Safe and sound!

Just a quick heads up that we’ve made it to the hotel in Agrigento! We’re all slap happy and tired and more than a little bit haggard, but we’re all here (and so is all of our luggage!). More details to follow as soon as one of our staff writers can form a semi-coherent sentence.

-Italy 2012 Crew

Arrivederci, America!

This week, we 23 Italian adventurers are in the midst of something.  Something which every college student has experienced, and which every college student has survived (or so I’m told): a Hell week.  A Hell week is defined as a 5 to 7 day period in a college student’s life where, through no fault of his or her own, enormous amounts of work seem to have piled up and must be dealt with quickly.  Hell weeks are often characterized by large amounts of bad coffee, falling asleep in random places, and being forcibly removed from the library at closing time.  I can’t speak for everyone, but I’ve personally run into quite a few familiar faces on my own late-night coffee runs.

Following a test last Friday, our last week of classes has consisted of 3 papers: a 4-6 page one about some aspect of the Shakespeare plays we have read this term; a 5-page one about how Fascism impacted Italian culture; and a 10-12 page paper comparing any aspect of Venetian, Florentine, or Roman civilization with that same aspect of one of the other two cities.  So it’s safe to say that we’re all working on very different topics and time periods, from Fascism to Renaissance Florence to 18th century Venice.  It’s a TON of work to try to accomplish in one week, but we’re being helped a lot by our professors.  Several of our classes have been cancelled this week, and the extra time is a life-saver.

But, amidst all the crazy paper-writing and sleep-deprived commiseration, something else is happening.  Time is passing.  The trip is getting closer, even if we don’ have much time to be excited about it.  Last night, while I was hunkering down on the 6th page of one of my papers, the clock changed from 11:59 pm to midnight.  My friend, who is also going on the trip, looked at me and said: “You know what that means?  3 days!”

3 days!  3 days until the 23 of us, along with 2 of our professors, will be on a plane to Italy!  Despite all of the work, the mood in our classes is changing.  We’re beginning to realize that this is really happening, and that the past six weeks of papers, presentations, reading, and extra class have all been worth it.   Concrete details are emerging.  We found out some of the menus for what we’ll be eating next week (yes, NEXT WEEK!), and some of us are already planning side trips to places like London and Switzerland.  We’ve all been discussing the weather and what we’ll be packing to combat it.  Last minute details are being attended to: banks have been called, shoes have been waterproofed, and driving arrangements to the airport have been made.

We really are leaving!  In 3 days, no less!   So arrivederci America; the next time you hear from us, we’ll (finally) be in beautiful, beautiful Italia.

– Lacey Brantley
Blog Team
Italy 2012

Eh, Cumpari!

By now, you know a little about the 23 of us and about our program itself, but it might help to know a little about what these past few weeks on campus have been like.  We’re in class each day from 11:30 or 12:30 until between 4 and 5, with a short break between classes for lunch and last-minute reading.  We have four classes—Roman Civilization, Modern Italian History, Shakespeare’s Europe, and Italian Publics—and to a large extent these classes are student-driven. We are responsible, for example, for leading discussion in English class and for presenting on the daily reading in our classics and communications classes.

The work-load (several hundred pages of reading each week, plus papers, presentations, and tests) can be overwhelming, but it can also be immensely rewarding. The things we’re learning in one course reinforce what we’re learning in every other course, and in only a few weeks, we’ve learned an incredible amount about the culture and history of Italy.

We’ve even picked up a little Italian along the way! This week, we had an introductory Italian lesson from the head of the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures. Throughout the semester, we’ve slowly been learning a few basic Italian words and phrases, but this was by far our most intense and most extensive lesson. All things considered, I think we’re doing rather well; we can say good morning and good night, and we can count to 23. That’s all we’ll need to know… right?

Now, as impossible as it seems, we only have two more weeks on campus. Two more weeks of classes and presentations and papers. Two more weeks until this adventure we’ve been looking forward to for over a year finally begins.

Somewhere between studying Petrarch and the Roman Empire, between watching Italian movies and learning “Eh Cumpari!” (“Hey Friend,” an Italian novelty song with a frustratingly catchy beat), I’ve realized I’m surrounded by 22 truly amazing people. And looking around the classroom each afternoon, I know there is no other group with whom I would rather share this experience.

Two more weeks. I think I speak for everyone when I say… I can’t wait!

Brian Neumann
Blog Team
Italy 2012

The Adventure Begins… Almost

WE LEAVE IN THREE WEEKS!!!!!!!!!

Sorry, we’re only a little excited. And we hope you are too! This blog is the perfect place to keep up with our class while we’re in Italy! But first our group has to survive… I mean, complete 7 weeks of classes at Furman. Today we start the three-week-countdown to departure! So while we’re waiting here’s a little bit more about us…

We are 23 Furman students (21 girls and 2 boys to be exact!) and 4 Furman professors dedicating our spring semester to the in-depth study of Italy through History, Communications, Classics, and English. Sticking to the Liberal Arts tradition boasted by many aspects of Furman University, our group is first and foremost DIVERSE. About half of us are History, English, and Communications majors. And the rest represent areas like: Business, Psychology, Religion, Sociology, Health Science, and Biology! Regardless of these differences, all of us have come together this term to study and explore the country of Italy: the history, the rhetoric, the influences that shaped its people and land, and the impact it has had on the the world.

Before we leave, we’ll have exams to take, presentations to make, and papers to turn in… But in three short weeks, we’ll board a plane to Rome and start the adventure we’ve been anticipating since last spring. Once in Italy, we will visit over 20 cities in 51 days (that’s just a tad over 7 weeks abroad by the way) experiencing everything from Ancient Rome to Facist Florence and Modern Milan!

We leave on February 26th and return on April 16th. In that time, we will be updating this blog to document our adventures. Don’t worry, we’ll post lots of pictures too! We hope you enjoy traveling through Italy with us! If you have questions or requests, please feel free to comment below.

Thanks so much for reading! We’ll post again soon. 🙂

~Rachel von Gnechten
Blog Team
Italy 2012