Week Eleven

This past week was a lot more relaxing here than it has been in a long time. Classes are sort of winding down. This is the last two weeks of both History and Italian classes and so we've been getting excited about that. They basically have us wrap up everything except exams before our break and then all we will have left is our history test and studio work until the end of the semester. Seems like it will be nice because they promise us that this way we will have more time to enjoy Rome some before we have to go home. I can't believe I only have 5 weeks left! Although I am definitely looking forward to going home and seeing my friends and Dan and everything.

The walks for history this past week were pretty cool. We are learning about Boromini and Bernini who we have studied in class before but it's so awesome to see all the stuff in person. On one of our walks we went to San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane and it was so beautiful. It is this tiny church on one corner of an intersection where 4 fountains were designed for each corner of the intersection. The fountains were so cool and interesting, and shows just one of the many things I love about Rome, that while standing to cross a busy street with cars whizzing by, there are these beautiful old fountains. It's just so crazy how old this city is. I think that is definitely something I'll miss. Just walking down the street and oh hey, there's the Colosseum, just chillin there.

Anyway, the inside of the church was just so awesome, such my kind of church/architecture. It was really plain white, simple, stark even, yet so beautiful. There was this amazing coffering on the ceiling in the dome that was made up of crosses and ovals, and was beautiful in it's detail and I think better just plain white. That is definitely something I've noticed here, the churches are just so crazily adorned with different stones and it's just gaudy sometimes, whereas this tiny church is so simple and is probably one of the most beautiful in my opinion.

This weekend we also had our last planned trip with school. We went to Fabriano and a couple of other small "hill" towns outside of Rome. In Fabriano there is a paper making factory where they are famous for their paper and it's sold in art stores all over. We got to go to the factory and each make our own sheet of paper. It was really cool because I didn't know that that was how paper was made (obviously the non-mechanized version) and it was fun just to do it. We also did some scavenger hunts and got a really nice lunch at this cool restaurant where it was also a furniture store. They sold the furniture that you sat at to eat. The tables were all made out of these awesome tree trunks with glass tops and it was just so cool. I wish that place was in America so I could buy some stuff!

After the planned activities were over we walked over to this big park and played around for a while. Simona's daughters were there and it was fun, so people played volleyball, the boys mostly played some pick-up football/rugby, and then there was this zip-line thing that we all took turns riding. It was pretty funny. We even convinced Claudia to do it! She was so scared but it was great.

That night we stayed in a hotel in Fabriano. Most people called it an early night - there wasn't much to do anyway. Today we basically just made our way back to Rome but stopping at a few different cool places on the way. The best part was we went to these caves and got a tour through. It was so beautiful and even though we weren't supposed to take pictures, I took a bunch of really good ones :)

All in all a pretty low-key week in Rome. My dad comes on Tuesday and I am so excited. It will be nice to hang out and go on break with him! Especially since he has a fun week planned out for us! David Brown is coming too which I'm happy about so my dad will have a friend to hang out with while I'm busy with classes and my Italian exam on Friday!

Week Ten

So here I am finally back at the apartment where I can relax for a night. This past week we travelled in the Veneto region with school and then a bunch of us stayed in Venice for the rest of the weekend. We just got back and I'm so happy. It was a pretty long, money spending week and I am glad just to be back with my bed and to be able to take a load off, no homework, etc.

On Tuesday we left for Verona (you know, where Romeo and Juliet are from!) Once we got there we checked into our hotel which was pretty cute. We got a little balcony off of our room and were right on the main square in Verona.

We visited a pretty cool museum built in an old castle (actually called Castel Vecchio!). We were basically just told to walk around and sketch and explore for a while. It was really cool. The museum was right on the water and there was really interesting features we found like a walkway along the river and this old bridge where you could climb up on the sides and see over the river. Later that afternoon, we went on some walks around the city and went to a photography museum that was installed in some excavated ruins. The photos were amazing and I think that was one of my favorite things we saw.

