Greek Myth Is So Entertaining!

This Saturday was our final seminar for the Rome trip. I was excited about this seminar because it was going to be about Greek mythology. I arrived at the school earlier then everyone as always (maybe because i drive to fast). As soon as everyone arrived we received or agenda for the day. I couldn't help but notice how different each seminar instructor was. Mr. Sullivan was sort like a college professor, lecturing us about Rome, Mrs. Everett was more hands on (which i enjoy), and Mrs. White, was a mixture of the two.

Mrs. White began to break down the importance of why Greek myth was so important in Rome. She revealed to us that a lot of Rome's art work and beliefs was birthed from Greek myth. There was a lot of information thrown at us in three hours about Greek myth, and although some of it was hard to comprehend, i still found it interesting. One thing that stood out to me during the seminar was that the Greeks came before the Romans. The Romans were basically fascinated with the Greeks and adopted their traditions and turned them into their own. For example the Greeks worshiped the Gods, the Romans took their Gods and just renamed them with planets. Another thing they stole was the way art was presented. Nudity was big in Greek art, and that's were the trend of nude paintings sprang from in Rome.

After a short break with doughnuts and juice (thanks to Nick's mom), Mrs. White discussed with us, the popular and not so popular God's and Goddesses. She refreshed my memory of the ones i already knew about from my AP English 12 class and corrected me on the ones i thought i knew. She then had us choose two Olympian Gods and research them. I chose Dionysus and Hermes. I found a lot of interesting tales about them. I also learned about their strengths and weaknesses. They both were equally interesting, Dionysus was the God of wine harvest and festival, ironically his weakness was intoxication i found that humorous. Hermes was a messenger God, but he also was a trickster and a thief. He had no weaknesses and i like all of his powers. My favorite was the his power to trick the enemy with the sound of music from his flute. I thinks that there's a Hermes in every song nowadays because some songs can affect the moods of people.

Overall, its sort of bitter sweet that our seminars have come to an end. They were very informational and will come to great use on the trip. I'd like to thank each instructor for spending time to put this together for us. Looking on the bright side however, at least I'll get to sleep in on my Saturdays! =)

-Kaneisha King

Let Me Paint This Picture For You

Mrs. Everett asked us to write about a painting, a sculpture, something that stood out to us at the end of our second seminar: Roman Art History. So I picked The School of Athens by Raphael. I have no idea why I love this painting so much. I remember seeing this painting for the first time in my 6th grade history book. For some reason I was captured by it, at the time I had no clue that the version in my textbook was only a part of the painting. I went home after school and told my older brother, Alex, a philosophy buff, about what I had seen. He brought me to his computer and showed me the full sized painting. I was amazed. He explained to me who Plato and Aristotle were, what ideas about the world they had. He showed me Raphael hidden in the right hand corner, and Michelangelo painted in the front left. I sat on his green carpet for hours learning about these different men and other master pieces they had created. He taught me better than my 6th grade teacher, who just skimmed over pages hoping we wouldn't ask her questions. I learned so much from this painting, not only about Raphael’s beautiful art but a part of my brother that brought him so much joy: teaching, philosophy, art. It is odd to think about a painting that was made in 1509, capturing the greatest thinkers in the world, effecting my brother and myself in 2005. Something from so long ago affecting a 12 and a 17 year old. One art piece makes someone feel something they cannot even explain. I can tell you a bunch of symbolic or heartfelt answers of why this painting sticks out to me: but the truth is, I have no clue why, I don’t know why as my teacher flipped through pages I sat on the same page looking into each of the faces in the painting and reading anything I could find about it. I know that I love it, and I know that it makes me feel good when looking at it, isn’t that all one can ask for in a painting? Isn’t that all an artist can hope for? That no matter if they were hired by a Pope to paint a giant mural or just sitting in a class room drawing in a sketch book that their art makes them feel good inside and makes an on looking spectator feel the same? I hope so.

