Half a report, the other half thoughts

This is a really long post.

Its another rainy day. I got up at 5:20 and made a lil' breakfast of Potates, sausage, carrots and tomatoes (and a tiny can of pear juice) in time to talk with Gillian for a while. For some reason which hasn't been explained to me yet, the Italian transportation employees (i.e., bus and train drivers) have scheduled strikes. sometimes its for a specified amount of time, other times no one knows how long it will last. Sometimes it is just the drivers of one particular bus number. Today it was from 8am-4pm involved most of the buses including the one I take to and from the Church. Fortunately the Senior missionaries at the Church warned me about it yesterday so I planned to leave my place around 7:30 to ensure I didn't have to walk. I'm a lazy American, would I ever want to WALK? JK, I'm not lazy but it would have taken about 1.5hrs to walk the distance each way. PLUS I took my laundry (Yes, mom, I finally have clean clothes) and that would have been an extra pain. It was inconvenient enough as it was trying to crowd onto the bus this afternoon! I've never seen it so full! It was as though no one could handle the fact that the buses weren't running all day, and so for the first hour after the strike they had to GET ON just to reassure themselves that all was right in the world. That's one way to overcome your fear of people and make friends. I don't think the old lady I was smushed into liked me very much...

Anyway, I practiced 5.5 hrs today. Yippee.

A few days ago Gillian gave me a speech about how most of the world will not survive a cataclysmic event because we are so antiseptic that we have no natural immunity to a lot of otherwise common germs. The germs will kill us all. Well, I am finding out that I must either have a natural immunity already or am getting one fast. Or maybe the cockroaches just aren't that germy. I guess they probably aren't really cockroaches because they don't run fast at all and are pretty small. But there's lots of em and they come out in the dark. Last night they were inspecting how well I washed the dishes, which was thoughtful of them but also made me rewash. So, mom, I am building my health AND getting lots of practice cleaning...oh, AND exercise: picking up my foot and putting down hard, over and over and over.

I just finished reading "Memoirs of Hadrian" by Marguerite Yourcenar. It was written in 1951. Originally french, the translation is AMAZING. Really interesting, poetic language. The book is in the form of a letter from Hadrian (Emperor of Rome around 100AD) to his adopted grandson, Marcus Aurelius. Its pretty interesting, but dark and kind of gross in places. Its interesting because the author obviously researched TONS and so the details are pretty believable; even his personality is believable. He is portrayed as a totally amoral person, yet very thoughtful, artistic, and wise- in the sense that he was willing to call his own mistakes, not live solely for himself, and try to do as much stabalization for the empire as possible. Apparently the empire reached its largest point during his reign? Anyway, he also was homosexual and amoral. there are some very interesting passages about Judaism which is obviously applicable to Christianity. Here's one, Hadrian telling at the end of his life the story of the many year war with Israel before they were subdued for the 2nd or maybe 3rd time. (for those of you who feel obligated to read everything I write, umm, if you aren't interested, don't read)-

"As I said, nothing in all that was beyond repair, but the hatred, the mutual contempt, and the rancor were so. In principle, Judaism has its place among the religions of the empire; in practice, Israel has refused for centuries to be one people among many others, with one god among the gods. The most primitive Dacians know that their Zalmoxis is called Jupiter in Rome; the Egyptians, though so pround of their myths some thousands of years old, are willing to see in Osiris a Bacchus with funeral attributes; harsh Mithra admits himself brother to Apollo. No people but Israel has the arrogance to confine truth wholly within the narrow limits of a single conception of the divine, thereby insulting the manifold nature of the Deity, who contains all; no other god has inspired his worshipers with disdain and hatred for those who pray at different altars. I was only the more anxious to make Jerusalem a city like the others, where several races and several beliefs could live in peace; but I was wrong to forget that in any combat between fanaticism and common sense the latter has rarely the upper hand. The clergy of the ancient city were scandalized by the opening of schools where Greek literature was taught; the rabbi Joshua, a pleasant, learned man with whom I had frequently conversed in Athens, but who was trying to excuse himself to his people for his foreign culture and his relations with us, now ordered his disciples not to take up such profane studies unless they could find an hour which was neither day nor night, since Jewish law must be studied night and day. Ismael, an important member of the Sanhedrin, who supposedly adhered to the side of Rome, let his nephew Ben-Dama die rather than accept the services of the Greek surgeon sent to him by Tineus Rufus. While here in Tibur means were still being sought to conciliate differences without appearing to yield to demands of fanatics, affairs in the East took a turn for the worse; a Zealot revolt triumphed in Jerusalem.
An adventurer born of the very dregs of the popel, a fellow named Simon who entitled himself Bar-Kochba, Son of the Star, played the part of firebrand or incendiary mirror in that revolt. I could judge this Simon only by hearsay; I have seen him but once face-to-face, the day a centurion brough me his severed head. Yet I am disposed to grant him that degree of genius which must always be present in one who rises so fast and so high in human affairs; such ascendancy is not gained without at least some crude skill...I believe rather that his untrained mind was of the type which is taken in by its own lies, and that guile in his case went hand in hand with fanaticism...
Severus was quick to grasp that such an elusive enemy could be exterminated, but not conquered; he resigned himself to a war of attrition. The peasants, fired by Simon's enthusiasm, or terrorized by him, made common cause with the Zealots from the start; each rock became a bastion, each vineyard a trench; each tiny farm had to be starved out, or taken by assault. Jerusalem was not recaptured until the thrids year, when last efforts to negotiate proved futile; what little of the Jewish city had been sapred by the destruction under Titus was now wiped out.
...In the Spring of the third year of campaign the army laid siege to the citadel of Bethar, an eagle's nest where Simon and his partisans held out for nearly a yaer against the slow tortures of hunger, thirst, and despair, and where the Son of the Star saw his followers perish one by one but still would not surrender. Our army suffered almost as the rebels, for the latter, on retiring, had burned the forests, laid waste the fields, slaughtered the cattle, and polluted the wells by throwing our dead therein...
...On a cold morning in February, I sat leaning against the trunk of a leafless fig-tree to watch the assault which preceded by only a few hours the capitulation of Bethar. I saw the last defenders of the fortress come out one by one, haggard, emaciated, hideous to view but nevertheless superb, like all that is indomitable...children sneering defiance, already turned fierce and deformed by implacable convictions, boasting loudly of having brought death to dozens of legionaries; old men immured in somnambulistic dreams...On the other hand, the Christianized Jews, whom we had not disturbed and who harbored resentment against the rest of the Hebrews for having persecuted their prophet, saw in us the instrument of divine wrath. The long series of frenzies and misconceptions was thus continuing."

