Tag Archives: Culture Differences

Bush Week and beyond

“How ya goin?” That’s one of the top said phrases over here. Just a simple combo between how’s it going and how ya doing. Pretty streamlined! Australians tend to shorten as much as they can. Not with acronyms or anything like the U.S., but with normal daily words. Sunglasses, for example, are sunnies. It’s fun!

So Bush Week was last week and was quite the scene. We had cultural coffee night, Aussie-style barbeque, trivia night, Christmas in July party, and a big welcome dinner for all the new students. The highlight of Bush Week, however, was Drag Night. There were so many participants who went all out for it!! I don’t think this would happen in America. The acceptance of cross-dressing, at least on the college level, is much greater than I expected. There were at least one hundred or so students who dressed in the opposite gender’s attire and had a ball! The guys especially really seemed to love their new found freedom… Everyone got very into it!

Classes are going well so far. For each class, I have one or two lectures per week, and a one or two hour tutorial. The tutorials are small break out classes designed to ensure we understand the material that we covered in lecture. It’s a good system, but different from what I’ve had at Penn State. Thanks to a small campus in Erie, I’ve grown used to classes averaging around forty people. The tutorials are like this, but the lectures are almost two hundred people sometimes. At University Park, students are used to that, but it’s still a change for me!

One good thing over here though is the textbook situation. Never have I ever had a professor not assign a book because he doesn’t have the damage to the environment from book production on his conscience. Unlike the usual $600-800 on books per semester, I finally spent less than $200. It’s great! The United States should pick this idea up quickly…

This coming week, the Bollywood Dance class that I signed up for starts. That will certainly be an experience! The most I’ve done is a bellydancing class once, so this should be an expansion of that for sure!

This coming weekend I’m going to Melbourne. I promise I’ll have pictures up for that trip! I’m taking an overnight bus down on Friday, staying at the Melbourne Central YHA for three nights, then coming back up Tuesday morning with Virgin Blue. While I’m there, I plan to go to the Melbourne Crickets Grounds to see an AFL game on Saturday night. I might also learn how to kite board! I’ll blog all about it once I get back.

Catch ya!

Location: Canberra, Australia

Cuetzalan School

Hello all! I know there haven’t been very regular updates to my blog, so I’m hoping to try to catch up a little bit this last week I’m here in M�xico. I’ve had different issues – ranging from technical difficulties uploading to simply not having a lot of free time in which to write!

Anyways, this blog is primarily about our final “fieldtrip” while here in M�xico. Last weekend (Friday – Sunday) we visited a tiny mountain town in the state of Puebla called Cuetzalan. The town has a school that Penn State is “partners” with, and that we had the opportunity to visit. It was pretty amazing. The whole village is set way up in the mountains here (it took us 4 hours to drive there in our tour bus). The scenery is gorgeous, and because of its location, the climate is closer to tropical than anything I’ve experienced so far while I’ve been here. But here’s the play-by-play…

Friday Morning:

Up at 7:30am to meet up as a group to get on our tourbus and head for the mountain town of Cuetzalan. The schedule for today is to drive deep into the Sierra Madres to visit a tiny school for the people who live in this amazing location. My understanding is that Penn State helps this school out with occasional funding, faculty exchange, and gifts and in return they allow us to visit when we do our study abroad program here in the state of Puebla. I didn’t really know what to expect for this school, but it was something so outside of my realm of experience, I don’t know that I could have been completely prepared for it.

To see a third-world type educational institution on TV or in a magazine is a thoroughly different experience than visiting one in real life. While at the school we saw a powerpoint presentation on their computer (their ONE computer and projector…) that was pictures of previous visits to the school. And they fed us lunch – a hamburger, fries, and homemade coleslaw. As we ate, our professor remarked that this was most likely more food than most of the families saw in a day, certainly much, much more than they normally received at school.

After we walked through the cement block school, that had maybe five or ten different classrooms, we went down to their “gym” an outdoor cement basketball court/soccer field. They did a variety of traditional dances for us, and thanked us for the gifts we had brought them (plates, bowls, soccer balls, colored paper, pens and pencils). After that, a bunch of our group played soccer with a bunch from the school. Despite what you’d consider our height and weight advantages (as we’re all twentysomethings and they’re malnourished kids between the ages of 10 and 16), they kicked our butts at soccer. I think everyone had fun, though, which was more the point of the activity. J

After that, they did this fantastic thing where they build these giant paper balloons (out of a waxy crepe paper that we bought them), insert a wire ring with a rag soaked in gas and on fire, and then send them up into the sky. A miniaturized hot air balloon. It was a really neat thing to watch, and the balloons floated all the way up and out of sight behind the clouds as we were getting ready to go.