At night we had a dinner as a group which was really nice. I sat at the table with Scott and it was actually pretty cool to here all about his life and his family and stuff. It was really interesting. We then found a bar to go out to since it was St. Patrick's Day and we had to celebrate! It was so much fun because we got to put an iPod on for a song and so we put on Shipping Off To Boston and it was soooo awesome.

The following day we heading toward Venice but stopped on the way to visit a couple of sites. The coolest one was the Bolle at the Nardini Grappa Distillery. They were these two huge glass balls basically that were held up in the air. They were used for conference rooms and labs for the distillery. It was so awesome. There was this one part that was an auditorium and the seats automatically went up and down. I think everyone really loved visiting there, plus we got a free tasting! And lot's of people bought their grappa for gifts for people at home. I bought 2 little teeny bottles for Dan and my step-dad.

Once we arrived in Venice we checked into our hotel, which was soooo awesome. I roomed with Darien and we got one of the 2 really huge rooms in the hotel with a balcony over the canal. It was amazing. Darien was really excited because it was her birthday that night and she felt like it was extra special because we got the big room. That night we went out to dinner as a group and then attempted to find some nightlife that did not exist.

Thursday we spent the day doing tours of the city. We went to St. Mark's Square and went to this really awesome modern art museum where there were all these crazy installations. Like the one in the main area when you walk in was just all these sheets that looked like there were bodies under them. It was nuts. I think everyone really liked it, and it was really interesting to look at. We were given a lot of time to explore the museum and Lindsay showed us around telling us all the stuff she new since she specialized in modern art.

That night we got dinner again as a small group. It was pretty nice. We found this place that wasn't too expensive and had pretty good food. I had spaghetti with white clam sauce and it was amazing. Northern Italy is known for it's seafood and boy are they right. I think everyone enjoyed themselves. There was a fixed priced menu that some people got and is pretty common at a lot of touristy places. You get a pretty good amount of food (3 courses usually) and it's not too expensive.

The next day (Friday) we went on more tours of Venice and ended at the Peggy Guggenheim collection. That was one of the best museums I've been too because it was all this art from the early/mid 1900s of a lot of artists that I have studied. They even had the Proun by El Lissitzky that I did for my first semester studio project. It was so awesome to see in person. They also had a lot of works by Picasso. It was all around a really nice museum and I enjoyed it a lot.

We were then set free on our way and those of us staying in Venice went to the hotel to get our stuff and find our hostel. This hostel was by far the sketchy-est and most expensive of all of those we've experienced so far. It was a small apartment with a few bedrooms that 2 guys ran. The whole payment situation was awkward because of the language barrier and they were trying to get us to pay for meals and stuff. It was also the only place where we had to pay extra for sheets (even though it was by far the most expensive hostel we'd been to!). We ate dinner at the hostel that night and then went out to find some bars. An Australian couple that was also staying at the hostel came out with us too. We did successfully find some bars that had some people there, even though we were basically half the party. We sat down at a table at one of them and played cards basically the whole time. It was a lot of fun until the couple that came with us got into a fight and it was the most awkward thing ever. We basically had to get them to make up because their key to the hostel worked and ours didn't! It was really funny though.

The next day we went exploring around Venice on our own. We walked all the way down the island past St Mark's Square and found a park and it was just so awesome. The weather was beautiful and we took tons of pictures, got gelato, etc. It was a lot of fun and was just nice to walk around.

The next day we went to St Mark's Square to get a gondola ride, because you have to do that if you're in Venice. We were able to convince one of them to let 8 of us go on the gondola which was apparently illegal, but they'll do anything if you pay them enough. It was pretty short but really fun and I'm glad we did it. That morning was also Ben's birthday and he and Kyle had woken up earlier than the rest of us, so on the way to meet them we stopped at a bakery and got him a little cake which we presented to him in St Mark's Square. It was awesome.

