Day #34 in Orvieto

March 28, 2013

For some reason, everything seemed to be late today. We got out of class 25 minutes late, chapter meeting started and ended late, and lunch was pushed to 1:30 instead of 1. It’s safe to say that I was struggling with impatience the whole day, because I like to be on my schedule. After a typical morning and lunch, I came back to the monastery to do some work, take ANOTHER nap (pretty sure I’m becoming a sloth), and work on some reading and my essay for the day. Today was cleaning day for the monastery so we all have to get in our groups and clean for part of the afternoon. A few of us then went to church – San Giovanni – for the “foot washing” ceremony. We were a little bit late because there were lots of tourists in the streets so it took forever to speed walk there, but it was a nice ceremony. The people at that church are always super friendly to us and there are a few students from our group that sing in the choir every Sunday there (I am not one of them…).

I went to the supermarket after that because I was running low on snack supplies, which was obviously an emergency. Also, I don’t think I’ve talked about these yet, but we have a cookie obsession in the monastery. We discovered these cookies a few weeks ago because we would eat them with Nutella when times were tough in the studio, but now EVERYONE has a bag. They’re seriously so good even though they’re actually cheap, shortbread cookies. We’ve been dipping them in milk, tea, Nutella, Spalmella (I don’t remember how to spell it but it’s the knockoff brand of Nutella – it’s a little bit sketchy but it’s good). Anyways, it’s a little over a euro to buy this entire bag! So of course, I bought my own bag at the store today.

My roommate, Becky, and I are going to Rome this weekend to see Heather so I’ll be sure to write about that when I get back! :)

The cookies!

Day #33 in Orvieto

March 27, 2013 - Wednesday

So last night when I was chatting with my mom on Facebook, she said "Do you have any cold medicine with you?" and I suddenly realized that I had Advil Congestion Relief with me this whole time and I haven't even used it. Embarrassing. I totally forgot that I packed it because it took the medicine out of the box and then stuffed it into my toiletries bag to "save space." But the problem was, I didn't remember what kind of pills they were so I just forgot about them. So the bad news is that I have been complaining about my cold, only to realize that I had medicine the whole time. The GOOD news is that I took some and I feel a little bit better today.

Class was pretty interesting today! We've been learning a little bit of Italian here and there and it's nice to learn practical stuff in the class even though sometimes the stuff that we talk about can SEEM irrelevant (although it's not) because it's about renaissance art. We have been talking about how artists were perceived during the renaissance and how they are perceived now. Interesting stuff. I have a good amount of reading to do tonight though and I should be doing that instead of blogging... 

It was finally beautiful weather today! Well it actually wasn't that sunny but since it was a little warm outside, it felt beautiful. We didn't have chapter meeting today so I found myself wandering around the monastery during the awkward hour between class and lunch so I put on my man sweater (pretty sure I've talked about this sweater in every post this week) and went for a walk around the part of Orvieto that I haven't been to in a while! I wasn't entirely sure what was over on that side of Orvieto, but it was nice to just walk around and explore, until I realized that I had five minutes to get to lunch and I have my usual ten seconds of panic before I realized where I was again. Because it's almost impossible to get lost here... 

After lunch, gelato, and some homework, Becky and I went to the travel agent in town (she is Professor Doll's friend so he always encourages us to buy tickets from her). We are going to Rome for the weekend to visit my cousin, Heather! After the travel agency, we went to the library where I casually walked by the vending machine, only to see THIS:

A KIT KAT!!!!! Only the best kind of candy in the world! Of course, I whipped out some coins and bought it (and ate it) right away. It was so good. Although the chocolate tasted a little different. But seriously, it was great. It brought me back to the days when my field hockey "stick sister" (Ashley) would buy me kit kats before ever game.... so like, last year. If I ever have a kit kat craving, I now know that I can come to the library vending machine.