All in all, it was a pretty incredible day…one that made me extraordinarily grateful for my education and the opportunities I’ve had in my life. The kids at that school have an impossible road ahead of them, and most won’t make it out of the mountain towns in which they live. A lot don’t even have a proper house, and are hanging on only by a thread. I wish the best for them, and am glad that Penn State, for all its flaws, is doing some little good somewhere in the world, at least. We need to do more.

TO BE CONTINUED…

Location: Zaragoza No. 12 Cuetzalan, Puebla, México

Home, Sweet Home

Well, I have been home for about a week now and it is crazy how hard it was to re-adjust to life in the US. I thought it was going to be easy coming back and picking back up right where I left off–buuuut, no. It was hard to adjust to my real family’s eating schedule. When my dad would sit down for lunch at 11:30am and ask me if I wanted to join him, I was no where near hungry because we never ate lunch until 4pm in Mexico. It was extremely hot here in Lancaster, PA when I got home as well. And it wasn’t just hot, it was humid as well and we have no air conditioning–so that was fairly similar to Mexico. It was tiring but cool to see everyone and everyone wanted to know all about my experiences and see all my pictures. I could not help telling them all how it was such a great experience and about everything that I learned. Because traveling abroad and studying in Mexico was a chance of a lifetime for me and something I am so glad that I took advantage of. I met so many new people and had the opportunity to see how another culture lives and breathes and functions outside the US. It was amazing and I miss my host family so much and the other students that I met there and the relaxing life that the people of Guanajuato led.

Location: Lancaster, Pennsylvania

Oaxaca

Hi all! I know it’s been awhile since you all heard from me, so this might be a longer sort of post to make up for that! J

Here’s what I’ve been up to –

Last Thursday our entire study abroad group loaded up onto our tour bus at 8am to drive four hours to the Mexican state of Oaxaca. We were going to check out some historical sites, some native artisan crafts, and also just to explore another of Mexico’s cities.

The first thing we did upon our arrival in Oaxaca around 12:30pm was to tour what was one of the most ancient and largest cities in the region – Monte Alb�n. Monte Alb�n was built by the Zapotecs and Mixtec cultures and was a thriving metropolis around 500 AD. We got to hike around a couple of the remaining stone structures and learned a little bit about the customs, daily life, and religious ceremonies of these peoples. It was really interesting. Also really really warm and sunny on the mountaintop. You can see the village for miles around in Oaxaca Valley.

Sadly, I left my camera on the bus for this first day of our trip, so there are no pics for you to enjoy. There will be a few of the following days, however, so stay tuned.

After we toured Monte Alb�n we checked into our hotel in the actual city of Oaxaca. It was really nice. I didn’t take a picture, but here’s the link – that’ll show you pretty much anything you wanted to see.

http://www.hoteloaxacadorado.com/

We stayed in this hotel the entire time we were in Oaxaca, and it was great. I even got in the pool. (A big step for me, but it was in the 90s, and a girl’s gotta cool off.)

Anyways, for the rest of “Day 1” I pretty much just chilled out in my hotel room with the fan and the TV. We supposedly have a pretty huge day tomorrow, so I didn’t want to overdo it right off the bat.

Friday was even longer and bigger than I expected.

I got up bright and early and started out the morning having breakfast with my prof. and one other earlybird student at the z�calo in Oaxaca.

A “z�calo” is a town square type idea that all Mexican cities have. And the bigger the city, the bigger the z�calo. To give you a better idea of sizes, the zocalo in Oaxaca was pretty “small” for a zocalo. Puebla’s is bigger, and I’ve heard that the one in M�xico City is huge because the z�calo there is basically all of what was once Tenochtitlan, the ancient Aztec city. But that’s another city and a story for next week. (After we’ve been.)

After my breakfast of hotcakes and caf� Americano, we headed back to our tourbus to begin the day (about half an hour later than the rest of the group…oops. I’ve learned to add quantities of time to everything here in Mexico.)

Today we were supposed to visit these ancient historical ruins called Yagul and Mitla, but we discovered about halfway into our drive that the road to Mitla was closed because of a bus strike. So, we had to take an extra hour or so to turn around and do our itinerary for tomorrow instead.

