I don't know where the time goes, I've got one post to do about seeing the David and tourists, but right now I'm to angry over people eating my food to be angry about tourists taking pictures. I also bought a 60 Euro book that is gigantic, I can't wait to try and pack that for the plane ride.
Posts without me whining about something coming soon, maybe.
Friday, July 27, 2007
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Stranger days
So other than the first surprise of my roommate's accident, the week seems to be turning out to be very strange. Today it actually rained. Which I have to say, is probably the most surpirising thing I've seen since I've been here. Not that weather in itself is wierd, it's just that the weather here is constant, blazing bright sun in a clear blue sky every single day I've been here; so imagine finally seeing, not just clouds, but actual rain coming down from them.
And the city becomes a lot more dificult to navigate in when you're holding an umbrella, trying to avoid soggy tourists and all the illegal immegrants trying to hawk umbrellas, while also trying not to fall walking on the slick paving stones. But I guess that's what I get for wearing sandals today. And it wasn't even a downpour, it only rained for about 20 minutes before the sun reared it's head back in the sky, although the clouds did manage to stick around for a while longer, making the day a lot cooler too.
Classes today were pretty easy, had the mid-term in my history class and didn't have to paint for today in painting, instead we went to a gallery showing and the art teacher's studio. He does some really interesting expressionistic stuff and doing a lot of paintings on plastic, which I haven't seen before but creates a really unique effect on his work. There was also a really unfriendly cat there, or it might have just hated art students in particular, I didn't ask.
The show at the gallery was interesting, but it was also on top of a really high hill we had to trudge all the way up to get inside, and by that time the sun was back out so it wasn't much of a fun time. But we got to walk by Galileo Galiei's house on the way there. The gallery was full of so-so oil paintings and incredible watercolors by a 19th century artist, Vincenzio Cabianca. There were these huge sheets of paper with the most incredible scenes painted on them. I'm not really a landscape person but I was having fits over how incredible this man's art was, absolutely gorgeous and I cannot figure out how he could do such poor work in oil painting. I guess it just reinforces the superiority of watercolor as a medium, in my humble opinion anyway.
And the city becomes a lot more dificult to navigate in when you're holding an umbrella, trying to avoid soggy tourists and all the illegal immegrants trying to hawk umbrellas, while also trying not to fall walking on the slick paving stones. But I guess that's what I get for wearing sandals today. And it wasn't even a downpour, it only rained for about 20 minutes before the sun reared it's head back in the sky, although the clouds did manage to stick around for a while longer, making the day a lot cooler too.
Classes today were pretty easy, had the mid-term in my history class and didn't have to paint for today in painting, instead we went to a gallery showing and the art teacher's studio. He does some really interesting expressionistic stuff and doing a lot of paintings on plastic, which I haven't seen before but creates a really unique effect on his work. There was also a really unfriendly cat there, or it might have just hated art students in particular, I didn't ask.
The show at the gallery was interesting, but it was also on top of a really high hill we had to trudge all the way up to get inside, and by that time the sun was back out so it wasn't much of a fun time. But we got to walk by Galileo Galiei's house on the way there. The gallery was full of so-so oil paintings and incredible watercolors by a 19th century artist, Vincenzio Cabianca. There were these huge sheets of paper with the most incredible scenes painted on them. I'm not really a landscape person but I was having fits over how incredible this man's art was, absolutely gorgeous and I cannot figure out how he could do such poor work in oil painting. I guess it just reinforces the superiority of watercolor as a medium, in my humble opinion anyway.
Monday, July 23, 2007
Venice trip or hell on the water.
Back from Venice, and I can't say that I enjoyed it very much. Super hot, really expensive, and crammed with tourists is pretty much the only impression I took away from the city. But the train ride there was pretty nice, and really well air conditioned. It can sink underneath that lagoon it's stuck in tomorrow for all I care. I took some pictures though, I'll post them soon.
In other news, my roommate got hit by a bus last night (she's relatively okay) and I am going to go to the swimming pool for painting class.
In other news, my roommate got hit by a bus last night (she's relatively okay) and I am going to go to the swimming pool for painting class.
