Northern Italy 11-11-09

11-11-09

Steve woke us at the crack of dawn (5:30am)with the theme music from Les Miserables. After this startling wake-up call, we got on the buses, took our seats, and got ready for our trip to northern Italy. Though we had an 8 hour journey ahead of us, we were so excited to reach Venice. When we arrived, we were treated to a chartered boat ride to our hotel. After we settled in and dropped off our bags, we went outside and split up into groups for our walking tour around Venice, which would help us get oriented with the city. I went off with a group lead by my RA, Steve, who he walked us around town and told us all about the history of Venice. After the tour, we ended in St. Marks Square where we met the whole class for our group dinner. While we walked to dinner, we saw several children running around with pots and pans, clanking them over and over. They would run into the shops, clank their pans, and sing a song until the shop keepers gave them either money or candy. I guessed that this was a cool Venetian-type of Halloween. Once dinner was over, we walked around the shops some more then went back to the hotel. At the hotel, I played cards with some friends and then went up to my room. Then, Steven, my roommate, and I watched the Illusionist before going to sleep.

11-12-09

This morning, I got up to eat breakfast with everyone. I was eating with Sarah Cook, when she came up with a good conversation starter that eventually spread throughout the whole class by the end of the trip. She asked: if you had to be attached by the hip with someone that you didn't know very well from our Rome class for the rest of your life, who would it be? We each pondered about our answers for a while and came up with reasons why some people would be more advantageous than others. The question spread like wildfire and everyone was soon choosing their match. After breakfast, we took the water taxi (vapparetto) over to St. Mark's Square and spit into our tour groups. I chose to go with the group to the Basilica of San Marco. This was a beautiful church on St. Marks square that held extreme significance to the city of Venice. They supposedly have St. Mark's body in this church. It is not surprising for a church in Europe to have a Saints body, but the interesting thing about this one is that the body had been stolen! The story goes that St. Marks body was originally in Istanbul, and then the Catholics thought it was inappropriate for a Saint to be buried in a Muslim country, so some of them stole the body from the Muslims. To get it past the customs check, they put the body in a basket full of pork, so the Muslims were too repulsed to take a closer look in the basket. In this way, the Catholics succeeded in getting St. Mark's body to Venice. The body now rests inside the altar of the church. The rest of the church is extremely beautiful. The walls and ceilings are covered by millions of tiles that make beautiful mosaics. In fact, the entire church is covered in these mosaics. As they were used to teach the illiterate faithful about the teachings in the Bible, the mosaics depict many fundamental Christian stories. There was also a beautiful depiction of the new Jerusalem behind the altar in San Marco. It was an image with a completely gold frame inlaid with precious stones and metals. It was surely a sight to see. After visiting the church, I went out to lunch with a bunch of my friends. We found a pizza place and ate our food in another piazza. After lunch, a bunch of us went with John Polce to Moreno to see the glass blowing factory. We arrived there and watched these men make beautiful glass cups by melting downsand and forming it into beautiful pieces of glass.

It was a really cool system. After that, I went back to the hotel and took a nap for a little bit before mass and dinner. I had dinner with everyone, and then a bunch of us hit the city to look for some last souvenirs. Unfortunately, most of the stores were closed, but we did end up finding some stuff, and we headed back to the hotel for curfew. I was pretty beat, so I went to bed.

11-13-09

Today, the faculty gave us enough time to eat breakfast at the hotel, and then we headed out for another big day. We got back on a personal boat, boarded our buses, and went on our way to Florence. When we arrived, we put all

our stuff down at the hotel and split up into groups again to get a tour of the city by one of our teachers. Dr. Flusche was my group leader, and she told us all about the history of Florence. We walked through the main square, went to the famous bridge, and looked at the river. Then, she showed us where we were going to meet the next day to visit the Uffizi Museum. After her tour, she showed us the direction of the famous leather market. So, after the walking tour, me, Grace, and a bunch of our friends went down to the leather market to check it out. We walked through all the stands with endless amounts of leather purses, wallets,jackets,

belts you name it -- it was everywhere. I had a lot

of fun bartering with some of the salesmen, and I got a few good deals for different gifts for my family. I also got a really nice leather briefcase for myself for one hundred euro. After all that shopping, I went to mass, said by our very own Father Brown in the Florentine Baptistry. After mass, we walked to dinner with the class and had a really nice evening. Grace and I took a walk around the city and got some hot chocolate to drink. This hot chocolate was truly unlike any other; it was more like a melted chocolate bar in a cup. It was a little too rich for me, but Grace loved it.

