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!

Baguettes and Bubbles

I feel like every blog post starts with an apology for it being so much after the actual happenings, so this time, I won't apologize, I'll just say that i'm lucky to be putting this up before I go home, which is way too soon.

A photo to start:

Happy Thanksgiving!
24.11.2011

A couple of weekends ago I went to Paris with my roommates, and one adopted one. We Celebrated thanksgiving, with a whole Turkey, gravy and cranberry sauce on thursday night then right after, just as the food coma was setting in, we hopped on an overnight sleeper train to Paris. Twelve hours later, Hello Paris! One easy metro ride later we ended up at our Hostel The 3 Ducks. We took off almost immediately to go explore, we met our friend at the eiffel tower, and went around to a lot of the attractions around paris. Notre Dame, Champs Elysees (Christmas Markets!!), with the Arc de' Triomphe at the end, all that good stuff. It was extra cold and oh so rainy, but we did our best to take advantage of our first day in Paris. I kept getting little flash backs to when I was 9 years old and there with the whole Sherrow clan when we raided Paris for my Grandma and Grandpa's 50th wedding anniversary. That night we went out to dinner at a fondue restaurant where there was writing all over the walls, people climbing on top of the tables, wine out of baby bottles - weird, a rogue fondue spoon, and all around shenanigans. It was a strange dining experience to say the least, but really fun.

Notre Dame
25.11.2011

The ferris wheel set up for the Christmas Markets
Extra

One great thing about paris is that you get free entry to most museums, and discounts at lots of the monuments with your passport with a student visa. So we hauled our way out to Versailles on saturday morning, about an hour from downtown Paris, and got in for free! This place is enormous, it has some huge and crazy rooms and so much artwork its insane. The audio tour was free, Mom you would have loved it. The palace was beautiful, and packed with so much history I was a bit overwhelmed, but I enjoyed it so much, because I feel like that was a once in a lifetime visit. We were there on a day when there weren't SO many tourists, and we could actually see the rooms without too much obstruction, the hall of mirrors was actually visible and not so crowded, unlike when my friend went two weeks before. Another amazing thing about Versailles is that it isn't just a palace, but it is a whole garden complex. This is pretty much treated nowadays as a huge park, but there are some other smaller buildings from the same era as the palace there and they are just as decadently furnished as the palace. I could have spent the entire day here, but we had to get back to meet our friends.

The Grand Canal at Versailles
26.11.2011

That night we got all dressed up and went out for a boat tour on the Siene river, seeing the city from the river at night was such a treat, the tour explained a lot of the history of paris and where all the important stuff happened way back when. After the tour we ate a lovely 3 course meal at the foot of the tower on a river boat restaurant. We got a sweet deal on the meal and the tour so it was great to be cheap but fancy in Paris.

The Eiffel Tower in te Fog at Night
extra

The next morning my friend and I got up extra early to walk around and watch the city wake up. we walked through the park by the tower, and along the river for a while. There is this really amazing building somewhere in paris that is a living wall. The entire street-side wall is a garden basically, with ferns and mosses, and succulents, and loads of other green plants. It was so green and amazing and beautiful I just wanted to stare for a long time, so I did, for a bit. I wish I had a good photo, but the lighting that morning was crap, so just use your imagination, a vertical mossy forest floor. Watching the city wake up was great, and I wish I could have walked around for another three hours, but there just isn't enough time in the day, and we had to meet friends at the Louvre at 9.

The Vertical Garden
Extra

First off: the Louvre is HUGE, if you ever go there, have an idea of what you want to see before you get there, otherwise you will have such a hard time getting to everything, and someone will ask you later did you see the Mona Lisa? And you'll be like Shit that's in the Louvre? That place was so big I couldn't find it...  How disappointing will that be? So since I was with a friend who had been there, and knows a thing or two about art history we laid out a plan before starting and I got to see most of what I wanted. Not everything but quite a bit. My favorite part was the Ancient egyptian section. I am in an Eyptian art and archaeology class here, so seeing all of the things that I am learning about in school was such a treat. I could look at carvings and see more than just people, but the meanings behind the tablets and who the gods are and what they mean. I even got a bit of a wild hair and ran my hand along hieroglyphics. I broke rule #1 of museums: don't touch anything! Worth it.

