it's been a while

Well, it seems like tomorrow may be the start of a busy, busy month. This semester is already going by so quickly, and it seems like it'll be over so soon!

Some updates:

Siena: Siena was really nice, it was a great break from Rome. Meghann and I had a few minor difficulties, like finding where to buy bus tickets, finding the hostel, and finding out that we had to call someone to check into our hostel (which then started a hunt for phone booths...). It seemed cleaner, quieter, and friendlier than Rome, though, and we got to use the little Italian skills that we have when we got asked directions. The Duomo there was an incredibly decorated piece of architecture, the Piazza il Campo a nice resting place, and the Facciatore a great place for a beautiful view. We got some chinese food for lunch on Monday, which tasted really good not because it was great chinese food, but more because it was a different texture than we'd eaten in a while...

Etc: Just finished the Primo Angeli workshop last week.. worked with Meghann, Becky, and Kate to redesign tuna packaging... Primo was funny because he was always muttering and getting off track, and it's a good thing his wife was there to remind him what he was doing all the time...

Oded Ezer is next week, and I'm quite excited!

Meghann and I went to a place near Campo dei Fiori that has falafel, and it was probably the best food (or close to it) that I've had here so far.

Went to dinner with Kate and Meghann, we had a funny waiter, and definitely need to start eating out more.

Erin made meatloaf for apartment dinner this week, quite the adventure with the oven.. most meat I've had in the past month and a half.

Went to Assisi this past weekend, very cute town, great view from the top. Why can't we have mountains and quiet and green in Rome, too?

The future: Meghann and I booked tickets to go to Stockholm and Oslo after the north field trip (Switzerland!).. it was a little bit of an impulsive decision, but we'd talked about going somewhere a little bit more outlandish, and actually, tickets were pretty cheap. It'll be interesting for sure, and we won't get a ton of time in each place, but hopefully it'll be fun. Gotta stock up on some cooler weather clothing, though..

Also, things are starting to get super super busy.. tomorrow morning, we leave for the south field trip to Naples and Pompeii, then staying in Sorrento a couple days (maybe going to Capri or the Amalfi Coast?). When we get back, we have a quick project to do before our typography workshop with Oded Ezer. Then, I fly to Venice to spend the weekend with my parents, then train to Florence, and I'll spend a day or two there with my parents and/or Andrew.

My weekends from now until forever (or so it seems) are pretty booked up, and I also have to make sure I stay on track with class work (even though we don't have class that often). It's crazy that apparently we only actually have five or so weeks in 470 that we actually have class before our project is due, and that does not seem like much time at all. Where did all this time go?

ughblech.

argh travel planning is stressful and trying to read websites in Italian gives me a headache

maybe someday soon I'll post pictures from Siena.

Primo Angeli packaging workshop this week.

Dirty Projectors tomorrow.

Found popcorn at the grocery store. Exciting!

09 18 09

Last weekend seemed so long and leisurely, but here we go rushing right in to busy busy projects.. I'm sure it'll be super fast-paced from now on, and will go even faster now that trips and such are starting..

Meghann and I are headed up to Siena for Sunday and Monday this weekend, I'm excited to go somewhere outside of Rome! This little and hopefully (not-so-stressful) trip will make planning others easier!

After this weekend, next weekend is the Assisi day trip, then the south field trip, to Sorento, Naples, and Pompei, and I'm thinking about trying to go to the Amalfi Coast and Sicily afterwards.. then a couple weekends with the parents (in Venice, then in Rome), then a weekend around in Rome, then BERLIN!

Going to try for Barcelona in early November (after the north field trip), and still need to figure out when to get to Florence and where to go for Thanksgiving break...

As far as classes go, next week is the Primo Angeli packaging workshop, which should be great... these really long days of class are really difficult to manage, nine hours straight in the same seat is a little rough! Too bad it would be expensive to eat lunch out every day, because that would at least be a break...

Last night was an interesting night. Meghann and I went over to Becky's apartment for a while, and some guy kept knocking on the door for a corkscrew (what Italian doesn't have a corkscrew?). He invited us over, he said it was mostly just a bunch of guys watching futbol, but we didn't think too much of it.

