goodbye, rome.

After spring break I had very little motivation. At that point it was simply getting through the final two weeks before being able to return home. Took the history final, and have come to realize that even though that was definitely my worst class here as far as grades are concerned, I don't even care. I lived in Rome for four months. I traveled to Barcelona and throughout Eastern Europe. All of that for a less than perfect academic semester -- I'll take it. And from then until now our lives revolved around getting the most of out Rome in our final days and finishing studio. Studio here was definitely less intense than studio in Rome, mostly because they were more considerate of the fact that we actually have lives. They would move deadlines when they knew we had more strict deadlines in other classes, and they wanted us to enjoy Rome as much as possible while we were there. Even though I didn't really enjoy the design project this semester, I did enjoy the class and the professor. I will miss having Cinzia around. I think the final review went well. It isn't nearly as intense as they have been in the past, just as most things in Europe aren't nearly as intense as they are in America. Professors in America, and architects in America, should seriously consider removing the sticks from their butts, haha. Not that all Italians are very easy to deal with either. We had our design exhibition, our final dinner, and now it's time for departure. Rather than bussing us to the airport as they did when we arrived, we have to get to the airport on our own. I'm not a fan of paying for taxis. I'm also not a fan of our flight change -- it went from about 1:30 in the afternoon to about 6:30 am. That means none of us are going to sleep tonight, just going to head to the airport around 3:30 am, then be absolutely exhausted when we get Boston. Leaving Rome has me feeling both sad and excited. If I was actually going home to Florida and not just to Boston for summer school the excited part of me would probably be outweighing the sadness part. Right now they're closer to equal.

Goodbye, Rome. Hello, Boston.

the best spring break ever.

Nothing will ever top Spring Break 2009, at least as far as spring breaks are concerned. I have never been the type to do spring break as one big college drinking fest, and this spring break was no exception to that. I found that the best way, and equally the most frustrating way, to explore Europe is by train.

First stop: Vienna. Even though our time in Vienna was very short, really only one full day, it was still amazing. We walked through the city and saw the architecture we wanted to see, then made our way to their version of a theme park, which being from Orlando, their theme park is much more on a carnival level. Still fun nonetheless, and it included the added bonus of the most pork and beer I have ever seen or eating in one sitting.

Second stop: Budapest. Before going to Budapest, I heard a lot of hype about it. While the city was beautiful, it wasn't quite at the level of all its praise. The best thing about Budapest -- its lemonade. We stumbled upon this one restaurant where one guy there made his own lemonade, and apparently made this recipe when he worked in Daytona Beach. Small world, and delicious lemonade. Part of the reason it may have been so delicious was that we had been deprived of lemonade for about three months. Europeans need to jump on the lemonade train. Another not-so-cultural experience we had while in Budapest was dinner at a Mexican restaurant. It was surprisingly good, and quite amusing when a table near us had to get instructions on how to put together a fajita. The most memorable part about Budapest, however, has to be the mountain/hill across the river. A trend with many major European cities -- a river and elevation of some sort. There was a beautiful church that was inside the mountain, more literally a cave made into a church. And once on top of the mountain we could see the entire city -- and this part reminded me of how remarkable Barcelona was. Oh how I miss Barcelona.

Third stop: Prague. This was my favorite city from spring break. I was able to see Frank Gehry's "Dancing House," which while I am not a fan of this structure or Gehry in general, I was still happy to see it so I could add it to the list of Gehry buildings I have seen to prove my point on how horrible he is. That opinion of mine will never change. Getting around Prague was fairly easy with our map, and we chose to skip out on the metro system as much as possible. Our first trip on the metro we apparently bought the wrong tickets and were fined. Like we knew how to read Czech to make sure we had the proper tickets. There shouldn't be ten choices of metro tickets anyways. Besides that, Prague was a very pleasant city. Full of malls, which I did not expect, but it was kind of comforting to see a little bit more of American culture infused into European cultures. We also found waffles by our hotel. We went there for breakfast, then realized that these were really dessert waffles, topped with ice cream and all kinds of other goodies. Our hotel was awesome. It's luxury made up for it being outside of the city center. We were on the 14th or 16th floor and paid about $50 a night for it. When we arrived at the hotel the price on the board listed was over 200 Euro. Thank you, hotels.com.

