Rome: An Introduction

After departing from London, I headed straight to Rome to begin my 2-week Maymester course, Culture Wars in Rome. A humanities course offered through CU, the class is a dense study of Roman history, and lucky for me, it actually counts towards my graduation credits (so I feel less guilty spending so much money on tuition)!

The class was 28 students, including three other Aerospace Engineers (not my year), and a mix of other engineers and arts and sciences. Our professor, Wayne, and the assistant, Corlin, (his wife) had lived in Italy for 10 years before coming back to the states. We had class twice a day for the most part, and were given a morning and an afternoon location to meet at for lecture. The rest of the time was ours. We stayed in a convent with a midnight curfew and timid (but nice) nuns.

The convent (it's Ukranian!):



The fountain in the piazza in front of the convent. This is where we met before class to do attendance check and announcements, as well as social gatherings at night.



My room. No convent is complete without a picture of Jesus above the beds!



The view from my window.



The food was incredible! The course covered the costs of 6 group meals, which were all ENORMOUS and delicious. I lived off the three P's: Pastas, Pizzas, and Paninis. Of course, gelato was a daily must...and days that were too cold and rainy for gelato were supplemented by a cappuccino. I would have gained significant weight if it weren't for walking miles and miles every day.