Update? Woah crazy talke

Hey, it has been a while since the last update (sorry Mom, I know you check often) But here is a photo of my current pride and joy...this semester's photo project. In the last month or so I have been working on these large triptychs. They are using three different negatives so lining them up is an utter struggle but I have been really happy with the results. It is a study of Santa Maria Novella train station. This space is something not commonly found to be beautiful, but since I have a personal love of places of mass transportation, I am trying to find beauty in the space. I like all the vast long linear qualities of most of the triptychs. The one below is actually not my favorite but it was the one printed in time to submit to our end of the semester show (a juried show too, and I got in!)

Weekend sunshine

So it appears it is springtime in Florence because I have been frolicking around wearing a tshirt and a skirt. It has been lovely. Brianna, Nicole and their friend Katie were here this weekend so it was fun to play tour guide for a bit. Another huge bonus is while showing them around I have accidentally stumbled upon the best Italian food since I have been here! An amazing restaurant that I am for definitely going back to and a for real sandwich shop that Italians were actually purchasing food in and not just tourists. It is difficult to find great Italian food (oddly enough) in this city because the average tourist is only here for 3 hours so many places are notorious for giving okay food at crazy prices and then just waiting for the next group of tourists to pour through the doors. Florence has a pretty hard shell that I am just now starting to crack through. Better late then never though, eh?

Call for information

Since I have such a wonderful and well traveled reader base of family and friends I was wondering if anyone (and everyone!) could pass on what they know about any of these places. Things to do, things to avoid, etc.

Zürich, Switzerland
Berlin, Germany
Munich, Germany
Dublin, Ireland
One of the major cities in Scotland (we haven't decided)

My travel mate and I are beginning to plan our trip and some of the cities we don't really know one thing about. Also, if there are any cities that you are shocked and apalled that we will be missing out on let me know! Either by email or posting a note on this blog.

Thanks everyone :]

Christ has risen, he has risen indeed

Firenze likes to celebrate Easter with a something roughly translated to "explosion of the cart". Oh it is what it sounds like. They take an ornate wooden cart and parade it around the city with decorated oxen, flag twirlers and trumpets. Then once the parade reaches the Duomo complex in the center of the city they park it out front and begin to rig it with fireworks. You read correctly, fireworks on Easter morning. So after about an hour of rigging, song playing and bell ringing the grand event begins. I was anticipating one large explosion for maybe a minute or two. But oh no, we are talking 20 minutes or so of full of choreographed mortar firework show. Afterward Jenni and I crafted some Easter breakfast.

Superior London Post

I went over my last post about London and found it a bit meh. I threw it up on the web for the sake of putting up a post resulting in a pretty boring result. So a bigger, stronger and superior London post (this one) has been put in its place.

Saturday:
Jenni and I woke up at the unfortunate hour of 5am and started our journey from Florence to Pisa to catch a Ryan Air flight to London. Upon arrival we found our hostel and grabbed some food before taking a walk around the city to take in the main sights.
Sunday:
The initial plan was to journey towards the coast to a vacation town called Newquah. However, after finding out how difficult and expensive it would be to get there we abandoned the plan, called my friend Steph, and went to the apartment we would be crashing in for the rest of the week two days early. The rest of the day was spent hanging out with Clark students studying in London and a few of Steph's friends from home. In the late afternoon I got the chance to hear a famous boys choir during a service at Westminster Abby. We ended the evening with a giant group meal with various parts donating by all the guests

Monday:
We were crashing with a ton of my friends that have internships in London, but Monday was their day off. So off to Primark we went! A British chain store that has super low prices.Tuesday:
Leah, Jenni and I had a high end afternoon including a visit to the Design Museum and tea at the Orangery in Kensington Gardens. We all had the Darjeeling and it is highly suggested from all parties.

Wednesday:
A day in the country! Jenni and I adventured off to Morton-in-Marsh with the plan to go biking. Although upon arrival we discovered biking was not in the cards for us that day; the rental place is only open during the summer months. We settled on some more tea and scones at a local shop and a long walk to an arboretum.
Thursday:
Off to the shore for another day trip! We went out with Leah again this time to Brighton. The goals were as follows; see seaside, find this amazing milk shake place we heard about and generally frolic around. All goals were achieved.
Friday:
Friday was Steph's birthday! We all went out for Thai food and then to a karaoke bar. The morning was spent with Jenni and Billie at the Tate Modern Museum.
Saturday:
A group headed out for one last stop at Primark and then the evening was Steph's birthday part II at a dance club.

Triumphant!

