visitor time!

It's been so long since I've posted, I am so so sorry! India, Dad, and Zach are visiting so I haven't had much down time. Also my crazy insane honors midterm was today so FINALLY that's overwith and I can update yippee!

me and zach!

SO. Where to begin? I suppose we'll start with Friday. I woke up early to meet Zach at the airport. I squeezed in a nice yoga session beforehand, then took the train to the arrivals gate at Fiumicino. His plane was a little late, so I wandered around the airport a little bit. It was fun to see people reuniting - hugs and kisses and smiles galore. He finally arrived (YAY) and was a complete zombie haha. He walked out of the terminal and looked around like he had no idea where to go - I guess that was pretty valid though. It was so good to see him!! He exchanged some money, then we began the treck back to the apartment. After struggling a little with the ticket machine, we hopped on the train, transferred to the metro, and made it back in one piece. As soon as Zach hit the bed he was out. He took a nice long nap while I made puppy chow with the JIF peanut butter (YES) and chex that he brought me (i used nutella instead of melted chocolate - AMAZING) and watched Gnomeo and Juliet (cutest movie ever by the way). I got a little studying in for my midterm too.

For dinner we decided to walk to Storico Centro. It was an easy walk, just across the bridge. We ate at a nice restaurant right on Piazza Navona. It was sprinkling a little bit and had been raining on and off all day, but we were nice and warm with the heater beside us. The bottle of wine helped, too:) We both tried different authentic Italian pastas yum yum yum. Jet lag was still hitting Zach pretty hard, so we headed home after dinner and watched a movie before bed.

On Saturday, India and Dad arrived! They called us from their hotel once they settled in around noon, so Zach and I headed over to meet them. They were worn out from all the traveling, but we made it out to a nice lunch at a little diner by their hotel. They're staying near Termini, which is convenient because that's a main bus/metro stop. Perfecto! We split a couple pizzas and tried a cheese platter. Dad was pretty exhausted still, so he headed back to the hotel. India came with us back to my apartment. We wandered around Cola di Rienzo for a little while looking in the shops, then rested in the apartment until dinner time. The plan for dinner was a place that Dad had read about in his Rome tourist book. He was craving seafood and it was apparently the best seafood in Rome, so we headed that direction.

India throwing coins into the Trevi

Not only was this the best seafood in Rome, but it was the best FOOD in Rome. So. Amazing. The restaurant was right by the Pantheon, so we stopped by and took a few pictures there before making our way to dinner. The restaurant was called Quinzi & Gabrielli. I was so overwhelmed looking at the menu - everything sounded so amazing! We were all totally lost on what to get, so I asked the waiter what his favorite was. He smiled, picked up our menus, and told us he would make us very happy that night. He went over everything he'd bring out to us, but I didn't understand half of it. I hoped for the best. And the best is what we got. We started out with wonderful bruschetta, then came our first appetizers. I don't even know what we ate. It was just so so so so good. The 3 course meal included swordfish, seabass, prawns, lobster, calamari, tuna, oysters...literally one of the best meals I've ever eaten. Dad, Zach, and I split a nice bottle of wine and we finished off dinner with some sorbet, chocolate mousse, and champagne with a little coffee to top it off. Absolutely incredible. This is an absolute MUST if you're in Rome with a little money to spend. Check out their website: http://www.quinziegabrieli.it/index.html.

After dinner we wandered back to the Pantheon and circled around to the Trevi Fountain. We each threw in our 3 coins for our 3 wishes! It was freeeeeeeezing cold, so we hopped on the metro and parted ways. A very successful first day for the Butler Visitors.

dad, indy, and zach overlooking the forum at capitoline hill

Sunday we hit pretty much every tourist spot we could. Zach and I met the fam at their hotel at 10am and the plan was to go to the Carnevale parade a couple streets over. India and Dad were dragging (still getting used to the time difference) so we ended up not making it to the parade. Oh well! Once they finisehd getting ready, we made our way to the Colosseum. Lucky them - I just had my exam on il Colosseo and the Roman Forum so they got a personal tour! The line was way too long to go inside, so we just walked around and I told them random facts. From there we walked up Via dei For Imperiali to Piazza Venezia (the "wedding cake") and Capitoline Hill. We hung out for a little while on top of the hill overlooking Rome. It was a nicer day today thank goodness - finally the rain had stopped!! After resting for a little longer, we hit up Largo Argentina (I had to show India the cat sanctuary), and went back to the Pantheon to eat some lunch.