We then met up with everyone at the train station and took the train back to Rome. I was the keeper of the ticket as provided by Scott and I successfully held onto it and gathered everyone together for the train. It was a long ride home and I am happy to be back after such a long time away. I spent SO MUCH money and it will be nice to just relax in Rome for a while now.

Only trip left is Spring Break! Time is really flying by! My dad gets here next week, I can't wait!

Week Nine

Well, what a week/weekend I've had. Definitely one of the busiest. They crammed so much work in for us, plus a couple of us decided it would be a good idea to go to Munich this past weekend!

Last Thursday was our mid-crit. I worked all week on it and really liked how it turned out. I got all the work done which was awesome because most people weren't able to get all the requirements done for Thursday. I also planned out my sheets and they looked really good. I was really happy with my presentation and got awesome praise and feedback. I love that feeling where you get all your work done and you are happy with it. That rarely happens and I really need to start working on making sure that it does more often. It's really nice to be able to go before critics and be confident with what you have. Most other people did a pretty good job.

Unfortunately, we could not rest because we had an Italian Quiz on Friday and our Theory project was due on Monday! I was way too tired from the mid-crit wFork to do much on the Theory project though (like a lot of people) and boy was that a mistake, but I'll talk about that a little later.

On Friday, 5 of us left to fly to Munich for the weekend. It was Sara, Diana, Alex, and Steve and I. We arrived in Munich and found our hostel which turned out to be soooo cool. Our room was awesome and we had our own bathroom and balcony. And the hostel itself had an atrium with bean bag chairs and other awesome things. Definitely a high quality establishment. We got settled in, made our beds and got ready to go out, and found a restaurant on the maps we had. We got dinner and it was pretty good but nothing extraordinary. We then searched for somewhere to go to a bar but for some reason the city felt pretty dead. We weren't sure if it was just a quiet night or the city had early closing laws. We later figured out they are more of a day-drinking crowd. Anyway, we found this bar that was half Irish-half Australian and got a couple of drinks but we were really tired so we went home after a little bit.

The next day we woke up and Steve, Sara and I attempted to work on our Theory projects for a little bit but it was getting late so we woke Diana and Alex up to get going. We explored Munich visiting a couple of different sites and ended up at the English Gardens which were so awesome. There was a surfer's wave where for some reason there was a non-stop wave because of the current and a bunch of guys were surfing on it. Then we walked through and saw a naked guy sunbathing. For some reason, in this park there is just an area where people sunbathe naked, and its just accepted and theres little kids running around and it's no problem. We then saw the cutest dog we've all seen in our lives and Alex wanted to steal it. Definitely the best dog we've seen since most of them are more mutt-like. We've definitely noticed that dogs are more grimey and usually not pure-breds in Rome, not like the nice pretty dogs in America. (I miss my puppy!)

Anyway, we then got to the Chinese beer garden in the English Gardens and got lunch. We finally got to drink out of the huge beer glasses. The food was awesome and so was the beer. The weather was great and we loved our lives.

That night we went out to dinner at the HofBrauHaus. It is a really traditional beer garden in Munich and it was definitely the best time. We shared a huge table with two German kids and a German couple. The kids spoke some English and got to talking with us. We got awesome meals and the huge beers that the beer maidens could carry like 10 of at a time. It was sooo cool. There was also a band playing sweet umpa music and there was lots of cheersing. It was such a blast. The German kids we met took us out after to a club where we stayed out pretty late dancing and having a good time.

The next day we went to see the Glockenspiel which is a really cool clock in the middle of Munich where there are puppets that dance around when the clock goes off. It only happens twice a day and everyone gathers around to watch it. It's really cool.

Later we went to Dachau to see the concentration camp. It was a really interesting, sobering experience, and while that seems like a really depressing thing to do, I was really happy we did it. I am so interested in the German culture and it was my first time seeing anything like that in person. It was upsetting, but I appreciated the memorialization. There were signs that said "Never Again" in a lot of different languages.