Fourth stop: Stuttgart. On the way to Stuttgart we stopped in Frankfurt and stumbled upon a new mall by Fuksas, which was amazing -- and I was not happy when I realized I left my camera in a locker in the train station. I do hope my memory serves me well on that one. While Stuttgart wasn't my favorite city from spring break, it was my favorite time during spring break. I really didn't see the city itself because we stayed with Marc's aunt and her family outside of the city. It was so nice to be in a home and have real beds and that general homey feeling we had been without for so long. They had the most amazing bakery right down the street with the best cinnamon roll and cheese danish I have ever had. We did venture closer to the city and saw the Porsche museum -- I was in awe by all the cars while Marc only cared about the building. I do have a soft spot for beautiful cars. We also some Corbusier buildings, oh Corb. Our time in Stuttgart also happened to be Easter weekend, and during our "layover" in Frankfurt we saw a big parade for Good Friday -- a parade without all the craziness and celebration though. It really just seemed like a giant cross leading a bunch of robots. Did not look like much fun. And on Easter Sunday we went to mass with Marc's aunt and her family, which was actually fun. Even though I couldn't understand a word they were saying, just being there was nice and the music was beautiful. Even without knowing what the words mean, music to me is still a universal language. 

Appendix: Eurrail. While Eurrail was very helpful, it was also sometimes a pain. From Budapest to Prague we had to pay an extra fee because the train we needed to take went through Slovakia, in the middle of the night, and that country was not on our ticket. The last leg of the trip, getting back to Rome, was also not so fun. We went from Stuttgart to Munich, then Munich to some small city in northern Italy. And from there to Rome we weren't able to reserve seats ahead of time and the train was full, so we had to wait for a train that went overnight to Rome, which added on another fee, and we got into Rome at about 5 am and had class at 9 am. Even though that part was kind of a mess, I still wouldn't trade it for anything. Eastern Europe, I miss you and your wonderful exchange rates.

final week of real classes.

Our schedule here is pretty amazing. Two weeks of classes, one week of travel, two weeks of classes, etc. This week was our last week of classes. Now it's just Spring Break and design. Unfortunately something went funny with the schedule and our history final is after Spring Break -- kind of a downer, but I don't really care right now because I'm leaving for Vienna tomorrrow! 

This week was pretty good -- we had our last two walks for history, one that included the beautiful Villa Torlonia and another to Garbatella. Villa Torlonia is a 19th century villa that was also the home of Mussolini and his family. There was an adorable cottage on the property that is now a stained glass museum -- some of the most beautiful stained glass I have ever seen. It was nice to be able to look at the glass and have a few minutes break from everything architecture. Garbatella was also a nice change. Also from Mussolini's reign, it was built as Mussolini was tearing apart Rome and people were moving out of the city center. A wonderful, idyllic, garden neighborhood.

I also had my Italian exam this morning, and it was even easier than expected. I've never understood how people have trouble in foreign language classes. I've always found them very easy. Now I need to finish packing for my amazing Eastern Europe tour. Ciao!

begin scene of nostalgia.

After Venice I had a decently hectic week. Kate was in town so I had to juggle schoolwork and finding time to hang out with her. Mostly she wandered around on her own while I was in class, which she is used to because she is quite the traveller. I did accompany her to the Pantheon, unfortunately just too late in the day and we missed the sun, Trevi Fountain, and attempted to at the Vatican. We didn't end up finding each other there, but that was cool with me cause I really just wanted to get home and work on studio. We also made some pretty delicious Italian dinners throughout the week after going to the open air market Monday morning and doing all the shopping for it. Kate left yesterday morning very early, and I left a couple of hours after her for a class trip to Fabriano.

This trip was our last here, not including Spring Break, and was technically for Italian class. It was a lot of fun. Fabriano has been famous for paper making for hundreds of years, and we got to make our own paper. We had lunch in this amazing little restaurant, a kind of artsy store and restaurant fusion. The food was delicious and we had this salad with barley and carrots and peas and it was amazing. The second I tasted it I could imagine myself eating an entire bowl of it on a hot summer day. It was perfect, and I'm going to figure out how to make it. The part of our day yesterday that was by far the best was on our way out of Fabriano where we stopped in a couple of parks with playgrounds. Some people took turns on the see-saw, and most everyone took at least one turn on the zip line. I was taking pictures of it all and got some priceless photos. It was such a relaxing day, and we were able to forget about school and reality for a little while and just be kids again. It was great. I think we all miss those days sometimes.

