Happy Feast of the Immaculate Conception!

This morning I slept in because today is a national holiday.  Happy Feast of the Immaculate Conception!  To the Roman Catholic, December 8th is a significant date, not to be treated lightly. As a holy day of obligation, a Catholic is required by the fist precept of the church to attend mass.  All public offices and schools are closed although shops will be open to mark the first day of the Christmas shopping season. Many Romans will also take off Monday 7 December to make a long weekend or ponte as it is called in Italian.  At 4:00 today, Pope Benedict XVI will be driven to Piazza Mignanelli, adjoining the Spanish steps in the heart of Rome, in an act of homage to the Virgin Mary. Here he kneels in prayer and leaves a floral tribute that is hoisted to the statue of the Madonna on the top of the column. According to tradition he is also greeted by the mayor of the city, Gianni Alemanno.  When I woke up this morning my roommate Tara and I stayed in bed and watched the Christmas episode of Glee.  The episode got us into the Christmas spirit as made hash browns and eggs for breakfast while listening to Christmas music.  After, as I was packing my backpack to find a café to study in I heard a loud band playing outside.  I went to my outside balcony and their was a parade procession of bands in celebration of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception.  My day will be spent studying and hopefully a run as a study break!

Day 1 of the Last Week of School

Over the weekend I saw a really interesting documentary called Man on Wire.  On August 7, 1974, a 24-year-old French high-wire artist named Philippe Petit committed one of the most astonishing performance stunts of the late 20th century.  He strung a thin cable in between the two towers of the World Trade Center and not only walked across, from one building to another, but did a nerve-wracking series of knee-bends and acrobatic movements on the cable, some 1,350 feet above the ground, before turning himself in. The documentary shows the chain of events leading up to the high-wire walking.  Another movie that I would recommend watching is Unthinkable.  I watched this movie in my philosophy class a few weeks ago because it delves into the topic of human rights verse government.  The movie actually came out in 2010 but it is highly controversial and was banned from many theatres.  I would consider it a psychological thriller and it is starring Samuel L Jackson and Carrie-Ann Moss.  The movie raises a lot of moral and philosophical questions and I plan on addressing them in my next paper due in philosophy.  This morning I finally went to the grocery store and when I picked up my milk I realized how fast the month of December is moving.  My milk doesn’t expire until the 10^th!   After the grocery store I went to the library to start my next history paper.  I took bus number 98 because it was raining.  The paper needs to be 12 pages and I am going to focus on Garibaldi and the unification of Italy.  

Tis the Season

On Friday night, my friends and I went to Piazza Navona to check out the Christmas market that is held in the main square in the month of the December.  When we arrived, there was Christmas music playing and booths sets up throughout the entire square each decorated with their own unique display of Christmas lights.  The stands sold various kinds of Christmas sweets, toys, nativity figures, decorations, balloons, jars of preserves, bunches of holly, colorful shawls, pots of poinsettias, stuffed bears, metal tops, porcelain dolls, and trinkets.  My favorite stalls were the ones carrying my dream foods of gumdrops, fudge, caramels and hard sugary candies.  Speaking of Christmas treats, I have taken it upon myself to taste Italy’s famous Christmas cake called the panettone.  Now it is important to not call it or relate it to fruit cake (the Italians no take it well).  It's like a pound cake but full of candied fruits, making it nutritious as well. OK, maybe it's not exactly good for you, but if you're in Italy in December or January, chances are good that you'll be offered a piece of panettone, and you wouldn't want to offend your hosts by turning it down, would you?  Panettone cakes are actually quite common as gifts for Christmas. In the middle of the square there is a merry-go-round.  Later this month a nativity scene is unveiled and just before Christmas the auxiliary bishop of Rome blesses this famous square and walks through the square passing the colorfully lit stalls.

