Presentations are over! We had a free day today since our workshop is finished. So last night was a relief. Therefore, we stayed up til 4 am or something rediculous hanging out at a piazza then trekking up a hill to see the city at night. We might as well have just waited for sunrise. Today we were SO lazy. I got a kebob for lunch. Don't be fooled- not steak and veggies on a skewer.. more like a gyro wrap with lamb. We discovered a store that sells coca cola for cheap. That was exciting. We met with AU, ARK, and Philly professors tonight for comments about our projects. They seemed to like and enjoy everyones work. So that was encouraging. Had Chinese food again tonight.. SO good. We needa little variety every now and then. The Chinese restuarant definitely has that. Tomorrow, we're going to Subiaco and Cervara .. hill towns 1.5 hours away. I'm excited. If they are anything like Cortona, I'm sure I'll love it. Only problem- possible rain. Not good. Hopefully we won't get poured on. Cross your fingers. More stories to come soon!
Ciao!

A few great things have happened recently:
Made new friends from Arkansas
Created the best sandwich ever
Ate Chinese food with our professor and his partner
Finally painted my fingernails

Sounds simple, but if you only knew....
We've been working on the group project this week. It's going ok, yet I'm nervous about some things still. Even though I usually like group work, this project has been kinda challenging. I think it's because I took a secondary role in the team. Everyone couldn't be the leader, so I decided to listen and offer help when needed. Hopefully everything will turn out fine!

We've had a long day of drawing, italian, workshop, lectures, dinner, hang out..
It scares me how fast this is going by! I don't want to leave. I feel like there's so much to do and see here that you could be here for a year and not see it all.
Bedtime for bonzo.

Somehow it's almost 9 o'clock here. I don't know where today went. It started at Santa Maria in Trastevere, where we sketched all morning. It was cold, overcast, and rainy today. We've been spoiled with good weather, so today was a bummer for us. I had lunch on the go- a bizarre sandwich I made- thinking I was late for class. John had checked his watch and was for sure that we were late, yet still we snaked through trastevere on the longest route possible to studio. We got there and nobody else was inside. Confused, I made John check his watch again. We were 30 minutes early. Figures. Italian class started.. and by the minute I was more and more confused/tired. None of us understand it very well and get pretty frustrated about that sometimes. After that class, we got together with our mixed school groups to start our workshop project- creating a new entrance to Trajan's Forum. Our group got a good start, and hopefully we will be able to work quickly. I'm in a group with all girls, and so far everything's gone smoothly and should be great. We only have a few days for this project, so it's going to be some fast designing. Overview: We're connecting the proposed metro station with an underground entrance for the forum, providng interesting views to the layers of Rome. We finished early, so we went for a cheap cappuccino. Mm. Nicole and I walked home, beating the rain/hail storm. I'm so tired today, so as soon as I get pictures uploaded, take a shower, and look up a couple things for studio, I'm hitting the sack. Hope everyone has a good day!
Momma- give that little angel baby cat a big kiss for me. I really missed her today. :(
Bouna Notte!

