Endings and New Beginnings

Friday 7/30/10

Latin Teacher on the Appian Way

 This is it, the last official day of our N.E.H. Program, and the last day that all the participants will spend together, although many of us will take in the sights of Rome during this weekend, since the flight back for Rome is not until Monday. I meet my son, Matthew, in the morning, of course, and after our weekend together in Rome, we will be meeting up at the Villa Vergiliana program for a bus ride back to Campania and more educational touring, thanks to the Fund for Teachers and the Rural School and Community Trust, which are underwriting my portion of the next two-week trip.

 The morning we traveled by coach to the House of the Quintilii. This house excited me because it was once the property of Marcus Tullius Cicero's best friend, Atticus. It has had a long history. At one point two remarkably admirable brothers, the Quintilii, owned it, until they were suspected of a plot against the throne by Emperor Commodus. They were killed and their property confiscated by Commodus. The property then became Commodus' favorite property in Rome. He expanded it to suit his tastes. We walked around just to get an idea of its immensity. The bath complex has traces of marble floors and columns and the hypocaust or heating system.

Statue of Zeus

Next we headed for the Via Appia Antica, the ancient road that led from Rome to Capua and eventually to Brundisium. Along the way we stopped at the Villa of Maxentius, the Roman Emperor who ruled with and eventually fought against Constantine the Great at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge; he obviously lost. He died in 312 A.D. His son, Romulus', tomb is also on the property; Romulus is obviously not the same guy who founded Rome in the 8th Century B.C. The most interesting part of the villa is the Circus of Maxentius, smaller than the Circus Maximus but better preserved. It is “the only Roman Circus in existence in which all of the architectural components are still well preserved,” according to the brochure. It seems huge when you stand in it: it could hold 10,000 spectators. But this is puny compared to the Circus Maximus, which could hold 150,000 spectators.

 Finally, we went to the Mausoleum of Caecilia Metella. She was a wealthy relative of (we think) the wealthy Crassus of the First Triumvirate. The Metelli were a prominent family of the first Century B.C.,  and the tomb was built around 30 B.C. Tombs, by Roman custom and law, had to be built outside the city, so the Appian Way was lined with them. The group also walked past the museum and mausoleum to the part of the Appian Way that still has some of the large, ancient Roman paving stones, and we took turn taking our pictures as we stood on them.

 For more pictures of any of the above, visit this set on Flickr.

Sharing a Laugh at Pompey's Theater

Tonight we went to a dinner-party in the substructure of Pompey's Theater. It was sad to be together for the last time as a group, but we had a lot of fun. Sister Therese, Sister Theresa, and Tom made up a “final exam” for us. They gave us hints from the trip, and we had to figure out which member of the group the comment belonged to. One person was so gregarious she spent lots of time talking to the Carabinieri, or military police, for example. I was the person who could not get enough of archaeology  from this experience and so had signed up for two more weeks in Southern Italy. That one was easy for everyone to guess. As people's names were guessed, Tom handed out their certificates and letters of participation. I have to take good care of mine, because I need it for CEUs for recertification in Latin back in North Carolina. This program was worth three graduate courses, according to the paperwork. That should more than take care of my CEUs in my content area.

 Jessica gave the Sisters and Tom some framed photos of the group. The picture was taken in front of Cicero's Tomb and came out nice. Each frame was a little different, and all three were wrapped in paper that Susan had hand-decorated. Wendy presented them with information about a cat that the group adopted from the program at Largo Argentina. We will be supporting this cat for the coming year. He is Feline HIV positive, is easily frightened, and is having a hard time finding a home. Allen and Ryan did a top ten stand-up comedy routine that was pretty funny, especially when Kaitlyn, our former Poppaea, acted the part of a rather bad tour guide we had suffered through in Etruria, rambling on about things we already knew or didn't want to know in broken English. Justin Short wowed everybody with a little poem he wrote about our trip that was inspired by Ovid and the tradition of the lover complaining to the lover's door that won't open for him. It's an actual genre. 

Sister Therese told the group that we are not allowed to apply for future NEH programs at her school, but if any of us ever applies to another NEH Institute, to have her write us a recommendation. She said we were a fantastic group and that she would write a “recommendation for any” of us “for anything.” I have to admit, that comment brought a tear to my eye. It has been that fantastic a group and that fantastic an experience. I hope we stay in touch through email, Facebook, or some other means.

 When we get home we have been asked to submit to Sister Therese through Blackboard a final project as well as to take the NEH Evaluation Survey that will be linked to the group's blackboard site. I'll try to take care of these things shortly after I get back.

 I got a quick call from Don tonight to tell me that Matthew's flight for tomorrow is being bounced around by Continental Airlines. He said Matthew called to tell him his plane might be a half hour late or the flight might be four hours late at this point. I told him I'll go to the airport for the time Matthew was originally expected and wait as long as I have to. Don will call me if for some reason this plane is not expected tomorrow. I hope things go well and our plans for the day and evening don't get too messed up. I'll wait for him and read, I guess. 

