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| All the girls! |
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| Dwarf Elephants |
Last weekend was pretty busy! Thursday we explored the Paolo Orsi Archaeological Museum here in Syracuse and on Friday took a day trip to the city of Catania after which we had the option of spending the night there to see the city and festivities a bit longer.
I found the Archaeological Museum to be amazing. The selection of the collection we toured (prehistoric through Greek and Roman mainly) was quite extensive and we really rushed through most of the place. I plan to go back there this weekend to explore at a leisurely pace!
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| The Duomo in Catania |
From Ortigia it is about an hour by bus to get to Catania. Not bad considering this is where the nearest major airport is located - we fly out of Catania every time we want to go anywhere else! Unfortunately, my camera batteries died just a few minutes after boarding the bus, so every picture here is from one of my friends on the trip. The trip did not go quite as I would have liked - I was sick much of the weekend. I feel better now but did not get to see much of Catania at night!
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| Books!! |
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| Roman Amphitheater |
While we were at Catania we toured some of the most important city structures - namely the Roman Amphitheater, the Duomo (their cathedral), and what was once the Benedictine Monastery (now part of the University of Catania). We happened to be in town just in time for the festivities of St. Agatha (Catania's patron saint) and saw bits and pieces of the procession but not the main part. Thronging with people, the streets were full of candy stalls, balloons, and lights.
We found a bar that was showing the Super bowl and I watched it for a while along with one of my apartment-mates and some missionaries who were journeying around on a boat and stopped by Syracuse. By three in the morning Italian time I felt very sleepy and went home, leaving the more hardy individuals to continue watching the rest of the game.
Tuesday I actually received my first (though rather short) experience flintknapping with a real knapper! My flintknapping experience continues - thank you Material Cultures course for getting me started. Flintknapping is the process of shaping stones (like flint) or glass type materials (like obsidian) with other stones and various tools. We had an experimental archaeology lecture and watched a demonstration of fire starting (with real live sticks and stones!) and flintknapping. I mimed percussion flaking (chipping away at a stone by pressing on it rather than striking it) and got a quick demonstration after the lecture from the expert. A few of my buddies at MCAS got to try their hands flintknapping or fire starting - with varying degrees of success.
In other news, we had a pasta making night last night (watch out world, Becky can now cook home-made pasta! It was pretty easy and very good.) and, starting Monday, I will volunteer at the
Institute for the Study and Performance of Ancient Drama digitizing their collection of sheet music. I was assigned my first real homework assignment (Latin) and my first paper (Art and Archaeology) and part of a museum wall panel to translate for the Paolo Orsi Archaeological Museum. Things are really getting busy here!
And Happy Birthday to Dad!!
I found the Archaeological Museum to be amazing. The selection of the collection we toured (prehistoric through Greek and Roman mainly) was quite extensive and we really rushed through most of the place. I plan to go back there this weekend to explore at a leisurely pace!
Tuesday I actually received my first (though rather short) experience flintknapping with a real knapper! My flintknapping experience continues - thank you Material Cultures course for getting me started. Flintknapping is the process of shaping stones (like flint) or glass type materials (like obsidian) with other stones and various tools. We had an experimental archaeology lecture and watched a demonstration of fire starting (with real live sticks and stones!) and flintknapping. I mimed percussion flaking (chipping away at a stone by pressing on it rather than striking it) and got a quick demonstration after the lecture from the expert. A few of my buddies at MCAS got to try their hands flintknapping or fire starting - with varying degrees of success.
In other news, we had a pasta making night last night (watch out world, Becky can now cook home-made pasta! It was pretty easy and very good.) and, starting Monday, I will volunteer at the Institute for the Study and Performance of Ancient Drama digitizing their collection of sheet music. I was assigned my first real homework assignment (Latin) and my first paper (Art and Archaeology) and part of a museum wall panel to translate for the Paolo Orsi Archaeological Museum. Things are really getting busy here!
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