progress in the art department

YO

This week in classes was just a normal week. We're getting into the swing of things now with midterms over the next few weeks and projects starting to build up, so it's been a little tiring. I need to work on sleeping more! The time difference is hard because I want to talk to everyone back home, but they don't get online until the early evening THEIR time, so that's +6 hours here! But it's worth it... I can sleep when I die :)

Monday I was super super tired from getting home late the night before, but the yoga class went really well. They finally completed the new gym, so we were in that space which was cool! I got there early because I was afraid I'd get lost, so I practiced some intense inversions (meaning the rest of the week my body was sore out the wazoo. perfecting the forearm stand, scorpion, and handstand is worth it though!). It was a lot louder in this space compared to the temporary room, though, because it's an open room that connects on 2 sides to the weight room and machines, and you just pull a curtain over the openings for the class. So the music's blasting and the machines are loud and people are having conversations, oh boy! It was still a nice class though. At least the space is bigger so we can fit everyone nicely.

second official printed picture!

Photography was fun, like always! We learned a little about photoshop, scanning our negatives into the computer using this funny little machine, then editing out the dust and scratches. It was neat! After our mini lecture we had the rest of the class to either develop film, print pictures, or walk around outside and finish our rolls. I worked on printing another picture from Prague. This time I went through the whole procedure and spent a lot of time perfecting the picture, so it came out really nicely! It's one of my favorite frames on the roll - it's of a love bridge Ashley and I found. People lock their engraved or initialed locks on the bridge and take the keys with them, symbolizing that they have the key to eachothers heart :) I love it. Jada and I found a mini love bridge in Paris, and apparently there's one in Rome, too. I'll have to keep my eye out!

printed picture with
all my test strips

Tuesday I wasn't feeling well. My body was hating on me for going going going nonstop on zero sleep. I woke up and felt terrible - major headache, my body was achey, stuffy nose, and the beginnings of a cough. NO NO NO I will not be sick in Rome!! So I made the executive decision that my health was the most important thing, and walking around in the chilly morning for 3 hours would not be beneficial. SO I emailed my professor and took my first sick day. One of my friends in the class let me borrow her notes from the day, so I should be okay. Sometimes you have to take care of yourself first and foremost!

It was definitely a good decision. I still got up at the same time I would for class, but I rested in bed, drank lots of water and orange juice, and got ahead on homework for the week. I also did a nice restorative yoga practice and long meditation. A lovely health-awareness morning for Kelsey. I made it to painting in the afternoon since painting class is a lot less intense than an on-site in the cold, and finished up my still life. Yay! Next week is our critique, we'll see how it goes.

completed still life! i took it with my ipod
so the pictures a little blurry. sorry!

I got in bed nice and early on Tuesday, and woke up feeling a little better Wednesday. Thank goodness! I don't want to speak too soon, though..still trying to flush it out with water and rest up. Honors class in the morning, then fresco in the afternoon. Our homework for fresco was to do our first actual painting! This meant we had to do the 2nd and 3rd layers of morter (sandcoat and intonico), wait for those to dry, then paint on top of it. Debbie and I went in on Thursday to do ours, and it took over 3 hours. Lots of waiting around for the walls to dry. But the painting turned out nicely! I love little putti (the chubby angels in a lot of the artwork in Italy), so I attemped to paint one. I definitely have some work to do before it's perfected, but it was a solid first attempt.

So for the class period we planned out the layout for the whole room. For some reason, I was put in charge of dimensions of everything...math is NOT my forte, but we'll see if I come through successfully. The class decided on doing a landscape kind of scene with hills that roll from one wall space to the next, with thin columns separating each person's part of the wall, and a uniform top and bottom border. Next week's the midterm, but we start on the final frescoing the week after that! It will take the rest of the semester to finish these big scenes. It will be SOOO cool to see the room once we finish, I can't wait!!

first fresco painting!

Tomorrow the plan is to get some homework done, then I'm meeting my friend Phoebe from photography in the dark room to print a few photos. It's so crazy in the dark room during class because everyone's trying to do the same thing at once, so we figured we'd get a head start and have some room to do our own thing. I'm really enjoying photography, so I'm super excited to be able to print more pictures. Then this weekend I'm heading to Florence with API! I am extremely excited about this, because I was choosing between studying in Florence and Rome so it will be cool to see how they're different.

Until next time mi amores, arrivederci!

"Everything here sparkles, just like us!!" (PARIS)

alps!

This weekend, I met Jada (who is studying in Valencia) in Paris for a weekend of art and culture. As always, it was extremely exhausting but EXTREMELY worth it!! I left at 4:30 in the morning (ugh) and grabbed the night bus to Largo Argentina. If you take a taxi from the city center it's a set amount to the airport, and since it was too early for the metro that was my best bet. I hopped in the first cab I saw and got a nice (quick/a little scary) ride to the airport - by scary I mean that we got there in 15 mins when it normally takes 30...curious.

Long story (semi) short, the 4 hours it was supposed to take from leaving the apt to getting to the hostel turned into 13. AH. Longest. Day. Ever. We boarded the plane when we were supposed to be taking off (typical for RyanAir), then sat on the runway for I don't even know how long because I fell asleep and when I woke up we were still sitting there. At some point we made it into the air, and a 2 hour airtime turned into closer to 4 because it was too foggy to land! I did get an awesome picture of the alps, though, so I can't complain. We ended up having to fly into a different airport about 3 hours (driving) from Paris, wait in a neverending line, take a bus to the other airport (2 hours), then take another bus to Paris (1 hour), and FINALLY hopped on the metro towards the hostel. Luckily there were a few other girls from Rome that I knew traveling to Paris, so I wasn't alone for the whole time. I also got to catch up on my sleep during all the sitting on buses and planes, so that was a plus as well!

Jada's flight didn't get in until 6:30 (I got to the hostel around 5:45), so I napped for a little while and met our roommate. He was very nice - Steve from Philadelphia. He was our age and had been living in Germany for 7 months learning German, and was now living in Bordeaux for a month before heading back to the states for a visit, then leaving for Australia for 4 months. WOW! Quite the world traveler. I spent the evening trying to learn the map and figure out our plan for the weekend.

TOWER WUDDUP

Jada got to the hostel around 8 and we headed out to dinner around the Eiffel Tower! The metro system in Paris is AMAZING. Sooo easy to figure out, I love it. We were completely mesmerized by the tower. We'd both learned so much about it and had obviously seen pictures, but nothing can do it justice. It was absolutely beautiful. We spent a good 30 minutes just staring at it and taking nonstop pictures, then walked to a restaurant nearby.

We settled on a cute little place around the block. Neither of us were very hungry, so we split a bottle of wine, each got a salad, and shared SNAILS. We had to try them. The waiter brought them out with the craziest utensils, and we somehow figured it out (after a mini tutorial). Verdict? Surprisingly, they were good. Really good. Jada and I were amazed at how yummy they were. Who would've known!

dinner with my bestestestest!