I could go on and on about the things I learned this Saturday in Mrs. Everett’s seminar: debating whether or not Mr. Sullivan was wrong (heaven forbid!) about the Pantheon not letting any rain in through it’s 30ft wide hole, or how Michelangelo had such a symbolic way to say “Go to hell.” to his least favorite Cardinal. How in The School of Athens, Raphael painted Michelangelo in the style that Michelangelo used himself (very muscular). How the Romans would just steal the art they wanted, even the Cardinals. How ridiculously concerned Emperors were about making a piece of art that would represent them better than any other Emperor, and how glad I am that they were. I could tell you all the interesting fun facts that I wrote down in my notes but I wanted to really focus on one piece of art. And I want you to focus on your favorite piece of art too. I leave you with this task: Find that painting, that sculpture, that drawing your niece did for you when she was 3 that is hanging on your refrigerator. Tell me about it. Everything, anything. What about it makes you feel good inside?

-Kathleen Snook

Best Day Ever: Roman Art History

*weekend roman seminar #2. Art History with a special emphasis on architecture, sculpture and two dimensional art.

Ever since I was a little kid I have always been enthralled by art. Every type of art that I was exposed to fascinated me. It always amazed me how these modern day Gods could turn something as finite as a single sheet of paper into anything. How a mere idea could be transformed into something tangible. Since making that realization I have made art my true obsession, never leaving my house without a pen and a sketch book. Tirelessly drawing anything and everything I saw, hoping one day I could truly bring my ideas into being. That is why I was truly euphoric when i discovered that today I would be able to study one of the worlds most artistically influential cultures in the world. I was like a kid in a candy store, not knowing what sumptuous treat i wanted to sink my art loving teeth into first.Luckily enough my instructor for today was none other than Mrs. Wendi Everett , a persons who's passion for all things art nearly rivals my own.

What we were attempting to do was try and cover all the major fields of artistic expression(architectural,sculpture and 2-D) without over whelming anyone with too much information.Art covered everything from the mysterious culture of the Etruscan's, to the shift from realistic art honoring gods to that of symbolic art worshiping Christianity. Out of all the breath taking master pieces we viewed today, what I found most interesting was not the intentional work but all of the unintentional mistakes that go into them.

A perfect example of this is that of the Greeks influence over all things Roman. Greek culture prided itself in representing perfection. We see this in their depiction of the perfect human being, with rippling muscles,exact bone structure and flawless features. In Roman art we see a slight shift from this Greek ideal to more realistic art. However what made this really fascinating to me was that the Roman's weren't able to escape completely unscathed from their Greek muses. Up until this day I had always wondered why artist who were so meticulous with every detail from the shading of a robe to the perspective of a rat resting in a corner could depict the female form as if it were a silicon filled barbie doll. To my chagrin it wasn't that these brilliant men damned the laws of gravity but simply that they were working off of an overly idealist Greek model of what a women should look like. This was really significant to me because of how it parallels today's culture of trying to eliminate any imperfection for this ideal of how we are supposed to look. Hopefully,for future artist at least, if a dystopian children of men type future awaits us more than a people magazine will be left behind to represent our culture.


My highlight for the day was being able to talk about the film Food Inc,while simultaneously stuffing a powdered donut in my mouth. It was something poetic about the contradiction.

Dennis Johnson

What Makes Rome Unique

Yesterday’s seminar was overwhelming mainly because I’m not used to waking up that early on Saturdays. It was also overwhelming because until yesterday I had no idea that Rome had that much art. There was so much to cover in so little time that Ms.Everett had divide the power point into three parts. Architecture, sculpture, and paintings and mosaics.

One thing I found interesting was that in all these categories of Roman art they are influenced by Greek art. You can actually see this in the shift from traditional gods to Christianity. We also went over how the Christian art is more symbolic as opposed to the pre-Christian art which is a lot more literal. One part of the seminar I found funny was all of us trying to find how water doesn’t get into the Pantheon when it rains. Ms.Everett also explained how a lot of Roman art is centered on portrait busts and how the Romans made the busts very realistic.