Day #32 in Orvieto

March 26, 2013 – Tuesday

It was hard to get up this morning because I was so tired! Even with my long nap yesterday, I was still exhausted and it took for forever to wake up… Today was our second day of Renaissance Narrative and halfway through the class, we took a field trip to the duomo! There was just a huge concert at the duomo yesterday so there are still a bunch of cameras and sound equipment throughout the whole main section of the duomo. We went to one of the side chapels (usually it costs money but they have a list of our names so thankfully we get to go in for free!).  We spent some time looking at the smaller, side chapel and talked about the frescoes that cover most of the chapel. We probably talked for an hour or so, but I felt like there were still so many questions I had about the paintings and you could spend forever in there, just trying to make connections from one sie of the room to another. Pretty much the paintings are a sequence of the last judgment but then there’s so many other aspects of the paintings that are confusing until Dr. Skillen explained it to us. Anyways, that took up the majority of class and we soon travelled back to the monastery for chapter meeting. It was so sunny outside during chapter meeting – even my Italian man sweater was getting to be a little bit warm in the sunshine. But soon enough, it became chilly again so I kept it on for the whole day. Then we went to lunch which was normal and then…

I WENT TO THE POST OFFICE! Okay, I actually went to the post office after I took a nap but I went. I had all of my postcards ready to go, put them in my purse along with $10 (because I assumed that would be sufficient) and then I marched downstairs where I ran into Hannah, the RA. I asked her what I should say at the post office and she told me to say “Posso mandare cuesti?” (actually I'm not even 100% sure if this is what she said, but that's what it sounded like) when I got up to the counter – after taking my specific ticket and waiting in line, of course. So I took off to the post office, speed walking, because I didn’t want to forgot what phrase I was supposed to say. So with every step, I was thinking posso mandare cuesti…posso mandare costi… posse… mandari… cuesto…? Anyways, on the walk over to the post office, I had already butched the phrase that I was going to use. But thankfully, when my ticket number was called I was able to squeak out a “Posso mandare… uhhh?” with a smile (just in case the woman was annoyed at my awful Italian). She knew what I wanted and she weighed my two very heavy envelopes and then suddenly I was handing over $9. So it’s a good thing I brought my $10! So I’m definitely not going to mail any more postcards because it was too stressful and I had to hand over my whole $10 bill. If I see any more good postcards, they’ll just come home in my suitcase.

Anyways… overall, it was a good experience at the post office and I was pretty much skipping back to the monastery because I had been trying to mail those postcards for a week. The painting class (not my class) had to watch The Passion because it had something to do with their assignment this week and plus it’s almost Easter, so everyone ended up watching it on the projector in the sala, living room area. So we ended up watching that for over 2 ½ hours and we didn’t even finish it. It was a different version of the Passion – not as well known as the one with Mel Gibson I think. So that consumed most of the afternoon and it was pretty intense. I think we’re going to finish the rest of it tomorrow.

This is our first night at the monastery WITH WIFI!!! Well I’m actually typing this before the wifi has turned on… so who knows if it will actually work. But I guess you’ll know if it works, depending on whether I post this or not. Hopefully it works though because it’ll be so nice to just be able to walk downstairs and use it in the classroom (because I’m lazy now) instead of walking all the way to the palazzo.

P.S. I still haven’t taken a pictures of Laura’s sweater and my sweater yet but don’t worry, it’ll happen soon. But here’s a random picture of the clouds today! It went from being super sunny to randomly raining, as you can see.

Day #31 in Orvieto

March 25, 2013 – Monday

Today was the first day of Renaissance Narrative! It was so weird to finished breakfast and just walk into the classroom. I wore my slippers. Tomorrow I’ll have to wear real shoes though because we’re taking a “field trip” to see some of the frescoes in the duomo. It’s hard to summarize exactly what the class is but it’s about how stories were told through both artwork and writing in the renaissance period. It’s a lot more than that but that’s how I understand it so far. We learned a little bit about each other talked about last names for a while and their importance, talked about families and then had a snack/water break after the first hour. Then we talked about a few pieces of writing and looked at a fresco with biblical narrative on it. We went over half of the syllabus, had a cappuccino break at hour #2, and then do some more stuff until hour #3 was over! I think this class will definitely be challenging and we have a huge test at the end (and we have to memories 70 frescos and will be quizzed on 50 of them) and there’s also a big essay. We have mini essays every night which shouldn’t be too hard but it’ll be a different kind of homework that what I’ve had so far this semester! The last class was more about art and while we spent hours in the studio, it’s way different than sitting down to write an essay. It’ll be different… but good. After class we had chapter meeting to talk about various things, including how the heat still isn’t working in the monastery, some dishwashing issues, etc. Normal, chapter meeting stuff.