We had a really great dinner catching up, talking about our lives in different countries, comparing experiences...and with the help of wine got into our infamous deep talks. Gotta love it:) We could see the tip of the Eiffel Tower from our table, and around 11pm it started sparkling! MY FAVORITE COLOR!!! It was gorgeous! Raphi had told me to go to the tower around 11 to "wait for it to sparkle," but I didn't know what that meant. We decided that we'd have to go again on Saturday to get the full effect. By the time we finished dinner and our wine, we were deep in conversation. We looked around and realized the whole place was cleared out, the chairs were put away, most of the lights were out, and they'd turned off the music. Oops! Looks like we were getting kicked out.

trying to figure out the snail utensils

We got out of there and decided we HAD to go back to see the tower one more time, it was just too pretty. So we grabbed some nutella crepes, made friends with Davide in line (a middle aged traveling Asian man who wanted to learn Spanish and Italian - we told him we'd meet him at the Louvre tomorrow to help him learn but had no real intention of doing it. don't worry we're smart travelers, parents.), then ate our crepes sitting on the curb under the Eiffel Tower, looking up at the beautiful monument, and continuing our conversation. By the time we finished up, it was too late to take the metro. So we hopped in the cab and made friends with the driver (duhh it's me we're talking about here). He was from Africa and kept saying "Om Shanti!" (which means peace in Sanskrit - apparently he was a yogi!). Nice nice man.

jada and steve in the rain

Saturday we woke up nice and early for a full day. Sadly, it was raining. We decided to do one of the free tours by the company that I took one with in Prague. Steve was tagging along today, which was really cool to get to talk to him some more. We got to the meeting place for the tour early, so we had a coffee to warm up a little bit. It was rainy rainy rainy and cooooold. The tour was supposed to start at 11, so we waited outside of St. Michel. And waited. And waited. By the time the tour guides were beginning to get the groups today, Jada and Steve's shoes were soaked by the rain.

We decided another 3.5 hours of this wasn't gonna work, so we went off and decided to do our own thing. Notre Dame was right near us, so we walked over there. It was so beautiful!! Sadly, since it was raining there were lots of people inside so we didn't get a chance to go in and see the Rose Window :( My grandparents even told me to check it out! I was sad, but that's just another reason to come back again:)

we weren't supposed to take pics,
but i snuck one in!

Our next destination was the Arch of Triumph. We walked down the famous shopping street in Paris, Champs-Elysees, and stopped in an AMAZING little bakery/pastery shop. It was gorgeous! There were frescos all over the walls, miniture statues, lots of gold painted everywhere, it was really beautiful. The shop was famous for having the "best macaroons in Paris" according to Steve, so we had to try it. We split a box of 15 and found a cute diner down the street to get a coffee and try out all the flavors. Yum yum yum! The 5 I picked out were pistaccio, vanilla, orange&passionfruit, chocolate, and caramel. They were heavenly. So rich, though. By the time I was finishing the 5th once, I don't think I could fit anything else in my stomach!

Champs-Elysees ends right at the Arco di Triomphe, so we took some pictures then ran to the closest metro station to try and avoid the rain. Our plan was to head to Versailles, so we found a metro stop for it and were on our way. By the time we got off the metro, it'd been a little while so we stopped in a little french restaurant to get a quick lunch. Jada got a crepe filled with cheese that's similar to brie (our favorite). I went with a croque monsieur, a famous french dish that's like a grilled cheese sort of, but there's ham in between the bread, the cheese is melted on top of the bread, and they top it off with a fried egg covering the sandwhich. It was so good, and so easy - who would've thought to combine those things?? Definitely going to start making croques at home.

We left the restaurant and asked a couple on the street where Versailles was. They gave us a blank stare, then finally responded, "you're here, this is it". When we clarified we were looking for the palace and garden, they laughed. "No, no, no! This is same name, but that is far away. You must take train to see it. Not in Paris, outside of it." Haha oops. Yet again, this is a great example of why it's important to research places before you attempt to visit them. Oh well! It was the late afternoon, so we didn't have time for Versailles this trip:( Again, one more thing I'll visit the next time I come to Paris!

capturing jada's photo skills

We rushed back to the center of Paris to try and get to the Louvre with plenty of time to look around before it closed. Even though the fake Versailles wasn't as far as the real one, it was still one of the farthest metro stops from the center of the city. We made it to the Louvre with not much time to spare. Jada and I were a little sad because we could have spent hours and hours there, but it was okay. Also, tickets for students studying abroad are free! SCORE. While we waited in line to get our free tickets (which, in itself, doesn't make much sense), we figured out our plan for the museum. First on the agenda: Mona Lisa. We had to say we'd seen it. We got our tickets and hurried up to the Italian paintings floor.

The museum was huge! I was excited because we passed the Nike statue ("Winged Victory of Samothrace"), which was something I'd always wanted to see. As we walked through the Italian paintings hall (very, very quickly - we only had about 30 mins before the museum closed), it was cool to see all the different artists and relate everything back to my honors class. We saw paintings by Leonardo, Titian, Caravaggio, etc. etc. etc.! I was stoked to see Virgin on the Rocks, too, because we just learned about it super in-depth in my class last week. It was so crazy - everywhere I looked was a painting I had studied before. I was in love.

tiny little mona lisa, tons and tons of people

We eventually found the Mona Lisa and made our way up to the front. It was cool to see in real life for sure, but it's crazy how many people were crowded around the one tiny tiny picture. I almost felt like the reputation of the painting was why it's so famous. Oh well, it was still really awesome to see it! We wandered the museum a little bit, checking out the Egyptian exhibition and some other levels. I definitely want to go back again and spend a whole day there. It was soooo big and I feel like there was still so much we didn't see!

After the museum closed we stopped in a few of the museum shops, then were drawn to the apple store. Jada and I hung out in there, resting our tired feet for a little while. We were waiting for Steve, who had to get something on his phone fixed. Steve found us, and we used the Mac store's internet to look up a yummy (reasonably priced) French restaurant. We found one that looked perfect right near the Eiffel Tower. YAY!

The three of us had an amazingly amazing dinner. We went all out. We split a bottle of wine, a cheese and olive plate, snails, french onion soup, and after a nice big main course we each got our own creme brulee. I literally couldn't have stuffed anything else in my stomach if I tried. Jada decided she was going to buy a blow torch when she gets home so she can make creme brulee whenever she wants...that should be interesting. It was a really wonderful dinner. Our waiter was incredible, and on one side of us was a typical French family (the 12 year old-ish girl got snails as an appetizer, so crazy to me), and on the other was an American-German family. So neat!

sparkling tower!!

