[I would have posted this blog entry sooner, but I was having difficulty up-loading my photos from the camera to the computer! Sometimes technology can be a real pain! And something called Graduate School just kept getting in the way…]
A month ago, I was able to claw my way out from beneath the Mountain of Books (to which I have since returned) and take a short pleasure trip to Rome and then hopped a plane to Geneva for a conference! I traveled with my then-housemate Mary, my soon-to-be-housemate Katherine, and our friend Brittany.
Rome was sunny and warm…even hot! It was about 80/85 degrees. I know that’s not really hot by Maryland standards, but when you’ve been living in the moderate, chilly, damp climes of the UK, you get a little soft! We soaked up the sun from the moment we stepped off the plane from Edinburgh until the moment we boarded the plane to Geneva!
We left St Andrews at 3:15 IN THE MORNING on Sunday the 24th. Our flight was out at 6:30 am, it takes an hour to get to Edinburgh Airport, and we needed to check in two hours before our flight! While our cab was passing the Royal & Ancient Golf Club, the sun was peeking over the horizon. By the time we reached Cupar (about 20 minutes further down the road, the sun had officially risen (by 3:40!). We arrived in Rome on Sunday morning, around 11. After dropping our bags off at our hostel—and putting on some sunscreen—we headed straight to the Colosseum! From there we explored the ruins of the Forum. We headed further south, and stumbled across the Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano, which was right around the corner from our hostel!
On Monday we got up bright and early. And headed straight for the Spanish Steps! We took some detours—some planned, some not-so-planned—and wound up at the Piazza del Populo, which had an amazing overlook of the Eternal City. From there we wandered back to the Spanish Steps where we all had our Audrey Hepburn Moment! We enjoyed some gelato as we meandered towards the Church of St Mary of the Victory, where we admired Bernini’s “Ecstasy of St Theresa of Avila”. The church was built to celebrate the Catholic League’s victory over the Protestants at the Battle of White Mountain during the Thirty Years War (1620). In a way, visiting the chapel connected my semester’s travels: White Mountain is outside of Prague!
We also visited the Trevi Fountain, and some beautiful little churches along the way! From the Trevi Fountain (where we all threw in three coins and made three wishes: one for the future, one for the present, and the customary wish to return to Rome) we headed to the Piazza Navona. On our way we stumbled upon the Pantheon with it’s perfectly spherical dome and the tomb of Raphael! We had planned to have dinner in the Piazza Navona, but the prices were a bit steep, so we opted to eat at an outdoor café around the corner. It was perfect! The weather was cooling down, the lamps were lit beneath the café’s umbrellas, and the staff bustled happily about! The food was amazing, the atmosphere was lovely and relaxing. And the tiramisu was divine!
We spent all of Tuesday in the Vatican! For this Church historian, it was AMAZING! We spent all morning in the Vatican Museum’s, admiring all the art collected by the papacy for the last 2000 years! Dr. Grubb’s “Art and Society in the Renaissance” course came back to me in a flood! We lunched in St Peter’s Square and then headed into St Peter’s Basilica. We spent the whole afternoon in the Church! We explored from the crypts underneath (where I paid my respects to John Paul II) all the way to the top of the Dome! This church is MASSIVE! The views from the top were phenomenal! From the Vatican we wandered back to our hostel, stopping in “little” churches, shops, and piazzas along the way.
The next morning, Mary left us to return to St Andrews. Kat, Britt and I headed to the Piazza Navona for breakfast… and ended up sitting at the same café, at the same table through lunch! Ah, Rome! Later that afternoon we bid arrivederci to Roma, and boarded a plane for Geneva, Switzerland.
Katherine and I went to Geneva to attend the Sixteenth Century Studies Conference (SCSC). Brittany came along for the scenery and an opportunity to see the UN (she’s an International Relations major). The SCSC is usually held in the fall, in the States. But this 10 July marks the 500th anniversary of John Calvin’s birth, so they moved the conference to the summer and to Geneva to celebrate! About 450 historians, literary scholars, and other academics came from all over the world to attend. I helped run the registration desk on Thursday morning (the first day of the conference) and worked with some really great post grads from other universities—Notre Dame, Penn State, Iowa, Cambridge, Munster, Zurich, Geneva; folks I plan to keep in touch with for a long time! I have a feeling we’ll be running into each other at conferences for the rest of our careers.
The Conference was amazing! Over the course of three days they had 157 sessions to choose from (consisting of about 3 papers each). My brother called it NerdFest 2009. He was right. And it was amazing! I got to rub elbows with some of the biggest names in my field.
But the really exciting thing was that I already knew most of them… because I see them on a regular basis at St Andrews! I always knew that St Andrews was a world-class institution, and that I have been blessed beyond measure to be earning two degrees there. But that was hammered home to me at the SCSC. At conferences of this nature, most people don’t really pay attention to the post grads. We haven’t made names for ourselves yet, because we’re just getting started. We’re nobodies. When I introduced myself to some of them, they kind of blew me off (like one individual, who had blown me off once before when I was applying to work on a PhD with them two years ago, at an American university which shall not be named). Conferences of this nature usually have more than their fair share of over-inflated egos and hot air. But for the most part, when I mentioned that I was at St Andrews, their ears perked up and suddenly I was a person of interest! St Andrews is one of the best (if not THE best) places in the world to study Reformation History.
Faculty members from my department were like rock stars at the conference. When other post grads found out where I study, they would sheepishly ask if I could introduce them to Andrew Pettegree or Bruce Gordon. (Bruce in particular was popular, as his highly anticipated biography of Calvin was scheduled for release two weeks later.) I was chatting with two post grads at the last evening reception when Andrew came over to ask if I had a ride from Edinburgh Airport to St Andrews for the next day. The two post grads’ eyes went wide. Andrew is a bit of a living legend, and here I was, talking with him about a taxi! About two seconds later, their jaws about dropped to the floor, because Bruce came over to joke with Andrew. I felt all professional, introducing these other post grads to Andrew and Bruce! Folks referred to them in hushed tones as Professor Pettegree or Professor Gordon. And I was thinking: “Its just Andrew. I’ve had dinner at his house and have ridden in cars with him. My office is next to his. And its just Bruce. I once helped disentangle his daughter’s hobby-horse from a radiator.”
Because the conference took up most of our time, Kat and I didn’t get to see much of the city of Geneva. We did take Friday afternoon off to explore a bit with Britt. And we usually ended up having dinner in the Old City in the evenings, with the other post grads and an academic or two. So I have some photos of Geneva in the slideshow, but not many. And unfortunately I didn’t think to take my camera with me to the conference, so there aren’t any pictures of my new, nerd-tastic friends.
I’ll just have to go back to Geneva. Aw, shucks. What a shame. ☺
All in all it was an AMAZING trip (as you can probably tell from my over-use of that word throughout this post)! And one of the best things about the whole thing is that the University of St Andrews paid for about a third of it! Because I was attending the conference, my PhD research allowance covered my airfare from Rome to Geneva, and Geneva to Edinburgh, my accommodation in Geneva, and a couple of meals at the conference hotel. Score! As stressful, nerve-wracking, and soul-sucking as postgraduate study can be, it certainly does have its perks!
Enjoy the photos!
[As always, if you want to see the slideshow photos in a large format, or would like to read the captions, just click on one of the pictures. It should take you to the photo album site I created the show on, where you can browse the pictures at your own pace.]
