Sociology 490 Week 4

     We ended week four in Rome by going to the Museum of Mental Health. It was on a Thursday and we were all very excited because that was the only thing that we had to do that day besides have class. So we hopped on the train to Rome and then caught the metro to go to a bus stop to head to another train station. It was a lot of traveling and by the time it was over, we had decided we weren't even in Italy any more. When we got to the stop of the museum, we had time to have our Sociology class. We had class on a few benches outside and I personally love it when we have class outside, it makes it so much more enjoyable to be outside discusses important topics. When we had finished class, we headed to the museum.
     The museum had previously been a mental health hospital. The hospital was started in 1913 and had been open until the middle of the 2000's. The hospital had a lot of patients that were young orphans in its day. Many children went into the hospital to ask for help when they were sick and they were admitted because the doctors thought that they were 'crazy'. One patient, an orphan, was admitted and they later discovered he had a learning disability, but being in the hospital for that long of a period, he had become crazy. This is so sad to me that a child had to spend his whole life in a hospital because they did not understand at that time how to help him.
     The museum is in a building that used to be a ward of the hospital. The museum was very interesting, they had the original camera that was used to photograph the patients as they were admitted to the hospital. We got to sit where they sat and get our picture taken too. There was another room where you would sit at a desk and put your elbows in designated spots with your hands over your ears. When you did this, you would hear voices in your head like they heard throughout their life. I must say, it was very faint noises but it was very scary to hear lose and hearing them for an extended amount of time would make anyone go crazy. It was a very cool place to visit and I am glad that I got to go with a professor that was not in my major of study since I get to see so many things that are interesting in their field of study.
     On Monday of the 5th week, we went to the National History Museum of Medical Arts. It was very interesting to be there and see all the instruments throughout history. The first room that we went into was a teaching room. The things in this room were used to teach medical students about the human body. There were reconstructions of the human body where you could see everything about it. There were even real babies in jar conserved to teach them about distortion that can happen in the whomb. It was very sad to see babies in jars but seeing them you know that they went to a good teaching purpose to further our medical sciences. There were instruments from all throughout history and they were very old, as you can imagine. They looked basically the same as the ones we have now just a little more basic. This was a very interesting place to visit and I learned a lot about the medical science field just from visiting.
     In our syllabus, the discussion for this week's blog is 'what can we take from the Romans to make our own health better'. From being on this trip, I have learned a lot about the Italian culture and they way that they live and especially EAT every day. The first thing that they told us at the dinner table on the first day, was that there will be salad at almost every meal but no dressing. (WHAT?!?!?!) We were all like, what about our ranch dressing?? On their salads, Italians eat olive oil and vinegar which is extremely healthy. They only eat this, no dressing. So where did italian dressing come from then?? lol it is an Americanized Italian thing. I think that this is a very good thing to practice in America. It is very good for you and tastes good too! In America, we are always so centralized around rushing and this in turn makes us eat very unhealthy. We just grab a hamburger from the local fast food joint instead of sitting down and eating pasta, etc. I think that if we took from the Italians and ate like they do, we would all be a lot healthier.
      One more thing about the Italians and their health is the way that they use public transportation. Most Romans do not have cars so they take the public transportation, that is always crowded by the way. They also ride their bikes a lot and this in turn makes them a lot healthier. You will always see someone riding their bike down the street, in Florence bikers were every where. Romans also walk every where, which is very unusual to Americans. We just hop in the car and drive to the local grocery or market instead of just walking there because it is quicker and easier to drive there. I personally am loving everything about Rome and will take with me some of their customs and traditions back with me to Wooster.