St. Peter's

(Yes, this post is abnormally late - I apologize. We've all been super-busy recently)

This morning we took a trip back to the Vatican to visit St. Peter's Basilica. There was quite a lengthy line (per usual), but once again Prof. Schultz got us straight to the front. And we didn't even have any troubles with the security this time! The dress policy at St. Peter's (which is clearly explained by a handy visual sign) is quite strictly enforced; we saw a number of unlucky tourists pulled aside due to their (lack of) clothing.

Anyways, the interior of St. Peter's is absolutely breathtaking. As large and grand as the previous churches we've seen on trip may be, this one takes the cake. In fact, the nave lengths of other churches are marked on the floor of St. Peter's, just to give you an idea of how other churches could fit entirely inside the interior space.

The lighting inside is magnificent, and all of the artwork is sculpture or mosaic (no paintings = flash photography approved, for once). The 350-foot tall ceiling makes people look like ants. St. Peter's houses a number of very significant relics and an immeasurable wealth of artwork. Being inside, you really get the sense that St. Peter's Basilica is worthy of being the center of the Roman Catholic Church.

After a spinach/mozzarella sandiwch for lunch, we reconvened in the conference room for the first round of presentations for our Migration and Markets class. We've been working in groups on different projects which investigate the experience of immigrants in Italy. The different projects include a novella, a magazine, a photo essay, and volunteer work at the Joel Nafuma Refugee Center.

I'm a member of the photo essay team, along with Emily, Katie, Zinnia, Daniel, Roman, and Shurui. We presented a collection of 30 photos we'd taken of immigrants, their activities, and their work. The novella and magazine groups also presented; I was quite impressed with both. All of the projects collectively show just how much we've learned about Italian immigration on the macroscopic and microscopic levels in just a few short weeks. And yet they also show us how far removed we are from the lives that so many immigrants face. We get to hop on a plane to Istanbul in a few days. They don't. Many of them hope to get citizenship, or a job, or just a hot meal and a place to stay.

David, Daniel, and Roman made wine chicken with green beans and mashed potatoes for dinner today. The wine gave the chicken good flavor, and the mashed potatoes were very smooth and garlic-y (and the green beans were... just green beans...).

After dinner I set to work writing researched mini-essays to complement my selected pictures in the photo essay. We'll each be writing about each of our chosen photos, and compiling them into a nice, unified package. We're hoping to have the finished, polished product of our photo essay in a week or two. Stay tuned.

*time to get back to work!*