Firenze 2006-2007: February 2007

Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Turkey Field Trip

Our educational field trip for this semester was to Ephesus and Istanbul, Turkey. So, on Tuesday morning last week we left the villa at 6:00am and got on a bus to Roma to catch our flight to Istanbul. After the flight, passing through customs and getting our visas taken care of we headed to our connecting to Izmir, South of Istanbul. We got there at about 8:00pm local time, after a long day of traveling. We all picked up our bags and were finally on a bus to our hotel. We made it to our hotel in Ephesus, or at least near there at about 9:00, and after setting our stuff down in the rooms we headed immediately to dinner. Dinner that night was great, we had some amazing soup, rice, and different kinds of meats. From there, at about 11, several of us decided to take a walk to see the beach that was about five minutes away. We made it to the shore of the Aegean and found a nice little dock to sit on for a while. We watched lightning strike several times off in the ocean before it started to pour on us so we ran back to the hotel and our warm beds.
The next day, Wednesday, we were out fo the hotel fairly early and on our way to the ancient city of Ephesus. We got there and met our tour guides and began the tour of the old city. The best description I can give of the city is that it is like a smaller, but better preserved version of Pompey. There were several main streets that we walked down, each of them complete with a sewer system underneath. We saw the place where the city was governed, the market, library, amphitheater, and long, shop lined road that led to the ancient port that was the center of the city. The whole tour was pretty interesting and like Corinth, it was weird to think about all the Bible related history that we were walking in the midst of. After touring the ancient city for several hours we headed back to the buses and went to the Temple of Artemis, one of the seven wonders of the Ancient world. It was cool, the scenery around the single column remaining, but the “temple” itself wasn’t all that great anymore. We walked around there a bit before heading to the Basilica of St. John, the remains of a Christian Church that holds St. John the Evangelist’s Tomb. It was neat to see the tomb and walk around the ruins of the rest of the church, but it began to rain as we were walking around on our tour, so we were more than happy when it was time to go to lunch at a nearby hotel. Lunch was pretty good, once again we had rice and soup, and then we had lamb on skewers and chocolate pudding for dessert. After lunch, it was off to an archeological museum in Ephesus that held a lot of the statues and better preserved parts that had been excavated from the ruins of the old city. We saw their exhibits and then were back on the bus and went to see a Turkish Carpet company. We saw how the silk for the highest quality rugs was spun and collected, we saw the process of dying wool with all natural ingredients and then saw how the rugs were designed and actually made by hand. For the highest quality rugs with the most amounts of knots per square inch, a year or more of labor was required, and the cost was anywhere from 2,000 to 5,000+ euro for one of the carpets. We then saw an assortment of finished products, tried Turkish Apple tea, which was amazing, and were then on our way to a pottery company not far away. There we saw how the famous Turkish pottery products were made and decorated. We learned about what each of the decorations and symbols on the tiles mean, and saw the process of making them all. After that, it was back to the airport and our flight back to Istanbul, this time to stay for a few days. The flight to Istanbul was short but a lot of fun. We had some amazing food- a great sandwich and a dessert that was like a moon pie. We got to Istanbul about an hour later and after getting our bags, we were once again on a bus heading to our hotel. After a half hour ride through Istanbul’s traffic we were there, dropped our bags off in the rooms and were at dinner. Dinner there was pretty much what we had come to expect from Turkish food. It was rice, soup and a meat with vegetables and a creamy dessert. The best part of dinner was the fact that it was Valentine’s day. There was a guy playing Spanish guitar in the restaurant, so some people danced, and near the end of the evening, Drew, Myles, and I got up in front of the group and the restaurant and read our Valentine’s poem that we’d written earlier for the group and the occasion. The food was great and the hotel nice, but the best part was probably the view that the restaurant and our room had. Alex and I had a view of the Hagia Sophia, a former Christian Church converted to Mosque and now museum, and in the distance was the Blue Mosque, the main sight in Istanbul. We were five minutes walk from the center of the city and in a real nice place.
