Monthly Archive for August, 2009

Rome Update #2 & New Picture Set

Published by Nikky on August 30, 2009. 5:09 pm

Friday August 28th, 2009

Friday started out calmly, with a few hours of Italian class and then some grocery shopping before an extensive nap to try and make up for the lack of sleep. When I woke up, a group of us were going to travel down to the Tiber river again for a night out. 4 of them got quite drunk, but myself and Rain took it pretty easy. In all, it was a pretty great evening.

Saturday August 29th, 2009

On Saturday I woke up at 6 to take a shower and check out the world before we met in front of the Rome Center at 7:30am for an architectural tour of part of the city. With excellent commentary, we were lead to the Palentine Hill, Roman Palaces, Party Headquarters, Churches, the Pantheon, the Roman Forum and other historical sites. After getting back at around 1:30pm, we took it easy for a while the sun continued its relentless attack upon the city. At 7:30pm, there was a student dinner in the UWRC conference room for the LSJ Rome participants and some Italian girls who were interested in going to UW for grad school. Attempting to speak Italian, we didn’t do such a shabby job while eating Gnocchi with Pesto and other assorted Italian dishes.

After this, 4 of us decided to go check out the Palentine hill at night. Wandering through the streets while Rain strummed the guitair, we meandered to the hill and checked out the Roman Forum ruins at night before (of course) making our way to the Coliseum once again. Taking a closer look, we checked out the floor level outside with a flashlight and then took a break sitting on one of the support columns which was demolished for building materials a few centuries ago.

On the way home, we ran into the Largo Argentina cat sanctuary, which hosts around 250 stray cats which are fed and cared for by a group. These kitties live in a historical site marked by the ruins of 4 ancient temples. At this point we wondered if they were actually there to eat the large wombat-type rodent we saw at another ruins a few days previous. Leaving that aside, it was quite extraordinary to see cats sleeping on temples constructed over 2000 years ago.

Sunday, August 30th, 2009

Waking up at 7:00am, I quickly got ready because a bunch of us were going to visit the Vatican city and wanted to get an early start. The only problem is that nobody showed up or was awake except Rachel. We went regardless, and after managing to miss St. Peter’s and get lost for a short period of time, we got to the basilica checkpoint before the security guys decided that her shorts were too short and denied entry.  So we went to a shop and got a cheap scarf (that’s what we think it was) which was able to get us inside.

The size of the basilica is awe-inspiring, and certainly the view did not disappoint. We ran into 3 other LSJ Rome students who told us  just went to the top of the dome.

Paying 5 euros each, we started climbing 320 steps to the main staging platform before starting on the dome itself. The steps were mixed types, very narrow, steep, and often shifted directions and such for no real reason. It was entirely too warm, and quite an inferno without any ventilation.

Finally making it to the top, we were rewarded with a stunning view of the Roman skyline and an amazing breeze, making the climb well worth it. At this point, we decided to decend and find the Vatican Museums, which were having a once-a-month “free” day (normally admission is 14 euro). Understandbly crowded, we waited in a fairly quick line and then went to the Sistine Chapel while admiring all of the other works of art before the chapel. Finally after 90 minutes of crowded and warm walking in a large group, we entered the Sistine Chapel.

Which, after all the anticipation, was slightly underwhelming.

Exiting, we chilled outside the Vatican city walls before deciding it was 1:30pm, and thus time for some lunch. Finding a hole in the wall bar (generic term for an Italian restraunt) and had some pasta and Pizza Magerhirita. Walking back, our feet were in open rebellion before arriving around 2:15pm where I promptly took a 4 hour nap before going to the Rome Center for some photo editing and faster internet.

Staying in the Rome center until 11:15, I went back and did some studying for tomorrow’s class before taking a shower and writing this post.

Photos can be found at this link.