This weekend I also went to mass at the Vatican.  As I entered Saint Peters Square once again it was packed with people.  I waited around for a couple of minutes and the Pope came out from his room onto the balcony and gave a blessing that blasts throughout the entire square.  The middle window that he appears from is called the Door of Filarete.  Smack in the middle of the square there was a huge crane putting up a massive Christmas tree.  Christmas trees are really not an Italian tradition but are starting to become more popular. Tree decorations are usually fairly simple, often just lights.  This years Christmas tree is 94 years old. The tree was cut down last week near Luson in the Dolomites north of Bolzano, picked from among hundreds of fellow giants in a 1,150m-high wood owned by local landowner Martin Ragginer. The tree is officially donated from the region called Trentino-Alto Adige.  The tree is called a spruce tree and  will be decked out with 3,000 gold and silver balls as well as 1,500 white and yellow LED lights.  It is kind of funny how there are a bunch of articles stressing that the Vatican is being more energy efficient by using LED lights for the tree.   At the top of the tree there will be a star.  It will be lit up for the first time on December 17, at 4:30, in a special ceremony attended by people from Trentino (where the tree came from), folk groups and choirs. I am going to try to go to it because I will be done with finals by then.  Donating a Christmas tree to the home of Catholicism is considered a great honor and every year a different region or country is given this privilege. Trentino-Alto Adige is also donating another 50 smaller trees, which will be set up within the Vatican itself. Pope John Paul II initiated the Christmas tree tradition in 1982 and trees have been donated in recent years by a number of European countries, including Romania, Austria and the Czech Republic. Governments stand in line for their turn to send a Christmas tree to the Vatican.

This weekend I also visited the Pyramid of Cestius.  The pyramid holds a lot of history but I must admit my favorite part about the visit was that right next to the Pyramid was a cat sanctuary.  We were able to enter and saw about 50 cats walking around and were able to play with them.  The cats all have beds and we were even able to go into the back room to see the baby kittens.  The sanctuary accepts donations because the cats are all well fed and it is a nursery for them.  I had fun playing with the cats and it made me miss Punkie!

Raining....in my Apartment?

After being in Ireland in the snow and talking to friends who are studying abroad in Germany where the temperature is the negatives, every time I walk out my front door I feel like I am in Hawaii.  Last night when I arrived home with two of my roommates we opened up the lobby door and it sounded like it was pouring rain inside.  I walked in a couple of steps further and indeed it was poor rain coming from the top story.  I quickly ran up the two flights of stairs trying to dodge the rain and finally open the door to my own apartment to see a huge puddle in the front entrance.  As time went on the puddle turned into a little pond and began to fill up the entire apartment.  We quickly removed all of the rugs from the floor and removed anything of value from the floor.  Two of my roommates put on their rain boots and raincoats and ran up through what was now like a waterfall to the top story in attempt to wake up the people in the apt that the water was coming from.  No one was answering except one of the ladies next door to us.  She did not speak any English and was clearly also very concerned.  Immediately, we called a couple of different numbers including the fire department.  We began concocting stories in our mind of how if we did not get the water to stop then the roof above us would cave in because of the weight, along with maybe there is an elderly person in the top apartment who needs our help.  From a distance we could hear the fire department coming and heard them marching up the stairs.  As I went to bed last night with a flooded apartment I began to dream of waking up floating on my bed like a scene from castaway.  Needless to say, I did not get very much sleep last night.  The beauty of renting an apartment is that yes I was concerned but knowing it was not my problem but my landlords was a relief.  This morning the landlord knocked on our door and when she saw the flooded apartment almost has a heart attack.  She immediately called five different people talking very loud and fast.  People came in and out of the apartment trying to access the damage and fix to the apartment.  When I got back from school today I was greeted by a dry and cleaner than before apartment!

Happy First Day of December!

 Since I have been here I do not think I have addressed the on going shower situation that my roommates and I face on a daily basis. It's nearly impossible for more than two people to receive a hot shower especially during the winter when our “heater” takes the place of our hot water heater. After one person takes a quick shower the others must sacrifice themselves to a shower that mimics get caught in freezing rain. However, this only heightens the other potentially hazardous shower challenges. The size of the shower is equivalent  to a port-o-potty. Sudden movements are not encouraged, and escaping the experience with fewer than a dozen run-ins with the shower doors is considered a success. Because your feet get so dirty walking around the city, you have to make a special effort to clean them when showering.  If the cold water or the size of the shower didn't get you, than the rapidly filling shower base might. The majority of your shower focus goes to finishing the shower before you flood the bathroom. The drainage system in all of Italy is not very good.  Thus balancing on one foot, while trying to avoid direct contact with the pelting freezing water, and watching the rapidly rising water for signs of flood is the though process running through one head.  It's not unusual for us to ask each other if everything is okay as soon as we hear the water go off! 