Next day we got up, had breakfast in the hotel which was amazing because they had oatmeal, something that I had not had in a long time. After eating we headed out to the Church of the Holy Savior of Chora to see the mosaics that decorated the walls of the Christian Church turned Mosque. They were some pretty cool and amazingly well preserved mosaics, but they were a bit repetitive in my opinion. After touring the place, we headed to the center of the city and the Hippodrome, the ancient racing circle for the Roman times. Today, it is a piazza with four monuments in it that show the history associated with the place. The first was the Fountain of Wilhelm II, marking the entrance to the race track, then an Egyptian obelisk, much like the one seen in the center of St. Peter’s square in Roma, then there was a spiral statue that seemed very much out of place, and the last monument was the Obelisk of Constantine. After looking around all that, we headed just to our left and went inside the Blue Mosque. The Mosque was a pretty strange, but neat place. We had to take our shoes off before entering, as the whole floor was covered in prayer carpets. We went inside and saw the huge candle chandeliers that lit the mosque in the old times, learned the history behind the prayers said five times a day, learned about the decorations of the mosque and looked around. The mosque was pretty big, not quite as big as the duomo in Florence I think, but near there. The decorations were blue tile for the most part, hence the name Blue Mosque, with other tiles all around the walls. After the Mosque, it was across a piazza to the museum of Hagia Sophia. This Christian church, turned Mosque is now a museum that tells some of the history of both religions in the city. It was about as big as the Blue Mosque, but not as well decorated. The interior was much more like a Catholic Cathedral than the Mosque, despite its outward appearance of being distinctly Muslim. The church was pretty neat inside, but nothing like the Blue Mosque, just another look at some Muslim decorations and the chance to learn more about their faith and practices. After that tour, we had an hour for lunch on our own, so we headed off on one of the main streets of that part of the city, got a Kebab for about a euro, and then headed to Starbucks. We got coffee and American desserts there before walking around a bit with the rest of our hour. When the whole group met back up, we went to the Topkapi palace, the place the Sultans lived for years. We toured their living quarters, including their pools, baths, etc. Saw the treasury, gardens, and grounds of the palace, which included some great views of the city before heading to the Grand Bazzar. The Bazzar was incredible. It was like a city of shops with roads and stores that stretched out as far as we could walk in the two hours we were there. We looked around, saw the high quality fakes that they sold, as Turkey apparently doesn’t have any laws forbidding it, looked at some of the typical Turkish products and bargained with some people before heading back to the bus to drop off our purchases and get ready for the Turkish baths. Going into the baths, we had no idea what to expect. When we got there we were given a locker room and towels to change into, so we all did and walked into the bath. The bath was an octagonal room that was probably about 95 degrees and steamy, like a big sauna. There were basins of hot water all over the place, several side rooms and in the middle there was a big marble table for lack of a better word that was heated, come to think of it all of the walls were heated. We sat down in on of the rooms and were called out to the marble table one by one to get a massage and be washed by the workers there. The massage was so nice, and the wash felt like the deepest one I’d ever had. Sweating that much, getting massaged and then being washed is supposed to be great for the skin and body, so after the massage we sat around for a while longer, enjoyed ourselves in the various warm rooms, and then got cold showers before changing back into our clothes and heading back to the hotel for dinner. Dinner that night wasn’t anything great in my opinion. But it didn’t really matter as we were all so relaxed and in such a good mood from the last few hours that it didn’t matter. It was a pretty early night and a good rest before the next, and last day of touring Turkey.
