Probably my final post before returning to the US.
My critique went over generally like I thought it would. They told me I have talent, talked about my previous experience, my attendence, etc etc. They told me I'm too heavy handed (which I am well aware of and I can't seem to break that habit). I found it a little funny how the pencil drawing that they said was my best one was the one I spent the least amount of time on and actually ended up using the comparison method instead of the sight-size method that they teach at FAA. Of course, I didn't tell them that.
Then one of the teachers told me that I was unfocused. She went on a little rant about how she doesn't think that I want to use what I've learned as just a hobby but she doesn't feel I have the drive to be professional. Well. Excuse me.
I know I've been slightly unfocused while here. Mainly because I've been doing all of this for the past 3 years. I didn't feel challenged and it was all pretty boring work for me. You can't get focused and stimulated by boring work that you've done hundreds of times before.
Anyway, a lot of the other students were saying the same thing. They would tell us things that they have been telling us all semester and things we already know and then complain a little about something in particular that most of us would not agree with.
Yesterday Lucas and I finished up shopping and just wandered around Florence. Today, I'm packing some more and doing the last of my laundry. There's a end of the term party that some restuarant is hosting for us not too far from the school tonight so Lucas and I are going to that. We invited some people over to the apartment after for drinks and the taking of our things that we don't need to bring back (extra food, toothpaste, etc etc). Then tomorrow is going to be full-on packing. I'm going to stop by the school to maybe work on my last bargue a little bit, grab the rest of my supplies there, and then talk with Rosemary (the registrar) about booking a cab for tomorrow morning to pick me up and take me to the airport.
I have so much to do between now and Saturday morning. Then when I get home it's not going to be a time to relax either. I have close to every day booked with things I need to do and plans until New Years. Then I have to start classes back at AAA.
Well, here's to the last post. Ciao, vediamo quando torno in America!
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Sunday, December 5, 2010
12/5/10
Last week!
I've kind of been jamming in last minute experiences this weekend and probably the rest of the week. I tried 'Mexican' food. It was good, but definitely not really Mexican food. Just an Italian immitation of it. [Vegetarian burrito pictured below]
I also went to a Chinese restaurant with some friends including one of the students who is Chinese, Nancy. She's a very interesting person and it was awesome to say the least to finally get to sit there and talk to her more one-on-one. She has a perfect American accent because her mom didn't want her to go through the local school system in China and she instead sent her to the American schools in China. It was fun to watch her try to teach John (from New York) how to speak some Chinese phrases.
Alora, the Chinese restaurant was probably the best Chinese food I've ever had. We also each got some fried ice cream for dessert (which is an American thing, but still something I've never tried before). It was delicious to say the least. Especially since it was gelato, not just ice cream.
They also have Christmas decorations up all over the city already. There's the HUGE Christmas tree in the Duomo area and lights on almost every street. It makes me happy that I'm going to be home for Christmas.
I've kind of been jamming in last minute experiences this weekend and probably the rest of the week. I tried 'Mexican' food. It was good, but definitely not really Mexican food. Just an Italian immitation of it. [Vegetarian burrito pictured below]
I also went to a Chinese restaurant with some friends including one of the students who is Chinese, Nancy. She's a very interesting person and it was awesome to say the least to finally get to sit there and talk to her more one-on-one. She has a perfect American accent because her mom didn't want her to go through the local school system in China and she instead sent her to the American schools in China. It was fun to watch her try to teach John (from New York) how to speak some Chinese phrases.
Alora, the Chinese restaurant was probably the best Chinese food I've ever had. We also each got some fried ice cream for dessert (which is an American thing, but still something I've never tried before). It was delicious to say the least. Especially since it was gelato, not just ice cream.
They also have Christmas decorations up all over the city already. There's the HUGE Christmas tree in the Duomo area and lights on almost every street. It makes me happy that I'm going to be home for Christmas.
Thursday, December 2, 2010
12/2/10
Again, sorry for the lack of updates. I've been in my own world lately.
A little over a week left and I will be back in the US. At least that's if I don't run into a snow storm. Apparently it started snowing back home, so there might be a chance that my flight will get re-directed if there is a snow storm. Here's to hoping there isn't one. I'd rather not prolong the travel time, especially since it's already going to be around 20 hours of travelling without any glitches.
I've done pretty decent progress on my 3rd Bargue and I'm actually pleased with how my charcoal drawing is turning out.
We have our final critiques next week as well. Mine is on Tuesday. They also wanted us to do a copy of a charcoal model line drawing and then 2-3 copies of Bargue line drawings. Then they also want us to mount all of our pencil drawings on drawing boards. I could understand if they gave all this to us about a month ago, but they can't seriously expect us to finish all that in less than two weeks. Plus the fact that there are no more drawing boards, so I have no idea where they think we're supposed to put our drawings.
Lucas's mom arrived last Friday. They left almost right after she got here to go to Rome and spent the weekend there. She's just been hanging out the apartment and randomly exploring the city since then. She's also been cooking us dinner. It's nice not to have to cook for myself. But at the same time, I've gotten so used to it that it's kinda weird to not cook all my own meals. Everyone back at the house will probably be very happy when I get back because the habit of cooking every meal will probably stay with me for a while.
I'll try for at least 2 more posts before next Saturday, but things will probably be getting a bit hectic this last week.
A little over a week left and I will be back in the US. At least that's if I don't run into a snow storm. Apparently it started snowing back home, so there might be a chance that my flight will get re-directed if there is a snow storm. Here's to hoping there isn't one. I'd rather not prolong the travel time, especially since it's already going to be around 20 hours of travelling without any glitches.
I've done pretty decent progress on my 3rd Bargue and I'm actually pleased with how my charcoal drawing is turning out.
We have our final critiques next week as well. Mine is on Tuesday. They also wanted us to do a copy of a charcoal model line drawing and then 2-3 copies of Bargue line drawings. Then they also want us to mount all of our pencil drawings on drawing boards. I could understand if they gave all this to us about a month ago, but they can't seriously expect us to finish all that in less than two weeks. Plus the fact that there are no more drawing boards, so I have no idea where they think we're supposed to put our drawings.
Lucas's mom arrived last Friday. They left almost right after she got here to go to Rome and spent the weekend there. She's just been hanging out the apartment and randomly exploring the city since then. She's also been cooking us dinner. It's nice not to have to cook for myself. But at the same time, I've gotten so used to it that it's kinda weird to not cook all my own meals. Everyone back at the house will probably be very happy when I get back because the habit of cooking every meal will probably stay with me for a while.
I'll try for at least 2 more posts before next Saturday, but things will probably be getting a bit hectic this last week.
Friday, November 26, 2010
11/26/10
My first Thanksgiving away from home and family. Thankfully I have friends here. Not many 'traditional' Thanksgiving dishes, but we tried. It was even harder because besides Lucas and I, there were only 3 other Americans there. We had to explain the meaning of Thanksgiving to everyone there. I cooked a greenbean casserole and some sweet carrots and got several marriage proposals as reward for my hard work, haha. There was chicken instead of turkey, foccacia bread instead of rolls, no sweet potatoes, and lots and lots of wine. I still really missed the day-long Thanksgiving with family back in the States (and the sweet potatoes and stuffing), but it was interesting and fun to say the least to experience it with people from all over the world.
Staying on the cooking subject, I recently found this at the market:
It's Romanesco cauliflower. I knew that picking it up and I've always wanted to try it, but it's hard to find back in the US. I cooked it and tried it and it was okay. It tastes like a mix of cauliflower and broccoli, only more... earthy? I don't know, it has a weird taste to it that I wasn't 100% keen on, though it could be because of the recipe I used it in. Maybe I'll try it later on with just simple butter and salt and pepper like I usually eat my cauliflower or broccoli.
Staying on the cooking subject, I recently found this at the market:
It's Romanesco cauliflower. I knew that picking it up and I've always wanted to try it, but it's hard to find back in the US. I cooked it and tried it and it was okay. It tastes like a mix of cauliflower and broccoli, only more... earthy? I don't know, it has a weird taste to it that I wasn't 100% keen on, though it could be because of the recipe I used it in. Maybe I'll try it later on with just simple butter and salt and pepper like I usually eat my cauliflower or broccoli.
Thursday, November 18, 2010
11/18/10
I apologize for the long wait between posts!
My headaches and neck problems haven't been getting any easier. I've just felt like falling asleep every possible second as well. No idea why considering I haven't changed my sleeping or eating or daily patterns at all.
For some reason I have been getting dizzy as well. Mainly whenever I stand for more than 30 minutes at a time, but sometimes when I'm just sitting around or within a couple minutes of standing. Probably not a good thing.
Anyway, enough whining.
As I said before, we started the new charcoal drawing. Actually started working in charcoal this week instead of just study pencil drawings of the pose. The picture below is one of my pencil studies of the pose (different angle than the one I'm doing though).
I also have an updated of my second Bargue. Another week of the teacher telling me little things to change and then the next day the other teacher telling me a different thing (we have different teachers each day of the week, except Wednesday and Friday we have the same teacher).
I feel like I've learned all I can from this semester here. I know if I stayed, I would learn more because they start you on new things further on, but I'm not willing to stay. It's simply a matter of them ingraining the precision they've taught us. Practice practice practice. I understand the necessity, but I really want to be working on my own stuff right now, especially since I have to think about getting a complete portfolio together for graduation in less than a year now. I don't really know how I'm going to pull a professional portfolio together in that time. At least the students back at AAA had this past semester to work on it as well. Lucas and I only have the spring semester.
And this is just a fun photo. Vlado kept making disgruntled faces (subconsiously or conciously, I don't know) because one of the other student's daughter came and sat next to him and wouldn't shut up. Lunch is always amusing.
Yesterday was my 5 year anniversary with Erik. I'm not extremely upset about missing it because I've never been much of a romantic, but it still hurts not being able to be there with him. Especially with something as big as 5 years. It's hard to think that we've been together for that long. It definitely doesn't seem that way but the more I think about it, the more I cannot imagine my life with him not in it. We've agreed to just celebrate it when I return. A month late, but still better than nothing at all. We're trying to find something to do that's special but not too expensive. We've done the nice romantic dinner and the time with just the two of us and the jewelry for previous anniversaries so we're looking for something different. Erik suggested going and staying at a 'romantic hotel/spa' for a couple of days. I would love to, but I know those places are not cheap.
Less than a month left and I return to reality!
My headaches and neck problems haven't been getting any easier. I've just felt like falling asleep every possible second as well. No idea why considering I haven't changed my sleeping or eating or daily patterns at all.
For some reason I have been getting dizzy as well. Mainly whenever I stand for more than 30 minutes at a time, but sometimes when I'm just sitting around or within a couple minutes of standing. Probably not a good thing.
Anyway, enough whining.
As I said before, we started the new charcoal drawing. Actually started working in charcoal this week instead of just study pencil drawings of the pose. The picture below is one of my pencil studies of the pose (different angle than the one I'm doing though).
I also have an updated of my second Bargue. Another week of the teacher telling me little things to change and then the next day the other teacher telling me a different thing (we have different teachers each day of the week, except Wednesday and Friday we have the same teacher).
I feel like I've learned all I can from this semester here. I know if I stayed, I would learn more because they start you on new things further on, but I'm not willing to stay. It's simply a matter of them ingraining the precision they've taught us. Practice practice practice. I understand the necessity, but I really want to be working on my own stuff right now, especially since I have to think about getting a complete portfolio together for graduation in less than a year now. I don't really know how I'm going to pull a professional portfolio together in that time. At least the students back at AAA had this past semester to work on it as well. Lucas and I only have the spring semester.
And this is just a fun photo. Vlado kept making disgruntled faces (subconsiously or conciously, I don't know) because one of the other student's daughter came and sat next to him and wouldn't shut up. Lunch is always amusing.
