No I have not died, but things have been busy, plus - we're in the last month. Already. Time flew by like never before. I realize that I am being bombarded with 5 page papers, one for Art History and one for Greek. In Art history, I will compare and contrast Sicilian Norman with regular Norman Art and Architecture, in Greek I will compare and contrast the Creation myths in Plato's Timaeus and Hesiod's Theogony. The last time I must have written a compare-contrast paper was in High School. Gnarr.
I also have to write a paper + give a presentation in ecosystems, and give a presentation in Literature. Only Italian is blissfully project-free.
This week we had a film presentation and saw "Hallam Foe," a film which will be released soon in the US. It won best soundtrack and critics choice at the Cannes Film Festival and the author of the book it is based on is the husband of our prgram director. The movie is one of those weird movies, the story similiar to the Catcher in the Rye....
Friday the ecosystems and Volcanology classes went on another field trip on MOunt Etna, this time with next to no snow, but instead tons of lava-sand, little prickly cushion plants, and monstrous winds that will blow you over the ridge into the crater if you let them. The hike was pretty tough but the scenery was very nice. Here are some pictures:
snow!
notice the flow of A-Ha Lava (Not to be confused with Poi-Hoi Lava!)
On Saturday, we embarked on the MCAS fieldtrip to Agrigento, a city in SW Sicily which boosts the best Greek ruins Sicily has to offer. The bus left at 7 am, but with dramamine, earplugs, and sleeping mask I could sleep through pretty much the entire thing. 3 hours later, we climbed up a plateau to see the first temple, the temple of Hera (even though I guess they found out that
it really wasn't a temple of Hera, though they don't know who was worshipped) Anyways, there is a decent sized Altar next to it, used to slaughter animals.
The next "Concordia temple" is the 2nd best preserved temple of the Ancient Greek World, second only to the temple of Hephaistos in Athens. The only reason it was this well preserved is because it was turned into a Church. There ya go.
The Heracles Temple only has 8 columns still standing, it was pretty much completely trashed by the Carthaginians, who came from North Africa and attempted to conquer all of Sicily, only to be stopped by the Siracuseans in the East.
After all this temple viewing, it was time for lunch and the group headed to the city of Agrigento. Prof. M. took us to a convent where nuns bake special Almond cookies, and we purchased two trays. I had a pistacchio cookie with an outer layer of Marzipan. Delizioso!
After lunch, we went to see another temple, the temple of Zeus, and a chthonic temple where black magic was performed. Oh, those Greeks!
