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

BOOP!

hi!

So it's Wednesday here, and we've really started getting into the interesting stuff in classes. Monday was pretty much orientation-y things, we got a long lecture about the history of San Gemini, which is very interesting. After that we took a trip to the nearby Roman Ruins of Carsulae, which were amazing and very beautiful. I should have pictures up on facebook soon. Then, yesterday we had intro's to classes in the morning, and then in the afternoon we have a short break, called 'siesta' and then we resume with a workshop at about 3:30. Yesterday we just moved stuff to the place, and got everything organized. Today in class we started really getting into chemistry and minerals, ores, and everything that makes up pigments. After that is a Theory class, which, however interesting-far too close to lunch to really pay much attention. Haha...whenever I hear the word theory I just instantly zone out, it's kinda unfortunate. We're mostly on our own for food, so for lunch we went to this pizza-by-the-slice place called Happy Pizza, it's really cheap, and really good, and big pieces. From there we walked to the pool and laid out in the sun. It's always so beautiful here, I'm getting very spoiled...and tan. After that we went back to our apartment and napped. At our workshop today, we split into two groups (there are only 13 students, so it's easily dividable (is that a word- divide-able? meh.)One group started putting together canvases and panels for oil painting and fresco, and my group started to build panels for something called sgraffito, which is where there is a layer of black plaster underneath the white plaster and you scrape the white off in a design so the black shows through.


We started on a bare styrofoam board, and really scratched it up to our base layer would stick. We mixed sand and some Calcium Hydroxide putty together to make a base layer, and put it on our boards. The rest of the time we just worked on designs and things. For dinner we bought some tortellini.

Now, we're all in our classroom planning a big trip to Pompeii this weekend. We'll be stopping in Naples the first night, and then heading to Pompeii/Herculaneum on Saturday morning, and when we're done there, we'll be going to the Amalfi coast for a little sunbathing. Sunday morning will be more of the same and then heading back to San Gemini in the afternoon.

Postcards might not be coming for a while, Italian post takes a long time apparently. I will try to send some from Pompeii, but stamps are also pretty expensive. eek!

Last night everyone drank quite a bit of wine- it was a pretty fun night...oh boy.

Love to all!

Seeer

OMG. awesome

Hi all!!

So here it is, from the beginning.

I met Mandi while waiting for my flight in Chicago, and we flew to Detroit. With maybe ten minutes to spare, we met Jessica and all flew to Rome. I watched the movies Sunshine Cleaning, New in Town, and a little bit of 17 Again. I had a teensy bottle of white wine with my gourmet (ack, it was awful) meal. I tried to sleep, wasn't very successful, but I got coffee in the morning, so, hurray. We got off the plane, got our visas stamped, and actually quite quickly found our bags. We finally trudged our way to the ticket booth and got an express train into Rome's main station and then caught a train to Terni. Apparently we had gotten on the wrong type of train, because when the lady came by to validate our tickets, we had to pay extra.

So when we got to Terni, we met another girl who was actually on the same train as we were, her name is Crystal. We all called one of the professors and he came to pick all of us up. Terni is in a valley, and San Gemini is on a hill, so we got to wind through all the hairpin turns in a tiny little truck. Whatever, it was a blast.

We arrived in San Gemini and brought all our stuff up a steep set of stairs, and got into our rooms. there are three different apartments for the students, and I haven't seen the other two. Ours has four rooms, two singles and two doubles. I'm rooming with Jessica. We have an awesome little bathroom, it has a bidet...which is interesting. Our kitchen is tiny!! Especially for four girls, but, so far we've made eggs with basil, which were actually pretty good.

So yesterday, we got a tiny tour of the town, and one of our professors (the same one who picked us up from the train station) bought us all gelato. I had pineapple, and it blew my mind, so good. Then we had a little time to relax, and unpack, then we went out to dinner with the people who were already there. There are two research assistants from UW-Milwaukee here, too. They love Wisconsin, which makes me instantly love them. HA! At dinner, those of us who had arrived that day were pretty wiped, and so we left a little early while the others went out to the only other bar in town for more drinks. Today, we had planned on visiting the local pool, but nobody was really awake until about noon. So we made scrambled eggs for breakfast/lunch, and then at 3:30 we had orientation and met all the others who had arrived since last night. There are 13 of us in all. Just after we got to our 'classroom' (it's this old old building with...well, i will just show pics eventually) it started thunderstorming like nobody's business, and the ceiling leaked, and the lightning took out the power, so that kinda put the kibosh on the internet. After orientation, we went for another tour of the town (which most of us have already seen at this point, after grocery shopping--which is definitely an experience when none of us speak ANY Italian--) and then we went to see another of the apartments (way nicer than ours, but still....) then we opened a bottle of wine (It was sparkling white wine, from Umbria , a riesling, and pretty dry. I wish I could remember the name, but I can't, and the only place we get wireless outside of the classroom is literally on the steps outside the classroom. so that's where I am ) Then we went to the closest bar to all of us, Bar Centrale, for another beer. After that the 'program' took us out to eat, at a villa outside of San Gemini. We had several courses, started with antipasti, where we got kind of a sampler of appetizers, and then got spaghetti with meatballs, then chicken with a salad, and then a sort of chocolate cake with chocolate mousse and lemony sauce on top. All of it was so amazing. At the end to top everything off we all took a shot of grappa! Hahah, it was...interesting, and very very alcoholic. We all rode back, and now there are several other people on the stairs outside our classroom on the internet.

