Parallel Universe

hey!

So, it's Wednesday...and I leave here Saturday and am staying the night in Rome. Then Jess and I are leaving on the same flight at 12:45 PM from Fiumicino (Leonardo DaVinci Airport)

But...I'm done with all my paintings in workshop!! And it's sunny again here. It's been overcast the past few days. We were thinking about hitting up the pool again (on Sunday a bunch of girls and I went to the pool alllll day! It was great, and I got an okay tan. (Finally) but today during workshop we have to start cleaning up even though a lot of other people are still painting. oh well.

Yeah, this past weekend was a lot of fun. Most people stayed here, although one couple went to Slovenia to visit friends, and another couple went to Ancona (a beach town) on the northern coast.

We just chilled, because San Gemini was having a little festival here, on Thursday and Friday nights. Michelle and I were up pretty late Thursday, so Friday we left early. The other girls had a rather drama-filled night and it was nice to just hear about it for once. They hung out with the live band that had played earlier, and met some other guys. The next night, Michelle and I went to Terni and did some awesome shopping ( i have acquired a love of shopping on this trip) and the other girls had MORE drama, considering two of the four of them have (had?) boyfriends. That backlash is still continuing, and still happy have not gone out that night. Michelle and I stayed in and did our nails (red on hands, bright blue on toes) and watched episodes of Entourage. awesome.

Sunday, again, we were at the pool. It was pretty jam packed, considering all the other times we've gone, it was almost empty. Lots of pretty Dolce and Gabbana model looking guys walking around. (some in speedos, some not...)Am having fun taking advantage of the fact that it is perfectly acceptable to blatantly stare in Italy. (seeing as we've been stared at the majority of the trip..hahah) In the pool here, you have to wear a little swimming cap-which is really embarassing, but made me feel like a) a 4 year old again and b) a synchronized swimmer. it was pretty fun. Michelle and I had found some in Terni when we were shopping, so we kind of all exchanged them when we wanted to go in the water.

Anyway-- I'm thinking of you all, and will be home sooner than you think!

love seeeer

TGIF

Hello all!!

So I know my last few blogs haven't been very informative, but we got off of workshop pretty early today since we skipped siesta, so I have a little more time to get down to business. (for those of you looking at my facebook pictures...you might wonder what exactly I've been up to, other than enjoying lots of various new types of alcohol. Well, every morning we start class at nine, and take a break around 10:30, then continue class up til around 12:30 or one. Then we get time for lunch, and San Gemini is such a cute little town everything shuts down for about 3-4 hours in the afternoon, for siesta. At 3:30 we go to workshop where we're in two groups working on fresco/scrafito(sgraffito) and oil and tempera on panel/canvas. (I guess I'm giving everyone a little refresher course) We end workshop at around 7:30 ish...then have time for dinner and whatever else everyone needs to do (go on the internet, shop a little, etc...) and we all usually hang out together at one of the apartments.

Everyone has started eating together, one or two dinners a week...we'll collectively make a long trek to the closest thing they have to a supermarket here (otherwise it's one shop for cheese, one for bread, one for meat, etc... it takes a while). Then we all make dinner together and usually imbibe in some fun new drinks. One night we had burgers and sangria, one night we had spaghetti and delicious homemade meatballs, and more wine, and several types of beer/liquor.

Yesterday was the first day of a little festival here called San Gemini Sweet Village where there are shops set up in the main Piazza, and there's live music. We went down there after workshop, and it was so cool!! I've never seen so many people in the city center before (only about 500 live there, everyone else is outside the walls)--it was packed!The band on stage had cameras on them, and that image was projected onto the sides of the buildings...pretty neat. Also, the 'conductor' had long silver hair and a black mustache, and never really sang, but played some mean air guitar, it was hilarious. After that, we danced a little bit and met an English family who's been staying here this past week.

Then this morning, we had a guest lecturer talk to us about various reconstructions he's done..it was presented in a very interesting way, but nothing new, so...I was pretty bored. In workshop I'm totally done with my sgraffito and fresco, and am finishing my panel painting. This is really labor intensive. We had to cut the frame to fit the panel size, nail everything in, coat it with six coats of gypsum paint stuff, then sand it. Then we applied two different things to the frame, to experiment with two types of gilding. One you used shellac to adhere the gold leaf, and the other one you used clay bole and rabbit glue over that, and you can burnish the gold leaf once dry on the side that had the clay bole on it. Gilding is really frustrating and difficult. There were profanities galore in our sequestered little gilding room.

Umm..this weekend we're really looking forward to relaxing in San Gemini. Tonight we're going to the second night of this little town festival, and tomorrow we've bought a ton of groceries for breakfast tomorrow, we're going to make a huge breakfast with omelettes and fruit salad and such...and then spend the day at the pool. YAY!!! Sunday we might go to Terni, and maybe go shopping? We'll see. I'm so excited to sleep in-it hasn't happened since I got here.!

