My noon-hour expeditions/adventures on the campus of WSU continue unabated by the weather outside. Wrapped up in scraf, hat and gloves (no they didn’t all match!), I had stepped outside my warm office building even as fat flurrying flakes fell all around me. Heading north on campus, I approached the somewhat non-descript building called the General Lectures Building adjacent to the Alex Manoogian Ethnic Heritage Center, a quick ten-minute walk from my office. Manoogian Hall, as it is commonly known, houses a number of Departments, many of them in the languages (modern and ancient) and social-sciences. On its many floors, there are a number of study-rooms that are themed in decor and style for a certain country. So, there’s the Polish Room, the Greek Room, the Chinese Room, and so on. Anyway, more on these lovely rooms in Manoogian Hall another time…
Today, I discovered that the General Lectures Building, right next door to Manoogian Hall also had one such study-room called the Italian Heritage Room. And what a lovely room it is!
Here’s an album of some pictures I took (again w/ my lowly but trusty cellphone).
Scattered through the room were several interesting pieces of art– ceramic and bronze sculptures, paintings and reliefs, beautiful calligraphy on the walls, and other historical info about the the once vibrant Italian Languages Department (now perhaps collapsed into the Classics Dept.). The black-and-white checquered marbled floors and the grand columns inside the room certainly gave off a certain Italian vibe, no doubt!
And to quote Dante, the great Italian poet, “He listens well who takes notes“. Which is exactly what a study-room is good for– to read and revise notes that were taken in class!