My favorite part of the seminar was when we went over the story of Michelangelo and the Sistine Chapel. I personally always thought that the painting was amazing and I couldn’t imagine seeing it in person. It was also interesting seeing how much the Popes were involved in art during the Renaissance. For some reason I found myself glued to a specific part of the Sistine Chapel which was the Fall of Man. I really like the part of the painting where the man is holding a full humans skin I found it very unique.

-Tre’von Walker

Rome's Art Is Amazing!

Today was another bright and early saturday. At 9:00 A.M this morning Mrs. Everett suprised us with a quick breakfast. The doughnuts, bananas, o.j. ,chocolate milk and yummy redvines made up for her tardyness =). We quickly put on our seat belts and got ready for another virtual ride through the history of Rome. This time the seminar covered Roman art and architecture.

Rome is a huge city of surrounding art work dating back for centuries. It amazes me that the artwork we were discussing is still visable. Its shocking to be that these amazing paintings, mosaics, and frescos are so old but still standing. One peice of art that I found the most interesting was the paintings in the Sistine Chapel. Although it's all amazing to me, the most breath taking is the ceiling.

The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel was painted by Michelangelo. Although he had the help of others, it was his vision that made it the amazing form of art that it was and still is today. It is 131 ft of the story of the bible told in paintings ranging from the new and old testament. The stlye of the painting is fresco, witch is painting layers of pigment on wet plaster. The entire ceiling took him 4yrs and 5months, which was shorter then what it took for other paniters to paint the walls, and they were standing straight up unlike Michelangelo, who was on his back.

Lastly, what really shocked me is what happend after Michelangelo painted the Sistine Chapel. Cardinal Carafa started the "fig-leaf" campaign, in which nude paintings were considerd obscene. The Cardinal demanded that the private areas of the people in the paintings be censored by fig leafs or cloth. It compltely defaced Michelangelo's work which upset him. To get back at the Cardinal, Michelangelo paints him in the scene of souls being cast down to hell. I find that gesture really amusing, its the perfect revenge. I know we didnt even cover half the amazing art work of Rome today, I'm looking forward to learning more!

-Kaneisha King

From Etruscans to Tom Hanks: Roman history in a day

*A review of Roman History with Mr. Sullivan, the first of 3 weekend seminar classes.

The saying, “go and wake up your luck”, was the first thing that I thought when I awoke that morning. If I was a man who believed in luck that is, it would appear that mine had decided to sleep in that morning. Now, don’t take my disbelief towards the cosmic gods of fate as a sign of my inner cynic, but merely the misguided ramblings of a guy running late for class. The day was Saturday February 13^th, the first day of my weekend Rome seminar classes, and I somehow managed to oversleep.

Arriving 40 minutes later but no worse for wear, I enter Sacramento high school and began to brace myself for the monumental task that lay ahead of me. Our agenda for the day was to cover the entire history of Rome in less than 3 hours.

Our instructor for the day was Mr. Sullivan, one of the most down to earth Martians you could ever meet. His goal was to get all of us to absorb as much Roman history as possible without our heads exploding. This was so we could appreciate all the wonders of Rome more fully if we ever got the chance to go.

The first thing that stuck out to me was the history of Spartacus and slavery. The story of Spartacus follows a slave leader (Spartacus) starting an uprising against the Roman Republic. I find this piece of history incredibly engrossing because of how these events mirror those in American history so closely. These similarities were that the system of slavery wasn’t based on color but on contracts akin to the system of indentured servitude. Another similarity that I found interesting was the causes behind the revolts and their end results. Both revolts are seen as a battle of the oppressed against that of their oppressors. It was this strong representation of social activism in human history that made it so remarkable to me.

Another thing I found intriguing during my quest through time was Rome’s hand in driving lions and leopards to the point of extinction in Europe. Before attending this seminar on Roman history I was aware that animals were used in the Coliseum's gladiator shows. However, I did not know to what how many animals were slaughtered for mere entertainment value. The reason I found this fact so jarring was that Americans repeated this same atrocity centuries later in the form of the buffalo.