India likes to use Zach's camera for close-up artsy piczzz

Dad loved the Pantheon. We couldn't go inside when we had gone the night before, so we spent about an hour wandering around looking at it's beautiful structure and art. Zach is into geology, so he and Dad found out some cool facts about the marble in the walls - neato! After wandering through the Pantheon, we grabbed lunch at a little restaurant right outside for the pretty pretty view. India doesn't like tomatoes (in Italy, I know, insanity) so we had to ask for a special dish with just plain noodles and white sauce. Luckily they obliged, but other restaurants haven't been so willing. Hopefully her tastebuds will expand to new foods by the end of the week! We all got pasta or pizza and split a nice Pinot Grigio. The Spanish Steps weren't far, so we figured we'd go all out. We passed the Trevi again so they could see it during the day time, then walked to the steps.

SO MANY PEOPLE FOR CARNEVALE

It was really cool because they were having Carnevale events EVERYWHERE and Piazza del Popolo and the Spanish Steps were two of the main event places. We stopped in Cafe Grecco (GREAT capuccinos there) to re-energize then sat on the steps and watched the performers below. It was so neat - there were tons and tons and TONS of people there watching and walking around. The kids are so cute. The all get dressed up like Halloween for the entire Carnevale week. We saw some pretty funny costumes. After resting for awhile, it was getting late so we decided to head home.

SINS door near carnevale
(this is for you, page/rohan)

We walked to the top of the steps then walked to Piazza del Popolo (where the metro stop was). We admired the view for a few minutes, watched some of the horse show in the piazza for carnevale, then made our way towards the metro stop. We parted ways with Dad and India for a few hours so we could all rest up for dinner. Zach and I walked home because my apartment's not too far. We got to walk through the main Carnevale festivities which was fun! We found our favorite costume of the events - a little boy was dressed in a full body walrus costume. That's legit. We had a nice late afternoon walk home, then I studied a little until dinner.

Dad and India met us at our apartment for dinner. I was pretty stressed out about my exam (because my professor is insane and expects us to know waaaaaaaay more than the capacity of my brain can handle), so we decided to go to the pizzeria across the street and just grab something quick. Unfortunately, we forgot that it was closed on Sunday!! Hmm. Instead we walked a few blocks to another pizzeria that I hadn't tried before. It was very very yummy, though! It was the typical Italian pizzeria - busy busy busy with lots of people trying to do too many things at once. We finally were seated and ordered. Zach had been wanting a calzone, so he got a football-sized (HUGE) calzone, Dad and I got yummy pizzas, and India's special request of plain pasta didn't fly here so she somehow mustered the courage to force down a plain cheese pizza. Phew! Everything was incredible. I took a card home with me - I'll definitely be going back there.

visiting the colosseum while i studied AH

I was a complete zombie all during dinner. I think I was overwhelmed with my exam and had just been going nonstop since everyone got here, so I decided to spend Monday studying and resting in the apartment. I got SO much done, which was nice. I finished up my fresco for class Wednesday then studied all day. I was feeling a lot better about the exam, although I still had a long way to go. Zach was so good about my panic attacks whenever I freaked out mid-studyage - he put on Dave Matthews and got me blood red orange juice. Yum:) quite a catch. The visitors explored all day Monday, went back to the Colosseum and Forum to explore the inside since the line wasn't as long on weekdays, then came back to the apartment around four.

zach's canolli

I had a little coffee break with them and took them to the canolleria that I love so much. It was a successful trip - we tried the pistaccio, original, and chocolate chip.  Mmmm Mm MMMM! Came back to the apartment and chillaxed for awhile. Dad and India headed back to their hotel and I continued the never-ending studying. For dinner we decided to meet at the Pantheon since we'd been there a couple times and then walk to the restaurant. I was a little nervous because my dad isn't the best with directions, but we were hoping for the best.

