Wow it's been a while!

So it's been a while since I last wrote, I know- so I guess instead of going into too much detail about every single thing I've done since the last time I wrote- I'll go over major highlights.

I feel as if it were the day after I wrote my last entry, but I was invited through the school, by the Director-General of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) to attend a guest lecturer speak on this year's World Food Day theme of "Attaining Food Security in Time of Crisis" (or something close to that extent). I was told this in my Public Int'l Law class one morning and received the invitation a few days later. However, when I opened the invitation (which was pretty impressive looking, I won't lie), it said nothing about the guest lecturer, but about the General Assembly style meeting earlier that morning. I did as I was told and showed up to the FAO World Headquarters (here in Rome), about an hour before hand and presented my invitation and multiple ID's when asked. Apparently, most received invitations to the lecture, but for whatever reason, I and another guy in my class were invited to this assembly instead (muuuch cooler). I know this should have come as no surprise and it really didn't- but the security getting into this building was like nothing I've ever seen. I had to have had my passport, license, and Italian ID from school, as well as the invitation checked at least half a dozen times before I got into the building. And I'm not talking about TSA people who look at your ID for half a second in the airport while letting things through the X-ray machine without looking, these guys were in full tactical BDU's, rifles in hand. Along with 5 snipers on rooftops (that I saw) watching everything. (For those of you who have done the tour of the Capitol building in DC, it makes the security getting into there look more like mall security in Manchester, NH. (Oh- and we had already submitted our names and soc. sec. numbers for a background check weeks before hand.)

So I get into the building eventually and am directed to the hall where the meeting is to take place, walking past incredibly impressive conference rooms and even more impressive looking people along the way. However, before I'm allowed off of the elevator I need to show my ID and the invitation again, to make sure I belong where I'm going. I arrive at two giant wooden doors of the hall and as I step up to the doors (after again, showing my id and invitation), two full dress uniform guards open them up to... a room like I've only seen in the movies. Hundreds of people standing around in suits, guards in every corner, professional photographers taking thousands of pictures, and pages running around like chickens without heads trying to make sure everyone is pleased. The room is a giant rectangle with desks for each diplomat set up with a country name, a flag, two fancy glasses for water, a silver pitcher on a silver tray, stationary, and a microphone attached to the desk. The desks were for the diplomats of every State recognized by the UN. They also had a button which they seemed to thoroughly enjoy, which when pressed, resulted in a page darn near sprinting to offer any and all assistance. For the next half hour or so before the meeting started, I sat in my seat (first row of visitors, about 15 feet from the Congolese representative), absolutely stunned by the amount of... power, in the room. I was surrounded, for all intents and purposes, a few hundred of the most powerful people in the world. Awesome.

The assembly commenced, with the director general making a speech, representatives talking about food security in their countries, what the problem there was and asking for help to fix it. Of course, not everyone spoke English, or any common language for that matter, so everyone (including us) had an ear piece that we could wear, and switch between 8 languages being translated real-time by people up in booths above us. (Think the movie, "The Interpretor", exactly like that.) Near the end, a group of three performed three songs, one guitarist and two singers. One of the songs is called "Shalom, Shalom" (Peace, Peace), a beautiful song with a great guitar part to accompany it. The original chorus goes: So when you come and when you go, the words are "peace, goodbye, hello", in a language that I know- it goes like this: Shalom, shalom... (and repeats "shalom" a few times.). However, there were two women who were singing, one from Israel and one from Palestine (singing together, wow.), so for purposes of unity, they changed the lyrics to instead of repeating "shalom shalom" four times, they repeated it twice, then switched to "Salam Salam" (Arabic for peace) two times. As soon as they switched the chorus, you could feel the room's atmosphere change from appreciation of great music by talented artists, to hope for peace in a region that's been rocked for generations and generations. It was amazing to see the reaction on the Israeli diplomat as well as diplomats from the Arab League nations reflect (at least in appearance) a desire for the same peace.

After the meeting ended, everyone mingled around, it was hysterical watching these UN representatives run to each other and take pictures with each other on their own point-and-shoot digital cameras. We couldn't help but laughing, imagining the conversations of "Oh, tag me in that one on Facebook!" coming from these world famous diplomats. So being myself and completely unafraid to put myself out there, I decided that I should introduce myself to the guitarist of the group that performed and tell him how much I appreciated the music they performed. He introduced himself as Gil and we talked for a bit about the songs and how I played guitar and was hoping to find the music online somewhere. He said he didn't think I would be able to find it, but "here, let me give you our home e-mail addresses so we can stay in touch, just send me one reminding me". !!! AWESOME!!! He introduces one of the other women he performed with as Noa. I was stunned at how willing they were to talk with some random college student while they were in the presence of such others. A few times he would have to say "One second, Scott. Oh, thank you Mr. Director-General, Mr. President, Madam first lady (or whomever wanted to talk at the minute)", then turn right back to me and continue a conversation. These people literally run the world and he took time to talk with me. It then impressed my even more, after talking with a friend from Israel to find out they are as popular in Israel as U2 or any famous group is in the United States. By far, this assembly was the coolest thing I've done in Rome so far.

This morning I went to Porta Portese, an incredibly large market in Trastevere, the neighborhood in which I live. I went along with a few from my Italian class and our professor to work on conversational skills (we had to speak Italian to the vendors). We had such a great time, it's a really... interesting assortment of items that is sold there. You can find incredibly inexpensive, but also very cheaply made clothes, fake DG and LV purses, fake prada sunglasses or fake Rolexes, but you can also find, if you spend the time and know where to look, pretty cheap real purses/sunglasses/watches that have been acquired by the vendor or someone the vendor does business with in... less than savory means. I know, I know, it's a terrible thing to buy stolen merchandise, but you don't really know that it's stolen... :-P

Those are all fun to look at, as well as the animals for sale and the electronics, but the cool stuff, the really cool stuff, are the antiques that are sold. You can find second-hand paintings that are still in good condition (as far as I can tell), that were actually incredibly valuable when originally sold. I purchased a book this morning called "Le fait du Christ" (The work of Christ), a small French book, written in the mid 1800's. 2 Euro. I couldn't pass it up when I found I could actually understand the few pages I turned to, it'll be nice to brush up on French as well. I was telling the vendor how I appreciated these types of items much more than the clothes and electronics. He responded with "Then you'll love these" he goes to his van and pulls out two old folded up pieces of giant paper. They were incredibly old Italian bills of sale and deeds to land, purchased (or given, I couldn't tell) by someone incredibly wealthy. One was about a sq. meter, the other about .5 sq. meter, with intricate calligraphy style writing (not too faded at all). I asked if he had any idea about how old they were, he told me to turn them over- the dates were on the back. I couldn't believe it. Still have a hard time. Turned the first one over "1634". WHAT?!!? Turn the next one over, "1514". .... speechless. Still, I have no idea what to say about that. All I could muster was "Posso...? ...Quanta costa?" "May I...? How much do they cost?" He told me he had just received them himself and wasn't sure how much he was selling them for quite yet, but to come back in a week or two- he'll keep them in his van unless people ask to see them specifically. So, if anyone ever visits Rome- se non vuoi andare in chiesa, vai a Porta Portese! (If you can't make it to church, make it to Porta Portese!)

So more or less, that's been the last bit of my stay here... last Tuesday we passed the half-way point of our time here... huge bummer. I'm really looking forward to checking out Little Italy and the Boston's North End after being here... should be fun. Heading to Budapest (Hungary) this coming Thursday night for the weekend with a roommate, should be a good time hopefully will have much to write about when I return!

Ciao for now,

Scott.