Yesterday was my 5 year anniversary with Erik. I'm not extremely upset about missing it because I've never been much of a romantic, but it still hurts not being able to be there with him. Especially with something as big as 5 years. It's hard to think that we've been together for that long. It definitely doesn't seem that way but the more I think about it, the more I cannot imagine my life with him not in it. We've agreed to just celebrate it when I return. A month late, but still better than nothing at all. We're trying to find something to do that's special but not too expensive. We've done the nice romantic dinner and the time with just the two of us and the jewelry for previous anniversaries so we're looking for something different. Erik suggested going and staying at a 'romantic hotel/spa' for a couple of days. I would love to, but I know those places are not cheap.
Less than a month left and I return to reality!
Friday, November 12, 2010
11/12/10
Ok, so now that I'm bumming around at the school, I'll post some of the recent work I've done. 
This is of my first charcoal drawing here (5 weeks worth of time). Honestly definitely not one of my favorite pieces and one that I don't care much about. All I can really see that I got out of it was a better understanding of getting the correct proportions and seeing shadow and light shapes better as well as slowing myself down... a lot.
Here's my second Bargue again. Still not 100% finished with it and this isn't an updated picture. It's from a couple of days ago. I was told to get softer pencils to darken it even more and to focus on the little shapes now instead of the large shadow shapes.
Today has been a bad day so far. I wake up and take a shower, then as I'm getting ready in my room, the power goes out. It went out a couple of nights ago and the landlord came and reset everything, explaining that when you use a certain amount of electricity your power gets shut off. We were using the oven, washing machine, and had a lot of the lights on in the apartment during that time so I can understand why it shut off then.
But today, Lucas was still sleeping so the only use of electricity was when I had the light on in the bathroom and then the light on in my room. I left for school but Lucas stayed behind to meet with the landlord when he came. I saw that the power box for the building had the red light on as well when I was leaving (instead of just the power meter for our apartment) so I think the entire building has a problem. I'm hoping the situation is resolved by the time classes are over because I don't want to have to throw out all the food in the fridge and have no light and no way to charge my computer and cold showers and no microwave.
This is of my first charcoal drawing here (5 weeks worth of time). Honestly definitely not one of my favorite pieces and one that I don't care much about. All I can really see that I got out of it was a better understanding of getting the correct proportions and seeing shadow and light shapes better as well as slowing myself down... a lot.
Here's my second Bargue again. Still not 100% finished with it and this isn't an updated picture. It's from a couple of days ago. I was told to get softer pencils to darken it even more and to focus on the little shapes now instead of the large shadow shapes.
Today has been a bad day so far. I wake up and take a shower, then as I'm getting ready in my room, the power goes out. It went out a couple of nights ago and the landlord came and reset everything, explaining that when you use a certain amount of electricity your power gets shut off. We were using the oven, washing machine, and had a lot of the lights on in the apartment during that time so I can understand why it shut off then.
But today, Lucas was still sleeping so the only use of electricity was when I had the light on in the bathroom and then the light on in my room. I left for school but Lucas stayed behind to meet with the landlord when he came. I saw that the power box for the building had the red light on as well when I was leaving (instead of just the power meter for our apartment) so I think the entire building has a problem. I'm hoping the situation is resolved by the time classes are over because I don't want to have to throw out all the food in the fridge and have no light and no way to charge my computer and cold showers and no microwave.
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
11/10/10
A month left before I return to the US.
Here's some pictures from Rome like I said I would post.
I was a little sad that the Pantheon (first picture) was under construction. Half of it was covered in scaffolding. I would have liked to see it in person completely. But we were also able to go inside and nothing in there was under construction. The day was utterly exhausting, but we got to see what we wanted, even if we ended up taking a train 2 hours later than we originally timed.
We started on new model/charcoal drawings this week. We have a male model this time. I already had to start another preliminary pencil drawing because as the model 'settled' into the pose, his shoulders rotated a little to a different angle. I have a picture of my 'finished' charcoal drawing from the past 5 weeks, but the internet has been bad lately, so it took me all day to even get those few pictures from Rome up.
Here's some pictures from Rome like I said I would post.
I was a little sad that the Pantheon (first picture) was under construction. Half of it was covered in scaffolding. I would have liked to see it in person completely. But we were also able to go inside and nothing in there was under construction. The day was utterly exhausting, but we got to see what we wanted, even if we ended up taking a train 2 hours later than we originally timed.
We started on new model/charcoal drawings this week. We have a male model this time. I already had to start another preliminary pencil drawing because as the model 'settled' into the pose, his shoulders rotated a little to a different angle. I have a picture of my 'finished' charcoal drawing from the past 5 weeks, but the internet has been bad lately, so it took me all day to even get those few pictures from Rome up.
Saturday, November 6, 2010
11/6/10
Sorry that I haven't updated in almost a week!
I've been pretty busy due to the fact that my dad and step mom came to visit me. It was a surprise visit (at least for everyone else other than me and my step mom). We kept it secret until my dad arrived to get his boarding pass for the airport. He thought he was going skiing or to Wisconsin for the weekend, haha. Anyway, it's great to see them both because even living back in the states I didn't get to see them much. And it's a lot of fun to be able to share this experience with people close to me and show them around the city.
We went to Rome yesterday, and I have to say to never try to do Rome in a day. We did pretty well and were able to see everything we wanted to see, but we were all zombies by the end of the day. I was a little upset because the Pantheon was under rennovation so half of it was covered by scaffolding. And we didn't get to spend as much time in the Forum or Palatine Hill as we should have. It's a lot larger of an area than I thought it would be.
I have pictures galore that I'll post later. My camera actually ran out of batteries and the last couple of pictures I took were pure luck because I turned it on, snapped quickly, and the camera died, so I just hoped they turned out ok.
Well, going out again with them today to do some shopping and walking and relaxing after yesterday. Sorry again about the shortness and lack of posting!
I've been pretty busy due to the fact that my dad and step mom came to visit me. It was a surprise visit (at least for everyone else other than me and my step mom). We kept it secret until my dad arrived to get his boarding pass for the airport. He thought he was going skiing or to Wisconsin for the weekend, haha. Anyway, it's great to see them both because even living back in the states I didn't get to see them much. And it's a lot of fun to be able to share this experience with people close to me and show them around the city.
We went to Rome yesterday, and I have to say to never try to do Rome in a day. We did pretty well and were able to see everything we wanted to see, but we were all zombies by the end of the day. I was a little upset because the Pantheon was under rennovation so half of it was covered by scaffolding. And we didn't get to spend as much time in the Forum or Palatine Hill as we should have. It's a lot larger of an area than I thought it would be.
I have pictures galore that I'll post later. My camera actually ran out of batteries and the last couple of pictures I took were pure luck because I turned it on, snapped quickly, and the camera died, so I just hoped they turned out ok.
Well, going out again with them today to do some shopping and walking and relaxing after yesterday. Sorry again about the shortness and lack of posting!
Saturday, October 30, 2010
10/30/10
Probably finishing my second Bargue drawing next week. Just a couple more things to refine.
I unfortunatelt don't have an updated picture of my charcoal drawing. One more week with on that, though I feel like I need maybe only a day more with it.
Lucas, Jo (British), Amy (New Zealand), and I went to Lucca today. It's a small town a little over an hour train ride from Florence. We went to see the town and because this is the last weekend of the Lucca Game and Comic Convention. We really didn't expect it, but THE ENTIRE TOWN was the convention. Literally the entire town was taken over by the convention. Europeans definitely know how to throw a convention. They also dress up for them better. The costumes we saw were all really well made and very wide ranged. Although the Italians seem to love Resident Evil and Star Wars above all. They also had the gallery of Illustrators. James Gurney (creator of Dinotopia, if any of you know what that is) was there. He's Lucas's role model in terms of art and a great inspiration, so it was nice to meet him and he was very awesome about talking with us about art. Here's a photo dump of just a couple of the photos from today:
I unfortunatelt don't have an updated picture of my charcoal drawing. One more week with on that, though I feel like I need maybe only a day more with it.
Lucas, Jo (British), Amy (New Zealand), and I went to Lucca today. It's a small town a little over an hour train ride from Florence. We went to see the town and because this is the last weekend of the Lucca Game and Comic Convention. We really didn't expect it, but THE ENTIRE TOWN was the convention. Literally the entire town was taken over by the convention. Europeans definitely know how to throw a convention. They also dress up for them better. The costumes we saw were all really well made and very wide ranged. Although the Italians seem to love Resident Evil and Star Wars above all. They also had the gallery of Illustrators. James Gurney (creator of Dinotopia, if any of you know what that is) was there. He's Lucas's role model in terms of art and a great inspiration, so it was nice to meet him and he was very awesome about talking with us about art. Here's a photo dump of just a couple of the photos from today:
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
10/27/10
Halloween is almost upon us. It really doesn't seem like it either. I miss seeing skeletons and pumpkins everywhere. I miss the leaves everywhere. The only thing the same is the cold. It doesn't even have the Fall smell here, just the cold. I have no idea what I'm doing on Halloween. I think maybe going to a party that Rachel invited us to, but I won't know anyone there except Lucas and her and I'm not sure if I'm up to that. I'm sure the other students will have a party together and I think I'd much rather go to that if that's the case. If not, I'll see if Lucas wants to host something on Saturday night or something.
They turned the heat on in the studios but it's still necessary to wear a hoodie or jacket while working. We also have the heat set to 68 F (20 C) in the apartment and we've been dealing with that ok, just piling the layers on. We don't want to have the gas bill be more than it needs to and Lucas and I are both used to a lot colder weather.
I'm feeling down again. I think it could just be a mixture of the weather, my migraines and back and neck pain coming back, and just bordom. I have no idea why I am so bored with my work right now, but I have to kick myself to work on my Bargue and even my charcoal model drawing. I left early on Monday and didn't go to class yesterday mainly because of a constant migraine that seems to want to put me in a coma. I've tried everything to get rid of it but it seems to only be gone when I'm sleeping. It also dies down if I'm laying down listening to music or something like that for a couple of hours. Poop.
I'm getting extremely homesick again as well. Only 46(?) more days until I get to see everyone again. It's probably a bad thing that I keep daydreaming the day I get home from the airport.
I'm planning on going to Rome next weekend (Nov 5th?). I'm hoping to be able to hit all the places I want to see within a day. From what I've been reading, it is possible. Especially since most of the places I want to see are near each other.
Well, off to model drawing. I'm hoping to get something accomplished although I don't want to work anymore on the drawing. It's pretty much finished, though I know there's some tweaking that needs to be done. But not looking forward to the 3 hours of standing with a owee back and neck and pounding migraine.
They turned the heat on in the studios but it's still necessary to wear a hoodie or jacket while working. We also have the heat set to 68 F (20 C) in the apartment and we've been dealing with that ok, just piling the layers on. We don't want to have the gas bill be more than it needs to and Lucas and I are both used to a lot colder weather.
I'm feeling down again. I think it could just be a mixture of the weather, my migraines and back and neck pain coming back, and just bordom. I have no idea why I am so bored with my work right now, but I have to kick myself to work on my Bargue and even my charcoal model drawing. I left early on Monday and didn't go to class yesterday mainly because of a constant migraine that seems to want to put me in a coma. I've tried everything to get rid of it but it seems to only be gone when I'm sleeping. It also dies down if I'm laying down listening to music or something like that for a couple of hours. Poop.
I'm getting extremely homesick again as well. Only 46(?) more days until I get to see everyone again. It's probably a bad thing that I keep daydreaming the day I get home from the airport.
I'm planning on going to Rome next weekend (Nov 5th?). I'm hoping to be able to hit all the places I want to see within a day. From what I've been reading, it is possible. Especially since most of the places I want to see are near each other.
Well, off to model drawing. I'm hoping to get something accomplished although I don't want to work anymore on the drawing. It's pretty much finished, though I know there's some tweaking that needs to be done. But not looking forward to the 3 hours of standing with a owee back and neck and pounding migraine.
