So much has been going on!

ok so the internet at studio is mostly useless. hopefully i'll be able to update much more often than i have recently. lots of things have been going on in the 3-ish weeks that i've been here:

-we went to Lido beach one of the first weekends. we paid 9 euro each for a bright yellow lounge chair next to the water and it was AMAZING. we basically sat on the beach all day.

-i've been seeing a lot of Roman sights and history for my Art History class including the Theatre of MArcellis, statue of Marcus Auralius,the Roman Forum, Palatine Hill, and the Colosseum, among other things

-i have a project due in a week. yikes.

-my photography class seems like it's going to be really fun. i need to come up with a topic for my photo essay

-i love italian class and plan on taking the optional continued class after the required three week class is over.

i have to go home right now and eat, but next time i'm in studio, i'll put up pictures of all the above mentioned things!

Is that video working?

will someone please let me know if the video tour of my apartment is working or not? it doesn't show up on my computer, but maybe it does on yours. if it's not working i want to get it fixed so you can see my place! let me know!

Art History Class

Today we had our first history class. it's crazy because we have lecture for about an hour and then go out and actually see the things we talked about. we walked over to the forum and overlooked it from a terrace. we also walked through michaelangelo's piazza and saw a statue of marcus araleus. i walked on marble streets that were once walked on by Roman's in their togas 2,000 years ago. we saw so many things, i don't even remember them all. and it's all right next to our studio! i'll check my notes and put up some pictures after my italian class-which is right now. look for those soon!

First day in Roma!

ok so my first day was actually Sept. 3rd- almost a week ago! all of our flights went really smoothly and our little scavenger hunt to get our apartment keys and find our apartment was easy as well. our apartment is good sized, not gigantic, but fine for the three of us. when we first arrived we thought it was really funny because it looks a little bit like it was decorated by someone's grandma (no offense to any grandmas reading this! haha). so we've been working to update the look as much as we can. if you'd like a little tour...please see the video below!



(sorry it's not working right now, i'm trying to figure it out)

as you may have noticed from my commentary, we are missing a few staple american things such as an oven and a microwave...and a clothes dryer. but we do get a bidet! haha we use it to clean our feet, not our behinds. our feet get really dirty walking around all day. we also got to see our studio on the first day we were here. our studio is in a historic palazzo (palace) owned by the Cenci family a bajillion years ago. now it is rented out for apartments and offices. There are beautiful frescoes on the walls that were recently restored. For you history lovers out there, there was a famous Cenci family member, Beatrice Cenci. Her father was a very wicked man and abused Beatrice and her brothers. He was also a very hated man in the city. At some point, Beatrice, one of her brothers, and her mother had had enough and decided to kill her father. Beatrice was the one who actually did it and was subsequently sentanced to death. the Pope at the time refused to pardon her no matter how horrible of a person her father was so she was hanged at the age of 16. there are now streets etc. named after her for her courage. below are some pics of the studio:



this is the outside of the studio with our big fountain! the giant doors to the left of center are how we enter



maia walking up the stairs to studio



the frescoed walls of the studio hallway



the room where my desk is, looks out to the terrace



our cute little studio terrace

correction

so the pic of me in the blue cross is not at trinity college, it was at dublin castle- sorry! here's a couple more pics of the dublin adventure:






1st is me, carrie, and maia at the gravity bar on top of the guinness storehouse. 2nd is dublin castle. 3rd is the view from the gravity bar.

Prior to Rome...

For those of you who don't already know, I have been travelling with my friends Maia Fiala and Carrie Machacek, who also are my roommates in Roma. We left for Rome a few days early so we could check out Dublin, Ireland for about three days. The flight over wasn't bad at all, it's only took 6.5 hours because of a good wind or something...so we got into Dublin at about 7am their time. We were dying to check into our hostel so we could get some sleep. Unfortunately we were under the false impression that we could check in any time, 24 hours. but were promptly informed that check-in wasn't until two. luckily, they let us store our big pieces of luggage, but we continued to haul arround our (very) heavy backpacks because we didn't want to leave things like our computers in the luggage room.

so we walked around for a while, checking things out and pointing out places we wanted to visit when we had more energy. finally, it was 2 so we checked in to the hostel and took a verrryy long nap. we woke up about 8pm and went out for dinner at the only place we could find that was still serving food (and hadn't turned into a full-fledged pub for the night). it was a little boistrous, to say the least. but we had a good time and i had my first pint of Guinness for the trip.

the next couple of days we saw all the sights: Trinity College, St. Patrick's, Temple Bar district, etc. We actually hopped on this great little tour bus that wasn't expensive at all for students (only 12.50 euro) where you can get on and off wherever you like on one of their 27 stops in a 24 hour period (that's how long your ticket lasts). our favorite stop though, was the Guinness Storehouse. it's a giant self-guided tour about how guinness is made, it's history, all the cool advertising, etc. and all the time you are working your way up to the top floor where you get a free pint of Guinness (and a fabulous 360 degree view of Dublin)!! All in all, we pretty much loved Dublin, and I wish we could have stayed longer. Below are a few pics from the trip:







The first is our traditional irish meal of shepherd's pie and lamb stew-SO GOOD!
The second is me at Trinity College, looking very Catholic.
Third is me playing in the barley used to make Guinness.
Fourth is me missing you at the Guinness Storehouse.
Fifth is me with a Guinness moustache, and yes, it's also on my nose haha.

I started a blog!

so i finally started a blog! however i have class in 5 minutes so i'll have to wait to write you a novel until later. internet in the studio is still not working so it may be a while before i can get many posts and/or pics up. but as soon as it's running i'll be all over it, i promise! love and miss you all! ciao