A Little Bit of Everything

“Today was good. Today was fun. Tomorrow there will be another one.”
-Dr. Seuss

Sorry for the long post but today was special! Today started with a bang and it ended with a pop. After waking up at 7:00 AM to catch the 8:00 AM little 116 bus near Blue Ice, we packed into the bus and filled literally every nook and cranny. Have you ever wondered what it would be like to try and fit ten people into the yellow IKEA slug bug they always use in their commercials? Well, I imagine that it would be similar to riding the busses here in Rome during rush hour. It’s a memorable experience on its own. The 116 bus led us to Museo de Villa Borghese where Won led us on an in-depth tour about the history of the Borghese and the Villa and the amazing statues and paintings they acquired.



One of the Borghese’s patrons was Bernini who produced marble statues of incredible detail. My favorite statue was of Apollo and Diana. There’s an indentation on Diana’s leg from Apollo’s forceful hand and two tears dropping from Diana’s eyes.The Museo also featured some of Caravaggio’s most famous paintings, including “Boy with Fruit Basket” and “Madonna del Serpe.” Caravaggio was one of the first artists to use a dark backdrop for dramatization and use real, everyday people as models in his paintings.

After grabbing a quick bite for lunch from Aristocampos, we all met in the classroom at 1:30PM to discuss our thoughts on the Fallaci and the Economist article for our IM class. Then everyone ran back to prepare the presentation of our heraldic crests and get jazzed up for our last group dinner together. It was sad because Steve had to leave early to return to Seattle so tonight was the last night that we would be all together. The guys were in mourning and everyone was sad to see Steve leave. Where once there were 8, there are now 7, but he’ll always have a place in our hearts.

The Trastevere girls (Ashleigh, Amy, Elizabeth, Jen and Risa) presented their beautiful heraldic crest first. It consists of a gelato cone and it has the five girls and their first initials.



Then the Pantheon girls (Carissa, Erin, Jenne, Theresa and Laura) presented their yummy heraldic crest next. The coat of arms was made of cookie crust and it was coated with nutella and white sugar in the shape of a white dove.



Afterwards, the Campo boys group 1 (Sam, Steve, Ashish and Geoff) presented their heraldic crest made of tomato sauce, nutella, eggs, an orange and grapes that also doubled as a map.



Then the Campo boys group 2 (Jon, Won, Aston, and George) created tickets for everyone to attend a soccer game where Jon sold us soda.


Last but not least, the Rome Center girls (me, Johanna, Shannon, Rebecca and Julia) presented our heraldic crest that consisted of an orange coat of arms with a butterfly, a flip-flop, a snake, a yellow rose, topped by a snake winding around a yellow rose.


Each of the crests were beautiful and unique and they’ve shown us all how much we’ve each grown and learned about each other in the four weeks that we have spent together. Afterwards, the gang of us went to Pier Luigi’s and sat outdoors where we enjoyed wine, filets of steak, two different types of pasta, and chocolate cake covered in whip cream. We all took a group photo (the last one with Steve in it, sniff sniff) and ended the night stuffed to contentment.



-Julie