Exactly one month left!! NOOO!
My parents visited this past weekend. I showed them around, we went out to dinner several times, and they went on the field trip to Assisi and Perugia on Saturday. It was great to see them and I'm glad they got to see things that I can't really explain. They even got to be part of the Palm Sunday procession through town! We used olive branches instead of palm branches, quite appropriate for Italy.
I bought 2 plane tickets today and yesterday for traveling afterwards. I have mixed feelings, soooo excited for the sibling reunion in Paris but not excited for the program to end because it seems like I have to go back to reality then.
So far I have 2 possible Florence trips planned and maybe Cinque Terre this weekend but I haven't decided yet.
Monday, March 29, 2010
Sunday, March 21, 2010
this is home!
I finally feel like I'm at home here and the people around me are my community and family. I have some friends, I know my way around town and Italian has somewhat come back to me so I can communicate, I'm familiar with a lot of the store people, I'm getting an idea of what stores are closed when (like 1:30pm on Sundays, closed on Tuesdays, etc). Unfortunately now that I'm getting comfortable, I realized that the program ends in a little over a month and I hate to think about it. The professors are trying to fit as much in as possible before the semester ends so they keep talking about how we only have 6 more class sessions, etc... I can't think about leaving, it makes me sad and I don't want to think about trying to adjust back to American life as if nothing has changed. It will be a very weird transition, like Italy was a dream even though it has affected me and made me grow in ways I can't really explain.
I need to get some photos from my friend Maggie (the red headed one in the last blog post photo) and then I'll do a photo update too, but probably more on facebook and just a few here.
This past week was a normal week of painting, drawing, bookmaking, and my art history midterm. We went to Volterra (I guess the real setting of part of Twilight, even though they filmed it in Montepulciano because Volterra charged too much...this is all from some Twilight fans on the trip and I have no idea if it's true or not) and San Gimignano on Saturday.
I went to San Gimignano almost 5 years ago last time I came to Italy and I have two photos: one of me eating an heirloom tomato I bought at the market, and another with a girl named Sarah in some kind of fresco/arch/stone cove up some stairs. I had no idea where it was and wasn't planning on finding it but I told one of my friends about it who had been to San Gimignano a while ago and also had a mystery spot in her memory, and she told me to go up an alleyway by the church where there's a well and some arches because she had a feeling that might be my spot. I walked through a dark stone walled alley thinking "I doubt this is it, I have such a vague memory I didn't even explain it to her except that there were stairs and stone which is like 90% of hilltop towns in Tuscany" but at the end of the walkway I got a flashback that made me smile so big. It was the mystery spot that I had been to where I had taken the picture with that girl that I don't talk to anymore. It was one of the most exciting things since I've been to Italy so I literally ran out from there to the piazza outside of the church to look for Karen who told me to go in there. I had her come back in there to take a picture with me in the same spot I think I had the picture taken before.
I also had gelato at the gelateria in San Gimignano that has won the world gelato contest for the past 4 years. I wondered why I hadn't remembered it from last time and realized it was because they won the contest starting in 2006 but I came in 2005 before it was famous...
On a side note, the angel in the Annunciation by Luca Signorelli (the one in Volterra, I don't know if he painted more than one Annunciation) is beautiful and I want a huge poster of it!! I admired it with Maggie for a long long time. However, disregard the creepy babies in the top left corner of the painting.
I need to get some photos from my friend Maggie (the red headed one in the last blog post photo) and then I'll do a photo update too, but probably more on facebook and just a few here.
This past week was a normal week of painting, drawing, bookmaking, and my art history midterm. We went to Volterra (I guess the real setting of part of Twilight, even though they filmed it in Montepulciano because Volterra charged too much...this is all from some Twilight fans on the trip and I have no idea if it's true or not) and San Gimignano on Saturday.