After dinner, we wobbled over to the Eiffel Tower since Steve hadn't seen it yet. We were so tired from all our eating and walking today, so we just hung out, took a lot of pictures, and relaxed under the tower. It was cool because I brought along my big camera, so I was trying to figure out if I needed to open or close the diaphragm since it was dark out. I was talking to myself out loud trying to sort it out, and a man walked by and said "Open it," then kept walking. When I thanked him, he told me he was a photo teacher here. COOL! When I told him I was studying in Rome and taking photo for the first time, he helped me take an amazing picture of the Eiffel Tower. He helped me set my aperature and shutter speed so it'd be perfect! I can't wait to develop and print the picture, I'll definitely post it on here when I do.

We were getting ready to leave when we spotted two guys with a beatbox having what looked like a break-dance dance-off right under the Eiffel Tower. There were 2 groupies and everything! So we slowly wandered over as they did more and more impressive moves. After awhile, a big group developed. The two guys were sooo good!! They ended up putting on this big show, and the crowd grew to about 150 people or so. Everyone around the Tower circled around them as they did backflips, crazy moves..it was insane. I got the whole thing on video! Just as they finished, we were about to leave when the tower started sparkling!! Jada and I had almost forgot about it!! So we took a quick picture and enjoyed the 5 minute 11pm sparkles:) Then we grabbed a taxi (once again we stayed out too late for the metro) and got home for a good nights sleep.

Sunday's plan was to see the Musee d'Orsay (the impressionists museum) and to explore Montmartre. We woke up to a cold and dreary day, but at least it wasn't raining! We took the metro to a stop near the museum, and wandered through a park to get to it. We saw a ferris wheel and couldn't resist - we had to ride it. It was soo neat! Almost as good as a tour of Paris. We could see everything from up there!! We took tons of pictures (although both of us were too lazy to shower that morning so they aren't the most flattering shots). The museum was nearby, so we headed over there afterwards. Jada grabbed a chocolate crepe on the way and somehow managed to get chocolate on her sleeve, collar, in her hair, and all over her face before realizing what was happening. We'll blame it on the wind.

view from the ferris wheel!

The museum was one of my favorites that I've ever been in. We stayed for 2 hours and only saw 1 floor, and it was much much smaller than the Louvre! I definitely recommend it for any Paris-goers. We saw paintings and sculptures by Cezanne, Van Gogh, Monet, Degas, Manet, Seurat, Rodin, Gauguin...the list could go on and on. I was, once again, in love. There were so many paintings I saw at this museum that I'd learned about..again! It's definitely a whole new experience seeing them in real life as opposed to online or in books.

attack of the crepe

We decided to eat at the restaurant in the museum. It was gorgeous - frescos and sculptures galore! Jada got scallops and salmon in pasta with some sort of yummy white sauce, and I got the sea bass with sausage bits, lima beans, and potatos! It was really really good. We also split a cheese platter as an appetizer, and were complemented on our choice by the waiter. He told us it was a very French thing to do because cheese helps to cleanse the palette. Interesting! It was, as always, so incredible. I eat too much when I travel, it's all just too good to resist!!

Time was passing by too fast. We didn't have much time at all to explore Montmartre because we had to catch our planes, so we decided to just take the metro there, snap a picture of Sacre Coeur, peek in the shops, and peace out. When we stepped off the metro, we realize there was zero way that was a possibility at all. Jada and I immediately fell in love with this area of Paris. We should have known - all my roommates told me that was the "Kelsey part of Paris" and that I would love it (they explained it as hippy and artsy), and Jada's roommate told her she HAD to see it as well. WHY DIDN'T WE LISTEN. We literally didn't know what to do, we were so overwhelmed with love. The stores were so cool, and all the restaurants were so cute, and the atmosphere was so different than any other area of Paris - it was so lively, bright, fun, unique..AH I fell in love. It's funny because Jada and I were just talking about how Paris wasn't really a Jada or Kelsey kind of city, but more of a Lisa Zajur kind of town...until we saw Montmartre. I could've stayed forever.

sacre coeur, from a distance

We passed by a shop with buddhas, sculptures, and really bright and flowy looking clothes in the window and couldn't resist any longer. We went in, and died of amazement. Jada and I both bought awesome handmade bracelets, and I got a really cool incense burner of a buddha sitting inside a lotus flower. We literally had to tear ourselves away so that we'd make it back to the hostel in time for our flights. The only way we could get ourselves to leave was by making a promise to each other that we'd come back someday when we were rich and happy from following our dreams, and then we could buy out all the stores here. Perfecto! We snapped a shot of Sacre Coeur on the way out (once again, disappointed we didn't have more time to actually walk up to it and go inside), then were on our way.

We packed up suuuuper quick back at the hostel and then parted ways. It was SO good to see Jada, I'd been missing all my friends from VA and getting to see her took some of the missingness away. AND we're reuniting again in a month for Morocco! Yippee!

The travels home were boring, luckily there was no excessive traveling this time due to fog. I met up with the girls from Rome at the airport and we exchanged stories, all coming to the conclusion that we had to come back at some point in our lives. I got home late late late (close to 1am), and passed out. It was nice to be back in Roma after a weekend of going nonstop! Although I definitely could've used at least 5 more days in Paris to feel like I got to see everything that I wanted to. Oh well...

It seems the moral of this post is that there WILL be a next time :)

Week's Focus: SELF-LOVE

This week, I focused on self-love as I wandered through my life of classes, art, yoga, and adventures. It began with Valentine's Day on Monday!! How awesome that we have a day in our lives dedicated to what we all strive to have in our lives - LOVE. This year I decided to focus my Valentine's Day around a quote by Buddha: "You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection." This is so true. Without learning to love yourself, how can you be expected to expand that love to others?? So there's my deep thought for you today.

My week began with an early Monday morning. Yoga was really incredible this week, there were so many people who came to my class! We had to squeeze in to fit everyone. The quote for the class was the one that I shared with you in my last post (from The Alchemist). I realized after I planned the class that it was Valentine's day, so I tweaked my lesson a little to focus on love love love (within the self). Basically, we talked about learning to open the eyes, mind, and heart in order to fully experience every moment. In this way, we can go into life with an outlook of adventure, GRATITUDE (my other big word for Valentine's Day), and love! It was a really wonderful class, the energy was inspiring and helped push me through the week (I always start dragging about a month into classes).

my wall decorations are expanding!
photos developed in class, postcards from trips,
notes-to-self and from others..

After yoga I hurried to photo, where the class was a little split between developing, printing, and learning how to use our cameras. I was in the last group..I wanted to be sure I was doing everything right! Serafino took a group of 4 of us outside and we focused on lighting in our pictures. He would be in the middle of a sentence and then look bewildered, order us to stop immediately, and would start taking pictures of one of us in (apparently) the "perfect light setting, we only have moments, quick, sit here, now now now!!" It was fun!

EXCITING STORY: We were standing outside on the street taking pictures when a man walked up and asked for directions. He was with 2 other guys. Meera shook her head confused (he was speaking Italian) so Serafino jumped in and pointed him in the right direction. As soon as the man was out of earshot Serafino freaked out. "DO YOU KNOW THAT MAN?? You know who he is??!?!" Obviously we were oblivious. He told us that was the Chief of Ferrari (the cars)!! Luca di Montezemolo. How cool! Our professor said he knew because of the "gun men" (bodyguards) by his side. "We should ask for ride! Next time, next time," Serafino said as he ran inside to tell everyone else. So exciting.

