Well as I left you all last, I was heading to Paris in the morning! This was the last big trip we had planned for the semester and were all super excited to be heading to France. Bright and early on November 28th Amanda, Richard, MK and I set off to the airport to head to the one and only city of love; Paris, France. When we finally arrived, we made our way to our cute little backpacking hostel right next to the Sacre Coeur church! I immediately fell in love with the city of Paris.
Once we got settled in, we decided to walk around the city of Paris and head towards the Notre Dame. On the way there we came across the Louvre! We of course had to stop and take pictures, but saved the museum for another day's adventure. Continuing our walk we came across the love lock bridge! For those of you who don't know what this is, is it is a bridge crossing over the river in Paris that is filled with locks. When you get a lock it comes with three keys. You write on the lock the name of you and your loved one and lock your love to the bridge. Then you take one of the keys and throw it into the river. The other two go to yourself and your loved one. This makes it so that if someone were to want to ever break your love it would basically be impossible for them to because I mean come on, what are the chances of finding the exact key in the river!? So as cheesy as it is, of course I put a lock on :p What a better way to celebrate Thanksgiving then being thankful for Jacob right? After taking pictures so I can attempt to find the lock again one day in life (think my memory is that good...?) we continued our walk and finally reached the Notre Dame!! It was definitely a surreal experience seeing the church in person. When we walked in it was gorgeous. It was later at night and the sun wasn't shining, however the stained glass was still breathtaking. The stained glass was definitely my favorite part! And our adventure didn't end there! After taking our time walking through the church, we took a night walk along the river to go see the Eiffel Tower at night. It was cool because from Notre Dame you could see the top of it and the more we walked the closer we got and the more we were able to see. At one point the Eiffel Tower started to sparkle! It was pretty magical. We finally arrived right at the base of the tower and boy is it tall and majestic. It was such an incredible site to see all lite up at night. Definitely a site to see one day again. We then headed up the street and stopped to see the Triumphal Arc which is the center point of Paris. And it too was a beautiful site but by far can't beat the Eiffel Tower (what can??). After doing our touristy walk for the night, we sat down at a cute little restaurant and at our Thanksgiving meal. We all ate chicken and french fries haha and then headed back to our hostel for the night
Bright and early Friday morning we woke up to head to Versailles! After slight confusion on the train, we made it! Even with the slight fog in the sky and the overcast day it was absolutely stunning. It is a huge place and every since inch of it is amazing. Nothing ugly existed there. Ever. We first walked the palace. My favorite room hands down was the Hall of Mirrors. It was just amazing. There's no other way to put it. I felt like I was back in junior high/high school when we took pictures in the mirrors :p definitely not an opportunity we could pass up! haha we spent a lot of time just looking in that room at everything and anything. So much to see. After walking through the palace we headed outside to look at the gardens which of course were beautiful like everything else there. We also visited Marie Antoinette's summer house. It was cool but slightly disappointing in the sense that compared to Versailles it was very plain. Still cool to see though! After spending all morning and part of the afternoon there we headed back to our hostel to rest for a little.
After resting a little bit, Richard and I went to visit the Sacre Coeur and then do some souvenir shopping. The church was beautiful after you climbed up the steep steps to get to the top haha we then went back to meet up with Amanda and MK and got dressed up to head out to dinner that night before going to the Moulin Rouge! Dinner was delicious and Moulin Rouge was a lot of fun. It was a great experience even if the show was in French. We still understood most of what was going on because of the story line. There was also a ventriloquist who did his part in English. He was pretty funny. Overall it was a great night!
Saturday morning we headed back to the Louvre to walk around the museum for a few hours. We saw the Mona Lisa! It wasn't that exciting to see because it's small but it's still cool to say that I've seen the Mona Lisa. My favorite part of the entire museum was the Napoleon Apartments section. The rooms were gorgeous. It was definitely a place I would've wanted to live! The furniture was exquisite. After spending time at the Louvre we walked to the Eiffel Tower again, but this time to climb! After standing in line for tickets and 500 or so steps later we made it! And it was wonderful and the lighting was perfect! We then climbed our way back down and then met up with my old pastor Scott Herr from Fort Collins. He preaches at the American Church in Paris now and we met there and were welcomed into his apartment. We spent a few hours catching up with him, Chris, and Matthew (2 of 4 of his kids). It was fantastic to see them again!
Sunday was our last day in Paris. I spent the morning attending church at the American Church in Paris. With Scott preaching it was a little taste of home that I needed; it came at the right time. I then met up with the others and we headed to the airport to finish our semester in Rome. It was a wonderful long weekend; one that ended too soon when you are that much in love with a city.
The next two weeks were filled with studio worked. Studio on studio on studio. It was literally never ending work right up until it was due. Finally, we turned in our CD's with our boards to be printed this past Sunday. Monday morning was set up for presentations and then it all came down to Tuesday. One last 20 minute presentation and critique. And it turned out great! We have positive comments all around. I couldn't of asked for a better review. The semester is now over and the last few days haven't consisted of much but pure laziness and cleaning the studio spaces.
As I sit here and write this I can't help but have mixed feelings. This semester has by far been the best one yet and I loved every moment of it and I'm really excited to be home. However, the fact that I may or may not be back here is a saddening thought and one I don't really want to have to think about quite yet. Luckily for me my family is joining me on Sunday and I have a few more days left in Italy to be able to show my family where I have lived, and the places I have left pieces of my heart. One adventure is left on my agenda; share my love of this country with my family. I then will get to head home to my beloved state of Colorado :)
Thursday, December 19, 2013
Wednesday, November 27, 2013
Work, Work, Work
Oh my goodness I apologize for not having posted in so long!! It has gotten crazy busy here and I have loads to tell! So I'll start where I left off...
Going all the way back to the end of October. On Tuesday the 29th we left for our field trip to the North! Milan and Venice were on our travel agenda :) We arrived in Milan around noon that day, checked into our hotel, and then went to go visit a college called Domus Academy. They gave us an introduction of the school and what they had to offer in terms of programs, and then we had a lecture by one of their professors! We then were able to take a tour of the campus and the studio spaces. The school was amazing! If I had a lot of money, and could afford to live in Milan I would attend Domus Academy for graduate school in Interior Design. I absolutely loved the school and the programs they offered. Dream school for sure! They even teach in English ;) Anyways, after visiting the school we had the rest of the day to ourselves. MK and I went to visit the duomo. It was beautiful, but on the downside it's always under construction so that kinda ruins the experience. But it was still pretty. After seeing the duomo we went back to our hotel to freshen up and meet up with our friend Michael. The three of us then we out on the town and explored Milan at night. We walked around for an hour walking by all the flagship, high end stores and then sat down for a nice dinner outside. I fell in love with Milan that night. I enjoyed Milan more than Rome because it's a cleaner and quieter city but yet still a big city. It was nice and had a good atmosphere. After dinner we headed back to the hotel for an early night; we were exhausted.
The next morning we visited two museums. The first one we went to was Studio Museo Castiglioni. It was the artist Castiglioni's studio turned into a museum for people to pay to visit. It was really cool to see all of it and our tour guide was Castiglioni's daughter! It was tons of fun and at the end I bought a spoon that is shaped so you can reach all the way to the bottom of the jar and reach the corners. No wasted nutella anymore ;) We then moved onto the Triennale Design Museum. It was filled with a bunch of interesting and unique things. It was fun to see all the different things it held. Following the museums we took a lunch break. Our professor showed us this famous and cheap place to eat behind the duomo. What they served was basically a fried hot pocket pizza and they were amazing! They were so good that I crave some now haha. After filling our stomachs we went to go visit a studio called A4A. It was a company that made most of their items out of cardboard. It was really cool to see. We then had some down time before heading out to apertivo that night. Apertivo is bascially the Italian's version of happy hour. They serve you one drink and then you have a buffet of food that is endless. We went to one of the most famous places for apertivo called Roialto. It was a lot of fun! After hanging out and socializing with each other, we headed back to the hostel to end the day and have our last night in Milan.