I think one of the reasons that passage struck me was because I, like most people, am really bothered by the stupid, stupid war going on STILL between Jews and Arabs. The same thing that causes people in Iraq every day to blow up themselves and a few other random souls. I also recently had a talk with Nabore that echoed things I heard lots of Japanese people saying: anything that requires you to believe IT to the absolute exclusion of everything else is DANGEROUS. I can definitely see that perspective. I can also see how obvious it is that God is One and therefore Truth is One, and why on earth wouldn't He have ONE set of teachings? But how does one explain that to someone who has only seen the above perspective? The perspective that people who believe their god is the ONLY true one are usually the people who kill other people senselessly and don't get along well with other people, or who refuse to study Greek, or experience wine or friendly sex, etc. etc? How does one explain or justify monotheism in this world? Another question: how does a monotheist ensure that he doesn't BECOME a Simon, or an Iraqi strapping explosives to his body?

a tourist

Today is rainy. I got to the church at 9:50 this morning and practiced straight until 2. thats a record. After a nice lunch break I got 2 more hours in. A satisfying day, but not very interesting.

Yesterday I didn't practice a WINK. Instead, after a wonderful talk with Gillian I went back to sleep. It was surprisingly DEEP sleep, and I'm willing to avoid feeling guilty by assuming that means I NEEDED it. Has anyone ever had the experience where you are sleeping, and KNOW you are sleeping and try to wake yourself up but CAN'T DO IT? Its weird, and a little bit scary. Its happened to me twice, and the 2nd time was yesterday morning. The first time was last semester when I took a nap on top of one of the organs on the 1st floor of the HFAC.

Anyway, so here are some photos. I visited the Vittorio Emmanuelle Monument, which is that huge white building they call the "wedding cake". It was finished in only 1926 but uses all Classical styles. I am amazed at the scope and depth of the symbolism. There are SOOO many statues that represent all kinds of Nationalistic ideas. I didn't quite get them all, and frankly wasn't THAT interested. It is beautiful, though. It is also conveniently situated in the center of a cluster of amazing Churches, the Colosseum, and the Roman Forum. So I visted them all! well, not all the churches, but a few big ones and 2 small ones.

After getting home I went jogging in the Villa Borghese and was there in time to watch the sun set through the trees in a brilliant orange color about this color. or this. Somewhere in between. Anyway, it was gorgeous. A good day.

lunedi, Aprile 24

Blogs are weird. I liked Ryan's! Who are all those WEIRD starwars fans you know?