Next morning I had oatmeal once again was then we were off to see more of Istanbul. Our first stop for the day was to the Egyptian Spice Bazzar, like the Grand Bazzar, but smaller and focusing on food. We walked around the place, most people bought some spices or Turkish delight but for the most part, the Grand Bazzar was so much cooler that this one was just kinda so-so. After the bazzar, we headed off to one of the ports to catch a ferry ride on the Bosphorus, the straight the divides Istanbul into the European and Asian sides. We were on the ferry for about an hour and a half, part of the time outside and at the front of the boat enjoying the views and being outside on the water, but we all retreated inside once we got too cold. After the tour, it was onto a traditional Turkish seafood meal at a restaurant pretty far outside the city on the straight. The lunch was pretty good. I was one of the few people who were excited about eating the seafood, but I think that t turned out that most people liked the meal. For starters we had cous cous, some cucumber spread, anchovies, rice in mussel shells, beans, and a few other things. Then, our main course was some fish with won tons, potatoes and other sides that were all pretty good. Dessert was fruit. On the whole the meal was pretty good and some great seafood, something that we don’t get a ton of around Florence. After lunch, we got back on the buses and headed into the Asian part of the city and to another market, one that the locals go to. The best way I can describe this market is that it is the leather market in Florence, just with the Central Market outside alongside the rest of the shops. We wandered around there, ended up in another Starbucks for a while and were then on our way back into the main part of Istanbul. We then had some free time, some most people headed back to the Grand Bazzar for some more time to wander around the thousands of shops. After several more hours there we headed back to the hotel and then it was onto the Whirling Dervish Ceremony. It was in a room of the train station that was the end stop of the Oriental Express in the old days. The ceremony itself consisted of a band of about 8 members who played traditional Muslim music for a while, then the Whirlers came out. There were five of them, all dressed in white, and after going through some ceremonial procedures, they started their ceremony of whirling to the music. They spun for a good half hour or so and did various rituals during their spinning. It was a weird thing o be watching because I definitely felt like I didn’t belong there and it seemed almost as if I were intruding on someone else’s experience. Overall, I’m glad that I went but it was definitely not something that I would do many more times. After that it was another late dinner, this one, our last in Turkey was amazing. We had some sort of Mexican style crepe and egg rolls, all done in a Turkish fashion. After dinner about twenty of us went out to a bar near the hotel to dance, and we tried water pipes that Turkey is pretty famous for. We smoked flavored tobacco that was very mild and heavily flavored. It was a fun night out on our last night in Turkey.
Early the next morning we had breakfast and were then on our way to the airport to check in for our flight. We got on the plane at about 11 after going through customs and getting a snack, and several hours later we were in Roma. We got our bags and headed to the bus and the three and a half hour trip back to Florence. We slept most of the way back and got back at about 5, in time to shower before dinner. It was a great trip and definitely opened my eyes to a part of the world I’d never seen before and I got to visit a country I’d never really thought I’d make it to.