Thursday morning before departing to Venice, we did a retail survey for an assignment. We walked around the flagship stores in Milan looking at all the different window displays and analyzing which ones we thought were best and could be relevant to our project. It was a lot of fun to see all the different designs. We then departed on the train to head to Venice! Once in Venice and after checking into our hotel, we had the evening to ourselves. A few of us grabbed a quick dinner, walked around for awhile and then headed back to go to bed. It didn't take me long at all to fall in love with Venice. It was absolutely gorgeous and surrounded by water. And what can I say, I've always been a water girl at heart :)
Our first full day in Venice, we had the Biennale Arsenale Museum first on our list of things to do. We toured the museum and it was very interesting. It was full of contemporary art, some that I didn't like and some that I did. Certainly some I didn't understand haha we then continued to the Biennale Giardini after grabbing lunch. The Biennale Giardini holds pavilions of different countries and each pavilion holds exhibits. For an assignment in our groups we had to research a specific pavilion. MK and I presented on the Hungary pavilion and it was fun to do. It was also fun to learn and see about the other pavilions. After presentations, we went into the Italy pavilion to see the exhibit there. It was really cool and I enjoyed the clay sculptures and some of the paintings they had. After visiting the Biennale Giardini we had some free time before our group dinner that night. So Amanda and I went shopping long the water and of course looked at the masks. I ended up buying two because they're so pretty haha it was a beautiful night. We were surrounded by water, no cars around transportation only by boat; it was magical. Venice won my heart without a doubt. We then met up for group dinner. It was a classic Venice meal which meant seafood. I didn't really enjoy it...not the best meal I've had but o well it was a good experience.
The next morning we got up to go to Piazza S. Marco. It's the only piazza in Venice and is also the lowest point in the city so it was pretty flooded (since Venice is sinking). At one point in the center, the water was up to people's ankles! It was crazy. When we started walking to Museo Fortuny we weaved around all the flooding streets and managed to stay mostly dry. Museo Fortuny was a museum that used to be a house so the layout was pretty interesting for a museum! It was fun to see that and I loved the dresses the museum had and the models of buildings were really cool. It was once again enjoyable to see everything. We then took a trip to the island of Murano, the island known for their glass making. We just wandered around the island and did some shopping and ate food before departing back to Venice. It was a cute little island and fun to see all the glass! We were also fortunate enough to have a tour of a glass showroom which was neat. We then headed back to Venice to wait for our train back to Rome. It was a fantastic trip!
Sunday morning we woke up in Rome and celebrated MK's birthday! We made her stir fry for dinner :) We just stayed in the apartment that night and MK decided she would want to go out on a non school night to celebrate some. The rest of the school week consisted of lots of school work. But, I did get taught how to use a real espresso machine! The bar we always go to, we know the owner pretty well. So one day, I was telling them that I am a barista back in the US as my job but that we had different machines so I didn't know how to use the kind they had. He told me he would teach me so I got to go behind the counter and be taught! It was a ton of fun!! :)
Thursday night was the night we celebrated MK's birthday. We went to a restaurant called Mad Jacks for dinner and then to Scholar's Pub. It was a fun night and MK seemed to have a lot of fun which was what mattered!
The next week was more school work, but that weekend MK has friends come visit so we hung out with them some. Saturday night we went to an ice bar. It was awesome! We got these capes that we wore to keep us warm once we got inside the bar. It was 21 degrees F inside and literally everything was made of ice, even the cups! We sat inside this igloo for the night. It was a really fun experience but slightly cold :p
Overall, since I've last updated you all I've been having a lot of adventures and been staying super busy with school. My art history class and my drawing class have now ended and are getting filled with more studio time. Lots of studio work still ahead! I'm just working away over here in Rome haha but Thanksgiving break is now upon me and tomorrow morning I head to Paris for 4 days!! :) Talk to you all later!
Going all the way back to the end of October. On Tuesday the 29th we left for our field trip to the North! Milan and Venice were on our travel agenda :) We arrived in Milan around noon that day, checked into our hotel, and then went to go visit a college called Domus Academy. They gave us an introduction of the school and what they had to offer in terms of programs, and then we had a lecture by one of their professors! We then were able to take a tour of the campus and the studio spaces. The school was amazing! If I had a lot of money, and could afford to live in Milan I would attend Domus Academy for graduate school in Interior Design. I absolutely loved the school and the programs they offered. Dream school for sure! They even teach in English ;) Anyways, after visiting the school we had the rest of the day to ourselves. MK and I went to visit the duomo. It was beautiful, but on the downside it's always under construction so that kinda ruins the experience. But it was still pretty. After seeing the duomo we went back to our hotel to freshen up and meet up with our friend Michael. The three of us then we out on the town and explored Milan at night. We walked around for an hour walking by all the flagship, high end stores and then sat down for a nice dinner outside. I fell in love with Milan that night. I enjoyed Milan more than Rome because it's a cleaner and quieter city but yet still a big city. It was nice and had a good atmosphere. After dinner we headed back to the hotel for an early night; we were exhausted.
The next morning we visited two museums. The first one we went to was Studio Museo Castiglioni. It was the artist Castiglioni's studio turned into a museum for people to pay to visit. It was really cool to see all of it and our tour guide was Castiglioni's daughter! It was tons of fun and at the end I bought a spoon that is shaped so you can reach all the way to the bottom of the jar and reach the corners. No wasted nutella anymore ;) We then moved onto the Triennale Design Museum. It was filled with a bunch of interesting and unique things. It was fun to see all the different things it held. Following the museums we took a lunch break. Our professor showed us this famous and cheap place to eat behind the duomo. What they served was basically a fried hot pocket pizza and they were amazing! They were so good that I crave some now haha. After filling our stomachs we went to go visit a studio called A4A. It was a company that made most of their items out of cardboard. It was really cool to see. We then had some down time before heading out to apertivo that night. Apertivo is bascially the Italian's version of happy hour. They serve you one drink and then you have a buffet of food that is endless. We went to one of the most famous places for apertivo called Roialto. It was a lot of fun! After hanging out and socializing with each other, we headed back to the hostel to end the day and have our last night in Milan.
Thursday morning before departing to Venice, we did a retail survey for an assignment. We walked around the flagship stores in Milan looking at all the different window displays and analyzing which ones we thought were best and could be relevant to our project. It was a lot of fun to see all the different designs. We then departed on the train to head to Venice! Once in Venice and after checking into our hotel, we had the evening to ourselves. A few of us grabbed a quick dinner, walked around for awhile and then headed back to go to bed. It didn't take me long at all to fall in love with Venice. It was absolutely gorgeous and surrounded by water. And what can I say, I've always been a water girl at heart :)
Our first full day in Venice, we had the Biennale Arsenale Museum first on our list of things to do. We toured the museum and it was very interesting. It was full of contemporary art, some that I didn't like and some that I did. Certainly some I didn't understand haha we then continued to the Biennale Giardini after grabbing lunch. The Biennale Giardini holds pavilions of different countries and each pavilion holds exhibits. For an assignment in our groups we had to research a specific pavilion. MK and I presented on the Hungary pavilion and it was fun to do. It was also fun to learn and see about the other pavilions. After presentations, we went into the Italy pavilion to see the exhibit there. It was really cool and I enjoyed the clay sculptures and some of the paintings they had. After visiting the Biennale Giardini we had some free time before our group dinner that night. So Amanda and I went shopping long the water and of course looked at the masks. I ended up buying two because they're so pretty haha it was a beautiful night. We were surrounded by water, no cars around transportation only by boat; it was magical. Venice won my heart without a doubt. We then met up for group dinner. It was a classic Venice meal which meant seafood. I didn't really enjoy it...not the best meal I've had but o well it was a good experience.