Friday, July 20, 2007
Off on another trip
Alright, going to Venice on Saturday, so I may not be able to post for a while. Here's a majority of the pictures I've taken in no particular order. Enjoy.
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Recap of the rest of the Weekend and playing catch-up.
So after getting back from Siena and being totally exhausted from walking all over the place, what do I do on Saturday and Sunday? Walk around a couple of the museums and gardens here in Florence, of course. Because theoretically I want to make the most of my time here, and for me this involves seeing as many museums as possible.
Saturday, I walked through the Palazzo Vecchio and Bargello Museum, then Sunday at the Uffizi No photos allowed inside, unfortunately, but take my word that the stuff inside is incredible. Especially as someone who has taken enough art history classes to recognize a lot of the stuff, seeing it in person is so much more impressive, especially once you see the actual dimensions of a piece. Sandro Botticelli's "Birth of Venus" almosst takes up an entire wall, I was a bit shocked to find out.
But walking through the museums is a kind of torture, since most of the places were built before air conditioning, guess what? There usually isn't any, or else is used so faintly you can't even tell if it's on. Not to mention all of the stairs to climb up and down, and you're not allowed to take water inside with you either. Before coming here I read about Standahl syndrome, which is supposed to be an affliction from coming to Florence where an individual is leterally overcome by the art and gets dizzy or faints. I think it has a lot mre to do with the heat and the stair climbing and all, but that's just my opinion.
Sunday, after a bit of a rest from the Uffizi I went over to the Boboli Gardens, which were a change of pace from the museums, not as busy, big open spaces, and trees! It offers a more sedate lace to visit and some extrodianry views of both the city of Florence and the Tuscan hillside behind it. However, walking through it, it was so hot, and dusty, and did I mention hot? I don't know how the Florentines of the Renaissance managed to walk everywhere wearing wool and furs and tights, because I start sweating after 2 minutes of walking wearing just a t-shirt and shorts. But then again, I suppose if I had just sat in one shady spot for a while, instead of trying to cover the entire gardens in a few hours I would have been in better shape. Because of the heat, most of the grass was baked dry, but smaller gardens had been watered better. The gardens also had a lot of cats in it, for some reason; these were also the first cats I'd seen in Italy and I'm sorry to say, most of them weren't very friendly.
This week for classes I got to visit Santa Maria Novella and Santa Croce, two of THE churches to visit in Florence. Played a bit more of Art History notables, and there were a lot in Santa Maria Novella, but Santa Croce did have the tombs of Galileo Galilei, Michaelangelo, and Machiavelli. And a really tasteless monument to Dante Aligheri, even though he isn't even buried there.
For painting we went to Cascine park, and had to take a bus to get there. An important note about the Italian buses, people are just as lax about whether or not you'e paid the bus fare as they are about driving. Apparently, once in a while they go around and check, but I've got two unpunched tickets, and I"m not using them unless I have to. Cascine park was in much the same shape as the Boboli Gardens, that is, baked to a fine golden-brown, but it did have a nice view of the Arno river, a fountain filled with geese and turtles; and odder still, a monument to George Washington. There's probably an interesting story behind that.
More pictures up this weekend, they take a while to post, especially if I want to have them in a certain order.
Saturday, I walked through the Palazzo Vecchio and Bargello Museum, then Sunday at the Uffizi No photos allowed inside, unfortunately, but take my word that the stuff inside is incredible. Especially as someone who has taken enough art history classes to recognize a lot of the stuff, seeing it in person is so much more impressive, especially once you see the actual dimensions of a piece. Sandro Botticelli's "Birth of Venus" almosst takes up an entire wall, I was a bit shocked to find out.
But walking through the museums is a kind of torture, since most of the places were built before air conditioning, guess what? There usually isn't any, or else is used so faintly you can't even tell if it's on. Not to mention all of the stairs to climb up and down, and you're not allowed to take water inside with you either. Before coming here I read about Standahl syndrome, which is supposed to be an affliction from coming to Florence where an individual is leterally overcome by the art and gets dizzy or faints. I think it has a lot mre to do with the heat and the stair climbing and all, but that's just my opinion.