Since Thursday it has been pretty busy around here. Nabore had a concert last night with a Russian violinist and Bulgarian Cellist. They did the 3 Schumann Piano Trios. It was a 2 hour concert of VERY difficult music- difficult for audience as well as performers. www.roma.metropolisinfo.it/article/articleview/100111/1/3/ I was lucky enough to turn pages for one of the rehearsals on Thursday, and I was at two of the other 4. It was AMAZING!!! Incredible musicians. Great music, too. Unfortunately the concert was a lot worse than any of the rehearsals had been. The ensemble fell apart, and no one was playing very well technically. I was disappointed, but still enjoyed it. I learned SO MUCH by watching Nabore play. He really is good. I respect him, and even if he is a punk when he teaches, and even though he has an embarassing picture of himself in the program (I can't describe it- he has one hand on the keyboard with a light shining on only that hand, and the rest of him is dark. His face is gazing innocently upwards at the light....its too much!) he is STILL a giant of a musician. The people he has associated with, the pianists he has taught, and the lifestyle he lives is one in a billion. In the concert he wore this incredibly ornate embroidered jacket that must have been some kind of traditional Greek costume. Anyway...it was super, super amazing to hang out with these guys. Fortunately they chose English as the most mutually accessible language so I got to listen in on their conversations: "William, deed you ever hear the recordingu ofu Schnabel, Heifitz and Rostropovich playingu the Trout? Eet ees eeencrrredible!" "Oh, darling, I was THERE! Yes, I was there! It was phenomenal, but did you know I played it with Amadeus? Oh yes, I played with them many times" "Ilya, did you know that aòlksjdfowie just sold his Guarnarius?" "NO! He did?" "Yes, and he sold it for 2 million"...etc. I mean, that's the best I can do at imitating them. It was way better in real life- a mixture of hilariously nerdy and fascinatingly elite.
The concert and all the rehearsals were held in this beautiful library of a 1670 Palace called Palazzo Altieri. The caretaker of the archives (which is the room in which the concert was held) wouldn't let me take pictures because its not a museum, its "my house". Yeah, crazy. Do a Google search on it and see what building she calls "mia casa". The Archive room is a very high ceiling, and fits about 300 people in it. The walls are lined with 15 foot bookshelves that are FULL of books, letters, and other documents dating 1610 all the way through 1900s. Wow. You walk through the enormous wood doors and smell OLD PAPER. Its beautiful. And it was especially beautiful to see the 9 foot Steinway sitting at the far end. mmmmm. A really magical place for that kind of concert.
Afterwards we stayed out until VERY late. I met 3 other students of Nabore's, one Italian, one Bulgarian, and one Indian. They were all nice, and I had a good time visiting with them. The Italian one invited me to practice on his piano whenever I need, and to play ping pong with him. Massimiliano was also there, and it was good to see him. If anyone hears of a movie with Brad Pitt called "Frank" coming out in the future, Massimiliano is supposedly composing the soundtrack. I know, its fishy, and he's always telling these outlandish stories that MIGHT be true, but really could be totally not so I don't know. Anyway, it was a good evening. BUT, I stayed up way too late and have to go to sleep now!
No new pictures today.

some more photos

ok, a couple more shots from today. The top left is one of my favorite buildings. I can't remember what it IS, but it isn't very old. Just dang pretty, especially when the sun shines full on it, or at night when the moon is above it. The lower left is Porta Pia, just a block from my apartment. The right one is the street by the church. The trees lining it are BEAUTIFUL. The picture didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped, though. And I guess I didn't really need to include the dumpsters in it...ah well.

First Day of Bloggin, FINALLY

Hello!!! Since before I got here in February I've been wanting to make a blog of my trip so everyone would know what I am up to. Unfortunate that I procrastinated thus, until half the trip is OVER. Oh, well.

Here are some photos of where I'm living. (I didn't figure out how to rotate them yet, sorry) The one on the left is my bedroom, the center is the tiny kitchen. The apartment building is the clay-colored one in the middle of the right photo. I am on the first floor above street level. Actually, my room is directly behind the glowing green sign.

Today, like most days, I got up a little after 6, called Gillian and talked to her for a while, ate, cleaned my room, blah blah blah, went to the Church to practice around 9:30. I got 5 hours in again today, YIPPEEE. It was good. Mozart is sounding AND feeling great, which makes me happy. The acoustics in that room are delicious, especially for Mozart. Anyway, with breaks I wasn't finished until 5. Then I went to the Academia Santa Cecilia, which is one of the 2 top music schools in Italy (or at least the most well-known). I was hoping to put up a sign advertising my interest in playing chamber music, in case any groups were looking for a pianist. I couldn't find a place to put up a sign, but I found something better- the violin professor! He was EXTREMELY nice, and outright invited me to show up at a lesson on Monday morning at which time he'll introduce me to some of the students. AMAZING! Hooray for nice people, sheesh. Today was so incredibly gorgeous that after that errand was done I wandered the streets, just looking at the beautiful buildings and the flowers and sunset. I had wanted to hurry home to start my blog and to read, but it was irresistable. Mmmm...if I could figure out how to put photos on this thing wherever I WANTED to put them I would add a couple more. But that's all for now. You'll just have to believe that it is wonderfully beautiful here.

Now I'm going home to make spaghetti and read for an hour or 2 before going to bed. My life is pretty interesting, isn't it? Tomorrow I'll try to think of more exciting details, such as how many times I blew my nose or the exact number of spaghetti noodles I ate.

Ciao!