Today we made our way back to Rome with stops in a couple of towns. The first place we saw a gorgeous cave. It's amazing what nature can produce. That took longer than expected, so we switched up our itinerary and went straight to our final stop in Spoleto. It was raining and I didn't have my umbrella, but it wasn't cold so I was fine with it. We saw a former papal fortress that was converted into a prison until the 1980s, and got to go across this beautiful medieval bridge over the valley between the mountains. The view was breathtaking, and all I could really think about was how much I want to go back to Ruidoso as soon as possible. I can never get enough of that place.

On Friday night or Saturday morning, I have yet to figure out which, I will be heading off to Budapest to kick off Spring Break. I am very excited, but I just have to get through my Italian final on Friday first. It should be fairly easy considering I've got A's on every quiz in that class. Now it's time to get some homework done. Not the best way to end a relaxing weekend, but it's gotta be done. Only 5 more weeks!

waterworld in real life.

This past week was my class trip to the Veneto region. After returning home from Barcelona, I worked all day Sunday and through the night into Monday morning to do my final project for theory. Tuesday morning we caught a train to Verona.

Verona was quaint and cute, although rather expensive. We were told that the Veneto region was home to a more wealthy class of people, and that definitely showed. Verona did, however, offer very good fruit cups for only 2.50 euro. First we saw the Castelvecchio, a museum whose exhibit I could tell you nothing about. Our purpose for being there was to look at the modern installments by Carlo Scarpa, and architect who would dominate our trip. It was interesting, and some people were fascinated by the questionable architectural moments, but it didn't particularly peak my interest. We also went to a photography exhibit, and that I loved. It made me kind of sad that I don't have my SLR with me here, although since it's manual that would cost me so much money. One day I need to invest in a digital SLR so I can more easily experiment with photography.

On our way from Verona to Venice we made three stops. First was at Le Bolle (The Bubbles) by Fuksas. This project is a meeting and laboratory space for a grappa distillery. From the outside I found the building to be a bit ugly, but from the inside it was absolutely amazing. I particularly enjoyed the diagonal elevator. It felt like we were in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Our second stop was another Scarpa intervention, but this time at a cemetery. I do not like cemeteries, but this one wasn't so bad. I was still not overly impressed by Scarpa's work, for some reason it just wasn't my cup of tea. My favorite part of the day was our final pit stop at the Villa Emo by Andrea Palladio. Of all the classical architects Palladio is my favorite, and although I didn't get to see my favorite Palladian Villa, the Villa Barbaro, I still enjoyed seeing one of his works outside of my history books. 

Venice was very relaxing. You are always by water and that was a nice feeling. It was amusing how dependent they are on their canals -- even garbage trucks and DHL trucks are boats there. They gave us more free time instead of walking, walking, walking all day, but I found out why. There's really not very much to see in Venice. It really only deserves two days out of your life, after that it's almost a waste. We arrived in Venice Wednesday night, and I decided to stay through the weekend. Kate flew into Venice on Friday and she's back in Rome with me now on her Spring break. I now realize that staying in Venice through the weekend was quite possibly not worth the extra money spent for it, but it was fun and it was good for Kate because it was finally a city that her dad had not been to before.

Yesterday it was back to classes and reality. We only have five weeks left in Italy. I'm not sad that I'm going "home" soon, I just don't understand how we're going to finish our design projects in such a short amount of time. Although after Spring break we have two weeks solely devoted to design, so I'm sure it will all come together. Now I need to get to some design work, however I am finding myself somewhat uninspired by this project. A lot of people really enjoyed all the Scarpa work we saw on our Veneto trip and are now decently enthusiastic about our design project. I was not so mesmerized, and am still not very motivated, but hopefully something will come to me.

head over heels in love.