Last week at the grocery store with my friends Courtney and Matt we were quite surprised when we found soft tacos, Tostitos chips and salsa at the supermarket. We get the ingredients, excited by the discovery, and begin planning our upcoming taco meal.  Yesterday, we decided to break out the Tostitos chips and salsa. That's when we discovered the "salsa problem." For whatever reason every sauce like product (i.e. salad dressing, salsa, etc) is always with tomato and sugar, whether it should be or not. So what does just a heavily sugared tomato based salsa taste like? Exactly like sloppy joe sauce.

You would think this discovery would have lead us to use the taco ingredients in another way, but no, we said we're having tacos and were determined to do so. Since you're not going to find anything but Italian cheeses here, we decide to go with provolone, which we shred ourselves. Already we've accepted that these will be Italian inspired tacos. Next, I come up with the brilliant idea to alter the sauce in an attempt to remove the sweetness. Sadly, despite my best efforts, the sweetness was still there.  Throughout the meal, Courtney was sure to point out the lack of sour cream and avocado and our lettuce that was moist because it was a day old.  So all in all Taco meal consisted of tacos that tasted like Italian inspired sloppy joes, with no lettuce and no sour cream. FAIL! 

I can’t believe school is wrapping up so quickly.  This is my last week of school and then I have dead week.  The week after next is finals.  Teachers are starting to get serious and assigning big papers that we all thought they were just pretending to assign throughout the quarter.  I am almost done with my Econ Paper.  My paper focuses on how the effects of unclean water and sanitation in under developing countries plays a role in lowering the Human Development Index.  I have been able to prove this by making graphs on excel using data for the human development reports and the world data bank.  I am excited to have this 3500 word essay off my hands!

Ireland Pics!

Tara and I in front of the Dublin Castle

Patty Power!

Front Entrance

Snow

If your lucky enough to be Irish, then your lucky enough

I arrived into Dublin late Wednesday night and as I walked down the steps of the RyanAir plane I was greeted by the cold brisk weather.  I stayed at Abigail’s Hostel and the location was great.  It was really central, overlooking the Liffey River and directly across from O’Connell Bridge.  A fun fact that I found out is that O’Connell bridge was built by the same people that built the Titanic and some Irish people have superstitions and will cross the river via another bridge.  The very first night, I came to find that Dublin was beautifully decorated for Christmas.  In the middle of O’Connell street there was a massive Christmas tree beautifully decorated with lights that would flicker slowly between blue, green, and red.  There was tinsel and banters from one store to another with Christmas trees, stars and crosses decorated along them.  I instantly began to feel the Christmas spirit.  It also made be realize that the Vatican is seriously lagging.  Where is their Christmas tree?  They should have it up by now and as I returned home on Sunday night there was still no sign of a Christmas tree in Saint Peters Square. 

I instantly felt apart of the Irish culture and well not to brag but the Irish people loved me with my red hair and the last name of Powers.  The Irish culture was extremely warm and welcoming and their humor is so funny.  For the weekend I decided I was 75% Irish.  Why not?  I can look the part.  In one of the local shops I came across the origin of the last name Power.  Power derives from the Norman suname le Poer, literally meaning ‘the pauper.’  The family came to Ireland with a Strongbow and settles in Waterford, where Power  is still a common name.  Notable member of the family include Tyrone Power.  Power’s is also a famous brand of Irish whiskey.  Power’s was everywhere in all of the pubs.  I took a couple of pictures that I will post later.

