I had the time of my life fighting dragons with you

Fall break was amazing!  The only way it could have been better is if my family was there.

Laura, Lexi, Conner, and I left early friday morning and took a bus from Florence to Venice.  For a bus it was pretty decent. We arrived in Venice the early afternoon and met up with our friend Harry. We spent most of the day wandering around, going to the rialto bridge and piazza san marco, and the touristy stuff.
Then we caught a boat to our camp grounds. Thats right. Camp grounds. We stayed in a tiny cabin on camping grounds about a 15 min boat ride from the venice city center. 12 Euros a night! what a deal. It was actually pretty cool.

On saturday we went to the BIENALLE! The biggest art event in Italy. Over 80 international artists and like 09`4727418937 Italian artist showed their work at venues all over the city.  They transformed old and abandoned building into gallery space. Each country represented had their own "pavilion" or building where they set up painting and installations and video art and sculptures.  My favorite was the Italian pavilion.  SO MUCH GOOD ART. I filled up a page in my sketchbook writing down names to look up later. It was kind of set up like artawake with art just everywhere. It was kind of overwhelming. 

a picture for mom: Thats right. Its ropes of licorice.

A pic for dad. Toast. Enough said

On Sunday Lexi and I went to Murano (a little island known for its amazing glass) for a fun time of glassblowing exhibitions and shopping.  Then Lexi, Conner, and I went off to their airport to fly to FRANCE. we kept singing that song "lets get rich and buy our parents houses in the south of france."  And I obviously listened to Absinthe Party by Minus the Bear.

Monday was a little stressful trying to find a way from the airport to the center of Paris.  We flew to a slightly inconvenient airport about an hour away from Paris.
After getting used to Italy, being in France was weird.  It was like starting all over again in a city we didnt know, with a language we couldnt understand. Fortunately God is good and provided this awesome english speaking French man immediately after we got off the bus.  He explained the metro and helped us get a metrocard and told us how to get to our hostel. 
Our Hostel was called Plant Blue Hostel and it was slightly ridiculous. We had a good time though.
The actual city of Paris is one of the most beautiful cities I've ever seen.  I'm quite partial to NYC, but Paris was a close second.
We went to the Louvre on Monday. AMAZING. We were only there for 3 hours and I barely saw anything so I have to go back!
Seeing the Mona Lisa was a weird experience.  It was so cool to see such a famous painting in real life. A painting by one of the most amazing artists.  But, it was funny because its quite small and there was this MASSIVE crowd around it all taking pictures instead of using their eyes.  And on the opposite wall, there is this enormous painting that takes up the entire wall, but nobody is looking at it. Its just weird. After the louvre we spend a couple hours viewing the eiffel tower and being entertained by a very unintelligent group of americans near-by who talked about everything from Matzo crackers to Magellan.

  Tuesday was our wondering day. We climbed up all the steps of Notre Dame, said a quick hello to Quasimodo (were actually facebook friends now) and got to see this amazing view of all of Paris. Then we hit up the moulin rouge because i just had to. Big disappointment, I dont want to talk about it.  In the evening we went to the artsy Montmartre district for dinner and some free music.  I will be living there someday.

Wednesday started off bad. I went to the wrong airport and missed my flight to Milan. Why do cities in Europe have to have like 3 airports each? Isnt one enough? But I was able to work it out and I met up with Massimo only a few hours later than planned. He took me to a pizzeria and a cafe to meet his cousin and friend who are awesome! I tried to practice my italian a little but I was embarrassed.
Thursday we hit up all the churches and museums in Milan! Milan is a beautiful city. I especially liked the Duomo and the modern art museum. And it was so good to see Massimo again. We had a great time talking about long ago and planning for future adventures!
Then I caught the bus back to Firenze.

                                                                        Trolley!


I felt like I was home when i got back. One of the best parts of traveling is coming home. I know i will really feel that way when i get home home.  But I still have a month and a half left in my adventure!