11-14-09

The next morning, we had a few options to choose from for which we had already signed up back at the Rome campus. I chose to go to the Bargello Sculpture Museum with Dr. Flusche. We got off to a rough start because the school gave her the wrong receipt, so we couldn’t get our tickets when we got there, but after a little bit of waiting we finally got it figured out. She walked us around the museum and explained the history and stories behind the most important pieces. She showed us original panels that were built for the baptistery when they had a competition for which artist will design it. Then we got to see Donatello's David which is one of the famous David sculptures of its day. After that we got to see some unfinished Michelangelo sculptures. It was fascinating to see the middle of that process with all the little fork marks in the stone that make a beautiful figure. After the museum we had time to go see another one of the museum options so Grace and I ran down to The monastery of San Marco and Dr. Dawson Vasquez let us in and we walked around and looked at

all the Icon pieces in the first rooms. Then we

went upstairs to the living quarters where each of the rooms had different paintings in each room, either of a saint or the crucifixion. Right when you get to the living quarters the first thing you see a really famous image of the annunciation. They also had a display of some of the manuscript that the monks worked on. They showed the process of how they would make the books and make and use ink to copy manuscripts. After the monastery Me Grace Kevin and Sarah cook found some pizza on our way back to the class visit to the Uffizi. We get there and it was a massive museum. It held so many works of art it was overwhelming. It moved through art history starting with works from the medieval time and showed the transition of iconic art to a more realistic representation of life. They had some works from Leonardo Da Vinci, Raphael, and the only canvas painting done by Michelangelo.It was a great museum. After that I was pretty museumed out for the day (if you know what I mean) and a bunch of us went back to the leather market. I helped some girls barter with some of the salesmen to buy things for their families and stuff. Then it happened I found myself in a store alone with a leather jacket sails man and he was working really hard to get me to get a jacket from him. I tried on a ton of jackets and talked to him about the business and told him I was a poor student and didn’t want to waist his time and I couldn't afford a jacket. He grew to like me and he pulled out the perfect jacket for me and said the jacket was worth over two hundred euro so I talked with him some more and talked him down to a hundred euro and I bought it. He looked so guilty when he handed it over. It is a buffalo leather high quality jacket. He told me not to tell anyone what he sold it for because he didn’t want a bunch of people coming to the shop expecting that good of a price. I was really happy with this purchase and showed everyone my jacket and they loved it! After a while more in the market we went to mass with Fr. Brown and went to dinner right after. We were really crazy at dinner and went out after to find a place to hang out. We ended up in front of Dante's house and were really crazy in front of his bust. We were singing songs and reciting poetry to honor Dante it was really funny. After a while we were

making a scene and people started to look at us weird mostly after the pig hoof incident… don't ask haha. So we left and a few of us got some beer at a bar. This is where we met the crazy Italian. He came in and sat with us and almost spilled his drink all over me and everyone. He apologized for being so "Drank" and that he is a really talented good guy. He told us that he was a cooger… we were a bit confused. He said he is a French cooger an Italian cooger and this was his night off so he decided to have some fun. It was then we realized that he meant that he was a cooker. After talking with him a while we headed back to our hotel and laughed about our bizarre/fun night.

11-15-09

We got up this morning and had to pack up our stuff and load it into one of the rooms. We had to visit the academia before we set off for Assisi. So we got the whole class down there and the power to half the city went out and they wouldn’t let us into the museum until twelve. After waiting around a while Dr. Flusche let us go out into the city until that time so we just walked around and enjoyed the city some more. We were finally let into the Academia and finally got to see the famous Michelangelo's David. It is truly a great work of art. We pretty much stood there and took in the view for a long time walking around the colossal statue looking at every angle. Afterthe museum a bunch of us went to the supposedly best gelato in the world.Its reputation was surly proven to me it was so good. After the gelato we loaded up on the buses and drove to Assisi. When we got to Assisi Dr. Dawson Vasquez gave us a walking tour of Assisi. We walked into St. Claire's church and saw the famous cross and vestments of St. Frances. After the tour we went to mass where monsignor Fuginaro celebrated mass with us in a small chapel in the city. After mass we had dinner together and after dinner monsignor put together another wine tasting for us in a small shop across from our city. It was a really nice time hanging out with our friends and professors.