Saturday, October 23, 2010
10/23/10
Last night was fun. We went to Moyo, another aperitivo (buffet-ish bar) with a group of other students for one of the student's (Lynn, from South Africa. Her 28th) birthday. Had a good deal of fun there just hanging out and talking, then headed to a little bar afterwards and chatted a bit there as well. Here are some pictures.
Lucas's cousin is here this weekend and today we went shopping. We went to a bunch of little markets and I finally got some things that I've been meaning to buy. Stopped for lunch at a little cafe, then walked around some more. I saw the most adorable English Bulldog puppy that was following his owner around (leashless). Here I am going to reiterate how awesome and well trained the dogs are here. We've also been noticing a lot of wolf hybrids here. At first I thought a couple were just husky-type dogs, but they are definitely not as thick and you can tell if you look at a picture of a wolf how similar many of the dogs here are. I finally saw a min pin as well. Made me miss Chevy all over again. We hit almost all the 'tourist' spots in Florence but they're all places I've seen before. We also stopped at a vintage store and I bought a cool... er warm wool sweater. It's starting to get quite chilly here, especially after the sun goes down and in the morning. Chilly enough to see your breath!
We also stopped at the all-English bookstore. I found this amazing book, only 15euro! I'm sure in the states it would cost $50 minimum.
Lucas's cousin is here this weekend and today we went shopping. We went to a bunch of little markets and I finally got some things that I've been meaning to buy. Stopped for lunch at a little cafe, then walked around some more. I saw the most adorable English Bulldog puppy that was following his owner around (leashless). Here I am going to reiterate how awesome and well trained the dogs are here. We've also been noticing a lot of wolf hybrids here. At first I thought a couple were just husky-type dogs, but they are definitely not as thick and you can tell if you look at a picture of a wolf how similar many of the dogs here are. I finally saw a min pin as well. Made me miss Chevy all over again. We hit almost all the 'tourist' spots in Florence but they're all places I've seen before. We also stopped at a vintage store and I bought a cool... er warm wool sweater. It's starting to get quite chilly here, especially after the sun goes down and in the morning. Chilly enough to see your breath!
We also stopped at the all-English bookstore. I found this amazing book, only 15euro! I'm sure in the states it would cost $50 minimum.
Thursday, October 21, 2010
10/21/10
Nothing much going on. Working on art, coming home exhausted and passing out, repeat.
Good news: my camera decided to work again! I now have the camera cord as well so expect pictures soon.
Bad news: my hard drive was wiped. Long story, but everything is gone again which means it's going to be more difficult for me to edit photos and write papers and I can't use my wacom tablet anymore because I don't have photoshop :(
More bad news is that one of the other students just went home yesterday. Her dad was in a motorcycle accident and died. They wanted her to stay, but I wouldn't imagine staying away if a family member died, especially a father.
I was happy because I got complimented (?) today by the teacher. She asked me if I'd had formal training before when she stopped to look at and critique my charcoal model drawing.
She was also saying how she likes how I'm approaching my Bargue drawing this time. I started doing what one of the assistants suggested and made the cast shadow lines really sharp and the regular shadow lines fuzzier. Plus I have everything pretty spot on already unlike having to move every little thing again and again on my last drawing.
Lucas's cousin is coming in today and spending the weekend. I think we're going to go to the leather market on Saturday and I know we're going out to dinner with her tonight. It should be interesting.
I got all the care packages sent out (at least the ones I was told of). Everyone is amazing for sending stuff and I can say I'm happy that I have American junk food now. Haha.
Good news: my camera decided to work again! I now have the camera cord as well so expect pictures soon.
Bad news: my hard drive was wiped. Long story, but everything is gone again which means it's going to be more difficult for me to edit photos and write papers and I can't use my wacom tablet anymore because I don't have photoshop :(
More bad news is that one of the other students just went home yesterday. Her dad was in a motorcycle accident and died. They wanted her to stay, but I wouldn't imagine staying away if a family member died, especially a father.
I was happy because I got complimented (?) today by the teacher. She asked me if I'd had formal training before when she stopped to look at and critique my charcoal model drawing.
She was also saying how she likes how I'm approaching my Bargue drawing this time. I started doing what one of the assistants suggested and made the cast shadow lines really sharp and the regular shadow lines fuzzier. Plus I have everything pretty spot on already unlike having to move every little thing again and again on my last drawing.
Lucas's cousin is coming in today and spending the weekend. I think we're going to go to the leather market on Saturday and I know we're going out to dinner with her tonight. It should be interesting.
I got all the care packages sent out (at least the ones I was told of). Everyone is amazing for sending stuff and I can say I'm happy that I have American junk food now. Haha.
Saturday, October 16, 2010
10/16/10
Ugh. After probably 2 or 3 years of not getting a cold or virus, I get one while I'm here. And just when I thought I was safe too. Everyone in the school seemed to get the cold except me and a couple others. Even some of the teachers had it. Some got over it in a day like Lucas, some it took a week. But everyone seemed to be done with it earlier this week. Then BAM! Last night I kept waking up because my nose was so drippy, I had such a bad sore throat, and a bad headache.
I went to school even though I was feeling half dead. My brain doesn't seem to work that well either right now. Apparently I repeated something 3 times during breakfast with Lucas. Most of the day was spent with me staring off into nothing, sitting down zoning out, or changing a line or angle about 30 times before getting so apathetic towards it I just move on to a different area of the drawing.
Then after the first two sessions, Lucas and I tried running around to 3 or 4 different ATMs to try to get our rent money out. For some reason it wouldn't let me take everything I needed out so I had to wake up early today to run to the ATM again and get more out because the landlord came today for rent.
The landlord is also kinda a dick. I got a text from him around 11:30am yesterday saying that he was coming to the apartment in the afternoon. I told him we wouldn't be out of classes until 7pm, but we could probably hurry back real quick to meet him at 12:30 or 4:30 or we could just meet him saturday to give him the rent money. He said he was going to show the apartment to someone around 3pm and then just meet us at 11am on saturday to pick up the rent.
I know I'm not the only one who thinks that it was rude for him to just tell us a couple of hours before hand that a stranger was going to be looking around the place that we're living. Lucas and I had to hurry home during our lunch period and try to tidy up the apartment. Not that it was really that dirty, but I had clothes that I'd rather not have a stranger looking at lying around my room and the dishes needed to be done, floor needed to be swept, and Lucas's room (sorry Lucas) is a whole other story. I was going to clean the apartment this weekend, but we had to do everything in about 30 minutes instead.
Which was EXCELLENT with the fact that I'm sick.
Anyway. After the ATM fiasco, we got back to the school, had some wine and listened to/watched the Art History lecture. That's the one thing I'm going to miss about this school; just chilling with a glass of wine and snacks that the school provides for a class period.
Went to the grocery store to pick up a couple of things this morning before the landlord came and found some tofu and seitan patties (yay!). So now I don't have to walk 30-40 minutes to get vegetarian/vegan stuff. Although I got some awesome tomato crackers from that specialty store, so I'm probably going back there eventually.
Did my laundry last night and still waiting for my jeans to dry (oh, the luxury of having a drier, how I miss it). Now I'm finally just laying in bed relaxing some more, cursing this illness to go away.
I went to school even though I was feeling half dead. My brain doesn't seem to work that well either right now. Apparently I repeated something 3 times during breakfast with Lucas. Most of the day was spent with me staring off into nothing, sitting down zoning out, or changing a line or angle about 30 times before getting so apathetic towards it I just move on to a different area of the drawing.
Then after the first two sessions, Lucas and I tried running around to 3 or 4 different ATMs to try to get our rent money out. For some reason it wouldn't let me take everything I needed out so I had to wake up early today to run to the ATM again and get more out because the landlord came today for rent.
The landlord is also kinda a dick. I got a text from him around 11:30am yesterday saying that he was coming to the apartment in the afternoon. I told him we wouldn't be out of classes until 7pm, but we could probably hurry back real quick to meet him at 12:30 or 4:30 or we could just meet him saturday to give him the rent money. He said he was going to show the apartment to someone around 3pm and then just meet us at 11am on saturday to pick up the rent.
I know I'm not the only one who thinks that it was rude for him to just tell us a couple of hours before hand that a stranger was going to be looking around the place that we're living. Lucas and I had to hurry home during our lunch period and try to tidy up the apartment. Not that it was really that dirty, but I had clothes that I'd rather not have a stranger looking at lying around my room and the dishes needed to be done, floor needed to be swept, and Lucas's room (sorry Lucas) is a whole other story. I was going to clean the apartment this weekend, but we had to do everything in about 30 minutes instead.
Which was EXCELLENT with the fact that I'm sick.
Anyway. After the ATM fiasco, we got back to the school, had some wine and listened to/watched the Art History lecture. That's the one thing I'm going to miss about this school; just chilling with a glass of wine and snacks that the school provides for a class period.
Went to the grocery store to pick up a couple of things this morning before the landlord came and found some tofu and seitan patties (yay!). So now I don't have to walk 30-40 minutes to get vegetarian/vegan stuff. Although I got some awesome tomato crackers from that specialty store, so I'm probably going back there eventually.
Did my laundry last night and still waiting for my jeans to dry (oh, the luxury of having a drier, how I miss it). Now I'm finally just laying in bed relaxing some more, cursing this illness to go away.
Thursday, October 14, 2010
10/14/10
I haven't been updating daily because there isn't much daily to update about. I will probably update 2-4 times a week now. I do a lot of the same thing; go to classes, come home, make dinner, go to sleep, repeat.
I did get passed on my first Bargue finally. Here's the finished product:
I started on my new one, which I feel a lot more prepared for. Here it is after working on it today:
Also, I'm progressing slower than normal (for me at least, but actually a little faster than the school wants me to) on my first charcoal drawing. No one else in the room has started shading the shadow shapes. Here it is:
Lucas is going to Lucca this weekend for an Illustration convention. I don't much care for it and I enjoy my time of sitting around doing nothing, so I'm not going with. Plus I have to do laundry and clean up the apartment a bit.
I'm going picture crazy this blog. This is Elena making us arreppas last weekend:
And this is just fun/weird. I found Tobacco scented air freshener in a 0.99euro store. I kind of want to get it just because it's so odd.
I did get passed on my first Bargue finally. Here's the finished product:
I started on my new one, which I feel a lot more prepared for. Here it is after working on it today:
Also, I'm progressing slower than normal (for me at least, but actually a little faster than the school wants me to) on my first charcoal drawing. No one else in the room has started shading the shadow shapes. Here it is:
Lucas is going to Lucca this weekend for an Illustration convention. I don't much care for it and I enjoy my time of sitting around doing nothing, so I'm not going with. Plus I have to do laundry and clean up the apartment a bit.
I'm going picture crazy this blog. This is Elena making us arreppas last weekend:
And this is just fun/weird. I found Tobacco scented air freshener in a 0.99euro store. I kind of want to get it just because it's so odd.
Sunday, October 10, 2010
10/10/10
This weekend was pretty fun. The beginning of the weekend, not so much, but otherwise it was.
On Thursday I started to get a migraine. As anyone who has had a migraine knows, it's pretty impossible to concentrate on anything when you have one. So I left halfway through classes and went home to rest.
Then for some reason, by the end of the night my back was in horrible pain. Especially this one spot. I usually get twinges and quick stab pains in that spot (right below my left shoulder blade close to or on my spine) but for some reason it was in constant pain. I couldn't really do much other than lay in bed because it hurt so much. I told Lucas chances are I wouldn't be going to classes the next day because of it and I didn't. More so because my migraine had not subsided either.
Lucas went out Friday night to hang out with Elena (the Venezuelan girl) but there was no way I was up to going out yet.
