Our LAST Tuesday in Rome!

We are officially almost done with our time in Rome. It hasn't really set in yet that we're actually leaving in just a few days.

Anyways, Tuesday started off with our usual walk to Caffe di Marzio but it was closed. We have yet to figure out their hours but they've been closed on a Tuesday before so maybe they just aren't open Tuesday mornings. But then again, they were closed Wednesday morning once too, so I'm not sure about that. We needed our cappuccinos so went to Magnolia instead where Catherine and I ran into Molly and Lisa. After a delicious cappuccino and cornetto, we went up to the Rome Center to find out "What makes Turks Tick" from Professor Kasaba.

Lecture time

I was looking forward to this lecture. I had no idea what to expect when we went to Turkey! I still only have a limited idea but I feel like his lecture was very helpful. We found out that history is very important to to the Turks as they've had some major changes in their society, like in the 1920s when they switched from using Arabic letters to the Roman alphabet, in addition to some other major upheavals. We also talked about current politics, food, and Istanbul itself. I didn't realize how ridiculously large Istanbul is but I am so excited to go there. I'm especially excited to try the food there.

After class, we went to our favorite 3 euro pizza place for lunch.

Pizza place, I will miss you.

It switched to weighing slices recently with their shiny new scales and I was shocked to have to pay 3.74 for my standard 3 euro slice. Luckily, that was just one day and since then they have switched back to just 3 euro a slice. Catherine, Kate, and I got pizza but Sarah branched out from the norm and got a calzone! When the woman cut it in half, so much cheese oozed out onto the tray. It was apparently quite delicious, though. I might have to try one before we leave.

Delicious lunch

After lunch and some wandering around the Campo, we were back in the Rome Center prepping for our next round of Migration presentations. Today the volunteering groups were going.

My group was first. We based our project off of stories from immigrants at the Joel Nafuma Refugee Center. Talking to the individuals there and listening to their incredible journeys to Italy was our inspiration. We used google maps (technology is so much fun) to create interactive maps of their travels to Italy. We also did some research into their home country's background and current situation. Volunteering at the Center was definitely an experience. It's hard to listen to some of these stories and feel like you're not able to do more than just try to teach them English. After a long presentation (sorry, I know those chairs are incredibly uncomfortable), it was group 2's turn to present.

The second volunteering group presented something very different from the first group. They worked to create advertisements that would theoretically (if they were in Italian) change the minds of the Italian population about immigrants.

Volunteering Group 2 Presentation

There is a heavy anti-immigrant sentiment here in Italy so this group worked to make something to counteract that based on their experiences with the refugees. I thought the advertisements were very well done and was impressed by how professional they looked. After some more group discussion, class was over for the day and we had to leave the wonderfully air-conditioned conference room for our quite warm apartment.

I was only home for a short while before heading back to the Rome Center to meet with my group for Professor Kasaba's class, with presentations happening tomorrow. My group had the brilliant idea to do "coffee" as our subject, however, we didn't get this brilliant idea until yesterday. So we had a lot of work to do. The library is also air-conditioned and quite a popular place with the honors kids.

Tuesday night library party

We were there until 9 when Erik, the incredibly responsible library monitor, kicked us out. We went a few floors down and continued working in the also air-conditioned conference room. Shurui and Christine started cooking in Katie and Rebecca's apartment for their presentation and then Shurui changed the background on my email to this ridiculous ice creamy, pastel motif that I immediately changed on my return home. All in all, as time wore on, I think most of us stopped being productive. But we only have a few more days in Rome to have fun, so I think it's mandatory for us to enjoy ourselves here while we still can.