11-16-09

The next morning we visited the Franciscan monastery where St. Frances in buried. Dr. Dawson Vasquez walked us through the monastery and gave us a lecture about the site. After that I took it easy the rest of the day and worked on a paper for west civ due a couple days after we get back from this trip. I went put to a wine café with Ned Turner and Sarah Cook before lunch. After that we had lunch with the class and set off for home to conclude a great class trip to northern Italy.

Belgium November 20-22 2009

Belgium November 20-22 2009

Arrive to Leuven 11-20-09

Right after classes Grace Andrew and I set off for Fumacino Airport where we were heading to Belgium for the weekend. When we arrived Andrew's uncle picked us up from the airport. We were going to stay with them for the night and spend part of the next day with them. It was really nice to have a night in a home for once. It had been a long time since we had been anywhere but hostels, hotels, and dorm rooms.

Leuven, Bruges 11-21-09

The next morning they served us a large breakfast and treated us very well. Andrew's aunt and uncle were very nice people. Andrew and his uncle went to visit Andrew's Oma (grandma) and he dropped me and Grace off to walk around Leuven. We met later at the church where St. Damian (who was recently canonized) was buried. After we met up again Andrew's uncle Levan gave us a tour of the city and took us through the different colleges, and the main squares of the city. He also treated us to lunch before we got on the train to Bruges. When we got to Bruges we found a hotel then walked around the city. Andrew and I got some brought worst on the main square where they had a Christmas market set up with an ice rink and tons of booths. We walked around the city some more stopped in a few churches where there was another pieta by Michelangelo, a Eucharistic miracle and beautiful sights. After a while we went back to the main square and got some french fries (which were originally made in Brussels) Then got some Belgian beer. I had the best beer I had ever tasted anywhere here. It was called Triple Carmelite-made by Carmelite monks with three different grains, it was very tasty. After that we went back to the hotel and watched a movie and went to bed.

Bruges, Brussels 11-22-09

The next morning we packed up and got some breakfast at the hotel and found a place to go for mass. We walked to the church and went to church and then walked through the city a little bit more before we got on the train to Brussels. When we arrived I had to get a Belgium waffle. We found a place making them fresh and I got the mother-load on top of it. It was covered in melted chocolate, bananas, nuts, and crème! It was amazing. After that we walked down to Monaco Piss Statue and got some fresh escargot from a street vender. Picked up some lunch around the corner then walked around the city checking out the cathedral and the main square. On the main square they were having some sort of scout convention. There were tons of kids in their uniforms running around playing games and singing songs. We had a flight to catch so we went back to the train station and took a train to the airport where we set off for home.