Sunday, after a bit of a rest from the Uffizi I went over to the Boboli Gardens, which were a change of pace from the museums, not as busy, big open spaces, and trees! It offers a more sedate lace to visit and some extrodianry views of both the city of Florence and the Tuscan hillside behind it. However, walking through it, it was so hot, and dusty, and did I mention hot? I don't know how the Florentines of the Renaissance managed to walk everywhere wearing wool and furs and tights, because I start sweating after 2 minutes of walking wearing just a t-shirt and shorts. But then again, I suppose if I had just sat in one shady spot for a while, instead of trying to cover the entire gardens in a few hours I would have been in better shape. Because of the heat, most of the grass was baked dry, but smaller gardens had been watered better. The gardens also had a lot of cats in it, for some reason; these were also the first cats I'd seen in Italy and I'm sorry to say, most of them weren't very friendly.
This week for classes I got to visit Santa Maria Novella and Santa Croce, two of THE churches to visit in Florence. Played a bit more of Art History notables, and there were a lot in Santa Maria Novella, but Santa Croce did have the tombs of Galileo Galilei, Michaelangelo, and Machiavelli. And a really tasteless monument to Dante Aligheri, even though he isn't even buried there.
For painting we went to Cascine park, and had to take a bus to get there. An important note about the Italian buses, people are just as lax about whether or not you'e paid the bus fare as they are about driving. Apparently, once in a while they go around and check, but I've got two unpunched tickets, and I"m not using them unless I have to. Cascine park was in much the same shape as the Boboli Gardens, that is, baked to a fine golden-brown, but it did have a nice view of the Arno river, a fountain filled with geese and turtles; and odder still, a monument to George Washington. There's probably an interesting story behind that.
More pictures up this weekend, they take a while to post, especially if I want to have them in a certain order.
Sunday, July 15, 2007
Siena and San Gimignano, with pictures, even!
So getting out of the city was a nice change of pace. For one thing, there was actual plants and trees to see, because outside of window boxes, I haven't seen any real plant life in Florence, just rows and rows of yellow buildings. So being able to see the famous Tuscan landscape was exciting, needless to say it's a big difference from Wisconsin.
First view of Siena's Duomo.
Closer exterior view of the Duomo. It was HUGE.
The bus trip, not as exciting, although the bus was made by Mercedes-Benz; I usually ended up dozing whenever we were on it. It was a lot nicer once we actually got off the bus at Siena. We were assigned a tour guide and sent off on a bit of a whirlwind tour of the city. One thing about Siena is that it has a lot of hills, it can make for some pretty interesting views and very steep streets though. Our guide told us that the city is divided into sections and each has it's own mascot, some where like high school mascots, like the wolves or the eagles; but some were really odd like the caterpillars, the geese and the tortoises.
San Domenico, where the head of St Catherine is held.
Siena street, this was the neighborhood of the Goose.
One thing I didn't like was that for the tour we walked mostly on the main streets. Which meant there were about a million other tourists walking around as wel, and occasionally a car to walk around. But the tour was only about two and a half hours long, but it went by, fast. It also left everyone with an hour and a half to kill. We ended up going into Siena's Duomo, which wasn't as big as Florence's, but was twice as overdone with elaborate decorations on the facade. The inside was much darker, and striped, in stacks of green and white marble, again with lots of different artworks and statues all over the walls. The Piazza del Campo is the huge public square in the shape of a scallop shell, with a little fountain at one end, and big government biulding at the other. Unfortunately didn't have time to go to the Museum of Torture, but did manage to see the preserved head and thumb of St Catherine of Siena. No pictures of that, unfortunately.
Interior view of the Duomo. No Flash Photography Allowed. No Bare Shoulders allowed either.
Piazza del Campo. They hold a huge horse race in this thing twice a year. It's a realy big deal for the locals, this year the Geese were the winners.
Tower to building right by the Campo. I could see people climbing inside of it. No time for that unfortunately.
San Gimignano was smaller than Siena or Florence, but some really increidible views out onto the countryside. The town and it's setup looked like it hadn't changed since the 13th century. To enter we had to go up a huge hill and enter through a gate placed in this enormous wall that surrounded the town. It was also less packed with other tourists, So it was a nice change from both of the previous cities. Didn't go inside of any of the buildings or churches here, mostly just walked around and admired the view from various points.