On Friday, I took a day walking tour through the city of Dublin.  Our tour guide was hilarious and told us many funny stories about the Irish heritage.  I learned about the Viking Era, the arrival of the Normans, the lordship of Ireland, Gaelic resurgence and the Norman decline, the protestant ascendancy, union with Great Britain, and how it eventually became the republic that it is today.  I found the tragedy of the Easter rising in the middle of the First World War to be the most interesting.    The Easter rising was an insurrection in Ireland during Easter week by Irish Republicans against British rule, members of the Irish volunteers seized key locations around Dublin and proclaimed an Irish Republic free from Britain, the rising was suppressed after seven days of fighting and its leaders where executed but it succeeded in bringing physical force back to the forefront of Irish politics.  On the tour we visited the Dublin Castle, Christ Church Cathedral, the National Library, City Hall, St. Stephens Green, the Ha’Penny Bridge and much more.  One of my favorite parts of the tour was visiting Trinity College and walking around the campus.

I quickly figured out that if I was going to decide to visit another hospital, in another country, too add to my list, it would definitely be because when I crossed the street I looked right first instead of left.  In Ireland they drive on the other side of the street so there was numerous times that I looked the wrong direction and began to cross and then was startled back because a car from my left was zooming by.  It seems like looking left before crossing the street would be an easy habit to break but I def never picked up on it.  I think the city of Dublin was aware of this problem because on busy streets there were big signs that read “look left!”  The city of Dublin itself was very clean and there were many shopping malls on the main street.  My hostel was located in an area known as Temple bar.  This part of town had a little bit smaller cobblestone roads and had even more character.  It reminded me a lot like Trastevere in Rome.  One of my favorite parts of Ireland was the mere fact that they speak English.  I feel as if I have almost been muted for the past three months.  Walking though the streets I forgot that I can ask for directions and use my voice again in public.  It was a surprisingly weird thing to get used to.  Dublin is also the home to many famous musical artists and was voted in 2009 as the best city in the world for live music. 

After the tour we stopped at Starbucks and I was happy to see the Christmas cups are out.  I ordered a peppermint hot chocolate.  It was basically like Christmas in my mouth. After that we went to the Guinness factory where we had a tour of the storehouse. The plantation was huge!  Each story had a different theme about the process of how to make the beer and how the company became to be as successful as it is today.  My favorite floor that focused on advertising.  I think the advertising for Guinness is brilliant as I looked ad poster after poster of different slogans and mottos that they use.  I think that they are up there with Apple for some of the greatest and most clever advertising.  The famous advertisement slogan “Guinness is Good For You” is still used around the world.  Though Guinness has now officially on the record as denying this claim some research does support that Guinness is good for your heart.  It was not so long ago in Ireland that pregnant women were told to drink a glass of Guinness every day to fortify themselves and their baby.  The Guinness factory was founded in 1759 in the heart of Dublin at Saint Jams Gate by Sir Arthur Guiness.  In Ireland they now have an entire holiday that is dedicated to him and they call it Arthurs day.  At the top of the storehouse on the eighth story was the gravity bar.  This was one of the highest points in Dublin and there were windows surrounding the entire bar.  Upon arrival into the bar, you receive a free pint of Guiness and if you can pour it yourself.  I was not aware of this but apparently there is a certain art of how to pour.  A “perfect pint” of Draught Guiness is the product of length double pour which according to the company should take 119.53 seconds.  Guiness has promoted this wait with advertising campaigns such as good things come to those who wait.”  It should be served at a perfect 42.8 degrees.  That night for dinner we went to a pub for dinner and I got a yummy thanksgiving dinner.  The way that most places serve is that the meal is already pre-made kind of like buffet style except it is not self serve.  I got Irish beef, mashed potatoes, broccoli, carrots and bread.