(The main street in Ephesus- from the city to the port)

(People getting the best pic of one of the temples in Ephesus)

(Our whole group infront of the library)

(West, Conner, Me, Alex, and Matt jumping off the stairs at the library)

(The guys posing on coloumns in the amphitheatre)

(The temple of Artemis- a wonder of the ancient world)

(The tomb of St. John)

(Us being shown Turkish rugs)

(A fresco in a church turned mosque turned museum)

(The Blue Mosque)

(Me, Myles, and Drew infront of the Blue Mosque)

(Inside the mosque)

(Some of the tile decoration on the walls of the mosque)

(A view of a palace in Istanbul from the Bosphouos Strait)

(The Whirling Devish Ceremony)

Sunday, February 25, 2007

Soccer Team in the Paper

Our 7 v. 7 soccer team got an article in the Graphic, Pepperdine's newspaper this last week. Here is the link: http://graphic.pepperdine.edu/news/2007/2007-02-22-soccer.htm
We are Pepperdine's first International Club team and as far as we know, the first international club of any kind. We can't officially be a club team at this point because there hasn't even been any need for them to think about it.
We are playing this Wednesday and then will be off for a week or so for our Spring break but then back for 3 or 4 more games before coming back home.

Saturday, February 10, 2007

Roma and Venezia

This last week we went to two of the most famous cities in Italy, each for just a day. On Wednesday, the entire group had a field trip to Roma to see the Pope and do several other things off the beaten track. Then, yesterday, what seemed like the whole group made the trek up to Venezia for a taste of the Carnivale.
We left Florence very early on Wednesday, and got on a train to Roma, getting there at about 8:30- the time most people would have usually been getting up on regular days. We then all somehow took the subway to the Vatican without losing anyone. We got instructions for the day, and walked around to the auditorium where our audience with the Pope would be. None of us had any idea what to expect with this audience, so I guess you can say that we weren’t surprised to see that it was an auditorium that seated about 2,000-3,000 people. We got seats and then started to look around the room and saw flags from about 10-12 different countries, and various banners from organizations etc. The audience finally started with a short sermon by the Pope which was then repeated in five other languages, so we heard the thing six times. After that, a priest or someone like that started introducing the groups, and when he said a group they would all stand up and cheer or sing. It was pretty cool, especially when they announced our group. In the end, there was the Lord’s prayer in Latin and that was it. It wasn’t that intimate a setting, but it was pretty coo because we did get to hear the Pope preach and take part in the kind of “pep-rally” that he has every week. After that, it was lunch time so West, Steven, Conner, and I went to find some pizza near our meeting point. We did rather quickly, ate it and were still hungry. Still having an hour or so we walked around some more and got some Chinese food before heading off to the meeting point and our next stop in Roma. We all got on our bus and headed to the Catacombs that are just outside the city. The Catacombs are old, old underground burial sites that the Christians used in the first few centuries A.D. We took a tour of one of them- a good thirty feet below the current street level. This Catacomb was on Via Appia, a road that Paul is sure to have traveled several times in and our of Roma. We took the pretty eerie tour of the underground system of tunnels and tombs. We saw all the major tombs and passage ways before heading to see the burial place of St. Sebastian in a church above the Catacombs. From there, it was onto the Church of the Bones, which strangely enough is on a road in Roma that I know quite well (it’s only like 50 yards from the Hard Rock), but I never knew the church was there. The thing with this Church is that the monks didn’t believe in death, or at least burial it seems because they would use the bones of their fallen brothers to decorate their chapels. It was really weird, but also kinda cool to see. From there, it was back to the station and our train back to Florence. We were back for a late dinner and for me, bed.
Then, yesterday several of us went up to Venezia to see what exactly Carnivale was. We left pretty early as we only intended to stay for the day and wanted all the time we could get, so by noon we were in Venice. We walked through the labyrinth of tiny streets and alleys as well as bridges over canals to get from the St. Lucia station to the Rialto bridge and then St. Mark’s square. We got something to eat just off St. Mark’s square and then headed into the church, I have to say, the church is so much nicer when it isn’t flooded. From there we headed out into the piazza to see what was going on with the Carnivale scene. We ran into several other Pepperdiners who were there for the day as well so we played with the pigeons and talked to them for a while before heading to the water front at the far end of the piazza for some pictures. It was about then that we learned that the Carnivale events would begin at about 4:30 that afternoon, so we got all our return stuff squared away and made sure that we would have as much time as possible to see what was going on. At 4:30 we were in St. Mark’s square and watched as the stage that had been set up started to attract people, and a few minutes later there were some actors that came on stage. They did a short scene introducing the Carnivale and the events before other, smaller stages in the piazza started to attract people as well as there were scenes going on there. We walked around the piazza, looking around when we noticed that there were a ton of people collecting around the waterfront area, so we went to see what was going on. We saw a parade that was starting there, with a marching band and flag twirlers followed by people in costume and then people carrying women to the stage. We learned that the guys carrying the girls to the stages were carrying participants in some sort of a beauty contest, so we picked up one of our girls and tried to get into the parade, but were unsuccessful. We watched the parade and all the other goings on in the piazza before going to get a quick bite to eat before catching our train back to Bologna and then Florence. We ended up getting back at about midnight which was perfect. We all felt like we had got an idea of what Carnivale in Venezia is like and all got to see the city, or at least the main points of interest.
Now we are back in Florence and just around here for the rest of the weekend, recovering and getting ready to leave for Turkey on Tuesday.

