First Days

Thursday September 3

Today I had orientation where we learned more about the University I will be attending.  There are many different schools that go there including Boston college, Notre dame, saint maries, and Charleston along with other independent programs like SAI.  Also there are some people that are enrolled for all four years or all year.  There are two different campus.  We learned that the hard way and went to the wrong campus at first.  They are about 15 minutes apart from each other. Orientation was pretty pointless they picked a bad time it was two early and everyone had jet lag so everyone basically slept through it.  My roommates and I learned that there are two different campuses the hard way.  We showed up already late and realized that we were supposed to be at the other campus.  They went over some traveling information, housing, and phone information.  They had live music and hamburgers.  The hamburgers here have sausage  mixed in with the beef they are really good.  After orientation I went to the computer lab to use the internet for a little bit because my apartment dos not have internet yet because the system is broken.    John Cabot is an American University in the heart of Rome.  It has been around for 50 years. There are two different campuses one is called the Timbre campus and the other is called the Guarino campus.  One is located on the river and the other is about a 15 minute walk away on a quaint small street located between two delis and cafes.  The entire road is all cobblestone making it hard to look up and enjoy the scenery because you have to look down so you don’t trip!  To get to school I have to walk about 25 minutes approx two miles.  I live on a main street which I walk up and then I go through a tunnel and at the end of the tunnel I end up at the river.  From there I walk on the river for about 15 minutes.

Friday September 4

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD! I LOVE YOU!

Early on Friday we had a welcome day at Ostia Antica.  At 8:45 am we meet at Piazzza Trilusa which is a square at the center of town.  Ostia was the ancient port city of Rome. Unlike Pompeii and Herculaneum, it wasn't devastated by a natural disaster like a volcanoe. It was however, eventually abandoned after continuous attacks by pirates. The harbor thus silted up as a result to a drop in sea level. Today, the city is a couple of miles from the sea and is quite well preserved. There are superb remnants of mosaics and wall paintings as well as the buildings themselves.  Once a busy port at the mouth of the Tiber, siltage, disease, time and neglect saw the harbour abandoned and the town disappear under several metres of river sand and rubbish. The shoreline changed and today the town, although still lying on the Tiber, is 3 kilometres from the sea. Very much a working port, there are no great temples, public arenas or grand villas here, rather there are the functional buildings of commerce and workshops, housing for working folk and middle class officials and managers, communal baths and latrines and the usual mix of warehouses, shops, hotels, bars and brothels that you'll find in ports all over the world to this day. Mosaics floors lie open to the sky and fragments of sculpture are everywhere.

Excavations began in 1801, mostly for private gain and use - an marble statue for a garden here, a pillar and an inscribed tablet for a folly there, though some pieces did make their way to the museums of the Vatican and the Lateran. Controlled and serious excavation began in 1907 and continues to this day.  Above is a picture of me right across my campus on the river as well as a picture from the day trip to Ostia Antica.

Saturday September 4

More orientation activities at school to get our Permit to Stay in Italy, then a night out at Campo di Fiori. 

Above is a picture of me right across from campus, a picture in my room, and two prictures from Ostia Antica