Foreign things, which always smash.

My camera was inexplicably refusing to function for about two weeks and alas, there is no record of me visiting Assisi or Perugia. But I did, promise.

I had high hopes for Assisi. It was as beautiful and hilly as any medieval Italian city we’ve visited, but slightly disappointing otherwise. Not really sure what I expected, but what I got was a beautiful church, a priest that ran away from me when I asked if he spoke English and never came back (and therefore no confession), a tomb that felt and smelt like the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disney World and a lot of very cheesy St. Francis themed paraphernalia. Perugia was a lot bigger and a lot more commercial than most of the places we have been going to. It is the Perugia, as in the chocolate one, so naturally I consumed a lot of chocolate there. Other than that, wandered around looking for a cheeseburger (to no avail), shopped at a big antique market, and took a nap on the city wall.

Wednesday of last week was the day in which all of Italy celebrates the grape harvest and the beginning of wine season. We don’t have classes on Wednesday mornings so we got to participate in the festivities! We actually have a small grape crop ON CAMPUS (beats a Buddhist temple any day in my opinion). So we smashed those, and also the ones that I handpicked on a farm about 20 minutes away with our old Italian groundskeeper and a few other students. It’s really, really fantastic when you happen to be in the ideal place at an ideal time. Such as when Gino, your old Italian groundskeeper, says to you “You come with me to pick the grapes, get in the van,” and you do. We brought the grapes back, dumped them into a GIANT vat about 3 feet deep and 3 feet wide, and then we stomped. And squished and smashed. They felt very fleshy and strange and by the end of it, there were grapes up to our knees. The program bought us sandwiches and pizza and coke for lunch and for these and many other reasons, I am now a huge and raging fan of the harvest.

I saved this as a word doc and haven’t finished writing for a week, so my references of time are a little off, but Italy is becoming a big blur of experience anyway, so maybe that’s appropriate.

In between Assisi and Pienza/Montepulciano we went to Arezzo which is only about 20 minutes away. Lucky (maybe?) for us, the weekend we were there was a gigantic, town-encompassing, let no street go un-marketed…. Market. Literally the ENTIRE town was lined with tables of antiques and vintage jewelry, clothes, posters, bags, furniture, you name it. This was all good and well for the first three or so hours that we were there. Then it all just blurred into a big lump of “old/pretty/mehhhh.” The pictures give an accurate description. I did however purchase a lovely pair of earrings and a necklace and I was able to fix my camera. Cheers Arezzo, while maybe excessively vintaged, you did not leave me empty handed.

This past weekend (really, today is Monday, I’m talking Saturday) we went to Pienza and Montepulciano, famous for pecorino cheese and wine, respectively. Pienza was definitely my favorite field trip destination so far. Historically, it was laid out as a utopian town. It felt like I was walking through a fairy tale pop up book, which I suppose means that they were successful in making it ideal. Last week sometime, Italy decided it was time for winter (we sort of just skipped fall, I wore shorts one day and the next I was in wool tights and a coat), and this was our first cold field trip. That definitely could have contributed to the cozy, happy feeling of Pienza, and the fact that there were luscious, vibrant flowers growing everywhere…major disconnect between that which was felt and seen. We spent the morning walking up and down the main street, shopping for hats and scarves, cheese and beautiful, colorful Italian leather shoes. So lovely.

Montepulciano, as the wine capital of Italy, was slightly bigger and a little more touristy, but great nonetheless. We arrived around lunchtime and had very hyped up lasagna (by my drawing teacher) at a really, really great café. It reminded me of an atmosphere in which Fitzgerald or Forster would have written in, kind of art nouveau with epic views from every window, tall ceilings, split level, etc. etc. etc. I had the most expensive cappuccino of my Italian life (3.50… seriously?) and a really tasty chocolate pastry. Yum. We lunched for almost two hours with a couple of professors just talking about life and art and Italy. In Cortona, the professors all eat together at their own table, so it was really nice to talk with them about things that weren’t class related. The rest of the day we did more shopping, for some reason that’s what field trips have come to mean. I think people don’t spend much money during the week, so when the weekend comes we don’t mind spending a little extra on a wool felt hat with a flower on it, or some aged cheese, or 3 for 15 euro bottles of wine (my purchases). I did however mind the cappuccino.