By Saturday morning everything was a lot better. My back still hurt like no other, but I could move around without wanting to cry and my migraine was gone. We went food shopping and then decided to stop by Elena's again, mainly because Lucas had left his bag there the previous night. Elena was home alone and really bored so we stayed there for a couple hours. She made us arreppas (probably spelled that wrong) and we each had a couple glasses of wine and talked and listened to music. We were trying to wait for her roommate Stephanie (the Irish girl) to get home to see if she wanted to come hang out with us, but by 7:30pm she wasn't home so we just left and headed back to our apartment. I made sangria earlier so we had sangria and then made some pizza as well. Then we got a call from one of the guys from school saying there was a party and we should go.
By then I was exhausted and my back was hurting again, so I passed. But apparently it was quite a time. Elena and Lucas bought some absinthe for the party. Ulrich (the German guy) apparently started himself and the table on fire there. Thankfully he wasn't hurt, but Elena and Lucas were quite inebriated from the absinthe that they left after only being there for a couple hours.
I woke up this morning to them both looking tired but not too hung over (by some miracle) and Elena has a couple new bruises and a fat lip from falling up the stairs to our apartment. Lucas left to go to the Pitti Palace again today and Elena and I are just hanging out in our apartment. We're getting hungry though and I told Lucas to pick up some corn flour for more arreppas. I think I'm addicted to them hahaha.
This weekend has been crazy. Lucas just got home and was saying that he and some of the students didn't even get into the Pitti Palace. Apparently someone broke their leg in the Palace so they held off letting everyone in for about an hour. They started letting some tour groups in after the first hour and then by 2 hours they took the broken leg guy out. Then they still were just letting the tour groups in and not people who have been waiting there for 2 hours. Then a riot broke out. Lesson: don't piss off groups of Europeans. Even if it seems to be a place that is nice and controlled like a museum.
Week two of school down. I'm happy that we're starting with charcoal tomorrow instead of still doing pencil. I was starting to get really bored with school considering we've been doing the same thing every day for the past two weeks. I'm also really hoping to get checked off on my Bargue finally. When the last teacher looked at it, she barely had anything to say on what was wrong so I'm hoping it's done now.
On Thursday I started to get a migraine. As anyone who has had a migraine knows, it's pretty impossible to concentrate on anything when you have one. So I left halfway through classes and went home to rest.
Then for some reason, by the end of the night my back was in horrible pain. Especially this one spot. I usually get twinges and quick stab pains in that spot (right below my left shoulder blade close to or on my spine) but for some reason it was in constant pain. I couldn't really do much other than lay in bed because it hurt so much. I told Lucas chances are I wouldn't be going to classes the next day because of it and I didn't. More so because my migraine had not subsided either.
Lucas went out Friday night to hang out with Elena (the Venezuelan girl) but there was no way I was up to going out yet.
By Saturday morning everything was a lot better. My back still hurt like no other, but I could move around without wanting to cry and my migraine was gone. We went food shopping and then decided to stop by Elena's again, mainly because Lucas had left his bag there the previous night. Elena was home alone and really bored so we stayed there for a couple hours. She made us arreppas (probably spelled that wrong) and we each had a couple glasses of wine and talked and listened to music. We were trying to wait for her roommate Stephanie (the Irish girl) to get home to see if she wanted to come hang out with us, but by 7:30pm she wasn't home so we just left and headed back to our apartment. I made sangria earlier so we had sangria and then made some pizza as well. Then we got a call from one of the guys from school saying there was a party and we should go.
By then I was exhausted and my back was hurting again, so I passed. But apparently it was quite a time. Elena and Lucas bought some absinthe for the party. Ulrich (the German guy) apparently started himself and the table on fire there. Thankfully he wasn't hurt, but Elena and Lucas were quite inebriated from the absinthe that they left after only being there for a couple hours.
I woke up this morning to them both looking tired but not too hung over (by some miracle) and Elena has a couple new bruises and a fat lip from falling up the stairs to our apartment. Lucas left to go to the Pitti Palace again today and Elena and I are just hanging out in our apartment. We're getting hungry though and I told Lucas to pick up some corn flour for more arreppas. I think I'm addicted to them hahaha.
This weekend has been crazy. Lucas just got home and was saying that he and some of the students didn't even get into the Pitti Palace. Apparently someone broke their leg in the Palace so they held off letting everyone in for about an hour. They started letting some tour groups in after the first hour and then by 2 hours they took the broken leg guy out. Then they still were just letting the tour groups in and not people who have been waiting there for 2 hours. Then a riot broke out. Lesson: don't piss off groups of Europeans. Even if it seems to be a place that is nice and controlled like a museum.
Week two of school down. I'm happy that we're starting with charcoal tomorrow instead of still doing pencil. I was starting to get really bored with school considering we've been doing the same thing every day for the past two weeks. I'm also really hoping to get checked off on my Bargue finally. When the last teacher looked at it, she barely had anything to say on what was wrong so I'm hoping it's done now.
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
10/6/10
Lucas and I went to a 'buffet' (there's a specific Italian word for it that I forgot) last night with Rachel and her boyfriend, Fillepe (I probably spelled that wrong). The place is called Kitch and is actually about a 5-10 minute walk from our apartment. Rachel said it was the best one in town, and I definitely believe her after eating there.
With these 'buffet' places, you pay for a drink (usually around 7 euro) and then you can eat as much as you want. Apparently a lot of the places don't have a large variation, but this place was pretty good. Especially since a good deal of their dishes were vegetarian-friendly and they seemed to add different ones whenever one dish ran out.
It was also interesting talking with her boyfriend, who is a native Florentine, but spoke English very well. It was great because he knew a lot of American subjects and terms from Rachel. They want to hopefully do something with us this weekend as well.
I am getting so frustrated with class as well. Again, still not 'finished' with the Bargue drawing. And I'm still working on the preliminary drawing for my charcoal drawing that we start next week. I understand that they are just pencil drawings used to get an idea of everything before starting the final drawing, but still. It's so obnoxious how much they pick at your work. I also think that they're putting me and grading me at a different level. I see everyone else's work and honestly it is about the same as a middle-of-the-year/end-of-the-year freshman in Life Drawing at the American Academy of Art. Ugggghhhhh. I really had to beat myself up today to keep working on the drawings. And I still have another 2 hour session of drawing in about 40 minutes. I'm also fighting to stay awake right now, which is odd considering I have been getting 7 1/2-8 hours of sleep every night, drinking lots of water, and eating well.
I think Rachel puts it best: "This is an art concentration camp."
Anyway, aside from my complaining which I like to do but will do the work anyway, Lucas told me this morning that his mom is definitely coming in late November/early December. It's awesome because she wants to go to Rome with us when she comes in and she said she'd foot the hotel bill. Yay free lodging!
With these 'buffet' places, you pay for a drink (usually around 7 euro) and then you can eat as much as you want. Apparently a lot of the places don't have a large variation, but this place was pretty good. Especially since a good deal of their dishes were vegetarian-friendly and they seemed to add different ones whenever one dish ran out.
It was also interesting talking with her boyfriend, who is a native Florentine, but spoke English very well. It was great because he knew a lot of American subjects and terms from Rachel. They want to hopefully do something with us this weekend as well.
I am getting so frustrated with class as well. Again, still not 'finished' with the Bargue drawing. And I'm still working on the preliminary drawing for my charcoal drawing that we start next week. I understand that they are just pencil drawings used to get an idea of everything before starting the final drawing, but still. It's so obnoxious how much they pick at your work. I also think that they're putting me and grading me at a different level. I see everyone else's work and honestly it is about the same as a middle-of-the-year/end-of-the-year freshman in Life Drawing at the American Academy of Art. Ugggghhhhh. I really had to beat myself up today to keep working on the drawings. And I still have another 2 hour session of drawing in about 40 minutes. I'm also fighting to stay awake right now, which is odd considering I have been getting 7 1/2-8 hours of sleep every night, drinking lots of water, and eating well.
I think Rachel puts it best: "This is an art concentration camp."
Anyway, aside from my complaining which I like to do but will do the work anyway, Lucas told me this morning that his mom is definitely coming in late November/early December. It's awesome because she wants to go to Rome with us when she comes in and she said she'd foot the hotel bill. Yay free lodging!
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
10/5/10
Ugh. This Bargue drawing is killing me. I've already put about 20 hours into it and the teachers and assistants are still finding things to make me work on. Everything is generally down and correct, they're just being nit-picky. But I understand because that's the point of us doing them, to get every little detail and measurement correct and to train our eye to see correctly, eventually without having a copy of something there to guide us.
Lucas did a neat little write up on his blog about the history of Bargue drawings if anyone is interested.
Click Here for a light history of Bargue drawings.
We're also 'starting' our first charcoal drawing. This entire week we're just doing pencil sketches/drawings of the model in the pose and then next week we're starting in actual charcoal of the same pose. I did one pencil drawing yesterday but I know I went too fast and so today I'm going to try to just work on the basic proportion lines rather than work it into a drawing.
I'm surprised at how much I've actually slowed down in my work process and I haven't even been in classes for two weeks yet.
Lucas did a neat little write up on his blog about the history of Bargue drawings if anyone is interested.
Click Here for a light history of Bargue drawings.
We're also 'starting' our first charcoal drawing. This entire week we're just doing pencil sketches/drawings of the model in the pose and then next week we're starting in actual charcoal of the same pose. I did one pencil drawing yesterday but I know I went too fast and so today I'm going to try to just work on the basic proportion lines rather than work it into a drawing.
I'm surprised at how much I've actually slowed down in my work process and I haven't even been in classes for two weeks yet.
Sunday, October 3, 2010
10/3/10
Yesterday was a pretty filled day. We woke up and headed for the Palazzo Pitti or Pitti Palace. We stopped at Ponte Vecchio and took a couple of tourist pictures, like everyone should when they visit the bridge.
Finally got to Pitti and met some other classmates there. Our Art History teacher met us there as well and acted pretty much as a tour guide, though more artist trained than your basic tour guide. It made a lot of the paintings more interesting learning about the history and the artist (though I was familiar with a good deal of them already), but also to have a trained artist talk and explain about the lighting and color and composition, etc of the paintings.
Taking photos wasn't allowed, but I snuck a few with my phone. At least I wasn't like a couple people that I saw who were a little obvious about taking pictures, especially the guy I saw with the large professional nikon. He's lucky there wasn't one of the employees in the room at the time.
I could not resist sneaking a picture of a Caravaggio. It's so fulfilling to see his work in person finally. Did I mention he's one of my favorite artists? Nothing but stunning work. The guy was a little crazy, but hey, all artists are right?
After we went through most of the Palace, we headed down to the courtyard and some of the students got some pizza and coffee and we stood/sat around and talked for a while. Then we all went our separate ways.
Lucas and I ended up walking past Ponte Vecchio and down to the next bridge east, trying to find a place away from the tourists to get a bite to eat. We ended up walking through Piazza Santa Croce where the International Market was going on.
There were booths from most of the European countries. There were booths for food, jewelry, beer, clothes, baubles, incense, ornaments, statuettes, kitchenware, music, and so much more. I have photos, but they are on my camera so I have to wait for my cord before I can share.
We got 3 pretzels bigger than our heads. One was a pizza, the other a hazelnut and caramel, and the other was like a donut, only in pretzel form. We sat and enjoyed the donut one, saving the other two for dinner.
We finally found cheese other than just white cheese there too! We got two different types of gouda that were actually orange gouda and one of them tastes almost exactly like sharp cheddar. Lucas also got a herb cheese that I didn't much care for. There was a pesto cheese as well that was interesting, but much too pesto-y for my taste.
There were so many things I wanted to get there, but I knew I shouldn't be spending my money on random things. Plus there's no doubt that everything was marked up anyway.
Today starts the 'real' week of school. I will now be going there probably 5 days a week from 8:30am until probably 7:15pm. I'm going to be even more exhausted, if possible.
Finally got to Pitti and met some other classmates there. Our Art History teacher met us there as well and acted pretty much as a tour guide, though more artist trained than your basic tour guide. It made a lot of the paintings more interesting learning about the history and the artist (though I was familiar with a good deal of them already), but also to have a trained artist talk and explain about the lighting and color and composition, etc of the paintings.