In addition to being the leaders in slave uprisings and animal cruelty, I found Rome’s ability to recycle astounding. This green attitude of Rome’s was most apparent when I found out why there was such a huge chunk missing from the coliseum. Apparently, whenever Romans wanted to build something new, instead of traveling hundreds of miles to gather new stone,they just reused the stone that were just lying around collecting dust. This act of pragmatic thinking is so incredible to me because it shows Romans being one of the first cultures to practice recycling .

Finally, what I found most entertaining was the relevance Mr. Tom Hanks had in teaching Roman history. What I mean by this is not Tom Hanks the man but the character in which he embodies. The character Tom Hanks embodied for this particular example was Robert Langdon, a popular fictional character a series of books by Dan Brown. This was my highlight because of how often my instructor referenced Tom Hanks in order to get the point across to the class

Dennis Johnson

WHEN IN ROME

Art, there is so much art. Everywhere you look there are different forms like statues, fountains, mosaics, frescoes, and anything else you can think of. Today I began my day bright and early excited to see what else this city has to offer. I started off with a light breakfast then met up with the docent and we were off.
She took us to the different museums and the worlds largest church St. Peters Basilica. You can't even imagine how immense this place is, there is a six story alter inside that is short when you look up at the ceiling. In other words it is so gargantuan, huge things look and feel tiny. After the tour concluded for the day I really wanted to walk around and meet some of the locals, make some new friends and pen-pals. We found some really nice people and they showed us some hidden treasures that not everyone knows about, then they took us to get, what many say, is the best gelato in the Rome. After that I through a coin backwards over my shoulder into the world famous Trevi fountain, then we headed back to the room to get some much needed R&R.
Today could be compared to Ke$ha's (kesha's) new song TiK ToK, "tik tok, on the clock but the party don't stop, no oh,oh oh. Don't stop...". Carpe Diem (seize the day), for now this is Nicholas Banford a.k.a. Van Wilder with your Roman Report. \=~)))))

OFF TO THE RACES

As we got off the plane we quickly scurried off to our quaint, perfectly centered, hotel room in the perfect location (in relevance to all the sites and attractions) to drop off our belongings. Our docent was great, he was easy to talk to, gave very relevant yet interesting information, and kept us engaged the whole time.
Three things that he told us that stuck out to me were, the three branches of government, and how many similarities there are to American government, slaves rights, and how they become slaves, and the last thing was the Colosseum. The Colosseum was built around 72A.D. and construction lasted approximately 8 years. The Colosseum had tunnels under the floor where they would transport the animals and gladiators before the fights. Also that seating was based on class (rich at the bottom and poor at the top) and perhaps the most interesting fact of all, the Colosseum could be FILLED WITH WATER to reenact sea battles!
Rome has some amazing sites to see and I'm only on day one, I recommend that everyone read this and visit this marvelous city, that is key to our way of life. Till tomorrow this Nicholas Banford a.k.a. Van Wilder signing off. \=~))))

Sullivan on Saturday

My first Rome seminar: Roman History with Mr. Sullivan. I would normally dread having to wake up at 8am and get ready to walk to school on a Saturday, though this particular morning I was excited. I love History. I am one who enjoys good fun facts, and today has been full of them.

Once we had all arrived we jumped right into reviewing over our Rome Timelines. It was comforting to be sitting around one another and seeing how much hard work went into our timelines, and how we each brought our own individuality into it. It made me better understand the people I will be spending my next few Saturdays with.

Soon after talking about our timelines, and learning our roman numerals, we got right into Sullivan's lesson. Good thing we had done our timelines before his class, knowing the back stories made it easier to understand and go deeper into the history. We talked of Romulus, The Punic Wars, The Republic, Popes, Caesar, buildings, art work, dreams of swords shaped like the cross on fire, the Black Death, Dan Brown books, and so much more. Sullivan's pronunciation of Italian words, his booming voice acting as if he were Ballio (from Plautus, Pseudolus, Act. 1, Sc. 2.), his way of showing us we cannot really fathom what it is like to be standing in one place and having three huge buildings all built in completely different time periods surround us, made me ecstatic that I may get the opportunity to feel that feeling he was trying so hard to describe. It is interesting how little things can make you feel so inspired to do great things.

