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".