So ….. a lot has been going on. So a brief update on goings on:
On Sunday I woke up at 5am and left the Stoker's house at 6am to get to the airport. Mr. Stoker took me to the airport and then I checked in for my 8am flight. I got to Rome at noon and met up with my professoressa. We waited for some of the other students and then made our way over to the hotel/apartments. We had some time to settle in and then we went for a walk to the Spanish steps and then Cinzia (my professor) treated us to gelato. then we went back to the hotel and had dinner in the restaurant there, and then went to bed afterward. On Monday we went to the catacombs and got to see these pretty elaborate tunnels built by the early Christians. I visited the same catacombs last time I was in Rome but it was pouring rain that day. After that we went on a walk in the neighborhood on a road called the Appian way. It is a road that was originally built around 100-300 AD by the Romans. It is still in existence and the foundation is so good that major highways were built directly on top of it in some places. After that we went to a WWII memorial. The story behind the memorial is that in 1944 there were some italians who were tired of Nazi rule in Italy and so they managed to kill 33 Nazi soldiers in Rome. When Hitler found out he said the Italians needed to be punished. So He ordered that 10 Italians would be killed for every Nazi soldier that had died. Some people were abducted off the streets others were Jewish Italians etc and they were taken to some caves just outside the city and were shot, then the caves were caved in to hide the bodies. 330 people were killed that day. Later, the caves were found and excavated and the bodies buried in a special memorial cemetery next to the caves. After these visits we were free for the rest of the day. We went exploring mostly and bought some gelato. (obviously) On Tuesday we went to a church called St. Peter in Chains. This church has the chains that Peter was held captive with during his imprisonment in Rome. It also has the tomb commissioned by the Pope to Michelangelo which has the famous Moses on it. After this we went inside the Colosseum and then toured the Forum. Afterward we were free to do as we pleased. I went with a group to find some good pizza. Afterward me and one of the guys broke off from the group and walked around the Castel d'San Angelo and the Vatican. We stopped at the hotel to get our homework and then went to the Piazza del Popolo to do our work. I started drawing and some little kids came up to watch eventually one of them asked if he could draw with me. So now my sketchbook has a very nice drawing by Riccardo of his friend Ludovica and a few other things :) So today Shelly took me to a ruin of an abbey called Fountain Abbey. When King Henry VIII broke away from Catholicism he stripped all the wealthy churches of all their valuables and left them to rot. So Fountain Abbey was one of these churches that was ripped apart. We also went to a thrift shop to see if there was anything good, and I found a teacup and saucer I like. Well take a look below :D So yesterday Shelly and I went to Newby Hall one of the local 'big' houses. It was pretty cool. It was almost unreal to think that people actually lived in that type of grandeur. Take gander: It was pretty rainy that day but we had fun. The gardens were beautiful. Then today we went to Castle Howard and the city of York. That was way fun. The weather had cleared up and the drive to the castle was beautiful. I've been staying Yorkshire and there is a lot of agriculture here particularly in mustard seed. Mustard plants make this beautiful yellow flower. Anyway enjoy some pictures :) Well, it has been a crazy last few days. I will give you as short a version as I can and still tell all the important parts. So on Monday I was doing laundry, homework, and packing and at 9pm we headed to the airport. I was pretty much one of the only people coming in to the airport at the time so security was really easy. My plane left at 11:55pm and unfortunately there were three or more babies and several small children. Needless to say it was a noisy and unrestful flight. I had a layover in New York which was only about 30mins long because the plane was late arriving. The next flight was much better. My row mate was a middle aged South African man who works in the camera business. I was so tired from staying up late that I promptly fell asleep for about half of the flight. The rest of it was spent watching The Secret Life of Walter Mitty and listening to music. When I got to London our plane was a bit late and the customs guy told me off for not knowing any of the addresses for the places I was staying but then I got my bags and headed for the Tube. Sadly the exact days I was going to be in London were the days the Tube workers union decided to hold a strike. So when I got on the metro I was informed that it was stopping about 10 stops earlier and that I would have to detour through other lines. Anyway I finally got to the hostel around 10:30 and checked in. Here is what my room looked like: I explored the neighborhood a bit t, used the internet, hen showered and collapsed in bed. I woke up around 6:30am today and went sight seeing a bit. I walked to Regent's Park, then the Sherlock Holmes Museum. I didn't actually look at the museum but I poked my head in the shop for a bit. Then I headed to the National Gallery to look at some of my favorite artists. I then made my way back to the hostel picked up my luggage and headed to the train station to go to Leeds and the Harrogate.
