View Article: 090604

	090604 - Midway
	written by zihengxu / 09.13.2004

page 1

1 of 1

Itinerary

Photo by Evan

Class Feast!

Figs (fichi)! Yummy!

Vatican Tomorrow! Hurray! Soooooo much expectations! Soooooo sad that we don't have a field trip to experience the art today! Who needs a break! Time flies and we only have two more weeks left :-<

Sabrina's Italian class does not start until fourteen hundred hours today, but nobody slacked off; everyone woke up early today to work on their papers. The library is filled with honors students rigorously working on their projects.

Sabrina came to class early and started a feast (see highlights, 3rd Paragraph!) Then she asked students to form pairs and to perform skits in Italian. Matt and James were the funniest pair; they had the entire class choke on laughters... "Dov'e' la stazione?", "Un capuccino, per favore." Those short, little skits were both educational and entertaining. These were some life saving skills we were learning.

In sociology, professor Friedman kindly discussed next week's paper and presentation schedule. Everyone was more or less stressed at the half way point and internet connections had been extremely unfriendly. We worked out a new plan for next week's sociology and people seemed to be reliefed. Today we learned the concept of social instability, median voter theory, iron law of oligarchy as well as Italy's social disorder (due to corruption) since World War II. It was very interesting to note that all three major political parties (communist, socialist, catholic) at the end of World War II had collapsed due to corruption. The current coalitional government still has Berlusconi, who was a close friend of Craxi (1983 head of the socialist party). Berlusconi built up his media empire with the help of socialist party during the reign of Craxi. Now he is in power to clean up the corruption. How ironic.

Highlights

Photo by Evan

Cooking Demonstration

Helen is showing secrets to her squisito clam linguini

Photo by Evan

Sabrina!

"Surprise! I brought you all fruits!"

Sunday Sept. 5th, 2004

"Helen just made the most wonderful, the BEST clam linguini I have had in my entire life! I am so gonna marry her just for that!" Exclaimed Julia, as she cheerfully joined our little cult on the tiny island in the middle of the Tiber. Apparently we just missed out on some of the best student-made food here. But my roommate Jeff (aka Giorgio) was an excellent cook too. Hum... I just have to spend more time on cooking. Maybe we should get a cooking contest at the end of program? Talent Show? And Yes! we are ALL learning to live independantly, isn't that great?

The cool, soothing nightly breeze along the Tiber made it a great place to hang out. If you ever wanted some place quiet yet scenic, go there.

Monday Sept. 6th, 2004

Sabrina, our beloved Italian instructor brought fruit to class! The fichi were extremely tasty; the grapes and plums were some of the best I had ever had in my life! Those green grapes also reminded me of the fine chinese grapes I had when I was little. There were soooooo good!

Images

Photo by Evan

Mafia Talk

Jack, James and Shane debates about corruption and the mafia in Italy after a stimulating sociology lecture.

A visiting lecturer from Oxford will be here this Friday to talk about the Sicilian Mafia. We can't wait to meet our Mafia expert.

[ Multi-Page View ] [ Back to top ]