My family is very Italian, I always knew it but I had never realized just how much until Mrs. Everett and Mr. Sullivan had talked to us about modern Rome. Sleeping in and staying out late, sitting down for a 3 hour meal, some people think this is odd, but upon hearing this I felt, "Rome is the place for me!" I felt a since of belonging just hearing about the way life is there. There was so much that impressed me today, besides realizing I love Rome and I have not yet even been. It was of course the odd little fun facts that caught my attention: how the hole at the top of the Pantheon lets no rain in, how Hannibal traveled from Carthage up to the north of Italy with elephants just for the element of surprise, how the Coliseum has parts of it missing because after it was no longer in use the Romans recycled the building to build others, and how when the Coliseum was in use it held water battles.

Today has been a good day, despite the waking up early. I would have to say the best part of my first seminar was learning so much interesting history that made me realize how much I want to travel and how much I appreciate every detail of the amazing city of Rome. Plus Mr. Sullivan giving us chocolate at the end of class was a nice bonus.

-Kathleen Snook

Rome Right Before My Eyes!

Today started bright and early. I woke up at 8:00 A.M. with Rome on my mind. After a quick stop for breakfast at McDonalds, I rushed to school to be on time for my first seminar. The purpose for this seminar was to learn about the history of Rome. I thought I learned a lot about Rome when I created my time line, but I learned a lot more today. During the seminar I was refreshed about geography and my religion. In Mr. Sullivan’s class, we looked through everyone’s time lines and pointed out the important events. Everyone’s time lines where creative and informational. It was shocking to know that some of the history of Rome was based off of myths and not facts. For example the founders of Rome, Romulus and Remus were believed to be raised by a wolf, which isn’t possible.

One thing that impressed today was that slavery existed way before the type of slavery I knew. It was interesting to know that the slavery back then wasn’t based on race or possessions. Any one could become a slave, even if they were once rich because if you were captured in was you were enslaved. It also impressed me that Christians that were persecuted where killed in an entertaining way in Rome’s Colosseum for the entire community to watch in enjoyment.

Lastly, what shocked me was the fact that some Popes couldn’t read. Without them being able to read it allowed them to make things up to their beliefs, which caused corruption. For example, people believed that the good went to heaven and the bad went to hell, but Pope’s had them believe that their was an in between a “waiting room” where God decided for the people who were in between good and bad or hadn’t had the chance to be either. Therefore, the Pope would tell the people that if they would pay money or indulgences it would quicken the time their loved one would have to wait in the between.

The first seminar really informed me with interesting information. I didn’t expect three hours to go by so quickly. The day ended with some blog practice a piece of Ghirardelli chocolate and some interesting videos about the history of Rome being uploaded to my iPod for me to watch in my free time. I’m excited about the next Rome seminar.

--Kaneisha King

Rome Unveiled

Tre’von Walker

ii/xiii/x

Rome Unveiled

Today I attended Mr. Sullivan’s Rome history seminar. The seminar was really just a recap of Rome history because a lot of it I already knew from the studying I did for the Rome timeline. We learned just about everything from religion to gelato.

The significant things to me were the things I didn’t know already. One of them in particular was the three Punic wars. Mr. Sullivan referred to them as the first Cold Wars. Another thing I found interesting was the fact that the first people in Rome were the Etruscans. He also explained to us that throughout Rome’s history slaves were majority of the population. We also learned about the treatment of slaves and how they had rights which is way different than the slavery that I’m used to learning about.

Another significant part of the class was learning the Roman numeral system because it’s something that I always wanted to learn about. My favorite part of the class was seeing the pictures of the pagan buildings and how they turned into churches. It was interesting because those pagan/church buildings were right next to Egyptian columns which is a complete contradiction.

Welcome to the 2010 Context Travel Rome Fellowship Blog

This blog is created for the students applying for the Context Travel Rome Fellowship. We created this blog so that students could provide writing samples based on a blog style layout. One of the requirements for the student winner is to keep up a blog during their trip to Rome. We decided to have this component as part of the competition for applicants to see how well they do completing assigned writings. Please feel free to give feedback to the applicants as they post over the next few weeks.

May the writing begin....