Sympathy for the Devil

On Friday, the class participated in a mock town meeting. Everyone was tasked with coming to a decision about what should be done in a community where people were getting sick due to contamination that was most likely caused by mining and military testing in the community. Each person was given the role of a member of the community or a consultant that was brought in to give their professional opinion. Some people got very into their roles and Audriana, the concerned parent, even showed up with a fake baby bump. It was really interesting to see the meeting take shape from everyone coming in with clashing opinions but eventually being able to come to an agreement in the end.

That night, a group of us went to a restaurant at the top of the hill to watch the sunset and eat a delicious dinner.

On Saturday, we had another free day for most of the day. Everyone did their own thing, but I went with Cat and Mike to finally see some of the more cultural sites in the city and to wander down some of the beautiful Italian looking back alleys. Our first stop was The Tower of the Elephant, where we climbed to the top and got an amazing view of the port side of the city.  Next stop was the Royal Palace where we wandered around and contemplated whether we would actually want that type of decor in our house. Next we went to the Tower of San Pancrazio, which we also climbed to the top of. It was very similar to the tower of the Elephant, except that its perched even higher up on the hill so we got a 360 degree view of the surrounding city. Finally, we stopped at the archaeological museum before heading back down to meet the class for our hike on the Devil's Saddle.

The Devil's Saddle is a really cool cliff type formation that resembles a saddle. The story goes that it was formed when God and the Devil fought over control of the Gulf of Cagliari, the devil was knocked off his horse in a mid-air battle and his saddle fell to earth and turned to stone. Whether or not that truly is the case, it was a great hike to end the day on and had some amazing views of the city.