A Packed Day

We had to wake up and get to class extra early today (8:30 am) so that we could go to one of only 2 mosques in Italy. It was a good thing we left so early because the stop on the train that we were supposed to get off at was under construction. We ended up riding the train back and forth, until we finally found an alternative stop. Once at the mosque, we learned about Islam and were able to ask the guide questions. Women had to wear pants or skirts below their knees and cover their head and shoulders. All in all I'm very glad to be learning more about religion and culture, but it's very hard to accept women's lesser status in Islam.

The beautiful mosaic tile decoration lining the walls of the mosque. Interestingly, for one of my final group projects we are talking about Middle Eastern glass blowing/tile-making and their influence on Italian art.









Next stop was volunteering at the Refugee Center. I spent the majority of my time at the working on a sphere shaped puzzle of the Power Rangers with three Iranian boys, and then I also talked to someone from Somalia and Afghanistan. Interestingly, the night before I had spent 2+ hours researching the common migration route from Afghanistan to Italy, and found essentially nothing. It just so happened that someone from who was smuggled from Afghanistan to Italy approached my at the Refugee Center and told me all about his journey, in excellent English! Read my next blog post to hear more about his story!

The buses were packed (the stop where we get on is the first one after the train station), so we decided to walk home from the Refugee Center...

The super cool and hard-core police barricade I almost accidentally ran into on my way home.











After deciding to walk home, and having to make a detour due to the demonstration, we got back to the UW Rome Center at 2:45, just 15 minutes before class. We all grabbed lunch at the 3E pizza place and set out on our art history site visits.
This is a picture of Santa Maria Maggiore in Trestevere - the church right by my apartment! It is a 12th century church that has shows of many amazing mosaics and a gold gilded ceiling.









This evening, my apartment mates and I went to a local bar to watch the Germany vs. Spain game. The game was tied until the middle of the second half, and it was a good game! There were 10 or so German teenagers at the bar that were wrapped in German flags. There was one guy who was hilarious because he would be going off in German and then when they would almost score, he'd start swearing in English. Pretty funny.

Gelato
Catalan Creme - definitely better than crema, but also not at the top of my list.

Vanilla - good! Essentially the same as vanilla bean ice cream. Since it's so similar to ice cream I probably won't be getting it again in Italy.

Cigarette Carton
Protect children: do not make them breathe your smoke.