Turin Day 1

Today we all met up bright and early to catch the train to Turin. It took about four hours to get there so we were all pretty tired today. After we got off the train, we checked into this adorable hostel called Tomato and ate lunch. Afterwards, we had a couple hours to relax and explore if we wanted to, so I took a walk to a close by park where there were a lot of people out running by the river.

After we met up, we got a tour of the neighborhood which included a lot of different religious buildings. We were really lucky and was able to go inside a large synagogue which is usually only open to the public one day out of the year. We also saw a large church and then a mosque. After walking around Turin, I have really noticed some differences from Rome. Turin feels a lot more welcoming and home-like, streets are clean and less crowded, and it seems quieter with less tourists.

After the tour we got aperitivo, where you buy a drink and get to eat a buffet, with some members of the Young Muslims group. They were fellow college students, most of which were second generation young adults, so it was really fun and nice to talk to them during dinner. We had some great conversations and got to get their input on what it was like to grow up as a second generation immigrant in Italy. I talked to one girl, Dalia, who was also a psychology major here and got to compare our education experiences and possible tracts for the future. It was a tiring, but really great day!

Tuesday May 6th, 2014

Today was another beautiful day in Rome, Italy which is exactly what I think we all needed! Some of us have been getting sick and the nice weather made me feel better! It was bright blue skies and it wasn't too hot to be in the sun. Since it was Tuesday we had service learning and today Stephanie visited our classrooms which was nice. In my class my teacher went over one lesson about the different sounds in Italian que qua quo qui and had the kids write different words that have these sounds in them. After they wrote different words we went over what they mean in English and then the kids drew pictures of the things (kite, oak tree, eagle etc). 

After service learning Claudia and I went to re-visit the Colosseum and took pictures next to it which was very fun! We took pictures at different angles and it was beautiful. Then we went to grocery store to get some food for dinner. We then came back to my place so I can cook dinner for us and then plan the rest of our time here in Italy. Overall it was very stressful to try to figure out what to do but were going to ask Stephanie a few questions tomorrow to help us! :)

- Shontia C.W.

Today was a typical school day with Italian class in the morning and regular class in the afternoon. This week’s topic of our class is emigration within Italy as well as emigration to northern Europe and America. After the lecture, we went to the National Museum of immigration near Rome Center.

It’s an interesting museum that mainly introduces emigration history in Italy, such as during World War I, World War II and emigration of present days. In the museum, there are old pictures and old suitcases that showed the history of emigration. It was very surprising to me how Italy was once portraited as a hopeless land and full of crimes. Many Italians emigrated to northern Europe during and after World War I, but many Italians later shifted their emigration direction to South American and then the United States for job opportunities. As many other immigrants from other parts of the world, these Italian emigrants are many that had no financial resources or with insufficient language skills, but filled with hope going to a different land. However, something very interesting at the museum that drew me a lot attention was that nowadays, the number of emigration of Italians to other parts of the world is almost equal to the number of Italians who returned to Italy. This is a very interesting phenomenon to me. I wondered about it a lot and it reminded me of the movie “Bread and Chocolate” of how many Italians took the train back to Italy from Switzerland. I also saw many interesting animation pictures that depicted the way to Switzerland and the way to Italy.

After the national museum of immigration, I wanted to go to other museums since I haven’t spent a lot of time in Rome and I haven’t really been to any museum in Rome yet. However, unfortunately, many museums are closed on Monday. This is another interesting thing to me about Italy, it seems many restaurants and museums are closed on Monday rather than the weekend. I think it must have something to do with its high tourism volume during the weekend rather than the weekdays.

The more I learn about Italy, the more interesting I feel about this country. Every country has its own complicated yet interesting history, but Italy, somehow, attracts me a lot. Its contradicted attitude toward immigrants, the relationship between Vatican and the government, the hospitality of Meditereanians, the peaceful atmosphere of a coffee shop, etc., have drawn so much attention from me and I have certainly fallen for this “messy” country.

Natalie Hostetter

Blog 5/4/2014

            Hello all! Today was a beautiful sunny day in Rome! Because it was Sunday we didn’t have any planned group activities so Jessica and I just went off to explore on our own! Saturday my foot got ran over my a moped so I was lagging a little bit behind Jessica (sorry Jess), but nonetheless we went out as tourists to explore this beautiful city. Our first stop was the Trevi Fountain, both of our favorite places in Rome and quite possibly the whole world! We hadn’t seen it yet on a completely sunny day and it was just absolutely breathtaking. It really doesn’t get old. We also hadn’t seen it on the weekend and holy moly it was packed!! There were mass crowds of people everywhere we went. After the Trevi Fountain we went back to the Pantheon because we hadn’t been inside it yet! Then we were starving and my foot was hurting so we decided to meander back toward home. Per usual we were craving some sort of American food to get us a little taste from home. We decided to go to a place called T-bone Station right next to our apartment to get our hamburger fix. It’s a little pricey but it was to die for! We’re rested and ready for the long week ahead. Ciao!

