More Pictures!

More pictures from today that Eric just sent us, enjoy and see you in a week!



Goodbye, For a Week!

Well, tomorrow we leave for our trip north! It's going to be a great time and I'm pretty excited about it, but, since we're going to be moving around so much, I won't have my computer and will be pretty much unreachable. It's alright though, I'll be back next Friday night!

Anyway, a lot has happened since my last post, so I've got a good amount to talk about to hold you over for the next week. Yesterday we had our first jury in Rome and it actually went pretty well for everybody. Not surprisingly everybody had great projects, and maybe even less surprisingly, the jurors still did have some critiques, mainly for the synthesis part in whcih we "redesigned" our assigned piazza. Oh well, they were good comments and they really just highlighted he difference in thinking between Americans and Europeans when we talk about urban spaces. It was good though, because that type of dynamic thinking can only help us. They also seemed to be very impressed with everybody's drawings and layout, which honestly were all great. I really enjoyed this project and I'm very happy about the way it turned out, hopefully I'll have some pictures to share once we document the project. We haven't gotten our next project yet which is kind of nice, it's nice to take a break and enjoy our trip.

Today was a pretty busy day too, because we finished jury and haven't gotten our second project yet we took the day off from studio and used the day to visit the Campidoglio Museum. It was a really nice place and is actually a lot bigger than it seemed. We started off in this courtyard, and were all relieved when they told us we couldn't bring our backpacks inside (we didn't want to carry them) or do any sketching (we needed a permit but none of us wanted to do "work" anyway). So we got to enjoy the museum as "tourists" for the first time since classes started really. Anyway, we spent some time in the courtyard, taking funny pictures, posing like statues, and, as Eric called it "album art posing". After that, we all entered and went our seperate ways. The museum was real nice, but was mostly statues and busts, which are nice, but can get a little tiring after three hours. The best part was a passageway between the two sides of the museum that over looked the Forum Romana. It was a great view, a nice break from statues, and a great place to sit and rest for a while on a pretty nice day. All in all it was pretty cool, I got to see a great view of the Forum, a painting by Leonardo Da Vinci, some ruins that were encompassed in the museum and some pretty cool statues, here are a few of my favorite pictures from the day (all the funny ones from the courtyard are on other cameras, I'll have to get my hands on them at some point):

Yes, that last one is a kid wrestling a duck. Anyway, that's it for now, I'll be back in a week with a big from the week north!



Saldi Got Me!

OK, so this post is a day late, but that's alright. In Italy, after Christmas, there is a month long sale on clothing, or saldi, where prices all over are reduced dramatically. Well, this was the last weekend of the sale, and despite not wanting to spend more money than completely necessary, it got me! Yesterday, while waiting to get on a light table to trace my elevations and section, I went for a walk and ended up buying a belt. Real Italian leather and not too expensive at all and I really needed one, since mine broke last week.

Anyway, our project is coming along nicely, most everything is on paper (besides our synthesis ideas and lettering) and the rendering is well under way too. We should be done in plenty of time for jury Wednesday, hopefully I'll have some pictures to post when it's all done!

Project One

Project one is well under way, in fact it has been for almost two weeks and it is due Wednesday. If you didn't know, our first project is to analyze a piazza somewhere in Rome, which was assigned to us randomly. Today me and Marisa finally put pencil to our FINAL paper and it looks great, after two weeks of studying, information gathering, underlays, and diagrams after diagrams, we are finally starting our final product. It's pretty nerve wracking, but the underlays look great and our layout has come together nicely, it's production time! Hopefully it turns out well...

Anyway, jury for project one is on Wednesday and project starts Tuesday. On Friday, we leave for a week long trip to Northern Italy, I can't believe it is hear so quickly. This is the first of our three week long trips, this one is to Northern Italy, next is to Istanbul, and our last is to Southern Italy. There is a lot to get done before we leave (I'm doing laundry right now in fact so I have enough clothes) but it'll be here real soon and I'm excited!

Derive

On Tuesday, we got our first sketching project called derive. We were split into groups of three people, eache group was given a random metro stop on the outskirts of the city, that was our starting point. We had to wander our way back to our studio in the center of the city without any direction. We were allowed to look at our map only at the very beginning to get an idea of the direction we had to go, other than that we had to determine our path based on our surroundings. My group started at the Barberini metro stop, which was right across the street from the Fountain of Triton, so of course we spent a good half hour sketching that.