Then, the girls who lived in the apartment across the hall came over and offered us cake, and who would refuse that offer? So we went over and had some wine and the cake (really more of a torte or something, but it was so delicious..), and tried grappa and sorbetto. It was interesting to talk to some people other than Iowa State people (and other than the South African guy from the tram), and they spoke english pretty well. The two girls said they were going to try to have a party this weekend, so the plan is to hopefully stop by. Even though they were older, they were really nice, and I enjoyed talking to them...

today was a good day.

Despite the fact that I was once again awakened by the sound of sirens and honking, I adventured out to Villa Borghese by myself.. I decided to take a different path there.

Nearly getting lost, going by myself, and seeing new things was just what I needed for a great day and to renew my excitement about being in Rome. I then spent a great day relaxing/sketching in the park, then stopped for really (expensive, but) fancy gelato (plum and cinnamon/ginger flavor... the cinnamon/ginger was REALLY good) before Italian.

Then I cooked for our apartment dinner tonight, I made tortellini with squash and spinach and onions, with a bottle of chianti, it was quite tasty!

ah, class.

I guess it's been about a week now since I've last written, but I'm definitely starting to get in the swing of things here, with class and finding my way around and such.

Within the last week:
-Went to the market at Campo de' Fiori

-Have now been to all my classes...

-starting to work on my italian basics

-for general studio, started visiting/sketching at Villa Borghese for my identity project (I think I've now spent about two days there, that's the plan for tomorrow, too. I really enjoy spending time there, but I sometimes wish I had picked somewhere that would be a lot easier to just pop by for an hour or so once in a while. At the same time, though, it's good to get away from traffic and people rushing around.

-for packaging, worked on building prototypes. nice to do something somewhat mindless...

-my art history class is probably going to be the most interesting one I have ever taken, since walking tours make everything better, and besides that, Terry Kirk is very enthusiastic, graceful, energetic, passionate.. plus he has a funny mustache. If he can make poured concrete interesting (which he can), I'm totally loving it.

-for type class, starting class with a 1,000 paced walk from the Pantheon is always a good start. hopefully the project will be fun too

-had an interesting attempt at going out in Rome, involving strange bars and lots of walking, but so glad the tram was still running when we were coming back...

-went to the Porta Portese market again on Sunday, got 3 scarves for 1,50! Super excited about that.. and some books to use for altered books of a sort. It's probably good that I don't have all the supplies I need yet, otherwise that's all I would do...

For the future:
-have now had two failed attempts at planning trips, but hopefully will go on at least one day trip out of town this weekend to make up for it.. it's a completely free weekend and I need to do something with it!

-spend more time at Villa Borghese, hopefully some relaxing while I'm there, too.

-gelato. I don't think I've had it for at least an entire week... (so long, I know, but I feel like I should take advantage of it while I'm here.)

-do something with the books I bought at the market.

-cookin' dinner for the whole apartment tomorrow.. tortellini, mmmm.

-MORE EXPLORIN.

been doin' plenty more 'splorin'

I've been doing a lot more exploring, finishing up this scavenger hunt of sites to pick a focus for our big corporate identity project..

So, in total, I've now been to Pantheon Square, the Jewish Ghetto, Campo de Fiori (on the ONLY DAY there is not a market...), Tiber Island, Piazza della Bocca della Verita, Capitoline Hill, Piazza del Popolo, and Villa Borghese.

Villa Borghese was the one that totally grabbed me and I absolutely loved it, but I'm a little wary of choosing it since it's so far away.. and that it's so huge. But, I did really like it, and I would love to go back.

We also adventured to the beach... and it WAS quite the adventure. We got so lost and confused trying to find our way there, it took us three hours to get there, which was about twice as long as it should have. But, it was relaxing and therefore worth it, even if we didn't get there until really late.

We might try to head back again, might as well try to do as much relaxing things while we don't have too much to worry about for class yet. It's actually (dare I say it?) a bit cooler today, with the high to be only around 80.

Goal for the near future: to go to the market. I definitely need to get groceries sometime in the next couple of days, and I would love to by some produce at a market. Perhaps tomorrow, since I don't have class until 3:30? I also need to get back into the swing of cooking, and get a little bit more creative. I also need to figure out how the oven works, so I can do some baked dishes too, but I'm a little bit terrified to just start sticking lit matches into random places... it's definitely not something I've done before, to light my stove/oven with matches...