I went to San Gimignano almost 5 years ago last time I came to Italy and I have two photos: one of me eating an heirloom tomato I bought at the market, and another with a girl named Sarah in some kind of fresco/arch/stone cove up some stairs. I had no idea where it was and wasn't planning on finding it but I told one of my friends about it who had been to San Gimignano a while ago and also had a mystery spot in her memory, and she told me to go up an alleyway by the church where there's a well and some arches because she had a feeling that might be my spot. I walked through a dark stone walled alley thinking "I doubt this is it, I have such a vague memory I didn't even explain it to her except that there were stairs and stone which is like 90% of hilltop towns in Tuscany" but at the end of the walkway I got a flashback that made me smile so big. It was the mystery spot that I had been to where I had taken the picture with that girl that I don't talk to anymore. It was one of the most exciting things since I've been to Italy so I literally ran out from there to the piazza outside of the church to look for Karen who told me to go in there. I had her come back in there to take a picture with me in the same spot I think I had the picture taken before.
I also had gelato at the gelateria in San Gimignano that has won the world gelato contest for the past 4 years. I wondered why I hadn't remembered it from last time and realized it was because they won the contest starting in 2006 but I came in 2005 before it was famous...
On a side note, the angel in the Annunciation by Luca Signorelli (the one in Volterra, I don't know if he painted more than one Annunciation) is beautiful and I want a huge poster of it!! I admired it with Maggie for a long long time. However, disregard the creepy babies in the top left corner of the painting.
Sunday, March 14, 2010
shorts and snow
I walked outside in shorts today, still a little cool with piles of snow still not melted, but it's finally sunny...so different from the snow storm a couple days ago. I hope that was the end of the crazy weather. There were people playing in the snow on the terrace right outside of my room. I just took a picture from the inside haha, my suede boots and pea coat aren't quite snowball fighting gear. I think this is from Wednesday:
We went to Orvieto yesterday. There's a big cathedral with green and white encrustation all over except the Gothic facade, with TONS of detail, I can't imagine doing that.
The bronze doors were made recently, by a guy named Emilio Greco (not El Greco haha). There was a little museum dedicated to him full of his drawings and sculptures, as well as the process of making the doors. Since I've been paying attention to varying brushstrokes in painting it was interesting to see that even sculptors vary their strokes. I'm leaving some of the gesso background in the painting I'm working on now, and noticed that on some of Greco's sculptures he left bronze in small chunks just as is without making them smooth or putting some kind of mark in them. I like to see how different media overlap. At school I'm usually around drawing/painting people because of classes but I talk to people outside of my niche here including English majors. I didn't expect it at all but the process of writing can be really similar to making "art" like having a notebook to put phrases in like sketches in a sketchbook, writing, rewriting, editing, drawing, erasing, deciding when it's finished...
Art history is much better in person. We read about different monasteries and I saw a structure from Orvieto that I previously would have called something like a castle, but I recognized it as a monastery because of its location and design. I'm learning!
I didn't write last week because I was doing a lot of makeup work, but I'm caught up now so I'm back on the normal schedule. We're having midterm grades already, the semester is flying by!
Our semester exhibition is April 17th, wow that's soon.
On Friday night I went out at night for the first time in several weeks. Our whole group went to a show at the theater to hear Orchestra della Toscana and a British singer perform Broadway songs. After that we went to the pub and a few of us watched a local band in the back room play songs we mostly didn't recognize. Afterwards we met two of them, twins from Cortona. They were hilarious and kept a safe distance so that was a fun night. It was refreshing to meet people that weren't creepy looking like they're on the prowl for American girls. But we'll still be careful just in case :)
We went to Orvieto yesterday. There's a big cathedral with green and white encrustation all over except the Gothic facade, with TONS of detail, I can't imagine doing that.
The bronze doors were made recently, by a guy named Emilio Greco (not El Greco haha). There was a little museum dedicated to him full of his drawings and sculptures, as well as the process of making the doors. Since I've been paying attention to varying brushstrokes in painting it was interesting to see that even sculptors vary their strokes. I'm leaving some of the gesso background in the painting I'm working on now, and noticed that on some of Greco's sculptures he left bronze in small chunks just as is without making them smooth or putting some kind of mark in them. I like to see how different media overlap. At school I'm usually around drawing/painting people because of classes but I talk to people outside of my niche here including English majors. I didn't expect it at all but the process of writing can be really similar to making "art" like having a notebook to put phrases in like sketches in a sketchbook, writing, rewriting, editing, drawing, erasing, deciding when it's finished...