I think I should probably talk about school a little bit. I do go to school here. Last week was super intense. I had critiques in three of my four studio classes and hit a weird halfway point in the program. Teachers started assigning final projects…. FINAL?! And handing out schedules for the rest of the semester. It became very clear what needs to be accomplished before the end of the semester, for class specifically, and got me thinking about what I want to accomplish as well. If I could do it again I would take one less studio class and be able to dedicate more time to each one. I’ve tried really hard to change my attitude about art as work here. I want to make things until I’m satisfied with them and proud of them, but at Furman it usually gets too close to a deadline and I just have to get it done in time, or to please a professor. Here could be a lot different, and it has, but I still find myself doing work to get it done more than I would like. Still on the prowl for that job that lets you do whatever you want and take as much time as you want to do it.

So the rest of the semester looks like this… 3 more weeks of classes before the exhibition in which time I will create 4 more paintings, 20 small drawings, 3 more prints and several books. I will also finish 2 other paintings, 3 drawings, a book and two prints that are in progress but need a little more work. Then we have our show, another week of classes to wrap things up, and we head to Naples. Post Naples things are starting to take shape as well. I’m starting my travels in Barcelona with a few girls on the program and then going to Salamanca to spend Thanksgiving with two friends from Wake, Meret and Glynnis. From there, the tentative plan is Budapest, Prague, Berlin, Copenhagen, Rome, Home. Looking at that list, I sort of wish it was in alphabetical order, just for fun. That’d be nice, but it’s ok as is. I will try really hard to write more and post more pictures as I crank out more art in the next three weeks than I have in my life thus far! Here’s to gettin ‘er done.

*Pictures to come, no time to upload right now

Insert epic theme music....here!

Ticket to see Coldplay and Jay Z, 85 British pounds. Plane ticket to London, 65 Euro. Hostel in Earls Court for two nights, 60 Euro. Various planes, trains, buses, taxis, tubes etc., approximately 30 Euro. Waiting for 13 hours in the sun standing most of the time, painful. Standing five rows from the front, in the rain during “Yellow” with giant yellow balloons floating above my head… completely and utterly priceless. Lots of pictures in this post, too many good ones to narrow it down. 

This past weekend I went to London with a few Furman and Wake friends to see Coldplay at Wembley Stadium. In retrospect, it was a ridiculous, insane and completely irrational thing to do but SOOOO worth it. We met some British people while waiting at the stadium and their response to our adventure was, “that’s crazy but #@$Q@*& awesome.” I thought so too :)

We left Friday afternoon around four and our journey looked a little something like this.

4 pm Walk to Cortona bus station.

4:30 Bus ride to Camucia (train station in the next town)

5 pm Train to Florence

7 pm Switch trains to Pisa Central Station

8:30 pm Switch trains to Pisa Airport

Wait a really long time in the airport, check in, jump through countless Ryanair hoops that make little to no sense (cheap but SO inconvenient to fly on) find a sweet game that tells us to get awesome (which has since become code for having any kind of fun), eat some bad ice cream, play bananagrams on the floor, etc.

We found some really great chips in the airport. They were 3-D and they even had emotions.

11:20 pm board the plane bound for London

1:20 am arrive in London and get really excited/have a hard time believing we’re actually there and not a.) in America at our houses, b.) in Cortona where we began, c.) at Furman, where we sort of feel like we should be. Go thorugh Customs where when asked, we tell the man that we are in England for the express purpose to see Jay Z and Coldplay. He informs us that our English is terrible and it is pronounced Jay “Zed.” We laugh at him and walk away.

2:00 am Find the buses outside the airport, drop 10 pounds on a bus ticket to a train station that a nice man tells us is close-ish. Relish in the fact that the people in this country speak our language and we don’t know where we are, but at least we can ask! Get on the bus and ride and ride and ride….

3:30 am Arrive at Victoria station. Ask the bus driver how to get to our hostel, he doesn’t know. Walk up the street squinting to try and read our little tiny map (that’s conveniently in Italian). As the words “Let’s just get a taxi” come out of my mouth, I look up and see one. We get in pay the man whatever he asked us. He could have charged me 100 pounds and I would have paid it at that point.

3:35 am Arrive at our Hostel, check in as quickly as possible, get very frustrated at the false advertising upon realizing that breakfast is NOT included and that we will have to pay if we want a towel, locker, or sheet, and go to sleep. But not for long!

The next morning we woke up at 8 and grabbed some breakfast. This is the view from my lovely hostel window!

Most of the breakfast conversation was recounting the sheer number of buses, trains, planes, etc. that we were involved in the day before. Mostly just not believing it. We found a great café around the corner from our hostel and got a “full English Breakfast” for cheap. This is Caitlin and I thrilled to be on the path to caffeinated travel recovery and about to fully eat our full English breakfast. 

We hopped on the tube and eventually made it to Wembley Stadium (after about 3 changes, which was no big deal compared to the previous day. We pretty much laugh in the face of public transportation these days).  Here we are at the tube!