Taking photos wasn't allowed, but I snuck a few with my phone. At least I wasn't like a couple people that I saw who were a little obvious about taking pictures, especially the guy I saw with the large professional nikon. He's lucky there wasn't one of the employees in the room at the time.
I could not resist sneaking a picture of a Caravaggio. It's so fulfilling to see his work in person finally. Did I mention he's one of my favorite artists? Nothing but stunning work. The guy was a little crazy, but hey, all artists are right?
After we went through most of the Palace, we headed down to the courtyard and some of the students got some pizza and coffee and we stood/sat around and talked for a while. Then we all went our separate ways.
Lucas and I ended up walking past Ponte Vecchio and down to the next bridge east, trying to find a place away from the tourists to get a bite to eat. We ended up walking through Piazza Santa Croce where the International Market was going on.
There were booths from most of the European countries. There were booths for food, jewelry, beer, clothes, baubles, incense, ornaments, statuettes, kitchenware, music, and so much more. I have photos, but they are on my camera so I have to wait for my cord before I can share.
We got 3 pretzels bigger than our heads. One was a pizza, the other a hazelnut and caramel, and the other was like a donut, only in pretzel form. We sat and enjoyed the donut one, saving the other two for dinner.
We finally found cheese other than just white cheese there too! We got two different types of gouda that were actually orange gouda and one of them tastes almost exactly like sharp cheddar. Lucas also got a herb cheese that I didn't much care for. There was a pesto cheese as well that was interesting, but much too pesto-y for my taste.
There were so many things I wanted to get there, but I knew I shouldn't be spending my money on random things. Plus there's no doubt that everything was marked up anyway.
Today starts the 'real' week of school. I will now be going there probably 5 days a week from 8:30am until probably 7:15pm. I'm going to be even more exhausted, if possible.
Friday, October 1, 2010
10/1/10
First day of October! I've been here for a little over two weeks and things have gotten better since school started, obviously.
Today after classes is the pizza party. Then a couple of the students were talking about going to a bar afterwards. Lucas and I are going to join them.
Here are some of the drawings I've done so far. Sorry for the crappy picture quality, I have to take pictures of everything with my iPhone until I get my camera cord that I forgot at home.
This is my Bargue drawing. The first is before I erased about half of it and the second was by the end of that day. I think I'm finished with it now, I'll post the finished picture on Monday or sometime this weekend, depending on the time I have.
Today after classes is the pizza party. Then a couple of the students were talking about going to a bar afterwards. Lucas and I are going to join them.
Here are some of the drawings I've done so far. Sorry for the crappy picture quality, I have to take pictures of everything with my iPhone until I get my camera cord that I forgot at home.
This is my Bargue drawing. The first is before I erased about half of it and the second was by the end of that day. I think I'm finished with it now, I'll post the finished picture on Monday or sometime this weekend, depending on the time I have.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
9/29/10
I'm actually starting to get people's names down now. The New Zealand girl is Amy, the Irish girl is Stephanie, the Venezuelan is Ilse, the Iranian is Mor, the American living in Florence for the past two years is Rachael, the weird American guy (he looked like a pirate yesterday and a cowboy today) is John, one of the Swedish guys is Johann, the German guy is Ulrich, the older Canadian lady is Laura, and then there's another American girl I've been talking two named Sara.
Whew.
Internet is thankfully working at the school. My computer just died before I had a chance to play around on the internet there. Turns out Susan (the assistant director) noticed one of the lights on the modem was out yesterday before she left and jostled it around a bit and it turned on. It works now. Apparently that stupid little light not being on was the problem.
I should be finishing my Bargue drawing tomorrow and hopefully starting on a new one. I'll post pictures tomorrow of it and a couple of the model pencil drawings we've been doing. I just need to tweak a couple of things on the Bargue drawing. I know it isn't exact nor up to being any of my best work, but I see it as me getting into the swing of things again.
I had a cigarette today. Ilse bummed me one and I've been craving one since I got here because EVERYONE HERE SMOKES. I'm really not kidding. It's hard to find someone here who is not a smoker. I think Lucas and maybe a couple other of the students are the only people I know here who don't smoke. But I honestly don't think I'm going to have another cigarette for a while.
I'm as exhausted as I've been the past couple of days. I stayed up to talk with Erik last night, but not for too long. I was asleep by 1am. I've also been waking up 20-30 minutes before my alarm goes off as well and I usually sit in bed a while before just getting up because I can't fall asleep again. Plus, standing for around 8+ hours a day and walking everywhere really takes a toll. My feet hurt so much and my shoulders and neck and back and knees are really taking a beating from standing for so long. My knees were really feeling it today because to correctly measure each time while standing and drawing, you have to lock your knees. So that's 3 hours a day or more of locked knees. And trying to hold your arm still to measure correctly as well is killing my shoulder. I have a migraine right now because of all the tension from it.
Lucas and I went to the vegan/organic store today after school. We walked and walked and I couldn't help thinking that we were walking too far, even though it was far anyway (30+ minute walk). I looked at the numbers and we were at 220. The store was at 90. So we had to walk another 10 minutes backtracking. Finally we get to the store and I'm happy. The prices are still expensive, but WAY cheaper than the other store we went to. And they had a pretty good selection of vegan/vegetarian food. They even had a huge gluten/wheat free section that I might go back for. Eating all these grains again is giving me really bad heartburn and I think supplementing my sore and stiff back and shoulders as well.
Finally just got home maybe an hour ago. Lucas made some lo-mein with lo-mein noodles he found at a little Asian store that's on the way to the Duomo. We also go (fake) oyster sauce and coconut milk there. But he made the noodles, threw in some vegetables we had that needed to be used in the next day or two, and threw in some oyster sauce. We had some white wine with it as well. Made in Florence. It's VERY light and doesn't have much taste to it at all. But you can definitely feel the alcohol in your throat.
Whew.
Internet is thankfully working at the school. My computer just died before I had a chance to play around on the internet there. Turns out Susan (the assistant director) noticed one of the lights on the modem was out yesterday before she left and jostled it around a bit and it turned on. It works now. Apparently that stupid little light not being on was the problem.
I should be finishing my Bargue drawing tomorrow and hopefully starting on a new one. I'll post pictures tomorrow of it and a couple of the model pencil drawings we've been doing. I just need to tweak a couple of things on the Bargue drawing. I know it isn't exact nor up to being any of my best work, but I see it as me getting into the swing of things again.
I had a cigarette today. Ilse bummed me one and I've been craving one since I got here because EVERYONE HERE SMOKES. I'm really not kidding. It's hard to find someone here who is not a smoker. I think Lucas and maybe a couple other of the students are the only people I know here who don't smoke. But I honestly don't think I'm going to have another cigarette for a while.
I'm as exhausted as I've been the past couple of days. I stayed up to talk with Erik last night, but not for too long. I was asleep by 1am. I've also been waking up 20-30 minutes before my alarm goes off as well and I usually sit in bed a while before just getting up because I can't fall asleep again. Plus, standing for around 8+ hours a day and walking everywhere really takes a toll. My feet hurt so much and my shoulders and neck and back and knees are really taking a beating from standing for so long. My knees were really feeling it today because to correctly measure each time while standing and drawing, you have to lock your knees. So that's 3 hours a day or more of locked knees. And trying to hold your arm still to measure correctly as well is killing my shoulder. I have a migraine right now because of all the tension from it.
Lucas and I went to the vegan/organic store today after school. We walked and walked and I couldn't help thinking that we were walking too far, even though it was far anyway (30+ minute walk). I looked at the numbers and we were at 220. The store was at 90. So we had to walk another 10 minutes backtracking. Finally we get to the store and I'm happy. The prices are still expensive, but WAY cheaper than the other store we went to. And they had a pretty good selection of vegan/vegetarian food. They even had a huge gluten/wheat free section that I might go back for. Eating all these grains again is giving me really bad heartburn and I think supplementing my sore and stiff back and shoulders as well.
Finally just got home maybe an hour ago. Lucas made some lo-mein with lo-mein noodles he found at a little Asian store that's on the way to the Duomo. We also go (fake) oyster sauce and coconut milk there. But he made the noodles, threw in some vegetables we had that needed to be used in the next day or two, and threw in some oyster sauce. We had some white wine with it as well. Made in Florence. It's VERY light and doesn't have much taste to it at all. But you can definitely feel the alcohol in your throat.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
9/28/10
Second day of class. Today I actually was able to draw from life. I'm happy to actually have new models now, instead of the same models I've been drawing for the past 3 years.
I'm bored with the class, though. I love life drawing, but the way that they're making us work and the fact that I'm not allowed to go past a certain point irks me. It's going REALLY REALLY slow. Right now we're just doing basic pencil/line drawings without any detail or contour. We're supposed to keep it mainly just straight line. I realize that they're trying to teach us to really look and everything, but I've been doing this almost every day for the past 3 years. They're using the sight-size method which is really what I've been doing except a little less structured.
I hate standing. And I hate that they are making us stand a certain distance from the easel as well. It's near impossible for me to draw that way because I always end up having it really sketchy or incorrect. My hand doesn't seem to respond the same way drawing with an outstretched arm. I need to rest my palm or finger or have some base point to be able to get the correct lines.
I should be finishing my first Bargue drawing tomorrow as well. I hope they don't think I'm going too fast.
The teacher and assistant both came around today and critiqued me a bit. It irks me, some of the things they said because that's just how I work and I'm uncomfortable working another way. But they did point out a couple of things that made me fix my drawings.
During lunch I hung out with Lucas, Rachael (American who's been living in Florence for 2 years), a girl from New Zealand (didn't catch her name), and a girl from Iran (Mor). We ended up generally talking about modern and conceptual artists. It was interesting to hear everyone's opinion. The New Zealander had the same general feeling towards it that I do; if the artist cannot show that they understand basic anatomy, composition, color theory, etc (ie the basics of what all artists should know), then I don't care for their work and don't really respect them as an artist.
The internet there is also being awkward. It turns out the password wasn't FAA, but the actual network was named FAA without a password. So all I had to do was search to connect to the network FAA. But then for some reason it wouldn't load anything. None of my programs would connect to the internet, even though my computer said I was connected and had full bars as well. The assistant director, Susan, said she would contact someone who would probably know what's up and get back to me. She helped me with getting my computer connected in the first place, helped get more light into my studio (because for some reason the lights were dim and randomly flickered), and was talking to me about the fall weather and such for a while. I like her.
I just hope she hears back from whoever she contacted soon. I want to be able to be on the internet without having to constantly worry about being disconnected and wait 5+ minutes for one website to load.
It's been getting chilly also. It rained on and off the past couple of days and I've been wearing light jackets/hoodies. It's definitely not as cold as it is back in Chicago, but it's definitely Fall now. For some reason it's been getting really cold in our apartment. I think because we're up on the top floor. I taped pillow cases over my window so that the heat stays better, but it's still pretty chilly. I'm hoping to keep the heaters off as long as possible so as not to rack up the electric or gas (not sure which one the heaters are).
Also found seitan (fake meat, not soy but wheat based) and tofu. The only problem is that it was 6 euros for about a meal's worth. That translates to about $10. Icky. I'm hoping to find something cheaper at another specialty/organic/vegetarian store that I found online. The only problem is that it's about a 30-40 minute walk away. I'm hoping to head there tomorrow after school.
I'm bored with the class, though. I love life drawing, but the way that they're making us work and the fact that I'm not allowed to go past a certain point irks me. It's going REALLY REALLY slow. Right now we're just doing basic pencil/line drawings without any detail or contour. We're supposed to keep it mainly just straight line. I realize that they're trying to teach us to really look and everything, but I've been doing this almost every day for the past 3 years. They're using the sight-size method which is really what I've been doing except a little less structured.