Our first stop was a place where there was this family business (one of many in the Oaxaca area) of making pots and other assorted items out of this particular type of clay that turns black when cooked. It’s called barro negro, and is really gorgeous. I snapped a couple of pictures of our guide working on a pitcher that he made for us in a matter of minutes out of a lump of dry clay.

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The Middle

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Finished product.

Impressive, no?

I also bought a bunch of ridiculously cheap (but artistic and pretty!) souvenirs for my family.

Second stop of the day was at another artisan workshop where they make little wooden carvings called alebrijes. They’re made from specific kinds of wood and then painted in intricate detail.

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If you look at the above picture closely, you can see a grey kangaroo type creature with red detailing in the background, and a kind of red dragony looking creature in the foreground. Every single detail of paint is hand done. Needless to say, I bought more souvenirs here too. J Couldn’t resist.

After the alebrijes factory, it was about 3pm, and our group was really really hoping it was time for lunch. No dice. Our next stop on the tour was a mezcal factory. Mezcal is a type of homegrown Mexican tequila. Everyone I know who’s tasted it finds the stuff pretty hard to stomach, and burning going down. I took no pictures.

After the mezcal factory, we were so so so psyched for lunch, but we were told upon re-entering our tourbus that we were going to a tapete (weaving) place next. Despite my initial grumpiness and hunger, I thought the tapete place was fascinating. Here’re some pics.

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Blue rug with lizards. Dimensions were probably around 8ftx4ft (ish). Fully rug sized.

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See me be artistic with spools of thread. Booyah.

………..

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A partly finished butterfly (mariposa) rug on a loom. The view is a little skewed, so imagine that the butterfly part is flat and that the rest of the loom is perpendicular (if that makes sense).

I bought something here too. I love artsy stuff.

After the tapete place, we went to our first Mexican “chain” restaurant – an all-you-can-eat buffet. It was a scary version of Golden Corral. (If you are a parental unit, stop reading now.)

It’s basically like an open-air buffet where you have little to no idea about the sanitary conditions of the foods you’re eating, and no assurances that it’s safe except for the other hundred Mexicans eating it with you. Also, thousands of bees infesting all of the desserts. (To my cousin, if you read this, it was literally your worst nightmare. Bees in cake, and cookies. And everywhere.) The Mexicans eating here with us seemed totally unfazed by the bees and simply reached through the swarms to grab a fruit pie or a cookie, but the rest of us stared mostly in horror at the dessert array. I can’t say this was my favorite meal so far. Truth: Ignorance is bliss when it comes to food prep. and storage here. Definitely.

After “lunch” it was about 5pm when we arrived back at the hotel.

I took a quick swim in our hotel pool (fantastically refreshing) and then some friends and I went out around 9pm for “dinner” and drinks in the zocalo (city square with cafes).

At our dinner we discovered one of the best parts of Mexico, though probably also one of the most tragic. As we sat with drinks waiting for our food, dozens of Mexican street venders with jewelry, clothing, crafts, clayware, (basically any kind of homemade artisan good you can think of) came by to sell it to us. And many of their wares were really really gorgeous and unique. I don’t have pics of this evening (I should know by now that interesting things will happen everywhere and be photographically prepared), but it was amazing. I bought a few things, and thought about what the lives of these street venders must be like… It seems likely that they just go back to the barrios (Mexican projects) and try to get by on the little money they make street vending. It’s a hard life.

I bought a few things, but had to turn dozens more away.

I’ll probably be writing a future post about the class system here. It’s too big of a topic to cover here, and this is already a really long post.

Saturday and Sunday TO BE CONTINUED…

Location: Calzada Madero No. 224, Colonia Centro, C.P. 68000, Oaxaca de Juárez, Oaxaca, México

Giraffes, waterfalls and learning…Oh my!

I am now writing to you from the Udzungwa Ecological Monitoring Center in Mang’ula, Tanzania. We have been here since the afternoon of Monday May 24^th, 2010. The drive from Monogolo wasn’t too bad. Once we got closer to the national park the road started to get ridiculous with bumps, puddles and holes. I literally thought one of our tires was going to pop off and apparently that road is a lot better than some of the other ones in the area! Part of our drive here was on a road that went through Mikimi National Park. I am happy to say that along this road we had our first wild animal spotting! We are driving on the road and directly to our left, RIGHT next to the road was 2 giraffes! It is so amazing and weird to see this wild life on the side of the road; it is quite different from the deer and groundhogs I see at home! During the drive we also saw wild buffalo, small gazelle-like animals, zebras and many more giraffes. Next weekend we will be taking a weekend-long safari in that same park- I cannot wait!