Monday night we went to a little Valentine's Day potluck for the apartments in the area. Some girls from API (our program) planned it, and it was so fun! I got up super early Monday morning to make some some homemade rice krispie treats with melted chocolate on top (yumyumyum). India, I missed your help with my spontaneous baking escapades! Ashley made her mom's baked mac&cheese again. Both of our contributions went so fast, which was exciting:) Good to know our apartment's where it's at!! People brough all sorts of goodies - risotto, bruschetta, pizza, pears with walnuts and some sort of meat, cake, and lots and lots of wine.

the weekly class pic

Tuesday I was exhausted - I didn't stay out very late, but I was hurting from the Valentine's Day wine celebrations. I made it to my on-site a few minutes late after a crazy metro experience. I had to take the metro to Termini to switch to a different line, and I always underestimate how busy Termini is. I almost got crushed in the subway doors trying to squeeze onto it! Apparently the doors don't open if there's someone in the way. Note to self: They. Will. Crush. You. No mercy. We met at the Arch of Constantine right by the Coloseum and learned about early Christianity in Rome. We walked all around, catching up with the others in the class after the week, and learning lots and lots! We ended at the gorgeous Lateran Church and Baptistry.

I had painting in the afternoon, and my professor made it this week! He told us he was sick last week. We had a little lecture at the beginning then spent the rest of the 3 hours working on our still lives. I love oil painting. This class is great because the girl who paint nexts to me is great company and is really nice, but we're also allowed to listen to our ipods while we work so it's nice to just be in the zone jamming out. Mumford and Sons was my pick for this week. Listen to "Awake My Soul" or "After the Storm" - definitely one of my favorite bands ever. Interesting story about how I found them...but that's for another time.

I am proud of how my painting is turning out! We're focusing on light and dark, so he told us we were allowed to do a monochromatic palatte to work on the variation as opposed to the hue/intensity. I added a little brown in mine, but it's mostly black and white-ish. Flaccus said he liked that idea of monochrome with a splash of color, which was exciting because I've never considered myself very good at painting. Yay!

I discovered something incredible this week. Not only do we have the amazing and life-saving coffee vending machine (it literally makes anything you want - macchiatos, capuccinos, lattes, you name it - and they're as good if not better than cafes), but they just installed a FRESH SQUEEZED BLOOD RED ORANGE JUICE MACHINE. I thought it couldn't get better than the coffee machine, but I stand corrected. Literally the best invention ever. You watch the fresh orange roll down the little runway, get squeezed into your cup, and ta-dah! Amazingness. The cup's big, too. I could go on about this forever...

at the colosseum again for our on-site class!

Wednesday I had a big presentation for my honors class. It was a rainy rainy day, but luckily I remembered to grab my umbrella on the way out, remembered a previous "note-to-self" and walked to school (the buses are terribly slow on rainy days because so many people want to ride them...it doesn't really make sense). Me and another girl in the class were presenting an article about Correggio's Camera di San Paolo, a beautiful fresco in Parma that we're visiting later in the semester with this class. It went really well! Hopefully all the work I'm putting into this class will pay off in the end. We focused on mythology in Correggio and Parmigianino's work today, which are absolutely stunning. We had to read some of Ovid's Metamorphoses for this class, which was actually really entertaining. I can't wait for our class weekend trip to Northern Italy to see everything in real life!

Fresco this afternoon was exciting because we did our first actualy painting WOO! We learned about the 2nd and 3rd layer of the mortar, then got to painting. Once again - very messy. Flaccus, my painting teacher, came in to check out our work (the painting studio's right next door) and laughed at me saying I looked like a construction worker. I looked down and realized I was completely covered in lime, marble dust, and sand. Oops! Definitely going to need to run a load of laundry tonight. After prepping the wall which takes about an hour or so, we began the painting session! I painted 3 little yellow birds with leaf designs and wood all around. At the end of class we scraped everything we'd done today off the walls (it was just practice). Our homework is to do the 2 final layers of mortar again and then do a little painting. Debbie and I are planning on coming in tomorrow to work on ours.

RAINBOW
(it was way brighter in real life!)

Walking home was gorgeous! I was in such an art and loving (theme of the week) mood on the way home, it must have rubbed off on Debbie because we couldn't stop talking about how beautiful the clouds looked! It had stopped raining, so some blue was peeking through. It was like I was looking up at Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel or something...you know days when the clouds have so much personality? There were all kinds of greys and whites mixed together, with blue shining through in the distance. Then the greatest thing happened. We saw a rainbow! And then another one!! Two rainbows in one walk home - a great end to a tiring week.

Tonight's plan is to get some work done and rest up for a big day tomorrow. I'm heading to Paris early Friday morning (really early - I have to leave the apartment around 5am), so tonight and tomorrow I'm going to try and get as much reading and homework done as possible. We'll see how that goes!

"We float like two lovers in a painting by Chagall"

Lazy Sunday. Ashley and I spent the morning in Storico Centro around the Campo dei Fiori market. We came home, I planned out tomorrow's yoga class, and relaxed for a little while.

Ara Pacis

It was such a beautiful day, so I decided to head across the river to the Chagall exhibit at the Museo dell'Ara Pacis. I walked to the museum following directions I'd found online, and realized that we were only about a 7 minute walk from Piazza del Popolo! Neato! I love figuring out where everything is in relation to other places - it makes Rome seem a lot smaller than I initially thought. There was a big protest going on at the Piazza with people everywhere. I kept walking down the river and got to the museum in a few minutes. The line was out the door, but I didn't mind. I waited in like for about 15 minutes and eventually made it inside. The Ara Pacis is actually a famous Arch of Peace that Augustus commissioned, and it's the main attraction of the museum. We learned about it in art history last week, so it was cool to see it in person! I was able to walk all around it and even inside of it.

Marc Chagall
"Adam and Eve"

After checking out the arch, I headed downstairs to the Chagall special exhibition. It was called "Chagall: Il Mondo Sotto Sopra" (The Upside Down World of Chagall). That was definitely the highlight of my day. I spent a couple hours walking around and enjoying the beautiful pieces of art. I listened to The Weepies the whole time on my ipod, which added a really component to the experience. I chose them because of their song "A Painting By Chagall" haha ... of course. It was a really amazing experience, and I'm so happy I decided to go. Here's a link to the Weepies' song, it's definitely worth a listen: Painting By Chagall

Cannolis!
Plain, pistaccio, and choc chip:)

By the time I left it was getting dark out, so I started wandering around Rome, slowly making my way back to the apartment. Ashley had told me about a really good Cannoli place that was sort of near our house, and I had looked it up and it was kind of near the museum too. I forgot the directions, though, so I decided to just go another time. As I was making my way home, I passed by a little pastery store and looked up - it was the Cannoli place! Coincidence? I think not. I went in and picked out 5 amazing looking cannolis, one for everyone in the apartment as a little Valentine's Day treat:)

I love walking around Rome at Twilight, because it's so calm (which is a nice change), and the low lights bring out the most incredible parts of the architecture. So I slowly meandered back to the apartment, taking a few different roads than my usual path to discover everything that I could.

