So before I start, today is my friend’s birthday and sadly I wasn’t home to celebrate it with her so I’ll just say HAPPY BIRTHDAY on here.

Now to start the day. I again woke up around 5 and just listened to the outside world rise as well. Then I got ready and went to breakfast. It’s become pretty routine for me to get a croissant and yogurt. It’s very good and super for trying to wake up for the day.

After eating, I headed in the lobby and gathered with the group to journey on our official last day of class. So it was kind of exciting to of accomplished a whole week in Italy.

In class we discussed the religion of Zoroastrianism. No it’s not the religion worshiping Zorro, the mighty Spanish hero, but that would be pretty cool. Instead it is a faith founded by a man called Zoroaster. The god they worship is called Ahura Mazda, and an interesting fact, the car brand Mazda’s are named after this god. So that pretty fascinating. The symbol of this god is fire to represent the celestial fire. There are 7 steps included in this religion that sort of tell us this mundane tale of how we came to be and how we are to live. 1. Alone. Meaning that there was nothing.

2. The Amesh Spentas who are kind of like archangels. They represent and enforce cosmic order.

3. Then twin sons were born: Angra Mainyu and Spenta Mainyu. Angra represented the sinister side as he was a liar and trickster, and Spenta represented the holy side as he was a holy spirit. Both of the twins had free will, which meant they could do anything unlike the angels. So obviously this caused some disturbance in the heavenly planes.

4. Earth was created to be like a time out room for the twins and their free will. Then humanity was created as we got a physical body, a soul, and a mind (which meant that we had free will).

5. Is death, as we all die at some point.

6. The apocalypse will happen and all those who are good will be resurrected.

Finally, 7. Resurrection. All those who were faithful were brought back to life.

So that’s what we learned about in world religions, and for international relations we discussed Multinational corporations like Coke, Apple, and Microsoft.  We talked about some good and some bad sides to this. The good being that jobs created, but the bad side to that is that its cheap labor. Also cultures lose their identity when big companies just place their stores around every corner. So we mostly talked about the bad side, I admit, but it was interesting to listen in on.

After class, we went to the Vatican museum, and let me tell you, this place was HUGE. Our tour guide said it would take around 12 years to look at everything for a single minute. AAAHHH. That’s incredible. So we mostly skipped a lot of things, but it was amazing just to look at the sculptures and paintings. Pictures can only say so many words, but these painting on the ceiling and walls told a thousand stories, and my camera could only grasp a paragraph of one page.

We walked all around and also had dinner there too. It was a very sophisticated buffet where they mostly served cheese, bread, and a little bit of pork. Obviously I grabbed everything I could eat and it was delicious. Funny thing I’ve noticed here is the water glasses. They’re very small compared to back at home. They’re like little cups you’d give to children, but they’re only for water, and every other cup is big. So I had go get up a couple of time to get water. Since this place was outside, there were pigeons all around and some even jumped on the tables to get food. The waiters and staff we clearly annoyed with this because they had such a classy set up and for it to be contaminated by pigeon feet was devastating. They didn’t come to tables with people at it, but the empty ones with food still left is when they invaded. It was fun to watch but sad for the workers.

After dinner we continued our tour and then went to the Sistine chapel. Sadly I couldn’t take any pictures but it was very mesmerizing. I just can’t tell you enough how huge and magnificent it was with all the paintings.

After that it was gift shop time then back to the hotel. So here I am. Writing this again before bed and waiting to crash for the night.

So till next time, Daniella