Best weekend of my life. Last week was pretty busy as I had a midcrit in studio. It continued to be busy because today we had our final theory project due -- which I pulled an all-nighter to finish. So I'm currently waiting for our trip prep for Venice, went on a 2-hour walk this morning to a few churches -- it was supposed to be 3 hours but our professor decided to give us a break since we were all basically falling asleep while standing up. So nap after class, then it's off to Venice first thing in the morning.

Now about the weekend. I went to Barcelona and it was absolutely amazing. We knew some of the things we definitely wanted to see, so we just took a map with us and basically walked the entire city -- eventually getting to our destinations and seeing so much stuff along the way. That, in my opinion, is the only way to explore a city. The receptionist at our hostel told us which metro to take to get places, but why would anyone want to do that? In a new and beautiful city it's such a waste to go from stop to stop underground where you can't experience the city for yourself. That's the one thing I love about all cities -- you can walk everywhere. Technically I could walk to some places at home too, really only the CVS down the street, but a city is so much more adventurous. I do love living in the suburbs, but I also have a great love for the city, as long as it's not NYC. Maybe I haven't experienced NYC the right way yet, but out of the few times I've been there I'm not impressed.

Barcelona, on the other hand, I could stay there forever. It's probably as big as NYC, laid out on a grid pattern which makes it really easy to get around, but there's a completely different feeling about Barcelona. There aren't many highrises, only a few in one district. And everywhere I went there I felt like I was in a completely different place. From the main part of the city to the gardens to the sea -- all just so beautiful. I did not want to leave, and I do want to go back. I'm thinking about looking into doing grad school there -- there's one program I found that's only 2 semesters and probably about a quarter of the cost of Northeastern. I will definitely be doing some intense research during my downtime this week.

Besides going to places such as Sagrada Familia, La Ramba, Casa Mila, and the Barcelona Pavilion, we used part of our day and took a little vacation at the Barcelona Zoo. It was 16 euro, a bit expensive, but so worth it. Barcelona was a vacation in itself, but what we did most of the time there and what we do all the time here is look at buildings. It was nice to forget about the buildings for a few hours and check out the kangaroos and zebras and monkeys and meerkats. It was a very refreshing day, and a great addition to a great weekend.

Tomorrow morning it's off to Venice. Hopefully the weather will be nice!

a new approach to this blog situation.

As a way to remember the more detailed information about my time here and to generally keep up better with my blog, I am going to try and do shorter, more frequent posts as things occur. As a part of my one credit Italian culture course, we watch about a total of 5 movies and have one cooking class. The first movie we watched was Amarcord, then the second film I missed because I wasn't feeling well. The third film was entitled Mio Fratello e Figlio Unico, and the most recent film was La Vita e Bella (Life is Beautiful, which many people had already seen). Amarcord was very different, even for my taste, and the other two I saw were very good films. There's still one more left, and I'm quite excited for it, and I think I'm going to ask Claudia (my Italian professor) if I can borrow the one that I missed.

Last night I had my cooking class. It was amazingly delicious, and surprisingly very simple to make. Yesterday afternoon we went to the market to buy all of the ingredients, and she read off everything we needed as we wrote it down so we could ask for the items and do everything ourselves. Somehow I ended up at the counter most of the time, so I did practically all the talking, in Italian. It was a little bit difficult, and sometimes the shop guy couldn't hear me or I put the emphasis on the wrong syllable, but it all worked out and I felt very proud of myself.

For dinner we made lasagna with a meat sauce, parmesan and mozzerella cheese. It was delicious -- especially since there was no ricotta cheese like traditional lasagna. I am in no way a fan of ricotta cheese. Our second course was mortadella, a kind of ham or bologna, wrapped in veal and cooked in tomato sauce, and Roman broccoli on the side. One of the most delicious meals I've ever had. And the best part, dessert, was a strawberry tiramisu. It didn't have cocoa or coffee like traditional tiramisu, it instead was made with lady fingers soaked in pineapple juice, had a kind of strawberry cream/puree, and topped with homemade whipped cream and fresh strawberries. We get to keep all of the recipes, so I will definitely be attempting them again in the future.

procrastination has gotten the best of me.