Art history is much better in person. We read about different monasteries and I saw a structure from Orvieto that I previously would have called something like a castle, but I recognized it as a monastery because of its location and design. I'm learning!
I didn't write last week because I was doing a lot of makeup work, but I'm caught up now so I'm back on the normal schedule. We're having midterm grades already, the semester is flying by!
Our semester exhibition is April 17th, wow that's soon.
On Friday night I went out at night for the first time in several weeks. Our whole group went to a show at the theater to hear Orchestra della Toscana and a British singer perform Broadway songs. After that we went to the pub and a few of us watched a local band in the back room play songs we mostly didn't recognize. Afterwards we met two of them, twins from Cortona. They were hilarious and kept a safe distance so that was a fun night. It was refreshing to meet people that weren't creepy looking like they're on the prowl for American girls. But we'll still be careful just in case :)
Monday, March 8, 2010
a fresh start
I'm glad I didn't stress out much about being behind, I decided to take it one day at a time and see what happens. So far it's working out fine. My art history professor extended our paper a few days, my painting professor extended my painting a few days, bookmaking and drawing still have the same deadlines coming up so I'll be busy but not as bad as I expected. It's still Monday though, who knows, maybe later this week I'll say I spoke too soon.
I went to town to find hotels for my parents to stay at, and on my way back I bought a boar meat sandwich. It was delicious. They eat boar here, I guess it's pretty normal. I'll probably get another one at some point before I leave. I also bought fresh mozzarella because it was finally on sale :) The store I got the boar sandwich at had like 7 kinds of honey made around here from different flowers. They ranged from the crunchy textured lighter kind to medium brown and smooth. The lady at the store let us try one of the darker ones and it tasted like burnt sugar/honey. It was weird but really good, so I bought mini jars of 2 other kinds.
The gelateria is finally open, YESSS!!! I haven't been yet but I've heard it's good. The pastry shop is also calling to me every time I walk by but I haven't been inside yet. When we go on our Saturday field trips there are pastry shops at every other block, and I stop by almost all of them, kind of like in Japan. I'm somewhat glad that they aren't all over in the states, or else I would be a big spender on sweets at home too.
Maybe I should talk about where we go on Saturdays. Two Saturdays ago we went to Pienza and Montepulciano. Montepulciano is where New Moon was filmed but I haven't seen the movie so I couldn't appreciate that. There were posters all over and even wine called New moon haha.
This past Saturday we went to Arezzo. It was a pretty big city, they even had a Zara. It was weird to see young men because I don't see many in Cortona (mostly high school and middle aged~old) and there are 45 girls and 1 guy on this program.
This post was mostly about food. Clearly I'm ready for a predinner snack :) and bookmaking homework.
I went to town to find hotels for my parents to stay at, and on my way back I bought a boar meat sandwich. It was delicious. They eat boar here, I guess it's pretty normal. I'll probably get another one at some point before I leave. I also bought fresh mozzarella because it was finally on sale :) The store I got the boar sandwich at had like 7 kinds of honey made around here from different flowers. They ranged from the crunchy textured lighter kind to medium brown and smooth. The lady at the store let us try one of the darker ones and it tasted like burnt sugar/honey. It was weird but really good, so I bought mini jars of 2 other kinds.
The gelateria is finally open, YESSS!!! I haven't been yet but I've heard it's good. The pastry shop is also calling to me every time I walk by but I haven't been inside yet. When we go on our Saturday field trips there are pastry shops at every other block, and I stop by almost all of them, kind of like in Japan. I'm somewhat glad that they aren't all over in the states, or else I would be a big spender on sweets at home too.
Maybe I should talk about where we go on Saturdays. Two Saturdays ago we went to Pienza and Montepulciano. Montepulciano is where New Moon was filmed but I haven't seen the movie so I couldn't appreciate that. There were posters all over and even wine called New moon haha.
This past Saturday we went to Arezzo. It was a pretty big city, they even had a Zara. It was weird to see young men because I don't see many in Cortona (mostly high school and middle aged~old) and there are 45 girls and 1 guy on this program.