Structure of the Eiffel Tower
27.11.2011

After exploring the Louvre, we climbed up the Eiffel tower. But we only got up to the 2nd deck because the lines to get to the top were too long and we had to catch our train home. The view even from the second deck was still fabulous and the fog had cleared for us for a few hours so we could see a good distance. It was too bad that we were there only for three days, there is just so much to be done, and it was impossible to get it all done in the time we had. Regardless the whole trip was packed with adventures and so much good bread, crepes, and pastries. The french are very serious about their pastries.

The week after paris, I sadly did not take any photos so I can't remember what I did, probably just normal school stuff, I think I did something school related at some point, maybe...

Really the next thing I remember I was on my way to Malta with my friend Mike! It's like a great dream, where all of a sudden you go from one cool place to another. Our main reason for going to Malta was to go scuba diving. We are both certified, and decided when we forst met that at some point in the semester we would go diving. And it actually happened! We got into Malta on friday evening and after an insane bus ride to the north end of the main island we were in Buggiba. I thought drivers in Mexico were bad, then I thought Italian drivers were bad, but Maltese drivers top it all. The roads are narrow, the bus is a jointed city bus and they drive like they are trying to outrun a growing chasm in the earth that might swallow the bus at any moment. To top it all off put this whole situation on the left side of the road, yeah, scary. But we lived. We checked in at the dive shop to confirm our dives for the next morning. The shop was nice, and the owner was very generous, he gave us a ride to the hotel in the dive shop truck, and told us where all the good places to eat were. The hotel was nice, and WAY cheap. We stayed for 3 nights for 27euros each and  the room had a kitchenette, so we could make our own food, and two beds, and free towels, and absolute luxury when you are used to paying for them at hostels. We went out to dinner that night and dined on frogs legs, rabbit, and lampuki (a local white fish.) 

Frogs Legs
2.11.2011

Our dives the next morning were fabulous. We went to the Island of Gozo to dive their blue hole, canyons, coral gardens, coral caves - both without a speck of coral, then on the second dive we went down the blue hole, out through the Azure Window (look it up and be jealous), through the chimneys out to sea for a bit then back into the cave on the inside of the blue hole. I didn't bring my big camera, cause we were shore diving, and there wasn't gonna be anyone on shore looking after our stuff and I didn't want to risk it getting stolen. So I have no photos from the dives, but it really is just as, if not more beautiful as all the photos say. Mike was a great dive buddy, the viz was good, not as clear as it could have been, cause of rain a few days before, but still better than the NW. We walked around a bit, to the top of the Azure Window, we jumped in the blue hole, looked at all the shallow water critters, and sand dollar fossils in the limestone coastline. 

That night we ate another great and inexpensive dinner then went out for drinks, and walked along the shoreline for a while. It as so nice to be in a warm place with clear warm waters. We were absolutely exhausted from diving so we called it a night pretty early and hit the hay. 

Buggiba at night
3.11.2011

There is this really cool town in the middle-ish of the island called Mdina (no I did not forget a vowel) which is basically a walled fortress town with really narrow streets, where everything is made out of limestone. There were some beautiful colors of doors and shutters that contrasted with the beige limestone all around. Great for pictures. We wandered there a bit then into Rabat, the city next door, and through the valley between Rabat and the next town over. It was a great walk through what might have been farmed fields, but we weren't sure. Almost all of Malta is crisscrossed with shoulder high limestone walls, and other limestone structures. It is not so surprising then that as it turns out, the island is almost entirely made of limestone, and they use it for everything. The island has a lot of cliffs which when viewed from the air, make it look like it is popped out of the sea with some strange photoshop technique. After Rabat we bussed it to St. Pauls bay to take photos of the colorful lampuki boats and met a lampuki fisherman who told us his whole story about growing up on Malta during te war and what it is like to be a fisherman there. We also went to the town of Qawra (nope not missing a u either) and walked around all evening. We ended up sitting out on the point at the end of Qawra and watching sunset. It was beautiful, and the rock that the point is made out of made me feel like I was in the movie UP when they are walking across the stone at the top of the cliffs, really cool and unique. 

A door to nowhere, Mdina
extra

Lampuki fisherman with his son's boat
4.11.2011

Malta is a really inexpensive place, with beautiful waters, very nice people, and a funny language. I think that I would compare it to Arabic mostly, but it also has a little bit of other languages thrown in. The good thing is though that almost everyone speaks english, so it is really easy to get around.