Here is a little glimpse of the view out the window: Today is the day. I am off on another adventure. First stop is England for a week with my friends in Leeds and then I am off to Rome and Siena! Super pumped. This is the first time I'll be traveling solo like this so it is a little intimidating but exhilarating at the same time. I'm galavanting off on my own and it's pretty exciting. I just hope things go smoothly. It should be just fine and lots of fun.
I don't know if I mentioned this lately but I signed up to do a 7 week internship in Siena. I put my top choice as Art museum work so let's hope that it pans out. Otherwise I will probably work with the chef that I took cooking classes with the last time I was there. Which would also be really fun :) ..... ..... ..... So basically I'm not really grasping the whole going across the world bit. Finals week was so ridiculously stressful and busy that I haven't hardly had time to mentally prep for this moment; the moment of departure. I know most people hate the airport but to me it's like there is something in the air there, (and I'm not talking about fast food or B.O.) There is this kind of energy. All the people coming and going. Adventures about to begin and adventures just barely ending. I love it. Seriously. You know in UP when Carl goes to the run down house and Ellie is there playing pretend? She yells "Adventure is out there!" That is how airports make me feel. Weird I know. Don't judge. ;) Anyway you can expect that I will be updating a lot more often with all the crazy and wonderful things that happen so keep an eye out :) Ciao tutti! So it's story time again. This one time, early this week, I had a printmaking project to work on and I got the the printmaking lab around 7:30 in the evening. I was anticipating about 2 hours worth of work to do. So I mixed the ink colors till I got something I wanted, which by the way took two hours alone, and then I got the metal plate ready to put the ink on but the when I was trying to use the roller I did it wrong, So I cleaned off the roller (which takes 30 mins btw) moderately frustrated at my mistake, then I went to do it a different way and I realized it was wrong, and I was doing it right the first time. So I had to clean off the roller again this time really frustrated. Then I start rolling up ink to put on the plate. I realize after a few minutes of rolling up that the roller was uneven and there was a big gap where the ink wasn't getting. So I had to use a combination of smaller different rollers. Long story shorter - I was pretty angry by now because it was now 11:30 at night and I hadn't even started printing my image. Anyway I got going on the printing which was still a long process and with clean up wasn't finished till 2am. The only thing keeping me sane was that Jason decided to stay with me to help and make it go faster. Every time one of those screw ups happened and I got really worked up, he was there to help me keep my cool and keep working. Basically I would have had a meltdown without him. Moral of the story: good boyfriends are a wonderful thing. In other news I got my first paying job doing engagement photos! I was very excited and it was a pretty fun shoot. We started really early in the morning so Meaghan and David were bit stiff in the beginning but once we got warmed up it was really fun. Here is a preview: Also - as for the title of this one: look up the new song by Coldplay called Magic. I love it and am super stoked that they will have a new album out soon :D
This weekend Jason and I went on an adventure to Salt Lake to go on a photo safari. We ended up in the super cool used book store and found some pretty interesting stuff. Then we found this awesome bakery, ate some french food, played in park on the swing set and came home. Overall: a successful Saturday :D
So this weekend I went to St. George with a lot of the Art Ed. people for a conference where there were workshops to teach us how to be more awesome teachers. It was really good, but all of my favorite parts happened outside of the classes. We were able to do some hiking/rock climbing, hot tubbing, and mostly just goofing around.
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AuthorA girl with big dreams, crazy ideas, and plans to make it all happen. Archives
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