Early Friday morning we headed out of Dublin on a bus to Galway.  We went through a company called Galway Tours.  The bus ride was about 2 and a half hours and most people just slept.  Galway is in northern Ireland and has a population of about 70,000.  It is known to be very young and lively mostly because of that 70,000 people, 20,000 of them are college students.  The only way I know Galway is from the popular song “Galway Bay” that I have heard.  Upon arriving in Galway we hoped right onto another bus that would take us to the country of Clare where the Cliffs of Moher were located.  To get there we drove the coast Galway Bay, and first stopped at the fishing village of Kinvara to see Dunguaire Castle & into The Burren- home to 75% of Ireland's native flora & location of numerous ancient monuments many of which we visit including the Gleninsheen Wedge Tomb, the 5,800 year old Poulnabrone Dolmen and Ballyalban Fairy Fort- home of little men with green hats and orange beards!  We then stopped in Kilfenora to see the famous Celtic Crosses (Irish High Crosses).  After we stopped into the town of the county of Clare to eat lunch at a pub. After, we went to the 200-metre high, 8kms long Cliffs of Moher.  The Cliffs of Moher is overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. The cliffs were very beautiful and from across the Galway bay I could see the Aryan Islands.  Since I was on the Atlantic Ocean I waved over to New York City and the east coast of America.  One of my favorite places in San Diego is the La Jolla Cliffs located directly across from my campus and the cliffs of Moher look very similar but with more greenery and granite.  On the way home we went via the Coast Road with views of Connemara & Galway in the distance passing by such famous landmarks as Doolin and the Leprechaun Head.

Even though English is the language you hear most often there is American English and European English and there are a few words that have a different meaning. One of things that I had to get used to was hear someone mention 'crack' they are not arranging a secret drug buy! It is spelled 'craic' and is Irish for friendly banter.  In Ireland when something that is really good it is brilliant or grand.  French fries are 'chips' (except in Burger King and McDonalds) and potato chips are 'crisps'.  If you need to find a restroom ask for the toilets - usually the bathroom is the room in a house where the bath tub resides.  Homes in Ireland do not have yards, they have gardens.

The next day we had a full day in Galway and walked through the streets and the main shopping area.  The town is not very big and I was quickly able to get my groundings.  In the main square there was a Christmas festival going on.  In 1965, the square was officially renamed "Kennedy Memorial Park" in honor of US President John F. Kennedy, who visited here and gave a speech shortly before his assassination in 1963.  Christmas music was playing and there was booth after booth of different local handmade crafts, pastries, and local delicacy.  The best part about it was the Christmas music blasting through the streets. For dinner, in Galway we went to a Mexican restaurant called La Salsa.  It was so delicious and I was ordering by grilled steak burrito and I looked outside and it was snowing!  It was officially the first snow of the winter season here in Galway.  It was so beautiful as soon the ground, tops of cars, and the trees all were covered with just a white little hint.  The snow fell for about 20 minutes right in time for the end of dinner. 

I also explored the town of Claddah.  The area is based on the Irish word "cladach", meaning a stony beach. People have been gathering seafood and fishing from here for millennia. Historically, its existence has been recorded since the arrival of Christianity in the 5th century. Throughout the centuries, the Claddagh people kept Galway City supplied with fish, which they sold on the square in front of the Spanish Arch. The area has been made popular in the song "Galway Bay", and internationalized through its traditional jewelry, the Claddagh Ring, which is worn by people all over the world.  The Claddagh's distinctive design features two hands clasping a heart, and usually surmounted by a crown. The elements of this symbol are often said to correspond to the qualities of love (the heart), friendship (the hands), and loyalty (the crown).  When turned the other way, it shows that the wearer is in a relationship, or their heart has been "captured". When worn on the left hand with the heart oriented again away from the wearer, it implies the wearer is engaged; turned the other way, it indicates the wearer is married.

Around the city, listening to by passers, passing newsstands, and hearing the news I could not help but notice the huge recession that is going on and is putting a huge toll on country.  On the news, as I was leaving everyone was crowding around the TV because there was apparently a 85 billion dollar Irish bailout that was just signed.  I have not done much research on the topic and would like to do more.

On Saturday night, I headed back to Dublin for one last night and I had to catch a flight out the next day.  On the way back in the bus I watched a famous Irish movie called Angelo’s Ashes.  The movie was depressing and also controversial as it was supposed to depict the typical life in Limrick.  The last night as I was heading back to my hostel it starting to snow again and the entire city was once again covered in snow.  It snowed all night and in the morning the entire city was covered in white.  It was gorgeous.  I had sometime in the morning to walk around a little bit more and then headed back to Rome that afternoon.  I have had a busy day in the library today and will try to post pictures tonight when I get home or tomorrow!