The Flight Home
5.11.2011

When In Rome...

Yeah yeah, I know...It's ben a really long time since my last post. I apologize. 

In that time since I posted last, I have spent two weekends in Florence, a day in a small hill town, a weekend in Rome, and a weekend in Paris, France. Because that is a lot of days, I'm gonna update through the Rome weekend...also cause I havent edited pictures from Paris yet...oops!

Let's start with some photos shall we?

Candles in a church
3.11.2011

Church in Main square at Cortona
5.11.2011

After break it was great to spend a few weeks just staying in florence, exploring the city a bit more than I have before, going out to bars, and going to museums and places that I always put off going to. One of the weekends we went to the Duomo for mass, then out for brunch at the american diner, it is nice to eat real american breakfast, Banana chocolate chip pancakes...Mmmmm! Then we wen to the Uffizi, which by the way is a HUGE museum, it is never-ending, and when you think there can't possibly be another room or floor - there is. I also had a friend that I met while in the Alps come to visit, we had a good walk around and I got to play tour guide for a bit and show him around the city. My roommate's mom and aunt and cousin came to visit one of the weekends, not sure which, they all blend together now. A great highlight was getting to see Tom and Shaela Hull. They are very good family friends, who were here visiting their daughter who is also studying abroad in Florence. 

Also I don't have exactly a photo for every day, I have been slacking..oops again. but in lieu of a photo that  I took that day, you get lots of extra goodies from Rome, get excited!

In digital photo class we have been doing portraiture, self and model, so one of my projects was to take portraits of what I do when I procrastinate, my first potoshoot turned out terribly, with only a few good ones, which really weren't portraits at all. You win some you loose some.

Playing with makeup as a tool of precrastination
6.11.2011

Studio portrait of a guy in my class
8.11.2011

Another thing that I have discovered is city bouldering. There are a lot of rocky walls that have some bouldering potential. I brought my rock climbing shoes with me to Italy on the off chance that I might find a place to play. As it turns out there is a decently secluded wall on the other side of the river up a hill. The wall is only about 7 ft high, and I use it as a traverse (going sideways not up.) So don't worry Mom, I'm being safe. Although it is a skinny road and there have been a couple close calls with cars. The climbing is a little ghetto but it keeps me entertained. Some days I climb until it gets kinda dark and the river looks so beautiful at dusk hour.

The Arno river at dusk-ish
10.11.2011

 There is some sweet graffiti in florence, particularly in the Graffiti Tunnel, which is rumored to be owned by a homeless man who rents out the space to artists for money and food. There was some amazing art in the tunnel and it changes all the time, it's all temporary which I think makes it even more exciting.

Make a wish!
11.11.11

 On Thursday afternoon a few friends and I set out for Rome a day early and went to the Fleet Foxes concert, which I didn't bring my camera to (dumb) so there are no photos from that.. but it was SO good, they are amazing live, I was in such a happy place. 

The next day we met up with the API group and began our 3 day excursion to Rome. We had guided tours  the whole time, and so we got to see the monuments with a lot of history behind them, it was so good to be able to see all the big monuments. We also had a lot of free time to roam around on our own and explore without looking like the ultra tourist. Rome is a beautiful city scattered with ruins and full to the brim with history and important buildings.

I'm just gonna go for it with the photos, comment if you wanna know more about any of them.

Trevi Fountain during the day
18.11.2011

Trevi Fountain at night
Extra Goodie

Parthenon dome, Rome
Extra Goodie

Old school roman columns at the ancient hospital (?)
Extra Goodie

Statues at the "Wedding Cake"
Extra Goodie

Ancient Roman Ruins
Extra Goodies

Roman triumphal arch
Extra Goodies

Colosseum at night
19.11.2011

Swiss Guards at the Vatican
Extra Goodie

Light through a window at St. Peters Basilica
19.11.2011

Spiral stairs at the Vatican museums
Extra Goodie

Fun Fact: Tere are 13 Egyptian Obelisks in Rome, more than there are left in Egypt
Extra Goodie

Colosseum during the day
20.11.2011

I'll post about paris once I have edited the photos, hopefully it will be soon!

Ciao!