Zach and I got to the Pantheon a few minutes late, but Dad and India were no where to be seen. We waited for a little while, looked around some shops, shooed away the flower and toy vendors, did some foot dances to keep warm, and then finally they arrived! Apparently they got so lost getting here that they had to take a taxi haha. Oops! Luckily the restaurant wasn't too far of a walk, so we hurried there to warm up. I took them to Rossopomodora - the place I went to the first night with API that had the most incredible bruschetta. We all tried pastas and pizzas and appetizers and wine. Yippee! I've probably gained 10 pounds from my dad being here haha. So much food all the time. I'm DEFINITELY not complaining, though.

CONFETTI!!
(dad kept calling it graffiti haha)

Tuesday I had my on-site class. We went to a couple old churches near the Colosseum. I felt like I was in Angels and Demons - searching underground for hidden treasures. Actually there's one scene from LOST where they're underground in some old building. One of the underground levels of the churches we went into looked EXACTLY like that. At first I thought I was having a weird deja-vu, then I realized I had seen it on lost haha. It was so so cold though, because the church was 3 levels deep (from all the different centuries), so as you went lower it got colder and colder. brr!

After class I hurried home to meet Zach for lunch. The visitors were having a chill day since we'd been going nonstop since they got here. I got back to the apartment around 12:30 and he was just waking up - so jealous. We made some yummy pasta filled with cheese and nuts for lunch and had surprise visitors!! India and Dad came over and dropped off some flowers for me that they'd picked up at the flower market down the street:) Yayy! Tuesday was International Women's Day, so there were vendors selling flowers everywhere called "mimosas". These flowers are the special women flowers apparently. They're very pretty - they kind of remind me of forsythias (or as we were taught growing up forCYNTHIAs!). Dad and Indy got me a beautiful white orchid, a big plant of purple daisies, and a little baby green plant. I was so excited:)

confetti everywhere!

Zach and I rested up then wandered around Prati in the afternoon, checking out some stores. He's looking for a pair of selvage jeans (Travis knows all about these - follow his jean project blog at http://hoboventures.blogspot.com/ ), so we stopped in a few stores but didn't find anything. We grabbed gelato from a place I'd never been before - gelateria dei gracchi. I was a little nervous because it was by the ristorante that we went to once of the first nights I was here - I'm still intimidated. But they had really awesome flavors so I'll have to go back. I tried grapefruit and yogurt - yum!

I was super excited about Tuesday night because it was the final night of Carnevale so there was a big event at Piazza del Popolo - only about 10 - 15 mins from my apartment. India and Dad met us at the apartment then we walked over. They'd bought masks for us to wear, which i was SUPER excited about. India and I switched off wearing the cat mask and the dog ears/nose. There was confetti EVERYWHERE so we picked it up off the ground and had a massive confetti fight. It got everywhere - think I still have some stuck in my hair haha. There were some cool exhibits that we walked through, but we were most excited about the fireworks finale show. Ashley, Kaylie, and Debbie met us at Popolo. We waited and waited and waited. Finally, the fireworks began! (45 minutes after they were supposed to - what can we expect, it's Italy?). It was so beautiful. A fantastic fireworks show! We were freezing to death by the end of it, so we hurried to the pizzeria across from out apartment for dinner.

dog rawr

They were full for the night, so we ordered 7 pizzas to go to share with the roomies. Everything was wonderful! It was a long day, and I still had lots of studying to do, so Dad and India headed home and Zach helped me study - aka calmed me down every time I had a panic attack just thinking about EVERYTHING I was expected to know. Ridiculous.

bark bark!!

Wednesday was the exam day. I wasn't feeling well Tuesday night (sore throat, stuffy nose) so I had taken some benadryl before bed. It completely knocked me out. I couldn't keep my eyes open if I wanted to. Getting up was hard, but I forced myself out of bed to study a little more before the test. Ugh. It went okay. She expects us to know SO much. My brain cannot retain all of it. Whatever thank goodness it's over.

India, Zach, and Dad were wandering around the Jewish Ghetto for the day, so I met them at Campo to grab lunch after the exam. We ate at a nice place right by the Campo dei Fiori market while they told me about their morning adventures. Apparently they found an awesome vintage photo shop that they want me to check out. We'll definitely have to head back there. We wandered around Storico Centro, then came back towards my apartment area in Prati. Dad, Zach and I walked around the shopping street while India rested in the apartment and caught up on Cake Boss. We got home a little while later, watched some Glee, then headed to dinner!

