Farewell Dinner-Roma

February 28th

Today we went to visit the charity organization, Caritas Roma and talked to the director of the branch Lê Quyên Ngô Dình who is responsible for immigration a Caritas Roma. This branch of the organization only deals with immigrants mainly from northern Africa from countries like Libya and Egypt. The services that this organization offer are divided into six key areas which are as follow: Peace and reconciliation, Emergencies, Economic Justice, Climate Change, HIV and Aids, Women and Migration. The Roma Branch focuses on helping migrants with food, housing, healthcare, work and legal help; these services are used to help migrants adapt to life in Rome and to help them have a better chance of integration. Caritas also helps to provide migrants with offering Italian courses as well as help in seeking out skills training to boost migrant's chances of integration. It also raises awareness about migration issues in schools. In addition to this they also help people in the longer term, for example, if someone has entrepreneurial aspirations, they help them with proposals and give them ideas for funding and help them find contacts. Caritas is very helpful resource for new immigrants in Rome and will help them settle in Italy and even help them integrate, with the current tension surrounding immigration in Italy it is a necessity for their to be organizations such as Caritas to help.

http://www.caritas.org/ 

Feb 27, 2011 Last Weekend trip in Venice

Unlike yesterday (Feb 26), Sunday morning in Venice was very cloudy, gray, and windy. All of us woke up and rushed ourselves to get ready because we had to check-out by 11:00a.m which we originally thought wasn’t until 11:30a.m. Like this, our day has started as busy as a hen with one chicken. Then we took a waterbus to Piazza San Marco and decided to have a brunch there. Once we got there, the place was very lively that people from all over the world were either participating by dressing up or enjoying the atmosphere of Carnivale by taking pictures with people who dressed up. Even though the sky in Venice was gray and raining most of the time, carnival itself is very sunny day! During Carnivale, Venice is super packed with people that it is hard to see the floor and I was jostled in the crowd and let go off his hand. It is worth it to experience and I would strongly recommend going to Venice during Carnivale although the place is overcrowded. It is so much fun that you cannot experience in other places but in Venice.

We look so ugly ;p

All of us had different appetites; therefore, we decided to split into groups and meet up later the day. So Marissa, Luis and I decided to grab street food but we ended up getting a pasta and risotto which were the worst foods that I have ever tasted! Again, the service was not that good at all. After finishing our unsatisfied brunch, Luis ended up throwing up everything and I had several bites off my plate and decided to order other food. On a slightly different note, after an awful brunch, we went to get our face painted at the same place we had yesterday but with different face paintings on our faces. Once I saw the mirror to see my painting, I felt much better and finally I was able to start my new happy day - all of us did. Then we took another Gondola ride which goes along the Grand Canal which follows different path from yesterday’s. It was much longer in time and finally I was able to see the Rialto Bridge from the gondola! Wait, I thought the gondolier is singing ‘O sole Mio’ for us while he bows and rows a stroke but in reality, the gondolier refused to sing a song and said that very few gondoliers sing while they are rowing a stroke and most of them are just rowing a boat without singing. When I heard that it was a little bit disappointment but we really enjoyed our gondola ride and we took a lot of pictures of us and scenery.

Next, we visited and did very quick tour of Palazzo Ducale and Doges Palace. Both of them were very huge and building itself looks very royal and able to see how wealthy people lived in there by looking at the ceiling, furniture, and paintings inside the building. Then we moved to San Marco Campanile Tower. The view from the top of the tower was amazing and so beautiful that I can see different parts of Islands, people in costumes, and architectures. It would be much nicer if the weather was good. By the time we went up to the tower, it was raining, very windy, and cold that my whole body was shaking so badly. After visiting the tower, we went to San Marco Basilica. It was so crowded that we had to wait for 15 minutes to enter the entrance. Since today was the last day of trip and due to cold and bad weather, all of us were tired so we did a speed tour of Basilica. That’s the end of our tour in Venice then we met up with the rest of our group and grabbed some sandwiches and headed back to our hotel which is Lido Island. Once we got back to our hotel, all of us got our backpacks and hurried to go to the airport and then finally we got back in Rome sweet Rome♥ Oh! Our flight got delayed for an hour so we came back in Rome after the midnight. The weekend in Venice was awesome and we had so much fun!!