We then walked to Locanda for lunch, and it was nice to have every back together at mealtime! We had some sort of cheesy broccoli pasta, potatoes, and carrots. My cold was a little bit worse today so after lunch I went straight to bed and I didn’t get up for Italian class (oops…). But Jenna told Alessandro that I wasn’t feeling well so it was okay. And then some people filled me in on what I missed. After my nap I felt a little bit better so I went with Laura and Jenna to the store up the street that’s having 70% sales so Laura and I bought some sweaters… from the men’s section. They were cuter than the women’s sweaters! So they were both like $80 sweaters but we got them for 25 dollars. It was a good deal and now we’ll be a little bit warmer in the monastery! The art studio in the monastery is kind of underground so unfortunately they’re even colder in that classroom… I thought my classroom upstairs was freezing but the other one is a lot worse! Laura and I are going to wear our turtleneck sweaters tomorrow so I’ll try to get a picture of us to put up.

Since I’ve been here, I’ve collected a bunch of random things (receipts, admission tickets, brochures, etc) so FINALLY I organized them all today when I was in my room, “resting.” Even though I’ve only been here for a month… I seem to have a bunch of random things that are filling up my drawers.

Tomorrow I’m going to overcome my fear of the post office and mail my postcards. Really, it’s going to happen. I’ve been saying this for a week though. It’s just always so busy and you have to take a little ticket when you arrive (but you have to choose a certain ticket, depending on what you need to do at the post office), then you wait in the long line, then you get up to one of the clerk’s and try to explain what you need, in Italian because they don’t speak English (I don’t expect them to speak English at all obviously, but I don’t know any good post office terms or vocabulary to use – I only know how to order cappuccinos and buy sweaters at stores!). I went to the post office once before with Alessandro because we had to do some of that “Permission to Sojourn” paperwork and it was so stressful there. Thankfully, Alessandro did everything and I just had to sign my name on one piece of paper but I’m scared to go back alone! Anyways, that’s why I have a whole stack of postcards to mail but I haven’t mailed them yet. But like I said… tomorrow will be the day.

Since I don't have a picture of my sweater yet... here's a random picture that Laura took recently. This was taken when I was working on my landscape drawing for class a few weeks ago!

Day #30 in Orvieto

March 24, 2013 – Sunday

So I either have a terrible cold or I’m allergic to Italian nature… because I’m struggling with this sore throat today! I slept for twelve hours last night – until noon today so I completely missed church. I spent like two hours eating oranges, drinking juice, tea, coffee, water (pretty much ANYTHING to help my throat) in the kitchen by myself while everyone was still at church. Then I wrote a few emails, organized my room, and decided to venture out in town. But of course, I started walking at 1:45ish and everything closes from 2-4 every day. So there wasn’t much open but there was a small market happening on a random side street, so I went to look over there and 45 minutes later, I had spent an embarrassing amount of money on various jewelry and stuff from the market! But most of the jewelry is for my mom and sister I think… mayb I’ll keep some of it too. Then I left the market, feeling a little poor and hungry, so I decided to get some apple cinnamon gelato on the way home.  All of that walking just exhausted me so then I went to take a nap. This is a super exciting day, right?

Then I went to a café I’d never been to before, Barrique, to use the Internet and get a cappuccino. I didn’t really want one but you have to buy something to use the internet… So that’s what happened. At the café I did some MORE exciting stuff – looked at housing, registration for the fall, possible classes, etc.

The weather was beautiful today but then it got a little bit cloudy. It’s supposed to rain a lot this week so thankfully we had a beautiful weekend! Tomorrow we start our new class. About half of the group will take the paiting class and I’ll be in the Renaissance Narrative class. I wish it was possible to take both because the painting class sounds so great, but I’m exciting for Renaissance Narrative. It’ll be so weir dbecause we have these classes IN the monastery instead of at the palazzo! So pretty much I’ll roll out of bed, go downstairs to eat breakfast, and then walk down the hall to class. Weird. Should be good though!

After hanging out at Barrique for a while, we went back to the monastery to get ready for dinner. Our RA and TA, Hannah and Karen, make us dinner on Sunday nights so we walked to the palazzo for that around 7:45ish. Other than that... nothing exciting happened today! Except for my apple crisp gelato. That was the best part of the day. :)

The houses here are so close together. I don't know how they all fit!