This blog might be a novel.. so enjoy!
We had a long weekend (thursday - sunday off). Everyone split up into small groups to travel. Brittany and I decided to take on 3 cities in Tuscany in 4 days: Cortona, Siena, and Florence. We woke up at 5:30 am to catch a train on Thursday morning. Confused and searching around the station, realized it had left early.. missed it. We had to wait 2 more hours for the next one to leave. Miserably sitting at the station, grabbed comfort food in McDonalds hashbrowns to drown our sorrows. Oh, and then had to pay to use the bathroom. Yeah. Stazione Termini is NOT our favorite. Anway, we got the next train, rode it to Camucia, a smal town outside and down the mountain from Cortona. We wandered around with our 40 lb backpacks andpurses filled to the max. (yes, everyone- i lived out of a backpack for 4 days.) We aimlessly toured the small town, looking obviously like students from america. We found a little bakery, and an older woman who owned it took an interest in us.. she didn't speak much english, so we tried to communicate through the little common language we knew. "Studio architectura en Roma" seems to work well. She was sweet. Mom- this was the first place I noticed CHUPA CHUPS! my long lost candy dream! Tuscany loooved those things.
We backpacked to our hotel.. side of the road style. I had always wanted to do that, so I felt adventurous and hippie-ish. We walked for about 45 minutes, found the hotel- it was beautiful! Called Borgo Il Melone, it was nestled away from the road at the base of the mountain with gorgeous trees and neatly trimmed flowerbeds. Not all things were in bloom- I can only imagine how amazing it looks then. It was very nice, spacious, friendly workers, huge bathroom, excessive toiletries - we loved it. We caught a bus up the mountain to Cortona. One of the most beautiful places I've ever been, and my favorite town we visited this weekend. It was old yet modern, clean, steep .. everywhere you looked it was a postcard picture. We explored up the mountain for 3 hours, taking pics and discovering little hidden architectural treasures. Come to find out, UGA has an abroad campus there. Also, Under the Tuscan Sun was filmed there. It was quaint and precious. It rained some. We saw lightning from miles away over the mountains and the rain on other towns. The trip had been great up to this next situation: We went to dinner at a family owned ristuarante, and we were eating our porkchops when a piece of mine got caught in my throat. I tried to wash it down with a big gulp of water, but the water just came right back up and all over the place. It was one of the scariest things that's happened to me. Brit attempted to help me some.. and no one else in the room seemed to know what was happening or how to do the heimlich. I leaned over myself and eventually I was ok. Choking is awful. But I'm OK and alive! so yay!! We rode back down the mountain and settled back in the hotel.
Next day was COLD! It had snowed that night in Cortona. We tried to take pictures before our next train left, but it was bitter! Train to Siena involved a transfer. We got there, ran up the stairs, and watched it ride away into the abyss. Annoyed- freezing- confused. We waited for another hour and a half, and finally made it to Siena. BUT it was dark, we didn't know well where to go, and yes- still cold! We were staying at "B and B Hospitality" .. supposedly a nice hostel. Hmmmmm. We walked up 4 awful flights of stairs with our enormous backpacks, opened the door to a 2 bedroom unit with 2 bathrooms. Another italian lady was there. Awk. Good thing our toilet didn't really work, our tv didn't work, our keys were hard to use, and the other toilet was in the shower. YIKES! Bad luck.. I think so. We wandered around trying to find food.. both of us in annoyed moods because of the whole day. We ate. It wasn't that good. So we just decided to go to sleep. OH- and the B and B part (bed and breakfast) .. there was literally a bed.. and literally "breakfast" in the room (if you count individually wrapped croissants and toast and lukewarm milk in a box, breakfast). We got out of there the next morning pretty fast, explored Siena: went inside the Duormo and visted the main piazzas and bigger churches.
Next phase: on to Florence. We caught the trainnn!!! Made sure not to get tricked this time! After the ride through the hills, we made it to Florence. I was smart this time, and bought a pop out map that worked wonders. We figured out the city very well. Our hotel this time was a medium between the other 2. From luxury to poverty to comfortable. bizarre. Hotel Bavaria was quaint and simple. We shared a bathroom but had a sink in the room. We walked the city 3 times it felt like, touring some churches and taking pictures with the time we had. We went to the market and bargained a little. By 3 o'clock we were ready to go home, though.
We made the train, and rode back to Rome (about a 3.5 hour trip). It was a whirlwind weekend.. one to never be forgotten. I learned alot about public transportation, maps, to chew my food up better, reliance upon people, and probably to avoid sketchy hostels when possible.
This week we're having a workshop with students from Arkansas and Philadelphia U. I'm looking forward to it. It's nice to meet new people and hear their stories too. I know that was long blog- and still, it was the basics. Can't wait to show everyone pictures! Miss you all!
Ciao!