Wembley is HUUUUUGE. Absolutely enormous. Like this big...

When we got there, lines hadn’t really started forming so we walked around for a while looking in the gift shop at all the soccer stuff and just sort of marveling at how unreal it was to be there. We found Katy and Thomas (who traveled separately) while buying very overpriced souvenir shirts and resigned ourselves to waiting in line for the next….nine… hours.

At four pm the let us loose, literally there was a definite risk of being trampled, and we staked our claim on a lovely plod of metal about 15 feet from the center of the stage. Then we stood there. And stood there. 

And then there were 100,000 people surrounding us. The first opening act was White Lies. Think a watered down version of The Killers/Interpol with a little more emo and angst and a little less edge. Not bad. Next came GIRLS ALOUD!!!!1!1! Which was bubblegum euro pop with nausea inducing male dancers in the back wearing oversized tuxedos. These men had facial expressions that made the standing worth it. So seductive, so intense, so completely cheesy I just laughed the entire time they played. Apparently Girls Aloud is bigger than the Spice Girls. 

This is all the people BEHIND us. 99 problems, but amazing seats/places to stand weren't one...

Jay-Z followed, and was unbelievable. For a moment, John and I agreed, we felt like we were back in Atlanta, where the players play. I don’t even like rap but his show was g-reat. I learned to bounce my arm up and down a lot and nod my head like you wouldn’t believe. Regardless of your musical taste, I highly recommend going to see him if the opportunity ever presents itself. First picture... Jay Z, not zoomed in. Second picture, just me and Jay Z, no big deal. 

Next, obviously and epically, was Coldplay. It started raining quite hard as they came on stage which we just embraced and literally soaked up. We got very wet. 

Sort of a refreshing change from the stench and sweat of standing all day with 100,000 of our closest friends. Coldplay was unbelievable. The set list was ideal and they know how to put on a show, visually as well as audibly. Giant yellow balls floated around on top of the crowd during Yellow, Jay Z came out and sang during Lost, the played a song with a harmonica (?!) and had a medley dance mix version of several songs off of Parachutes. SO so so so good. Favorite concert picture and a photo of the aftermath... which looks like the result of a 100,000 person frat house party.

Post concert, our new London friends (which we felt like we knew well after a day of waiting, standing, singing and being wet together) helped us navigate the tube, figure out our trains, taxis etc. to our respectable planes and then took us out for fish and chips. The place was really weird, like a glorified kebab stand with live music in the back? And the ketchup tasted funny but it was all a necessary part of the quintessential 48 hour London experience. 

The next day we trekked home, and trekked really is the most appropriate word. We missed a train somewhere along the way and got home 3 hours later than originally anticipated, where we learned that buses were no longer running. We found a café, as it was closing and got a taxi up to Cortona where we collapsed. Such an adventure, such a hassle, and SO exhausting, but completely worth it in the end. When in my life will I ever do something so ridiculous and crazy and nonsensical again? After that weekend, maybe next week sometime? :)

 

The first time she basted a turkey was hilarious

I've typed the first sentence of this post and backspaced the entire thing about 6 times. I don't really know how to give Cortona an adequate introduction. Maybe an onomatopoeia...

Bloop! 

Cortona is unquestionably the most beautiful place I have ever been, and this program is a little slice of heaven for an art student. Logistically, the location, classes, surroundings, schedule (or lack of) is SO conducive to making art. On a different level, the attitude of both the professors and the students is completely ideal. Here is a typical day in my newly-adopted Italian life...

7:15 am Wake up, get dressed, eat cornflakes, coconut yogurt, nutella on toast, fruit (if I stole it from dinner the night before) and drink really weak "American coffee."

8:00 am Depending on the day go to Painting or Relief Printmaking class till 11. I have 2 paintings underway and am about to pull my first set of prints. Paintings are of a very boring still life of bottles, and an italian turpentine can with really exciting typography. The print is a foot, which sounds odd but I will post pictures when I finish it. All this after only one week. Ridiculous. 

11:00 am Go to Drawing or Bookmaking class until 2. In drawing we have done 6 drawings. SIX. That's a lot for the amount of time. Mine were of various kitchen appliances. Italy has super retro appliances that make for very exciting drawings. In book arts we have made 3 little prototypes and have our first book with content due next week. It's a recycled book, meaning we have to use things we find or already have and spend no money at all on the book. No plan for that yet... except that I stumbled across a huge container of used batteries on the street today. Slightly sketchy, we'll see. 

