“Anfractuous” – Week II

 

“Anfractuous” : characterized by windings and turnings; sinuous; circuitous.

Our first weekend in Rome was well spent getting to know fellow JFRC-ers and employes of JFORCE on our orientation trip in Umbria, Italy. We traveled through the most “anfractuous” roads you could imagine. One of my favorite stops (as pictured above in the panorama) was at Perugia.

Interesting enough, Perugia is the city in which the Amanda Knox case took place, giving us a plethora of conversation during our lengthy trolley ride up the side of the mountain. It was interesting to hear the different sides of the case coming from those who had heard about it in the U.S. and those who had heard about it in Europe. One of my favorite staff members here, Dr. Susanna Cavallo, has followed the case from the beginning and believed whole-heartedly in the innocence of Amanda Knox. Others disagreed and debates ensued.

Along the trip we visited ceramic factories, ancient cities, candlestick makers, ancient money-smiths and silk weavers amongst other awe-inspiring places.

But in general, my favorite part about the trip thus far, and I believe I speak for my friends here as well when I say this, was meeting the notorious Professor Alexander (Sander) Evers. I feel as if we are in a movie right now while writing this blog and this is where the music dramatically climaxes and now it’s time for a simple sentence why Evers is such a phenomenal person to be around should be written whilst loud music with drums in the background go crazy, but instead I will tell you the story of my first encounter with him and hopefully that will give you a good idea.

We were all exhausted after having spent the good part of 2 hours in an un-air-conditioned ceramics shop and then a lengthy bus ride towards our destination: food. As our 4 packed buses of students pulled up to a peaceful villa I knew the day’s adventures had only just begun. We all sat down, having a nice relaxing meal with nice relaxing wine and nice relaxing small talk, wanting to just revel in the coolness of the place and the hospitality we were being shown. As we made our ways slowly out to the garden area I heard the loud booms of a voice that everyone (even within only a week) had begun to recognize. There was Evers, making his way onto the patio to join the students. Chandni, one of the SLAs on the trip, gathered my friends and I around Evers and asked for a picture to be taken. As a normal group of human beings, we took a normal picture together, see?

And then the chaos began. Evers looked at us and with that devilish gleam in his eye he said, “Let’s get one with you all holding me up.” Of course, as I am sure anyone meeting this man will come to find out, it is hard to say no to him. So we proceeded to pick him up for a picture, me and three of my male friends. Chandni then played the devil’s advocate and gave use the bright idea to throw Evers in the pool in the middle of the garden. As we made our way towards his waterlogged doom he was shrieking in his not-so-masculine-anymore voice that it was time for us to put him down. This egged us on further until we got to the very side of the pool and ALAS! we did not in fact throw him in. Pleas from him and now Chandni prompted us to put him down as gently as possible, although that failed to work as well as we thought it could. As gravity pulled half of his body back to earth, the other half proceeded to pull my sunglasses from around my neck and what happened next was a perfect snapshot in my mind. Picture this: a rather tall Danish man (correct me if I’m wrong) tilting to one side with every chance of entering into the pool now on his own accord, yelling in words we cannot understand, one leg in the air and both arms flailing trying to balance his weight, crashing down with one large foot directly onto the fallen sunglasses that anyone else would have been able to miss.

Everyone was in shock, yet no one could stop laughing. With tears of laughter streaming down my face, I looked at Evers and I spoke my first words to him; “How does that happen? There were so many other places to put your foot, how does that happen?” He proceeded to apologize profusely but I could not even be mad at the hilarious spectacle I just witnessed. Suffice to say, it was a great introduction.

I now have him in a history class and I sit in the front row every day.

If you get a chance to come to Rome I suggest (so far) that you make sure to meet two specific people – Susanna and Evers.

Cheers,

Megan