Ciao! I realize I've been an unreliable blogger. I'm sorry! I've been so busy. Well, here's the recap:


Sunday: Went to flea market that take up a few city blocks. It's pretty intense, yet some good buys are there- you just have to search. I bought some sunglasses. They're precious.
Went to the geniculum hill to take pictures and such with Jonathan. Saw the Tempietto. Decided to go to the Vatican. Got there at night... stunning. The scale of that church is bigger than you can even imagine.
Monday: Finished work on projects (Sixtus V plan and apt analysis)
Tuesday: Presentations. Everything went great. The projects were all interesting. Brittany's birthday! Cooked for her. Went to get gelatto.
Wednesday: Went to Ostia Antica (old Roman port town dating back to 300 BC or something unfathomable like that). It amazes me that materials like concrete, brick, stone can last that long. Went to Stazione Termini to get train tickets for this weekend. Success! Yet... got on the wrong bus back. Ended up out in the boonies. Had to regroup, turn around, resorted to Mickey D's french fries for comfort. Printed off info at studio. FINALLY made it home, packed, blogging, bed.... ZZzzz
Brit and I are going to Cortona, Siena, and Florence this weekend!! So excited! Can't wait to tell you all about it. I have to wake up at 5:30... so goodbye.

Well. I did it. Today I broke down and got McDonalds for dinner. I mean, when you see the golden arches staring you in the face every day, it's hard to stay strong. I figured the arch derived from Roman architecture, therefore it's only logical to assume the golden arches are a distant relative of the classic architectural feat, making it "A - OK" to devour hot Fries. Nugs. Coca cola classic over ice. Mmmmmm! There is no ice here, and I'm not ok with that. That was the first coke with ice in over a week.. and it was glorious. Zach and I were a little bit too excited to dine in there after working at studio all day. We've been making a map that is freakin' awesome. We're using watercolors, acetone transfers, ink, pencils .. It's like a treasure map! (everyone knows I LOVE treasure maps- i.e. "the goonies" and "national treasure") Please try to contain your excitement while reading this.

Some crazy things seen this weekend:
-Large, unkempt, homeless man with no pants on sitting on the sidewalk with a jar set out for monitary donations. Hmmmm, not real sure what he was trying to promote for $$ - the fact that he, indeed, had no pants on orrrrr ... yeh thats just nasty.
-Another freaky homeless "one man band" guy. Complete with accordian, honky horns, clacking things, a bizarre bird nose (?), little bells, and a string puppet. BIZARRE.
-British/Welsch men that rudely hit on us at the pub. Claimed he was from California yet had a strong accent. hmmm? His name was Stuart. He touched my face, and it was awkward.

Hopefully going to the crazy bargain markets tomorrow.
Mommy, will search for your pagmina.
Rob, will keep an eye out for anything relating to Sparta. ?
Patrick, will send you home a small cat.
Keeks, jewelry is everywhere here. Enough said.

Ok, I'm out. Time to sleep on my really comfy foam bed. I miss my bed and my assortment of pillows.
Ciao.

Today was less eventful: no getting lost. no hiking 2000 miles. no visiting major works of architecture. no exploring.
We went to studio, talk to our professors about our idea (which went well), went to a pizza bar, went to the ART STORE! (got some brushes and paints! whoop whoop!!), went home, took a fabulous nap, then did another 'tour of homes' at the rest of our class' apartments. I came up with the brilliant idea to play "2 truths and a lie" today at progressive home tour. It was fun- a new way to learn tidbits of info about the people in our rome class. We have cooked in for 2 nights in a row. Last night - C made chicken french. SO GOOD. Tonight, had the guys over for a payback, chicken pesto dinner. We should just open up a little ristuarante! Tomorrow we'll work on our presentations, then it's TRAN's BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION! everyone's excited. This is our first weekend in Rome where we actually know what we're doing. Should be a lot of fun. Well, time for beddy by.

OH.. forgot to say. Had my first encounter with a mi mi (cat) today. It was black and skinny.
:( we wanted to keep it. poor baby. anyway, miss that little dora bell!!!

