Rome's Learning Methods

I get to hang out with dead people!  Am I the only one who thinks that is awesome?  Yes?  Ah well.

Classes finally started this week, and my journey of learning continues on and on.  With four of my classes on campus, I have to somehow find a way to expand my attention span to three hours for each class, which is difficult in it of itself.  At least here in the classroom the method of learning is the same as in Pittsburgh.  I can't say the same for anything outside of the classroom.

It is fact that I am a visual learner.  I pick up on new things by reading it in a book, seeing it in a picture, even observing my surroundings.  So I can get by pretty well as long as I write things down as I learn so I can see them later.  Yet Rome has thrown me into situation where visual learning is frowned upon.  Take Italian for example.  Wednesday I had the wonderful opportunity to visit an Italian High school and make friends with Italian students that were learning English.  The students were so nice and so friendly.  However, I wasn't too happy with the communication barrier.  My group partner and I were trying to learn new Italian words, and I did, kind of, but when all I'm doing is hearing the word and what it means, even after repeating it over and over, I still forget.  I must have learned 15 new Italian words that day, but forgot them all after leaving.  I may need to get my hands on an Italian dictionary.  Nevertheless, that won't help me very well because in order to learn how to say phrases, I actually need to know how things are said by listening to them.  It will be very difficult never having learned to speak another language before.  It's kind of frustrating, and I wish everything was in English.  But I'm keeping an open mind, so maybe the Italian language won't be too bad.


At least dead people can speak in a language I understand.  I have two classes that meet onsite in Rome.  Both are wonderful and both also involve having to learn by listening as I struggle to take notes while walking through a museum while the professor is talking.  It'll take more adjustment, but at least I can write notes.  For one of these classes, Christian Art and Architecture, I had the chance to visit the Catacombs of Priscilla.  There I found the type of learning that I like the most.  Beneath the catacombs, it was dark and it was eerily warm and it was an endless maze of early Christian tombs  Our professor told tales of the persecution, and faith as strong as steel.  These people, despite the forces against them, found land to bury their dead so that their body could be ready for the resurrection of heaven.  I was walking amongst martyrs, popes and saints, besides the thousands of common faithful who surrendered to their faith.  I stood with an unexpected reaction.  My body literally wanted to jump up and down and spin around and squeal with uncontainable excitement.  There are very few moments were my heart has been happier.  Why?  At this moment, while standing there, taking in the stories, the beautiful visual paintings, and feeling the dark, warm ground beneath me, I learned about faith.  These people had a faith so strong, that it lingered in those catacombs, and my own faith connected with it.  It was as if they were literally standing next to me, giving me their passion for God.  I learned from them the most important lesson: what faith in God can do.  In the catacombs, they rest in peace with Christ in the resurrection, after a life of perseverance. 

So yes, I love hanging out with dead people.  They teach me the meaning behind what I am seeing in Rome.  Not through words, not through pictures, but merely through transferring their faith to me in holy places as these catacombs.  Thus I cannot wait to go to Assisi to walk the steps of St. Francis and St. Clare, or visit St. Peter at the Vatican.  The saints, though dead, are some of my favorite teachers, as I learn what true faith can accomplish. 

 On a different note, more postcard findings!  Both #2 and #3 from the scavenger hunt are from my day trip to Venice!  The first picture is a view of Isola di San Giorgio Maggiore from St. Mark's square!  For the second picture, I couldn't find that exact view of the entire city, but the postcard has Venice and gondolas in it, so thus there is a picture of Venice and gondolas!