Day #29 in Orvieto

March 23, 2013 - Saturday

I'm officially been in Orvieto for one month! It's so weird that I was on that plane (sitting in that airport for hours...) four weeks ago. Today was easily one of the best days in Orvieto so far. There are still eight of us at the monastery right now because everyone is still gone. We slept in and some people went to the market. We had a plan to leave around 11 to hike to "The Rock." We didn't really know what this was or how to get there, but we packed a huge picnic lunch so we weren't too worried about it. Thankfully we bumped into Alessandro on our way out of the monastery and he gave us some good directions and told us to "watch out for the holes." Like... what? So we continued on walking out of Orvieto.

It's crazy to me how quickly we can go from busy, crowded streets (or at least they're crowded on market day) to walking right into the country. So we started walking to La Rocca. It was easy to figure out how to get there even without Alessandro's directions, because it's the huge, raised rock in the middle of some fields and grassy landscape. We got a little bit lost on the way. We weren't actually LOST but we got stuck on a road that took us around the rock for a little bit before we actually arrived at the rock. We then climbed up the narrow stairs and suddenly we were at the top! There were a bunch of trees and HOLES! Like holes that go from the top of the rock to the center of the rock. Scary. There were these flimsy little ropes around the holes so you knew they were there, but they weren't very sturdy... we then walked over to the spot where you can sit and enjoy the view. And from the rock we had a beautiful view of our home, Orvieto! And we could see the huge duomo just perched in the middle of Orvieto. It looked especially big from where we were. After taking a few pictures, we began our picnic feast. And it was seriously a feast. We had two huge loaves of bread, fresh mozzerella and parmesean, oranges, apples, and tomatoes for everyone. We had pesto, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, two types of wine, a kiwi for everyone, dark chocolate and milk chocolate. Laura and I wanted to buy a roasted chicken from the market that morning but unfortunately we weren't sure how long the hike would be and it probably would've been cold by then (it still could've been good though). I'm pretty sure we ate for about two hours on top of the rock. It was delicious and the weather was beautiful. A few of us even got sunburns which was actually nice - I don't think I've ever said that about a sunburn before.

After a few hours of laying in the sun and eating ALL of the food, we started back down the rock and then journeyed back to Orvieto. We took a shorter path this time - it was probably an hour and a half on the way back and it took a little bit longer to walk to the rock. It was mostly uphill on the way back though, as we had to climb back up all the streets to the top of Orvieto. Since it was close to sunset time by this point, we walked to "Sunset Park" on one side of Orvieto to watch the sun go down. I've done a few of my drawings in Sunset Park before for class. It's one of the best spots in Orvieto!

We finally walked back to the monastery after and entire day of walking around, and it felt so nice to just sit down and rest before dinner. Locanda didn't serve us lunch or dinner today, so that's why we went on a picnic and we were on our own for lunch. There's one Chinese food place in Orvieto, so we decided to go there. Weird, I know, but nobody wanted to have pasta again. So we went to the Chinese place which was odd because there were Egyptian, Chinese, and Italian paintings on the wall and it was very confusing. The menus were in Italian, but then had English translations but these translations were a little bit... off. Like they just didn't make sense. It was like all of these Chinese food names had to be translated to Italian, then English. But it was manageable and everyone ordered a bunch of different things. I ordered some pinapple rice thing which was good until I found a hair in it. Laura insisted that it was my hair in the rice but then she had some of her rice (we shared a plate of rice) and she found a hair too. But she said that must've been HER hair. Needless to say... I was a littleeee bit sketched out and I managed to eat a little more of my chicken before I decided that it was sketchy as well. Everyone else seemed to enjoy their meals though so maybe it was just me...

After dinner, everyone CRASHED. Which is normally me but Laura and I immediately looked and each other after dinner and we both just said "gelato." We tried not to get too excited about the idea though because it was late and we weren't sure if the gelato place would be open... BUT IT WAS! Once again, I got baccio and cappuccino - two of my favorites. I would've gotten the cinnamon apple kind but that was at a different gelato place. Maybe tomorrow.

Here are some pictures from the day!

The little park on top of the rock

One of the holes that Alessandro warned us about!

Walking back to Orvieto (you can see it behind me)

View of Orvieto from the rock! See the duomo? It's huge.