Since my dad loves Mexican food so much, I had to take him to the Mexican place right by my house to see how it compared to Richmond. He actually approved! The queso wasn't up to India's standards, but everything else was awesome. We ate, relaxed, had some sangria/margs, then parted ways. India and Dad have been struggling with the public transportation - it never seems to work out for them. Every night something goes wrong. We were sure that everything would be fine since we finished up in time for them to take the metro, but Thursday we heard differently. Apparently they didn't get there in time and then the buses had stopped, and they finally ended up catching a cab an hour or so later. Boo!! Terrible luck. Maybe by the time they leave they'll have it down.

Zach and I had a nice night in the apartment, relaxing FINALLY after the crazy few days of exams. We watched Hot Tub Time Machine..I didn't realize it had so many famous people in it! It made me miss snowboarding.

What a week so far! I'm so excited for the weekend with everyone:)

midterms midterms boo

John Lennon door in Prague
newly printed!

This week was pretty crazy. We're half way done with the semester. AH! It's going by so so fast. I can't believe I've been living here for two months!! It's already been decided that I'm coming back to Rome at least 4 more times in my lifetime. Four just seems like a good number.

Yoga on Monday went great. I got there a little early to warm up and work on inversions, and Sam was there so we played around with a new sequence Alba showed her. The guy who sits at the desk to let people in saw us practicing and came over to show us his skillzzz. It was fun! Class was focused on balance, so we tried dancer, crow, tree..good times.

It's been a rainy week. It's rained every day since Monday. BOO. I'm ready for sunshine and HOT weather!! (Miami, come back to me!) Hopefully it'll be warming up and clearing up soon. Starting tomorrow we're expecting sunshine. India, Dad, and Zach are bringing in the good weather! Of course I forgot my umbrella Monday, Tuesday, AND Wednesday. Apparently learning from experience doesn't always work.

After yoga was photo WOO! I was excited to print more pictures, because Phoebe and I went in last Thursday but the hot water was broken so the chemical process didn't work and the pictures weren't coming out. We had to give up. Today I was planning on printing at least 2, hopefully 3. FAIL. I forget how long it takes during class. There are 18 people in the class and 2 enlargers - so only 2 people can go at a time, and since we're all beginning it takes everyone a good 20 (at least) minutes per picture to do test strips, set up, and perfect it.

tree in Prague
(it's hard to see, but there's a
little boy playing on it!)
newly printed

Since I knew how to print from the class before, I helped everyone with their pictures and ended up going last. Two hours of standing got a little old, but the picture came out great! I decided to work on the statue picture again and perfect it to get the variation, contrast, and light right. We're hoping to move into the new photo lab next week, which will be exciting because there are more enlargers WOO!!

John Lennon wall in Prague
newly printed

Tuesday was my on-site exam which was pretty hard to study for since I don't take very good notes in that class. We walk around to different museums, monuments, buildings, art, etc. I always get too distracted at looking at everything to take super in-depth notes. Luckily it ended up being okay, there was only one or two that I wasn't super confident about. One down, two to go!

Painting was cool because we had a critique of our still lives then started our next project: figure painting. I'd taken a figure modeling class at Miami, so I had a little background in it. Painting/sketching nudes was way harder than sculpting them though. We focused on sketching out the layout of the canvas in class and will start painting next week. It's going to be harder than the still life, I can already tell. Challenges are exciting, though!

Carracci's "The Loves of the Gods"
The photograph doesn't do it justice.

Wednesday my honors class met an hour and a half early for a field trip yippee! Getting up early was rough, but it was totally worth it. We visited the Palazzo Farnese. This is a palace that's famous for Carracci's "Loves of the Gods" fresco in their Galleria Farnese. It's usually closed to the public, and actually takes a LOT of work to get into - my teacher only had been once before because she knew the ambassador of some country who happened to be friends with the French ambassador (who lives in there now). He decided to open it up to the public for a few months - lucky us!! We spent a loooooot of time there, almost 4 hours. It was lots of standing and a little tiring, but so incredible. I spent at least 2.5 of the time just staring up at the ceiling. Here's a picture from google, you should look it up though. It actually looks like the frames and statues are real, not painted on the walls. Awesomeeeeeee.

