Wednesday, July 26, 2017

Stories from Sicily: Buongiorno! Come stai? Tutto bene!

Today's post is brought to you by visiting researcher and MSFS alum, Mari Toppinen.

View of the city from our classroom.
July 25th, 2017

We started our 5th day of the MSFS by going out to the Poker Bar for breakfast together with Dr. Morrow. I have been quite pleased about being able to order my breakfast in Italian these past few days. However, this morning I learned a new word - "piccolo" which means small (I had cornetto piccolo :D)

Emubosa in deep thought about facial reconstruction.
Dr. Meier shows students what the individual looked like in real life.
We started today's class with talks about yesterday's facial reconstruction project. The students presented each of their own parts of the project from yesterday and discussed all of the pitfalls that they had along their way. In the end, we were all quite satisfied with the reconstruction because the face we recreated really resembled the actual person.

Students proudly display their finished facial reconstruction project.
Signora Trifirò says "Ciao!" to MSFS students.




Later in the morning we had our first Italian lesson. Therefore, there were lot of new words for me in addition to piccolo! Now everyone in the class is able to greet and share their names in Italian. I enjoyed the lesson a lot since it reminded me of the English, Swedish, and French lessons that I had at school. Our teacher, Signora Trifirò, only spoke in Italian and she indeed made us participate in the lesson via roleplaying and repetition. I am looking forward for the next lesson!

Students learn about archeovirology.








Just before lunch, I myself gave a presentation about viruses and how to study them from bone samples. I presented our work on World War II casualties and some data on what I am currently working on with contemporary cadaver material. This yielded lively discussion in the class with lots of questions regarding viruses in general and about our work, specifically.

Mari shares her research with the 2017 MSFS students.
For lunch, we had lentil soup, which probably became my new favorite dish! Others had French fries and sausages as well, but I was happy with my lentils! We also had delicious peaches for dessert.

Lentil soup with crusty bread. 
Sausages, cheese, and French fries.



The afternoon session was dedicated to Egyptology. This was one of the main themes I was most anticipating coming back for this year's MSFS. I have been interested in Egyptian mummies since I was a child. I needed to collect all of the books and watch all of the documentaries. Now I had this great opportunity to hear directly from the experts! We learned a lot about both animal and human mummies from MSFS student, Carri Lupton, as well as from the visiting researchers, Dr. Lidija McKnight (University of Manchester) and Dr. Iwona Kozieradzka-Ogunmakin (Universities of Manchester and Warsaw).




I was fascinated about the animal mummies and how many there really are. We also learned that we still practice giving votive offerings to the deceased in the form of flowers and candles. Furthermore, it was enchanting to hear that Dr. Kozieradzka-Ogunmakin has sampled some of the mummies in order to perform aDNA analysis from the petrous bone. This particular bone is one that our Archeovirology team is really interested in using as a site for sampling as well.





In the evening, we all joined in celebrating Dr. Piombino-Mascali, who was receiving his honorary citizenship of Santa Lucia del Mela.

Dr. Piombino-Mascali becomes an honorary citizen of Santa Lucia del Mela.
Tonight was also the official opening ceremony of this year's MSFS. After the speeches, from prominent members of the community along with Drs. Piombino-Mascali and Reinhard, we all headed upstairs for wine and hors' d'oeuvres. Everything was delicious! The exquisite ceremony and reception was a perfect end to a happy day!

Panel discussing the significance of the MSFS in its second year.
Celebratory reception after the evening's events.
Amici per sempre (Friends Forever)