Thursday February 24th

Thursday started early and ended late. Natalie and I woke up a four in order to catch a plane to Paris. And after many different forms of transportation (and subsequently sleeping on each of them) we arrived in a city that, for me provided some culture shock. The streets and buildings were huge. The metro system was extensive. The cars were significantly larger. We successfully navigated through the city and met up with Natalie's friend, Brooke, who is studying in Paris for a semester at NYU, and the touring began. After marveling at the aristocratic architecture we headed for a small museum that had once been the town house of the Marmottan family. Seemingly hidden in this suburb of Paris, was a museum chock full of an array of impressionist paintings. The son of Monet had donated his personal collection of his father's works to the "villa" turned museum, and turned out to be a great introduction to Paris. We headed out to see more of the "City of Lights." What struck me the most was the size of the buildings and how majestic they seemed compared to the architecture in Rome. The city sprawled out around us and though the city is beautiful, I found myself missing the quaint, narrow, cobblestone streets of Rome. What I did enjoy was the pastries. The eclairs and paris-breast that Natalie and I saw and salivated over were absolutely delicious. This is one thing that I want to transport back to Rome with me to add to my favorite gelaterie and pinoli cookies. After wandering around some more and getting further acquainted with the metro we dropped off our bags, took a quick nap, and grabbed a delicious gyro before heading out to see how lively the night was. We ended up at an intimate party at the Shakespeare and Company bookstore for the launch party for an intellectual fashion magazine. The walls were covered from floor to ceiling in books ranging from Shakespeare himself, to fantasy, to history. The hallways were filled with lively taro card readers, fortune tellers and people eager to have their palm read. Exiting the famous bookstore, the three of us were confronted with Notre Dame lit up by the night lights. Despite my initial shock and "Romesickness," Paris provided its own allure and showed how diverse and also intimate it can be.

feb 17

Today started off very typical for any other Thursday as we had language class and then service learning. In language class, we reviewed questions and made sure we knew the difference between the “what’s” and the “how’s.” After that, we continued to work on the determinatives in the singular and plural form. Then we were introduced with the indeterminative in both singular and plural and masculine and feminine.

After language the group split and went to our service learning. The refugee center that day was pretty quite, everyone was watching the film being played. I didn’t know what they were playing but it seemed to be a old war movie. My group mates and myself went into the classroom to see if anyone wanted to learn English for the day but since the movie was playing, the attendance was very small, only three people came in. One of them I was able to talk to and find out what problem he had; he spoke English pretty well but couldn’t read or write it. He was educated but not in the English language since he didn’t understand that some letters make different sounds in different words, not like in Italian how if a sound needed to be harder, a letter is added afterwards. I made an agreement to give him a list of common words that sounded differently than they are spelled.

The end the day, it was a start of our last scheduled three-day weekend. Most of the group did decide to take advantage of the extra day to travel and see other parts of Europe or even Italy. Some went to Amsterdam, Greece, Sicily, and others just decided to stay in Rome. I went with the group that went to Amsterdam and it was nice to use a different way to get to Fiumicino as we used to the tram to Trastevere station and took a train for 8 euros instead of all the ridiculous prices we all paid when getting here. There, our flight was delayed two hours and we were able to experience the generosity of airitalia as they gave us free food and drinks. Our plane was filled with American students all headed to Amsterdam too. 

