Day #6 in Orvieto

February 28, 2013

Today in class we drew our hands for about half an hour, we drew some more cardboard buildings, had a few demonstrations, and then we were introduced to the black mess called “conte.” This is like charcoal but it stays your clothes… forever. It’ll definitely take some getting used to but it’s a pretty fun material to use. We practiced with that for a while in class and then went to lunch where we had baked ziti, chicken kabobs, and some potatoes.

After lunch, Rebekah and I started our homework. We walked from Locanda (the restaurant where we eat) back to the Palazzo (where we have classes). Normally it’s a 20min walk but it took us an hour because we did our homework assignment at the same time. We had to walk around town and find interesting textures to “rub” onto a huge white piece of paper. It was such a fun assignment! We wandered around the main street, getting textures from street and restaurant signs, stonewalls, etc. Here is a picture of what it turned out to be:

Rebekah, Laura, and I then went back to the same place that we drew yesterday. This time, we had to use the conte crayon. We met a few friends on our way (see the cat picture, above :)

I had a few embarrassing moments today: the first happened when I was drawing, and an older couple came up to me and the man gestured at my drawing and then smiled at me, saying something in Italian. I looked up from where I was sitting on the ground, and squeaked out a little “Ciao!” The couple then moved over to Laura and said something to her, and she said “Boun giorno!” before they walked away. I looked at her and burst out laughing, and I was like “You just told them ‘good morning’ and its 4 in the afternoon!” Laura was also laughing and I couldn’t figure out why, until she said “That man just complimented your picture and said it was beautiful, and you just informally said ‘bye!’” Anyways… not the best use of my Italian skills. The other embarrassing thing happened when I was shopping with Genevieve. We were milling in and out of the shops, and I was browsing a rack of beautiful sweaters and I started to try on one that I liked, only to look up and realize that there were a few men in the room… also looking at the sweaters… I WAS IN THE MEN’S SECTION.

Anyways, it was a good day. We then went as a group to the cloistered convent where we could listen to the vespers “ceremony.” Pretty much you just sit in the back of the church while the nuns (the nuns that never leave the convent) sing and pray in Italian up front. It was really interesting to be apart of and the singing was beautiful, but I almost fell asleep.

We had pasta salad for dinner, but it wasn’t just any old pasta salad. It had different cheeses, tomatoes, corn, random vegetables, and olives (Yeah Dad, I ate them).

Then we had lemon cake for dinner. And we also had cake in class today for Victoria’s birthday. I still haven’t had gelato yet because I need to get some smaller bills, but every time I pass the gelatoria on the way to class/dinner/lunch/anytime, I seriously start drooling. It looks delicious.