The art of getting lost...
Get onto bus that leads to Santa Maria Maggiore. Easy enough.
Analyze and do field studies revolving around the basilica and the axes that run off of it.
Take pictures and talk about group presentation and information.
Get onto random bus number 360 that one of us "thinks" will take us back towards our part of town.
Wrong.
Ride due north when needing to go due south, yet not sure of that at the time.
Keep riding.
Keep riding.
Discover something is very wrong.
Get off of bus at undistinguished bus stop.
Busdriver very annoyed.
Go to tram stop.
Get onto Number 3 tram.
Ride around, retracing where we just came from.
1 hour 20 minutes later, arrive at designated bus stop.

It was insane. Got to see a lot of the city that I had not experienced yet. However, it wasn't exactly the most enjoyable site seeing tour on the crazy tram.

Good parts of the day- got THE BEST pizza. (Rob, it was like the perfect tostinos pizza in a sandwich-esque form. except better. and authentic. and fresh.) Came up with some pretty cool ideas for our group presentation. Discovered new things and formed a new theory relating to Santa Maria Maggiore's Sistine Chapel where Pope Sixtus V is buried: Connection of the old center of Rome with the new center of Rome (Sixtus's vision).

We had a "tour of homes" tonight, if you will, at the girls apartments. We had bread, wine, fruit, crackers, and nutella. For anyone deprived of this delicacy, it is a yummy chocolate/hazelnut/peanut butter ish spread that is good on basically anything. Highly recommened and commonly seen at any sandwich/pastry/gelatto store in Rome. Love it.

Bedtime for Bonzo.
Ciao.

Lessons learned while in the city today:
The tram and bus take a lot longer than you think they should take to get anywhere. We walked as a group to the tram stop, waited for a while, crammed into one of the cars thinking everybody was on, realized some people got left, they caught up; got on a bus, smushed. made it to the Spanish Steps! This area is a major city planning feat created by Sixtus V. Important roads cross perpindicularly, and you can see all the way down the streets to spaces marked by obelisks and such. (This is also the area where all the major designer stores are. Keri Sweatt- you would have flipped)
Things are farther away than they look. While walking to studio desination, I noticed that just because you can see a building/monument doesnt necessarily mean it's close. I'm pretty sure we walked 20 miles today. My little legs were struggling. I better be in good shape when i get back home!
Art stores will continue to fascinate me. We found an amazing one near our apt today that has soooo much stuff. J&M x 10,000. It's so neat.. I know I sound like a nerd, but I don't care. I found thousands of paint brushes and am looking forward to picking out a few.

We visited the Santa Maria Maggiore today. It was the church I had already done research on and had a presentation for, so it was awesome to get to see it in person. The mosaics and gold ceilings were .. I can't even describe how beautiful they were. It's truly unbelievable. We're going back tomorrow to do group research. I'm looking forward to exploring that part of the city more. I'll upload more picture soon. It's hard to upload here for some reason.
Goodnight!!

Today was first day of class! We had Italian language and studio. We started out with the basics: abc's and 123's, some simple/common phrases, common verbs.. for instance, "come ti chiami?" = what is your name? "come stai" = how are you? etc. We went to the open air market today in the piazza. There are vendors selling all kinds of fruits and veggies, meat, cheese, etc. We made a couple friends who at the cheese stand that told us we had beautiful eyes. Oldest trick in the book. We had to go to the supermarket discount store also for other things, ended up with some weird smelling laundry detergent.. not real sure how that's going to work. We went to find a coca cola classic between classes.. on the way, saw Roman roadkill- dead pigeon squashed into the cobblestones. GROSS. Anyway, studio consisted of us going over our projects for the week: creating our interpretation of Sixtus V's plan for Rome, and doing an analytical documentation of our apartment and how they meet the urban street. We're are in small groups, so that's sounds pretty fun. All of our projects are experiential and have something to do with the urban fabric of Rome, obviously, so we get to wander around the city a lot of the time basically. We had dinner tonight with the students from Arkansas (the program we are collaborating with) .. It was fun! Didn't get to meet all of them, but I'm sure I will soon. We had a 5 course meal! - fried vegatables (such as cauliflower, zucchini, onions), prosciutto (bread and ham-like meat), pasta with red sauce and eggplant, some kind of meat (not real sure what it was! tasted like beef), and tiramisu. Needless to say, we were stuffed. Tomorrow, we're meeting at the Spanish Steps to take a walk down the roads that Sixtus V implemented in his plan of Rome, leading to Santa Maria Maggiore (the church my group has already done a project on!) So that's exciting to actually see what I've already researched about before coming here. Going to bed now. Buona notte!!