Oded Ezer is coming?!

yes, he is, for our second workshop, which I'm totally thrilled about!

After hearing about our projects and our trips this semester, I'm totally excited! One packaging workshop with Primo Angeli, one typography workshop with Oded Ezer... South field trip to Naples, Sorrento, and Pompeii, North field trip not finalized, but hopefully to Zurich!

The major project for main studio is an identity system for a neighborhood in Rome, so Meghann and I did our fist batch of exploring today.. to the Piazza del Popolo and Villa Borghese, with a pitstop at the Venetian Palace on the way.

Villa Borghese was absolutely gorgeous! It was also really refreshing to see some trees and green grass and things for once, I really enjoyed it up there. It's really too bad it's quite the trek from our apartment, but maybe some day soon, I can figure out the busses too, and get up there more easily. It would be perfect for a picnic or a lazy day of reading or something of the sort..

Italia!

View of the Colusseum from the Venetian Palace

Piazza del Popolo

near an entrance to Villa Borghese

leaves and paper

lake in Villa Borghese

A couple other thoughts: a lot of older Italian men look alike, gelato is very very good, maybe one day I will get used to all the sirens, I kind of wish we were a bit closer to Rome Center but I am glad for the tram stop right here, first rainy day today: can't decide if rain or extreme heat was more annoying, got Terry Kirk for Art History!

a couple days

Now I'm starting to settle into the apartment more.. again, it's nice to be able to unpack and spread out a little.

Wednesday, we had a meeting on some housing information, then we went to the grocery store. It wasn't really that much different, but it still took us forever to shop and figure out what and where things were. I didn't get too much yet, and am trying to be creative to have different things besides just spaghetti on the small amount of stuff I got at the grocery store. Plan for next time: buy fresh fruits and veggies from the fruit/veggie store a block farther down, the rest from the grocery store.

After the grocery store, we got some key things figured out.. turns out we're just going to have to learn the trick to getting into the building, but now I have a key that will actually let us into the apartment, so that's good.

Went for a walk with Meghann and Erin, we found: a park, better graffiti, the end of the tram line, a crazy cat lady, an art supply store (but who knows where it was...), a really sketchy road/field thing, poo, a poo-covered postcard, and a little shop that made sorbet popsicles.

In the evening, went out with the guys and some of the other graphic girls, missed the stop on the tram on the way there, got lost a little trying to find the place, spent too much on a pint, had a long long walk home since the tram stopped running, but also really enjoyed seeing some of the people I hadn't seen yet, and getting farther away from our apartment.

Thursday, we had a really long meeting about safety/keys, but at least they fed us. Afterwards, headed through town in the direction of H&M, trying to find some more clothes we could wear in the heat. It's crazy how you can just be walkin' along, and then BAM there's Trajan's Column or some awesome building around the corner. It's so hard for me to fathom how old most of these buildings are.

The only thing I've been slightly disappointed about is how far our apartment is from central areas in Rome. A 45 min walk or 30 min tram venture is not really that big of a deal, but it would be nice to be closer to some other stuff, and it seems a little cleaner (at least there isn't as much graffiti everywhere, and less trash)...

TOMORROW: overview of class, explore studio area(?), maybe PEACHES(?)
General future: Plan trips! Where to go, where to go?

Rome: First Impressions

The start to the first day in Rome was way too early. Again, none of us really slept through the night, as we had taxis pick us up from the hostel at 4am, and headed to the airport. Luckily, this time I was able to fall asleep for at least a while on the flight (and for most of the bus ride to Termini Station).

It's definitely much hotter here in Rome than I am used to, and I kind of wish I had more loose clothing that would be appropriate for weather like this. Oh well, guess that would be an excuse to get some new stuff? (Although that doesn't really sound too appealing based on how much I had to spend to day checking into housing and for taxis.. ugh.)

The apartment is really nice.. A lot bigger than I was expecting it to be! So many large windows, balconies, too, if we can figure out how to unlock the gates.. plenty of IKEA furniture, and way more closet space than I could possibly fill up on only 42 pounds of luggage.

Definitely had a good couple hour nap after we got here, too, definitely needed it.