We then headed back to Rome and had to get going on our Theory projects! We ended up staying up all night with many other people and not finishing in time. We talked to Scott and a got sort of extension where we got our grades docked so that we could finish our projects to their fullest. I ended up finishing mine at mid-night the day it was due, but I liked the way it came out and hopefully even with a grade docking I won't do too badly.

Tomorrow we leave for our school trip to the Veneto region!

Week Eight

So Dan left today and I'm bummed. We woke up at the crack of dawn to take the train to the airport. We got there really early and just sat together as long as possible before he had to go through security. I am really going to miss him. It was so nice to have my best friend here for a whole week to hang out with me and get back to our old routines of doing stuff together like cook dinner and go out. I think this week has now just made our time apart even worse though. I mean, I never would have had him not come, but now that we've spent the week together it's so much more painful. I just hope the next two months go by soooo fast.

This past week was a tough one juggling school and doing stuff with Dan. He was a great sport and saw a lot of sights that I have already seen in Rome by himself. One night we got to go to a soccer game. It was SS Lazio vs. Juventus. Dan had the time of his life. That was the first real soccer game he's been too that wasn't MLS and it was so crazy and awesome. The visiting team's fans were even caged in in one section so there were no fights!

Another day that was really awesome is we went to the Colosseum. I had been way back in January when we had one of our classes there but it was really cool to go back and just walk around on my own time. I remembered a lot of the information about it and was able to give Dan his own little personal tour. It was so much fun, I took a ton of awesome pictures. The only bummer about this week is that the weather hasn't been that great. I feel bad cause it rained a lot and Dan had to stick that out with his sight-seeing. We also went to the Trevii Fountain where we got our picture taken in front of the fountain kissing. I love it haha, it's so cheesy and cliche but I am happy we did it.

Friday night I had the cooking class for Italian. Dan got to come and we cooked an awesome meal. We made amazing lasagna and these veal meat roll-ups that were slow-cooked in a tomato sauce. It was so much fun and the cook that was friends with our Italian teachers was so cute and we had fun talking. My teacher, who is the cutest lady ever, have I mentioned that?, complimented me on my Italian skills too which was awesome, so I am really not that confident with it. We had mostly Italian 1 people doing the cooking class so I was able to understand some things that the cook was talking about that others weren't and I was helping them. At one point I was talking to her though and figured out that she really does speak English, she just wasn't supposed to because I think Claudia told her not to to help us practice.

After the cooking class we met up with all the other kids who went on the pub crawl. It was so much fun. Unfortunately we missed the first part that was all you can eat and drink, so when we met up everyone was pretty wasted already and we were sober. But it was still a lot of fun checking out some bars we had never been to. We also went to a club in Testaccio last and danced the night away. The bar was wicked expensive, so we just said screw it and just danced for a while then walked home.

Saturday Dan and I went to the Vatican. It was gorgeous out and we packed a lunch to eat in St. Peter's Square. We sat on the steps on the outside and ate sandwiches just enjoying the awesome weather. It had to have been at least in the 70s. It was sooo nice. We then waited in line to go into the cathedral and walked around taking pictures and looking at everything. It was so amazing. That is the most gigantic church ever and it was awesome to finally see it. Unfortunately the museum was closed by the time we got to it so we didn't get to see the Sistine Chapel. I felt so bad because there wasn't another chance for Dan to see it :(

Saturday night we just went out with some kids to Scholar's and had a really good last hurrah.

Today since I was up early to see Dan off I was able to get a lot of school work done that I had to catch up on. We have our mid-crit this week for studio and an Italian quiz so I had a lot to do!

Week Seven

So Dan and I just got home from Venice! He got here on Saturday!!!! I came back from Tuscany Friday night in time to meet him when his flight came in Saturday morning. I was soooo excited to pick him up at the airport. Tuscany was pretty fun but not the best trip. I was I had gotten to stay there but I know I'm going back with my dad when he comes to visit. One highlight though was definitely the Nutella pizza we had in Siena, hahah. It was a really nice trip, we travelled through beautiful Tuscany stopping in Siena and Florence. They are such beautiful cities with amazing food, but the only drawback was most of the time we were doing walking tours and had to take a lot of notes. I can't wait to go back when I don't have to be there for school!