Since we have been at the monitoring center we have been very bust. First of all – they defiantly are taking care of us here. We do have to deal with cold showers, no electricity (due do a broken transformer) and a really terrible internet connection but the food is great and accommodations are really good for the circumstances. The food usually consists of homemade giant bread rolls, yummy jams, fruit, coffee and tea in the morning and then rice (or beans) with some kind of vegetable or meat stew and a side of vegetables. The best thing is all the food is locally and organically grown. I have literally never had better vegetables – and this comes from a girl who is not a vegetable fan.

On our second day here, we went on a hike into the Udzungwa National Park. It was quite the hike! We only spent an hour and half going up but it was some steep climbing! Add in the heat factor and some major humidity and we were all tired and drenched in sweat. I must say the work was worth it though – once we got the peak of the trail we were at a huge waterfall. I would estimate the height to be about 150 ft. The power and wind that came off the falls was amazing and immediately helped to cool us down. If we hadn’t already been drenched from the rain that started during our hike we would have been soaked by the mist of the falls. Our guide told us we could go into the water and off our hiking boots and socks came! The water was cool but it was a good refresher. We stood under the falls and felt the pressure of the water on our backs. It was amazing and I was surprised of the force of the water. It was such an amazing, freeing moment – standing in the falls with the whole group after a hard hike up the mountain. It was my favorite moment here so far.

But it has not all been fun and games here, we have lots of work to do. We have been doing lots of readings to get acquainted with the culture and circumstances in Tanzania and having daily seminar meetings. Today we went around with a park worker to see the areas of park encroachment. The villages around here are really faced with a problem. Tons of people come here to live because the land is so fertile but then the population grows so quickly they need to expand. The problem is the valley is located right up next to the park so they barely have room to expand. They cannot build into the park and they cannot build further out because corporate sugar plantations are throughout the valley. This is one of the problems we have come here to work on – making community plans for these types of villages who are faced with tough decisions. The villagers also have a second problem of firewood. Currently they are allowed to the entire the park to collect the dead wood to use as firewood – the main source of energy in these small villages. The problem, however, has been that the removal of dead wood is affecting the national park because it takes away the habitat for bugs and small animals. As a result the national park is making it illegal to collect the firewood from the park starting next year. But what do the villagers do? They need energy sources from somewhere. It is just one of the many considerations we have here.

Next week we will start or work in the villages. As part of our courses we have to create a project for the village. The more we learn here the harder it seems to help people. With so many concerns and conflicts it seems almost impossible to find a solution to anything. But that is why we are frontloading our trip with academic readings and learning. Hopefully after we all have a better understanding we will be able to come up with a plan.

I am learning so much on this trip. We have come here to work and give to the villages and the country but I feel as if I am getting much more than I am giving. The way we live in America can be so distorted sometimes. We work and work and work while shutting ourselves in. Here, community is so important. Everyone greets one another and there is ALWAYS people sitting out in the streets, at a bar, under a tree or on a porch talking and just hanging out. There are so many people at home who probably know nothing about their neighbors. It seems so sad now after being here and seeing the closeness and relationships amongst these communities. But that is not the only thing – after seeing a totally different way of life I have realized how wasteful and unhappy people in America can be compared to here. EVERYTHING these people have is put to good use. I have just realized how ridiculous dogfood is! Dogs do not get special food here – they get whatever is left. Every part of the agriculture is used if possible and nothing goes to waste. We waste SO much at home. Just because we can afford to waste does it give us the right too? I have also seen differences in attitude. Tanzanians seems to be so happy and content with what they have – when many of them have very, very little. I have seen a kid playing with an old rubber tire and having so much fun – no videogames or fancy toys, just an old bike tire. Then as we were walking through the village the other day and we saw a woman sweeping her front doorstep. Her front doorstep was dirt – she was sweeping the dirt! That shows how much pride she has for her property and things, even though someone in America might be ashamed of such a thing. It shows me that happiness doesn’t have to come from what you own. For these people who have so little, to be so happy goes against what I have seen in America. It really brings up so many questions about the way we live.

