Happy FDOC to me! It was a Big Day™ (and tomorrow will be Even Bigger) but a good one! Here’s the TOP FIVE coming at you live from the FUTURE/central european time zone
- “Syllabus day” is such a frikkin lie but I guess that’s what today was, in part. One of my classes, The Ancient City, is a double-credit course that makes up the backbone of this program and except for today, never meets in a classroom. I’m SUPER into that, so excited for all the archaeological sites, museums, and monuments we will be seeing instead of sitting in desks!
- We had a lovely visit to the American Academy in Rome, which is a five minute walk from our building on a beautiful campus. We got to see (and touch!) some of the antiquities from their very extensive collection but most memorably, we got a private tour of the Villa Aurelia, this gorgeous 17th century villa that has been restored and redecorated numerous times over the years and made me feel like I had stumbled into the set of a historical drama. We got to go on the roof and had the most incredible views of the city– can’t believe I forgot my camera today!!– and enjoyed the villa’s beautiful gardens on our way out. PS for $9,000-21,000 you can rent part or all of the Villa for a private event, so guess where Gretchen’s getting married!! Seriously, Tom Cruise had his secret rehearsal dinner there and it’s just such a gorgeous property. See their insta for more photos!
- Latin is going to kick! my! asinum! We are reading the poetic sections of Patronius’ Satyrica from the character Eumolpus, which should be a good challenge. I am always surprised by how much language I lose just in a few months of not translating every day, and this is no different! This may mean nothing to anyone but we took a placement quiz today and part of it was writing out all the uses of the five major cases that we could remember and it took me ten full minutes to get ‘ablative of means’ so that’s where we’re at right now. :))))
- But my Italian class is going to be SO fun! It’s also fairly intensive– it seems like we’re meeting twice as much each week as a usual language class @ Duke does– and it is taught entirely in Italian. BUT I forgot how much fun it is to be able to….. speak? and converse?? in a language class??? It kinda feels like being back in 8th grade Spanish 1, but I’m so excited for it! I think it’ll be a refreshing break from my other classes, and it’s a small class of nice people so I can’t wait for it!
- ICCS Inaugural Banquet tonight! We sat outside in the garden where there’s candles and a little waterfall fountain and it was a perfect night. The food was incredible as usual– two different kinds of mozzarella platters, two types of pasta, prosciutto and fresh melon and eggplant and so much bread and three kinds of wine (!!) and it was a full, happy table. Forgot to take a picture as soon as I saw the ravioli, but you’d just be jealous! We are blessed with a wonderful kitchen staff at the Centro. Grazie mille to them!
That was the big first day! Tomorrow will feature an even longer day of exploring the Forum and an Obelisk Scavenger Hunt throughout Rome so me & my dress Tevas will be ready for that.
Wright Now 