Although I have not fallen behind nearly as much as many of the students here in Rome, I realize that I have not been very punctual about keeping up with my blog. I feel like the pace of everything here has been much slower than I am used to, and because of that I've been having more time where it seems I don't have much school work to do so I just sit on the internet or watch a movie. I really need to find post-it notes, although I have yet to stumble across them in this country, and put them on my wall reminding me of all the little things that still need to be done. Those things, such as updating my blog, starting my digital portfolio, doing some reading, etc., never come to mind when I have "nothing" to do. I do have paper and tape, however. Even though we're not supposed to put anything on our walls because they're a few hundred years old I think I'm going to start my things to do notes on my wall, with tape, since I've already broken that rule anyways with my pictures from Martha and Dane.

Now for a recap of the past week or so. Naples was gorgeous as everyone might imagine. The vast countryside of hills and villas was one of the most picturesque things I've ever seen, but I have to say I'm not that eager to go back anytime soon. Siena and Florence were wonderful cities, but fairly small and very touristy. I still can't imagine actually living here forever, as many people here have said they would have no problem doing. I much prefer living in a culturally diverse country, and this preference stems mostly from food. I was discussing this last night with a friend as we were eating at a Chinese restaurant. I love being in Italy and having great Italian food, but I'm so excited to go to Barcelona and have Spanish food, and go everywhere else and have other kinds of food. I could never live off pasta and bread, even though back home I've probably said I could many times. Actually being in a place where that's true, I have definitely changed my mind. I will definitely be glad to be back in the states where I can have any kind of food I want. I also miss the atmosphere back home. Here in Italy you always have to go out to a pub or a discoteca to hang out and have fun. That's just not what I like to do. I'd much rather hang out at home or a friend's house with a small group of people and just have a good time. No massive amounts of creepy Italians, no dancing, no worrying about how you're going to get home.

Now I need to get some work done since I now have an extra three hours. I got up this morning at 7:30, showered and got ready, all to find that our walk today has been cancelled. I'm glad I am up and ready, however, because if I had found out about the walk last night like everyone else, I would have slept in today and not been able to get as much done as I can now. This will definitely help my whole procrastination issue.

Ciao! (And I will be posting again very soon...)

just your average week.

Unfortunately nothing too exciting has happened since I returned from Sicily. Instead of having Theory we have had History of Roman Urbanism for the past two weeks, and just as all history courses in the past I am not very interested in it our excited about it. The walks we had for the class were semi-interesting. They seemed very redundant though, because they all revolved around churches, and now we've seen so many I feel like they are all starting to look the same.

This weekend I celebrated my 21st birthday. We went out to a club, which was fun, just not my kind of scene. Give me a small bar and a pool table and I'm set. That's one thing that I've noticed more since I've been here -- most of the other students, besides getting school work done, only care about going out and partying. I really don't understand that typical college lifestyle. It was great to get all the birthday cards too, and it also made me miss home more.

I almost can't believe we've already been here for almost two months. The longer I'm here the more used to it I am and the more I love it here, but I am still very excited to go back to the States. A lot of people here talk about how they wouldn't mind just staying and living here, and that is not something I would really ever want to do. I would love to have a vacation home or something outside of the U.S., or just the opportunity to vacation here on occasion, but I enjoy permanently residing in the States better. It's most likely partially due to the fact that I am comfortable there, and feel at home there, but also there's so many places in America that I still want to see or simply continue to see on a regular basis.

Next week we are going to the Tuscany region, which I am very excited about. I opted to come back to Rome when the trip ends on Friday rather than stay the weekend, mainly just to save some money. The trip to Sicily after our visit to the Campania region ended up costing more than I had expected, and I am definitely staying after Venice because Kate is meeting me there that weekend and I cannot go to that region without seeing the Palladian Villas. If there's one thing I have to see in Italy before I leave, the Palladian Villas are it.

I need to get some homework done now, but I will update again as soon as I get back from Tuscany. Ciao!

is it time for the next break yet?

This past week was amazing and unforgettable. On Tuesday morning we boarded the bus for Campania, a region in Southern Italy, and I had no idea what kind of experience was ahead of me. 