Also, I've just gotten a downloading program, so I've been downloading movies and things like a fiend, because they can't catch me because I'm in Italy!! MUAHAHAHAHahhahahaahha... yeah, I'm excited. I just downloaded Quantum of Solace to watch the scenes of Il Campo in Siena, they're brief, but they're definitely there. I'm not sure how much Daniel Craig was there, though. It looks like they just got footage of the race, and spliced in little segments. Also, the chase scene that ends Bond killing someone takes place in the Duomo in Siena-very iconic, black and white striped...it also looks very CGI, though..and we couldn't figure out which part of the Duomo it was...(sacristy?) so we decided they kinda faked it...oh well. still cool.

I'll be in Spring Green on the night of the 9th, and will be leaving on the morning of the 11th. Kate's birthday celebrations on the 12th (21-FINALLY, yeesh) and home again on the 15th-16th (maybe 17th if I can manage it) for Zoe's graduation (and going back to school)party. Can't wait to get home and see everyone, but I never want to leave little San Gemini and Italy. It's going to be a rough time.

Love to all!!

Siri

My new italian obsessions are: Siestas, any flavor but melone gelato, and these icey coffee slushies called granitas. I love themmmmmmm...

Nothing Better (Postal Service)

AGH. There is...so. much.

Uh, woah. I've forgotten how to blog.

So, we took a tiny little bus to the tiny walled mountain-top city of Montepulciano, where they filmed part of the movie New Moon. This entire trip we were led around by one of our professors, Max Cardillo. So he pointed out several things about their duomo (main church, basically) and the main square there. We ALSO went on a wine tasting, and the wine there was fantastic. But incredibly expensive to ship back, so...

From Montepulciano, we drove to the even smaller town of Pienza, Italy. There, we also walked around their main sqaure (designed by Michelangelo) and toured a Palazzo owned by a wealthy family from the Renaissance, the Piccolominis.

Then, we took the bus to Siena. I loved Siena. It was amazing, and so much fun. In Italy, you can have open intoxicants, just walking around, and they have an amazing square. (mom, pictures will go on facebook soon. I took around 500 the last 9 days. woof.) We walked around the city one day, led by Max, but we also get a lot of time to just wander and explore the citi(es) for ourselves. Umm...

from there we took a train to Florence, where we also get a walking tour one day, and most of the time we get free. Another girl and I, Michelle, get along really well, so we kinda do our own thing a lot of the time.

This is so SO freaking abbreviated. Maybe when I have more time later, I will flesh it out a little bit more.

Rome, we get a day and a half for our own, and then embark on what we call the "Death March". It's a walking tour of Rome. It spans from one end of the city to the other. We walked for 12 hours that day. it wasn't as bad as it sounds, and very interesting. Michelle and I followed that up by a quick trip to Piazza del Popolo (I couldn't miss it, as a scene in my favorite book , The Count of Monte Cristo, takes place there.) Then, today, our last day in Rome, we (there was a group of 6 of us) went to a supermarket and had a picnic in the Borghese Gardens, and then rented side-by-side covered bicycles and rode them around the gardens. so cheesy, but SO MUCH freakin fun.. hahahaha....it was hilarious. A perfect ending day to our trip.

We got back to San Gemini around 6, so I charged my computer and ate dinner and now I'm here. I miss you all a lot, but I only have two weeks left...I'm already missing it. I love Italy!

email me/comment/facebook me (especially you mom and dad, i'm so proud you have facebook!!haha)

love seer

* oh, and nothing bad happened in rome...for realz.

Quantum of Solace

So-

We're leaving for Siena tomorrow morning, and the beginning scene of the last James Bond movie, Quantum of Solace, apparently takes place there. I did not know this, and was pretty amazed/psyched to find out.

YES. so. Today we had a guest lecturer from the Vatican Library, who talked to us about the preservation/restoration of paper. She specializes in book bindings. To work in the Vatican Library is probably one of the best jobs in the business....I can't imagine what kinds of things she gets to deal with. AMAZING. It was very interesting, to say the least.

In workshop, I finished my fresco...and began constructing a frame for my panel painting.

The bugs here suck. You never see them, you just all of a sudden have 80 bites all over you, it's so annoying. AND they itch like the dickens. So, needless to say, I'm pretty pumped to get out of here and away from bugs. YES!! Plus, we are staying in nice hotels, and I don't have to deal with any travel details..so it will be like a little vacay. yay!!

Um, hopefully I'll be able to check email and things while I'm gone, but if not, don't expect to hear from me til next Sunday.

Love to all!!

Siri

national treasure...2?

hahah, so i just stole some movies from a girl's flash drive, so now I have National Treasure 2 on my computer!! Hurrah!

So last night there was a large concert in a stadium near our apartments, and it was mostly classical music. It was fun to hear, we were all using the wireless on the steps of our classroom.

Later, we found a little club-type thing (remember, this is San Gemini) and they were playing fun music, so we danced for a little while there.

Yesterday we had a quiz-there was a trick question, and not counting that one, I got them all right! Yay! I studied a little bit, but it wasn't too hard.