Eleven Days - One Backpack

Why hello again! I know, I know, its been far too long since my last post, but that's life, and here we are again. I believe I left off just after mid terms. Here's some photos to start off.

outside the chinese restaurant by our building
19.10.2011

ticket validation punch boxes in the train station
20.10.2011

Once all my exams were over and I had a day to recover, I set out for Northern Italy with my friend Jon. Packing a bag for this trip was a challenge. We didn't think that there were any hostels on Lake Como, in the town that we wanted to stay in, so we brought my tent, and some sleeping pads, sleeping bags, and lots of layers. The camp ground was closed for the season, but we figured it wouldn't be a problem, and we would just hike up into the many woods surrounding the lake and post up tent there for a few nights. As it turns out, to camp in the North it takes a lot of warmth. So with a bit of finagling I turned my daypack into a hiking pack. It was crammed full and kinda heavy, but really not too bad. We got up at 5:30 to catch a city bus to the middle of nowhere (Certosa) so that we could catch the cheap bus to Milan. Which of course dropped us off in some random location not at the Milan train station that we thought we were going to. But we took directions from an elephant and (of course) got lost, but the train station that we did find took us to Lake Como. 

there was no room for my apple and journal in my packpack so I carried them all the way to como
21.10.2011

He gives bad directions

We made it to Menaggio, a cool town on the west side of the lake, as it turns out there is a youth hostel there, and it had vacancy! So we stayed for two nights, met some really cool people, went on a bike ride and for a swim, the water was extra cold, so the swim was quick. We hiked around later that day and kicked around with our new buddies from the hostel. 

the view from Menaggio at night
22.10.2011

a sweet beetle I found on the beach on our way to hike to the monastery in Menaggio
23.10.2011

After 2 nights in Menaggio I set out early in the morning to catch a bus then a train to milan to get on an early train from there to Bern, Switzerland. From there I hopped another train to Langenthal, then to Roggwil to stay for a few nights wit the Sullivans, Tina Carpenter's brother and his family. After a long day of travel it was such a relief to meet such kind and generous people. They had a bed set up for me (which was so comfy it made it tough to wake up in the morning) and they let me use an extra bike of theirs for the time I was staying with them.

what was once a day pack, now packed for camping and 11 days in switzerland
24.10.2011

The first full day in Roggwil I took off on foot to walk around the village, which is small, and quiet - a great change of pace. when I was walking around I kept seeing these signs that hare these little yellow diamonds that say wanderweg and they point in the direction of the walking trails that are all around Switzerland. I ended up wandering around in the forest in the hills around Roggwil. The forest was so green, it reminded me of the North West. The mushrooms in the forest were so cool and diverse, I felt right at home. I set up my hammock in a little grove of mossy trees and ate lunch and had a nap. 

Mushroom in the forest near Roggwil, Switzerland
25.10.2011

My second day in Roggwil I went to St. Urban with Susanne. It is this really cool HUGE monastery in a tiny little town. After the monastery I went for a long ride along one of the many bike routes around  the countryside. I kicked it with lots of cows, and followed the signs, which by the way are so good everywhere in Switzerland. I had such a peaceful day out riding around farms and enjoying the fall weather. 

The inside of St. Urban, ornately carved and all white
26.10.2011

The next morning I took off to go explore Bern for a few hours. I walked around the city, saw the cool fountains, and the main church. The child eating goblin is so messed up. At the end of the city, across the river there used to be a pit with bears in it, and while the pit is still there, the bears aren't in it anymore. They made a park alongside the river for them and there are two sections, one for the male and one for the female and what looked like her two cubs. You could see them from the bridge, from the walkway along the river, and from the sidewalk above the park right by the old pit. 

A part of Bern and the river Aare, view from a plaza
27.10.2011

After my short stint in Bern I hopped a train to Bargen to spend some time with my friend Sam who has duel citizenship in Switzerland, so after she graduated from WWU she decided to move to Switzerland to find a job and live with her Grandma for a bit. I got to spend 2 days with them, Granny made us Rochlette - a traditional Swiss dish which is straight up melted cheese over potatoes with other goodies, like bacon. Mmmmm. It was so good to see a friend from home, and what she is doing is so brave and adventurous. We romper-stomped around Bargen, and Aarberg, rode these sweet electric bikes in the hills around us, and climbed a lookout tower that gave us a sweet view of the swiss alps and all of the cool little towns in that part of the country. 