As some of you may already know, although I have an amazing farmers market right down the street from my apartment I have been too intimidated to go there due to my lack of Italian skills. Today I decided to just give in and go since many students have told me language knowledge was not required and the chicken was really cheap. I went, I saw, and I conquered. Now I have three large cuts of chicken breast and a little container of strawberries for the morning (all under €6!)

Rome - Part I

I am going to tell the tale of my field trip to Rome in pieces, due to the fact that I saw just about everything in 3 days. Far too many things to consider posting about at one time.

Yesterday, the last day of the trip, we got the chance to wander around one of the most beautiful gardens in the world (in my humble opinion) found in Trivoli. It was completely filled with fountains, I believe around 400 of them. The backyard was massive and used to be part of the private home, Villa d'Este. The photos probably won't do it complete justice but you will get the idea. It was fantastic to wander around in the sun for 2 hours in this place.

Art History lesson

I finally went on an infamous Helen field trip. Helen is our early renaissance and high renaissance art history professor and she is notorious for high paced compact field trips. But, a free trip is a free trip so last Saturday I found myself on a bus for a whirl wind tour of both Pisa and Lucca in one day. Helen field trips are actually pretty great, especially if you are not actually in the class and have no pressure of memorizing facts that may be on the midterm. She has a mic and headset system so you listen to the entire lecture from personal headphones. This provided two luxuries; I could hear everything and when I didn’t feel like being lectured to at the moment I could take my headphones off.

Entertaining things learned in Pisa…
The famous leaning tower is actual the bell tower of Pisa’s duomo complex (a duomo is the most important cathedral in a town or city). As of today it has about a 5 degree lean and had to under go a ton of construction and planning after a period of the tilt steadily increasing. The tower’s tilt is now under control and has been determined as stable.

The baptistery has crazy acoustics. One sung note will echo through the halls for about 5 seconds after the note is finished, making any mediocre singing sounds fabulous. They give acoustic demonstrations performed by the janitorial staff. In other words, a singing test is part of the application to become a janitor in Pisa’s baptistery.

Sinopias are fresco sketches and are named for their reddish tone. We saw an entire gallery of these sketches that are normally never seen because they are in a layer underneath the fresco plaster. After WWII some major frescos in Pisa’s cemetery complex were partially destroyed to the point that officials moved them off the outdoor walls to a safer location. The sketches were also removed from the wall at this time and now hang in a nearby gallery.

Random fun facts from Lucca…
A ton of buildings and complexes are built over layers of Roman ruins. There were two distinct points where you could easily see the different parts of history come together in the architecture.

The first location was a town square built on top of the foundation of a Roman amphitheater. The placement of the houses and the outside walls reflect this history.

The cathedral S. Giovanni and Reparata recently reopened after being completely excavated for ancient ruins. Layers of Roman, Early Christian and early medieval ruins lie underneath the floors of the church. They are opened up to the public to wander around in and look at the different areas ranging from an old Roman bathhouse to a brick studio from later in history.

Italy has been treating me pretty well recently. The weather is steadily getting better with more sunshine and warmer temperatures, which is great. I can’t wait to explore without being bogged down by winter coats or rain gear.

Carnival
My friends and I went to Carnival in Venice last weekend. During the day we could not find the magical atmosphere that everyone raved about. But as the families and mellow tourists slowly left in the evening and young people in costumes flowed in the party officially got started. We bar hopped in costume, moving from piazza to piazza. Stages with music were scattered around the city and the entire island transformed into a giant party.

Cooking
My culinary skills are slowly improving. About once a week I add a new dish to my list of options I can make. This week I attempted a lentil and vegetable soup. It turned out decent enough that I am willing to eat the massive amounts of leftovers so I consider it a victory.

Future Trips
I am heading off to Pisa on an art history field trip this weekend (for a class that isn’t mine, three cheers for tagging along on free trips!). Last time I went to Pisa, my junior year, I found it incredibly boring. But we had shown up after everything was closed for the evening and it was too dark to take cheesy photos with the tower; so I decided it was worth another attempt.

Two weekends from now I am off to Rome on another field trip. We are going to see all the big events (Vatican, major museums, etc) so I am pretty excited. After a few college level baroque art history courses I wanted another chance to see everything through newly educated eyes.

Hello all

I officially have a cold and am trying to nurse myself back to health before I party hard this weekend in Venice for Carnival. The partying of course is in the name of lent ;]

In other news, I went to the Bologna art fair this past Friday and it was completely overwhelming and exciting. It was interesting to see all the galleries set up in order to sell the work rather then display it, creating an entirely different feeling. The whole experience had a very relaxed vibe. Some very famous artwork was casually hanging amongst all the rest in a large exhibition center completely filled to the brim with pieces.

