Roma: John Cabot University

While in Rome, I'm studying at a school called John Cabot University. It's an American-run university based in Rome and, as far as I can tell, caters to Italian students looking for an American experience, American students wanting to live and study abroad (either for a semester or for four years) and other students from around the world for various reasons. This semester's enrollment is the highest JCU has ever seen- over 900 students are taking classes here this spring. It's a huge change from UW and its 30,000+ students! There are two campus buildings, the Guarini campus (about a 4-5 minute walk from my apartment in the university residence/dorm):

and the Tiber campus, located along the Tiber river and about 8-9 minutes from my apartment on foot:

Both campuses (and the Gianicolo residence, where I live) have guards constantly on duty whenever the buildings are open. At the campus buildings we have to show our JCU ID cards, and at the residence we have to swipe them in a scanner...until our beautiful post-arrival pictures show up on a huge TV screen for the guard (and anybody else who happens to be waiting in the lobby) to see. Lovely, no? Sometimes it can be inconvenient, but I'd much rather have them worry about who is in the buildings, I suppose. Plus it makes sure I keep my wallet on me- always a good idea anyway.

Thus far I've found the classes at John Cabot to be really quite easy. I'm taking French 101 at 8:30 Mondays and Wednesdays, Italian Opera at 10:30 Mondays and Wednesdays, Introduction to Italian Literature at 2:15 Mondays and Wednesdays, and Italian Early Renaissance Art at 2:15 Tuesday afternoons.

I really enjoy my French class- surprise, surprise. The professor is really laid back- she's very flexible with homework and we rarely start class on time- and I'm the only study abroad student in the class, which I think gives me an interesting perspective. There are four or five Italians, one guy from Germany, one guy from Kosovo, and four Americans, including me, so it's very small, as are all the classes here. The grammar is so similar to Italian grammar that it's easy to understand, but the pronunciation is incredibly different. Whereas Italian's orthography is definitely phonemic (you can basically pronounce it just by looking at it), French looks nothing like it sounds. Or so I think at this point. It's confusing to start, but I'm sure I'll get it with a little practice. I'm definitely hoping to continue taking French classes in Madison next year.

My Italian opera class is also pretty enjoyable. The professor obviously knows and enjoys the topic, and since I took a class about opera a year and a half ago in Madison, it's fun to see what this professor thinks is important about opera in comparison to my professor from UW. The homework is all online, which is nice, and it's definitely been pretty easy thus far.

The Monday/Wednesday Italian lit class also seems pretty easy. Thus far all we've had for homework was to read one three-page article and to think about a concept- a far cry from my 250+ page/week history seminar reading load! The professor generally asks if we have questions at the beginning of class and then lectures for the rest of the period (which is an hour and fifteen minutes- all of our three credit, two-meetings-per-week classes here are power lectures). Lately we've been going over the major periods of Italian literature and the main writers from each period. We'll have two small papers due in April, but nothing too major apart from those, a midterm, and a final.

Art history is also enjoyable but seems to be another beast entirely. The professor is EXTREMELY enthusiastic- he talks non-stop for two and a half hours every class- and seems extremely knowledgeable about the topic, but sometimes I find his lecturing style to be a little overwhelming. And sleep-inducing. But the art is really cool and the class definitely makes me appreciate even just the sheer age of the early Renaissance art in Rome and in Italy overall- for example, last week he talked about the mosaics in the Basilica di Santa Maria in Trastevere, which Lauren and I, funnily enough, had visited earlier that day.  They were done in the late Duecento (1200s), and they're absolutely gorgeous. Not bad- and it's just down the street from us! This picture is from lungotevere.org, and I think it shows the interior of the church really nicely:

 Just the average awesome Roman church. No big deal. ;) There's a bit of reading involved for the art history class, but overall not a lot to do except show up and shut up. And a ten-page paper due in April. But I'm not thinking about that quite yet!

I've been really happy with my experience at JCU thus far. Everyone is very friendly, the professors are enthusiastic, and the dorms are really nice- apart from the iffy internet at times. It's very laid-back apart from the security, and we can really come and go as we please. I would definitely recommend John Cabot to anyone who's looking for a study abroad program that's low-key, low pressure, and very supportive of travel- they only schedule classes for Monday through Thursday (though I ended up not having classes on Thursday anyway), and all the professors and RAs encourage us to travel throughout Italy and throughout Europe as a whole. The school also sponsors a lot of weekend trips and extracurricular activities- one of my friends is playing on a soccer team, for example. I'm really enjoying my time here and doing a lot of relaxing- it's probably going to be a pretty rude awakening when I get back to Madison this fall!

Next up: hopefully a post on everyday life in the Eternal City. I've been thinking about this post for a long time and I'm sure it'll be a doozy....there's so much to say! I'll also be writing soon about our recent trip to Naples- hopefully before I leave for Paris in the morning!

Ciao for now!