Class tomorrow starts at 9, and we're getting an overview of the history of San Gemini, and in the afternoon traveling to the archaeological site of Carsulae, which are Roman ruins. I'm SO pumped.

Love to you all-

and I miss you like crazy, my fellow rangers.

Love Siri

Uh

So another post to update y'all-
I bought a new laptop. It's a Toshiba laptop, and absolutely full of buttons and shiny bits. Everything one could want in a laptop bought quickly and (for the most part) inexpensively. The amount I paid is a LOT LOT LOT to me, but the deed is done. Now, Graham, Kjerstin's roommate is looking at my old laptop, trying to do ...well, anything with it. He think's he making progress, which in turn is making my head spin. Because if he fixes it, I will be out several weeks pay at Stella Blues, and have two laptops. AGH. Who knows. I don't. Leaving Madison tomorrow at around ten AM. My flight to Detroit leaves at 4:05, and the flight from there to Rome leaves at 7:45. Tired. Goodnight. A big day ahead, that hopefully will go smoothly.

Love Siri.

Uff da

SO-
Update. I'm parked in 15 minute parking, which is unfortunate, because I've been here FAR longer than that already. My laptop is basically dead in the water, it stopped being able to do ANYTHING. This isn't the best news. Otherwise, I'm all packed, in the library making a last post before I leave, most likely. Also, I'm STILL waffling between the rolling suitcase and the backpacking bag. AGH. Also, freaking out about car making to Madison, then to Chicago. Freaking out about making connecting flight. There isn't really anything I'm not freaking out about. Also, the most expensive textbook I ordered hasn't come, so I can't even use that for classes. cool. AND... I will just stop myself there. But hey, I'm going to Italy!

love seeer

p.s. kirsten- any food in the fridge that's mine, either eat it or throw it out. Also, wash molly's bowl every couple times you feed her, otherwise she won't drink the water out of it. i miss you.

One Week

The title to this post reminds of the Barenaked Ladies song of the same name. I used to know all the lyrics, and thought I was hot shit.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Week_(song)

So, I have come to realize that I am leaving for Italy in only 8 days. I am currently at disbelief and denial stage. I guess it never really weaseled its way into my brain tubes that I am actually going. And apparently I thought at some stage it would all fall through, and I've just been waiting for it to happen, but it hasn't, and I'm amazed.

With lots of books from the library and several loose ends to tie up here in Eau Claire, I don't have that much else to do, besides pack. I have some supplies to buy, like work things, gloves, safety goggles (always flattering) and power converters, etc... Although it's not my first trip abroad, people seem to think they should tell me everything I already know. I have learned lots of things that will be useful to me, and-it's not their fault, I have expressed some (some??!!ha!) panic at the thought of not being able to speak Italian. I will hopefully be able to understand quite a bit, judging by its similarity to French, English, and my background in Art History terminology etc... which is frought with Italian.

I'm already missing Eau Claire a bit, especially my roommates. It will be sad missing out on the majority of what has already been a stellar summer.

Uff da- I will stop there, Debbie Downer. yeesh.

This is a short post, because...let's refresh your memory here-I'm not in Italy yet.

Siri Dearie

17 days and counting...

This is going to be a short post because the battery on my laptop is dying, and I'm far too lazy to get up and get my charger.

So, 17 days until I leave for Italy!! I've been reading my textbooks Hermione Granger-style, and they're really cool. Two of them are about creating powders from minerals, mixing them and applying them to plaster, etc... I'm excited.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermione_granger

Now I'm going to name-drop a little bit- for those of you who are music fiends, you'll know who I'm talking about. One of Eau Claire's local celebrities, Justin Vernon, is the lead singer of the band Bon Iver.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bon_Iver

Anyway, late last night he and the band came in to Stella Blues, and my boss, Linda who has known him since he was little thought that the other waitress there would collapse into fits of hysteria if she took the table. (Obviously impressed by his celebrity or whatever...) Little did she know I'm a big fan, and the other waitress (Katelind*) probably has no idea who he is. HA! Anyway, they were all nice, and he's a good tipper. yay!


ALSO, tonight, I'm co-hosting a beer tasting at a friends house, and I'm pretty excited. There will be around 20 different beers, and I'm making appetizers and such.

I guess that's it for now- It's overcast here but still very warm, around 80.

Siri

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siri


** Katelind is actually a good friend, and we found out that we are also distantly related. Mom's cousin Sue is also Katelind's mom's cousin. Small world, eh?

due (Two)

I realized that my writing may come across as a touch ambivalent to some of you who don't know me so well.

