...hola?

As some of you may or may not know, I was in Rome for the past week or so. My third-semester Greek teacher and generous host Karl Galinsky provided me with a place to stay and food to eat while I wandered through the streets and gawked at the sites of the Eternal City. If you’re more into pictures than words, then I encourage you to visit http://picasaweb.google.com/racheldubya, sit back and enjoy. I too would pick a comic book over a novel. And if you still want additional info. about Rome, I recommend ‘The Lizzie McGuire Movie’, in which Lizzie goes to Rome on a class trip, gets mistaken for a pop star, fills in for this pop star, falls in love, and ultimately discovers things about herself she never knew. It’s on the Disney Channel quite regularly. Watch out for the surprise ending! For the rest of you, here are some highlights:

The flight from Berlin to Rome was thankfully uneventful. I was lucky, however. Apparently a couple hours after I landed, a mentally unstable man from Eritrea decided to scamper down the runways at Ciampino Airport, all the while being chased by security in golf carts. All air traffic was subsequently diverted and the passengers in the airport had to stay overnight and well into the morning for further security checks.

The first day in Rome was filled with typical touristy things – forums, Colosseum, Circus Maximus, so on and so forth. While sitting in front of the Arch of Constantine taking some notes and making some sketches, a woman came up to me and asked if I spoke any English. I replied the affirmative and she asked me if I could explain any of the pictures on the arch. Since I had read all about it the previous night, I was able to discourse to her in full about the carvings, inscriptions, building dates, architectural details and fun facts. She thanked me and then complimented me on my "excellent English". I thanked her and we went our separate ways.

The next day I visited the basilica of San Clemente, which is actually a basilica built on top of a fourth-century basilica, built on top of a first-century building, part of which is a pagan temple devoted to a mystery cult. The underground excavations were dank, dark, and cool and kind of how I imagine my dream house. Wandering through the rooms and corridors, I thought to myself what I could do with the place: ‘Yes, it’s dark, and I like it dark, but perhaps I could install some nice Arts and Crafts sconces every few meters on the walls…Oh! This room devoted to idol worship would make a lovely dining room. Already has the benches and could hold more than enough people…’ Then, still deep in thought, I heard a scream. A poor German girl a few steps ahead of me turned around and thought I was a ghost (she really told me that). She started speaking very quickly in her native tongue, and I stood there a bit confused, but then assured her that I was, in fact, from the land of the living and she could even touch my arm or something. She then went away, somewhat embarrassed, though I’m not sure entirely convinced.

A couple of days later I took a pilgrimage to Vatican City, specifically to St. Paul’s Cathedral. People were swarming everywhere and I found a random line in which to queue myself. It happened to be the line to get to the cupola at the very top, and I was game for some pretty intense staircases. Unfortunately I was sandwiched between a pushy, overly-zealous Japanese group in the back and a family of melting, overweight Germans in front. With every step I prepared myself for the possibility that they were going to keel over and come barreling backwards down the stairs. I always stayed back a few steps, with the plan that if they did fall backwards, I would push myself against the wall and let them strike down the Japanese like bowling pins. But it never came to that. Getting to the top was a relief – it was cool and breezy and the view was quite nice. Afterwards I went back down into the cathedral itself. I originally had plans to bring back some holy water for family and friends, but current airline restrictions prevented me from doing so. Part of me wanted to bring some anyway just to see if it would scald the hands of any security guard intent on its removal from my luggage, but common sense convinced me otherwise.

The rest of my time in Rome was very pleasant and despite the recent heat waves, the weather was rather nice – low- to mid- 80’s by day and 70’s by night.

All-in-all Rome was fun and a nice change of pace, but I’m glad to be back in Dresden, where the weather is gorgeous, the scenery beautiful, and old German men shake their fists at me for riding my bike on the incorrect side of the road. I even missed the food, which I’ve gotten used to and now enjoy quite a bit. So upon arrival back to Texas, I look forward to all of y’all who constantly harked on me for being too skinny to now gently suggest that perhaps it would be in my best interest to lose a few pounds.

Thanks to all of you who have sent me the news about Lady Bird. As many of you know, I came to admire her a good deal while working at the LBJ Library and am sad that I’m not in Austin or Stonewall right now to give her a proper sendoff. I have plans this afternoon to bike over to one of my favorite spots not far from the banks of the Elbe River and plant some bluebonnet and wildflower seeds which I brought along with me. I cross my fingers that the introduction of these non-native plant species will not completely destroy the delicate eco-system of greater Saxony.