Walking down from the top of the rock

Taking a break on the walk back

Laura running back to Orvieto

The sunset from Sunset Park

Day #28 in Orvieto

I slept in until 10:30 this morning! I probably could have slept even longer except there was an annoying little dog outside of our window - although it seriously sounded like it was IN our room. I said to Becky, "I don't think I've ever been so comfortable," because my bed felt SO COMFORTABLE last night. I slept so well and it was wonderful to not have to set an alarm. After I finally got up, I wrote a few postcards, had breakfast, and did some laundry. We are running low on drying racks so I went outside to set up my own drying rack (two chairs connected by a bunch of broken bamboo sticks from the bamboo forest behind the monastery). It's a pretty nice day so I think my inventive drying rack will be great. Normally our clothes have to dry on the racks in a small, damp room upstairs. Laura came out to see what I was doing (because I was lugging bamboo sticks around) and then she whispered, "Grumpy Grumps is staring at us!" We have a neighbor, affectionately titled Grumpy Grumps by a few people, and he always comes over to yell at us! So I turned around to see him standing on his balcony, glaring at me as I hung up about twenty socks on my bamboo sticks. Anyways... we hurried inside after that. Hopefully all of my socks will still be there when I return this afternoon. We then went to lunch and it was weird because there are only 10 of us here this weekend (some people went to Tuscany, Florence, Venice, etc). I'm excited to stay here for the weekend though because I haven't had time to explore Orvieto at all since the very beginning when we first arrived.

Laura and I went in a few shops today and on the way home, she showed me the cutest puppy that she met earlier this week! Sometimes dogs scare me but this puppy was so cute. :)

Also... we got gelato today and I tried the apple cinnamon gelato and it may be my new favorite! It tasted like apple crisp.

Day #27 in Orvieto

March 21, 2013 - Thursday

Today we woke up early to clean the monastery (to prepare for the art show) and the palazzo (we are moving out of the palazzo completely). So one group went to the palazzo while my group stayed to clean the monastery. It took almost two hours because we only had one mop... but it was nice to clean everything up after living there for almost two weeks! We also got some new sheets which was really exciting. Like seriously, everyone was so excited about that. After a few cups of coffee, everyone was ready to start the critique in the studio. We started around 11am and had the book critique (there were ten books), had a quick lunch, then after lunch we had the drawing critique (there were ten drawings). We finally finished the critique around 5pm and then we had to get ready for the art show which started at 6:30! It was nice to just walk around and appreciate/talk about what everyone has been working on for the past week. The gallery was pretty fun because a lot of people from the town, friends of the program, came and there were some good snacks (which obviously makes everything better).

Here are a few pictures from the night:

Talking to a local woman about my book! She seemed to like it

Posing with our books 

Day #26 in Orvieto

March 20, 2013 - Wednesday

Today was the last day to work on our projects. My book is pretty much done except I added some details that I didn’t like, so now I need to fix it! The studio will be unlocked until 1am this morning so we can’t stay past then, but then we can get there at 5 or 6am on Thursday morning if we really need to before everything is due at 8am. Thankfully I don’t think I’ll need to do that, I only have a little bit more to do. Although I guess I could always keep working…

This morning at 9am, we had to go to the police station to get fingerprinted and stuff before we have “permission to sojourn.” I’m pretty sure that’s why we were there, although I’m not exactly sure. We had to wait for a while before the guy would call our last names, one by one. I didn’t respond when he called “WEAR-NEEG” so he had to angrily say it a few times. Woops. And then I had to wait for a while longer because there’s was something wrong with a number on my paperwork and so a bunch of other officers were called in to check it out. Of course, I had no idea what they were saying so I just sat there and tried to smile politely. Awkward. They then motioned for me to follow them into a different room where I was fingerprinted with ink and then I was hustled into another room where they discuss my “wrong number” for a little bit longer because they electronically fingerprinted me. Anyways, they finally let me go after crossing out the number on my “permission to sojourn” slip and then they wrote a knew number. Who knows. I certainly didn’t know what was going on. The officer then waved at me and said “Bye bye” because I was still standing at the desk for a few moments after he apparently dismissed me. Awkward again. So I then wandered back to the monastery to get a snack (naturally) before heading to the studio to work until lunchtime. We had THE BEST pasta at lunch today – one of my favorites. It was like some creamy sauce with zucchini in it. Then there were some meatballs and leafy green stuff for the second course. They never serve meatballs WITH the pasta, which is interesting. It’s always with the second course.

