of an issue, except I had fifteen minutes before I was expected in class. Instead of stopping and asking for directions, we walked through random streets in what we thought was the general direction of our hotel. After a few minutes of searching, we started getting into slightly sketchy-looking territory. So we decided to ask a nice man in a uniform where the Pantheon was. Grace asked him in Italian, but he answered in English. (We weren’t fooling anybody that day.) We made our way back to the Pantheon, and from there I got to class with a few minutes to spare. Go team!
That evening, Grace and I did our nightly workout together. We ended our workout sesh with a little interpretive dance to Aerosmith’s “I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing.” Don’t you dare judge us. While we were dancing mid-song, we heard a knock on the door. Our neighbors, Chelsea and Bethany, had heard the music and came to join us. And let me just say that we had quite the finale.
Friday classes were amazing! I always look forward to Archaeology, and I am never disappointed. We learned tons of interesting things about the Etruscans, and it sounded even better with my prof’s British accent. She relates ancient history to our lives in a way that I never thought possible, and she is darn good at it. I actually get excited while learning about 9th century BC urns and the different kinds of columns that exist in Roman architecture.
Grace, Caitlin, and I decided to have pizza and beer for dinner on Friday night. So, we went to a little restaurant across the street, bought our food and drink, and went back to our room to have our first Italian beer. Turns out that the beer was in fact from Denmark. It also turns out that I was the only one who liked it. Grace and Caitlin thought it was disgusting, so we had to make a run to the supermarket to pick up some fruity alcoholic beverage for them to share. Amateurs. (Just kidding.) Jenni ended up coming over and we chilled out in our room and had a great conversation. We disbanded around midnight, and then Grace and I talked and giggled until the wee hours of the morning. I love having friends that don’t have to get wasted to have a good time.
We had an all-day class tour today. We went to the Forum in the morning and saw the seven hills upon which Rome was founded. The ruins are quite beautiful, and it is interesting to see how much Rome has expanded since the beginning. We learned about Augustus, Nero, and the house of vestal virgins. In the afternoon, we made our way to the Colosseum. I still can’t believe that I actually got to see these incredibly old places and walked where the ancient Romans walked. It’s kind of exciting in a way. I learned so much today. We didn’t just look at how they did things, but we also thought about why. Why did they do it this way? What made them choose this instead of this? Etc.
We dug deeper than just the factual points of history. We measured history against ourselves in order to connect with it and understand it more fully. And boy, was it great.
I did my first load of laundry in the bathtub tonight. I’m a fairly decent washing machine! The trick is finding space to let everything hang so it can dry…
Tomorrow we are going to St. Peter’s basilica at the Vatican for mass. I am so stoked. I love me some Jesus!
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