Goin' Explorin'

I need to blog more often. I am sorry about how long these get!

I am currently recovering from a cold that has been driving me crazy the last week. Every time I lie down or look down (which I never ever have to do for hours on end when working on projects) my nose starts causing all sorts of trouble. I’ve decided I actually enjoy sneezing - either you completely understand this statement or are currently scratching your head with confusion. Strangely enough, everyone else in my classes also seems to have chosen this week to be sick as well. Classes are full of sneezing, coughing, and raw throated voices. However, with the worse behind me, things are only looking up health-wise. I give full credit not to time, but to my excessive consumption of tea, blood oranges, and chocolate!

As briefly mentioned in my last posting, there is a Chocolate festival going on in Florence. It is a beautiful thing. This week there will be new vendors with new free samples. After an hour and a couple Euros is enough to have me holding me belly and laughing with all the lovely chocolate endorphins swimming through my body. And then take a nap.

This week has been extremely long. However, I now have a full understanding of the time commitment that each class will expect from me and now know how to gauge that time accordingly (no more 12 straight hours on a single drawing that didn’t even matter that much). I still love my classes, my professors, and even my homework. Some such homework assignments require museum and/or church visits. Last weekend I went to the Uffizi, one of the top museums in Florence, and experienced Medieval and Renaissance art to the extreme. I absolutely adore walking into a room and spotting a work that I have studied in class, and then having every notion of what that piece looked like in reality thrown out the window. It really is quite different seeing pieces in person. For example, Giotto’s Madonna and Child, Botticelli’s Primavera and Birth of Venus, and Parmigianino’s Madonna with the Long Neck were all much larger and overpowering than I had expected. I can understand why they are so famous when I stand basking in their power.

I have done a lot more of exploring Florence now, have my bearings, and now have ventured out of Florence for the first time! This last Friday three of my roommates, two girls from Truman, and I went to Pisa and Lucca for the day. It was the most adorable and relaxing (and cheap!) outing ever! We first went by train to Pisa and were given a leisurely hour tour by Rick Steves, via roommate Katie, which led us to the Square of Miracles! We, of course, took super corny Leaning Tower photographs to document our time there. After seeing the tower, cathedral, baptistery, super green lawn, and all the other exciting sites on our hour tour we realized there was little else we really wanted to do in Pisa, so we boarded a bus to nearby Lucca (which is now my favorite boy baby name).

It turns out buses are a lot more fun to ride because the entire countryside is an extra bonus denied to plane and train travelers. Interestingly, the bus also served as the school bus for students living in the outskirts of Pisa. Once in Lucca, we rushed around the entire historical part of the city in search of a small restaurant with fire-roasted pizzas, recommended by Rick Steves. The rush was caused by our sudden realization that Lucca, as a small town, took siesta time much more seriously than Florence; after 2:30, there would likely be no lunch places open. Fortunately we found the pizzeria, tired and hungry, and ate the most delicious over-roasted pizzas our bellies had ever had the pleasure of holding. We continued to explore the quiet town and soon realized we were likely the only tourists in Lucca, quite a difference from Florence! My favorite place was a 134-year-old bakery with the most delicious bread, called buccellato. We just barely missed the train home and unfortunately had to wait fifty minutes for the next one. This lovely day spent in small towns has probably been my favorite in Italy thus far!

Now it is Sunday, which means I must buckle down on my homework that I have been ignoring all weekend. Currently, there is a protest going on, quite literally a block away (Piazza della Repubblica). It is absolutely crazy!! I don’t know if I have ever seen so many people in one place before; people dancing, people chanting, people with signs, people with costumes, young people, old people, men, and women. After a bit of confusion, due to the language barrier, we learned they were protesting the both the president’s sex-scandal with a minor and Italy’s lack of equality for women (more info HERE). This women-led protest is happening in cities all over Italy. I feel like I am a part of Italian history!

Songs of the post: “Revolution” by the Beatles, and “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing” by Aerosmith

First Week Dominated

I have finished my first week of classes and remain as excited for said classes as I was before the week began. Since these classes will most likely take up a majority of my time for the next few months, I will tell you just a little bit about each of them.

Mondays. 9 am - 12:30 pm. I have full faith that my Lost Symbolisms and Secret Codes in Art will be one of the most interesting and unusual art classes I will ever take. Granted, I say this only after the first day, but it is the perfect combination of my interests. It does not seem like an art history class, more like a philosophies in art (not to be mistaken with art philosophy) class. Basically, everything I love in three beautiful credits. We will look at the influence of astrology, alchemy, geometry, and philosophy on art, then take a field trip every other week to see examples of what we are talking about in that day’s lecture.

Mondays and Wednesdays. 3 - 4:15 pm. Elementary Italian 1 is simultaneously the most and least useful of all my classes. While it already is helping me better understand this alien world I’ve landed in, it is the only class that will simply count as an elective back home. The Head of the Italian Department is my professor and only eight people are in my class. Result: zero slacking and lots of real learning! If I occasionally bust out a little Italian in my blog posts, know this class is the instigator.

