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!