The rest of the day was spent writing a few postcards, walking around town, working on my book, cleaning, etc. Nothing too exciting! I forgot to post this picture of Rocket the other day. Emily was chasing him around the house while we FaceTimed but Rocket was NOT interesting in talking to me…

Day #25 in Orvieto

March 19, 2013 - Tuesday

Today was "San Guiseppe day" or something like that - also know as the BEST HOLIDAY EVER! There was a parade through the town but I was working on my book so I didn't actually get to see the parade, but at 7ish we went down to one of the piazzas where there was a band, a chocolate egg raffle, and a box of donuts that came with a plastic cup of wine for 1 euro. Like I said, best holiday ever. We made our way through the crowd and got our donuts and plastic cups, then sat down on a bench to listen to the music and eat the little munchkins. They kinda looked like chicken nuggets but they were donuts. So good, but so fried. Laura and I then went over to the chocolate egg raffle and we pushed a few kids out of the way, but by the time we got to the front of the line, they were closing up! But then the guy opened up one of the chocolate eggs, smashed it with something that looked like a hammer, and then gave us pieces of chocolate. Seriously it was the best chocolate I've ever had. It was like dark chocolate (and sometimes I don't like dark chocolate) but it was DELICIOUS and wasn't too bitter. Other than that, the day was spent in the studio again. I finished stamping all 1001 letters!! Yahooooo! So after I finished stamping, I went to lunch, and then went back to the monastery to take a 2 1/2 nap. I haven't been feeling well so the nap was necessary! We'll see how I feel about it at 2am when I can't fall asleep tonight/this morning though...

Here are a few pictures of my book so far, all of our books on the floor, a picture of my book cover, and then pictures from the festival! My book still needs some work because it looks so messy right now... but I have all day tomorrow to work on it. 

All of this for 1 euro

Happy Laura with a piece of the chocolate egg

Day #24 in Orvieto

March 18, 2013 – Monday

Unfortunately I don’t have much to say today because I feel like a zombie! Just stamping away a bunch of different letters! Today I stamped 520 letters and I still have 291 to go but I’ll probably stop stamping for the day. Here are a few pictures of the progress as of today. Since I have to fit so many characters into the book, it’s not really legible but it’s supposed to be abstract. Or at least that’s what I keep telling myself!

In case you forgot what the umbrellas looked like on the other side

All of the letters... so many

Today we had my FAVORITE dinner! Mozzerella and tomatoes and bread. And then we had strawberries for dessert. So even though it was a long day of working in the studio, dinner was so good. 

Day #23 in Orvieto

March 17, 2013 - Sunday

Today was one of those days where the hours fly by and all of a sudden it’s 5pm and you didn’t get to do all the things that you wanted to do. That was me today… I was in the studio from 10-6pm just stamping. Stamping stamping stamping and then I realized that it was late in the afternoon! All I did was stamp little umbrellas onto ONE SIDE of my book! Thankfully, it looks pretty good so at least I didn’t spend all that time on it to have it look awful. So it’s definitely progress but there’s a lot more work to be done! Here are a few pictures of what I have so far: 

I couldn't fit the whole thing in the picture but this should give you an idea of how long it is!

Tomorrow I need to start stamping my story onto the other side of the book, which should definitely take up most of Monday and Tuesday. Then I need to figure out what else to add…

This morning I didn’t go to mass with everyone else (oops) but I DID learn how to make my own cappuccino! Or I just watched Ariel make them and she told me what she was doing along the way. It looked pretty easy but I’ll have to try making them when no one else is around in case I do something weird with it (which I feel like this would happen). My day was then consumed by my book except for a twenty-minute mishap during lunchtime. I left the studio to go to a café nearby and so I THOUGHT I ordered a normal sandwich. I pointed at it and asked for “un panino” and then the woman listed off a bunch of different things, including “prochutto” which is something normal that we always eat and it kinda tastes like him. So I said yes and she put one of the sandwiches into a bag for me, I paid, then left. When I was walking back to the palazzo to continue working, I decided to take a bite of it only to realize that it was RAW FISH AND HARD-BOILED EGG. That is not the panino I wanted! But seriously… two things I despise are slimy raw fish and the yolk of hard boiled eggs. So when I got back to the studio, everyone was like “ohhh what’d you get?” and I was like “something weird” and then everyone wanted to know if it was good and I had to pretend that I liked it because I was ashamed that I spent like 4 dollars on it. Sigh. I really tried to like it but it was just so……. gross. But now I know.