I can't wait to see him here in Rome!

My heartfelt appreciation goes out to the National Endowment for the Humanities for making four wonderful weeks of academic study in Italy a reality for me.
 

Beginnings in Maryland

 My Italy adventures during the summer of 2010 began in late June at Notre Dame of Maryland University. I traveled to Baltimore by Amtrak train and was met by a representative of the campus, who took me and my bags by car to a pleasant residence hall. The two Roman Catholic nuns who were running the program were Sr. Therese Dougherty and Sr. Theresa Lamy. Therese, in general, ran the academic end of the program, and Sr. Theresa ran the administrative end. Both were helpful, kind, and wonderful! The campus was lovely as well. The summer study program they ran had been funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Sr. Therese

Sr. Theresa

About five months before my adventures began, my Walker Hound accidentally knocked me down while he was playing with his friend, a standard poodle mix. Walkers are fast, powerful animals, and he tackled me in the left knee with his shoulder. The pain was incredible, and my knee has never been 100% right since then. My orthopedist, Dr. Shall, suspected he knocked my patella (kneecap) out of place.

When I started this program, I was still in pain, undergoing physical therapy, taking drugs, and doing all kinds of exercises to strengthen the knee and relieve my suffering. For a while there was doubt, at least in my mind, about whether I could even accept the grants. But Dr. Shall cleared me to go. He told me that if I continued to do my exercises every day I would be 80% better by the time I got back from Italy.

I had doubts, and so did my fellow participants. When I arrived at the campus I walked from our dormitory across the parking lot to the dining hall slowly and with great difficulty. I had traveled to Italy on summer study back in the 1980s, so I knew this trip was not going to be for he faint of limb or faint of heart. But I was determined to give it my best shot and not to hold other participants up.

In the end, Dr. Shall was right. Not only did I make it through the program, but it was actually therapeutic for me. I avoided surgery by doing the exercises. And all the walking, hiking, and stair-climbing I did on this trip strengthened my knee. My time in the summer Italian sun was much less depressing than visiting the physical therapist, too. I even managed to climb Mt. Vesuvius during my second visit, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

I wish doctors could prescribe similar trips, perhaps with a stay at one of Europe's many health-spa resorts, to patients with symptoms similar to mine. If not exactly restful, my summer was certainly healthful for mind, body, and soul. For more images of the campus, visit this Flickr set.

 I should also mention that I spent quite a few months learning some phrasebook Italian. I can't recommend enough at least a little Italian for anybody who plans to spend time in the country. Anyone who has toured the country and told you that most people speak English is WRONG. This is true of the tourist-traps, but not the rest of the country. Besides, it's just polite to learn a little about the language and customs before you go. The most useful thing I did was to pick up some Berlitz Italian CDs in a local discount/close-out store. I listened to these over and over during the course of several weeks, mostly as I was falling asleep. When I felt comfortable I knew the whole disc, I would play them in my car as I traveled back and forth to work, reciting the Italian out loud and playing each section over and over until I was pretty confident I could make myself understood.

It worked pretty well. The main drawback to this method is that you speak enough Italian, and decently enough, that folks that you speak to in Italy actually think you understand Italian. They'll talk to you a mile a minute, and you're not well prepared to follow what they're saying unless you get lucky and they hit something you've practiced in a script. But if you live, like I did, in a spot where it's impossible to take an inexpensive course, it's better than nothing. Even if you take a course, practicing scripted dialogues helps you develop your listening skills and pronunciation. I highly recommend it.

I would like to thank the folks at the National Endowmnent for the Humanities for making this portion of my trip possible.

Background Information

I am a Latin teacher. Until the summer of 2011 I worked in communities with high poverty rates, either urban or rural, most recently in North Carolina. Toward the end of this time, North Carolina, in its infinite wisdom--please note the sarcasm here-- decided to make staff development in one's content area mandatory for renewing teaching licenses. Finding high-quality staff development in Latin near home or at an affordable price turned out to be nearly impossible.

Desperate, I applied for grant money from three different organizations for summer study in Italy. I was lucky enough to land two of them. Hence, an awful situation turned into a learning experience of a lifetime as I spent a week in Maryland, preparing for the trip, and then six glorious weeks in Italy. Funding for Maryland and the first four-week program in Italy came through the National Endowment for the Humanities. Funding for a the two-week program, which dove-tailed perfectly with the first one, came through the Fund for Teachers and the Rural School and Community Trust. The two-week tour was with the Vergilian Society. Our groups studied mostly in Rome and its environs and in Southern Italy, especially Campania and the surrounding islands of Capri and Ischia. We also made forays into Etruria to study the ancient Etruscans.

I originally blogged about this trip for the benefit of my students and of students everywhere. It was also part of a requirement for the second grant. That blog is no longer available, so as I have time I plan to re-construct my adventures as much as possible from my original notes and digital photographs.