The Swiss Alps from our bike ride in the hills near Aarberg
28.10.2011

Once I saw the mountains from the lookout tower, I just know I had to go there. It wasn't in the original plan (silly me) but I decided to skip one class and stay in the swiss alps for 4 days. Online I found a hostel in a little town called Gimmelwald, and I didn't know if they had vacancy but I went anyway hoping they would take me in, and worse comes to worse I sleep in my hammock. It took a train a bus a cable car and walked to get to the hostel, I got there and there was nobody. I found out later that they were all sleeping or out hiking and the owners aren't there all the time. In a small town like this though that is perfectly acceptable. So I dropped my stuff in a corner and went for a walk up to the next town, Muren, to get some food, cause the hostel provides a kitchen for its guests. I was blown away by the mountains every time I looked at them, they are SO big that it is hard to gain perspective until a helicopter flys into them and you see how truly tiny it is in comparison. I got back that evening checked in to my bed and sat down to relax a bit after my long day of travel. Within an hour the hostel, which is also a bar and restaurant, was hoppin. The Muren fire brigade came in after a training day and all got drunk together right buy the couch I was sitting on. Before I knew it they were singing songs and it wasn't long before one of the firemen showed up with his two accordions. He would play and they would sing, other people were playing rhythm instruments, and one guy was playing the spoons like an absolute master. I ended up joining in and playing a drum and singing the american words to the songs he was playing on the accordion. I felt like I was in a movie, it was so cool. Also fun fact: many of the songs they sing contain yodel breaks, and everyone can yodel, not just one or two people, all of them. I almost couldn't handle myself it was so hilarious. 

The Swiss alps on the walk from Gimmelwald to Muren
29.10.2011

The next morning I woke up early and was having my breakfast trying to figure out what I was gonna do that day when I started talking to some kids who were going on a hike that day. They were environmental science majors as well, studying in Austria. Two were twins, a boy and a girl; one other guy was studying with them in Austria (they were all from Oklahoma) and the last guy was studying in Paris, I'm not sure where he was from. So set out with a cartoon trail map, not very useful, and an idea of where we wanted to end up. We didn't get to out proposed destination, due to an early wrong turn. But we got to an equally phenomenal ridge with grass on the sunny side, and snow on the shady side. We laid down on the grass hill and enjoyed the absolute peacefulness of where we were. Words can't describe how amazing it felt to be up in the alps with good people, a killer view, and silence. 

Hiking back to Gimmelwald from Wasenegg ridge
30.10.2011

My hiking buddies left that night, so I made same other friends in the hostel and drank beer and played cards with them. We decided that the next day we would hike up to the glacial caves together. So early the next morning I headed out on sore legs with my three new friends to hike to some caves. We saw two amazing waterfalls on the way there, and ended up in this amazing bowl with a herd of ibex(?) running around us. We walked a bit farther and followed the cairns (rock stacks) to the entrance of the caves. Inside you could see the beautiful lines of glacial growth. we walked into the caves until we saw what looked like it might be a way out. I had my head lamp on me, so we decided to go for it. We crawled over ice chunks, and rocks, in hindsight not the best of choices, and towards the light at the end of the dark icy tunnel. at the end of the tunnel once we were out from under the glacier there were two huge cascading waterfalls right next to each other. Josh and I went up there to get a closer look, and an unexpected dousing with water. We hiked down from the waterfalls to have a quick lunch on the rocks next to a glacial pond. The pond looked inviting to Josh, so after lunch he to a quick dip - very quick. The water was freezing, I only put my hand in and I could tell that. After his polar bear swim we hiked back to Muren for more food and beer and relaxed for a little bit over a game of cards. No accordions and yodeling tonight. 

Glacial Caves
31.10.2011

That night after dinner and a few beers I packed up all my stuff and headed out into the dark with my head lamp and night hiked into the woods above Gimmelwald to set up hammock for the night. It was beautiful looking at the mountains and the stars from my hammock. That might have been the coldest night of my life, with every layer I brought with me on my body, and a sleeping bag and an air mattress but the view that night and the sunrise over Jungfrau the next morning were absolutely worth it.

My hammock the morning after it had been my bed
1.11.2011

Sadly that morning I had to head home from switzerland after eleven days of adventuring I had to say goodbye. So after randomly running into Bryce Covey in the Milan train station, and missing my train to pisa, and catching a different one home at 3am I finally made it safe and sound into my warm bed for a quick nap before class. 

It was quite the whirlwind, if I were to sum it up: 

Cool Bears.

Ian - 123