Objects Restored

I made a website with pictures and descriptions of all the objects I worked on during school. It is here.

Report on Tolfa, Round 2

(Last year's post is here.)

It was cold the whole time, except for maybe 2 days when it was pleasant during the day. The heat wasn't on in my room for all but 3 days, but with 3 blankets it was OK. It rained almost every day and was always windy. The cook said the weather was abnormal for May. I got more eggs for dinner than cheese this year, which was an improvement, however we had cheese (and bread and tomatoes) almost every day for lunch. We were more prepared for the lack of things to do this year, since we all brought our computers to do school work. So we had lots of movies to choose from in the evenings, as opposed to last year when only one person had a computer and we had only 2 movies. Even with internet keys that work through cell phone lines, however, there was little or no internet connection. I also brought motion-sickness medicine this year for the 30-40 minutes of twisty road between Civitavecchia and Tolfa, which the bus drivers like to traverse as fast as possible. The showers consistently alternated between scalding and cool water. Also this year we were there for 3 weeks, instead of 2 like last year.

On the plus side, the work wasn't bad. I did 3 objects: a Roman-era cooking pot, a bucchero Etruscan pitcher, and a marble piece from a Roman sarcophagus, and I got to use a micro-abrasive sandblaster. Also, we saw the donkeys again, and there were 5 or 6 this year, up from 3 last year. There weren't any geckos, lizards, or lightning bugs this year, though, but there was a lot of wisteria on a wooden structure outside the hostel (old monastery) for a week or two, which was pretty. And I got to eat at the Subway in Civitavecchia again.

Two other groups stayed at the hostel while we were there: a group of archaeology students from Sicily who were only there for a weekend and a group of Norwegian high school students who were very loud and were there for several days.

Report on Tolfa

My class did its "stage," which is like an internship, at Tolfa, a small city kind of near Rome. It was about 1.5 weeks. We worked on Roman ceramics at the archaeological museum there. I was able to almost finish my jug. We stayed in a former convent that is now a hostel. They fed us at the hostel, so I got cheese instead of meat twice a day most days. They also added more oil to the pasta in place of meat. There's a rocca (castle in ruins) in Tolfa, so I went up to that twice. There is little else to do there. There were some donkeys and geckos along the road. Also there were lightning bugs (the first place I've seen them in Italy). One day we went to a nearby archaeological site, which is in a field and mostly consists of tombs.

Report on Classes

The restoration classes started Oct. 6. I guess I never posted anything about the Italian for Restoration class I took in September. So, about that, the teacher wrote literally everything he said on the board (in Italian), which was helpful for comprehension, albeit a slow way to cover material.* My current schedule consists of restoration of ceramics, restoration of stone, restoration of archaeological finds, technical drawing/painting, documentation and photography, chemistry, art history, Italian for restoration (same teacher as Sept.), and history as it relates to archaeology or history of archaeology? (this class starts in November). The nationality of the students in my class is: 4 Italians (Rimini, Siena, Messina (also, her last name is Messina), Sardinia), 1 from the Italian-speaking part of Switzerland, 1 from Spain (Barthelona), 1 from South Korea, 1 from Japan (Tokyo), 1 from Cyprus, and 2 from the U.S. (NY and me). There's one guy (one of the Italians) and ten girls, and they're all within about 6 years of my age. The classes are entirely in Italian. The teachers speak in normal language (unlike the way people write in newspapers and books), so I can often understand most of what they say.

* I think this is the first time I've ever used the word "albeit."

What I've Been Doing

If you're wondering what I've been doing for the past 2 months (aside from the items about which Ben posts), here, without regard for parallel structure, is a list. If you weren't wondering, this list will probably bore you to tears, so just stop reading now. I included anything that was productive and/or (e/o) took more than 5 minutes.

wash dishes; do laundry; read; do sudoku and crossword puzzles; look at Italian daily newspaper you get at bus stops; grocery shopping (at supermarkets and Lidl); go to the market; water plants; cook (or start cooking, because I'm so slow at it); argue with telecommunications companies; buy a bike; buy a fan; surf the net (at internet cafes and at the apartment); watch the Simpsons, Monty Python, 30 Rock, various moovies*; sort music on ipod; listen to music on ipod; listen to radio; clean the apartment; get codice fiscale; sign up and pay for language course; find out about health insurance; get accurate visa application and instructions; sightsee; get passport-sized photos; find out about permesso di soggiorno; keep mosquito netting up; get bus tickets/passes; make cell phone work here; recharge cell phone minutes/money; realize how stupid and stingy Bank of America is; go through Italian book; figured out why external hard drive wasn't working; see where Ben works; put the awnings and roller shutters up and down; take out trash; read about other cities in guidebooks; try to figure out cheapest way to withdraw Euros (still working on that); go to Cascine market; hunt mosquitoes; look for cheap books in English; put on sunscreen; figure out which busses to take; pay bills in VA and otherwise try to deal with online banking issues (trying to resolve an issue via email is futile. The responses you get are completely worthless.); watch a cooking show in German; listen to and watch the European Cup; look for magnets; proofread article; tried to find non-skinny-leg, non-bellbottom jeans; answered phone calls from people who had the wrong number; learn how to use the appliances in this apartment (our washing machine can't be operated without an instruction manual. See photo below.); think of blog entries



*do you get it?