The next morning we got up to go to Piazza S. Marco. It's the only piazza in Venice and is also the lowest point in the city so it was pretty flooded (since Venice is sinking). At one point in the center, the water was up to people's ankles! It was crazy. When we started walking to Museo Fortuny we weaved around all the flooding streets and managed to stay mostly dry. Museo Fortuny was a museum that used to be a house so the layout was pretty interesting for a museum! It was fun to see that and I loved the dresses the museum had and the models of buildings were really cool. It was once again enjoyable to see everything. We then took a trip to the island of Murano, the island known for their glass making. We just wandered around the island and did some shopping and ate food before departing back to Venice. It was a cute little island and fun to see all the glass! We were also fortunate enough to have a tour of a glass showroom which was neat. We then headed back to Venice to wait for our train back to Rome. It was a fantastic trip!
Sunday morning we woke up in Rome and celebrated MK's birthday! We made her stir fry for dinner :) We just stayed in the apartment that night and MK decided she would want to go out on a non school night to celebrate some. The rest of the school week consisted of lots of school work. But, I did get taught how to use a real espresso machine! The bar we always go to, we know the owner pretty well. So one day, I was telling them that I am a barista back in the US as my job but that we had different machines so I didn't know how to use the kind they had. He told me he would teach me so I got to go behind the counter and be taught! It was a ton of fun!! :)
Thursday night was the night we celebrated MK's birthday. We went to a restaurant called Mad Jacks for dinner and then to Scholar's Pub. It was a fun night and MK seemed to have a lot of fun which was what mattered!
The next week was more school work, but that weekend MK has friends come visit so we hung out with them some. Saturday night we went to an ice bar. It was awesome! We got these capes that we wore to keep us warm once we got inside the bar. It was 21 degrees F inside and literally everything was made of ice, even the cups! We sat inside this igloo for the night. It was a really fun experience but slightly cold :p
Overall, since I've last updated you all I've been having a lot of adventures and been staying super busy with school. My art history class and my drawing class have now ended and are getting filled with more studio time. Lots of studio work still ahead! I'm just working away over here in Rome haha but Thanksgiving break is now upon me and tomorrow morning I head to Paris for 4 days!! :) Talk to you all later!
Monday, October 28, 2013
Famous People, Leather, Wine, and Chocolate!
Since I last wrote a few exciting things have happened! For art history class on the 11th we looked at work by both Boromini and Bernini! All of it was absolutely amazing but by far my favorite thing we saw that week was the Ecstasy of St. Teresa. I had been looking forward to seeing this since last semester when it was part of our last art history class. It certainly didn't let me down. It was absolutely incredible! The craftsmanship was unbelievable and it was very moving. Loved every minute of looking at it and took far too many pictures :)
The Saturday following this day we departed for our quick two day trip to Florence!! We were able to take a tour of an old medieval tower which used to be apartments and is now its own museum exhibition. It was amazing to see all the artwork and furniture in real life that we had learned about last semester! The detailing of the artwork was indescribable and the furniture was absolutely beautiful. We then headed off for the markets, both the food market and the leather market! We headed first to the food market to grab some lunch. Richard, MK, Sally and I split 3 different dishes. All three were good considering we tried new things such as boar and kidney! Both surprised me in being good haha
We then headed out for a tour with Jody and Pia, our instructors. They showed us an amazing chapel of the Medici family, sculptures by Michelangelo, amazing architecture, the duomo of the city, and the Faragamo museum! Which is a museum of shoes designed by Faragmo. I wanted them all! Of course right?? After they showed us around for a bit, we were on our own until group dinner that night. We headed back up to the leather market to do some shopping! Leather was bought all around :) most people bought something from the market and was excited to share with everyone else.
That night we all met up for dinner where we were served samples of a bunch of different items on the menu. Another interesting thing we tried was liver. That was surprising good too! Weird right? My favorite though was the spicy spaghetti that we had! It was super delicious! (Dad and Austin you would've loved it! Mom, not so much :p) After the satisfying meal we headed to our hostel for the night. The hostel was a little sketchy and it felt like we were in a prison. And the breakfast wasn't so good. But we survived the night and the next morning headed for the Uffizi museum.
The Uffizi museum holds hundreds and hundreds of paintings and sculptures by some of the most famous artists in the world such as Michelangelo, Caravaggio, Rafael, etc. It was incredible!! We unfortunately didn't have enough time to stay there long enough to see everything. After the museum we had an hour or so on our own until we departed to Tuscany for wine tasting!
We arrived in Tuscany and were taken on a tour of the vineyard and then were sat down for a small meal and wine tasting! It was so adorable! The tour guide had his son helping him out who was adorable and they had three dogs there which were oh so loveable :) Overall, it was a fantastic weekend trip!
We then went back to our routine of classes every week. For art history this past week we saw a bunch of paintings by Caravaggio! He is a very interesting painter and I very much enjoyed analyzing his work! He puts a different twist on things that makes you think. He also almost always has a self portrait in his work portraying himself as the bad guy, not the good guy.
Finally, to top of everything this weekend, on Saturday we took a day trip to Perugia for the Chocolate Festival! We walked out of the train station upon arriving, and saw the Choco-Train! It was so adorable and we took that to the city center of Perugia to the location of the Chocolate festival. Once we got there, we grabbed some lunch and wandered the festival. We ended up buying a chocolate card which cost 5 euro. This card had different tent names on it and when you when to each tent on the card they would give you a free sample of something! It was awesome and totally worth it!! All the chocolate :) And of course we couldn't leave without buying some haha it made for a great day trip. I would definitely go back one day!
It has been go go go here and so much has been happening it's been great! It's already the end of October! Home in 2 months and 2 days! Ciao for now!
The Saturday following this day we departed for our quick two day trip to Florence!! We were able to take a tour of an old medieval tower which used to be apartments and is now its own museum exhibition. It was amazing to see all the artwork and furniture in real life that we had learned about last semester! The detailing of the artwork was indescribable and the furniture was absolutely beautiful. We then headed off for the markets, both the food market and the leather market! We headed first to the food market to grab some lunch. Richard, MK, Sally and I split 3 different dishes. All three were good considering we tried new things such as boar and kidney! Both surprised me in being good haha
We then headed out for a tour with Jody and Pia, our instructors. They showed us an amazing chapel of the Medici family, sculptures by Michelangelo, amazing architecture, the duomo of the city, and the Faragamo museum! Which is a museum of shoes designed by Faragmo. I wanted them all! Of course right?? After they showed us around for a bit, we were on our own until group dinner that night. We headed back up to the leather market to do some shopping! Leather was bought all around :) most people bought something from the market and was excited to share with everyone else.