Tonight I'm leaving you with a quote that I'm teaching the yoga class on tomorrow. It's from one of my favorite books that I'm sure I've told the majority of you about at some point: The Alchemist by Paul Coelho. Brett recommended it to me in the fall, and I'm re-reading it now because it's just that amazing..

"When each day is the same as the next, it's because people fail to recognize the good things that happen in their lives every day the sun rises."

Notice those moments, and be grateful for them! Love and light, Happy Valentine's Day to all of you. Know that you're loved:)

Il Dona da Scoprire

Today was a beautiful day, I couldn't think of a better way to spend it. I woke up nice and early, made a yummy breakfast of eggs with toast and peach jam, then met Sam for a yoga-filled adventure. After the yoga class with Alba on Thursday, she mentioned an Anusara workshop that was all day Saturday and Sunday. Sam had told me about it before class, and after the amazing practice that night I HAD to do it. We took the metro a few stops down and made our way to the workshop.

We had no idea what to expect. We knew it was at the YWCA, that is was an Anusara yoga workshop, and that Marc Holzman was running it (check out his website: http://guerillayogi.com/aboutguerilla.html). And honestly, I knew close to nothing about Marc Holzman so that doesn't really count towards the "what to expect" list. We were excited to see what it would be like! The workshop was all day Saturday and Sunday with 2 sessions each day (3 hours in the morning, 3 hours in the afternoon), so Sam and I decided to just play it by ear today, plan on doing just the morning session, and if we were IN LOVE with the workshop we'd stay for the afternoon perhaps.

After getting a tiiiiny bit lost (we found it after asking directions. twice. it's fine, it was literally right in front of us the whole time), we made it to the YWCA. We walked in welcomed by friendly ciao's and buen giorno's, followed by being asked a bunch of questions. In Italian. Sam and I stared blankly back, until one lady said "Oh! Hi! Americano? Alba told us her two American friends were coming!" And from there it was a breeze. We signed in, found a nice spot on the floor, and observed the excitement around us.

The room filled up quickly! There were tons of people there, I'm terrible at guessing numbers but it was probably 50? Or so? Let's just say it was a fairly large yoga room and my mat was about 6 inches from the people on either side of me. Quite the squeeze! Almost everyone was Italian..we heard a few English speakers, but not many. Marc was from California so he taught the class in English with an Italian translator. It was really cool to be in a class like this, where when he told a joke to lighten the mood Sam and I would laugh and the rest of the class wouldn't respond until a few seconds later, after it had been translated. Very cool. This also meant that we held the poses for MUCH LONGER (about twice as long) as we would in a normal class, since it took twice as long for him to communicate to everyone what to do. In other words, I'm going to be veeeery sore tomorrow:)

The workshop was called Il Dono da Scoprire: Vivere una Vita Piena di Valore e Significato. Translates to "The Gift to Discover: Living a Life Full of Value and Significance". He based it off of a book by Stephen Cope called Yoga and the Quest for the True Self. It was a really wonderful topic, that book is definitely on my TO-READ list now. In a nutshell, it was basically about how everyone has a unique gift or talent that they must first search for and then practice their gift in order to live a full and happy life.   The first session we worked on backbends mostly, and did a lot of partner yoga which was fun. Alba helped Sam and I out a lot which was great to have her advice and support along the way too! At one point we were all in a high lunge, and since we were all so close together he cued us to hold hands with the people next to us to help with balance and strength. It was so cool that everyone in the room was both supporting and being supported by each other ... just a really neat concept. Yay yoga!

After the first session, we were SO OUT OF IT. Backbends induce the Vata dosha, which is associated with air, among other things. After you do lots of backbends, you tend to feel very spacey and out of it, almost like you're floating around instead of walking. It's hard to explain - when I get home I'll teach a back-bending class and you'll understand:) Sam and I were trying to figure out if we wanted to stay for the second half, but we were so out of it that we decided it would be impossible to make a decision before having a nice hearty lunch. We walked down the street to a little cafe to try and re-ground ourselves with a little soup and pasta.

We had a great lunch, talking about the morning session, meditation and yoga experiences, and just life in general. It was lovely:) When we looked at our clocks again we realized it was almost time to head back to the YWCA for the second session! Although lunch didn't help too much to ground us back to earth, we were much more energized and strong after eating and decided to do the second session. We floated back to the studio to prepare for the afternoon session of hip-openers and arm-balances. Hooray!

There were even MORE people there in the afternoon! This time, I was about 1 or 2 inches from the mats on either side of me. This practice was much more relaxed and fun, because we tried really challenging postures including Eka Pada Galavasana (flying pigeon), Eka Pada Koundinyasana (one-legged arm balance), Bakasana (crow), Adho Mukha Vrksasana (handstand), etc. Crazy. But crazy amazing, of course. Once again, we used partners (sometimes more than one) to get into everything. And once again - I'm definitely going to be sore tomorrow. Looks like I'll be doing a more restorative morning yoga instead of my usual practice..

Sam and I with Marc Holzman, the instructor

We talked to Marc a little after the practice, said goodbye to our newfound yogis and yoginis (some of whom teach in Rome so we may try out their classes!), and headed home. We were so zenned out at this point, all I wanted was my bed. I had planned on going out tonight, but that was completely out of the picture after the intense (physically and mentally) day of yoga yoga yoga. I loved it. It felt so good to be in a community with such positive energy and support and love again. YAY YAY YAY. I'm actually really excited because Marc lives in Paris now, so I'm thinking about going to one of his classes next weekend when I'm there! He gave me his schedule, so I'll see if Jada and I are up to it once the time comes.

Even though I was tired, I decided to head to Storico Centro with the roomies for a yummy dinner near the Pantheon. And by near the Pantheon, I mean AT the Pantheon. It was such a stereotypical Italian dinner. We literally sat outside in the Piazza just feet away from the Pantheon, ate pasta with wine, and were serenaded by a little quartet of Italian men. So. Precious. After dinner we headed to the Trevi Fountain to (finally) throw in our coins. We'd been saving this moment until we'd collected enough small change to throw in 3 coins each. In the Roman tradition, each coin represents for a different wish. FIRST: Wish that you'll return to Rome again in this lifetime. SECOND: Wish to bring about change in some aspect of your life. THIRD: Wish to find true love.