Okay, I better stop – I’m starting to sound like a hippie :] I hope I will be able to post somewhat regularly now but who knows with this internet connection. If you want to read a different perspective you can read the blogs of my lovely roomies and fellow travelers: Katie, Abby and Rachel.

Until next time!

Location: Mang'ula, Tanzania

Getting Ready

Hola,

I’m so excited because tomorrow morning we are leaving for Mexico City. I love history and all the old architecture, so you can imagine how hyped I am to see ancient pyramids and art. And I think it will be a great time to spend as a group with my classmates and teachers.

The past few days, the parents of my mother here were in town, so all the cousins and aunts and uncles came to visit. It was nice having more people in the house to talk to, and the grandfather really enjoyed learning about my classes here and where I lived at home. He told me about his hometown and said he lived by one of the best beaches in Mexico. Then he and his wife invited me back with them, I said of course. I would have loved to go to the beach and see more of Mexico, but my mom here said I couldn’t because I had to go to school. Oh school : (

He also told me a lot about Mexican history, even more than we had talked about in my culture and history class and it was so interesting to see how much he knew about his country and ours. Another interesting thing is that yesterday my mom here made meatloaf and mac’n’cheese. Which is strange because I rarely have meatloaf in my own house in Pennsylvania, yet this super “American” dish was really really good.

Anyway, I got to go finish some homework and start packing for this weekend. I’ll be sure to write all about Mexico City and put up lots of pictures the first chance I get.

Adios,

Lexi

Here are some random pictures from my trip so far:

Oh, and PS. I’m not sure if you’ve ever seen Once Upon a Time in Mexico, but most of that movie takes place in Guanajuato, the town where I’m staying and some of the other towns we’ve visited.

Location: Mexico City, Mexico

The Second Full Week

SUNDAY, MAY 23^rd

I’ve been here for a little over two weeks now, and the days are already starting to blur. I haven’t had too much free time lately (hence the spacing between my blog posts) because all of my classes kicked in to full gear this week – they’re really going to make us work for the 12 credits. I have class on Monday through Thursday from 8:30 AM to 6:00 PM, and we’re given a half an hour lunch break around noon. It’s a long day, and it’s even longer if I have homework to do afterwards.

The most intense class I’m taking here by far is the Architecture Studio. We have one project for that class that’s due at the end of the program. The project is to design an art gallery for a “client” that inherited a huge collection of modern art. Each group was assigned a small piazza somewhere in Rome where that group’s art gallery must be located. My group was assigned Piazza di Pietra, a somewhat secondary piazza located just northeast of the Pantheon. We haven’t started designing the actual art gallery yet, but this whole week we had to create a lot of site analysis drawings and diagrams. All of them have to be hand-drafted, which is the complete opposite of what I, as an engineering major, am used to. I am used to using computer modeling and drafting software like AutoCAD and Revit, which in my opinion, make it exponentially easier. I do have to admit, however, that the final product of hand-drafted documents is much more satisfying. They look much more appealing, and I actually feel proud of the drawing that I completed, no matter how long it took.

This drawing alone was about 9 hours of work. It’s 3/4 of the way done in this photo, but I finished it this afternoon. It is a bird’s eye perspective view of our assigned piazza that we need to insert our art gallery into. I’ve already learned a ton about hand sketching and drafting since I’ve gotten here. Our studio teacher Jamie is awesome. This drawing is about 3 feet wide and 1 1/2 feet all to give you some perspective. It was one of many drawings that we finished this weekend.

On a more random note, I have fallen in love with cappuccinos. Every morning on my way to class, I stop to get some breakfast at a random caf� along the way and get a cappuccino and a cornetta, which is somewhat of an Italian version of a croissant, but have random flavorings to them. They’re really good. But anyway, during the first 10 days or so, I purposefully tried a different caf� each day so that I could find the best place. I think I have succeeded. This morning I went to a caf� that I haven’t been to yet in Piazza di San Eustachio, and it was SO far above the rest of the caf�s that I have tried. I got a good first impression of the place when I first walked in because it was completely filled with local Romans, which is a very good sign. The place was slightly more expensive than the rest of them, but it was definitely worth it because the pastry that I had tasted really fresh and the cappuccino was AMAZING. They made it perfectly. It was the kind of place where they knew their coffee was the best because they didn’t let me put my own sugar in it. The barista was afraid that I would ruin the balance of flavors if I did it myself. They were probably right though because he did put the absolute perfect amount of sugar in it. It was awesome, I can’t say enough about it.