The first day we stopped at many of the small hill towns on the way to Siena. They were gorgeous little medieval towns with amazing views of the rolling hills of Tuscany. They were so clean and quaint with very few people around surrounded by acres and acres of farmland. We arrived in Siena that night and got to stay in another pretty nice hotel. A couple of the boys got pretty sick which I felt really bad about and I think it was from either the lunch or dinner that we ate even though no one else really got sick. Some of us went out in Siena that night, but it was really quiet and we just ordered some dessert and a bottle of wine at the only open restaurant in the center of town. One of the coolest parts of Siena is that to get to the city from out hotel you have to take about a million escalators because it is up so high.

The third day we headed to Florence. It was the other big city in Italy that we have been to and I really loved it. We walked around the city visiting the cathedral, the baptistry, and the Medici palace. The walks we went on focused a lot on the families of Florence and the architectural styles of the period. It was really interesting and the weather was decent for the most part although it has still be pretty cold. I even had to borrow a sweatshirt from my friend Steve who is like double my size by the way.

One of our teachers brought us to this really cool store that was like an herbologist's shop but was run by the nuns of Santa Maria Novella. It was so old fashioned and cool and they sold soaps and perfumes and other really cool stuff. I definitely want to go back if I can with my dad. From there we left for the train station (at least those of us who were heading back to Rome!). The train ride back was pretty quick and we just got back to Rome and settled in and hung out. It was kind of nice just being there with a few of us.

The next morning I went to the train station to pink Dan up. It was the best day ever. When he came out of baggage check I was dying with anticipation. We rode back to Trastevere on the train together and dropped his stuff of at the apartment. We then went out to do some sight seeing and to find some lunch. We got paninis near the Pantheon and enjoyed the beautiful weather by sitting on the steps of the fountain to eat. I then gave him my own little tour of the Pantheon and then walked around to see some other sights. Dan was getting pretty tired so we headed back and made some plans to go to the soccer game that was that night. We figured out how to get there and got to the stadium just in time (Julien came with us) but we found out that we couldn't buy tickets at the stadium for the game so we didn't get to go. :( Instead we headed over to the Vatican since it's sort of near the stadium and got to see it at night!

We then went to Scholar's, our favorite bar, because we wanted to show it to Dan. We got some snacks and so beers and just hung out. Dan got really tired and we had to wake up early to go to Venice in the morning, so we went home and to sleep.

Really early Sunday we woke up and caught a train to Venice. It took about 5 hours, and once we got there we got on a water taxi and rode it to St. Mark's Square which is where our hotel was. It was the cutest little guest house that had been redone really modern, but our room was soo tiny. It wasn't bad, just quaint. I really liked it. We set our stuff down and went exploring. We saw St. Mark's Square and just walked around the city through all the winding roads and canals and over bridges. We found the Rialto bridge that was so cool. It's a bridge that has stores built into it. We found a place to grab pizza for lunch, and explored some more, then headed back to the hotel to rest and get ready for dinner. We went out to a place that our hotel keeper recommended and it was so delicious. We did all the traditional stuff, including getting limoncello after dinner. I had so much fun doing all of this stuff with Dan. We celebrated the Valentine's Day that we had missed with this dinner. It was so nice.

The next morning we got up and had dinner at the hotel. We then had to make our way over to the train station so this time we walked and got ourselves lost and took about 2 hours to find it. We had wanted to explore and kill time so it was actually pretty fun. We rode the train back and got back in time to grab some dinner at Florida Pizza which is my favorite place in Rome to get pizza, and headed over to the studio to watch the Italian movie, which was Life is Beautiful. I LOVE that movie. Now we are back at the apartment just relaxing.

Alright, better go!