In fresco we planned out the walls! We lined the different sections of the walls to get all the proportions right and know where to do our giornata ("days work" - where you cut off the mortar so it looks neat and the seams are disguised into the walls). I think the final design will look really awesome. Somehow my math skills worked out and I got all the measurements together. Debbie designed this really cool top border for us, so we worked for a little while in the computer lab figuring out colors. Yay.

"haunting" trees in Prague
newly printed!

Today (Thursday), I met Phoebe at the photo lab to try to get some printing in. The hot water worked, thank goodness! We got to work and I ended up being able to print 5 pictures! Phoebe left after 2 hours because she was catching a flight to Paris this afternoon, but I stayed for another hour after that to finish up. It was so nice to just get in the zone and be able to take my time and print as many pictures as I wanted. It's hard with limited tools! But we manage. I was happy with my progress today. I printed another statue picture for Page (he told me he liked it yayy), a picture of the John Lennon door from Prague, the John Lennon wall in Prague, and two pictures of awesome trees in a park in Prague. Pretty pretty. I took pictures of the printed pics and scattered them throughout this post, but they never come out as good as the real-life print. But you get the picture (no pun intended..)

AMERICAN FOOD (don't judge)

The rest of the day I rested up. I'm exhausted for some reason! I didn't feel bad about staying in bed and watching movies all afternoon since it was so rainy and gross and cold outside. We were all craving American food, so we ordered in from an American steakhouse in the Prati area - T-Bones steakhouse. YUM. I don't even like burgers regularly, but my cheeseburger was AMAZING. Just what I'd been missing. We had to wait until 7 to order it because the restaurant didn't open until then, and we were all literally counting down the minutes until 7pm haha. Tara also made some sangria for us with fresh apples and oranges, which only added to the awesomeness of dinner. It was terrific! And we devoured everything in ten minutes. Just a typical night in "da scip".

I'm heading to the airport early tomorrow morning to meet my first visitor - Zach! Yay!! Can't wait for India and Dad to get here on Saturday, too (DAD/INDY: guys have to skype/email me so we can figure out your arrival situation!!!) I'm so excited for the week to come:) well, besides my honors exam on Wednesday. But I'll just think about that later...

Ciao mi amores!! Happy spring break to you JMU-ers and UVA-ers! Love.

"I thought it was pronounced 'FRIENDS'" (Florence/Firenze!)

What a busy busy week it's been! I apologize for the late update from the weekend, but it's midterm week so I've been a good student and focusing on my exams. Luckily I only have 3 (my 2 art histories and fresco painting - painting/photo don't have exams WOO), and I got one of my big ones out of the way this morning. SO I have a little time before painting to update you on my European life!

This weekend was the API trip to Florence. It was a blast! Since I was choosing to study abroad in either Rome or Florence I was anxious to see how I would like it and how different the city would be from Rome. Verdict: Florence is gorgeous and way different than Rome...and I'm SO happy I chose Roma!! It was really amazing to see all the art and architecture in Florence (or as Italians call it - Firenze), but there is just so much more to do in Rome, and so many levels of history here. I can do something new and different every single day in Rome if I wanted to, but I felt that Florence didn't have as much variety and things to do. Soooo yes I did love it! BUT yes I am so glad that Rome is my home:)

Duomo

Ashley and I woke up early Friday morning to meet at Piazza Trilussa for the trip. Debbie was going with us, but she went to Florence a day early since she knows some people studying there and wanted a chance to hangout with them. Tara and Kaylie's families were visiting, so they stayed with them. It was really fun to do an API trip because we knew so many people. Yippeee! The bus was about 4 hours to Florence. My plan was to sleep the whole way since, yet again, I didn't get much sleep, but they put on the show "Friends" for us..I couldn't resist but to stay up and watch! Who doesn't adore that show? We stopped once to grab lunch and ended up getting to Florence around noon.