I threw in all three (it's tradition, how can you not?), but I KNOW I'm coming back to Rome at some point, so I'm not too worried about wish numero uno. And as for the other two, life is all about change and I'm so happy and grateful for everything about my life.. I don't think I have anything to worry about at all:)

Developing Pictures YIPPEE

Friday we had classes. Doesn't sound fun, but it's the only Friday we have classes all semester because it's a make-up day for the Monday after Easter Sunday SO that means I had photography! I was really excited to see my negatives that I processed last week, since they'd be dry now. I had a lot to do today - I had to finish processing/developing the rest of my role that was ripped last class, and then print my pictures ah! I hope I'm using the right lingo, my professor doesn't speak much English so I never know exactly what we're doing... At least I know the process if I don't get all the words right. I guess that's all that matters? Perhaps?

I began with the roll that I still needed to do all the chemical stuff to. By using the developer and fixer, you bring the image out in the negatives and then fix it so that it can be viewed in normal light without being exposed. Serafino helped me with my roll since I had to do everything in the dark room. Usually you leave a few of the first frames blank so that you can pull them out of the roll without exposing any pictures. Unfortunetly, since I ripped the film, if I pulled any of it out then it would expose my pictures and they'd all be lost. Boo. I was up for the challenge, though.

first developed picture!!!
HOORAYHOORAY

Luckily we got it on the spiral in the dark with no problem! We developed everything, and it turned out wonderfully. I only lost one picture! Hooray hooray mission accomplished! Now I let those negatives dry and I'll be able to print them on Monday. My negatives that I developed last week were ready to print, but we ran out of big paper to make contact sheets (print little mini pictures of the frames to figure out the lighting times, which pictures you wanted to develop, etc.), so Serafino told us to just practice by choosing a picture we liked from the negative and print it. All of my roll was from Prague, so I was STOKED to see how they'd turn out. One that I was most excited about was a statue we'd seen in front of a church (the church that was so familiar to me - I think I posted about it ). I chose one of the frames I took of that and headed into the dark room.

It's a fun class because Serafino explains everything, but it's hard to understand completely because he goes through it so quickly with not the best English. This makes it exciting though, because everyone remembers different things from the instructions he gives us. So we help eachother out, and try and figure out the process on our own. He'll answer questions if we ask, but learning from experience is way more fun:)

I was in the dark room with Meera and Anna, so we all helped each other figure out how to print them. It was a success! I LOVE MY PHOTO. I took a picture of it with my digital camera and posted it on here, so it's not the exact look of the picture in real life but it's close enough! I can't wait to develop the rest on Monday. Yay only 3 more days!!!

Yoga in Roma

Last night I went to my first Italian yoga class in Rome. Sam had found a studio that was a bit of a walk, but she'd been to a couple classes and said that they were amazing, so I decided to try it out. I was really excited to be IN a class again. After doing a personal practice for so long I was ready for some guidance, challenge, and inspiration.

I met Sam at Castel Sant'Angelo and we headed to the studio. She had figured out the bus system from Piazza Cavour, so we rode around the city catching up on eachother's week and comparing how our meditation and yoga practices were going Rome. It's so nice to have a yoga friend to exchange yoga experiences with:) We got to the studio a few minutes early and waited for everyone to arrive. Alba, the instructor, arrived a few minutes after us. She is an incredible person, I could tell that I would love her right away! She's an older woman with a great energy. Alba teaches on Tuesdays at JCU (that's how Sam met her), and was so excited to hear that I was the Monday teacher.

picture credit: Jada Zajur :)
Om Namah Shivaya

It was an incredible practice. There were 6 other people besides Sam and me, so Alba taught the entire class in Italian. It was really cool, because even though I couldn't understand what she was saying I sort of KNEW what she was saying. Being Italian, she used her hands so much and got sooo into the explanations that it was easy to pick up on. At the same time, the energy in the room was just so great..the class seemed to come so naturally to me. Alba teaches Anusara Yoga, a school of yoga focused on "celebration of the heart" that looks for the good in all people and all things. So lovely.

A moment I will never forget is at the beginning of the class, we were all sitting with our eyes closed. I didn't know what Alba was saying (because it was all in Italian), but I figured it was something along the lines of focusing on the breath, bringing the attention inward...how classes usually begin. After a few minutes of this, the Italian stopped and we sat in silent meditation. Out of nowhere, I heard a whisper right in front of me, "Feel your breath, go deeper. Find your higher self, connect with it. Open your heart, fill yourself with light, shine out." I felt so alive, so one with myself and the universe, it was magical (Courtney, you might be the only one who gets this:) ). Her focus on each individual was amazing, it made me feel the way you're supposed to feel after yoga - that you're a little bit closer to discovering that divine light inside of you! My lovely yogis and yoginis at home,  I hope you're still finding this in yourselves and in the world every day!

artsy fartsy

Ciao ciao. Another week come and gone! I'm excited to stay in Rome this weekend to have some downtime, and to explore some more. I feel like I know the city fairly well (especially Trastevere, Prati, and Storico Centro), but there is still sooo much more to see, it's incredible.

This week of classes was amazing. I LOVE SCHOOL IN ITALY. Last night Zach asked me which class was my favorite and I honestly couldn't answer. It's a tie between all of them! (Even my reading-obsessed honors class). Monday in photography we started the developing process for the rolls we took over the week. I took all of my pictures in Prague, so I was extremely excited to see how they turned out. He warned us that out of the 10 students developing, probably 3 of us would have a problem/mess up in some way. Of course, I was one of those students.

We had practiced not looking while putting the rolls onto spirals since it'd be pitch black in the darkroom, and I was an expert at it...before the REAL thing happened. When he shut us in the darkroom to do it forrealzz he left us with "don't worry you will probably break it somehow, it's your first time. okay ciao!" and closed the door behind him. We were on our own.

I started out winding it up on the spool (that you then put in a light proof thingy and do the chemicals outside from there, so this was the only dark room thing we had to do today), but before I knew it I felt it coming off the spool somehow. Trying to fix it in the pitch black without touching the film (so it won't scratch) is literally impossible. As I was forcing it back onto the spool, the negative ripped! So I ended up just tearing it where the rip was, winding that half back into the roll, and put the spiral half in the light-proof container. It ended up being okay because Serafino (the professor) said I could just develop the other half next week.

ancient theater remains on the side
of random apartment buildings!
(for my on-site class Tuesday)

The next step was adding all the chemicals (developer, rinse, water, rinse, fixer, rinse) in an intensely timed and concise manner. Serafino scared us all right before we started by yelling "STOP! ... ta da da dada dunn." We stared, completely confused. "That is what I do before exciting things happen," he told us. Ooooh okay. Love him. Once we started, he was freaking out making sure that we were all mixing/shaking/turning the containers in the right way. It was fun! My pictures seemed to come out well, they're drying this week then Friday we have class (to make up for the Monday after Easter), so I'll probably develop the second half then. WOO I LOVE PHOTOGRAPHY!