Sunday afternoon couldn't have gotten much better. We met up with the guys at our piazza (Piazza S. Cosomati) then walked through town to the Colosseum. Today was some kind of National holiday dedicated to women. That was pretty neat. It was absolutely beautiful outside again today. Apparently, this kind of weather here now is somewhat rare. It was sunny and warm (63 degrees ish) and perfect for pictures again!! I can't wait to show everyone these pictures. On our walk we stopped so the guys could grab some pizza to go. Then we came acorss the Monument to Vittorio Emanuele II, the first king of the unified Italy. It is HUGE and white and very powerful in the city. Getting closer to the Colosseum, we realized that the entire road was blocked off, and tons of people were roaming the street. We passed by break dancers, wind pipe players, 5 person bands, "artists" who dress as egyptian mummies, statues, etc, mimes .. it was bizarre. On the street, we bumped into our professors. Imagine that. Then we proceeded to one of the most famous structures ever created on Earth. It was amazing. So huge and once again, just unable to be comprehended on how it was constructed in that time. We spent a good bit of time walking around and taking pictures. We ran into a lot of our classmates, then parted to go on to other things. Brittany, Cassandra, John, Eric, Allen, and I found a raised area of grass where people were sitting just outside of the Colosseum, so we decided to do the same. We took some pretty awesome pictures and enjoyed the day for a while there. Then we went on to walk the streets, exploring yet again by foot, the ways of Rome. We found the Trevi Fountain, got a small gelatto (those are going to be the death of me- they're SO GOOD), and meandered our way around until we recognized familiar roads. Exploring always leads to interesting places in Rome. There's never anything boring.. always architecture to see, people to watch, scooters to dodge, food to smell.. it's incredible. We came back home, took showers, then made it over to John and Allen's where they cooked an Italian meal for us! It was very good. We were proud of them. Well, that was my journey of the day. Tomorrow is the first day of real school, so I need to put my little sleeping mask on and hit the hay. Ciao!

Well, Rome was definitely not built in a day. Today we went to the Roman Forum: all of the extremely old ruins of social, political, and religious structures. We saw triumphal arches, old basilicas, gardens, courtyards, columns galore, grottos, the circus maximus, temples, baths, housing, old sculptures, etc. We ventured up the Palatine Hill, where we overlooked the forum below. Keep in mind that there are many layers of Rome. The most ancient ruins of Rome were excavated in the 1930s under Mussolini's efforts. So the levels of the city change. Romans built up: they covered the old and built on top of it. It's incredible. The elevation changes are truly hard to realize unless you see in in person. Everything here stuns me. From the architecture to the customs, to the markets, to the people, to the traffic .. it's so different than what we are used to. We walked, literally, for about 8 hours straight. I packed a pb&j, apple, and water for lunch. By about 3 oclock I was about to run out of steam. I felt like an old lady. My back and feet were killing me! It was all amazing, just exhausting to walk and listen and take pictures all day. It warmed up in the afternoon, not a cloud in the sky. Perfect for picture taking! We came back here, talked on the computers, then took a hard nap. Brit and I woke up, met friends in our piazza, then went in search for food and fun. We found a precious restuarant where we sat in a loft, looking over the rest of the place. Pasta + dessert.. yum! We then wandered around Trastevere (the area we are staying) and found the nightlife spots for sure. People EVERYWHERE. Dogs, scooters, lovers, mini-cars, restuarants, bars, little shops, smokers, cobblestone streets, music. It's all here. We had a great time! Too bad the clocks just changed and it's super late here right now. Not happy about that.

Observation/Thoughts of the day: I still can't fathom how the Romans built what they did when they did. They did things that I can't even imagine people doing today. It's SO much bigger when you're standing there in front of it. We toured structures dating back to around the 8th century B.C. I can't even believe that I saw that. The amount of detail and and largeness of scale is overwhelming. It's surreal.