This post was mostly about food. Clearly I'm ready for a predinner snack :) and bookmaking homework.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
sick
I've been sick since Monday evening and it's Thursday now. This is unusually long...
There's only so much you can do on facebook and youtube, hulu doesn't work outside of the US, and there's a selection of about 6 movies here, so I've had a lot of time to sit and think about classes that I've been missing and how I suddenly got this sick. After many 18 unit semesters preparing for this one, I was really looking forward to this 12 unit semester thinking I would finally get a break...wrong.
3 studio art classes=18 hours/week
1 lecture class=4 hours/week
mandatory field trip=12 hrs/saturday
that's a total of about 34 hours per week of required class time, plus a semester crammed into 11 weeks, meaning every project is done in superspeed. It's mostly been fun but no wonder I'm sick... Despite all the makeup work coming my way, I hope next week will be more upbeat.
There's only so much you can do on facebook and youtube, hulu doesn't work outside of the US, and there's a selection of about 6 movies here, so I've had a lot of time to sit and think about classes that I've been missing and how I suddenly got this sick. After many 18 unit semesters preparing for this one, I was really looking forward to this 12 unit semester thinking I would finally get a break...wrong.
3 studio art classes=18 hours/week
1 lecture class=4 hours/week
mandatory field trip=12 hrs/saturday
that's a total of about 34 hours per week of required class time, plus a semester crammed into 11 weeks, meaning every project is done in superspeed. It's mostly been fun but no wonder I'm sick... Despite all the makeup work coming my way, I hope next week will be more upbeat.
Monday, March 1, 2010
weekend
It's starting to warm up, it's finally in the 50s!! I haven't had to wear a jacket yet today.
I went to a movie called Scusa ma ti voglio sposare (Excuse me but I want to marry you) on Saturday night. It was an Italian romantic comedy, the main guy was Francesco from Under the Tuscan Sun. We got a special room on the second floor, I'm not sure why.
This is what the theater looked like: (I took it at the end of the movie when people had left, it wasn't that empty)
For Jennica's birthday on Saturday we went out to dinner at a restaurant (first time going out here!!) called Nessun Dorma and I got Tortelli with Deer with apples and smoked ham on top. Delicious. It kind of tasted like Japanese soboro. Marlena got curry ravioli with ricotta cheese and walnuts inside. It was an ethnic pasta dinner haha. I still think it's weird that they charge for tap water though. If you visit Italy, keep in mind the sitting fee and charging for tap water.
This week I'm motivated to get stuff done early: Karaoke night is Friday and Saturday is the last night out with the Canadians in town because it's their last weekend here.
I've been here for a month already! I arrived January 31st. Each day feels long but it's flying by so fast. I'll be back home in no time, anxious to fly away again and see another exciting place. I'm already thinking about where I want to go next and how that will happen. I love home and everyone there, but I feel like this is the only time in my life with so many possibilities and not that much to worry about (besides money!! haha, a major roadblock in my traveling dreams)
I went to a movie called Scusa ma ti voglio sposare (Excuse me but I want to marry you) on Saturday night. It was an Italian romantic comedy, the main guy was Francesco from Under the Tuscan Sun. We got a special room on the second floor, I'm not sure why.
This is what the theater looked like: (I took it at the end of the movie when people had left, it wasn't that empty)
For Jennica's birthday on Saturday we went out to dinner at a restaurant (first time going out here!!) called Nessun Dorma and I got Tortelli with Deer with apples and smoked ham on top. Delicious. It kind of tasted like Japanese soboro. Marlena got curry ravioli with ricotta cheese and walnuts inside. It was an ethnic pasta dinner haha. I still think it's weird that they charge for tap water though. If you visit Italy, keep in mind the sitting fee and charging for tap water.
This week I'm motivated to get stuff done early: Karaoke night is Friday and Saturday is the last night out with the Canadians in town because it's their last weekend here.
I've been here for a month already! I arrived January 31st. Each day feels long but it's flying by so fast. I'll be back home in no time, anxious to fly away again and see another exciting place. I'm already thinking about where I want to go next and how that will happen. I love home and everyone there, but I feel like this is the only time in my life with so many possibilities and not that much to worry about (besides money!! haha, a major roadblock in my traveling dreams)
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