I hate standing. And I hate that they are making us stand a certain distance from the easel as well. It's near impossible for me to draw that way because I always end up having it really sketchy or incorrect. My hand doesn't seem to respond the same way drawing with an outstretched arm. I need to rest my palm or finger or have some base point to be able to get the correct lines.
I should be finishing my first Bargue drawing tomorrow as well. I hope they don't think I'm going too fast.
The teacher and assistant both came around today and critiqued me a bit. It irks me, some of the things they said because that's just how I work and I'm uncomfortable working another way. But they did point out a couple of things that made me fix my drawings.
During lunch I hung out with Lucas, Rachael (American who's been living in Florence for 2 years), a girl from New Zealand (didn't catch her name), and a girl from Iran (Mor). We ended up generally talking about modern and conceptual artists. It was interesting to hear everyone's opinion. The New Zealander had the same general feeling towards it that I do; if the artist cannot show that they understand basic anatomy, composition, color theory, etc (ie the basics of what all artists should know), then I don't care for their work and don't really respect them as an artist.
The internet there is also being awkward. It turns out the password wasn't FAA, but the actual network was named FAA without a password. So all I had to do was search to connect to the network FAA. But then for some reason it wouldn't load anything. None of my programs would connect to the internet, even though my computer said I was connected and had full bars as well. The assistant director, Susan, said she would contact someone who would probably know what's up and get back to me. She helped me with getting my computer connected in the first place, helped get more light into my studio (because for some reason the lights were dim and randomly flickered), and was talking to me about the fall weather and such for a while. I like her.
I just hope she hears back from whoever she contacted soon. I want to be able to be on the internet without having to constantly worry about being disconnected and wait 5+ minutes for one website to load.
It's been getting chilly also. It rained on and off the past couple of days and I've been wearing light jackets/hoodies. It's definitely not as cold as it is back in Chicago, but it's definitely Fall now. For some reason it's been getting really cold in our apartment. I think because we're up on the top floor. I taped pillow cases over my window so that the heat stays better, but it's still pretty chilly. I'm hoping to keep the heaters off as long as possible so as not to rack up the electric or gas (not sure which one the heaters are).
Also found seitan (fake meat, not soy but wheat based) and tofu. The only problem is that it was 6 euros for about a meal's worth. That translates to about $10. Icky. I'm hoping to find something cheaper at another specialty/organic/vegetarian store that I found online. The only problem is that it's about a 30-40 minute walk away. I'm hoping to head there tomorrow after school.
Monday, September 27, 2010
9/27/10
So things are better and worse.
Things happened back home yesterday and made me even more stressed out and depressed. I went out to dinner with Lucas to an 'American/NFL' bar that was mostly filled with American student douche bags. The food was really good though. The rest of the night wasn't so good and I didn't get much sleep.
Woke up exhausted in the morning, but I obviously could not have missed the first day. We get going and are some of the first people there. Eventually everyone shuffles in and we all sit down. The director of the drawing department introduced herself and blahblah. Then we all had to introduce ourselves and say something about our background and all that fun stuff. I was surprised to find out that most of the people there don't have much of a real art background. There are some very interesting people literally from all over the world in the class, though. Ireland, South Africa, Venezuela, Hong Kong, Sweden, Poland, Canada, France, Hawaii, Ukraine, Germany, and I believe the rest are just from all over America. No other Chicagoans, though.
I can honestly say I was bored most of the day. She went over the student handbook and all that fun stuff. Then she talked about the technique that they teach here. Which is something I've been doing for the past 3 years and learned about 5 times over.
One of the instructors then took us to Zechhi, the local art store. Very tiny and very basic. Not much in the way of carriers, which is one of the things I was hoping to get. We get our stuff and it's break, so Lucas and I head back to the apartment to drop stuff off and grab things we already had that we needed, then get back to the Academy.
We eat lunch and chat with some of the other students. Kinda made friends with the Venezuelan (don't remember her name) and the Irish girl, Stephanie. We also talked with an American girl who has been living in Florence for the past two years working in the museums.
Then we pick our Bargue drawing to copy, and head to our studios. One student get the studio in the morning, one in the evening. Some times there's two students in there at a time, depending on the room you are assigned. Thankfully I get a studio cubicle to myself for the morning. We set everything up and start copying.
4pm rolls around and most of the students leave. We didn't get a model session because there was no real time. But I get the 3 hour studio first, the hour for lunch, then 3 hours with the model, then an hour, then 2 hours of anatomy, art history, or more model work depending on the day. So I'm pretty much there from 8:30am until 7-7:30pm.
The only problem so far is that I tried the internet there and for some reason the password is not working. The two Swedish guys were trying to get on the internet and couldn't as well. I really hope it's not too long of a problem because I have a feeling the internet there is A LOT faster than it is here in the apartment. Where it takes 5 minutes or more to load a page.
After we left the Academy (around 5?) we went with the American girl, Rachael, to COOP to do a little shopping. Went our separate ways and Lucas and I brought everything back to the apartment, then headed back out to Zechhi to grab some things we needed still for tomorrow. We stopped at a little Asian/Indian food store on the way back and we also stopped at this Dungeons & Dragons/Magic/general geekery store. They have the most it's so ugly its adorable statuettes of cats and owls and trolls. I really want to get one but I'm afraid of the price and I have a feeling I would have no where to really put it anyway.
Making fennel soup tonight for dinner. I should probably go check on that right now.
Again. I am so freaking exhausted. I walked around for a good portion of the day and I haven't eaten much and didn't sleep much last night.
That's another problem: trying to figure out lunch every day. There's not much to really make for lunch here that wouldn't need a fridge to keep it cool or a microwave to heat it up and I don't think the Academy has either. We'll have to see.
And it turns out that the registrar told me to just have all our mail sent to the Academy. So for anyone who wants to send me ANYTHING, here's the address.
Jessie Koepke
Via delle Casine 21/R
50122 Florence, Italy
I completely lost my train of thought....
Things happened back home yesterday and made me even more stressed out and depressed. I went out to dinner with Lucas to an 'American/NFL' bar that was mostly filled with American student douche bags. The food was really good though. The rest of the night wasn't so good and I didn't get much sleep.
Woke up exhausted in the morning, but I obviously could not have missed the first day. We get going and are some of the first people there. Eventually everyone shuffles in and we all sit down. The director of the drawing department introduced herself and blahblah. Then we all had to introduce ourselves and say something about our background and all that fun stuff. I was surprised to find out that most of the people there don't have much of a real art background. There are some very interesting people literally from all over the world in the class, though. Ireland, South Africa, Venezuela, Hong Kong, Sweden, Poland, Canada, France, Hawaii, Ukraine, Germany, and I believe the rest are just from all over America. No other Chicagoans, though.
I can honestly say I was bored most of the day. She went over the student handbook and all that fun stuff. Then she talked about the technique that they teach here. Which is something I've been doing for the past 3 years and learned about 5 times over.
One of the instructors then took us to Zechhi, the local art store. Very tiny and very basic. Not much in the way of carriers, which is one of the things I was hoping to get. We get our stuff and it's break, so Lucas and I head back to the apartment to drop stuff off and grab things we already had that we needed, then get back to the Academy.
We eat lunch and chat with some of the other students. Kinda made friends with the Venezuelan (don't remember her name) and the Irish girl, Stephanie. We also talked with an American girl who has been living in Florence for the past two years working in the museums.
Then we pick our Bargue drawing to copy, and head to our studios. One student get the studio in the morning, one in the evening. Some times there's two students in there at a time, depending on the room you are assigned. Thankfully I get a studio cubicle to myself for the morning. We set everything up and start copying.
4pm rolls around and most of the students leave. We didn't get a model session because there was no real time. But I get the 3 hour studio first, the hour for lunch, then 3 hours with the model, then an hour, then 2 hours of anatomy, art history, or more model work depending on the day. So I'm pretty much there from 8:30am until 7-7:30pm.
The only problem so far is that I tried the internet there and for some reason the password is not working. The two Swedish guys were trying to get on the internet and couldn't as well. I really hope it's not too long of a problem because I have a feeling the internet there is A LOT faster than it is here in the apartment. Where it takes 5 minutes or more to load a page.
After we left the Academy (around 5?) we went with the American girl, Rachael, to COOP to do a little shopping. Went our separate ways and Lucas and I brought everything back to the apartment, then headed back out to Zechhi to grab some things we needed still for tomorrow. We stopped at a little Asian/Indian food store on the way back and we also stopped at this Dungeons & Dragons/Magic/general geekery store. They have the most it's so ugly its adorable statuettes of cats and owls and trolls. I really want to get one but I'm afraid of the price and I have a feeling I would have no where to really put it anyway.
Making fennel soup tonight for dinner. I should probably go check on that right now.
Again. I am so freaking exhausted. I walked around for a good portion of the day and I haven't eaten much and didn't sleep much last night.
That's another problem: trying to figure out lunch every day. There's not much to really make for lunch here that wouldn't need a fridge to keep it cool or a microwave to heat it up and I don't think the Academy has either. We'll have to see.
And it turns out that the registrar told me to just have all our mail sent to the Academy. So for anyone who wants to send me ANYTHING, here's the address.
Jessie Koepke
Via delle Casine 21/R
50122 Florence, Italy
I completely lost my train of thought....
Saturday, September 25, 2010
9/25/10
Not so good day.
I have extreme homesickness. Everyone will probably say I should be shot for saying this, but I don't want to be here anymore. I want to go home. It's cool here and a place that I wish everyone could visit, but it's not for me. I think I would be handling this a lot better if I knew I was only going to be here for a couple weeks or maybe a month. But I know I have a long time yet before I can go home. People were saying how I'll love it there so much that I probably won't want to come back. But the truth at this point is that I love it so much back home that I want to go back.
Today started off ok. Lucas left to go to the Duomo museum again to sketch the Michelangelo statue there. I was in my room reading and waiting for some eggs to finish boiling when I heard someone knocking at the door. I ask who it is before I look through the peep hole and some lady starts babbling in Italian. Looking through the peephole, I see an old lady in a blue dress with flowers on it. I tell her I don't speak Italian and I don't know what she wants and she just shuts up. So I start walking back to my room when she knocks on the door again and babbles again. There's a very good chance she's not just some random woman off the street because the door to get into our building requires a key. Unless someone didn't close the door all the way, no one can get in without a key or without being buzzed in. So I open the door and she starts babbling more, raising her voice. I tell her 'non capisco' or 'i don't understand'. She stares at me for a second and then starts talking again, even louder. I know little enough Italian to get that she was talking about a box, then the television or something like that. And then she wanted me to go downstairs with her. I told her no, I was cooking and tried to get her to understand with the little Italian I know that I couldn't go anywhere and leave my food cooking. If I just turned off the stove and left with her and then turned the stove back on, the eggs would be ruined. She just kept trying to get me to come downstairs. So I tell her to wait a minute 'uno minuto' (I think that's correct) and she seemed to understand.
I close the door and try to call my landlord to ask him who the hell this woman is. His phone is apparently out of service, which is a whole other fuckery I have to deal with now because he was supposed to set up a box for us to get mail as well. So I call Alto but the phone cuts out or something before I can get him to try to figure out what she wants. So I grab my phone, keys, and shoes and go out the door. The woman isn't there anymore. I walk down the first flight and look around for her, but she's obviously gone at this point. So I go back upstairs and try to open the apartment door again. The keys are assholes and you have to use it every time you open the door (unless you're on the inside) even if it's unlocked. It's pretty much impossible to open the door anyway because you have to turn it just the right way in the right angle for it to open. So I stand there for a good 10 minutes trying to open the door. I text Lucas telling him I can't open the door. He sends me back a couple of texts giving me tips on how to open it because for some reason it always opens when he does it. Part of the problem might be my key also because my key is obviously the copy key. 25 minutes in and still no open door.