Hello everyone

Quick little fun fact about my neighborhood I live in; evidently it used to be the red light district of Florence. The street right out my front door was lined entirely with brothels up until as late as the 50s. My design professor recently moved in a few apartments down from mine and she said it was the first time her mother had ever walked down that street because when she was growing up in was not proper for ladies to go near that area. My professor even found a hidden inappropriate fresco behind a wall while renovating.

heh, who knew?

Reality of it all

Living and studying in Italy is a bazaar mix of the decadence I fantasized about and the mundane.

I am sitting in a large and beautiful apartment in the center of the city.

Filled with uncomfortable furniture that appears to be left over from the past semesters.

Sketching with my fellow artist and studying for class,

Avoiding work I do not wish to do, as usual.

And sipping on a glass of wine.

A special deal found at a corner store, 4 bottles for 10 euro.

The River

My friend Carly took this photo of me on one of the bridges yesterday. It is a beautiful spot and probably one of my new favorites. To top it off its awesome-ness it is also where a ton of crews row by which is always fun to watch.

Update of the last two weeks

I realized that I have not sat down and typed out a very lengthy post about what I am actually up to so here is the last two weeks in summary...

Italians
We have definitely experienced the results of many Italians believing a unflattering American stereotype. Junior high students have mocked us, people on the street have yelled "Bush" at us and men have harassed my friends and I for blocks. However, many of the Italians I see and interact with everyday have been incredibly kind and patient with the language barrier that most SACI students experience here (we are not required to take Italian and most students do not know it). There is an incredibly kind man who works at the snack bar across the street from my house and my goal is to be able to hold a basic conversation with him by the end of the semester. What is lovely to see is that most SACI students, myself included, are a bit more motivated now to learn Italian.

School
Classes have been great so far. I have gone to at least one session of all of my courses except for museology, which I have tonight. My photo professor is amazing and I have learned so much already from him. I think my photo especially will gain a huge improvement from the time at this school. Silk screening is exciting and I am hoping to continue it with an independent study once I get back. Contemporary art history seems interesting and graphic design will provide decent practice with the programs if nothing else.

Roomates
My housemates/roomate are all sweet girls. We seem to get along well and have similar living styles which makes having so many communal spaces easier.

American style bars
Are in odd abundance here, probably because of the amount of American students and tourists. We go there when we miss home or want a beer. Italians don't really drink beer at a bar all that often.

The Duomo
Has quickly become a major landmark for getting myself un-lost and is almost becoming a piece of everyday life, which is a bit odd. It is like seeing store 24 on the corner and knowing I am close to Clark campus. "Oh look! The largest cathedral in Florence, I am almost back"

Free field trips
Oh you read correctly, all of the SACI class field trips are free and you can tag along if there is room. So I am hoping to take advantage of this and get to see a lot of Italy.

Well that is most of what I can think of off the top of my head. More updates to come later.

The apartment

The apartment is pretty great. We are right next to school so I can't complain about location at all. (the picture you see below with the view of the garden, is SACI's sculpture garden) The SACI apartments are spread all over town ranging from our building (the closest) to about a 20 minute walk or so. Some students lucked out and have a beautiful view of the Duomo. We don't have that, we did however get this huge front door that looks like a church door. An idea of the scale... the door knobs are about eye level with me.

Standing on top of Florence

Monday morning, my first day of classes, on a whim I decided to climb to the top of the dome of the Duomo (the major cathedral in Florence). Well, I couldn't find the entrance to do that so I opted for the bell tower instead. The view was amazing, as you can experience via the internet below...

January 8 & 9, arrival in Italy

My various flights to Florence were pretty uneventful... except for the ridiculous quarantine situation in Toronto. And thus follows the lengthy tale broken down by the hour or so...

4pm
Arrive in Toronto
5pm
Get through security to international terminal and wait for my flight to Munich
7pm
A bit before the plane is supposed to start boarding we are told there is a medical emergency on the flight arriving at the gate so our flight will be slightly delayed because that is the same jet we will be using
8pm
Medical emergency is still a big mystery and our take off time keeps getting bumped back
9pm
It becomes apparent the medical emergency is in fact 10 quarantined passengers on the previous flight . At this time another passenger tells me they saw officials in hazard suits on the tarmac earlier.
10pm
It is announced that the Canadian government had okay-ed the plane for takeoff, and then changed their minds, and then right when they were about to say it was safe again one of the quarantined passengers used the restroom on the plane and the entire thing was restricted again. We are now in a bit of a limbo because changing planes takes a very long time but so does cleaning and securing this one evidently.
11pm
We have a plane and a gate! But oh wait...the entire crew is now under quarantine as well so we must find a new flight crew before takeoff.
12am
Flight finally takes off to Munich (thankfully on a different plane)

Ridiculous