Tuesdays. 9 am - 2:30 pm. Yes, my Advanced Drawing class is really that long. Fortunately we have a little half hour lunch break. First unpleasant shock: after we all piled into the classroom our professor announced we will be having an exam to make sure we all are actually qualified to be in this drawing class. I have not taken a drawing class in almost two years and do not sketch nearly as often as I should. Second unpleasant shock: we are to do this drawing exam in charcoal, a medium I have never used due to my drawing teacher’s allegoric reactions. Alas, no worries, all eleven of us passed. This class will hopefully ignite a passion for drawing; I want to get in the habit of drawing everyday again! Our first assignment is to start accumulating a portfolio of images: others’ published images, photographs I have taken, and sketches I have prepared. I am really excited about this project and already have accumulated many more images than needed (minus the sketches… still in progress).

Thursdays. 9 am - 2:30 pm. Advanced Painting will by far be my toughest and most time consuming class. On the first day we already have hours upon hours of homework: a full-sized (30x20 inch approx) drawing of an extremely complicated still life, have the drawing approved, make a half-sized tempera painting of the same composition, make a wash of colors of the same image on a canvas in oil, two paint swab charts with tertiary and complementary colors, and take detailed notes during a visit to the Uffizi Museum. All of this by next class. One thing is for sure… I will be a much better artist when I come home.

I also had been signed up for Introduction to Jazz Dance, but dropped the class in order to reduce my time committed to classes and instead will join the Italian Folk Dance Club! Jazz skills can be acquired at home, and I definitely do not need the extra credits, so I believe it will be a worthwhile trade!

So what have I been doing when not in class? Quite a variety of things, I answer! I have started and finished a book (Rebecca) and a half (Eldest). Exploring Florence and grocery shopping (and exploring in order to find grocery stores) takes up a chunk of time. I am at the point that I don’t really need a map to get to any of my classes or a number of other places. I also have already developed daily habits; the most habitual of these is my steaming cup of tea. I have become quite the tea connoisseur. I think it must have begun last semester while working under Zac Burden, but now has gone to a whole new level for me. I have at least one if not two cups of tea everyday day, typically in the afternoon as a pick-me-up or the evening as dessert. I now laugh at the day when I had Josiah make me tea and turned away as to not see how much sugar he added in order to make it sweet enough to my liking. Now just a pinch of sugar, if at all, is added. In my new world where mostly drink water is consumed, the flavor of tea is a wonderful recess. Even as I write this, I drink white tea with a small slightly sweet biscuit cookie, while I wait an hour for my potato to bake in the oven. Bliss.

We don’t have a microwave, so I am becoming quite skilled with the oven and stove. Fortunately I live with more experienced cooks, so they help me along the way. Last night I cooked my first real concoction, excluding pasta. It’s called the Spaghetti Lover’s soup, containing kidney beans, spaghetti sauce, tomato chunks, water, carrots, and obviously spaghetti noodles. Super easy and superbly delicious. I even have leftovers!

I have found that living in Florence is not just a new city, new country, but also new freedoms, and new responsibilities. It is the first time I have lived on my own, because living in a dorm does not count. As long as I remain a student advisor, I have a curfew and meals provided for me. Albeit, the curfew of 3 am rarely affects my behavior, and it is handy having Sodexo cook everything for me; however I find that the freedom of deciding everything invigorating, especially the freedom to completely choose my own food. If I did not absolutely love being an SA so much, I would probably move off campus just to not have a meal plan. I know I could cook anyway on campus, but I can’t bring myself to spend “real money” when I have already purchased my meal plan of “fake money.” I guess I just need to remember I have my whole life ahead of me to cook for myself!

Another experience, or re-experience, is living with people and actually having a roommate. I have only had a roommate for half of freshman year (excluding my first 10 years with Karis). While I love the privacy and completely personal space I gain by having my own room at Truman, there is something irreplaceable about the relationship formed while sharing a room or apartment with others. Coordinating cooing, shower, dish, laundry, and sleep schedules is something I am not use to. At home it is coordinated for me, but here we all have equal power and equal say. Something new I have found I really enjoy.

Lots of provisional thoughts about the once and future Hannah… but now I have a confession. I have fallen in love! It is true. With gelato. So far I have tasted apple, pineapple, coconut (fave!), dark chocolate, Nutella, Florentine cream, mango, and mystery pink fruitiness w/ chocolate chips. Fortunately I have been recently been exerting more self control and have not eaten any for a day and a half now. Phew! Tough stuff! It, quite seriously, is a million times more delicious than any ice cream. My discovery that it has less fat than ice cream does not help my restraint either. But it has protein, something I have been struggling to find. I have been making a concerted effort and believe I will be just fine. I have milk, yogurt, peanut butter, whole grain pastas, eggs, kidney beans, cheese, and gelato. Gelato… <3. I feel so stereotypical.

Today: buying textbooks, working in the painting studio, and going to the Florence Chocolate Fair.

Songs of the post: “I Will Survive” by Gloria Gaynor, and “Eat It” by Weird Al Yankovic