2:00 pm Lunch! I either get a panini at the grocery store in town or cook! I have kept an extensive journal of my grocery lists, recipes I've thought of/plan to make, and things I've actually cooked. Produce is SO cheap here. I got 4 tomatoes, 2 bananas, 2 apples, an onion, an avocado, a head of lettuce, a red pepper and a clove of garlic for 4 euro. On Wednesdays, there are no classes till the afternoon and one of the professors wife teaches a cooking class. so far she's taught us how to make Rosemary Chicken and ZUPPA! which is really just soup but sound twelve times as exciting. 

3:00 pm Go into town to buy groceries, get gelato or a cappuccino, go to the art store, wander aimlessly, go for a walk, sit and stare, sketch, daydream, dance, paint, run, pick flowers, buy cheap wine for dinner (there is literally and 85 cent bottle in the grocery store, and the 2 euro bottle is really decent), write postcards, etc, etc, etc.

5:00 pm On Wednesdays and Fridays I have art history in a warm, dark room in the middle of the afternoon. This generally translates into difficulty staying awake. 

5:30 pm This is the only mass time I could decipher from the Italian schedule posted outside the closest church. It is a HIKE. Super steep incline, all cobblestones. The first Sunday we were here I left too late and had about five minutes to get there in time. I was out of breath until the homily and coughing until after communion. But it's worth it, the church is really, really beautiful inside and  having been twice now, I think I might even know people by the end of the semester. 

7:00 pm Leave for dinner. Monday through Friday we have dinner at a restaurant in town called Toninos. It's supposed to be one of the best restaurants in Tuscany, but we eat in the basement and I seriously doubt the people upstairs are getting the same thing. As you go down the flights of stairs the decor gets progressively tackier, and the food less tasty. But it's still really good and on nights where there is a wedding or party upstairs, our food improves a little. Dinner generally lasts 1-2 hours and is between 3 and 4 courses. Sometimes they throw a random veggie course in the mix, but it's usually pasta, then meat, then dessert. My favorite was when they added "the bean course" where we were served several different types of beans in succession. Very odd. 

9:00 pm Depending on how much work I have to do I either go back to do art or go to the Lion's Well, the only pub in Cortona that everyone frequents, including the professors. Cell phones are really, really not necessary here. People are either in class, in their rooms, in a studio or in town. Which is really only about 4 streets. Very manageable. 

11:00 or 12 go to bed! in order to get up for class the next morning. 

It is becoming more and more apparent that all I am expected to do here, to both do well in school and get the most out of my experience, is eat, drink, make art and let Italy inspire me. Which it has. Even just from traveling in Rome and Florence and being here for a week I have SOOOO many ideas for art and life and I haven't been this excited to make art in a really long time. Which is a good thing since I am expected to make a lot of it, and often. Pictures soon, and a more detailed account of the adventures and hoopla that go down in these hills. 

LIttle onions with WINEGAR!

A couple of pictures from the last few days in Florence and Cortona. More on Cortona, and pictures from Rome and Florence later :)

The hill to my house; an approximately 1/3 mile long, super steep, cobblestoned hike that I take an average of three times every day. I will have no shame eating my weight in pasta this semester. 

THE LIFE. 2 euro mozzerella, tomato and arugula panini in the park overlooking everything in the picture below. 

The view from my bedroom window/balcony and basically anywhere else on our campus. Recently one of my favorite activities is brushing my teeth because I do it with the window open and staring at that. Who knew teeth brushing could be inspirational. 

Gorgeous candles inside the Duomo. 

This is a bookstore in Florence. We could all learn a thing or two about organization from the Italians. 

What a Bumpin' Ambulance!

I'm a little too scatterbrained and exhausted right now for coherent thoughts about the last week, so here are some tidbits! Interpret at will:) Uploading pictures is seeming to be a several hour endeavor, so here's one to get you excited and there are a bunch more on facebook. I'll try to post more soon. 

Rome was a hot, sweaty, ancient, feline, aesthetic overload. 3 days packed with museums, monuments, panini, pizza and postcards. Completely exhausting, but great. I got to see all the Vatican art, the Borghese (twice because it was so intense and beautiful), the Colliseum, the Pantheon, the Trevi Fountain and anything else notable you can think of in Rome. Including the cat sanctuary. Fun fact: The Rome Cat Sanctuary, of national prestige, is located on the very spot where Julius Caesar was assassinated. If Caesar gets homeless cats, I cannot fathom what would be erected where I die. Rome was really, really hot. To give you an idea, we passed a store and seeing a cashmere coat, one of my friends said, “that makes me feel nauseous.” Highlight of Rome: One night we were downtown and heard really heavy bass coming from somewhere and saw some flashing lights. We looked around to find, not a club, but an ambulance with it’s lights flashing and sub “woofing,” if you will. 