Feb 20th, 2011

Luis, two girls from CHID program, and I went to Athens, Greece for the weekend. All four of us were very excited for this trip because Greece is our dream country to visit in Europe and finally we made it! Getting off from the plane we were exited at the airport, we saw very clear blue skies with chunks of white clouds. My first impression on Greece was “I’m home” which is Indonesia and not only me but also other people thought that they were home, too. Of course, not all parts of the Athens look alike to how my home looks, but there is a similarity which reminds me of home such as nothing antique but simple square buildings of shops and markets alongside the streets and several brand shops and famous café that I saw in Indonesia but not in Rome. People in Greece are very friendly and most of them speak English very well so we had no problem at communicating and asking them a direction. In addition, because of their friendliness and fluent English with charming sales technique, I ended up buying a lot of souvenirs which I usually don’t do. In addition, unlike people in Rome, people in Greece wear very casually and some of them remind me of my grandmother back home.

As expected, Greece was all about white and blue. I was impressed how city looks so white and think that it is very beautiful when I saw it from the top of Acropolis. Again, being as a student in Greece is very beneficial or can save money or spend more money on food and other stuffs because all the museums or main tour sights are free for student. Therefore, we did not spend any money to enter the Acropolis and museums but spent on foods which are gyro, Greek style of pastries, and Greek traditional dishes and souvenirs. While we were in Greece, the weather of Athens was mostly rainy and little bit of sunshine but the good thing was it was not that cold and luckily when we got to visit the acropolis, which is the main sights to see and visit, it was very sunny. After this trip, I thought that it would be better to visit Greece during the summer but Greece was already beautiful itself no matter the weather. By the way, we were planning to go to island for day trip but when we asked people in Greece to recommend which island we should go, and none of them recommended instead asking us “why do you want to go to island? It’s very cold” We decided not to go because we heard there is an 80% chance of rain the following day which we planned to visit any island near Athens. So we ended up exploring Athens more and had lots of Greek foods, especially gyro for 2 euro.

So today (Feb 20, 2011), we got up at 7:30 in the morning, check out, take a cap to the airport, and finally flew back in Rome, home sweet home. By the way, it was hard to say good-bye to Athens, Greece. When I think of my trip in Greece, five things popped up! They are rain, wind, gyro, dogs sleeping in the middle of street, and souvenir shopping. We got back in Rome Center around 2:00pm and as soon as I got home, I unpacked my stuffs and get ready to go to church (Korean Church) at Via Venezia. When service was done, I went to my favorite salad place near Piazza Navona and got chicken salad and ate in my cozy room looking at pictures that I took in Greece and recalled the memories in Athens. Lastly, this trip was full of excitement, experiences, and unforgettable memories J

Monday Feb 21st

Today we had Shara Wasserman, a guest speaker from Temple University come speak to our class. She brought up a lot of interesting issues concerning contemporary Italy and the current Italian society. There were a lot statistics discussed that illustrated Italy’s dire state. One such interesting statistic talked about how only twelve percent of males finish university. Her talk brought a lot of attention to the fact that a great deal must be done in order to solve the crisis going on in Italy.

We then moved into working on our art piece to describe our personal views about Italy. We could draw from our own personal views on Italy, the stories from Multicultural Literature in Italy or depict our own personal frame of reference. Such examples include Brenda’s portrait of herself with the phrase “see past my shades, I dare you” written and depictions of both the Mexican and American flags. In this drawing she was representing the way she saw herself. In Germaine’s drawing, she depicted an eyes with different figures representing the way she saw Italy. In her eye, there was a Vespa, a man praying and a cappuccino. This was a very different way of portraying her views of herself and Italy. An even different way of drawing could be seen by looking at Jenny’s drawing. In her drawing, she depicted the “light beer and peanuts” story that we read about in Multicultural Literature in Italy. There was a young girl confused with her identity with half of her hair straight, half her skin dark and lettering surrounding her portrait. These are all very different representations of illustrating views about Italy and ourselves. After this activity, we had a low key afternoon where we could catch up on things and later individual check ins. In the end, this was a day where we were able to discuss our own personal findings on Italy in a new way as well as hear a new voice and views from Shara.