Istanbul Turkey Nov 6-8 2009

Istanbul Turkey Nov 6-8 2009

Our flight was set to depart at 9:30 pm Friday night to arrive in Istanbul around 1 am. Unfortunately our plain was pretty late so we didn't arrive until closer to 2 am. Luckily the airport was still running for the most part. We bought our visa's and crossed customs. We walked outside and talked to the cab driver and showed him the directions to our hostel. The airport was about half an hour outside the city. We got into the main part of town and the taxi driver couldn't find our hostel so he was asking around and we finally made it. There was someone at the desk ready to check us in when we arrived and they were very hospitable. The next morning we got up and got ready for the day and went to breakfast. The hostel guy told us to go up the stairs to breakfast so we walked all the way up to the fourth floor and they were serving breakfast on the roof of the hostel (it was covered). It was absolutely beautiful having breakfast up there. We had a perfect view of the water and enjoyed some Turkish tea cereal dried fruit and boiled eggs. After breakfast we asked the hostel guy for some advise so he gave us a map and showed us some cool places to go. We ended up wandering around and ran into a courtyard with two large obelisks. One was placed there by Constantine in the 10th C. the other was an Egyptian one with hieroglyphs covering all the sides. From there we could see a huge mosque that was open to view. We walked into the courtyard in front of the mosque where the followers cleans themselves and was their feet and faces before entering. We walked around to the visitors section and had to take off our shoes and go in. It was a beautiful structure inside. There were no images or pictures of course but the walls were covered in sand script calligraphy. The calligraphy was very geometric and ornate. After spending some time looking around we went outside the other end and found ourselves in front of Hagiasophia! We went up closer to it to see if we could go in but they were charging people to get inside so we decided just to enjoy it from the outside. We walked around it and went up a small hill to the Sultan's Palace. The Palace was huge the grounds were larger than Vatican city it was pretty impressive. From there we went to the Archeological museum. This museum was very cool. The first portion of the museum was ancient artifacts from Babylonia and Egypt. One of my favorite artifacts in this section was the first known peace treaty between the Hittites and the Egyptians. It was a tablet covered in cuneiform script stating the terms of the treaty. They also had an Egyptian sarcophagus and some Canoptic jars from an Egyptian tomb. After this section we went into the main part of the museum which had a display of the coverings from Cydon's necropolis which had really well preserved tombs with cool relief sculptures on the sides . The most famous one there was the Alexander tomb which had images of Alexander the Great fighting in battle. The museum also had coverings from Troy and a lot of cool artifacts from all around Turkey and Babylonia. After the museum we walked around and found some lunch at a restaurant down the street. I got a huge plate of different kinds of kabob meats with pita bread and salad for the equivalent of about 6 euro. After lunch we walked through town a bit more and went into the famous Spice Bazaar. It was crazy and chaotic. The walkway was packed with people bartering buying and selling everything you could think of. They had tons of different spices and trinkets and different kinds of Turkish delight. Also every ware you looked someone had a carpet to sell. We made it through the chaos with everything we came in with so we were happy haha. The spice bazaar was right on the water and there were boat tours leaving every half hour to go up the Bosporus up to the black sea and back. Dr. Hatlie highly recommended this to us so we took one of the boats and went up the water and sailed around the beautiful coastline. On the way back the sun was setting and was creating a silhouette of the city. It was so beautiful I would almost describe it as magical. After we got back Grace was insistent that we take a commuter ferry over to Asia. It was only a 15 minute ride and was only about 50 cents so we did it. We made it to the Asia side of Istanbul and got a bunch of rocks and stuff just to say that it was from Asia. We walked around the peninsula and went over to the ferries back. So Grace got her wish and we spent about half an hour in Asia haha. When we got back we were pretty hungry again so we searched out a place to eat dinner. We ended up at a place where a woman was rolling out fresh pitas on the stone bored so we ate some Turkish pancakes and tea for dinner it. We lounged out over the floor on pillows and had a delicious meal. When we left dinner we decided to walk into one of the carpet shops. Grace really wanted a blanket for herself so we were looking around. The guy was very nice and showed us a lot of really nice blankets and she got one that was a beautiful design with flowers and golden thread throughout it. After walking around some more we headed back to the hostel. We dropped off our stuff that we collected throughout the day and went out again trying to find some Turkish delight or something. We ended up talking with some young guy who lived there and he wouldn't stop talking to us. We finally got away and found ourselves at another shop. This shop had beautiful pictures of the calligraphy making images with the words. We asked the owner what some of them meant and we got into talking with him for about two hours about Islam theology and virtue. It was really cool to hear their beliefs and morals. He knew we were not going to buy anything but we kept talking and he invited us over for tea the next day because it was getting late. He was a really nice man and we thanked him for the offer. After that we went back to the hostel and called it a night.

The next morning we enjoyed another nice breakfast on the roof of the hostel. We didn’t have much time in the city because our flight was leaving around 2:30. We walked through the city some more searching for the famous Grand Bazaar. We walked through the carpet bazaar and saw the shop owners setting up for the day. We finally found the Grand Bazaar but it was closed! They closed it off because they were having an annual race across Istanbul which started at the Grand Bazaar. We never got to go inside so we ended up walking through the city and sat at a bench by a fountain in between the Blue Mosque and Hagiasophia. While we were sitting there some Muslim women asked if they could sit so we gave them our seats. They were really grateful. One of the woman who was from Egypt started to talk with us. She had just gotten back from Mecca and talked about the pilgrimage they go on, then she talked with us about Islam theology. It was all really fascinating to hear their views on virtue and she also talked about her thoughts on Christianity. Their religion is based a lot on faith through reason and she couldn't understand the trinity fully and was confused about some things with Jesus' human nature. After a while she and her friends walked off. We were getting close to the time to go so we headed back to the hostel and gathered our things to go to the airport. The Hostel called a cab and we went to the airport and went back home to Rome.