I start having a panic attack and ask Lucas if he could just come home and let me in. I feel shitty because I hate to interrupt him and I know I'm just an idiot and I should be able to open the door on my own. But things weren't getting better and having a panic attack in a situation like that would be much worse if I just kept trying on my own. So finally, after about 35 minutes of being locked out, Lucas arrives and lets me in. Of course the key works for him. I go and take a Xanax, then try to figure the fucking door out so that this shit doesn't happen again. I finally get it. You have to apparently slowly turn it while pushing in and kinda up and turn it so hard it feels like you're going to break the key. And it sometimes works when you do that.
This is bullshit.
Lucas leaves again after making sure I'm ok on my own. I settle down a little and then pass out for about 4 hours. I had some really weird dream that I can remember quite clearly too. Most of it points out to severely missing my family and Erik. And my video games, haha. I told Lucas the dream when he came home about 10 minutes after I woke up and he said as much as well and that it sounds like it's just my brain trying to process a lot of thoughts.
The internet is being really wonky. The USB modem thing has been really crappy today and randomly cuts out of the internet. It's never really cut out before, just decided to go really really really slow at random times for 5-15 minutes.
There are other stresses that are back home as well. It's even more difficult being here knowing that there are so many problems still back home and there's nothing I can do about it.
I'm sure I'll get over this hump. I know I signed up for this and there's no turning back. But it still doesn't change the fact that I just want to go home.
I have extreme homesickness. Everyone will probably say I should be shot for saying this, but I don't want to be here anymore. I want to go home. It's cool here and a place that I wish everyone could visit, but it's not for me. I think I would be handling this a lot better if I knew I was only going to be here for a couple weeks or maybe a month. But I know I have a long time yet before I can go home. People were saying how I'll love it there so much that I probably won't want to come back. But the truth at this point is that I love it so much back home that I want to go back.
Today started off ok. Lucas left to go to the Duomo museum again to sketch the Michelangelo statue there. I was in my room reading and waiting for some eggs to finish boiling when I heard someone knocking at the door. I ask who it is before I look through the peep hole and some lady starts babbling in Italian. Looking through the peephole, I see an old lady in a blue dress with flowers on it. I tell her I don't speak Italian and I don't know what she wants and she just shuts up. So I start walking back to my room when she knocks on the door again and babbles again. There's a very good chance she's not just some random woman off the street because the door to get into our building requires a key. Unless someone didn't close the door all the way, no one can get in without a key or without being buzzed in. So I open the door and she starts babbling more, raising her voice. I tell her 'non capisco' or 'i don't understand'. She stares at me for a second and then starts talking again, even louder. I know little enough Italian to get that she was talking about a box, then the television or something like that. And then she wanted me to go downstairs with her. I told her no, I was cooking and tried to get her to understand with the little Italian I know that I couldn't go anywhere and leave my food cooking. If I just turned off the stove and left with her and then turned the stove back on, the eggs would be ruined. She just kept trying to get me to come downstairs. So I tell her to wait a minute 'uno minuto' (I think that's correct) and she seemed to understand.
I close the door and try to call my landlord to ask him who the hell this woman is. His phone is apparently out of service, which is a whole other fuckery I have to deal with now because he was supposed to set up a box for us to get mail as well. So I call Alto but the phone cuts out or something before I can get him to try to figure out what she wants. So I grab my phone, keys, and shoes and go out the door. The woman isn't there anymore. I walk down the first flight and look around for her, but she's obviously gone at this point. So I go back upstairs and try to open the apartment door again. The keys are assholes and you have to use it every time you open the door (unless you're on the inside) even if it's unlocked. It's pretty much impossible to open the door anyway because you have to turn it just the right way in the right angle for it to open. So I stand there for a good 10 minutes trying to open the door. I text Lucas telling him I can't open the door. He sends me back a couple of texts giving me tips on how to open it because for some reason it always opens when he does it. Part of the problem might be my key also because my key is obviously the copy key. 25 minutes in and still no open door.
I start having a panic attack and ask Lucas if he could just come home and let me in. I feel shitty because I hate to interrupt him and I know I'm just an idiot and I should be able to open the door on my own. But things weren't getting better and having a panic attack in a situation like that would be much worse if I just kept trying on my own. So finally, after about 35 minutes of being locked out, Lucas arrives and lets me in. Of course the key works for him. I go and take a Xanax, then try to figure the fucking door out so that this shit doesn't happen again. I finally get it. You have to apparently slowly turn it while pushing in and kinda up and turn it so hard it feels like you're going to break the key. And it sometimes works when you do that.
This is bullshit.
Lucas leaves again after making sure I'm ok on my own. I settle down a little and then pass out for about 4 hours. I had some really weird dream that I can remember quite clearly too. Most of it points out to severely missing my family and Erik. And my video games, haha. I told Lucas the dream when he came home about 10 minutes after I woke up and he said as much as well and that it sounds like it's just my brain trying to process a lot of thoughts.
The internet is being really wonky. The USB modem thing has been really crappy today and randomly cuts out of the internet. It's never really cut out before, just decided to go really really really slow at random times for 5-15 minutes.
There are other stresses that are back home as well. It's even more difficult being here knowing that there are so many problems still back home and there's nothing I can do about it.
I'm sure I'll get over this hump. I know I signed up for this and there's no turning back. But it still doesn't change the fact that I just want to go home.
Friday, September 24, 2010
9/24/10
Went out walking around with Lucas today. We went to the Loggia dei Lanzi (stone garden) and Palazzo Vecchio and just walked around the streets. Of course there were tourists aplenty. I didn't feel so out of place snapping pictures of everything today. However, the pigeons seemed very aloof.
After taking pictures, we stopped and got some pizza. Lucas got Tonno pizza, pizza with tuna on it. He ate the entire thing. I could only finish half of my Caprese (just plain pizza with fresh tomatoes on it). The other half will be dinner tonight. Lucas has a picture of me eating it. I'll share as soon as he gets it online.
I'm also stealing Lucas' pictures of the apartment.
As you first enter.
The living room.
Upstairs.
Me in my room.
Lucas' room.
The bathroom.
Lacking a picture of the kitchen. But a kitchen is a kitchen.
Two and a half more days until classes start. I need them to start.
After taking pictures, we stopped and got some pizza. Lucas got Tonno pizza, pizza with tuna on it. He ate the entire thing. I could only finish half of my Caprese (just plain pizza with fresh tomatoes on it). The other half will be dinner tonight. Lucas has a picture of me eating it. I'll share as soon as he gets it online.
I'm also stealing Lucas' pictures of the apartment.
As you first enter.
The living room.
Upstairs.
Me in my room.
Lucas' room.
The bathroom.
Lacking a picture of the kitchen. But a kitchen is a kitchen.
Two and a half more days until classes start. I need them to start.
Thursday, September 23, 2010
9/23/10
Stayed in again today.
I did my laundry today, then attempted to hang it on the clothes line. One pair of jeans and the line was sagging dangerously. So I put the one pair of jeans on the line and another on the wire holding the clothesline posts. Then I hung the rest of my laundry on the wires of the lights (they go from one side of the living room to the other). Worked fine except that my pants are still damp, 6 hours later.
I also cleaned the apartment today. Not that it needed much. Did the dished, cleaned the counters and the stove, cleaned the table, and swept.
The 'chili' is going to last us a couple more days. I made a bunch of it, hoping it would be dinner or lunch for us for a while. It is like real chili where it's gotten even better after sitting in the fridge for a day.
I did a watercolor today. I haven't worked in watercolors really since my trip to Savannah (May 2010) so I feel a bit rusty.
I might be going to the stone garden (Uffizi) tomorrow. Depends on if I get caught up doing something in the apartment again or not.
I did my laundry today, then attempted to hang it on the clothes line. One pair of jeans and the line was sagging dangerously. So I put the one pair of jeans on the line and another on the wire holding the clothesline posts. Then I hung the rest of my laundry on the wires of the lights (they go from one side of the living room to the other). Worked fine except that my pants are still damp, 6 hours later.
I also cleaned the apartment today. Not that it needed much. Did the dished, cleaned the counters and the stove, cleaned the table, and swept.
The 'chili' is going to last us a couple more days. I made a bunch of it, hoping it would be dinner or lunch for us for a while. It is like real chili where it's gotten even better after sitting in the fridge for a day.
I did a watercolor today. I haven't worked in watercolors really since my trip to Savannah (May 2010) so I feel a bit rusty.
I might be going to the stone garden (Uffizi) tomorrow. Depends on if I get caught up doing something in the apartment again or not.
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
9/22/10
Actually had a decent night of sleep last night. The bed is still uncomfortable and hard but I guess I'm getting used to it now.
I swear the mosquitoes here have a higher IQ and are much more agile than the American ones. Probably because they don't live off of chemically altered and fat-filled blood. But there's been this mosquito haunting me for the past week. I have over 10 bites on me, most of which I don't even notice until I'm in the middle of scratching them. I swear I've swatted the bitch dead every time I've noticed it. But still it returns. And I haven't seen more than one at a time, so I'm pretty sure it's still the same mosquito. Especially since I haven't opened my window all day today.
Back to what happened today.
I woke up around 8:30, made a smoothie with our last banana, and did the dishes. Woke Lucas up around 9:30 so we could get to the fresh market before all the good fruits and veggies were gone. Went to the ATM (yay, my cards work!) except it decided to hate on Lucas today. It didn't give him the money and we have no idea what it said because both of us were distracted by the most obvious and obnoxious American tourists trying to figure out where they were while they were waddling around the piazza.
Anyway. We got to the fresh market, bought two bags worth of veggies for 7.15 euros (score!). Then we headed to COOP where we got a couple more odds and ends for the vegetarian chili I am making tonight.
I would like to state that we are addicted to these COOP cheese puffs. They are wonderful and delicious and only 0.36 euros for a larger bag of them. That's about $0.50. You can barely get a snack bag of Cheetoes for that much back in the states.
Made the 'chili'. It's more of just a mix of vegetables, beans, some spices, and tomato sauce. They don't have a lot of the spices I needed for it to make decent chili and they didn't have any green or jalapeno peppers that I saw either. And what I thought was an onion actually turns out to be fennel bulbs. I'm an idiot. But I know we can make roasted fennel or fennel soup with them later, so no loss.
This time difference thing is going to be difficult for talking with everyone. I was on Skype until about 1am talking to people because for them it was only around 5 or 6pm. Pooooooooooop.
I'm thinking of having Lucas bring me to the stone gardens and statue park area that he was talking about that he went to yesterday. He showed me some sketches of what he had done and it makes me even more interested to go see and possibly sketch as well. He said there were a bunch of other artists and students hanging around sketching there as well and it was amusing because there were people from all over the world there so no one really understood each other but was still complimenting on each other's work.
I think the 'chili' is done. So I'm going to finish this up and be done with this as well.
I swear the mosquitoes here have a higher IQ and are much more agile than the American ones. Probably because they don't live off of chemically altered and fat-filled blood. But there's been this mosquito haunting me for the past week. I have over 10 bites on me, most of which I don't even notice until I'm in the middle of scratching them. I swear I've swatted the bitch dead every time I've noticed it. But still it returns. And I haven't seen more than one at a time, so I'm pretty sure it's still the same mosquito. Especially since I haven't opened my window all day today.
Back to what happened today.
I woke up around 8:30, made a smoothie with our last banana, and did the dishes. Woke Lucas up around 9:30 so we could get to the fresh market before all the good fruits and veggies were gone. Went to the ATM (yay, my cards work!) except it decided to hate on Lucas today. It didn't give him the money and we have no idea what it said because both of us were distracted by the most obvious and obnoxious American tourists trying to figure out where they were while they were waddling around the piazza.
Anyway. We got to the fresh market, bought two bags worth of veggies for 7.15 euros (score!). Then we headed to COOP where we got a couple more odds and ends for the vegetarian chili I am making tonight.
I would like to state that we are addicted to these COOP cheese puffs. They are wonderful and delicious and only 0.36 euros for a larger bag of them. That's about $0.50. You can barely get a snack bag of Cheetoes for that much back in the states.