One of the towers at San Gimignano. Built in the Middle Ages, there's 13 of 76 still standing today.
One of the views from San Gimignano.
That all for this post. Later I'll type about visiting some of the museums in Florence, and the Boboli gardens. Plus more pictures, when I have the time.
First view of Siena's Duomo.
Closer exterior view of the Duomo. It was HUGE.
The bus trip, not as exciting, although the bus was made by Mercedes-Benz; I usually ended up dozing whenever we were on it. It was a lot nicer once we actually got off the bus at Siena. We were assigned a tour guide and sent off on a bit of a whirlwind tour of the city. One thing about Siena is that it has a lot of hills, it can make for some pretty interesting views and very steep streets though. Our guide told us that the city is divided into sections and each has it's own mascot, some where like high school mascots, like the wolves or the eagles; but some were really odd like the caterpillars, the geese and the tortoises.
San Domenico, where the head of St Catherine is held.
Siena street, this was the neighborhood of the Goose.
One thing I didn't like was that for the tour we walked mostly on the main streets. Which meant there were about a million other tourists walking around as wel, and occasionally a car to walk around. But the tour was only about two and a half hours long, but it went by, fast. It also left everyone with an hour and a half to kill. We ended up going into Siena's Duomo, which wasn't as big as Florence's, but was twice as overdone with elaborate decorations on the facade. The inside was much darker, and striped, in stacks of green and white marble, again with lots of different artworks and statues all over the walls. The Piazza del Campo is the huge public square in the shape of a scallop shell, with a little fountain at one end, and big government biulding at the other. Unfortunately didn't have time to go to the Museum of Torture, but did manage to see the preserved head and thumb of St Catherine of Siena. No pictures of that, unfortunately.
Interior view of the Duomo. No Flash Photography Allowed. No Bare Shoulders allowed either.
Piazza del Campo. They hold a huge horse race in this thing twice a year. It's a realy big deal for the locals, this year the Geese were the winners.
Tower to building right by the Campo. I could see people climbing inside of it. No time for that unfortunately.
San Gimignano was smaller than Siena or Florence, but some really increidible views out onto the countryside. The town and it's setup looked like it hadn't changed since the 13th century. To enter we had to go up a huge hill and enter through a gate placed in this enormous wall that surrounded the town. It was also less packed with other tourists, So it was a nice change from both of the previous cities. Didn't go inside of any of the buildings or churches here, mostly just walked around and admired the view from various points.
One of the towers at San Gimignano. Built in the Middle Ages, there's 13 of 76 still standing today.
One of the views from San Gimignano.
That all for this post. Later I'll type about visiting some of the museums in Florence, and the Boboli gardens. Plus more pictures, when I have the time.
Saturday, July 14, 2007
Random Pictures
Finally, some random pictures in no particular order. Hopefully I'll have ones up from Siena sometime tomorrow, more in depth posts then, too.
Friday, July 13, 2007
Huh.
I just swatted a mosquito and a 50 Euro bill fell out from behind a tackboard. And there was ANOTHER 50 Euro still behind the board.
I AM MAGIC!!!!!!
I AM MAGIC!!!!!!
Thursday, July 12, 2007
News
Got the museum card today, now I just have to wait for the chance to use it, hopefully this weekend. I'm also going on the class trip to Siena tomorrow, with any luck I'll be able to see the head and thumb of a preserved saint and a museum about the history of Torture...fun times.
Today, I got lost in the city for a while, though technically speaking I got lost twice. Once on my way to the San Gallo campus, then on the way back, when I tried to use the same route. This is generally what happens when I refuse to look at a map and the street names change at every block. I got lost yesterday too, doing the exact same thing, but I try and look at these as learning experiences. Learn to look at the map once in a while or experience the sweltering heat of Italy some more. Though while I while I was lost I managed to find a vegetarian resturant I hadn't been able to find earlier, so it all did work out for the best.
Of course wandering around for an extra hour led to some incredibly grimy feet and a lot of sweating, and having to go to painting class right after didn't help. The extra four hours in the sun made me feel even grosser, partially because of the ridiculous amounts of sweating, but also now I'm starting to develop a farmer's tan. I don't think there is anything else in the world that could depress me more than this at the moment.
