It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas

The Christmas lights are up in Florence! And every street has different ones, it is all so cheerful, and makes me want to sing carols, or at least listen to them, I wouldn't put my friends through that.... Since the art studios close at 8, my photos from this week, or what few I have taken, are of the lights!

Fleur de lis the symbol of Florence
10.12.2011

More lights!
11.12.2011

How could it have gone by so fast?! It is insane how my time left here went from 4 weeks to 4 days so quickly. All of my friends have started to pack up their suitcases, or are already done. Of course - I havent even started... and I have been working madly on final projects, studying for final exams, and writing final papers. School is different here than it is in the states. Almost every class has a final paper, and an exam or project, sometimes all three. So instead of having just one week at the end of the semester for finals, there is stuff due and exams to deal with for two weeks. Its like a double whammy finals week, ugh, and I'm trying to fit in all those things I need to do in Florence before I leave. 

Department store all lit up for the holidays
Photo cred:Julia Londo
12.12.2011

Because of all the chaos and hours that I have been putting in in the studio, and photo lab, I have (once again) not taken a photo for every day. I was doing so well there for the 1st half of the semester. BUT there is an upside, I have finished all of my art class finals! They are both inspired by the same artist, David Hockney. He was a painter who dabbled in photography, and ended up producing some great stuff, also he is just a cool dude all around. I did two Hockney style gridded portraits for my photo class, and one gridded Hockney style portrait for my drawing class, 

Dimitri and Lorenzo
7.12.2011

These photos are both taken street photography style. I found these men talking in a square by my apartment and asked if I could take photos of them, they obliged, and i started clicking away. Later I composited twenty-something photos into this gridded multiple perspective portrait. 

Chestnut Man
8.12.2011

The man without teeth is a seller of roasted Chestnuts. I bought some chestnuts from him, because they are delicious, and almost walked away, but decided to ask in broken Italian if I could take his photo for my final. He was very nice and agreed to be photographed. After being turned down by so many interesting looking people, I was happy to get a chance to shoot this crazy looking guy. He was very nice.. probably cause I had just bought chestnuts from him...

Jon in squares
6.12.2011

 This drawing is one of my friend Jon, who has been so kind as to let me photograph him on multiple occasions for my art class. This time I took photographs, and put them together like the portraits up top, but then gridded out a large piece of paper (70cm x 70cm) and drew out the photos with graphite and ink. This project took a very long time, and I had intended to do this one and one other of my roommate Alycia, but I just didn't have time. 

Other than going crazy due to lack of sleep and over-load on art, I have been just hanging out and doing fun things with my roommates and friends here. We went to this amazing pizza place across the river called Gustapizza, and for who knows what reason, when our pizzas came out of the oven they were heart shaped! It was awesome, the owner must have liked us, cause we were nice and he was messing with us but we were playing along. This is a definite must-go in Florence. Not only is the pizza phenomenal, but it might come in the shape of a heart if you are nice to the owner! 

Heart pizza at Gusta
Photo cred: Julia Londo
9.12.2011

OH I forgot to mention,  last week we went to the opera! It was the Barber of Seville, Figaro Figaro Fiiigaaarrro. But actually, that is the opera that the famous song comes from. The costumes were amazing, the singing was epic, and I hardly understood a word of it. It is in Italian, the words were shown on a screen above the stage, but I can't read Italian very well either. The up-side is that I had read the synopsis before going so I knew what was going on. It is one of those things that either you love it or you hate it, and I loved it, lots of the people in my program left half way through, because it was really long, and they couldn't figure out what was going on. But, like I always do with Mariners games, I stuck it out till the end with my roommate and it was totally worth it. 

I have three more finals to be done with then I can pack and buy gifts, and relax for a couple of days before I head back to Seattle. Wish me luck and see you all soon! 

Happy Holidays!