Anyway, off to bed. Arrivederci Americanos.

Long day! Today, the same challenge of language barrier arose a few times. I was under the impression that most everyone spoke English. Not true. But, the ones that do are very helpful. Today we left the apartment with little knowledge of how in the world to find our studio across town. We decided to wait for the tram. Then figured out that we needed a ticket. Got a one way ticket for a euro, missed the tram, luckily another one came soon. We piled onto the tram, then a lady Roman Pennsylvanian was next to us and told us that we had to get our ticket stamped. AH! Never would have known. So that was only the beginning to our adventure. We found studio. SOMEHOW. I'm still not sure how we ended up there, but I'm ok with that. We toured that part of the city: Piazza Navona, S. Ivo, S. Agnosio, S. Agnese, Piazza di S. Ignazio, S. Ignazio, Temple to Hadrian, etc. It was very cool. We have seen all these places in tons of pictures with lectures, but it's 10 times better in person. We had a cappucino today before lunch.. the "Roman" trend. The coffee shops are calle BARS. No, no.. don't be fooled, no alcohol in these places.. only coffee. But there is a bar. You order, place your ticket on the bar, get your coffee, drink it there, and go. It's a cultural difference- coffee is not usually a hang out and chat sort of deal. We found lunch at a pizza place close to studio. It was good! and pretty cheap! I found an Italian waiter boyfriend. He kinda reminded me of the cheater in Unfaithful. He was kinda rude.. but I kinda liked it. Whatever. The people here get annoyed when you can't speak Italian. I WISH we knew more now. We're going to be learning it... but in the meantime, we feel like idiots. We met back as a group, toured the other studio nearby, then wandered around the city. We got a small gelatto (ice cream but better) and walked back to the apartment. We hung around here for a while, then everyone met in the adjacent piazza and went out to dinner to celebrate my belated birthday!!!! haha, I've had about 12 birthday parties already, but hey.. I was on a plane beside a Spanish girl who stole my window seat (bitter about that), in front of screaming rat children, eating fake lasagna, and not sleeping on my real birthday, so this was necessary. We have found that the "house wine" is most economic and enjoyable. Sorry mommy.. I'm 22. :) and there's no alcohol age here, so ... cheers! heh heh .. just kidding. I'm not going wild and crazy, mother.. no worries. We took some funny pictures, got cussed at by some immature 12 year old italians, figured out how to pay a total tab with 13 people, and made a friend at the gelatto place. It was a good day. Now it's late and we're about to retire to our small, relatively rigid beds. So far my converters have not blown. Yessss!
Things I miss most:
My kitty cat
My bed
TV
Pandora

And of course I miss all friends and fam!!
Sending my love! Goodnight!

Well, I made it!! I'm here in Rome in my little apartment. It's not exactly what I imagined, but it's decent and has the necessities. The past 24 hours have been ... interesting. I'll try to break it down into the most important points:
-Made it to the airport gate with plenty of time to spare
-Had "pasta" on the plane for dinner. typical airplane food. yuck.
-Strategically took tylenol pms to try to sleep, yet found myself repeatedly awakened by small rat children that let out shrills of deafening noise and tantrum. it was awful. lesson learned: NEVER take children who still scream for no reason onto a 9 hour plane ride.
-FINALLY landed. got luggage. somehow manuevered it around. waited on friends.
-Found friends. got money. got shuttle cab. finally found apartments.
-Put away some things. went in search of atm and food.
-ATM issues for Amy. found a small place to eat. no one there. sat down.
-900 school kids arrive the instant after we sat down and filled up the restuarant.
-Took forever to eat. didn't know what the words meant nor what the waitress meant.
-Settled for ravioli. Almost fell asleep at the table.
-Came back to apartment. Fell asleep.
-Woke up (not happy about it) to go to the market.
-Bought random things to last a few days.
-Noticed: Beggers with dogs that lay there and sleep. Graffiti. Insane traffic.
-Went back to apartment. Blogging. Soon to sleep for a very long time.

Well, that's the recap. Traveling is exhausting.