Still trying to figure out the picture thing, I'm using Eva's computer so I'm going to have to wait and ask for her help on this one.
Today, I got lost in the city for a while, though technically speaking I got lost twice. Once on my way to the San Gallo campus, then on the way back, when I tried to use the same route. This is generally what happens when I refuse to look at a map and the street names change at every block. I got lost yesterday too, doing the exact same thing, but I try and look at these as learning experiences. Learn to look at the map once in a while or experience the sweltering heat of Italy some more. Though while I while I was lost I managed to find a vegetarian resturant I hadn't been able to find earlier, so it all did work out for the best.
Of course wandering around for an extra hour led to some incredibly grimy feet and a lot of sweating, and having to go to painting class right after didn't help. The extra four hours in the sun made me feel even grosser, partially because of the ridiculous amounts of sweating, but also now I'm starting to develop a farmer's tan. I don't think there is anything else in the world that could depress me more than this at the moment.
Still trying to figure out the picture thing, I'm using Eva's computer so I'm going to have to wait and ask for her help on this one.
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
In other news
There is now wireless internet at the apartment. Which is really nice, considering the computer labs at the school are packed to the brim with people checking up on Facebook and MySpace. Not that staring at a computer screen is something I WANT to do the entire time I'm here, it just makes posting and checking e-mails much more convenient.
Still no Museum Card and I'm starting to get a little antsy, I want to go into the Uffizi, NOW! And apparently the line outside is apparently famous for being a ridiculously loooong wait without the card. Then again, Italians never seem to be in any particular rush, maybe they just now something Americans don't. But they aren't going to be here for just a month, so they had better hop to it.
History of Florence class is still proving amusing, it's pretty funny to see the professor get so worked up over the subject, especially when its about things like guilds and city walls. But her enthusiasm is infectious, especially when you can walk right up to something you learned about in class.
Painting class is fun too, except for to things that really can't be changed. Number one is the Sun, sitting outside for four hours loses it's glamour once the skin on the back of your neck starts to sizzle; And Number two is the people, mostly the tourists.
At our safety orientation, the police officer giving the talk explained something called "Disneyland Syndrome". In a nutshell, people come here and act as if this is some sort of theme park, with no regards toward safety, or what is and isn't an attraction. Apparently a group of people sitting and painting counts as an attraction to these people. Working with someone looking over your shoulder is difficult, when it's a group of them, and they're taking pictures, it's nearly impossible. I start to get paranoid and keep fighting the urge to look back, and always get the feeling someone is standing behind me now. I bet this is how animals at the zoo feel all the time.
Not to mention that today, in the Piazza de Santa Croce we had to deal with some sort of presentation to do with drag racing. With a gigantic videoscreen, autoshow girls in short shorts, blaring music, and last but not least, an Italian radio station deejay. Who really do sound EACTLY like the American ones, so it was nice to get that little taste of home, even when I'm an entire Atlantic Ocean away.
Still no Museum Card and I'm starting to get a little antsy, I want to go into the Uffizi, NOW! And apparently the line outside is apparently famous for being a ridiculously loooong wait without the card. Then again, Italians never seem to be in any particular rush, maybe they just now something Americans don't. But they aren't going to be here for just a month, so they had better hop to it.
History of Florence class is still proving amusing, it's pretty funny to see the professor get so worked up over the subject, especially when its about things like guilds and city walls. But her enthusiasm is infectious, especially when you can walk right up to something you learned about in class.
Painting class is fun too, except for to things that really can't be changed. Number one is the Sun, sitting outside for four hours loses it's glamour once the skin on the back of your neck starts to sizzle; And Number two is the people, mostly the tourists.
At our safety orientation, the police officer giving the talk explained something called "Disneyland Syndrome". In a nutshell, people come here and act as if this is some sort of theme park, with no regards toward safety, or what is and isn't an attraction. Apparently a group of people sitting and painting counts as an attraction to these people. Working with someone looking over your shoulder is difficult, when it's a group of them, and they're taking pictures, it's nearly impossible. I start to get paranoid and keep fighting the urge to look back, and always get the feeling someone is standing behind me now. I bet this is how animals at the zoo feel all the time.