Made the 'chili'. It's more of just a mix of vegetables, beans, some spices, and tomato sauce. They don't have a lot of the spices I needed for it to make decent chili and they didn't have any green or jalapeno peppers that I saw either. And what I thought was an onion actually turns out to be fennel bulbs. I'm an idiot. But I know we can make roasted fennel or fennel soup with them later, so no loss.
This time difference thing is going to be difficult for talking with everyone. I was on Skype until about 1am talking to people because for them it was only around 5 or 6pm. Pooooooooooop.
I'm thinking of having Lucas bring me to the stone gardens and statue park area that he was talking about that he went to yesterday. He showed me some sketches of what he had done and it makes me even more interested to go see and possibly sketch as well. He said there were a bunch of other artists and students hanging around sketching there as well and it was amusing because there were people from all over the world there so no one really understood each other but was still complimenting on each other's work.
I think the 'chili' is done. So I'm going to finish this up and be done with this as well.
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
9/21/10
Yes! The internet is finally working, obviously by the fact that I am now posting this blog.
Both of my checking and my credit card accounts are back up and working again. Yeah.
I feel crappy today. I actually got to sleep around 11pm last night and woke up around 8:30am but I still feel ucky. Been just laying in bed reading some more and watched the rest of Gladiator that I started last night. And now on the internet.
Lucas has been gone all day. I heard him leave early this morning, but it's kind of bothering me that he hasn't been home yet at all. I knew he was going out today because he told me he was going to take photos along the river and such. It's probably just him getting caught up in taking pictures of everything, like he usually does.
I was going to go to the store today but I really don't feel up to it. Lost my promise to get out of the apartment every day, but today I have the excuse of feeling icky not just because I don't want to. I'll just make some casserole or something with the veggies we still have for dinner tonight.
I WANT CHOCOLATE SO BAD. But it's so damned expensive here.
Still trying to figure out the mail as well. We know there are these little mailboxes right when you walk in the building, but we have no idea which is ours. And I want to know what happens if someone sends up a package or something that doesn't fit in the little mailbox. I really don't want to call the landlord again because, honestly, he seems like he's kind of an idiot and half the stuff I've asked him about he didn't quite know.
FYI for you all. I now have Skype since I have the internet. My name on there is jesskoepke. I should be on around the time most of you are getting off of work/school so if you want to talk to me, get on right then because it'll be around midnight for me (5pm-ish central time) and I want to go to sleep, but it's the only real time to talk.
Both of my checking and my credit card accounts are back up and working again. Yeah.
I feel crappy today. I actually got to sleep around 11pm last night and woke up around 8:30am but I still feel ucky. Been just laying in bed reading some more and watched the rest of Gladiator that I started last night. And now on the internet.
Lucas has been gone all day. I heard him leave early this morning, but it's kind of bothering me that he hasn't been home yet at all. I knew he was going out today because he told me he was going to take photos along the river and such. It's probably just him getting caught up in taking pictures of everything, like he usually does.
I was going to go to the store today but I really don't feel up to it. Lost my promise to get out of the apartment every day, but today I have the excuse of feeling icky not just because I don't want to. I'll just make some casserole or something with the veggies we still have for dinner tonight.
I WANT CHOCOLATE SO BAD. But it's so damned expensive here.
Still trying to figure out the mail as well. We know there are these little mailboxes right when you walk in the building, but we have no idea which is ours. And I want to know what happens if someone sends up a package or something that doesn't fit in the little mailbox. I really don't want to call the landlord again because, honestly, he seems like he's kind of an idiot and half the stuff I've asked him about he didn't quite know.
FYI for you all. I now have Skype since I have the internet. My name on there is jesskoepke. I should be on around the time most of you are getting off of work/school so if you want to talk to me, get on right then because it'll be around midnight for me (5pm-ish central time) and I want to go to sleep, but it's the only real time to talk.
9/20/10
Didn’t get to sleep until about 3am last night again. I keep waking up around 9-9:30, though. Today I forced myself to sleep until around noon so that I wouldn’t be so tired all day.
In a blah kind of a mood. Again, I’m bored. I promised myself that I would try to get out of the apartment for a little while at least once a day. So far I’ve kept that promise, but that still hasn’t kept boredom from me.
We went to the Duomo again today except this time we went into one of the museums. It had a bunch of statues, some frescos, and reliefs from the Duomo. Took some pictures. Got to see a Michelangelo statue. Most of the statues looked very judgmental and I didn’t like the way they were looking at me. They also had an entire wall of reliefs that had creepy children on them. Did not care at all for those.
My debit card finally worked. I only took out 20euros though because I still have no idea what’s in my account. I already close to spent all of it, though. We stopped and got some groceries and spices and some twine for the clothesline. Plus the museum cost 6euros. I’m hoping to go to the fresh market or COOP tomorrow to get the rest of what I need to make some vegetarian chili tomorrow night.
I saw a Great Dane today. It might not seem that odd in the states but here all of the dogs that I’ve seen have been small, no more than 30lbs usually. I miss Chevy.
The internet should be up tomorrow. Lucas went to the store again today and they apparently fixed everything and everything should be set by tomorrow by the time we wake up. Hopefully.
9/19/10
I am so bored. I’m really hoping that once school starts I won’t be this bored. And I know that I should not be saying that I’m bored while I’m in Florence either. But I am.
I’ve read a 500 page book. I’ve finished the entire story mode of Diner Dash on my phone. I’ve been writing this diary(?) out every single day. I’ve been going out and walking around every day. I’ve watched 4 movies. I’ve done a couple of drawings. I’ve started a digital painting. I’ve drawn out and started a watercolor painting. I’ve cooked and cleaned. I've been writing this blog. But I am still so bored.
Today I tried the internet. It turns out it wasn’t the storm (which was still happening when I fell asleep at 1am btw). It won’t connect for some reason. Lucas and I tried going to the store again today but the guy said he couldn’t help people who were having computer problems today, just phone problems. Not sure why, but whatever.
So we walked around some more. Hung around the Duomo. I sat and sketched out a painting and started painting it, then my butt hurt from sitting for too long and the sun was out full blast, so my neck was getting burned. So we continued walking around to a couple different Piazzas and took some reference pictures. Then we headed back to the apartment. We started a stopwatch then walked to the school. Strolling, it took us around 10 minutes. We went back to the apartment another way and it took us around 12-13 minutes. Not much of a difference. It’ll take us 10-15 minutes to get to school every morning and back every evening.
Over half of the stores were closed today as well. Sunday being a holy day is a lot more serious here than in America. The only places that were open were some cafes and restaurants and a couple of food stores. Although close to all the stores around the ‘tourist’ areas (i.e. the Duomo) were open.
I also realized today that I forgot my cord for my camera to be able to upload things onto the computer with it. And it is such a weird cord that I doubt I’ll be able to just ‘pick one up’ like any other simple USB cord. Fuck you, Canon.
My debit card is also still not working. It could have just been the ATM I went to because I saw the guy after me leave without any cash, but I don’t think that’s the case. I really need the internet because I need to figure out what the hell is going on with my card. I don’t have access to any money until I do and the only money I have on me right now is around 2 euros.
I miss my dog. I miss my boyfriend. I miss my bed. I miss my internet. I miss my books. I miss my family. I miss being able to understand everyone. I miss being able to eat when I’m hungry. I miss being able to know how much money I have.
I really hope things get better in the next couple of days. Because as of now, I really just want to go home and be done with this shit.
9/18/10
I couldn’t get to sleep at all last night. I think my body kept thinking that it was around 5 pm like back in the states rather than almost midnight. I finally got to sleep around 3am, then woke up around 10am.
Like I’ve mentioned before, I’ve had to cut down on the eating and snacking. So breakfast was just a simple smoothie with only banana, greek yoghurt, soy milk, and some fruit juice.
I really didn’t feel like it, but Lucas and I headed down to the fresh market earlier today. I became confused and angry because both my debit card and my credit card were denied to get any money out of an ATM. With my debit card it was saying I was over my daily limit, which was really confusing considering I hadn’t used the card at all today and I already set it up where they know I’m out of the country. The credit card was more understandable because I have it set up that I’m out of the country on the 20th. So a couple more days before I can used that one.
But back to the fresh market; it’s great. It’s hectic, but great. Obviously some of the food stands are better than the others, you just have to look around. It is a little cheaper than the COOP (pronounced 'co-op') which is a lot like a Jewel or Dominicks. Except smaller. Everything is smaller here. Or probably it’s normal sized and everything in America is just oversized. There’s also and inside area with some food stands and mainly meats and fish and the like. I really want to try these HUGE mushrooms (larger than my hand). I might get one of them once I can get money out. Which I should be able to because I can look and my bank account and figure out what’s up now that we have the internet here.
Money is an issue. I checked it out and I’ve spent more these past couple of days than I usually do in a week or more back home. Stupid exchange rate.
Lucas had problems setting up the internet thing, so he went to the store we got it from and got it fixed. So now we have internet in the apartment! It’s really slow and sucks, but it’s still internet.
Lucas was also talking about going to Rome or some city close to Florence some time this week. I’m not quite sure I want to. Ok, more like I’m not sure I can afford to. Already this trip is costing more than I would ever want it to and I am more grateful than words or actions can express to my mom and step dad for funding this for me. I still am supposed to have two checks from my job coming in, but that honestly isn’t much money when it comes down to what I’ve been spending.
I’m going to try to make a budget idea for Erik and my mom considering both were thinking of coming and visiting me. More so for Erik than my mom because if it isn’t too expensive than he will definitely be coming with me. I don’t think it will be as expensive as he thought it would be. I think the money worries I’m having is just that obviously one is going to spend more money within the first week of moving into a new place rather than later on. And I’m already starting to learn where to buy stuff cheaper and better.
It’s also getting easier to know where I’m going. I don’t much pay attention to street names, more just the stores or other landmarks. I’m sure by the end of the week I will be pretty damned familiar with everything.
I’m still slowly getting basic Italian down. I know that I won’t be able to carry a conversation with anyone (MAYBE by the end of the trip) anytime soon, but I will hopefully be able to generally communicate with people here.
I’m pretty sure it’s just the season, but it rains daily here. It looks like a downpour is coming in the next hour, but its usually just drizzle here and there.
We also have very loud neighbors. The walls are so thin that when I’m in my room across the apartment with my door closed it sounds like our neighbors are inside the living room. I haven’t seen them yet, but I think it’s 2-3 girls that live there because all I hear is them laughing and screaming and talking very loudly and then the cabinets and drawers slamming.
I’m trying to have it so that my legs don’t cramp up and get too bulky by stretching a lot too. I’m extremely inflexible as it is and I think becoming more flexible with the muscle I’ll be gaining and the weight I’ll be losing doing all this walking and going up and down stairs will help.
I turned on the TV today as well. There was Italian dubbed Monk, Italian MTV, some Italian soap operas, and a lot of Italian sales channels. I saw a commercial for Ibuprofen, which was weird but quite interesting. I also flipped through the yellow pages, not able to understand pretty much everything.
I am bored.
I really should not be saying that, but I’ve already gone through 4 movies, half of a 400-page book, done 3 different drawings, etc etc. I dunno.
I have beans soaking so I can make some rice and beans or something. I really want to make a type of chili but that will have to wait until we get spices and some more vegetables. Maybe I’ll save half the beans and go out tomorrow to get the spices and such. I’m not sure what we will be having for dinner. I’m going to try this COOP store brand beer that we got just for the hell of it. Lucas tried his already and said it tastes like Bud Light.
UPDATE:
The beer tastes like skunky piss. Haha. But I guess that’s what we get for cheap store brand beer.
The internet isn’t working again. We’re hoping it’s just the thunderstorm that’s been going on for the past couple of hours. I also hope that long storms like this are every once in a while if at all if that’s what’s causing the internet not to work.
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