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First Few Days

Published by Nikky on August 28, 2009. 12:16 am

Wednesday, August 26th, 2009: My flight, which was also home to around 9 other students from our program, arrived at FCO precisely on schedule at 8:07am CEST. After going through immigration and customs, we then split into two groups: one group of five took a private taxi to the Rome Center, while another group of five, myself included, decided to take the Leonardo Express to the  Roma Termini railway station. Making sure to validate our tickets, we jammed 5 of us and our luggage into a six-person compartment and had our first glimpses of ruins and the climate rushing past us. Splitting into two additional groups, we then went via taxi to the Rome Center proper.

Italian Taxi rides are basically what one would expect of any taxi driver. After that, we got our keys, some basic instructions, and went to check out our apartment, which was about 2 minutes away from the Rome Center. Overlooking the Campo dei Fiori, we have a fairly central location for exploring.

We spent the next few hours resting and people watching over the Campo. Rain, one of the people who is staying in our apartment, decided to go and imitate an interpretative dance mime in the square. His efforts drew quite a crowd, which was a crowd which did not exist before the imitator showed up.

After a sorely needed nap, we then went off on a educational food shopping trip with our Italian teacher before deciding to head off with a large group who was going to explore, of course, the ancient and ruined buildings which told Rome’s history throughout the ages. Stopping at an outdoor restaurant, a group which was just myself and one other guy hung out on the street which ran elevated across from the Coliseum, and we stayed there for about an hour before finally heading back at around 1am. When we arrived back at the apartment to the loud nightlife of the Campo.

Thursday,  August 27th, 2009: Waking up at 8am for the 10am orientation and then going to Italian class after that, class was three hours of what I already knew. It didn’t help matters that it was roughly 160 degrees in the classroom, and that the Italian teacher, who is an Italy native, apologized for the heat which she said was even warmer than she was used to.

Class was over, and it was time for another brief nap before fleeing to the UWRC library until 5pm. This air-conditioned oasis provided us with internet, cool air, and a place to plot our next moves!

We went grocery shopping in the afternoon. It’s pretty incredible about the quality of cheeses and products at a typical store. The prices were generally quite reasonable, and the quality unmatched in the US. Dinner was then made for us, which was a mushroom white sauce pasta which was quite amazing.

At around 10, we decided to go to Piazza Navona, which was extremely crowded with tourists. Brushing this minor inconvienence aside, we stood and soaked up the scene regardless before walking along the Tiber river and the nooks and crannies of the Trastevere rione (district).

After dropping off one of the group at her apartment, we wandered back and retired at 2am.

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Rome Update and Pictures

Published by Nikky on August 27, 2009. 7:12 am

I haven’t gotten much sleep lately. I got 4 hours of sleep before waking up at 2am PDT for the 6am flight. I can’t really sleep on planes, so when we got to Rome at 8:20am, I was already pretty gone. Then we were up all day getting all organized and settled into the Rome Center and our apartments. At around 10 to see some ruins and monuments before getting back at 2am Rome time. At least I slept well when we got did get home…

Pictures are uploaded and can be viewed on my flickr. (This is a link)

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Month in The Eternal City

Published by Nikky on August 22, 2009. 11:21 pm

Hello Everyone-

In case you haven’t heard, but I will be leaving at 6:00am on Tuesday the 25th of August to spend a month in Rome. During this time, I will be participating in the LSJ Rome program, which is a 24 student (12 undergraduate and 12 law students) program jointly taught and led by the LSJ undergraduate major program and the UW School of Law.

We will be conducting classes based on European/United States comparative law, EU civil liberty protections, and for me, second-year Italian. Classes will be operating from the UW Rome Center located off of Palazzo Pio, which is right next to Campo dei Fiori. I will be staying in an apartment a short walk away from Campo dei Fiori with some other students in the program.

Until I return on September 25th, I will be understandably more difficult to contact. While I still will have e-mail and internet access due to me bringing along my netbook, phone contact will not be feasable. I will have an emergency phone for use in Europe, but only the UW Rome center will have my number, so you will have to call through them. The time difference is also nine hours, so keep this in mind when contacting me.

