In one week from today, I will be at my house in the U.S. It's a crazy thought, the time flew by so quickly and it was an experience of a life time. I am so excited to go home and see my friends and family and tell them all about my trip and the life long memories that I made. Everyone in our group is amazing and I am so glad that I really got to know them all.
This week, Katie Dodds and Katie Bell lead us on a tour of Esquiline Hill. It was very interesting and they both did a great job. We also learned how to make Tiramisu by Danilo that we had for dinner the next night and it was amazing! That is one recipe I'll for sure have to take home with me.
On Wednesday, we all woke up very early to go see the Pope. It was such an amazing experience to be able to sit as close as we did to go see him. We got there a few hours early so Sydney and I went around the auditorium asking people to take our survey for our heritage project. We had the same nervousness when we went into the market, but once we got used to it, it became much easier. The main issue that we came about was that people were from all over the world, and we only had our survey in English and Italian. Once the clock hit 10 am, we decided to go back to our seats and get ready for the Pope. Although it was in many different languages and the English translation was pretty difficult to understand, I still had a wonderful time.
Then on Thursday, we went to Nettuno to visit the American Cemetery. I thought that was so cool because I went to the one in Washington D.C. and they both are so similar. After the cemetery, we had some free time to get lunch and wander the city a little. Danielle, Dave and I walked around and found the beach and it was beautiful. The weather that day was perfect and I had a great time. As we were walking, we saw that they had an out door slate of ice to skate on, so Danielle and I went ice skating. It was so much fun!
This week, we had to finish reading The Talented Mr. Ripley. I personally loved the book and the ending too. I thought it was crazy how easily the police and Marge was able to find Tom/Dickie even when he would travel from city to city and stay in different hotels and apartments. I know people have different opinions but all through out the story, I was rooting for Tom to not get caught. It amazed me how in less than a year, Tom went from a poor man in New York into a man who had a lot of money, had a house in the U.S. and in Europe. I enjoyed the book so much that Danielle and I watched the movie afterwards but I did not really like the movie that much, I didn't think the characters were portrait ed like the characters in the book.
Saturday, December 8, 2012
Tuesday, December 4, 2012
Soc490 Week 6
Its crazy that this is the last blog for our Soc 490 class. The time here really went by so quickly. I think that it is more bittersweet because I love all my new friends that I've made on this journey but at the same time I cannot wait to go back to the states. Before this trip and this class, I never really cared for politics and especially health care. To this day it is still confusing to me as to how all the minor details work out. But because of this class, I am understanding more and more about health care and even making my own opinion about it.
Last week was a very fun week. For this class, we went to the market and asked Italians to take a quick survey. It was nerve racking at first because we had to speak in Italian in order to communicate. When I tried to talk to them, they would silently laugh at me, but I just got used to it. We asked basic questions such as their age, to rate their health, rate their physician, if they've been in the hospital, about the care they received in the hospital, and what hospital they thought had better doctors.
We each had to interview 10 people and then share our information with 3 others, that way we had a total of 40 results. I have not collected the results of my other partners but I did type mine up to read them better. I found it interesting that 6 out of the 10 people that I interviewed thought that health care was not a good system. That struck me because I do not have the same health care as them and I am against the universal health care and they have the universal health care and they do not think its good.
Our discussion question for this week asks us if the power of prayer can cure disease. We have not discussed this topic in class and my opinion about it is not very confident. I believe that God works in mysterious ways. Medicine works in mysterious ways as well though. If a person has a disease and they get treatment and prayer, it is hard to say which one worked. I have heard several stories of people who have rare cancers that do not have treatment but their friends and family prayed for them and like magic, was cancer free. On the other hand, our bodies are so complex that there is plenty that we do not know yet and for some reason, medically, the person who has disease can be healed with what people may think was prayer.
Last week was a very fun week. For this class, we went to the market and asked Italians to take a quick survey. It was nerve racking at first because we had to speak in Italian in order to communicate. When I tried to talk to them, they would silently laugh at me, but I just got used to it. We asked basic questions such as their age, to rate their health, rate their physician, if they've been in the hospital, about the care they received in the hospital, and what hospital they thought had better doctors.