That night we all met up for dinner where we were served samples of a bunch of different items on the menu. Another interesting thing we tried was liver. That was surprising good too! Weird right? My favorite though was the spicy spaghetti that we had! It was super delicious! (Dad and Austin you would've loved it! Mom, not so much :p) After the satisfying meal we headed to our hostel for the night. The hostel was a little sketchy and it felt like we were in a prison. And the breakfast wasn't so good. But we survived the night and the next morning headed for the Uffizi museum.
The Uffizi museum holds hundreds and hundreds of paintings and sculptures by some of the most famous artists in the world such as Michelangelo, Caravaggio, Rafael, etc. It was incredible!! We unfortunately didn't have enough time to stay there long enough to see everything. After the museum we had an hour or so on our own until we departed to Tuscany for wine tasting!
We arrived in Tuscany and were taken on a tour of the vineyard and then were sat down for a small meal and wine tasting! It was so adorable! The tour guide had his son helping him out who was adorable and they had three dogs there which were oh so loveable :) Overall, it was a fantastic weekend trip!
We then went back to our routine of classes every week. For art history this past week we saw a bunch of paintings by Caravaggio! He is a very interesting painter and I very much enjoyed analyzing his work! He puts a different twist on things that makes you think. He also almost always has a self portrait in his work portraying himself as the bad guy, not the good guy.
Finally, to top of everything this weekend, on Saturday we took a day trip to Perugia for the Chocolate Festival! We walked out of the train station upon arriving, and saw the Choco-Train! It was so adorable and we took that to the city center of Perugia to the location of the Chocolate festival. Once we got there, we grabbed some lunch and wandered the festival. We ended up buying a chocolate card which cost 5 euro. This card had different tent names on it and when you when to each tent on the card they would give you a free sample of something! It was awesome and totally worth it!! All the chocolate :) And of course we couldn't leave without buying some haha it made for a great day trip. I would definitely go back one day!
It has been go go go here and so much has been happening it's been great! It's already the end of October! Home in 2 months and 2 days! Ciao for now!
Tuesday, October 15, 2013
Childhood Dream Come True :)
What has been one of my dreams since middle school? Going to Germany. What did I do to celebrate the start of October? I WENT TO GERMANY!
Thursday night, after having just traveled last weekend to southern Italy, we made our way back to Termini Train Station to meet up with our group to head to Okoberfest in Munich, Germany! We booked the trip through a company called bus2alps and they are a company that helps students traveling abroad visit other places they are interested in on the weekends. So there were a bunch of students all meeting at Termini to head to Oktoberfest. We left around 9PM and took and overnight, 12 hour bus ride to Munich. We arrived at roughly 9AM Friday morning. Best part? We signed up for the camping portion! I shared a tent with Mary Kate. We went to go drop our stuff off and look around.
After doing so, Sally, Mary Kate, and I got ready for our bike tour we signed up for. It was a bike tour through the city of Munich! It rained on us a little bit but the city is absolutely beautiful. We got to see city hall (yes, the glockenspiel is here and it's not worth seeing; most overrated tourist attraction in all the world), an amazing church (which I can't remember the name...) which was gorgeous and all white inside (nice change from all the color in the Italian churches), a beautiful garden, the Chinese tower, the natural wave in the river of Munich where surfers are constantly testing their skills, and the 2nd largest beer tent in the entire world. This beer tent is 4x larger than Central Park in New York. Let that one sink in for a little bit...it was crazy! It was so incredibly peaceful there I never wanted to leave. And the scenery...goodness I could look at that 24/7 and never get tired of it. This is where we stopped for lunch before heading back and ending the tour.
After making our way back, we decided to go check out Oktoberfest! It was only about 20 minutes away if you took public transportation. We got to the festival and just walked around for a bit. Part of me felt like I was at a giant outdoor Halloween party with everyone wearing their tradition German outfits haha but they were really cool to see! The festival was pretty crowded (go figure it was Friday night...) so we decided not to wait in line to get into a beer tent since it was already around 8PM and the festival closed at 10PM. So we headed back to the campsite and hung out there. From my class, there were about 14 of us who went on this trip. We all ended up finding each other and hung out. We met this group of guys from London that night and they were very interesting but fun to hang out with for a night.
Saturday morning, Sally, Mary Kate, Amanda and I went on a tour of the Neuschwanstein Castle
aka the Sleeping Beauty castle!! It was about a 2 hour bus ride there and then a 30 minute walk up the hill to the castle, but every minute getting there was worth it. Even with all the rain coming down, it was absolutely gorgeous being there near mountains and the amazing castle. We quickly learned that pictures were allowed so I don't have that many up. However, I bought a book at the end that has gorgeous pictures in it. Unfortunately the pictures don't do the castle any justice but at least I have something :) After exiting the castle we walked up more to go see the view of the castle from the near by bridge (because what Disney princess doesn't have a bridge to go with her castle?!). It was really pretty to see because the bridge was crossing over a waterfall making it picture perfect. Nothing could've topped it. Ok, maybe less rain, but we still managed.
After we go back, the four of us girls and our new friend Andrew, who we met on the castle tour, went to Oktoberfest! This time, since the rain finally stopped and it was earlier in the evening, we waited in line to get into a beer tent. The wait ended up not being that bad and got in fairly quickly. We spent some time there and met a very nice French man who we talked to for a little. Then we met Pep Guardiola! He was a soccer player for FC Barcelona, then played on the Spain World Cup soccer team, with his last debut in 2001. He now is trainer/coach for FC Bayern Munich team!! He was kind enough to let us take a picture with him. That was the highlight of my night :) After awhile we headed back to the campsite to hang out for a bit on our last night.
Sunday morning, before our departure time at 1PM, we took a trip to go see Dachau Concentration Camp. It was the most eerie, saddening, humbling experience of my life. It was definitely eye opening. While we were there it was misting which make it all the more eerie. We were able to see the "special bunkers" for the people who got punished, the land where they were forced to stand for hours and hours on end without moving, the regular bunkers and where they all used to be, the crematorium (both the original and the new one) along with the "shower" room (gas chamber), and waiting rooms to go take your "shower". We also go to see the trench along with the barbed wired/electrical fence to keep people from escaping and the watch tower where the guard stayed to watch that area. Everything that we saw wasn't altered in the slightest so we were seeing it how it was back then. Extremely saddening. After the use of the concentration camp, they built a Jewish memorial for all the people who lost their lives. It was nice to have that slice of humanity in an area that so severely lacked it. It was definitely worth seeing. And it was definitely nice to have a relaxing 12 hour bus ride back to Rome after dealing with those emotions.
The trip to Germany was absolutely incredible. Big city wise, I prefer Munich over Rome. It still had it's big city aspects but was way cleaner and quieter. It was beautiful.
After getting in around 1AM that Sunday night/Monday morning none of us were looking forward to the next week ahead of school. However, my walk for Art History on Thursday morning made up for the exhaustion of traveling. Thursday morning our art history class met at St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. Finally, I have been inside Vatican walls and it was incredible! The moment you walk into the Basilica your breath is taken away. It is a building that can not only fit 2 football fields inside, but can fit other buildings themselves inside!! CRAZY!! And so BEAUTIFUL!! The Basilica also holds some of the most amazing treasures like 4 statues created by Bernini surrounding the center of the Basilica and Michelangelo's Pieta. The Pieta was incredibly beautiful and serene. I couldn't believe I was seeing it with my own eyes! The entire day was like I was walking on a cloud in a dream world. I'm so blessed that it was real life for me.
