I'm sorry that it has been so long since the last post.
Since the last time I wrote on the blog, I have traveled to Assisi and Ravenna. Friday was Assisi and it was unbelievable. The town was up on the hill looking down over the a grassland. It was extremely cold and raining/snowing. The church was a lot bigger than it first looked. It almost seemed to be never ending. I had forgotten the story of St. Francis and it was interesting to hear the story again from the group leader. There were frescas hanging all around the church that depicted a different part of his life. We travelled from fresca to fresca with the leader explaining what each of them meant.
Then we went to the second church....below the other one! This section had different smaller areas dedicated to members of the Assisi community (I can't remember names). There was a choir that would sing a song every 15-20 minutes while we were down there.
After the tour had ended, a few of us went down another level to see St. Francis' tomb. Before I was within 50 feet of the tomb, I noticed how many people were sitting in the pews around his tomb praying to him. I walked down the aisle to the tomb and noticed a gate surrounding the tomb with the gate having large enough holes to fit an arm through. Hanging on the other side of the gate was about a 100 pictures of random people. I wasn't told what these were but it baffled me. Maybe the pictures were just placed there for people pray for them? I really couldn't tell you what the meaning of it was.
The rest of the day, we tried walking around the town, but we really couldn't do it. It began to rain really hard and the temperature dropped. We sat in a restaurant for about 2 hours before the bus left. We found out that the big earthquake in Assisi (in 1977 i think) that destroyed much of the art and much of the city, the syracuse abroad program was actually in the city when it happened.
The next day, I got up at 6:45 to catch the bus to Ravenna. The Basilica of San Vitale was unbelievable. The walls and ceiling were decorated in ways I could have never imagined. Each bit of artwork wasn't just painted on, the art consisted of tiny tiny pebbles. I just thought that such great artwork consisted of just rocks. The time it must have taken to finish the artwork must have been extraordinary.
One of the buildings we went into, a place where there were tombs, the floors had risen 8 feet since the time the bodies were placed there. I couldn't believe that.
All things back at the campus are going well. On Wednesday, one of the Italian professors has passed away. i'm not sure if she was a current teacher or just one in the past. No one who I have talked to knew this professor so I could only assume she was a professor in previous years. Many classes were cancelled today (Thursday) in honor of her.
Tonight, I am off to Interlaken, Switzerland. It is a 7 hour bus ride. we leave at midnight and should arrive by early friday morn. I played in a beer pong tournament a few days ago and won the tournament. The prize for the tournament was 2 for the price of 1 to Interlaken. This should be a fun trip. We planned the trip for just 5 of us, but I found out today that about 10 other kids from the program are going too. Should be an interesting trip.
I am still looking for a battery for my camera. I might just have to buy a new camera.
Matt, my roommate, has started working for clubs around the town as a promoter. I am helping him out with the contacts and getting some money for it but not working nearly as hard as he is. The way we get paid is we get 2.5 euro per person that comes in off the list. we had about 150 kids on the list and about 120 came...so that is decent amount of money. I am going to get 25%, Matt gets 50% and another kid helping with contacts get 25%.
He works about 3-4 nights a week. I am in no way working that. I might work 1 day a week. As fun as he is having, he is going to regret doing this. He just hangs with other promoters and hasn't really been making friends at school. In fact, he is doing quite the opposite. He is driving some kids insane. The trip that I was invited on by a few girls didn't want Matt to come. So it will just be me, the three girls and my buddy John.
I will send some pictures from the swiss alps.
Ciao
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