Ashley made her mom's recipe of baked mac&cheese for dinner. IT WAS SO GREAT OH MY GOODNESS I MISSED MAC&CHEESE. Debbie, Kaylie, and I downed it. I can't wait for the next time she makes it!:)

Tuesday my on-site class met at Largo Argentina, which was good because I knew how to get there (it's where our hotel was the first couple days - right by the cat sanctuary!). We walked around a little with the professor explaining all the buildings. It was cool because I hadn't even realized there was ancient theaters and buildings all around me when I'd been here the first few days, I'd just focused on the usual toursit attractions. But literally sticking out of the walls were thousands of years old remains! So cool. We headed to the Pantheon and learned some more cool stuff about it, took a bunch of pictures, then had a coffee break. Me and my friends Julie and Ginny tried out the Italian version of doughnuts - "la bamba". It was so good - we nicknamed it "la BOMBa" because it was the booooommmmbbbb. Quite the jokesters..

class pic outside the Pantheon

sun shining through
the oculus inside
the Pantheon - so gorgeous

We walked around some more and looked at some tombs, Augustus' Arch of Peace, and ended up around the Spanish Steps/ Piazza del Popolo. It was crazy, I didn't realize those locations were so close together! I had been to all of them separetly, so it was cool to figure out where they were in realation to each other. That's probably one of my favorite parts of the class - it's really helping me to get a hold on the city of Rome. We ended class there and I walked back towards campus with Ginny and Julie. We grabbed some pizza to go, and sat outside Piazza Trilussa to eat it up. Yummyy. I did my usual point-and-pick method of choosing a rando pizza to try and find something new. It was a success once again. I had some sort of cauliflower, spinach, and sausage pizza. Neato.

figuring out placement
aka finger painting?

Painting in the afternoon was interesting because our professor never showed up! Apparently he had cancelled his morning sketchbook class, so we figured he was just out of town or sick for the day. We all stayed in class and painted a little bit. Since I painted my original layer last week, I started my still life! It was soo fun to paint again.

first stage of the still life..

I began with the background (table and fabric hanging on the wall), then decided it was probably best to get all the dimensions right for the objects before I put more paint on the canvas. Since he wasn't there to teach us the legit way to do it, I just drew on the canvas with my finger! The oil paint from the background was still wet, so it worked nicely. I kind of liked it how it looked after I finished - very ambiguous (my new favorite word) and abstract. But I figured that wouldn't fly, so I started adding paint. It was much easier than I was expecting, probably because of the 6 hours a week drawing class I took last spring semester at UM. I was surprised at how much I remembered about perspective and figuring out dimensions. I was very proud of myself! I didn't get too much done, but at least I have some shapes started. Next week I'll work on colors!

Came home earlier than usual, watched Black Swan (SO CREEPY/CRAZY/AH), Glee (YAY!), and skyped lots. It was a nice afternoon:)

Wednesday I had my honors class in the morning. I complain so much about the reading, but I'm actually (semi) happy that I'm doing so much work for this class because it's definitely paying off. I'm learning so much about the artist's personality, influences, and style. Today we focused on Correggio. I looove his work. The class is centered around Northern Italian Art, which isn't as famous as art from Venice, Rome, or Florence, but it's still beautiful and has it's own unique style. It's pretty cool to be learning about something new, too, and not just the famous artists of that time.

gorgeous fresco. hopefully mine will
turn out SOMETHING like these...

For fresco painting we were meeting at the Museo Nazionale Roma to check out old school frescos to get some ideas for our own frescos. It was really cool to see these frescos from sooooo long ago that are still (fairly) intact! It's crazy how the pigment bonds with the wall since it's done on fresh mortar, so it literally stays on FOREVER. That's why the Sistine Chapel, tons of churches, etc. etc. etc. still have works of art from forever ago. So cool. I got some great ideas for my own frescos! We start painting in 2 weeks AH!

Lazy afternoon hanging out in the apartment with Debbie. My plan is to take a nap - I'm exhausted from the week. Also on the schedule: get some honors reading done, watch last night's gLee, and perhaps make it out to Aperitivo (Italian version of happy hour, plus really cheap all you can eat food). I'm trying to restrain from spending as best I can since I just booked 2 major travels last night - Morocco spring break with Jada (and maybe Raphi), and Greece for Easter weekend with the roomies for Kaylie's 21st! SO EXCITING. But I am so happy to be in Rome this weekend. I've missed my home sweet Rome :)

Living in a fairytale - PRAGUE

Hello hello! It's been an insanely wonderfully amazing weekend here in my crazy European life. Thursday was a day to rest, get some homework done, and pack up for my trip! Friday morning Ashley and I started our travels at the break of dawn towards the lovely city of Prague, Czech Republic.

view from the airplane.
snow? what?

And I'm not kidding when I say the break of dawn. I woke up at 4:55am, grabbed my stuff, and was out the door just after 5. Ashley and I took the metro to Termini (the main terminal), then grabbed a train to Fuimicino airport from there - a 30 minute express train that takes you right where you need to be. So convenient! Got to our plane just in time. I slept the whole way (mind you, the sun's rising as we're taking off), and when I opened my eyes as we were approaching Prague there was snow. Everywhere. It was so beautiful, but I wasn't expecting snow to be covering the ground!! Should have brought my boots...It was a beautiful view even from the plane, though. Cute little buildings on cliffs covered in snow, I was in love already.

We got off the plane and could see our breath (AH)! Followed the convenient and easy directions to our hostel (via bus, metro, then tram - the public transportation in Prague is awesome!), and settled in our dorm room there. We stayed at Little Town Hostel..highlyyyy recommended for anyone thinking about traveling to Prague. It was super affordable but also really nice - clean, friendly, and free linens/towels! Plus it's the perfect location. Perfecto.

our tour starting in Old Town Square.
Wait...are we in Disneyworld?

We wandered around the city before our free tour at 2, and got a nice Czech lunch at a little cafe near our hostel. It was sooo yummy I got Czech sausage with veggies and Ashley went for their specialty - goulash soup. And of course, I had to try their famous drink in Prague: hot wine. Oh. My. Goodness. I've found my home. We left our great meal and headed across the Charles Bridge to meet up with the free tour group that we'd heard about. It was great! The tour guide was hilarious, and took us all around. It's a really awesome program that they have - the company offers tours all throughout Europe for free because they think that everyone (no matter their budget) deserves to learn as much as they can about where they're visiting. Pretty sweeeeet.

can we stay forever?

It was absolutely FREEZING that day, but soo beautiful. We walked by the last place that Mozart played in ever, the famous astrological clock, Old Town Square, Wenceslas Square, a bunch of churches, etc. etc. etc. SO PRETTY. Half way through the tour we had a break at "Bohemia Bagels," which was a really cute bagel/sandwhich/coffee shop. My toes were completely numb (bad decision only bringing TOMS when snow is melting on the ground AH notwaterproofohno), so it was nice to get warmed up. Ashley and I left the tour after the bagel stop because the final stops were the castle and the Charles Bridge, which were both only a 2-5 minute walk from our hostel. We headed back to our place to shower and get ready for a night out on the town!

astrological clock

Our tour guide told us about a bar crawl throughout Prague that seemed legit (and cheap), so we signed up. The plan was to meet at 8:15 under the bell tower in the Old Town Square. It was still really chilly out, so we headed over dressed warmly from head to toe! We met up with the group and walked to the first bar - where we had unlimited drinks for the first couple hours before starting the actual crawl. It was so neat! The bar was inside of an old church, with tapestry hanging on the walls, a HUGE statue of a random face, hookah, foozeball and ping pong tables, and a hopping dance floor in the middle. Ashley and I were the first ones there (hey - we had to get our moneys-worth!), so we sat down and had a few drinks. People started to wander in and sit around us, until eventually there was about 20 of us sitting in a big circle in this old church-turned-bar. We met people from Brazil, Kuwait, Germany, Switzerland, London, and sooo many other places! It was so neat interacting with all these different people. Everyone was so nice.

me and ashley with the rando head..