After class, my friends Emily, Shari, Krista, Sally and Erin climbed to the top of the dome of the Basilica. The first major stop you make you are inside the main part of the Basilica looking down at all the artwork, statues, the apse, etc. It was amazing. Such an interesting way to view the Basilica from up there. We then continued our way to the top and once we go there we saw the entire city of Rome at it's finest. We were so high up it was incredible and jaw-dropping. And of course, we got to see the very well known, classic picture of the Vatican and Basilica from the bird's eye view. Many pictures were taken and many freakouts of excitement were had :) None of us could believe that we actually got to see that for ourselves. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity that was absolutely incredible. I wouldn't trade that experience for anything. It puts such a different perspective on things when you are looking down on the beautiful, gorgeous city of Rome that we are calling home for four months :)
So, as you all can tell, it has been a pretty incredible past week and a half. I'm so incredibly blessed and I wish I could share all these moments with all of you in person. I'm definitely counting my blessings here and there are many more to come I'm sure :) Dreams do come true, so keep dreaming everyone! I know I am :)
Thursday night, after having just traveled last weekend to southern Italy, we made our way back to Termini Train Station to meet up with our group to head to Okoberfest in Munich, Germany! We booked the trip through a company called bus2alps and they are a company that helps students traveling abroad visit other places they are interested in on the weekends. So there were a bunch of students all meeting at Termini to head to Oktoberfest. We left around 9PM and took and overnight, 12 hour bus ride to Munich. We arrived at roughly 9AM Friday morning. Best part? We signed up for the camping portion! I shared a tent with Mary Kate. We went to go drop our stuff off and look around.
After doing so, Sally, Mary Kate, and I got ready for our bike tour we signed up for. It was a bike tour through the city of Munich! It rained on us a little bit but the city is absolutely beautiful. We got to see city hall (yes, the glockenspiel is here and it's not worth seeing; most overrated tourist attraction in all the world), an amazing church (which I can't remember the name...) which was gorgeous and all white inside (nice change from all the color in the Italian churches), a beautiful garden, the Chinese tower, the natural wave in the river of Munich where surfers are constantly testing their skills, and the 2nd largest beer tent in the entire world. This beer tent is 4x larger than Central Park in New York. Let that one sink in for a little bit...it was crazy! It was so incredibly peaceful there I never wanted to leave. And the scenery...goodness I could look at that 24/7 and never get tired of it. This is where we stopped for lunch before heading back and ending the tour.
After making our way back, we decided to go check out Oktoberfest! It was only about 20 minutes away if you took public transportation. We got to the festival and just walked around for a bit. Part of me felt like I was at a giant outdoor Halloween party with everyone wearing their tradition German outfits haha but they were really cool to see! The festival was pretty crowded (go figure it was Friday night...) so we decided not to wait in line to get into a beer tent since it was already around 8PM and the festival closed at 10PM. So we headed back to the campsite and hung out there. From my class, there were about 14 of us who went on this trip. We all ended up finding each other and hung out. We met this group of guys from London that night and they were very interesting but fun to hang out with for a night.
Saturday morning, Sally, Mary Kate, Amanda and I went on a tour of the Neuschwanstein Castle
aka the Sleeping Beauty castle!! It was about a 2 hour bus ride there and then a 30 minute walk up the hill to the castle, but every minute getting there was worth it. Even with all the rain coming down, it was absolutely gorgeous being there near mountains and the amazing castle. We quickly learned that pictures were allowed so I don't have that many up. However, I bought a book at the end that has gorgeous pictures in it. Unfortunately the pictures don't do the castle any justice but at least I have something :) After exiting the castle we walked up more to go see the view of the castle from the near by bridge (because what Disney princess doesn't have a bridge to go with her castle?!). It was really pretty to see because the bridge was crossing over a waterfall making it picture perfect. Nothing could've topped it. Ok, maybe less rain, but we still managed.
After we go back, the four of us girls and our new friend Andrew, who we met on the castle tour, went to Oktoberfest! This time, since the rain finally stopped and it was earlier in the evening, we waited in line to get into a beer tent. The wait ended up not being that bad and got in fairly quickly. We spent some time there and met a very nice French man who we talked to for a little. Then we met Pep Guardiola! He was a soccer player for FC Barcelona, then played on the Spain World Cup soccer team, with his last debut in 2001. He now is trainer/coach for FC Bayern Munich team!! He was kind enough to let us take a picture with him. That was the highlight of my night :) After awhile we headed back to the campsite to hang out for a bit on our last night.
Sunday morning, before our departure time at 1PM, we took a trip to go see Dachau Concentration Camp. It was the most eerie, saddening, humbling experience of my life. It was definitely eye opening. While we were there it was misting which make it all the more eerie. We were able to see the "special bunkers" for the people who got punished, the land where they were forced to stand for hours and hours on end without moving, the regular bunkers and where they all used to be, the crematorium (both the original and the new one) along with the "shower" room (gas chamber), and waiting rooms to go take your "shower". We also go to see the trench along with the barbed wired/electrical fence to keep people from escaping and the watch tower where the guard stayed to watch that area. Everything that we saw wasn't altered in the slightest so we were seeing it how it was back then. Extremely saddening. After the use of the concentration camp, they built a Jewish memorial for all the people who lost their lives. It was nice to have that slice of humanity in an area that so severely lacked it. It was definitely worth seeing. And it was definitely nice to have a relaxing 12 hour bus ride back to Rome after dealing with those emotions.
The trip to Germany was absolutely incredible. Big city wise, I prefer Munich over Rome. It still had it's big city aspects but was way cleaner and quieter. It was beautiful.
After getting in around 1AM that Sunday night/Monday morning none of us were looking forward to the next week ahead of school. However, my walk for Art History on Thursday morning made up for the exhaustion of traveling. Thursday morning our art history class met at St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. Finally, I have been inside Vatican walls and it was incredible! The moment you walk into the Basilica your breath is taken away. It is a building that can not only fit 2 football fields inside, but can fit other buildings themselves inside!! CRAZY!! And so BEAUTIFUL!! The Basilica also holds some of the most amazing treasures like 4 statues created by Bernini surrounding the center of the Basilica and Michelangelo's Pieta. The Pieta was incredibly beautiful and serene. I couldn't believe I was seeing it with my own eyes! The entire day was like I was walking on a cloud in a dream world. I'm so blessed that it was real life for me.
After class, my friends Emily, Shari, Krista, Sally and Erin climbed to the top of the dome of the Basilica. The first major stop you make you are inside the main part of the Basilica looking down at all the artwork, statues, the apse, etc. It was amazing. Such an interesting way to view the Basilica from up there. We then continued our way to the top and once we go there we saw the entire city of Rome at it's finest. We were so high up it was incredible and jaw-dropping. And of course, we got to see the very well known, classic picture of the Vatican and Basilica from the bird's eye view. Many pictures were taken and many freakouts of excitement were had :) None of us could believe that we actually got to see that for ourselves. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity that was absolutely incredible. I wouldn't trade that experience for anything. It puts such a different perspective on things when you are looking down on the beautiful, gorgeous city of Rome that we are calling home for four months :)
So, as you all can tell, it has been a pretty incredible past week and a half. I'm so incredibly blessed and I wish I could share all these moments with all of you in person. I'm definitely counting my blessings here and there are many more to come I'm sure :) Dreams do come true, so keep dreaming everyone! I know I am :)
Wednesday, October 2, 2013
The Wonderful World of Traveling...