the copy of David

The city is much much smaller than Rome, with not as many crazy drivers (that was a plus). They actually block off a lot of the streets so that they're mainly pedestrian! Our hotel was right in the city center, literally just feet away from Brunelleschi's famous dome. SO COOL!! We had a few minutes to wander around and unpack, then met up for a guided tour. It was really chilly in Florence (snow was in the forecast for Sunday), so luckily the tour didn't last too long. We visited Santa Maria del Fiore (with the famous duomo of Firenze), Ponte Vecchio, Piazza della Repubblica, Piazza della Signoria, we saw the Uffizi Galleria (the line was too long so i couldn't go in :( maybe next time), etc. etc.! The David statue was originally in the Piazza della Signoria, but they only have a copy of it there now. There are actually 3 David statues - the original (in Galleria dell'Academia in Florence), the marble copy in Piazza della Signoria (which we saw on the tour), and a bronze copy in the Piazza della Michelangelo (that we visited on Sunday). It was cool to see the copy in the original's location, but I had my heart set on the REAL David.

After the tour, we had free time for the rest of the day. Ashley and Debbie wanted to shower, so I headed over to the Galleria dell'Academia to see DAVID. After learning so much about him, how could I not see the original? Let me just say - definitely worth the 6 euro. The museum itself was very small with lots of altar pieces and paintings from the early Italian Renaissance, which were cool to see. Another famous statue, the Rape of the Sabine Women, was there also so I was glad I got to see that as well. But honestly - just paying that much to see only the David was worth it! There were tons of people around, gawking at the intensity and magnificence of the statue. I stood there circling the statue, viewing it from every angle, for about 45 minutes. Well done, Michelangelo.

SO EXPENSIVE. Ponte Vecchio

We got dinner with a big group of Debbie's friends from Stonehill (her college) who were studying in Florence. I didn't realize she knew so many people there! There was 12 or so people at dinner, we went to this awesome place called ZaZa's. Ashley and I got a little (okay, a lot) lost on the way to the restaurant. Everything looks so different in the dark! Apparently we walked right by the piazza that ZaZa's was in, but we didn't realize it. We ended up circling pretty much the whole city of Florence before finally making our way back. Note to self: next time, bring a map. I got the yummiest pasta EVER. I never really know what I order, I just usually get the "specialties" or famous dishes from whatever area I'm visiting. So, I did my typical choice and decided on some sort of pasta (I'd never heard the name before..it was called Gramigna) with a "homemade specialty sausage sauce". YUM. Dinner ended pretty late so we headed back to the hotel.

Saturday we had the whole day to ourselves! We slept in a little bit, then began our adventures. Debbie stayed with her friends in Florence, so Ashley and I explored Florence together. We walked around for awhile, crossing the Ponte Vecchio to adore the jewelry. The whole bridge is COVERED with jewelry shops like I've never seen before. So much gold, silver, and jewels AH! We picked out our favorites in each window, telling eachother that we'd be rich and famous someday and could maaaaybe then afford them haha. On the other side of the bridge we found a funny shop that had a yoga shirt (yay!) and I picked out a beautiful watercolor. One of my goals is to buy a piece of art from every place we visit. I think this one is my favorite so far. The lady was so sweet. She could barely speak any English but tried to explain every painting to me. After I picked out my favorite, she even gave me an extra one as a "gift from me"! How sweet:)

waffle + new leather jacket!

Next stop: the leather market. We rubbed the famous boar statue's nose for good luck, then went on a search. My goal: find a leather jacket. My parents told me they would buy it for me as my big European semester present, yippee! So I was ready to bargain my way to a good price. The only problem was that I had a very very specific color and style in mind. I wasn't sure if I'd be able to find the exact one I wanted, so I was just going to search and see. If not, I'd find another present they could get me! :) We walked along the leather market for awhile and there was SO much to choose from, it was overwhelming!! Everything we saw was black or dark brown. I'm not a "dark color" person, so I wasn't too hopeful for finding something lighter. Luckily, I spotted the PERFECT color at one stand, so I asked if they had any more. The vendor took Ashley and me to a shop down the road. The jacket was perfect! It was the last one, and in my size! Hooray!! I tried on a dark green, too ("it matches your eyes! you must!" the vendor told me), and a more caramel color, but the light one was perfecto.