I miss you, even here taking it all in

Midterms are over!!!!! I think I passed everything with flying colors. My italian test today was a little difficile but i think i did pretty good.  My photo critique was a joke. My teacher looked at our pictures and literally said "I have no suggestions to make." seriously? Sketchbook and mixed media were fine. Im getting really excited about my final projects for these classes. 

I leave for Venice, Paris, and Milan for fall break tomorrow! Im excited but planning this trip has been the most stressful thing ever.

Here are a few random pics!

For history's sake would you please take notice!

I am absolutely WIRED on two cups of espresso. !!!!!
Im going to this free concert at this really awesome place called Villa Romana which is this place about a half hours walk where a bunch of artists live and make things and grow stuff. I almost cried when we visited in my mixed media class on thursday. It was just so beautiful. I want to live and work there but you have to be german or something weird like that.

Some practice pics from my fashion photography class


and some unfinished paintings. Its a work in progress

Im smarter than you think

 i figured out the picture problem! sorry guys!

                                                              the night train

                                            Sicily

                                           San Gimingiano

 

Noto

 

                                                 Sicily

Its been another busy week. On friday group of art kids went to the house of an artist living here in Florence and lexi and i ended up getting a job!  This awesome artist needed assistants to help him paint some pieces that he will be showing in a gallery soon. He said he had to let his last assistant go because he "non piace sua faccia." he didnt like her face. So i have this job as long as my complexion is good.

Then on Saturday Lexi, Conner, and I went to the Uffizi Gallery. There was like an hour long wait to get tockets, but this was my lucky weekend and some random lady gave me her ticket because her friend's didnt show up, so i didnt have to pay or wait in line. Thank you random lady.

The gallery was amazing. Each room was like a page in my art history book. Except it was really there in front of me. The Birth of Venus and Primavera by Botticelli were absolutely amazing. It was hard to accept that they were real, and not copies.

It was fun to go with 2 art nerds. We sounded like walking text books. Except more exciting.

I cant believe we have midterms next week! Its going by so fast.
Just one more week and then fall break in Venice, Paris, and Milan with Lexi, Conner, and Laura!!!!!

I really want to go outside and make it light all day

 I still cant upload pictures :( Im very sorry. Blogs without pictures are boring.

Sicily was beautiful. Absolutely gorgeous. Sunny and warm the whole weekend. It was also more like the Italy I was expecting. Not to many tourists, and no one spoke english.

The sleeper train was very "knight bus" from harry potter, with less magic but just as much motion sickness.

Actually, as we were on a train, bus, boat, or taxi the whole weekend, i was perpetually motion sick all weekend. And traveling in a big group was kind of annoying. Ok, no more complaining.

We arrived at 11:30 am in Taormina. a cute old town with a wonderful view of Mt Etna, the largest active volcano in Europe. We almost got washed away in a wave of hot lava, but we narrowly avoided it. Instead we made pizza and called it LAVAZZZA.

Anyways. After walking around Taormina for a while we went to the beach. Then we checked into our hotel and we all (like 583473864 of us) went to the same restaurant were the menu was fixed but they said they had vegetarian options.  But they just never brought me a main course. weird.

On Saturday we went to the ruins of an ancient greek ampitheater in Siracusa, the town we were staying in. It was amazing. And so old. I tried to picture it as it was like back then.

Then we went on a boat trip which was awesome until i threw up.
But before that i got to jump off a boat into the Mediterranean and climb up of volcanic rock to explore a little cave. So i really cant complain too much.

Then after showers and relaxation station we went into Siracusa for a night of wild crazy dangerous fun!
Actually we all just went to this really chill bar where we got to practice our Italian speaking to local Sicilians. We also met some weird german sailors. One of them told me his friends with him were all lazy bums, unlike him who was a doctor of anesthesiology. Ha! what a bunch of crap.

Apparently some kids in my group did indeed have a little to much fun back at the hotel. The Florence University of the Arts was asked not to come back next year. whoops.

How do I always end up with the crazy people?

On Sunday we went to a town called Noto that was destroyed in the 1600s and rebuild in the (then modern) Byzantine style. It was unlike anything we had seen so far! Very interesting.

Then we had the 15 hour train ride home before class on monday! Horray!