Traveling!! On Thursday morning we left for our first of two field trips of the semester! We went to South Italy. We arrived first in Naples! We first went to Museo Archeologico which is a museum which holds all the archeological sculptures and frescoes found in Pompeii and Herculaneum. It was a really neat place to go! It was cool to see that history in such good condition. We then continued to walk around Naples, with our professor Alessandro showing us around (he lives in Naples). We saw the old retail Galleria Principe di Napoli which is essentially like a mall back in the day. Next stop was food and we had pizza that was invented in Naples and of course, it was delicious. What Italian food isn't? We continued on to see Galleria Umberto I, a castle, and the royal palace. After Naples, we took a boat and headed to Sorrento!
Sorrento was adorable. Small town Italy wins my heart by far, but I still do love Rome. Anyways, we got checked into our hotels and I stayed at Hotel Angiolina. It was super adorable, had vine covered walkway with kiwis growing from it leading up to the hotel itself and there were plants and greenery all around the hotel. It was a hotel I could've stayed in for awhile.
That night we went to dinner for a full Italian meal at La Favorita O'Parrucchiano. When I say full meal I mean four courses. It started out with appetizers which was a small sampling of five different items, followed by a pasta course, then a meat course, and finally dessert. It was the most incredible meal I've had since being in Italy. Nothing will ever beat that meal! Plus, the ambiance of the hotel resembled a garden and it was a very peaceful place to be to accompany the wonderful meal.
Friday morning we packed up all our stuff and headed out to take a train to Herculaneum. Little did we know, and soon found out, the train was on strike for the morning so we were unable to go to Herculaneum. Then came the bittersweet moment of us learning we would be going to Pompeii instead. One part of me was super excited because going to Pompeii has been on my bucket list for quite some time, but the interior designer part of me was disappointed because Herculaneum has better preserved, and more, interior spaces than Pompeii does. Oh well, I'll just have to come back to Italy sometime to go to Herculaneum :p But Pompeii was gorgeous and breathtaking. to see everything that was still there blew me away. The Villa of Mysteries is the best preserved interior space in Pompeii and to be able to see old frescoes on the walls, and imagine what the space used to look like felt like an honor. I loved walking down the streets (the original street even!) and imagining what life would be like and what it would've looked like back when Pompeii was still an active city. How blessed we were to be there, and what a great way to end our field trip as a class.
My apartment ladies (7 of us) plus our friends Emily, Emily (yes both named Emily...there are 3 total haha) and Richard decided to continue our weekend on our own terms. Our next top was Capri! Upon arriving in Capri, we noticed immediately the absolutely breathtaking water and how teal and royal blue it was. I will never get over the water and how amazing it is. Absolutely one of my top 3 favorite creations on Earth. Just something you can never get used to.
We then wandered our way to find our hotel. We stayed in Anacapri which is on the same island, it's just on the other side of the mountain that's on the island. So we boarded a bus and found our way there. The hotel was called Hotel Bussola and it was super adorable as well. The lady who worked there, Rita, was extremely friendly as well as very helpful! She made a suggestion that we go down near the waterfront to Faro for sunset and then recommended a place to eat! She even set it up to where people from the restaurant would come pick us up from Faro, take us to the restaurant, and return us to our hotel when we were ready all free of charge! (We think the restaurant and the hotel had a deal lined up) So that's what we did. We headed down to Faro to catch the end of the sunset. At Faro there is a neat little lighthouse and places where you can just sit and relax on the rocks and look out at the sea. It was extremely peaceful. We were then picked up and taken to the restaurant (I forgot the name :/) I ordered ravioli with walnuts in it which was amazing and for dessert we all got Torte Caprese which is Capri Cake. It was recommended to us by our professor Jody because it is something that is unique to Capri and something Capri is famous for. And of course, delicious. It was chocolate cake with almonds in it! Yummy :) To finish our night of royalty we were escorted back to our hotel to get some rest.
Saturday morning we decided to see the sights! Our list consisted of Grotta Azzura, chair lift, the natural arch, and the Garden of Augustus, and in that order! (Remember the order, that becomes important later :p) So we set off on our way with all of our stuff with us! We went to the Grotta Azzura first, got in a small boat, and went in! By the way, a grotta is essentially a cave in the side of the mountain at water level. It was gorgeous. The incredible blue water and the amazement of that being possible. After coming out of the grotta, we headed to the chair lift! The chair lift took us to the highest point in Capri. When we got up there, we were inside a cloud. We were surrounded by fog from the cloud. It was serene. I loved being up there! It was a great view as well.
We then made our way to the natural arch. However, we took a wrong turn and ended up at the Garden of Augustus instead. So we decided to just go there next since we were there. And guess what, it was beautiful! Just like everything else haha there were so many beautiful flowers to see and capture in a photo. Amazing. After stopping there, we found our path to take to get to the natural arch. Little did we know what we were about to encounter would absolutely exhaust us...
We started walking and we noticed right away that it was a very hilly place, but then it only got worse. The trail we were on was more of a hiking trail, not walking, and especially not walking when you are carrying everything you have with you. There were so many stairs and hills and it was awful. We were not wearing the appropriate outfit our shoes and we were all sweating like pigs. Everyone got a little cranky during the walk...after about an hour and a half we discovered another grotto! Except this one was no longer on the water front, and we could actually go inside. It was pretty neat even with exhaustion setting in.
We finally made it to the natural arch and it was incredible. Mind blowing to know that something like that can form on its own. Very picturesque. We then continued our hike which turned more into a walk at this point to head to the marina to be on our way to Amalfi! Needless to say, we were all really excited to sit down for awhile.
Saturday evening we arrived in Amalfi and then walked about five mintues to Atrani, a subdivision of Amalfi which is where we stayed. We shopped around in Amalfi that night and sat down to eat. I had my first Italian calzone and enjoyed every bite of it. I certainly slept well that night.
Sunday morning we got up and went to see the duomo (cathedral) and crypt that are in the center of Amalfi. Both were absolutely incredible. Ceilings will never get old in Italy. I haven't seen one that hasn't amazed me and I don't think I ever will. Sally and I then took a side trip to go see the town of Postiano. It's a cute little touristy town and we took a bus over to check it out and have lunch. The rest of our group hung out in Amalfi. Postiano was super cute, but super packed with people and crowded. Definitely worth the trip though!
That afternoon we finally made our way back to Rome. It was a very long, exhausting, sweaty, weekend but it was worth it every minute. Even the hiking. I wouldn't do it again, but it was nice to experience. We literally hiked coast to coast of Capri. And eventful weekend to say the least.
This weekend we're off to Oktoberfest in Munich! What an adventure that will be haha stories definitely to come later :) Ciao!
Sorrento was adorable. Small town Italy wins my heart by far, but I still do love Rome. Anyways, we got checked into our hotels and I stayed at Hotel Angiolina. It was super adorable, had vine covered walkway with kiwis growing from it leading up to the hotel itself and there were plants and greenery all around the hotel. It was a hotel I could've stayed in for awhile.
That night we went to dinner for a full Italian meal at La Favorita O'Parrucchiano. When I say full meal I mean four courses. It started out with appetizers which was a small sampling of five different items, followed by a pasta course, then a meat course, and finally dessert. It was the most incredible meal I've had since being in Italy. Nothing will ever beat that meal! Plus, the ambiance of the hotel resembled a garden and it was a very peaceful place to be to accompany the wonderful meal.