Our first stop was in Paestum. We stayed at an adorable little beach front hotel, even though it was far too cold to actually use the beach. Paestum was almost indescribable. The temples were massive, bigger than I ever really imagined. I can't seem to wrap my head around such buildings -- so long ago, with so little technology, people spent so many years on intricate and monumental structures. I guess it baffles me to think a culture was ever like that. Nowadays we build things to last maybe 20 years, and we update styles. Back in ancient times they built for longevity. On a side note, I did the touristy thing while we were at Paestum and bought a really pretty glass pendant and indulged in pistachio gelato. That night, after our visit to the site, I learned a new card game. I can't remember the name of it because it was Italian, but basically it's like Hand and Foot, except you play in teams and the scoring is different. There were a couple other differences, but not very big ones, and my team won by a ridiculous amount of points. 

The next day we went to Herculaneum (aka Ercolano). This time we got to stay in a really nice hotel, complete with gardens and jacuzzi tubs and balconies that overlooked the sea. The actual site of Herculaneum was unbelievable. An entire town excavated from the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius all the way back in year 79! It's crazy to think how much the city around it has built up when Mt. Vesuvius is still there and could definitely erupt again and destroy the entire city (even though it hasn't erupted since about 1200). Thinking about natural disasters like a hurricane or earthquake is scary, but a volcano? Just because of the temperature and chemical makeup of the fumes, once you breathe it in you can literally disintegrate. I'm very glad I don't live near a volcano.

Our final day was around Naples, visiting quite a few sites: Oplontis, Cuma, Piscina Mirabilis, Sulfatara Volcano. Oplontis was okay, but I really wasn't too inspired by it. Cuma is a cave where supposedly a prophet sat and you could go hear a prophecy. Piscina Mirabilis was basically an underground water basin, so it was dark and damp and moldy. And Sulfatara was full of clouds of sulfur and did not smell very good. That was a tiring day--most of our time was spent on the bus and we only saw each site for 30 minutes to an hour. Our trip ended in Naples, and from there some classmates and I made our way to Sicily.

We took an overnight "ferry", which to me seemed more like a cruise ship, although that observation is not made from experience. It wasn't as fun as we thought it was going to be -- the rocking of the boat really just made us all tired and there weren't any other people our age on the boat. It was still a fun experience though. We docked in Palermo, Sicily at about 6:45 am and made our way to our hostel. It was really more like a bed and breakfast than a standard hostel. It was really cute and colorful. We couldn't check into our rooms until noon so we left out bags and spent the day around Palermo. Our first main stop was the Catacombs, something I will never do again. I wasn't really sure what it was going to be like, and it was only 1 euro 50, so I decided to check it out with everyone else. Considering I don't even like cemeteries, I have no idea why I thought the Catacombs would be okay. Hundreds of skeletons, all still dressed and some still with hair, like 6 inches from my face. Never again.

After that we took the bus up to Duomo Monreale, an absolutely gorgeous church. I wish I had the patience and talent to make such beautiful and detailed mosaics. Words can't even describe. We were so tired from traveling that we took our own little siesta after that -- napped, showered, and got ready for a night in Palermo. We found a great little bar that was decently cheap and perfect to start the night. They didn't know how to make some drinks, so we had to tell them. Now they know yummy drinks for future American students. Overall it was a very fun night and I will never forget my one night in Sicily. On the final day, Sunday, our flight didn't leave until 9:40 pm. That turned out to be a drag because on Sunday, Palermo turns into a ghost town. EVERYTHING closes. I honestly don't understand how an entire city can just shut down. In America the weekend is when everything is open cause that's the day for errands. Not in Palermo.

Now that our first trip is over, I unfortunately have to get back into school mode. I am really excited for the rest of our trips, partially to see more of Italy and partially because it's a little break where we don't have to worry about homework or class. And now it's back to homework...

Ciao!

and now my life is almost complete.

This week has been the most stressful so far. Not because of one specific thing, necessarily, but a culmination of a couple things. My bank account situation got worse, and in waiting for my new ATM card (which I finally got today) I had no cash. And for those of you that aren't aware, a lot of places in Italy are cash only. So no cash led mainly to skipping lunch or spending more money than normal on lunch cause I would have to go to the grocery store to use my credit card. But mostly skipping lunch, which probably wasn't very good for me. 