Anyways, I ate the whole thing except for a few raw fish bits. Then a few hours later when I walked back to the monastery, I darted into the gelato place to eat something delicious after such a weird lunch. And it WAS delicious and redeemed that strange, strange sandwich. 

Day #22 in Orvieto

This is my first time trying to post from my iPhone.. We'll see if this works! Today I slept in until 9:30, went downstairs to have my usual cornflakes and coffee but THERE WASN'T ANY INSTANT COFFEE LEFT! I was stressing but I decided that it wasn't a big deal, and I decided to go to the market. Becky and I both paid 2,50 for a sweater. Well technically we bought one sweater for 5 but we are going to share it. Not sure what'll happen when we leave for the summer but I won't want a sweater then anyways. We then went to the dried fruit stand because everyone's been talking about these dried strawberries so we thought we would try it. I got some strawberries, dried pineapple and kiwi and when the guy weighed it, it rang up as 8.75! I was thinking it would be like half of that. It's okay because the strawberries were delicious but I probably won't do that every week...

A few of us went to the travel agent after the market because we wanted to go to France next weekend, but it didn't work out because we can't leave on Thursday like we planned because of our final critique for class! We might go somewhere in Italy though instead, but it's still up in the air.

We such a good lunch of pasta, carrots, potatoes, and cheesy eggplant  stuff. I eventually did get some coffee at Blue Bar during the afternoon. I went to the studio after that and worked on my book some more. I went a little crazy with the purple paint today but I think it's going in the right direction. After dinner tonight, we are going to a concert in the duomo. I don't know much about it but everything in the duomo is cool so it should be good! I know I already posted a picture of the duomo at night but here's another one... it's seriously impossible to fit the whole thing in a picture, as you can see from my awkward picture-taking angle:

Day #21 in Orvieto

March 15, 2013 - Friday

This morning, Becky and I woke up at 6:30am to get to the studio early. I’m pretty sure I had a dream/nightmare about my book last night so it was a relief to get up and just start working. I finished making the accordion part of my book and I like it so far. For the first few hours of working with the book (it was a wrinkly/glue-y/ugly mess until I finished constructing it) I hated it at first. Thankfully, it’s getting better though because I had a meeting with Prof. Doll and Hannah and they gave me some feedback on my story and they gave me a few ideas for where to go with my book. So it was a helpful meeting but overwhelming because there’s so much to do before our final critique on Thursday! For lunch we had alfredo pasta, green beans, and ham/cheese egg things Weird, I know. But it was good.

After lunch I went back to the studio to practice stamping my linoleum alphabet stamps. This was a messy process as well but after I spent some time on that, I took my laptop and headed over to Blue Bar (the café with wifi) and I had another cappuccino and pastry.  

After dinner I went back to the monastery to finish my laundry (although it was STILL a little bit wet) and I just hung out in the library/classroom for a while. It was soon time for dinner then back to work at the studio for a little while before bed. Other than that, nothing else has really happened today!  Tomorrow I’m so excited to go for a run and go to the market. That’s all I have planned for the weekend… and I’ll be working on my book. A lot. Here are a few pictures of my accordian book so far:

One side of my book is all texture from the city (this was a homework assignment from another day)

The other side is a bunch of conte designs

Day #20 in Orvieto

Making progress on my stamps

Testing them out by rubbing graphite on them

 March 14, 2013 - Thursday

This morning we had the usual breakfast (corn flakes and coffee), then hurried off to class. Some people arrived at 6am to continue working but since I finished most of my linoleum stamps last night, I didn’t come early… and I also like to sleep. In class, we continued to work on both the stamps and the second drafts of our stories. We learned how to actually construct the book (it’s more of an accordion shape rather than an actual “book”). There will be 40 squares all together (each spare is 20cm by 20cm). Once again, it will make more sense when I take some pictures of it! Since we still had a lot of work to do in the studio, we had to move lunch from 1:30-2:30 and then go to the library to watch a film for class at 3. We went outside to read a SHORT poem for class and I gave Laura a piggyback because she didn’t have her shoes on. Prof. Doll said it would only take a minute to read the poem but we were out there for around 20 minutes and even though Laura is really small, my arms and legs were shaking after having her on my back for the whole time! Because she felt like a thousand pounds by the end (I told her this – she wasn’t offended). The good thing is that it was a pretty good arm workout… and now I know that if I need to carry someone for 20 minutes I can. If I ever need to. Although that will probably never happen again.