Not to mention that today, in the Piazza de Santa Croce we had to deal with some sort of presentation to do with drag racing. With a gigantic videoscreen, autoshow girls in short shorts, blaring music, and last but not least, an Italian radio station deejay. Who really do sound EACTLY like the American ones, so it was nice to get that little taste of home, even when I'm an entire Atlantic Ocean away.
Peace of mind. All for the low, low price of 39.95
I figured that I wouldn't need the cell phone, I didn't want the trouble, or spend the money. Then I tried to spend two days without one. I forget how even if I can live without a cell phone for a few weeks, almost everyone else I know can't, not to mention how much easier they make life in generl, especially when I'm here in Italy. A number of conversations that I have had the last week have gone omething like this:
Person: "Hey Kristin, you want to get together and do something?"
Me: "Sure, when do you want to meet?"
Person: "Well, why don't I just give you a call on your cell after class."
Me: "I don't have a phone."
Person: "Oh."
Generally we worked something out, but it is so much easier to coordinate plans when you can contact someone at a moment's notice, and when you want to talk to someone back home, or when someone back home needs to talk to you immediately. Then you can finally stop mooching by constantly borrowing your roommate's phone.
So I gave in, I have one and now I don't have to give an akward instruction for a person to call my roommates cell, instead of calling me.
Person: "Hey Kristin, you want to get together and do something?"
Me: "Sure, when do you want to meet?"
Person: "Well, why don't I just give you a call on your cell after class."
Me: "I don't have a phone."
Person: "Oh."
Generally we worked something out, but it is so much easier to coordinate plans when you can contact someone at a moment's notice, and when you want to talk to someone back home, or when someone back home needs to talk to you immediately. Then you can finally stop mooching by constantly borrowing your roommate's phone.
So I gave in, I have one and now I don't have to give an akward instruction for a person to call my roommates cell, instead of calling me.
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Eveyone warned me about hot it would be here, and the pickpockets, scammers and otherwise unsavory elements, the crazy drivers; I just wished somebody had mentioned the damned mosquitoes. Everyone here is covered in mosquito bites that get enormous and red whether or not you scratch at them, and Italian mosquitos seem to be able to fly without making a sound because I have yet to actually notice one of them. It's crazy, if they're such a problem why is it nobody or no guide book mentioned it until I got here?!
The rest of classes went fine yesterday, I ended up walking around WAY to much, though I did end up getting a full night's sleep for the first time since I've been here, and discovering a lot of neat little shops that are close to the apartment, including an English language bookstore and an art supply store. There was also a mix-up in my painting class, and as it turned out, so instead of the class being about painting in acrylics and in watercolor, so I am now the only person in the class to be using watercolor. Mom, I think you're right when you say I enjoy making things more difficult than they need to be, but after all the trouble I went through just to get here, I feel entitled.
Still trying to find out where the cell phone place is, and I am REALLY regretting not just getting on the the day I arrived instead.
The rest of classes went fine yesterday, I ended up walking around WAY to much, though I did end up getting a full night's sleep for the first time since I've been here, and discovering a lot of neat little shops that are close to the apartment, including an English language bookstore and an art supply store. There was also a mix-up in my painting class, and as it turned out, so instead of the class being about painting in acrylics and in watercolor, so I am now the only person in the class to be using watercolor. Mom, I think you're right when you say I enjoy making things more difficult than they need to be, but after all the trouble I went through just to get here, I feel entitled.
Still trying to find out where the cell phone place is, and I am REALLY regretting not just getting on the the day I arrived instead.
Monday, July 9, 2007
Finally an update
It took a while to get on a computer I didn't have to pay to use, sorry I haven't been posting sooner. Italy is beautiful, and especially gorgeous when you have all of your luggage and a full nights rest. The apartment I'm in is in the heart of the old city, just south of the Duomo and just north of the Piazza della Signora and Uffizi Museum. Also, apparently I live right by the house that Dante Aligheri was born in, and now it's a museum as well. I really can't wait to get the museum card so I can go inside these places. Eva and I walked all over the place seeing this stuff when we got lost on my first day here, but it was still fun.
