Monday I started my internship at Nessuno Tocchi Caino, a non-profit agency which is concerned with abolishing the death penalty world-wide. It's a pretty interesting place. It's also part of il Partito Radicale, one of the political parties in Italy, so I get to see some Roman politics as well as work in the Nessuno Tocchi Caino headquarters. So far, I have been there three times and my only job has been to read about what they have done in the past year and summarize it in a letter for their English speaking followers. I have learned so much! For instance, I didn't realize the United States is the only country in the Americas that still allows the death penalty and Virginia is second only to Texas in the number of yearly executions. It makes me sick to think that Americans can be so advanced yet so, incredibly backwards. It's depressing to see, when it comes to the death penalty, the United States on the same level as China, Iraq, Cuba, and North Korea. Hopefully I'll be following death penalty cases in Virginia for the rest of the semester. We'll see. My boss hasn't really told me anything. I was pretty sure she didn't like me...until today.
Usually, she talks to me in English so I respond in English but then at the end of the day she'll say things like "Tomorrow, let's speak more in Italian". I just get confused because when I try to speak Italian she goes straight to English. Today however, I refused to speak English. She really liked it...I think. She is very hard to read. She doesn't smile, laugh or give me any indication that she likes me. Today she looked pleased when I told her I had already finished the letter (plus, I told her in Italian. That might have made a difference). As long as I continue to default to Italian I think my time at my internship will be fine.
The man who sits next to me, Sandro, is hilarious. It became very clear to me almost immediately that he does not like his job there at all. He sat staring at his computer for a couple hours, went to get coffee and a brownie, came back half an hour later, stared at his computer some more and then packed up at least half an hour early. I really like him. He wrote me a note saying "You seem so interested. I think it's so boring. :-)". It was a very welcome note. At this point on my first day I was feeling kind of lonely since no one in the office was talking to me and I was just reading their website and yearly report. He's my new best friend. He just doesn't know it yet. I also think he is going to be my boss since he is in charge of researching the death penalty in the United States. I'm pretty excited for next week.
Also this week I had my first field studies. For my art history class we went to Santa Cecilia in Trastevere. I didn't the the particular artwork we were studying was all that interesting but it was great to get out of the classroom! The church was beautiful and had an awesome fountain in front of it. It was neat to so somewhere so close to my apartment that I would have never found by myself.
Today, for my archaeology class, we went to the Roman Forum. Since it's my favorite place to go in Rome I loved it! It was nice to get our own guided tour. I now know which buildings are which and I have a general idea of what they probably looked like. I can't wait to go back and explore it some more! The only downside to today was that it was ridiciulously hot! I made the mistake of wearing jeans today because it was so chilly this morning. I was dying by the end of the two hours in the sun. Thankfully I had a lot of water with me. Next time I have a field study I know to dress appropriately!
Today we also had a surprise field study in Italian. I'm not sure what our field study had to do with our class but it was pretty cool. We went to a church that was full of skeletons. It was called Chiesa di Santa Maria dell'orazione e morte (the church of prayer and death). Apparently the monks would go around and collect dead bodies off the street and give them a proper funeral. It was a bizarre church. The crypt had walls of skulls, a cross made of skulls, a skull shrine, and the chandeliers were made of human bones. My professor kept saying "Questa chiesa e' molto creepy" (this church is very creepy). Again, I'm not sure what this has to do with my Italian class but it was another interesting church I would have never found on my own.
One last thing I saw today... Of course it has to do with riding the bus. That's where I get to see the most interesting things in Rome. While I was waiting for the bus to go to my internship I saw a young African boy (probably my age) waiting for my bus. A woman got off a bus and handed him her leftover ticket since it was still good. I already know that most of the Africans and South Asians on the bus don't have tickets but I thought it was extremely kind of that woman to give that young man her ticket. It would have been just as easy to throw it away without any concern for him. I was moved. The Italians can be very kind.
Here are all my pictures from the past few days: Field Studies
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