(The Pope)

(The Pope leading us in the Lord's Prayer in Latin)

(A room in the Catacombs)

(St. Sebastian's tomb)

(A chapel in the church of the bones)

(The Grand Canal from the Rialto bridge)

(St. Mark's Cathedral)

(The Carnivale actors onstage)

(J.T. in his Carnivale mask)

(The marching band portion of the parade)

(The flag twirlers in the parade)

(Liz being lifted by JT and Alex after getting kicked out of the parade)

Sunday, February 04, 2007

A Few Weekends in Florence

This week’s highlights were our trip to Bologna on Wednesday and now the weekend here in Florence. On Wednesday night, 14 of us rented a bus and went to a +44 concert in Bologna. +44 is a band that is composed of a few members of Blink 182. We all left after dinner and after the hour and a half drive we were at the palazzo sport that was the venue for the concert. We got there in plenty of time and got our places in the mass of people there. We pushed our way to the front and by the time that +44 came on, we were front and center. Several of us crowd surfed and we all had a blast. When it was over we headed abck to the bus and onto Florence, studying on the way as we had a humanities quiz the next day. We got back before it got too late went to bed, and woke up the next morning ready for class again. The quiz wasn’t too bad and with Wednesday over, my week was pretty much done.
I began to feel sick on Thursday, and as I was planning on staying around Florence this weekend anyway, I thought I’d take it easy for the weekend and try to get better. I slept most of the weekend, but did manage to get out and do several things. Friday was a pretty dull day, the only times I really left my bed or the house was when I went to get food, but on Saturday I felt a bit better so Drew, Myles and I decided to try and go to Volterra, but the bus schedule was different than we had seen for Saturdays so we decided to go to Settignano, a town overlooking Florence and the birthplace of Michelangelo instead. A long city bus ride later and we were there. There wasn’t a ton to see there partly because it was so early, but just in general. We hiked around a bit on the frost covered mountain, saw Florence from a different angle, and wandered around the tow. We headed back, took a nap, did some homework, and then decided to go play soccer with several of the guys and Leonardo at the parco Cascine. We played for several hours and then came back to the house, got some dinner and watched several movies. Sunday was a lot like Friday. A lot of sleeping and not much besides that. I caught up on all my Astronomy reading but apart from that it was a pretty easy and boring day.
This week started without me feeling 100% again, but I did think I was getting better. Monday was bearable considering the eight hours of class that I’ve got. On Tuesday I gave my convo talk on goals which apparently went very well which was pretty cool. Wednesday was our next soccer game. We played at a place within walking distance from the villa so a ton of people came to watch us. And, in addition to our team we had a friend of Lauren’s- a goalie. We had been trying to teach West how to play goalie because that was what we were missing most. He came and played a bit, but it really didn’t make that much difference because we won 4-1. Thursday was a pretty easy once again, and then came this weekend.
For the second weekend in a row I was in Florence- this time to show around several kids who were coming from Lausanne. Andrew, Amanda, Courtney, and Gwendolyn came this weekend, so on Friday I went with them to Pisa, then showed them how to get to Lucca and Cinque Terra so they could continue exploring while I headed back to Florence to get ready for Drew and I’s dinner with Leonardo that night. Drew and I got dressed up and made reservations for a restaurant named Del Fagioli, a Tuscan restaurant near Santa Croce. We met Leonardo there at 8:30 and got our table. We all had some kind of antipasto- mine was the liver spread on bread, then all got some soup as our primi, and the bistecca alla Fiorentina as our secondo. We took several hours to eat, and then talked for several more so that it was near 12:30 by the time we left. It was a very nice evening, I’m glad that Drew and I got to talk with Leonardo outside class, and try a new restaurant in the process. Our Saturday, the Lausanne kids wanted to see Florence, so I showed them around the city all day. We climbed the Duomo, saw the David in the Accademia, the Ponte Vecchio, Piazzale Michelangelo, and finally about 15 of us went to dinner at the Red Door. It was a nice day, and great for me to get to do a ton of stuff in Florence that I’ve needed to do for a while. Now, it’s Sunday and they are gone, I’m catching up on work and blogging, so hopefully by the end of the day I’ll be up to date with both.