Yesterday we finished our sgraffito, and began putting together our canvas frames, and put on our canvas. After we stretched the canvas and everything, we put one layer of 'rabbit glue' on it, which is made from the skin of rabbits. It was gross, but still interesting. After that, we made another version of the rabbit glue but with flour and a little honey to give it plasticity. This we put on and scraped through to fill the holes (the fabric we put on was more like burlap, than canvas...) We also began our fresco, which the first layer is just a cement, a combination of Calcium Hydroxide putty and sand, which we apply to the styrofoam board that we have punched holes in, to make the surface irregular, so everything sticks. That was most likely the longest run on sentence, but I don't really care.

This Saturday we are leaving for our week of traveling, first to Florence with a few stops along the way, then to Siena, and Rome. I'm pretty excited. No one is really happy with the week of hopping from place to place, and traveling is always a sticky business, but at least this time WE'RE not the ones handling it, our amazing fixer-of-all-situations Polly is. (She's our administrator, of sorts.)

Love to all-

Seer

PS. Tomorrow night we've arranged a huge dinner for all of us, like, making hamburgers and some people are bringing potato salad, and someone's making dessert, etc...

YAY

rest my chemistry (thanks kirsten)

wow, where to begin.

SO-


this past weekend was an...adventure. We left on Friday, there was a lot of traveling involved. We took a bus from san gemini to Terni, and a train from Terni to Rome. In Rome we transferred trains, and went to Naples. Naples is kind of a not too great city, like, pretty sketchy mob involved stuff, so we wanted to get there to find our hostel before dark. But the train we caught from Rome which we though would only take an hour took about 3 hours, so by the time we were in Naples, it was around nine. It was very shocking when we got out of the train station, because we live in the historic city center of san gemini, where only 500 people live, and there are about 7 cars and a scooter. When we walked out of the station in Naples, we entered a huge square area, and it was a solid mass of cars...really really different. Our hostel was close to the station though, so we could just walk. We got there and checked in, and two people wanted to go out on the town, as it were. I was not for it, because of all the not so safe things we were hearing about Napoli (naples, sorry, i go back and forth) and the guy at the front desk literally said "if you go out after 12 o'clock, you will be eaten alive." so that kinda put the kibosh on their plans, and I was really relieved to know that no one would be going out that night. (We traveled with a group of seven, including me.) Then we went to go find some pizza (and beer) because Napoli is famous for having the best pizza and brought it back to our hostel. (OH, when we were checking in, there was a HUGE FIRE in the street like, 50 feet away. a FIRE. of GARBAGE. WHAT!?!?!? they put it out eventually, but apparently it happens a lot...hunh. freakin' naples man...what an adventure...* so we were all a little on edge from that...) so we got some pizzas and beer and had a good night at the hostel.

The next morning the garbage was gone and there was a market outside our hostel, and we were running a little late, but the other girls wanted to shop...I wanted to get the HELL out of Naples. It was a stressful morning. We took the train called the Circumvesuviana to the Ruins of Herculaneum, (Ercolano Scavi) which for everyone who doesn't know, it's just a smaller and better preserved version of pompeii. it was discovered later, and wasn't looted ...as much....

www.wikipedia.org/herculaneum

and then took the train to Pompeii. Pompeii is huge. Ginormous. I didn't realize it would be that GIANT. yeah...it's big. and absolutely gorgeous. I can't wait to show pics!!

From Pompeii, we took the train to Sorrento, where our hostel was. (I'm leaving out all the gory travel details, like missed trains, busses, etc...not all fun, all the time...but most of the time, for sure.)

I'm not sure how many of you know about Sorrento, it's a smaller city, but breathtakingly beautiful.

www.wikipedia.org/sorrento

So, we got a taxi to our hostel (which was out of town a ways) and we stayed in teensy little bungalows. so cute. We decided that night we would go out, because it's a fairly touristy town, and most of all, safer than Napoli. The club was called Blumare, which means Blue Sea.

After we checked out, we had lunch in Sorrento, and traveled 8 hours back to San Gemini. Sundays are a little spotty with trains and such, so none of us thought we would be back, but we rolled in around 11. Thank God. So, still recovering, and I now know why people are hospitalized for exhaustion.

This next weekend we are leaving for Florence, Siena and Rome for a week. Not sure how I feel about that. I'm still exhausted from the last 72 hours. sheesh.

so much. SO much.

love, Siri

Grandpa- I wish you could have come, I know you would have loved to be there, and I was thinking about you at Pompeii and Herculaneum!

awkward titles

I never know what to post for titles, awkward.

So today, we had class, where we learned about the rest of the pigments, and then started learning about binding materials, like gypsum and concrete. I think workshop today will be sa-weet! Then...theory class was much more interesting today, but I still managed to get in some awesome lookin doodles, and picked off the majority of my fingernail polish. oops. So, on that note, I think during siesta today I'm going to sketch a little bit and then maybe take a nap. No pool today, as it is pretty expensive, so I will just sit outside. For lunch we kinda improvised, and I ended up having a fried egg, mayo, and fresh mozzarella sandwich on a lovely bun. A little wierd, but still yummy. I think tonight we're going to try to have something a little more balanced than say, pizza, nutella sandwich (which i had totally forgotten about, how much i love nutella!) and a gelato. eeks!

This is just a quick post, thanks for everyone's comments, it's good to hear from you!!

Siri