Day 8

The evening before (after the friday excursion and such) Soem of us went out to Dinner. Got some pizza and just leasurely enjoyed our time together. Our waitor was amusing because when he came up, Will asked him how to say something. And the waitor decalred himself out teacher. He took the the time too flirt shamelessly with us and learn our names. I had a little arguement with him that I am Alysha not Alice (in italian it is pronounced Ah-lee-cha). Then after I hung on the second floor with the other half of the students here from IU (we are all one big family living on two different floors). I listened to Liv and Erin play. Erin has actually toured check it out (this is a live recording of one of the songs she played for us): Floatsam Wake Sorry for the bad quality.

Then began Our first saturday in Venice. Woke up at noon like any responsible college student. Then went to the Billa (groceries!). Along the way we saw people gearing up for the Regatta which is the following day. Boats everywhere needless to say. We came back and I ate food cleaning out the old food from the fridge. All I can say is I can get used to olive oil bread and cheese all the time, ahaha! Nom nom...

We worked on our homework most of the evening. THat night we tried to find Harry's Bar which apparently is super famous, and the students last year used to go all the time. But when we got there it was close. Note to take when in Venice Things don't open until 8 or 9 AM and close 8 or 9 PM. So some people bought a beer and we all sat by the grand canal and just talked before some us got tooo cold from the wind. We curled into bed and slept.

Day 7

Sorry I didn't post yesterday. There wasn't much to report other than Class 9-5. I will include one funny quip about how Dominick, Alyssa, Will, Annie, Cristina, and I went to get gelatto. Alyssa was second to last to go, then Dominick. Once Alyssa got hers she exited the store and Dominick went up to pay. The Gelatto guy said, "Is she your girlfriend?" Dominick quickly replies no as he has a girlfriend. Then the gelatto guy was like "I give you this for free if you put in a good word?" Dominick just shrugs and behold free gelatto.

Today was out first "Friday excursion". We went to Padova, Italy. And saw cars and grass for the first time in a week. lol We took the train there. First we went to a chapel to veiw some frescos painted by Giotto himself. And trust me those frescoes look much more inspiring in person than projected on a wall in art history! Giotto really was amazing in being one of the first painters to use expressions in his figures so vividly. There are no photos of the frescoes unfortunately. They had me check my Camera, and we could only be there for 20 minutes. It was a very controled enviroment to avoid further damage. But here is a picture of the outside of the chapel.

Next we traveled to a market. Lots of cheap stuff. I got a shirt. Exciting no? haha Then we went to the building where the market orginated. Palazzo della Regione (the plazza of reason). Here is a statue of a horse modeled after the legended of Troy. They would celebrate it annually and actually come out of the horse! There were frescoes all over the walls as you can see. Including the Zodiac. There were lots of funny little pictures of mythology and people. This plazza is known as the heart of the city. Padova isn't very touristy but very interesting.

After that we hit up another church. This one I snuck some pictures of the frescoes.

Next we went to the thirs oldest University in Europe and the oldest university in Italy.

Universita Degli Studi de Padova is home of the first human disection and Galileo taught here. Here's the photo of me at the University! Not many pictures were allowed here there. We did see the auditorium where the first disection took place. It was built by boat builders and is surprissingly small and big at the same time. Someting you just have to experience for yourself. We also so the memorial of the fisrt female University graduate. And as the tour guide said, "the begining of the end....of men." Bahahaha!

After that we hit up a museum about the science of Galileo. Lots of science...but interesting nonetheless.

More pictures for your pleasure: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2075&id=1711770129&l=00610ffa99

Day 5

Today was lots of class lol. I had my frist experience of Italgio. I will hopefully start printing soon. Pictures coming soon! I also did some more book binding acordion fold books mostly, plus a look at some more artist books. Some made by our professor. To the left is the sketchbook I was telling you we were binding using a criptic stitch. ^^ Done all by me! WOOO Even the cover gluing. It was fun! Not perfect, but hey it was my frist time.

Today was actually cool too. The last few times it's been

85 degree plus, but today was 75 and due to the ususally heat I wore a sweater. Oh well it was glorious. First day I didn't sweat profusely. William, one of the Grad students had his birthday today! Quarter of a Century so to Celebrate the occasion I went to the BP and bought some cake mix and constructed this monstrocity that William is displaying. It fell apart a bit, thus it's lumpy shape, but we repaired that with Nutella. So it then became no mistake, but a process of Design. And a Delicious one at that. Cristina added the 25 swedish fish in the shape of a W. If you can't figure out why you fail. THe cake was delicious by the way.

Happy Birthday William

Day 4

Well woke up at 8:30 this morning and took a shower then had some breakfast, as usual. Today however did not start with class. Our assignment instead was to get "lost". So Cristina, Annie, Alyssa, and I went and grabbed some authentic Italian cappacinos and the continued on our way. We wandered about and found this adorable little campo and decided to draw there. The main point of persuasion was the benches shaded by trees. I thought this cute little calle off the campo was adorable so I drew that. It had a clothes line which are all along the lines of ideas I have for some projects here. The drawing of the Calle itself will be for a print I'm making tomorrow. 

Then 12:30 rolled around and we wandered off in the direction we believed would take us to our apartment. Then we noticed the San Marco signs stopped. So we were like WTF? we check our maps and realized we had walked much further than we thought and to the Realto Bridge across the Gran Canal and then just walked to class since we were almost there and had lost a lot of time wandering in the wrong direction. 

It was very crowded adn very touristy, but we made there. We took a stop for lunch at this deli and then took it to class and ate with the 15 minutes we had left before class. Thus began binding the sketch books we made. We'll finish them tomorrow we ran out of time all I have left to sew is the cover. 

We stopped at the grocery store the Billa on the way home for dinner. Tonight we made a delicious Penne with tomato sauce. In the sauce (which you can only buy plain in Italy apparently) were mushrooms, garlic, balsamic, pepper, olive oil....mmm.. Topped with parmesan. Good eats. 

I went upstairs to hang with the other half of the gang on the trip. For a while. But class bright and early tomorrow. We begin Printmaking which should be interesting since I've never done it before. And then more book binding or maybe caligraphy I don't remember. And after I'm going to make a journey for my project. 

Ciao