Friday morning we packed up all our stuff and headed out to take a train to Herculaneum. Little did we know, and soon found out, the train was on strike for the morning so we were unable to go to Herculaneum. Then came the bittersweet moment of us learning we would be going to Pompeii instead. One part of me was super excited because going to Pompeii has been on my bucket list for quite some time, but the interior designer part of me was disappointed because Herculaneum has better preserved, and more, interior spaces than Pompeii does. Oh well, I'll just have to come back to Italy sometime to go to Herculaneum :p But Pompeii was gorgeous and breathtaking. to see everything that was still there blew me away. The Villa of Mysteries is the best preserved interior space in Pompeii and to be able to see old frescoes on the walls, and imagine what the space used to look like felt like an honor. I loved walking down the streets (the original street even!) and imagining what life would be like and what it would've looked like back when Pompeii was still an active city. How blessed we were to be there, and what a great way to end our field trip as a class.
My apartment ladies (7 of us) plus our friends Emily, Emily (yes both named Emily...there are 3 total haha) and Richard decided to continue our weekend on our own terms. Our next top was Capri! Upon arriving in Capri, we noticed immediately the absolutely breathtaking water and how teal and royal blue it was. I will never get over the water and how amazing it is. Absolutely one of my top 3 favorite creations on Earth. Just something you can never get used to.
We then wandered our way to find our hotel. We stayed in Anacapri which is on the same island, it's just on the other side of the mountain that's on the island. So we boarded a bus and found our way there. The hotel was called Hotel Bussola and it was super adorable as well. The lady who worked there, Rita, was extremely friendly as well as very helpful! She made a suggestion that we go down near the waterfront to Faro for sunset and then recommended a place to eat! She even set it up to where people from the restaurant would come pick us up from Faro, take us to the restaurant, and return us to our hotel when we were ready all free of charge! (We think the restaurant and the hotel had a deal lined up) So that's what we did. We headed down to Faro to catch the end of the sunset. At Faro there is a neat little lighthouse and places where you can just sit and relax on the rocks and look out at the sea. It was extremely peaceful. We were then picked up and taken to the restaurant (I forgot the name :/) I ordered ravioli with walnuts in it which was amazing and for dessert we all got Torte Caprese which is Capri Cake. It was recommended to us by our professor Jody because it is something that is unique to Capri and something Capri is famous for. And of course, delicious. It was chocolate cake with almonds in it! Yummy :) To finish our night of royalty we were escorted back to our hotel to get some rest.
Saturday morning we decided to see the sights! Our list consisted of Grotta Azzura, chair lift, the natural arch, and the Garden of Augustus, and in that order! (Remember the order, that becomes important later :p) So we set off on our way with all of our stuff with us! We went to the Grotta Azzura first, got in a small boat, and went in! By the way, a grotta is essentially a cave in the side of the mountain at water level. It was gorgeous. The incredible blue water and the amazement of that being possible. After coming out of the grotta, we headed to the chair lift! The chair lift took us to the highest point in Capri. When we got up there, we were inside a cloud. We were surrounded by fog from the cloud. It was serene. I loved being up there! It was a great view as well.
We then made our way to the natural arch. However, we took a wrong turn and ended up at the Garden of Augustus instead. So we decided to just go there next since we were there. And guess what, it was beautiful! Just like everything else haha there were so many beautiful flowers to see and capture in a photo. Amazing. After stopping there, we found our path to take to get to the natural arch. Little did we know what we were about to encounter would absolutely exhaust us...
We started walking and we noticed right away that it was a very hilly place, but then it only got worse. The trail we were on was more of a hiking trail, not walking, and especially not walking when you are carrying everything you have with you. There were so many stairs and hills and it was awful. We were not wearing the appropriate outfit our shoes and we were all sweating like pigs. Everyone got a little cranky during the walk...after about an hour and a half we discovered another grotto! Except this one was no longer on the water front, and we could actually go inside. It was pretty neat even with exhaustion setting in.
We finally made it to the natural arch and it was incredible. Mind blowing to know that something like that can form on its own. Very picturesque. We then continued our hike which turned more into a walk at this point to head to the marina to be on our way to Amalfi! Needless to say, we were all really excited to sit down for awhile.
Saturday evening we arrived in Amalfi and then walked about five mintues to Atrani, a subdivision of Amalfi which is where we stayed. We shopped around in Amalfi that night and sat down to eat. I had my first Italian calzone and enjoyed every bite of it. I certainly slept well that night.
Sunday morning we got up and went to see the duomo (cathedral) and crypt that are in the center of Amalfi. Both were absolutely incredible. Ceilings will never get old in Italy. I haven't seen one that hasn't amazed me and I don't think I ever will. Sally and I then took a side trip to go see the town of Postiano. It's a cute little touristy town and we took a bus over to check it out and have lunch. The rest of our group hung out in Amalfi. Postiano was super cute, but super packed with people and crowded. Definitely worth the trip though!
That afternoon we finally made our way back to Rome. It was a very long, exhausting, sweaty, weekend but it was worth it every minute. Even the hiking. I wouldn't do it again, but it was nice to experience. We literally hiked coast to coast of Capri. And eventful weekend to say the least.
This weekend we're off to Oktoberfest in Munich! What an adventure that will be haha stories definitely to come later :) Ciao!
Saturday, September 14, 2013
Taglio no tinta!
Some craziness has gone on in this past week. Let me recap for you:
Lunedi (Monday): We had class on the Spanish Steps! Which, by the way, were actually made by the French so they're not really Spanish. Anywhoo...we had an assignment which was to go into one flagship store in the area we were in and take a survey of the space and get notes/sketches/pictures, etc. for ideas for our retail design coming up. (I'm partners with Mary Kate for this project btw) We were assigned Louis Vuitton. Now, yes that's crazy that we will be walking into a Louis Vuitton, but to intimidate us more it's the 6th best retail designed Louis Vuitton in the entire world. Yes. Scary concept. So we head towards the store. We walk in and ask the front security guard if we are allowed to take pictures. He said no. So we walk in with our assignment sheet and sketchbooks in hand. About halfway through of us surveying the space a lady who works there comes up to us and starts speaking to us in Italian. I guess we looked like natives that day! Once she realizes we don't have any idea what she's saying, she asks us in English what we were doing. We had to give her a very detailed explanation on what we were doing, showing her our assignment sheet and all. Ever since that moment happened, our every move was documented in the security personnel's minds. We were watched like hawks on every single level of that store. However, the store itself was incredible. Words can't justify it. It used to the Rome's first cinema that was converted into the Louis Vuitton. They kept part of the cinema in the store. It seats 18 people and they still have movie showings on occasion. It was a crazy awkward day.
Venerdi (Friday): Some of you know this, some of you may not who knows. I don't know how much y'all stalk me haha but I shaved part of my head! I swear being here is making more crazy. Partially it's because I'm living with Mary Kate :p anyways, yeah I shaved part of my head. And.... I love it!! I think it's super awesome and pretty badass (sorry for language :p) haha I feel pretty cool and I enjoy the change a lot. It was weird having someone who's native language is not your own cut your hair. A very popular phrase around here now is taglio no tinta, which is cut no color. I was not about to go red!
