Living Latin in Rome - Paul Lee

Although I has seen many great monuments and paintings, my Latin experience in Rome was not defined by these sites but rather the new perspective and viewpoints I had gathered from the trip. A picture as small as a coin can represent something as great as a 100 foot statue of Caesar - I have learned that looking into the symbolic value/the cultural meaning of the object/place rather than magnifying its existence is how one gets the most out of his experience Scavenger Hunt! On my first day, all fellow Paideians were suprised by the amount of walking and by how hot the sun, and however all of that dread was covered up by the game which we all did on the first day. Although I had not never met anyone from camp, my fellow Paideians were quite welcoming and eagerly cooperated with me in this activity. I was suprised by how much my fellow peers knew about the camp. In Latin I and II, I thought that I knew everything about a bath house, but I wasn't even able to spot a bath house-thinking it was just a bunch of blocks on the floor. From that day onwards I realized that first hand experience is just not what one thinks. I came into the first day thinking that little Paul Lee has a lot to learn. Everything has meaning My amazing Paideian instructors were always the best at suprises. Walking, for the first couple days, across the streets of Rome, I had thought that all Rome has was just big monuments and paintings which people were supposed to admire and praise for what they were; however, Rome is filled with artifacts that range from all sizes and judging something on face value is a big mistake. Around the next couple days, my instructors attempted to drill into many of us stubborn students that something small can have great significance. This coin is not just any coin; its the coin of NERO. I mean y'all can't forget this guy; he built a magnificient palace made of pure gold. But, putting historical context aside, the fact that Nero based on all Roman currency on one item with his face imprinted onto it tells us that Nero was not the humblest of men. One could get this message of Nero's arrogance from something a great as a statue to something as puny as a coin. Hence, never ignore the smallest of things because that is the only way to truly live the experience. Mangificient artifact When looking as these magnificient structures - all I could think of how big the colosseum was. Take the size of a circus and multiply it by two and it may equate to the size of the colosseum. However instead of only glorifying this beautiful piece of architecture, I also tried to spot details in the Colosseum that might hint to what the Colosseum might be and what was its significance to the Roman People. Although the colosseum was truly magnificient and I would still be amazed even I saw it thousand of times, I will still value it beyond its physical appearance. Although we fellow paideians and a great time looking at cites, we also has some fun at the beach. Beach time proved to be quite refreshing as we could avoid walking in the heat of summer and as we could have some free time from looking at artifacts and reading long texts. Over at camp, I spent my time talking to some Italian residents; in fact one of our fellow campers was from Italy. I found that the culture in italy isn't so different from the culture in America with the exception of one aspect: soccer. Italians are crazy about soccer. There isn't a day when the Italians would go the the nearest television and loom over the TV for hours watching soccer with popcorn and snacks at hand. Finally the trip was summed up with a group picture down near the statue of pollux. Although I had not noticed it then, I realized that not only did I have a lot of fun but more importantly I changed as a person. I hope that all students will take the advantage and go on a wilson grant in the future, and lastly, I would love to thank the wilson family, Ms. Ellery,Headmaster Gioia, and Mr. Paolicchi for this great opportunity