We stopped in a little town called Viterbo for a few hours on our way from Rome to Florence. John, Jack, Caitlin and I made complete fools of ourselves when attempting to eat lunch. The language barrier is very humbling at times. We saw lots of little churches, some beautiful doors, and ended the afternoon on a highway median having grass fights and recalling rap songs from middle school? More accurately, I sang rap songs from middle school and the other three rolled around laughing and throwing grass at me. Quality. Highlight of Viterbo: I paid 30 cents to use the restroom before leaving. This involved walking into a silver metal box that sounded like it was going to take off and warned that if I was not finished in 15 minutes, it would eject me.

Florence was pretty refreshing after Rome, both in temperature and experience. We saw the Uffizi (and therefore every major work of Renaissance Italian art), Bargello (everything that wasn’t in the Uffizi), the monastery of Fra Angelico (favorite art seen in person so far, absolutely breathtaking) and the duomo (verb: to duome, pronounced “dwome”). The first night I ran into some friends from Wake and loooooved having my college worlds collide in Italy. Furman people, Wake people, some that new each other, all of which I knew, it was great. Had fantastic, leisurely dinners, great conversations, and lots of exploring. Bought a lovely, probably overpriced, gold metal belt with a leaf buckle at a vintage store on the river. Italian life is oh so sweet! 

We got to Cortona yesterday afternoon…woah. No words right now, I’m still getting goosebumps and a little teary when I look around and go through the town :) As a little teaser, here is what I see when I wake up and sit up in my bed. I fully intend to gush about it later!

That's a giant clock!

I’m here! Here being Rome. The flight itself was an adventure. From Atlanta, I flew to Toronto and was accompanied by a man with a cat. The cat held his tongue, thankfully, and did not combust. I was a little worried about him with the pressure changes that occur while flying. Cat and I intact, we arrived in Toronto. Customs was easy. Another girl in the program forgot to remove pepper spray from her book bag. The nice customs man informed her that, had it been bear mace, there would be no issue, but to please come with him. Note to self: bear mace is not considered a weapon against humans.

The flight to Rome was sleepless and very trippy. They fed me a meal, which I can’t name, around 11pm home time, and then again at 7 am Rome time. Neither of these made sense, and what made even less sense was the lighting situation inside the plane. It was like crawling through the threads of Joseph’s Technicolor Dream Coat. We began with a white-ish blue for our first meal and drink service. It changed to a yellowy green for dessert, a fiery magenta at one point and eventually, went completely off. The next “morning,” we did it all again. Maybe the change was meant to get us sleepy or somehow adjusted? Overall, a very trippy traveling experience.

First afternoon/night in Rome was a complete and fantastic stereotype. We had DELICIOUS dinner on a cobblestoned street while a man played the accordion. Katy Cowles and I shared a plate of pasta that was really just one hugely long noodle and then we danced in the moonlight until dawn. False, but not far off. I had unbelievable pesto gnocchi, a 3 euro glass of water (?!) and because of some miscommunication with the waitress, the most unbelievable bruschetta of life. I did not know that tomatoes could taste so good. The accordion and cobblestoned street are a true story.

After dinner we wandered around Rome for a while and literally stumbled across the Pantheon. Turned a corner and there it was in all it’s ancient, stony glory. Jaw dropping stuff. I’m learning that any noteworthy sculpture, fountain or building in Rome has an obelisk in front of it. The Pantheon did not disappoint. On the way to dinner we found St. Peter’s, the Trevi Fountain, and afterward a giant and very important fountain that I couldn’t identify. But I know it’s important. It’s the four major rivers of the world with four gods around it in the Piazza Navona and it was BEAUTIFUL. Furman should look into revising some fountains based on this one.

The vegetation in Rome seems really conflicted to me. There are pine trees, palm trees and bamboo within three feet of one another. The buses are super confusing. No one was paying, so we decided not to make ourselves an exception. You have to ring a bell if you want to get off. This becomes a challenge if you don’t know where you are or where you are going. And if that gets out of control, a philosophical dilemma.

I’m three cups of coffee into my day, not too jet-lagged and pretty excited to see Rome with eyes that have not been jaded by a trans-continental flight! I will dig my camera out of my suitcase today so that there are illustrations to my future posts. We meet up with the whole group at 5 and then I have no idea what. It all starts, the hoopla, the art, everything. And now I need another cup of coffee.

A Bittersweet Farewell

A last loving glance at what, aside from my family, I shall miss most while abroad. 

Dear Woolite, be kind to me.