Ashley chilling in Santa Maria Novella Piazza

Now the hard part: bargaining. I was ready to pull out everything my mom had taught me. "I give you good price," he told me, but I was expecting the initial offer to be around $200 because that's what Ashley and Kaylie had said was typical when they were getting theirs. I warned him I was a student and needed an awesome deal. He told me the jacket was $380, but he added on a few discounts for me and it ended up being...$125! AH! With 2 years guarentee - I can send it back and they'll fix it whenever. Plus, it's waterproof AND fireproof (in case I'm ever in a fire...). No bargaining necessary. This was the cheapest we'd heard of anyone who'd bought a jacket here - usually they were at least $150 (but usually closer to $200), and that was after lots and lots of haggling. I took it right away. When we left the store, Ashley said "Don't even talk to me. I hate you right now." Haha sins! Yay!

We got a couple bracelets at the market also, then sort of ran out of things to do. We wandered around Florence, I tried their famous waffles with nutella (it smelled amazingggg), then found the cutest piazza to sit in. It was in front of the Santa Maria Novella. It was a gorgeous day if you were sitting in the sun, so we sat down in the grass and people watched for an hour or so. I had my big camera with me, so I got some good shots of little kids running through the pigeons to scare them off :) A guy set up some speakers and started singing and playing guitar, it was the perfect afternoon rest.

After our break, we tried to find the famous Santa Maria Novella Farmacia - the oldest pharmacy in Europe! It was started in 1212 inside the Santa Maria Novella by the monks. They would make medicine and herbs for themselves, and evenutally opened the pharmacy to the public. It was so cool - like a museum almost! There was all this natural medicine, herbs, teas, honey...really really awesome. I'm actually thinking about going to med school for natural medicine, so I was very intrigued. Ashley and I took a few brochures home and realized they opened a store in Rome, so we'll have to check it out.

cooking away

Later in the afternoon we climbed up Duomo Santa Maria del Fiore! The dome was a masterpiece in it's time, because it was freestanding. Brunelleschi had to invent all kinds of tools (like the pulley) to make it. Inside the walls of the dome there is little steps and ribs that the workers used when they were building it, so they've opened some of these to the public. You can climb up the dome (it's 463 steps to the top! with no elevator option! and it was SO STEEP!) and it opens to the top of the dome with a beautiful view of Florence. Ashley and I climbed up at sunset. It was absolutely gorgeous. I love Italy.

That night, API had booked us a cooking class! It was amazing. We walked to the cooking school and made eggplant with mashed potatoes and zucchini and cheese for appetizer, crepes stuffed with ricotta and mushrooms for the meal, and tirimasu for dessert. I was in heaven. The best part is that we were given the recipes to take home, so I can make everything for you when I get back to the states!:)

Debbie, Ashley and I at Piazza del Michelangelo

Sunday we were up early and on the road. We stopped by Piazza del Michelangelo to get a nice panoramic picture of Florence and to see the final David statue. It was raining, so we took a bunch of pictures really quick then headed to the Chianti region of Italy for a wine tasting! The wine tasting was at Castello il Palagio. We got a tour of the castle which was neat (but very cold and rainy - by the end of the tour it had started to snow AH), then headed into the warmth of the restaurant for our wine tasting. Yum yum yum. Wine is my favorite. We got a nice array of food to go along with the tasting - bruschetta, hummus, an interesting spicy jelly, salami, ham, etc. We tried 3 types of wine. The first was a Rose which was pretty good, the second a classic Chianti, and the last one was a typical Tuscan wine that was TO. DIE. FOR. It tasted like I was drinking flowers. At the end, we got a little taste of a dessert wine that you dip little cookies in. mmmmmm so happy:)

wine tasting!

I was feeling very nice for the ride home haha. We watched "Friends" again after much begging - they made us wait until we got to the interstate. Luca (our API leader person) was trying to explain something about Florence to us to get our minds off of watching Friend (we were tired, okay?), and he said "Fir-en-ze (how they pronounce Florence), and someone in the back yelled "WAIT..I thought it was pronounced "FRIENDSSSS". Haha quite the jokester - hence the name of the post.

We made it home around dinner time, and I got to studying for the looooong week. I'm so excited for the week to be over because that means 2/3 midterms will be done (my honors one is next week) AND Zach comes Friday morning to visit AND India and my Dad come Saturday morning!!!!!! Hooray for visitors!! I can't wait to show them around my new home:)

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!