Alexander the Great

I did a paper and presentation in Art History about Alexander the Great, especially the famous Alexander Mosaic that once graced the floor in the House of Faun in Pompeii. Today, the original rests in the Archaeological Museum in Naples, which we got visit this summer with Mirabile Inventu!

In doing research for this project, I found a website that records the process of creating a copy of this mosaic for display. The steps that this team went through and the intricacy and tediousness of their work is amazing. At this Reconstruction Website they show pictures of each step of the process.

If I had to deal with that many little stones I just know I'd poke my eyes out after just one day. I thought mossaicing my bathroom floor was a nightmare, this one took about 500,000 tessarae. Kill me now.

Pompeii and Naples

Pompeii was the ancient city that was covered lava from Mt. Vesuvius before anyone could escape. Looking at the unearthed columns, temples, theater, and basically the whole city, was so cool. Our tour guide Roberto was also pretty cool, heh heh. Naples, the only thing we saw there was the architecture museum where they carted all the goodies they dug up at Herculaneum and Pompeii. These two Italian cities were gorgeous.

Rome

Rome was awesome because all of the ancient ruins there like the coliseum, Pantheon, Julius Caesar's funeral pyre, Vestal Virgin Temple, and Roman forum. We threw a coin in the Trevi Fountain so it is certain that we shall return. I love how all the Italians ride on their little motor-scooters in business suits, smoking a cigarette, and talking on their mobile phone. The gelato--to die for, especially my favorite flavors: mango, bacchio, and hazelnut.

Emily and I had a hotel room about 2 inches bigger than the ONE bed, so we made a lovely sitting room out of the closet, unfortunately that wasn't very big either. Rome, I loved it, but am discouraged by how metropolin it has become, perhaps I am saying that I just wish it felt cleaner. One day we watched a soccer game, ate pizza, discoverd ancient ruins of our own, shopped in the markets, and happened upon the coliseum.

Hallllooooooo

Hello, all lovely blog readers!
I have been gone for so long, but no fear, I am back, and therefore I can update my blog again.

Oh my, where do I begin? So I've been in Europe. I had an AMAZING experience with Mirable Inventu, the 2007 SSHE Summer Honors Study Abroad Program. I suppose I'll do an entry for each of the cities we visited. That should take a few weeks.

Today I went for a bike ride with my dad. The weather here is freakishly hot and humid. The past week I've been going through a mini-depression. Let's just say I am sick of making friends, becoming attached to places and then having to leave them all behind. I'm not complaining at all, I've been extremely blessed in my life, but I guess that I fear normalcy. I hate that life has to trudge on, and yet I hate the thought of life staying the same. As the days and years go by, do we ever really get closer to where "we are supposed to be" or who "we are supposed to be?" If everyone and everything is always in motion, than how does anyone ever find their rightful place? A question I ask myself all the time is, "when does life really begin?" I think the answer is that it never really does. We are eternally living in a sub-reality that coexists with everyone else's reality. From my perspective, life consists of a million fragments somehow waiting to be jammed into a pretty, comprehensive mosaic.

Yeah, so I've had a lot of time to myself and my whirling mind in the past week. I haven't been writing for a long while either; hence my overflow of my pent-up anxiety, creativity, and philosophy. ha.

Mirable Inventu

I am leaving for Europe very soon!!! Along with 2 students from every state school in Pennsylvania, Emily and I are participating in the SSHE Summer Study Abroad Program from Shippensburg. I can hardly stand it, I'm so excited. I have been obsessively thinking about how much I wanted to go on this trip since my freshman year of college when I heard students give presentations about their experiences. I'm glad I finally get the opportunity!

We are going to soooo many places all over Europe. First we are going to spend a week at California University (which is near Pittsburgh and not at all in the state of Cali). Our topic is Mirable Inventu: European Renaissance and Reformation. Yay.

I will post if I get a chance (but there are no guarantees)