Classes & Such

Well...classes have begun so I've been a little slow on the blog-front. School is not so bad (yet). I finished my technical 1:2 scale drawing of a light for tomorrow morning and the 1:1 scale drawing is due next Wednesday. My light is rather large; good thing I have a giant sheet of paper. The art supply store near studio was finally open when we went by. We tend to get to places at the wrong time (during siesta). Italy is weird and everyone closes their shops from anywhere between 1:00pm and like, 2-3:00. Or 13:00-about 15:00-- yay military time in Europe. Haha now, Nate and I can talk about time and I understand what time he's telling me :) But anyway, stores are not always open when you think they are. Especially on Sundays!

One weird thing about paper here, is it is not quite 8.5x11... it's more like 8.5x11.5 so it sticks out of my folders (and if you know me well, you will know that this is bound to irritate me quite a bit). Studio has been alright though. Today I had my first day of Italian (my only class on Tuesdays) with Paola. After today, she said they will be speaking only Italian, so wish me luck! My studio room looks right off onto the terrace, where there is a table and some chairs. It's a nice place to have lunch while working on stuff or between classes. I am also in a digital photography class which is an online class, so I need to remember to work on it even though I don't have a scheduled time. I WISH that they would have been a little more specific about the art supplies to bring. I'm afraid I will have to buy some expensive things (of which I already have back home). Oh wait, I already had to. I invested in a 6 euro triangle (in centimeters) and a compass. Good thing I'll have a use for that metric system stuff when I get home.....not.

Today before Italian class, Emily and I went on a little adventure. We were required to visit 4 lighting showrooms- Artemide, Flos, Targetti, and Baldieri-- before Friday. We had to take pictures and notes and sketch the floor plan. This morning worked best for Emily and I so after google-mapping and writing street names down furiously, we headed out to find our way through Rome. I would say we did quite a good job (with just a little luck). There were multiple times where we were doing so well until there was a cluster of streets. This is the best way I can describe the way the streets are layed out/turn into other streets/curve in weird directions/are impossible to really figure out in google maps. So we would keep heading in the direction regardless of the street names and what do you know, we would end up on the right one! What a great feeling when you think, "Okay...where is Via Angelo Brunetti? Shoot....it should be one of these...AHA HERE IT IS!" Haha success.

SO anyway we found our stores and were pretty proud of ourselves, stopped and took a tourist moment briefly when we walked past the Spanish Steps on our way. We walked past the Pantheon too but we pass it almost everyday. So we felt pretty good about our sense of direction, since once you get slightly lost you cannot tell which way is North. (I even brought along that compass you gave me mom...just to figure out that North kept changing i.e. it didn't work :/ oops). But it will be lots of schooling from here on out. Tomorrow I have pretty much a full day of studio. And this weekend we are going to Cinque Terre! Finally...the beach! I cannot wait! I will keep you informed of my travels. Ciao!