Oggi/Sabato (Today/Saturday): To end the week of crazy, my life level of crazy got bumped up by having the ability to go to Tuscany for the day. Apartment B9 room C (me, Mary Kate, and Sally) took a day trip to Tuscany while the majority of the other ID students took an optional trip to Assisi. We first stopped in Montepulciano and had a cellar tour with some wine tasting. The wine was good! But the cheese they served with it was absolutely amazing. The spicy one was my favorite and even though it was kinda pricey, I regret not buying the wheel of it. I'm totally going to look it up online and see if I can find that place. I want that cheese!! We then had a little down time to ourselves in this adorable town. We saw absolutely incredible views that words and pictures can't justify. We also saw the building where Edward from Twilight walks out without a shirt on and sparkles :p It was a surreal moment even if you aren't the biggest Twilight fan. We then stopped for lunch at a cute little restaurant and did a little shopping before moving on. Our next and final stop was in Montaicino. Here, we got a vineyard tour along with a cellar tour and more wine tasting. No cheese tasting here, but the wine was better! I enjoyed the selection a lot more and bought myself a 10 Euro bottle of wine. The trip was completely worth it and I fell head over heels in love with Tuscany. I will be going back one day in my life I'll guarantee it.
I have now shared all my craziness with you all! You may think I'm crazy for thinking it's crazy, but hey if you have an opinion that means you actually care enough to be reading through my blog :) Till next time!
Lunedi (Monday): We had class on the Spanish Steps! Which, by the way, were actually made by the French so they're not really Spanish. Anywhoo...we had an assignment which was to go into one flagship store in the area we were in and take a survey of the space and get notes/sketches/pictures, etc. for ideas for our retail design coming up. (I'm partners with Mary Kate for this project btw) We were assigned Louis Vuitton. Now, yes that's crazy that we will be walking into a Louis Vuitton, but to intimidate us more it's the 6th best retail designed Louis Vuitton in the entire world. Yes. Scary concept. So we head towards the store. We walk in and ask the front security guard if we are allowed to take pictures. He said no. So we walk in with our assignment sheet and sketchbooks in hand. About halfway through of us surveying the space a lady who works there comes up to us and starts speaking to us in Italian. I guess we looked like natives that day! Once she realizes we don't have any idea what she's saying, she asks us in English what we were doing. We had to give her a very detailed explanation on what we were doing, showing her our assignment sheet and all. Ever since that moment happened, our every move was documented in the security personnel's minds. We were watched like hawks on every single level of that store. However, the store itself was incredible. Words can't justify it. It used to the Rome's first cinema that was converted into the Louis Vuitton. They kept part of the cinema in the store. It seats 18 people and they still have movie showings on occasion. It was a crazy awkward day.
Venerdi (Friday): Some of you know this, some of you may not who knows. I don't know how much y'all stalk me haha but I shaved part of my head! I swear being here is making more crazy. Partially it's because I'm living with Mary Kate :p anyways, yeah I shaved part of my head. And.... I love it!! I think it's super awesome and pretty badass (sorry for language :p) haha I feel pretty cool and I enjoy the change a lot. It was weird having someone who's native language is not your own cut your hair. A very popular phrase around here now is taglio no tinta, which is cut no color. I was not about to go red!
Oggi/Sabato (Today/Saturday): To end the week of crazy, my life level of crazy got bumped up by having the ability to go to Tuscany for the day. Apartment B9 room C (me, Mary Kate, and Sally) took a day trip to Tuscany while the majority of the other ID students took an optional trip to Assisi. We first stopped in Montepulciano and had a cellar tour with some wine tasting. The wine was good! But the cheese they served with it was absolutely amazing. The spicy one was my favorite and even though it was kinda pricey, I regret not buying the wheel of it. I'm totally going to look it up online and see if I can find that place. I want that cheese!! We then had a little down time to ourselves in this adorable town. We saw absolutely incredible views that words and pictures can't justify. We also saw the building where Edward from Twilight walks out without a shirt on and sparkles :p It was a surreal moment even if you aren't the biggest Twilight fan. We then stopped for lunch at a cute little restaurant and did a little shopping before moving on. Our next and final stop was in Montaicino. Here, we got a vineyard tour along with a cellar tour and more wine tasting. No cheese tasting here, but the wine was better! I enjoyed the selection a lot more and bought myself a 10 Euro bottle of wine. The trip was completely worth it and I fell head over heels in love with Tuscany. I will be going back one day in my life I'll guarantee it.
I have now shared all my craziness with you all! You may think I'm crazy for thinking it's crazy, but hey if you have an opinion that means you actually care enough to be reading through my blog :) Till next time!
Sunday, September 8, 2013
School now in session
Made it through the first week of school! I'm super excited for every single one of my classes. It's going to be a fantastic class schedule. I enjoy all my professors too! Throughout the week we went out to eat a few places. There is a Chinese restaurant (weird right??) near the Cat Sanctuary. It was delicious. Best sweet and sour chicken I have ever had in my lifetime. Next to that is a place called Pizzeria Florida and we stopped in there once this week too. It's super cheap and one of the most delicious pizza places ever. Potato pizza is my all time favorite. Anytime I can find it, it's what I order.We also tend to get coffee a lot and we get it from the same cafe each time. We go to a cafe that is on our way to the studio. We have made friends with the owner and he is super nice. He's an older gentleman. He speaks some English and when he learned that we were learning some Italian in one of our classes he told us that we would help each other out and learn from each other! :) He has also given us free cookies as a sample. He's incredibly nice!
Food wise we are mostly eating at our apartment and cooking. We eat a lot of pasta because it's easy. The one thing I am craving and don't have access to is peanut butter! It doesn't exist here in Italy. Super depressing. I've already decided that I'm eating it by the spoonfuls out of the jar when I get back home ;)
This weekend we did some more exploring and a little more shopping (always haha). On sabato (Saturday) we went to the Roman Forum and the Colosseum. Both were absolutely incredible. Breathtaking. We were fortunate enough to go inside the Colosseum. I have never seen anything so amazing than that. I was blown away. It's so easy to picture what it used to be like when it was used. Being here in Rome is a mix of traveling back in time and still staying in the same century and that feeling is one so incredible that I won't ever forget it.
Today, domenica (Sunday) we went to the market that is directly outside of our apartment. There is so much stuff! The market literally goes on forever. A lot of the stuff is repeated though, but there were definitely good finds there. We then made our way to the mall and did a little shopping there. The rest of the afternoon/night is dedicated to relaxing and homework (no, I haven't forgotten about school although it sure sounds like I have). Not too much homework yet which is nice. It allows us to still site see and do what we please on the weekends without the stress level of school.
It was a good week here in Rome! A laid back yet still eventful one. More exploring ahead :)
Food wise we are mostly eating at our apartment and cooking. We eat a lot of pasta because it's easy. The one thing I am craving and don't have access to is peanut butter! It doesn't exist here in Italy. Super depressing. I've already decided that I'm eating it by the spoonfuls out of the jar when I get back home ;)
This weekend we did some more exploring and a little more shopping (always haha). On sabato (Saturday) we went to the Roman Forum and the Colosseum. Both were absolutely incredible. Breathtaking. We were fortunate enough to go inside the Colosseum. I have never seen anything so amazing than that. I was blown away. It's so easy to picture what it used to be like when it was used. Being here in Rome is a mix of traveling back in time and still staying in the same century and that feeling is one so incredible that I won't ever forget it.
Today, domenica (Sunday) we went to the market that is directly outside of our apartment. There is so much stuff! The market literally goes on forever. A lot of the stuff is repeated though, but there were definitely good finds there. We then made our way to the mall and did a little shopping there. The rest of the afternoon/night is dedicated to relaxing and homework (no, I haven't forgotten about school although it sure sounds like I have). Not too much homework yet which is nice. It allows us to still site see and do what we please on the weekends without the stress level of school.
It was a good week here in Rome! A laid back yet still eventful one. More exploring ahead :)
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