After a couple hours at the first bar, we headed out for the crawl. The second place we went was so fun - a big dance floor with good music! We met some more people there (one in particular, a certain "Antonio" who we got a picture with haha - new bff!) and chatted it up with everyone. We learned some interesting facts about Prague that night, perhaps I'll save those for another day... :) After the second or third bar Ashley and I decided that we had enough - this city is crazy! We stumbled walked home, and made it safely back, not before grabbing a pint of Ben&Jerry's to split before bed. Prague is beautiful at night by the way! It was so cool crossing the Charles Bridge and seeing everything all lit up. I LOVE IT HERE.

Lennon Wall

We woke up early, reading for an exciting day of site-seeing around this beautiful city. I haven't even explained it yet to you ah! Simply put: Prague = Fairytale. Prague = Disney movie. Prague = incredible. I never want to leave. "It's a Small World After All" was stuck in my head all day because I literally felt like I was inside the ride - everything's so colorful and decorated and beautiful! AH! One of my favorite cities ever for sure. Definitely a must-visit destination...put it at the top of your list. ReadyGO.

Ashley and I decided to grab Bohemia Bagels for breakfast because it was soooo good the day before. It's so weird to not really drink coffee here - I've traded coffee in for hot wine! Fine by me. Anyway, we got breakfast then headed out. It was such a beautiful day, not as cold as we'd expected. Everyone told us we came the perfect weekend. All the snow had melted by the time we headed out on Saturday, and it was probably 45 or 50 degrees (we were expecting 20s!).

dancing building

First destination: The John Lennon Wall. It reminded me of Juliet's wall in Verona - everyone just wrote quotes about love, Beatles quotes, etc. all over it. Check out the pics! After that we made our way to the Fred and Ginger "Dancing Building", which was really cool looking. The architecture here is so neat! Since the country has changed powers/rulers/names/whatevs 8 times (at least) in the past century, there's so many influences and styles. I love it.

Ash and I heard of a "Beer Garden," so we decided to scope it out. Apparently "beer garden" doesn't mean what it sounds like. We walked FOREVER to try and find it and when we did it was just a park haha. It was a gorgeous view though! We were worn out, so we took a bus back to Mala Strana (where our hostel was - near Old Town) and looked for a place to get a pick-me-up. We walked up this big hill towards the famous Prague Castle and wandered into the CUTEST little coffee shop. It was so homey and cutely decorated. I got a hot wine (duh) and tried the goulash soup. Not my fav. Definitely not as good as Camp Mont Shenandoah goulash! :) So I opted for some banana bread/chocolate instead. Ashley got hot wine and a hot dog. Yum.

Made our way even further up the never ending hill and eventually made it to the Prague Castle! It was sooo big and pretty and colorful OH MY! I was glad that I brought my new manual camera thingy that my professor gave me, I think I got some great pictures with it. I'm so excited to develop my pictures from this trip on Monday in class! This part of Prague was just a 10 minute walk (or less) and it seemed like a whole new place. It's crazy how different the sections of Prague are! (Old Town and Mala Strana are my favorite). We walked inside the castle and the stained glass was absolutely incredible. It was soo many colors. It was weird because it was colder inside the castle than outside - I don't really get it. Oh well.

Charles Bridge

We were feeling pretty good, although our feet were tired from all the walking, but we still had a few destinations we wanted to check out before calling it a day. By this time we'd been walking around the city for about 6 hours or so. Luckily the last 3 things we wanted to find were all really close to eachother, so that made it easy.

We stopped by the "crawling babies" statues then the "peeing men" statues (which was actually pretty funny - they spell out famous Prague quotes in the water beneath them. Interesting...), and ended up on the Charles bridge right around sunset. It was so beautiful. It's neat because the statues and art here are so different than in Rome. They use bronze instead of marble, so it has a more Gothic feel than Classical or Renaissance. I loved it! Even the little putti (the chubby angel babies) looked different. Putti are my favorite :)

interesting statues in prague..

We went back to the hostel after hours and hours of wandering Prague and were ready for a rest. It was funny - a few girls staying in our dorm at the hostel go to our same school in Rome! They were here with a big group of people, so we got home and there were tons of people in the room. They headed out soon enough and Ashley and I got some rest.

We woke up around 7:30 and walked to Old Town Square for dinner. We found a classic Czech cuisine restaurant and settled in for a great dinner! It was so good. I know I say that a lot, but everything is so new and exciting and wonderfully great! I ordered the chef specialty - duck with cabbage in some special sauce or something. I figured I'd try a classic Czech dish. It was great! Ashley went with a chicken steak with mango sauce and pears. Yumyumyummm. We split a cheese cake with fresh berries than were on our way. It's SO cheap in Prague. We had a big full course dinner with specialties of the house for 15 euro. That's legit.

We were tired from our long day (and night before), so we spent the night wandering through Prague and trying out some Prague-specialty cookies. They have the craziest statues here (I mean, hence the crawling babies and peeing men). At one point we were walking down this smaller alley-ish street (it's safe here, don't worry), and it was dark out, probably around 10 or 11. I glanced up and saw a man HANGING from a pole. I freaked out. I screamed and made Ashley look up - what do we do???!!! Ashley laughed and said "Oh yeah I've seen that" and kept casually walking down the street. I was completely freaking out until Ashley finally explained that she'd read about that STATUE online. WHYYY would you make a statue like that?? I need to look up the history behind that. There has to be a reason it's there - other than to freak out tourists.

view from the airplane of the alps!

Today we headed home to Rome. It was a longgg day. Tram, Metro, Bus to the airport, then 2 hour plane ride, then express train to Termini in Rome, then metro to our stop. Sighhh. It was so nice to be back! I got in a good solid looooong yoga session that was much needed. My body was craving some strengthening and stretching - next trip I need to pack less clothes so I have room to bring my mat! Somehow it was one of my more flexible days which was surprising since it'd been a couple days. I guess I was craving yoga so bad my body would do anything to make it happen haha. Who knows!

Anyway...I'm obviously exhausted hence the rambling and rambling BUT it was the perfect weekend in Prague. I am SO happy that I went! What a wonderful experience:) Now another week of classes and adventures! Here I come, world.

Ciao! Much love! :)