For lunch we had some sort of shell pasta with meat sauce and it was delicious. Then we had little spinach veggie burger things with carrots on the side. And then we went to get gelato and the third gelato place in Orvieto. It was much smaller than the others but it was cheaper and they gave you free whipped cream and a cookie on top. It was sooooo good! Dark chocolate and coffee.

We then went to the library to watch a movie. It was about some soccer player – Zindane. I fell asleep during the movie because it’s in a dark movie theater-esque room but it was a pretty good movie from the parts that I was awake for!

Everyone returned to the studio after the movie but I decided to go back to the monastery to work on my story, drink some more coffee, and just hang out. It was good to write a few emails and be alone for a while (with the exception of the few people that were milling around the monastery too). I started to do some laundry but it’s definitely a different kind of process than it is at home. It takes over and hour and a half to wash a small load of laundry and I haven’t seen a drying machine since I’ve been here. Like… they don’t have them. We’ve been told that it’ll get better once the weather is nice and our clothes can hang outside, but right now everything has to hang on racks in the laundry room. Which isn’t a big deal except it takes a little while for my jeans to dry so I have to go without them for a few days while they’re drying. Once again, this isn’t really a problem either because I only wear like two different outfits. Just kidding…

Soon it was time for dinner and then I was suddenly stressed because I didn’t work on my book project at all during the afternoon. So after dinner, I rushed over to the studio to continue working and use the Internet. I’m definitely getting more excited about this book project though now that some of the prep work has been done and I started to construct the actual book! Normally we don’t have class on Fridays, but since we didn’t have class on Monday, we DO have class tomorrow.

The best thing happened today: I GOT A LETTER FROM GRAMMIE AND PAPA! Let’s just say it was an exciting moment. Prof. Doll hands out the letters and packages every day (its like summer camp) and it’s always depressing when you think he’s handing a letter to you but he’s actually giving it to the person next to you. It’s happened to me multiple times… but NOT today because I got a real letter!

Day #19 in Orvieto

March 13, 2013

I have been in the studio for 11+ hours today and I’m going crazy!!!!!! We had class from 9am-1pm, lunch/meetings/Italian class until 4, then studio again to work on our projects from 4-8pm, dinner until 9, then studio again from 9-midnight! It’s 11:45 now and I only have 15 min left to work so naturally I’m checking the Internet instead of cutting linoleum. Tomorrow I’ll upload some pictures of the process! It’s actually a fun project but it’s all consuming. Which is a good thing too, I guess. Sorry this is so short today but I’ll try to write more tomorrow! :)

P.S. During dinner today at Locanda, we watched the news and saw the new pope walk "emerge" or whatever it is that he does! A few moments earlier, the church bells all over town began to ring to announce that it was happening. It was pretty exciting to watch it with a bunch of Italians at the restaurant. 

Day #18 in Orvieto

March 12, 2013 - Tuesday

Today in class, we chose which final project we would work on for the next two weeks. You could either choose a big drawing or a creative piece in the form of a "book." For the book group (this is obviously my group), we had to go out in the city and take pictures of stuff that looked like letters in the alphabet. Here are a few of my pictures! Letters T, Y, and A... 

So we had to run around and take all these pictures, only to return to the classroom where Prof. Doll explained that we would make linoleum stamps with our letters. These stamps will be the print for our book - we aren't allowed to use our own handwriting! The second part of our homework was to write a story with 1001 characters (because this is what will fit in the finished book). It's kind of confusing but hopefully it'll make more sense once it starts to come together.

Also, my La Vida friend Amy and her friends came to visit Orvieto today! It was so great to see her although it was weird to see a familiar face (in addition to the same 20 people that I've seen for the past 18 days).

Amy & her friends with us at dinner