We also had our first real project for studio this week. It was site analysis, and the process of finding out information was pretty easy, but when it came down to actually putting a presentation together I was not the happiest person. One of the main reasons I don't like working in groups is that for me to do my part I have to wait on someone else to finish their part, and when it's 9:30 pm the night before it's due... I think it's obvious how irritating it is. And they wait to tell me that they couldn't open one of the files I sent them to continue working on until 20 minutes before it was due, so that part didn't get finished. Groups are unreliable and more of a hassle than a help most of the time. 

Now let's get to the good parts of the week... Our walks this week were two museums, the Centrale Montemartini and the Ara Pacis Museum. Both were very cool. Montemartini is an old power plant that was converted into a museum, so the statues are placed throughout the building in front of all the case iron engines and boilers, etc. It seems strange, which it kind of is, but the contrast between color and style and material is very intriguing. The Ara Pacis Museum is a modern building by architect Richard Meier, and it basically acts as a display case to house one artifact -- the Ara Pacis -- the funerary altar of Augustus. It's a beautiful building. Basically all glass, you can see right through the museum so you can still see the city. There is, however, a lot of controversy around the building because many people are still unsure of whether or not a historic city such as Rome can welcome modern architecture. As long as you're not compromising the historic fabric of the city, I don't see why some modern buildings can't exist. They should still somehow speak to the city though, as does the Ara Pacis Museum, in my opinion.

Besides having a load of homework to do this weekend, one event made this weekend amazing despite everything else. I went to my first professional, and foreign, soccer game. It was Lazio (one of Rome's teams) and Milan, and the fans were definitely as into it as I had heard about. Unfortunately the fans we were sitting by were all into it in the angrier sense of the game -- Lazio lost. I didn't really care who won though since I don't know enough about professional soccer to really pick a team. I definitely didn't mind watching Milan win, especially when one of the assists was made by David Beckham. I wish I had been like twenty feet closer, but either way, David Beckham was right there!! It was amazing, and my life is officially one step closer to being complete. Haha.

My next post should be full of interesting things. We're leaving at seven am tomorrow for the Campania region to see the Naples area -- Paestum, Herculaneum, and a couple other sites including a volcano. Our class trip officially ends on Friday afternoon, and from there a bunch of my classmates and I are taking an overnight ferry to Sicily. We'll stay there for the weekend and fly back to Rome Sunday night. It will definitely be an amazing week, especially with no classes to worry about!

Ciao!

week three and counting...

What a hectic week it has been. Two days a week we have three-hour walks to yet another amazing site in the city -- all of which so far have been within fifteen minutes from my apartment. We went to see Michaelangelo's Campidoglio, which unlike everything else we've seen so far, was actually smaller than I imagined. It's still a great urban space, just not quite as shocking as some of the other places I've seen since I've been here. For this site we focused on strategic urban planning and looked at edges, axes, datum, foci, etc. It gets very interesting when you start picking a place like the Campidoglio apart and noticing how it's not an ideal space -- certain things are offset to create a more complex space.

Our second walk that same day was to the Pantheon. We had already been there before to sketch, but it's still breathtaking every time you walk in. From the exterior you can barely tell there's a dome, and when you walk inside you feel as if you just shrunk to a very tiny person. It's all very inspiring.

Our second day of walks was to Piazza Santa Maria in Trastevere and a few places right on the other side of the river including the Arch of Janus and a now church that used to be three temples that I can't remember the name of right now. Piazza S. Maria in Trastevere is in the same area as my apartment, and we went there to start a drawing assignment on it. It was actually kind of fun -- we had to measure our paces and hands, etc. so while we were there we could measure things without a ruler or tape measure handy. It is similar to the Campidoglio in that there are certain aspects about it that don't line up and you would expect to line up. There isn't much of an attempt to make it seem like a regular space, however, so it's more obvious that things won't be exact. The temples were interesting. We got to go underground to the old infrastructure of the temples. It was kind of creepy though -- there were some bones down there.