The biggest disappointment so far is KEY FAIL.  Not a single one out of seven of our building keys work, so we are having to go get dinner/food in shifts, which is super disappointing. My key also doesn't work to get into the apartment, so I can't go out alone, or at least not with my keys. Hopefully that'll get fixed at housing orientation tomorrow...?

I'm excited to go out and see others' apartments.. Huy seems to really enjoy his, and there are a couple more that are supposed to be really close to ours.

There's graffiti EVERYWHERE.

Tomorrow morning, adventure to try to find Studio, hopefully we leave early enough and don't get lost!

Also, Andrew was supposed to meet us over here at 6 this evening, but a couple hours later, still hasn't showed. I'm hoping it just means he had trouble finding us, but went to Huy instead, or fell asleep at his hostel and stayed there, or something of the sort. I'm a little worried since the only way I really have to contact him is the internet, but I'm banking on the fact that he is a big boy and can hopefully take care of himself, at least enough to find his way back to his hostel... hopefully news from him soon?

One of the first orders of business was GELATO. Pistaccio e Stracciatella. Yum.

Dinner was mystery pizza. Still don't know what it was. Very garlicky, maybe had some pesto on it... also... something else green?

More pics and everything else to come?

Oh, Paris!

I really wish we had more time to stay in Paris. First day, we took a train in, and got into town early afternoon and checked into the hostel. We started with a walk to the nearby Sacre Couer, a nice church on top of the hill, it had a great view of the whole city. Then we took the metro to L'Arch de Triomphe, and walked down the busy Champs-Elysees, stopping in a couple shops. At the end of this path was the Obelisque, which was really not that exciting, but the fountains were nice. On the way, we also stopped and looked at some bridges and buildings.

graffiti on the train tracks

view of Paris from Sacre Couer

L'Arc de Triomphe

Grand Palais

On our walk, we also passed by some other gardens or a palace (it's hard to keep all these things straight, and we really only just passed by some of it...), then headed in the direction of the Eiffel Tower. We stopped at a little sidewalk cafe and had some tasty dinner, then finished the trek to the tower. When we got there, Paula got a bloody nose, and as a result, we didn't come out of the bathroom until it was almost dark, but seeing the Eiffel Tower all lit up was wonderful. We took the trek all the way to the top and spent a good chunk of time hanging out, looking at all the lights. I'm definitely glad we went at night, I think the view was very pretty then.

Eiffel Tower at Night

Seine at Night, as seen from the Eiffel Tower

The second day of Paris, we got going a little later, since we were all low on sleep, but then we headed to the Louvre, and waited in line for a surprisingly short period of time, for both entrance and the Mona Lisa (which you cannot get nearly close enough to for it to be that impressive.. I would love to be able to see brushstrokes or something, but oh well.) I did like seeing the Venus de Milo and the Venus of Samothrace, though. After the Louvre, plenty more walking, through some gardens, then out to Notre Dame. The ceilings were impressively high, and the stained glass beautiful. Then off to Jardin de Luxembourg, which were some really gorgeous gardens. We spent a good chunk of time just resting and hanging out by the large central fountain.

Venus of Samothrace

little dude by Notre Dame

Hangin' out in le Jardin de Luxembourg

A snacky dinner was pretty much the end to this night, as we had to pack and get ready for a super early morning flight...

LONDON: Day four

For our last day in London, we YET AGAIN tried to catch the changing of the guards. Luckily, this time we made it on time. Unfortunately, it didn't really make much of a difference anyway since I'm so short, I could only hear the band and see all the other tourists and their cameras. So, really, I still don't know much about what happens with the changing of the guards. Oh well.

 

Then we spent some time at the National Gallery, saw lots of paintings.. then off for some sandwiches in front of the British Museum. After that, Andrew and I checked out the National Portrait Gallery, which was somewhat interesting. Some of the older portraits look the same after a while, but some of the newer ones were neat. The definitely seem to favor the photorealistic portrait, at least in their Best Portrait of 2009 Exhibit, which is not necessarily my favorite thing, but oh well.

The evening of this day was probably my favorite evening in London.. we had a little picnic by the river, then saw an outdoor theatre performance of Madea, which was actually quite good.. and views of the Tower Bridge at night on the way back. Paula made yet another "friend" on the way back...haha.