This morning was earlier than others due to a bit more travel to our on
site class, but it was very cool, so it was totally worth getting up
earlier to get there. The site was called Ostia Antica which is
basically one of the only Roman towns that’s still standing and in
pretty good condition. Such good condition you can still see parts of
houses, shops, mosaics on the floor and so on. It’s right near the
Mediterranean Sea, so a lot of the shops were used through trade. There
was also an abundance of cats everywhere and it made me incredibly
happy. I think I saw at least twenty cats this morning, so even if the
site sucked, I didn’t care. Luckily enough, it was cool regardless of
the cats. But I really liked the cats.
After we finished class, since we
knew we’d be so close to the sea, all the girls in my class (so all
four of us) decided we were going to have a beach day! We took the train
a few more stops and got to the beach and spent a little time there and
it was really nice. Despite my efforts of putting on sunscreen, I
managed to get a pretty bad sunburn on my shoulders that kind of hurts a
little bit right now unfortunately and I don’t have aloe, so I might
have to hunt that down tomorrow if it exists here. After getting 20 (and
that’s not exaggerated) mosquito bites in Venice and a sunburn today, I
feel a bit like Phil from Modern Family when they went to Australia, in
the sense that the country only beats up on it’s own kind. The tourists
get off easy with their visits, but you can really tell you’re from
somewhere if it takes no mercy on you.
We got back from the beach and I
showered and chilled for the rest of the day because my burn was
starting to get really warm and I was just exhausted from being up early
as well. I FaceTimed with a friend from home for an hour or so and I’ve
started to kind of already make plans to go to Germany and stay with
one of the exchange students I hosted two years ago! I’ll be going the
weekend following this one, which is right before my family gets here! I
don’t have any plans for this weekend yet other than Friday, but that’s
probably a good thing so I can get pretty far on my paper because it
will be due the week after I go to Germany. As for the rest of today,
it’s already 11:00ish, so I’ll probably just be up for a little longer
and then call it a night. That’s all for now! Until
tomorrow–arrivederci! (Also, I’m really sorry but for whatever reason,
the past two days it hasn’t allowed me to add pictures. I’ll try to come
back and edit these posts to add them. If I do get to, I’ll let you
know in a more recent post so you can look back at them if you would
like!)
--
Read more from Jenna at https://jeninrome.wordpress.com/
Check out http://studyabroad.uark.edu/romecampus
for more information on the U of A Rome Center: Summer Campus.