After that we wandered our way to the Spanish Steps (which of course were in the wrong direction, but none of us had been there yet). They were absolutely incredible and I'm glad we ended up at that top so we could walk down them and no up. We spent a long time sketching here as well, probably over a half hour, before we continued.

After our stop at the Spanish Steps we began to actually do our wandering. I couldn't tell you the route we took from there, and in fact I looked at a map to try to recreate it and I couldn't, but it turned out very well. We wandered for a little, not knowing where we were, stopping in some beautiful churches, and trying to avoid shopping streets so Kelly wasn't tempted. Eventually we found THE BEST gelato place and, without even knowing, ended up right in front of the Pantheon. Of course, I had to photograph and sketch the dome.

The dome is absolutely incredible, I would love to be there when it is pouring or snowing to see a column of rain or snow falling inside. After we left the Pantheon, we walked for a few more minutes, went into another church, and passed by some Italian sailors before finally making our way back to studio and Campo De Fiori.

All in all, it took a little over four hours and was a lot of fun, now we have to put everything we experienced together into a presentation for February 15, a week after we get back from Northern Italy (which we leave for next weekend)! Hopefully that will go as well as he walk itself. Oh, and here are my sketches.



Obama Obama?

So there's one thing I've noticed about some Romans that I've had the chance to talk to, they all like Obama. Today, while sketching at the Spanish Steps, a guy started a conversation with me (he wanted me to pay him to draw a picture of me, when I said no he quickly left) and asked the usual question, are you a student, where are you studying, where are you from? Well when I told him I was American, his response was "Oh, Obama Obama." That is now the third person that has responded in the exact same fashion, by saying Obama's name twice, including a bartender and a priest. What I don't understand is why everybody responds with his name twice, are they making sure I know who the president is? Trying to show me that they do? Or do they just like him that much?

The Tomb of St. Paul

So it's been a few days since I updated and there's a lot to say. First off, classes started this week and I can tell that it is going to be a good semester. Studio is never bad so I expect that to go well, but for sketching and history, as Eric put it, "The city is your classroom." Our first sketching class went well, but I didn't get to finish my elevation, at least I have some time to go back and do so. Yesterday we took a tour of the 7 hills of Rome and it was absolutely incredible. We had a chance to go on the roof of the Il Vittoriano, where we had a view of the entire city of Rome and beyond.

After that we continued to walk, and made our way into some gorgeous churches. On the way home we stopped in a few more and each one was as incredible as the last. In fact, we've adopted a new rule, if a church is open we're going in.

Today was gonna be a relaxing day, I slept late and got some homework done, then a few of us decided to go to the Circo Massimo. That didn't happen. In fact, we walked in the complete opposite direction. We ended up walking about 3 miles or so south of the city center and on the way managed to find an incredibly cheap grocery store, a playground, some Italian political posters which are now hanging in our room, and the best for last, the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls. It's named that because it is outside the walls of the city of Rome, but it contains the tomb of St. Paul, which is just the beginning of how incredible this church is. It is absolutely enormous, around the walls are portraits of each and every Pope, as well as numerous saints. The main attraction, of course, is the tomb of St, Paul. The marble front to the sarcophagus is exposed behind a small fence. Placed in front of it is a kneeler, where I took my opportunity to say a decade of the rosary in front of St. Paul. Slightly above the tomb, in a glass case, is a portion of the chain with which he was shackled.

It was absolutely incredible to be able to see that, and especially to offer a prayer in front of the tomb, hopefully I will be able to experience more things like this in the next four months!

I'm Here!

I finally made it to Rome, after some packing adventures, some tough goodbyes, and a long flight (even though I slept through most of it) I'm finally in Rome! I got to my apartment unpacked and went on an "adventure" and I can already tell it's going to be a great semester with some awesome people in an incredible city! I'm pretty excited (if you couldn't tell) but for now there's not much going on...yet, so not that much to write, but be sure to check back, we've got four months of this!

Sooo..... I'm blogging!

Well, as most of you should already know, I'm going to be studying abroad for a semester in Rome! Our first assignment? Create a blog to document our semester, so here it is! Hopefully, this will be a good way for me to keep in touch with people and for everybody to see what I'm up to, but for now, I'm just getting ready to go and I can't wait! There's so much to do though, so of course I'm relaxing on the couch blogging. I don't really have much to say now, so I guess that's it, hopefully everybody will come back to see what I'm up to in Roma!