That being said, I can't get through my Rick Steves' Audio tour of Italy fast enough. Really! I'm that excited! I'm not entirely sure how my head hasn't yet exploded into a fiery ball of useless celebrity trivia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Steves

...And to address another quite pertinent question, why should you read my blog? I'm not ACTUALLY going to leave for Italy for another 3 1/2 weeks.

I have no witty, sarcastic answer for that, actually. If you're already reading this, then keep on keepin' on, do your thang, etc... It's because of my pointless, shoddily put-together stories and storylines and driveling commentary that you are coming back for more, isn't it? I knew it. Then keep reading, there is more pointless rambling coming your way.

I was thinking the other day (mainly out loud, and to my mother) that since graduate school will be so expensive and take forever, etc...I should just give up any sort of career path and get a travel show.(Sidenote: Since I'm just so amazing at life in general, I know that it will be very easy to just, you know...GET your own TV show. These things happen. Whatever.) I could go around and look specifically at museums and art/architecture/operas/plays/eat delicious food I don't have to pay for...that kind of thing. However-and this poses a bit of a problem- I greatly enjoy watching foodie travel shows; especially Anthony Bourdain : No Reservations, where he basically drinks, finds a random person from a town, has more drinks, dines, even more drinks with them, swears a lot, and makes fun of other people. The problem isn't that I enjoy watching it, it's that drinking copious amounts of alcohol, swearing like a sailor, and fine art don't necessarily always go together.

Necessarily. I could figure something out, right?

Anyway, would you watch my show? Any thoughts? I'd like to hear them-let me know what you think in the comments box.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Bourdain

It's still crappy outside here-

Siri

Numero Uno

Ciao tutti!! (Hello All!)

I look good in pink, don't I ?? (I was referring to the background of my blog...) Anyway, this is my first post of my blog for Italy, where everyone can follow me, (Siri, bellsers, Seeer, baby bell, booger bear, or anything else you'd like to call me {Please, no profanity, those of you know who you are. Be nice.) geeking out over boring art, architecture, art history, Roman Ruins, etc. Try not to fall asleep!

I will begin by chronicling my application process. I applied. I got in. I applied for a student visa. I got it. I bought books. They are coming. I paid a lot of money. I'm going to Italy. See? That wasn't SO bad.

I am leaving on July 3rd, and (I think) meeting with a girl in Chicago, and we will fly to Detroit together, where we are going to meet up with two other girls in the program. We're all flying to Rome, where we will then catch a train to the nearest stop to San Gemini, which is Terni (if you are looking at a map, that part was for you) and then our contact people will pick us up and take us to our apartments. We have access to full kitchens, and one apartment has a kitchen in it. There is one single room, and the rest are doubles.

After everyone arrives on the 4th of July, the 5th is orientation. (Which from past experience, are always frought with akward get-to-know-each-other trust and name games, where everyone will learn what my favorite color is, where I'm from, how much I don't care about what everyone else's favorite color is, etc.) Then I have class at 8:30 (ahh, rough. At least I don't work in a glitter factory, is all I have to say. hhahaaaahahah!) which is Traditional Painting Methods and Restoration Techniques, and then at 10:30 (oh, I'm actually waking up now, at this point) I have Preservation Issues and Theory. Then in the afternoon we have Workshops, which will be little field trips, but mainly learning and creating different frescoes, oils, etc... so basically everything awesome. Then from July 18th to the 26th we will be taking a trip through Siena (2 days), Venice (three days), and Rome (4 days).

When I mention things in this blog, I don't expect anyone to actually know what I'm talking about, so I'll try to explain as best I can. However, for your understanding pleasure, I may as well just include a link to www.wikipedia.org as and endnote to every paragraph. For example...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Gemini

Under Main Sites, it includes the archaeological site of Carsulae, which we will travel to the first day.

Okay, that's all for now I guess. As an endnote*, I will proceed to tell everyone why my blog is named Siri's Glitter Factory. You can read it or not, I don't care, but it's a very logical explanation, although a bit random.

To this great day, and tomorrow!

Siri




* okay. So let me set the scene. I am taping off the walls in our living room to get ready to paint it a lovely grey-blue color. As I am doing this, I see that there, somehow, is GLITTER stuck on a wall. Not glitter paint, glue, or anything with adhesive in it, just random little green and blue glitters. So, I remark aloud to Kristin and Kirsten ( my two roomies) that I just found some glitter on wall, and that glitter sticks to EVERYTHING and you can never get rid of it. Then I wonder aloud if there are glitter factories. My thought process gets to this conclusion BECAUSE: If one worked in a glitter factory, it would suck because as previously stated, glitter gets on everything and you can never EVER get it off, therefore, if you worked in a glitter factory you would always have glitter on you and could never get it off. This would make ME very frustrated and angry, and I'm assuming it would make everyone else so as well. Now Kirsten (probably trying to escape my demented ramblings) remarks she must leave for work (Scheels) and that she doesn't want to go. I then say, "Well at least you don't work in a glitter factory." The End. I'm sorry, but you have just succumbed to a very lengthy, waste-of-your-brain-cells, typically pointless and bad story of mine. I'm famous for them. Again, my apologies.