photographia = little stories of life

First day of Monday classes for me! I was sooo excited for the photography class that I've switched into. It's nice because it's in the afternoon (2:15 - 5), so I have the morning to run errands, sleep off the weekend, and whatnot. I woke up semi-early (last night was a little crazy because all the roommates got home at different times in the night so it was a lot of waking up then dozing back off) and did my usual routine. I was planning on making Mondays my market day - I couldn't wait to go back after how awesome last week was! - but I had a little dilemma.

supplies for the day

I've been trying to get in touch with the head of athletics at JCU to figure out my final teaching schedule. He told me that I would either be teaching Thursdays or Mondays, but never confirmed this. After a few emails and attempts at getting in touch with him, I decided to just head over to school early in the day to try and meet him face to face to figure everything out. Last night I planned out a class just in case, so I was prepared either way, I just needed to hear back from him! Market day is now postponed. So I grabbed my yoga mat, my beautiful sketchbook that Marshall gave me as a goodbye gift that I've decided to plan classes in, a book of yoga poems that was a gift from my mother, and headed out for the day.

You NEVER see people carrying yoga mats here. It's weird (well..for me I guess. others might not feel the same). That's why I was surprised on my walk to school- as I was walking by the Tiber a couple ran up to me, pointed to my yoga mat, and asked excitedly, "Scusi, scusi! Parli Inglese??" I answered "Si" (although looking back I should have just said yes if they were looking for English..). It was an American couple looking for a yoga studio in Rome. Sadly I told them I hadn't found any in the few weeks I'd been there and that the class at JCU was students only. Shoot. Of course, me being me, I felt terrible that I couldn't help them so I spent the afternoon looking up studios in Rome 1. so I could find one to try and 2. so I would be able to answer questions like that in the future

I made it to school and what do you know, Antonio wasn't in the office. Luckily someone who worked for him was and checked the schedule to let me know I wasn't on the schedule until Thursday. I'm going to try to change the class to Mondays since I now don't have Thursday classes - more time to travel! So I left a note for Antonio and headed to meet Ashley for lunch. I still haven't gotten used to the slowness of Italian time yet! I got a yummy pizza (folded-over style, of course) around school and picked up some stamps, then chilled out at the Guarini campus until my photo class at 2:15.

Photography was so awesome. The professor was such an artist. I really can't think of a better way to describe it. Well, I'd say he reminded me more of an artist/dad/kid-at-heart kind of guy. Two other people switched into the class this week also, so I wasn't the only new person which was nice. Serafino (the professor) was so good at making sure everything made sense to the newcomers. It's such an interactive class, I think I am going to learn a lot. He has a few old cameras that we can use for 30euro, but I'm considering buying my own for a little bit more money (he said basic ones are a little less than 100) - especially since my books only cost me 20euro and usually they're closer to $500! I'm going to go by the camera store on Thursday and check out my options.

Serafino spent the first hour and a half explaining our class blog, going through the pictures students posted last week one by one, telling us about the general functions of a manual camera, etc. I loved that he would interupt himself every now and then to give his own two cents:

"Photographia is little stories of life. Different than written stories. We have to make them seen, they cannot be made in our minds like paint."

or

"I am an eight-year-old," [sidenote: when he first said it he accidently said 80, then realized his mistake when we all laughed] "every stops growing at one point. If you're 16 or 17 that's bad. If you're 2, too young. You might not know yet your age, but you will." His english is moderate, but he tries - when he doesn't know a word in english he says it in Italian over and over until it comes to him. I love it.

this looks like a painting - one of my favorite pictures i've taken so far!

The second half of the class we walked around Rome as he went around to each student and explained their cameras to them. Every now and then we'd turn around and he would be nowhere to be found, before suddenly appearing out of the crowd trying to balance 4 different cameras in his 2 hands. It felt so "Rome" walking around with that class - at one point we were walking across a bridge and a band started playing THE typical Italian music (you can hear it now, I know you can..) as we walked together, looking at the sunset over the bridge, everyone holding an old-school camera, taking it all in. I literally laughed out loud thinking about how cliche it was. Ahhh, Romaaa :)

Oh! Exciting news! Remember a few days ago someone asked me for directions and I freaked out and didn't know what to do because I didn't understand? It happened again today. But this time, I gave the directions. Valid, she asked me in Italian and I said "Parli Inglese?".. so the convo was in English but I did give an Italian directions to the closest gas station. SUCCESS. Next step: be able to do it speaking Italiano.

Tonight the plan is do start on some homework (my first hw since May AH SO EXCITING!!). Debbie's excited because the bus came right as she was getting to the bus stop, so she volunteered to make us a yummy stir fry dinner. YUM! Homework, by the way, includes finding a photo I like and writing a blurb about it, doing some sketching and watercolor painting, and maybe doing a few pages in my research workbook.

Oh the life of a Roman...