So in "ancient ruins" class...

I still haven't had a real class day yet. Our schedule is something like:

Monday: Breakfast, morning lecture on city ruins, lunch, Latin (for those that have it), then Greek (for me), and then Italian (also one of mine), then dinner
Tuesday: Breakfast, all day field trip for the ruins course, ending sometime before dinner
Wednesday: Breakfast, ruins field trip half day, lunch back at Centro, and the afternoon schedule of language classes and dinner
Thursday: Breakfast, ruins field trip half day, lunch, and Baroque art history (for those who have it) and Italian (for me) just until four (Italian is normally 6-7). Dinner is 7:30 as usual...
Friday: Art history field trip in the morning. For those who have it. Unlike me, who has no class after like four on Thursday.

This Monday was orientation, but we did have Italian at 6. Our entire class is conducted in the language. No I did not sign up for advanced; it's the beginning class. Sensei didn't even attempt anything like that until deep into our second year and the result was more of a cluster outside the classroom after we escaped with various intonations of "okay did anyone understand what our homework is supposed to be?"

But I'm not complaining. I understood almost all of what she said because she has a fair pace. I'm not saying I could re-create any of it or say it without prompting, but my listening skillz are not so bad.

Tuesday was a sort of self guided field trip, as we were assigned to groups of three and sent into the city on a hunt for various assigned obelisks. We were armed with our bus passes and maps, and a bag lunch, and my group did indeed find our assignments (one of which we have to give a fifteen minute report on, Thursday morning). We found some more besides. At our second bus stop there were some random ruins just sort of.. being there. And next to our obelisk was the freaking Pantheon. That's the ancient temple to all the gods. Inside it's been converted to a Catholic church, which is cool too, but not the way I kept picturing it before I saw it, since I have seen all kinds of classical diagrams and stuff.

So then we did a lot of walking to get to our second assigned obelisk and on the way we ended up passing, oh, you know, Trajan's market, and his forum, and column, and the freaking Colosseum, etc. I was wigging, since I recognized so much. My group members were a little less impressed or a little more composed. I mean, statues of Augustus in Primaporta style? Come on people. It seems that my art-hist prof taught me too well.

Augustus is the man. I got so excited and had to take this photo. Since I seemed to know something they didn't, several nearby tourists began to do the same.

So I'm about to have my first Greek class. And I seriously don't remember any Greek. Like, do they use the Russian alphabet? I forget...