This leads me to a big culture difference that I’ve noticed in here. Being from the United States, I am completely used to the “customer is always right” model of customer service. When I go into a store, I expect that the people working there will wait on me promptly and politely. Having a few years of retail store work experience myself, I understand that it is terrible to lose customers through bad service. Sub-consciously, I brought those expectations about customer service to Rome. However, the customs here are completely the opposite. Here in Rome, each customer is treated more like a guest of the store owner. While the owner will definitely wait on you IF you are polite, he certainly does not feel obliged to do so, and is not scared of losing your business. So, in a lot of the interactions I’ve had at stores and caf�s, I came out of it thinking the owner/employees were quite rude and downright lazy. For example, every cashier in this city is grossly bothered by the customer not paying with exact change. It doesn’t matter how small the bill is. I once handed the cashier a $5.00 bill to pay a gelato that cost $3.00. Mind you, Europe has a $2.00 coin, and is in normal regulation unlike the U.S.’s $2.00 bill. So the change for this transaction was exactly 1 coin, and he rolled his eyes at me like I was seriously inconveniencing him. I understand that this is one of the many examples of how our cultures are different, but if I owned a store, I would never treat a customer that way. It might also add to it that I’m an American tourist to the country, but nevertheless, I wouldn’t treat an Italian tourist to the United States in that way. I’m not going back to that gelato place.

On the other hand, I’ve had a ton of positive experiences with the different culture as well. The entire culture seems much more relaxed about everything that they do. I find it nice that people feel comfortable walking around the city at night without anything bad happening to them. I actually feel safer here than I do at State College at night. There are a lot more petty crimes here, like theft, but as long as I pay attention to my surroundings, I don’t feel like I am in any potential harm. When I’m walking home late from studio, there are still a lot of local people just taking a stroll before they go to bed. I could also feel safer because the Carabinieri (the Italian state police force) are the scariest police force I have ever seen. Our classrooms and studio are directly behind the Italian Prime Minister’s office, so at all times there is at least 1 Carabinieri guard, fully equipped with a loaded Uzi machine gun, right outside our door. If something bad were to happen there, it wouldn’t last long. I wouldn’t want to start something there.

On a different note, I’m really enjoying the housing deal that we have here. All 35 of the AE’s here are living on the same floor of a former convent in the Church of Saint Agnes. The church fa�ade faces the Piazza Navona, and I got lucky that the window to my room is on that fa�ade, so I look out into the center of the piazza. We have 2 fully equipped kitchens on the floor, and about 6 bathrooms. It’s a really great deal. Often times, there are a lot of events that go on in the Piazza, like mini opera concerts and festivals that I can watch from my window. It’s definitely a once in a lifetime situation, because it would cost millions for a private apartment with this kind of view.

I finally got to the Vatican yesterday morning, because our trip to Siena got cancelled. That place is out of this world. We went to the Vatican museum first, and I was blown away. The line wasn’t terrible, we waited for about an hour to get in, which I hear is pretty good and it can get much longer. As soon as you walk into this place, it is a non-stop barrage of famous artwork, sculptures, and architecture. It is truly amazing that the Catholic Church has been able to collect this kind of value. I couldn’t even comprehend what the total worth of all of it was. Anyway, they flowed the traffic through the museum by posting tons of signs that read, “Sistine Chapel this way” because that’s what everybody wanted to see in the first place. It turned out that those signs winded you around the ENTIRE museum before they dumped you in the Sistine Chapel in the end. It was huge tease, but it was a good way to view the whole museum. It took about 2 hours to walk through – I didn’t really stop for too long of a time at any given piece of artwork, but if I did it would take about a week straight to get through it all. My life was completed when I finally saw the Sistine Chapel, and realized that no man will ever live again and be as good an artist as Michelangelo. He deserves all the credit he gets. Raphael’s artworks in the Vatican were very close behind.

Next we went into the basilica of San Pietro. Now, I thought Notre Dame in Paris was an impressive church, but it’s not even in the same league as San Pietro. It was an experience. We walked through the nave, but didn’t stay too long after we saw the entire thing.

So, I’m about to crash because it has been a long week, so I apologize for the huge spacing between the posts, but I’ll make sure each post I write has some juicy stuff in it. Ciao!

Location: Vatican City

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