I will not be bringing my DSLR due to size and bulk concerns, and will instead take my smaller Canon SX 110, which was specifically purchased for this trip and other travels. Pictures from the trip will be posted to my flickr whenever possible. Additionally, I will blog about the trip whenever possible at this site.

This is why I actually cared more about Italian than just passing the class. :)

Best,

Nikky

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Parking Garage Fire and Death in U-District

Published by Nikky on August 19, 2009. 12:47 am
View of the press briefing.

View of the press briefing.

In the midst of focusing on the election results I noticed a tweet via the Seattle-PI’s website that there a body was found next to a parking garage which had some sort of fire in the U-District. I quickly checked the Seattle 911 logs, saw it was still an active call, and fetched Eddy and Tom to go check it out.

When we arrived, it was about an hour after the event occurred, and the area was fairly well covered with police and detectives, with some news crews who weren’t bashing down the doors of local mayoral candidates. There were a couple of local residents hanging around and after talking with those folks as well as listening in to a small press briefing, here are some relevant pieces of information:

- Summary: There was some sort of explosion or fire on the 3rd/4th floor of the parking garage at 43rd and 11th. During or soon after this event, an unidentified male jumped or fell from that height while was on fire, and landed in the alley. He either died upon impact or soon afterwards. When we got to the scene an hour later, there were some homicide detectives there, as well as a large SFD dropcloth concealing the body.  While we were there, we talked with some people and listened in to a press briefing.

- A witness who walked by right afterwards saw the unfortunate soul who had fallen from the 3rd/4th floor of the garage on fire, and there were at least 8 foot flames from the individual. At first he thought it was some sort of burning man type thing with a mannequin, but then realized it was a person.

- One person who lived across the street had a police scanner and he was able to glean that it was initially called as a structure fire, and after they went through the garage it was degraded to a car fire, and finally a rubbish fire. He also mentioned that the garage was closed after 5PM. (The fire occurred at around 9PM). He also said that from what he could tell, they initially swept through the building before realizing that there was a body outside and in the alley.

- The Public Affairs Officer said that there was gasoline, the fire was under further investigation, and there were some additional details at the scene which she could not yet reveal. Overall, she was (understandably) vague and basically confirmed the location, and the very basic facts.

- A editor in one of the local news vans showed a few of us coverage right after they got there and before the cloth went out, and from what we could see (and he said) the body was basically left where it was and they died fairly quickly.

I don’t know what happened or what the circumstances were, but I imagine that falling from the 4th story of a building while on fire is quite a horrible way to go.

Here are some pictures. The lighting was quite terrible, and I was using my dental drill lens.

Concealing Cloth

Concealing Cloth

Another view of the briefing. You can kind of see the location of the event in the upper right hand corner of this image.

Another view. You can kind of see the location of the event in this image. It occurred in the upper right hand corner of the image.

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Antissa

Published by Nikky on August 7, 2009. 11:38 pm

I’ve come to the realization that I am way behind on life today. My case:

1) Working 30 hours a week. Which in itself is not out particulary bad, but….

2) Reading roughly 1000 pages of 8.5″x11″ pages regarding EU and Italian Law, and another book regarding immigration law.

3) Taking a week off of these two above tasks to go on a family vacation to San Francisco. The pictures of which still have not been edited.

4) Organizing everything for the month in Rome. This includes getting my new laptop squared away.

5) Rearranging and totally cleaning my room in the apartment. Which is a fairly huge undertaking.

6) Add various tasks, like assorted work for other organizations, a family party, seeing friends I only get to see a few times a year, and volunteer work

7) And any spare time is spent working on my perpetually behind reading queue. Which despite my best intentions, is always increased because I cannot resist buying books when I go to stores.

And this is the summer I thought I would have some time off!

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