Walk walk walk

Ciao!

Wednesday was quite the epic day. In the morning, we started off with a walk to a train station to catch a train to head over to an Islamic mosque, actually the only mosque in Rome! Then our adventures started. After buying tickets and catching the super sketchy looking train, we waited patiently for our stop. Lo and behold, the traiivn skipped right over our stop. Awesome. So, we disembarked, and then got back on another sketchy looking train going the other direction.

After much confusion, we finally realized that we have to request the stop on the train...so we hopped on a third train, and luckily finally made it to the stop to go and see the mosque. Success!

In order to show our respect for the Islamic culture and also to accord with the rules of the mosque, all the women had to cover our hair with scarves. Before entering, we removed our shoes, and then went inside the main room to listen to a short talk about the customs of the mosque and Islam. Interestingly, there was a group of Roman Catholics there also to hear about the customs of Muslims. Our guide soon arrived to give us a longer talk, and after giving a brief overview of the religion, asked us if we had any questions. He mentioned that most of the time, people will ask about

1-terrorism and 2-women's rights. We carefully avoided those subjects.

Yet at the end he questioned why no one had asked about them. So Professor Kasaba asked , "What type of an answer would you give to those asking about women?" The man's reply was basically that women are getting

more rights because...it just sort of is happening spontaneously. He noted that with widespread internet access, women are now able to read the Qur'an from their homes on the computer (gasp!). Although he gave off the impression that he was not too pleased with this, and that women are "happy" wearing all black long robes to the beaches because it is traditional, it was rather hard to tell how chauvinistic the views are in Islamic Italy.

Once the Mosque trip was concluded, we all split up in different directions. So

me returned to the Piazza Vittorio, the immigrant marketplace, to take some photos. A group of about 10 of us, me included, went over to the refugee center at St. Paul's Within the Walls to volunteer again. After a rather crowded subway journey over, we went inside, where we split up to teach English, help with computers, or just talk and take photos of the refugees. I spent the whole hour and a half talking with several different people, starting off with several men and a young 16 year old boy, all from either Iran and Afghanistan. Many were surprisingly happy to chat with us, and encouraged us to take photos with them. One guy even showed me a video on his cellphone of him kick-boxing in Afghanistan. I also spent a lot of time talking with a man from the Ivory Coast, who spoke French and no English or Italian. It was a great way to practice my French, but also very sad and interesting to hear about his life. Seeing these refugees really made all of us quite thankful (as cliche as it sounds) for our lives as college students who have the chance to travel, learn, and live as we please.

Once the center shut down at 2:00, we left to return to the Campo. Knowing Italy, there was some sort of strike going on

( I think this is the 3rd or 4th one we've seen already), so the bus system was really messed up and we couldn't get a bus home. So, we started walking back, in the muggy heat, and when we finally reached the main road to turn into the Campo area, a bunch of masked Carabinieri were blockading the street with massive shields. So to say the least...we had to take a detour, and barely made it back in time for Lisa's class.

At 3:00, after grabbing quick lunches (I tried a delicious fig and prosciutto sandwich from the

nearby Forno), we walked over to the beautiful neighborhood of Trastevere. We saw two

churches, the Santa Maria and the Santa Cristogono, which both featured gorgeous gold gilded ceilings. Scipione Borghese refurbished the latter of the two churches, and made sure to include everywhere his family symbol of dragon and eagle EVERYWHERE.

Once we finished hearing all about these two beautiful churches, Lisa stopped and bought us gelato from Fior di Luna. DELICIOUS. I got blueberry yogurt and melon, mmmm. After this refreshing treat, we walked up a huge hill (two huge staircases included!) to get to the Acqua Paola, where Emily gave a fabulous presentation on the fountain. Swimming in the cool water was extraordinarily tempting, but the presence of

military men with rifles sort of put a damper on this goal of mine.

Then class was done for the day! Later in the evening after dinner, many people went out to watch the soccer game, and Spain was the victor over Germany, although the game was not that exciting for the first half. But who cares, we're in Roma!

~Sydney