This morning we woke up to a little rain which may or may not have reminded us a little bit of Seattle, but despite the weather we all met up at 9:30am and headed out on our journey to visit Rome's mosque. We stopped for a quick cup of coffee and a pastry at a cute little bakery on the way, and then continued to the bus stop. We rode the bus through the city to another area full of trees and parks and passed the Villa Borghese which is beautiful! We got on another bus or subway or train or tram or whatever it was called and ended up at the mosque!

Once we arrived, we all put a scarf over our heads in order to respect the traditional attire worn by Muslim women. Our tour guide didn't speak much English at all, so Stephanie translated for us. He began by explaining to us how the mosque was built by an Iraqi and an Italian who were in a competition surrounding architectural techniques. It was constructed in 1995. The mosque is located up on a hill overlooking the city, and the location was chosen because it is near the diplomatic neighborhood and it is isolated from the rest of the city so it is incredibly peaceful. The construction of the mosque was a 40 million euro project, and aims to represent the "new Islam of Europe" and all the different cultures represented in the congregation. At this particular mosque,  The mosque hosts between two and three-thousand people for prayer from over 25 countries each Friday, the holy day in the Islamic religion. Prayer is done five times per day, and Muslims have a strong focus on the relationship between the mind and the body, emphasizing the importance of hygiene through ritual washings that allow people to regain the purity they may have lost. There are public baths within the mosque for men and for women so that they can cleanse themselves before prayer. The space for prayer fits 300 people and is a casual space, heavily carpeted and in which you can eat, drink, sleep and talk. This is because there is no distinction between the sacred and the common according to their beliefs. They always pray in the direction of Mecca, and prayer is led by an Imam who is nominated by the congregation based on merit. The Imam is an important figure not only because he or she leads prayer, but because the job of the Imam is also to remind those in attendance of the first Imam, Muhammad.

After the tour, we headed back to central Rome and all went our separate ways to enjoy the sunshine! After a couple of early mornings this week, I took a much-needed accidental four hour nap, and now I'm ready for the night ahead! Enjoy the rest of your weekend! Ciao!!

Jessica Pickering

May 2

Today we visited the Jewish Ghetto. Our tour guide first led us through the museum, and the first room of the museum was surrounded by beautifully designed cloth that the museum had restored. What is amazing about these fabrics is that they are all able to be traced back to the original families that had owned them, which I think is really cool that the museum knows their origin. As we walked through the museum, our tour guide explained to the group the basics of Jewish life, including holidays like Shabbat, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, and Jewish marriage and birth. She then moved on to telling us more about the history behind the Jewish Community here in Rome. The Jewish Ghetto was built here in 1556 and lasted until 1870. The Ghetto was enclosed by a large barrier, and the Jews who lived here had a curfew and were locked in at night. The Ghetto was below the level of the river close by so when the River flooded, so did the Ghetto.  The Jews were released from the Ghetto in 1870 because of the unification of Italy, and the Jews were now recognized members of Italian society. Soon after came WWII. There were 10,000 Jews living in Rome at the time, and unfortunately around 2,000 of them were taken by the Nazis to concentration camps where they didn’t survive. However, the remaining 8,000 Jews were taken into hiding by Roman Christians. This speaks volumes on the kind of relationship these two religious groups had back then, which continues on today. We visited two synagogues, both of which were absolutely gorgeous. Unfortunately we were not allowed to take pictures, but like most beautiful buildings in Rome, a picture doesn’t do it justice. After our museum tour Stephanie bought us ‘Jewish Pizza’ from a little bakery in the Ghetto. The bakery smelled absolutely delicious, like freshly baked bread, raisins and cinnamon. A few hours later we had a guest speaker come talk to our group. Her name is Lisa Billig, an Austrian born Jew who grew up in America and then moved to Italy where she raised a family. She was born right before the war started, and said her father who traveled a lot for work could ‘sense’ what was happening throughout Europe and didn’t see a future there for his family. He went to Cuba and got visas so he could move his family to New York. She spoke about the many intercultural religion and peace organizations she has been a part of, and her opinions of what is happening today in Rome. One of the most memorable things she said in my opinion was that the only way to save our world is to cultivate individual thought and responsibility. Overall, today was a great day; one that I had been looking forward to since the beginning of the trip.

Madeleine 

May 1st

Today is international worker day and we have one day can have a rest. I saw Stephanie in the morning talking about the research project. It is really helpful for me to establish a structure of my research paper and I am also excited about this research paper because this would be my first time to write a research paper. Later on, we went to Vatican. Last week we took the bus to Vatican and it took us about 40 minutes. So we thought it might be far away to our apartment. However, Claudia told us that Vatican just took 20 minutes by foot. That is so funny because the bus took a detour. When we arrived there, the line was really long to enter the church. The line-ups to get into St. Peter's made it an event to enter and enjoy this truly remarkable basilica. Luckily, people moves really fast and we went into St. Peter's soon. The inside is massive. It is the largest interior of any Christian church. Climbing to the top of the church and seeing the overview of Rome is a good choice for anyone who want to go to Vatican. The climbing way is tiny but it is already the most comfortable way for church. There are too many people there and all from all over the world. It is so interesting even though we are still in Rome, in Italy, however, we are already in another country.