Cat, 3 July 2009

Gift and Sacrifice

Presentation on Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice

Devin, Ben, Melanie, and Alina did an excellent job today highlighting the important themes of gift exchange in the written play and the movie. Their clear and concise presentation addressed things that had completely gone over my head. For example, I hadn’t even noticed that Portia gave the ring to Antonio to give to Bassanio, much less thought about its significance. Their presentation helped me connect what we’ve been learning about all these gift theorists to something more real-life and applicable. Thanks, guys!

Test Review

Our first test is fast approaching! Fortunately, Mona is making every effort to help us succeed. Since we’re going to spend most of Sunday lying on the beach, we’re studying today (Friday) and tomorrow instead…

Babette’s Feast

This afternoon we watched Babette’s Feast, another film about the gift. It was one of the funnier movies I’ve seen in a while, and not just because of how different the dubbing was than the subtitles! The end of the movie was sadder to me than the ending of the story, because it emphasized the connection between the sister that sings and Babette - both gave up their artistic talents and dreams for what they saw as personal necessity. Babette’s Feast in both its forms showed how something can be both a gift to the giver and the receiver at once, which is a concept I feel we haven’t spent too much time covering in class.

No Art History today!

Apertivo!

At 7 o’clock tonight the girls from both apartments went out for a girls’ night! We’ve noticed that usually one apartment of girls hangs out with another apartment of guys – and the two girls’ apartments almost never meet up! So we planned an adventure for ourselves. We dressed up and went for drinks and appetizers in Trastevere. We ended up at a little bar without enough table room, but pretty good food and decently priced drinks. We enjoyed ourselves thoroughly, even though we had to sit on the stairs outside!



Afterwards we broke into a few groups, but it seems like we all ended up walking at least a little of the way along the booths at the banks of the Tiber. They were touristy, for sure, but there were some booths that were interesting – one had all as-seen-on-TV products, for example. We were a little perplexed as to why all the bars seemed to be set up not like ordinary bars but with cushions surrounding low tables, though. It probably would have been just as easy to set up folding chairs, right? But maybe the cushions set the mood better.


Looking forward to the Weekend!

Saturday, the Fourth of July!

Hope to see you all at the potluck! I really don’t know that much about it, but I do know that our beef is very fresh: from Italian cows, ground and formed into patties right before our eyes!

Sunday, Sperlonga!