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.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
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.
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