And surprisingly, the apartment is enormous, for what ever reason I was expecting something much smaller, but it's really lovely. I do wish I had brought my perscription sunglasses though, there are no clouds in the sky...EVER, on the plane over from Amsterdam there was clouds stretching out in every direction like the plane was flying over the Artic, then all of a sudden all we could see all of the land was covered by fields and houses and no trees except for on the mountains, and all of the clouds had just stopped, right over the Dolomite mountains which is basically the northern border for Italy.
Saturday was orientation, safety talks, and adding and dropping classes, nothing exciting but all the necessary crap. I was still pretty jet-lagged so I dozed off during some of it, but I didn't really miss anything. After orientation we found out our luggage was finally at the airport so most of us rushed back out there to pick it up and then some back. Later on the school had everyone meet back up at 7 o'clock and we got a free 5 course dinner at some fancy resturant, the waitstaff was very accomadating to me which was really nice, and I got to meet some new people who weren't from Milwaukee, as well.
The first day of classes is half over now, my History of Florence class promises to be really entertaining, its obvious that the professor is really enthusiastic about the subject, we get to go to a lot of the sites for the classes and learn about how the political history of Florence relates so strongly with the art. Although i wasn't to happy about having to buy a textbook and notebook, I'll probably just take both back home with me I was really happy to hear we won't have to write some 5 page long paper for class either. I just hope I enjoy the painting class as much.
That's all I'm going to write for now, hopefully I'll be able to make more posts later on. PICTURES OF STUFF POSTED SOON I SWEAR.
And surprisingly, the apartment is enormous, for what ever reason I was expecting something much smaller, but it's really lovely. I do wish I had brought my perscription sunglasses though, there are no clouds in the sky...EVER, on the plane over from Amsterdam there was clouds stretching out in every direction like the plane was flying over the Artic, then all of a sudden all we could see all of the land was covered by fields and houses and no trees except for on the mountains, and all of the clouds had just stopped, right over the Dolomite mountains which is basically the northern border for Italy.
Saturday was orientation, safety talks, and adding and dropping classes, nothing exciting but all the necessary crap. I was still pretty jet-lagged so I dozed off during some of it, but I didn't really miss anything. After orientation we found out our luggage was finally at the airport so most of us rushed back out there to pick it up and then some back. Later on the school had everyone meet back up at 7 o'clock and we got a free 5 course dinner at some fancy resturant, the waitstaff was very accomadating to me which was really nice, and I got to meet some new people who weren't from Milwaukee, as well.
The first day of classes is half over now, my History of Florence class promises to be really entertaining, its obvious that the professor is really enthusiastic about the subject, we get to go to a lot of the sites for the classes and learn about how the political history of Florence relates so strongly with the art. Although i wasn't to happy about having to buy a textbook and notebook, I'll probably just take both back home with me I was really happy to hear we won't have to write some 5 page long paper for class either. I just hope I enjoy the painting class as much.
That's all I'm going to write for now, hopefully I'll be able to make more posts later on. PICTURES OF STUFF POSTED SOON I SWEAR.
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
T-Minus 3
3 days to go, still no passport, all plans on hold until Thursday when it's going to be a mad dash towards getting me a new passport and then onto the plane at 4. AND now my cell phone is refusing to work properly, so I can call the Passport Office again, and I'm rapidly devolving into an emotional train wreck.
So much for the power of positive thinking.
So much for the power of positive thinking.
Monday, July 2, 2007
Okay, that's the reason there are test posts...
Gooblededook below is nothing important, just trying to work out any kinks in the blog before I go over to Italy.
T-minus 4 days to go and I still haven't got my passport.
T-minus 4 days to go and I still haven't got my passport.
नॉट इन इटली येत बुत...
थौघ्त ई वुड पुट उप अ टेस्ट पोस्ट बेफोरे ई लावे, जुस्त तो मके सुर थे ब्लोग वोर्क्स, ई'वे गोट अल्मोस्त एवेर्य्थिंग ई नीद ब्य मय दम्नेद पासपोर्ट.
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