Day 14: Thursday
Happy Republic Day! It’s the Italian 4th of July, the celebration of the founding of their republic. Knowing it was a national holiday, we got up early to walk to class instead of relying on public transportation. The streets were literally deserted, and it was quite the contrast from the usual walk filled with the sounds of car horns, vespas whizzing by, and people. As we walked we began to realize how big of a deal the celebration was, and feel more and more like we were the only people going to class. Tobin seemed to realize our sentiments as we arrived to class, conceding that we do have papers tomorrow and it is a national holiday, so he promised to let us out early. Not only is it a national holiday, it’s a celebration of the founding of the republic, and the purpose of our being here in Rome is to study comparative republicanism. Quite the injustice! We spent a lot of time in class talking about the field trip to Galleria Borghese, then moved on to Book 4 of Livy, which I only read half of. All of us were wondering in the backs of our minds when he was going to let us out, and finally it was time for break, but still no signs of hope. We begrudgingly went back inside after break, where Tobin whipped through the rest of Book 4 and let us out at 11am, an hour early. Not that it mattered because we checked with the Accent desk, and the parade was already over, and we had papers to write anyway. So we marched home, but Elli and I stopped to get some postcards on the way. We made it home when, not five minutes later, our power went out. This was very confusing to us since all we were using was the washer and our computers. Being girls, we didn’t know what to do, so we contacted the boys, but they weren’t much help. So we called Accent, found out the emergency number they gave us doesn’t work, then called the desk instead to let them know, and they said they'd get back to us. In the meantime, we were all worried that we wouldn’t be able to write our papers because our laptops would die eventually. Finally we figured it out (we had to go downstairs and flip some switches or something), and everything was fine. Then it was that time where it could not be put off any longer, so I worked on my paper for a couple hours, took a break to write some postcards, then worked on it a couple more, finishing everything but my conclusion (that and the introduction are always the hardest parts for me). Then Elli and I needed to get groceries because we’re out of milk, eggs, cheese, and wine, but we had little hopes of finding a grocery store open since they’re never open on normal days, let alone national holidays. When we got back, unsuccessful in our endeavor, I spit out my conclusion and, after I finished, Elli had her first draft done, so she made dinner, which was ground beef with tomato sauce and spiral noodles. It was one of the best home-cooked meals yet. Joe came over because he had finished his as well, and him and I decided to venture to attempt to find anywhere open that could sell us wine, and we wandered down Via Trastavere in vain, until we decided to turn around and go to a place that was open right across the street from us. It had an extremely limited selection, but we managed. When we came back we sat on the balcony waiting for Elli to go through her draft. Brandon wandered in some time later, and they were hungry, so we went back to the boys’ and made pasta. David was hard at work on his paper, and Dylan hadn’t even started yet. A little while later, Elli came down, triumphant in her victory of her paper. Brandon made delicious garlic toast, and we hung out in the kitchen for the rest of the night while everyone else wrote their papers. No one even thought about attempting to read Book 5 of Livy. I feel kind of disappointed and also ashamed that I missed out on the chance to celebrate Italian style, but what could I do, I had a paper to write? Oh JMC…
Happy Republic Day! It’s the Italian 4th of July, the celebration of the founding of their republic. Knowing it was a national holiday, we got up early to walk to class instead of relying on public transportation. The streets were literally deserted, and it was quite the contrast from the usual walk filled with the sounds of car horns, vespas whizzing by, and people. As we walked we began to realize how big of a deal the celebration was, and feel more and more like we were the only people going to class. Tobin seemed to realize our sentiments as we arrived to class, conceding that we do have papers tomorrow and it is a national holiday, so he promised to let us out early. Not only is it a national holiday, it’s a celebration of the founding of the republic, and the purpose of our being here in Rome is to study comparative republicanism. Quite the injustice! We spent a lot of time in class talking about the field trip to Galleria Borghese, then moved on to Book 4 of Livy, which I only read half of. All of us were wondering in the backs of our minds when he was going to let us out, and finally it was time for break, but still no signs of hope. We begrudgingly went back inside after break, where Tobin whipped through the rest of Book 4 and let us out at 11am, an hour early. Not that it mattered because we checked with the Accent desk, and the parade was already over, and we had papers to write anyway. So we marched home, but Elli and I stopped to get some postcards on the way. We made it home when, not five minutes later, our power went out. This was very confusing to us since all we were using was the washer and our computers. Being girls, we didn’t know what to do, so we contacted the boys, but they weren’t much help. So we called Accent, found out the emergency number they gave us doesn’t work, then called the desk instead to let them know, and they said they'd get back to us. In the meantime, we were all worried that we wouldn’t be able to write our papers because our laptops would die eventually. Finally we figured it out (we had to go downstairs and flip some switches or something), and everything was fine. Then it was that time where it could not be put off any longer, so I worked on my paper for a couple hours, took a break to write some postcards, then worked on it a couple more, finishing everything but my conclusion (that and the introduction are always the hardest parts for me). Then Elli and I needed to get groceries because we’re out of milk, eggs, cheese, and wine, but we had little hopes of finding a grocery store open since they’re never open on normal days, let alone national holidays. When we got back, unsuccessful in our endeavor, I spit out my conclusion and, after I finished, Elli had her first draft done, so she made dinner, which was ground beef with tomato sauce and spiral noodles. It was one of the best home-cooked meals yet. Joe came over because he had finished his as well, and him and I decided to venture to attempt to find anywhere open that could sell us wine, and we wandered down Via Trastavere in vain, until we decided to turn around and go to a place that was open right across the street from us. It had an extremely limited selection, but we managed. When we came back we sat on the balcony waiting for Elli to go through her draft. Brandon wandered in some time later, and they were hungry, so we went back to the boys’ and made pasta. David was hard at work on his paper, and Dylan hadn’t even started yet. A little while later, Elli came down, triumphant in her victory of her paper. Brandon made delicious garlic toast, and we hung out in the kitchen for the rest of the night while everyone else wrote their papers. No one even thought about attempting to read Book 5 of Livy. I feel kind of disappointed and also ashamed that I missed out on the chance to celebrate Italian style, but what could I do, I had a paper to write? Oh JMC…