Besides that, Italian has been going well. It's a fun class and good to balance out the architecture load. Unfortunately other things have not been going so well -- besides petty things like my hair dryer frying and I think my straightener may have died too, even though I used it with the proper converter, my bank account basically got hacked into. It's a total mess, and the normal way to work everything out would be to go into a branch because there's a bunch of things I would need to sign and I'm the only person on my account. Since I'm in Italy, it's all very tedious and difficult and not something that's easy to deal with when I'm still adapting to a completely new culture. It's a lot to take in, but it will all work out soon and everything will be great. 

Now I must continue my homework since it's now Sunday afternoon and my Saturday wasn't quite as productive as planned. One other quick thing -- in about a week and a half we have our first travel study to the Campania region (southern Italy) that ends on a Friday afternoon, and after that for the weekend there's a bunch of us going to Sicily. I'm quite excited!

Ciao!

is the vacation over yet?

One week down and about fifteen more to go. I still can't believe I'm actually here! The first week was full of long walks and tours around the city and the whole time it felt like a short vacation -- once the week ended it would be time to go home. Actually living in Rome is such a surreal experience. Leading up to this amazing experience we were told about culture shock and how it would most likely be emotionally difficult to get used to such a different world, and when I got here I seemed fine. I still am fine, but there's little things that make me feel better about being so far way from reality. For example, even though I wasn't necessarily feeling homesick or anything, I found a comforter for my bed that looks almost exactly like the one I have at home, and it just made me feel a little bit better. That was nice.

It's also been a very different experience being with all the architecture kids just about twenty-four/seven. Back at home we all have classes together but generally have other social lives, but in Rome we're together for everything. It's actually kind of nice though -- I'm getting to know all these people I've technically known for almost three years now but really didn't know anything about them before this. 

The walks we took this week were absolutely amazing. The first one was to Palatine Hill, the Forum and the Colosseum. It was so crazy seeing the Colosseum first hand. I was in complete awe at how big it actually is -- pictures just don't do it justice, as most of the things in Rome I have discovered. The second walk was to Tiber Island and through the Jewish Ghetto. Although none of the things we saw along there are exactly textbook buildings that everyone knows about, they were very interesting. It seems like almost every time you turn there's another piazza or ruin or simply something you'll never find in the States. We also saw the Pantheon after that walk, and unfortunately it had stopped raining by the time we got there. In pictures and even from the exterior it seems like just a decent size, but once you go in it's simply breathtaking. I honestly can't comprehend how people spent so much time or had the patience to make such great monuments when the world was much less technologically dependent. The last walk was to the Piazza di Popolo and back towards the Spanish Steps. 

Once my feet and legs were about as sore as they have ever been, we finally got to have our formal welcome dinner. I was very excited for the seafood menu they had planned for us -- that is until I found out what exactly they meant by seafood. The way Italians eat seafood is very different than the way Americans eat seafood. The "salad" portion of the meal was some seafood patte, with some spinach cake looking thing, and a little seafood salad of squid and octopus and I'm not even sure what else. The second course was some kind of cheese and artichoke lasagna, which for some reason I wasn't a fan of either -- I think maybe it was because I still had the foul smell of the first dish on my mind. It also had a pasta with it -- which also had squid and octopus and whatever else in it. The third course was a tuna steak and actual salad, which was delicious, followed by a chocolate muffin with a cream on top that was absolutely delicious.

I will post again soon, but now I have to get back to some homework so I can get to bed at a decent hour. 

Ciao!

travel day.

I woke up this morning at four o'clock to start my long journey to Italy. It seems like yesterday when Italy was a distant thought, something I had months to prepare for. This day came very quickly and unfortunately am aware that my time in Italy will go by far too fast.

My whole experience leading up to today was new, exciting, sad, and overall a total whirlwind. I have never traveled outside of the country before, so that in itself was very intriguing. Then going through the process of getting everything prepared -- my passport, visa, documents, packing four months worth of stuff into two suitcases -- was hectic, a lot of checking and rechecking. However, I know it will all be worth it, and the craziness of preparing was nothing compared to what is now less than twenty-four hours away.

I am sad to leave home but so thrilled to be embarking on something new and unforgettable. This will be one more mile marker in my life, and I hope to have many more. I will miss all of my friends and family greatly, but it won't be long until I'm back and hopefully with a multitude of amazing stories to tell.

Five more hours in the Logan Airport and I will be on my way to Roma via Frankfurt. Arrivederci!