Greek things can be learned from Blogging right?

And here are the facts: There is no possible way to make ancient Greek Art and Archaeology interesting or fun to study. None. I've tried. And I'm sorry to say that but my attention span for such things is approximately 43 seconds... usually less, so I'm attempting to escape this drudgery with a blog about something related to Gaga....

You guessed it, Charles.

Hooray!  Let's talk about aliens and be merry! I have two Charles episodes to relate to you, and I will title them appropriately so that you may distinguish between the two.

Episode One:
The Love Potion

So for Gaga, we all had to write a term paper. Not a big deal (annoying as hell, but reasonable) and the week before they were due, everyone had to do a short presentation on the topic of their paper. Now unlike the presentations before, we all got to choose our topics for our paper as long as it fell under the umbrella of this course. Great! So everyone got to talk about something that interested them, and that's a lot more creative than just a regular topic.

So while everyone is presenting about some pediment on some temple somewhere, or on some mythological scene represented on some clay stuff, our dear friend Charles took everything to a whole new level.

Charles gets up in front of the class with a plastic bag and a powerpoint. Then he starts talking about pomegranates. Oh yeah, and he pulls a pomegranate out of the mysterious plastic bag. That's cool. So he's talking about all of the ancient uses for pomegranates like contraceptive, love potion, symbol of wealth, death, rebirth etc.

At this point he had only been casually tossing the pomegranate between his hands an occasionally flipping a slide, but suddenly he asks if anyone has actually tried a pomegranate.  Most of us had but he reaches to his belt and whips out a knife. (WHAT!?!) flicks it open and begins to cut open the pomegranate in his hand. Our professor (remember billy goat man from Ostia Antica? Yeah, him) says "Wow, I guess you don't mess with Charles." And then Charles starts to hand out pieces of pomegranate to the rest of the class so that we won't feel left out.

Keep in mind that out of a class of about 15 ish, there are two boys, including Charles. Now that everyone is munching happily on their piece of pomegranate, our professor chooses this exact moment to say, "hey, all of you girls eating this pomegranate have to marry Charles now."

Awkward laughter...

Charles blushes...

True, he had been talking about pomegranates as a love potion... but I'm not sure that was necessary...  I'm also not sure how I feel about marrying an alien....

After the end of his presentation, everyone proceeded to ask for a copy of his paper because it was actually interesting.

Pomegranates: doing work.

A+ for Charles.

The End.

Now I'm going to study some real Gaga, and post the second episode when I need another break... And with your luck may be very soon.

Italian men singing in English... With a banjo...

Really fast post about really fun things! Ready-GO!

Ok, so what I thought was going to be my major accomplishment for the day was managing to de-seed an entire pomegranate. And follow up said feat by eating it. Winner? Yes. Delicious? Yes. Full of antioxidants? Probably. I was very proud of that moment.  It was a bucket-lister.

But reality told me that this was going to be no ordinary day where de-seeding and eating a pomegranate would be a triumph, oh no, this was going to be an epic day.

"How epic," you say?
Epic enough to find not only live music in Rome (near by, I might add), but also Folk and Blues live music in Rome.

DING! Winner! It was so cool! So we actually pass this place every day on the way to class, but they have a sweet little set up in the back and it was hopping. One guy was obviously in charge of who was doing what, but there were several little acts-all folk music... In English. Our favorites included: Wolverine (Erica's fav) so named because he looked like Hugh Jackman as Wolverine (good choices) and he played the guitar and bass, "Pretty Boy"-not an adequate title for this beautiful man, tall and lanky with the one stray dark curl. We originally called him "Married Boy" but turns out that it wasn't a wedding band after all. Anyway, he played the guitar and sang (both very well I might add) (I mean, Wolverine played a mean guitar, but he didn't sing. So points to Pretty Boy.) Pretty Boy's Friend, just was just there and was the friend of Pretty Boy, like the awkward wingman. And the Banjo guy. He wasn't attractive, but he did play the banjo. He was also one of those characters who doesn't talk much.

But there were attractive men, beautiful guitars, a banjo, a harmonica, basses, a drum set, and obviously Italian men singing folk songs in English. Eventually we branched a little into the Blues realm (including my favorite, the sing along), but regardless, it was awesome. Erica, Molly, and I had more fun than you can shake a stick at. I'm totally pro this becoming a regular routine. Thursday night in Rome? This is where it all happens.

Oh yeah. Before I forget, I'm leaving for Tuscany in the morning, so I won't be posting again until Sunday night! Can you say hot springs and horseback riding? Ok good. Because that's what I'll be blogging about in 3 days.