tearing down the walls. literally.

This morning I woke up feeling well rested, which was unusual for me..hopefully that means I'm finally fully adjusted to the 6 hour time difference!! Yoga, meditation, breakfast, then stopped at Uaxupe (my fav cafe) for a capuccino with Ashley. We walked to school this morning - although I usually walk to school instead of taking the bus, we didn't have a choice today. The bus workers were on strike, apparently that's a usual thing here. So there were lots of walkers today!

Debbie in fresco painting

I had my first Art History 370 Honors class today (Special Topics in Northern Italian Renaissance Art: Coreggio to the Caracci) since our first meeting was cancelled last week. It's definitely going to be my hardest class. There's tons and tons of reading and seems like lots of work, and since I'm taking it at an honors level there's even EXTRA readings, too! But I find it exteremely interesting so I'm no really worried. I guess at some point I have to actually study here...I meeeeaaaan I AM "studying abroad"! We went over the syllabus, went through some slides to get a good intro the material, then were let out a little early.

I had to finish up my "Permit to Stay" paperwork (it's this mandatory thing you have to do if you're staying in Italy for a long period of time), so I headed to the Tiber campus to get that done. The line was sooooo long but luckily Ashley, Tara, Debbie, Kaylie, and some other people I know were there also. Ashley and I finished up first and didn't have much time before our next classes, so we left to get some lunch. We tried a new pizzeria between the Tiber and Guarini campuses, tucked in a corner, almost unnoticeable. IT. WAS. FANTASTIC. I got a slice of spinach and ricotta..to die for. And it was only a little over a dollar! There are so many good lunch places by school, soooo exciting.

Ashley and I split up to head to our different classes, I stopped by the coffee vending machine and tried to decipher it (do I need a cup? or does it give you one? where does the coffee come out?) and failed miserably. Maybe next week. I ran into another girl from UM who I've met a couple times and we attempted to exchange numbers - another fail. The numbers are so confusing here. I never know if I have to add the country code or not, then the regular part of the number is 12 numbers long. I don't get it. Then I was off to fresco painting!

there was so much dust that i had to turn the flash off
or it ended up picking up the dust particles like this!
(notice the girl with her sweatshirt wrapped around her face)

I knew that we were breaking down the old frescos from last semester in class, but I had NO idea the craziness that I was in for. We literally took hammers to the walls. He warned us that we would be covered in dust by the end of class, but I guess you can't understand unless you were there. Dust was EVERYWHERE by the end. We literally had to take breaks and run outside to the balcony to be able to breath. People's hair were completely white with dust from the walls, and we all were using our scarves or sleeves to cover our noses and mouth to keep from inhaling all of the lime particles floating around. It was insane!! My teacher came up to me and another girl since we'd both tied our scarves over our faces so they'd stay and so we could breath, and was like "you guys look like terrorists.." haha casual.

cleaning up our mess (dusty dusty dusty)

It was really fun though, my arms are definitely going to be sore tomorrow from all the work. I took a bunch of pictures because it was just such an experience - when will I ever destroy frescos on a wall again? I had to turn off my flash in all the pictures, though, because if I left it on it picked up the dust particles and made the picture all crazy looking. That class is definitely my favorite (well, so far!).

After we destroyed the wall we were each assigned to a different area of it to recreate. We learned the first step of fresco painting - Arriccio. There are 3 layers of wall that you have to make before you get to the painting part. So we made up the 1:3.5 ratio of lime and course sand and began to (literally) fling it onto the walls. Homework for this week: finish the first layer of arriccio. Yes, please.

After class I went to JCU to try once more to figure out this whole yoga ordeal. SUCCESS! I'm officially teaching Monday afternoons before my photo class. Perfecto:)

Walked home, even though it was starting to get dark. It was a beautiful walk, I'm definitely walking home more often (usually I walk TO school and take the bus home). I passed by this awesome street art that I'd never noticed before., and I could actually translate it myself, which I was so proud of! It means "a blank page and a poem hidden" ... just a little food for thought. I don't know, I loved it. I got home, tried to figure out my weekends and traveling (the usual), detoxed my body from all the lime dust (literally sneezing out plaster -TMI i know but this is real life), and showered. But the hot water isn't working. again. The shower situation is probably the only thing I WON'T miss about Italy when I get home.

OH! And I found out my address today! Packages are a no-go bc Italy's super weird about them and it would be lots of money and take months and months to get here (sad, I know), but I'd love letters or postcards if you're feeling snail-mail-y. (If you send me one, I'll send you one! haha) Here ya goooo:

Kelsey Butler, Mailbox #412
John Cabot University
Via della Lungara, 233
00165 Roma, ITALY


Time to chug some water to flush the dust from my lungs, eyes, and sinuses, and get to bed. No classes tomorrow - the weekend started tonight! But I still have lots of exciting events planned, no worries:)