We each had to interview 10 people and then share our information with 3 others, that way we had a total of 40 results. I have not collected the results of my other partners but I did type mine up to read them better. I found it interesting that 6 out of the 10 people that I interviewed thought that health care was not a good system. That struck me because I do not have the same health care as them and I am against the universal health care and they have the universal health care and they do not think its good.
Our discussion question for this week asks us if the power of prayer can cure disease. We have not discussed this topic in class and my opinion about it is not very confident. I believe that God works in mysterious ways. Medicine works in mysterious ways as well though. If a person has a disease and they get treatment and prayer, it is hard to say which one worked. I have heard several stories of people who have rare cancers that do not have treatment but their friends and family prayed for them and like magic, was cancer free. On the other hand, our bodies are so complex that there is plenty that we do not know yet and for some reason, medically, the person who has disease can be healed with what people may think was prayer.
Monday, December 3, 2012
GL350 Blog Week 6
This was another eventful week in Rome! It's starting to get cold out but that doesn't stop us from heading out and going on tours. We spent two days in the Vatican City. The first day we took a hike up 550 steps to get to the top of the dome in St. Peter's. When we reached the top, the scenery of the city was beautiful. The long walk up was worth it. That same day we went into the Sistine Chapel. All the artwork that was amazing in it and it seemed too good to be true that we were there.
The next day, we went back but this time we went under the church. My favorite part of that day was being able to see the remains of St. Peter. It was such a good opportunity and that we were all lucky enough to go down and see it because they only let about 100 people down. Its considered the most holy and sacred place and it was an honor going to see it. I think the story of St. Peter is so fascinating and that he was crucified up side down.
Over the weekend, we went on our last group trip. It is very sad that our trip is coming to an end but this weekend was still a blast. We went to Sorrento and on Saturday we visited Pompeii. The scenery in Sorrento was beautiful. The way the houses were built on the side of the mountains looked just like a picture on a post card. Pompeii was also very interesting, although it was pouring down rain, we still got to see a lot of the city.
This week we started to read The Talented Mr. Ripley. It was funny because he had mentioned that he got on a bus and he was standing next to a slim man who smelt bad and on the other side of him was a woman who smelt worse. It reminded me of when we got on the 64 bus because we were all so crammed on the bus and it smelt like the people didn't shower in about a week. We ended up making a list on the board of what we thought about Tom Ripley. I am at chapter 13 so in my opinion I think Tom is mentally disturbed because when he was younger his aunt verbally abused him and Tom already thinks of himself as a failure. I think he is also very lonely and he doesn't know who he is and because of that, he tried to take other people's personalities. I thought it was rather iron that Mr. Greenleaf told Tom that Dickie was easily influenced by his friends when in reality its more of Tom that is influenced by his "friends".
The next day, we went back but this time we went under the church. My favorite part of that day was being able to see the remains of St. Peter. It was such a good opportunity and that we were all lucky enough to go down and see it because they only let about 100 people down. Its considered the most holy and sacred place and it was an honor going to see it. I think the story of St. Peter is so fascinating and that he was crucified up side down.
Over the weekend, we went on our last group trip. It is very sad that our trip is coming to an end but this weekend was still a blast. We went to Sorrento and on Saturday we visited Pompeii. The scenery in Sorrento was beautiful. The way the houses were built on the side of the mountains looked just like a picture on a post card. Pompeii was also very interesting, although it was pouring down rain, we still got to see a lot of the city.
This week we started to read The Talented Mr. Ripley. It was funny because he had mentioned that he got on a bus and he was standing next to a slim man who smelt bad and on the other side of him was a woman who smelt worse. It reminded me of when we got on the 64 bus because we were all so crammed on the bus and it smelt like the people didn't shower in about a week. We ended up making a list on the board of what we thought about Tom Ripley. I am at chapter 13 so in my opinion I think Tom is mentally disturbed because when he was younger his aunt verbally abused him and Tom already thinks of himself as a failure. I think he is also very lonely and he doesn't know who he is and because of that, he tried to take other people's personalities. I thought it was rather iron that Mr. Greenleaf told Tom that Dickie was easily influenced by his friends when in reality its more of Tom that is influenced by his "friends".
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)