"There's no such thing as "Scotch-toberfest" "You used me Skinner!"

You get a million points if you can name what season of the Simpsons that quote is from.

So It's Sunday night on what was a long and eventfull weekend. On Wednesday night I hopped on a plane heading toward Munich, Germany. Finally I can celebrate the harvest the way it was meant to be celebrated, with buckets upon buckets of beer, also liederhosen. We came into the airport at about 10:30 at night and decided to take a breather before we headed out of the airport.

I feel it's important to disclose that the Munich Airport is the greatest airport yet to be created by man. Why, you may ask yourself, this high approval? Is it the architecture? The design? The functionality? No. They give you free good coffee, tea, tv screens, newspapers and lovely seating. FREE, HEAR THAT, FREE. GOOD. COFFEE. We were enjoying that so much that we didnt realize that they close the airport at midnight. So we spent our first night in the airport, sleeping in the lovely seats. We slowly made it farther towards the exit only to realize that we never got our passports stamped. Worried that we were now illegal aliens we tried to find a security guard, eventually we did, but she didnt speak english particularly well and instead just watched us as we puttered around looking for a way to get back into the restriced section. To no avail. But in the morning we found out that there are open borders in the EU for flight passengers...apparently.

At 5 we got to our hostel and decided to look around the town of Munich. Not really sure what there was to see, we found our way to the Glockenspeil ( A giant coo-coo-clock ), The Royal Palace, A Cathedral and some beautiful gardens. We also found a giant fish statue which, naturally, I stuck my head in. The resulting pictures may be going on the cover of my autobiography.
A little after noon we made it to Oktoberfest, which is essentially a Giant Fair with rides, booths and tents. It was a little surreal but I liked it. I think my favorite part was the Liederhosen. You would think that Liederhosen would be a thing of the past, like the English wearing the wide frilly collars but no my friends, Liederhosen is alive and well. About 75% of the people at the fest were wearing them, the women were wearing "Dirdels" which is the female equivelent.
Now before we left, Bridget's father had told her "there is no need to buy a "mas" right away, you can drink a pint first and take your time" So being wise and mature the first thing we did was order 3 mas and drink them as fast as we could.
(A "Mas" is essentially a liter of beer.)

Maybe it was the fact that we slept in an airport, but after 3 hours of revelry and brautwurst we were ready to go to take a nap. Bridget and I decided to go back to the Hostel, Bryan wanted to stay. She and I got home and fell asleep, by the time we woke up, Bryan had gotten home and there was another person in our room. Her name was Carissa, she was Australian and had checked in while we were asleep. Her first words being (phonetically) "I sawe these two liying hear and I thought, 'Why aer'nt thei at Ocktoberfest?'" So we laughed and all went together to the train station for dinner.

The next morning we got up early for day two, We went to the "haufbrau" house, where most of the tourists go to drink. We hadnt reserved seats but got into the standing section that was right next to the band. We made a few friends from Cologne (I think they were Heidrich and Jan) and met some Americans studying in Florence. There is nothing quite like a day filled with loud Germans singing "Take me Home Country Road". (I submit that most Germans would'nt know exactly where West Virigina is if not for Mr. John Denver) Before we knew it we had to get back to the airport, did a drive-by look at the Olympic stadium and the BMW factory, got on the plane (barely) and made it back to Rome.

It was kind of comforting to hear the language I kind of know after hearing a language I had no idea about for a few days. Country Road take me Rome.

Saturday, we ventured out to Hadrian's Villa or the "Villa Adriana" as the Italian's say.

Hadrian's Villa was designed and constructed by the Roman Emporer Hadrian as a means to escape the heat (both physical and politcal) of Rome, and eventually moved his whole court there. An early Versailles if you will. Hadrian used the Villa as a testing ground for one of his favorite past-times, Architecture. Many of the structures he designed were based off of places he had seen in his travels across the empire, though with his own particular spin on them. There is a story that when Hadrian was working on his designs, a prominent architect mocked them by saying all of his domes looked like pumpkins and that they would never hold the statues he invisioned to be there. Hadrian had him exiled and eventually killed. Hadrian does not take a bad-crit well.
I had read about the Villa in Architectural Theroy papers and in Art History but did'nt understand the draw until I got there. It was amazing, a sprawling landscape that is molded by thick red brick in the most amazing shapes. Things that can be found nowhere else in Rome. The structures are so picturesque that I don't know if I can describe them. They almost dance around the 300 acres. There is no rigid grid or mode of organisation, this is clearly a work-in progress that's imperfections lead to it's charm.
I don't know if I'll go back though, because it was 3 hours away and 3 hours back, so techincally we spent more time traveling there than we did at the Villa, but I guess when you rule the world you can afford to put your Villa really far away.

Today we went to the Vatican museum. It was free day (the last sunday of the month the museum is free) and was absolutely packed. I mainly avioded the crowds by attempting to stay away from the Sisteen Chapel.

http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7639/1318/1600/27.jpg
(not done by me)

But I did get to see some great early-christian art as well as the last Painting of Raphael (who died suddenly in his 30's) and some beautiful Renaissance and Baroque. I think my favorite though was Laocoon. The statue of the doomed man of Troy who tried to explain to his country men that putting a suspiciously large Wooden Horse directly in the center of their ungarded city may be a tad unwise.

http://www.brynmawr.edu/gradgroup/historyofart/images/GSEM679images/Laocoon.jpg

Then this happened. Who saw that comming? Not me, and certianly not Laocoon.

Slowly but surely I had to go to the Sisteen Chapel, but along the way I stopped by the Raphael rooms. Heliodorus was under reconstrucion so I was pretty dissapointed but the School of Athens was better than I expected. However this is when people started using flash photography, which makes me mad beyond all comprehension. They take flash pictures of priceless frescoes and that's why they need to be repaired every few years, then no one can enjoy them. It pisses me off. Don't do it.

The Modern Art area of the Vatican museum was pretty interesting, I image Pope John Paul had a lot to do with picking out the collection because most of the work had a very similar aesthetic. There were a lot of very sophisticated pieces, but for the most part, a little to angular for my liking.

The Sisteen Chapel was packed, I don't understand why people can't just be quite in a chapel, especially after they make anouncements in 15 languages, really loud. Also I'm thinking of just leading a campaign to destroy flashes on cameras except with people who can prove to be responsible. BYO Baseball Bat. I felt the urge to kill rising, which I'm pretty sure is blasphemus that close to the Pope, so I left. It was beautiful. Let's remember how beautiful it was.

Overall a great experience.

Now it's time for bed. Goodnight! :)

Museums can be Wierd

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2023132&id=53100493&ref=mf

So the title of this is "museums can be wierd" this is true. So in a continuation of the "list" previously discussed I decided to visit and in this first case, re-visit some museums.

Part 1: The Capitoline or "The A Team"

I had been to the Capitoline once before, but it was La Notte Bianca and I really didnt get a chance to enjoy it. But going back I really loved it, I started off with the side I hadnt seen before, and they had a lot of great ancient Roman things, including the Bust galleries of some noted notables. The Hall of Philosophers (Everyone from Homer to Virgil), the Hall Emporers (Including Emporer "Pupinius" pronounced "Poop and Anus" and if you don't think that's funny they'res something wrong with you) etc. They also had the famous and imfamous "Dying Gaul" statue, which was worth the trip alone.

http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/d/d4/Dying_gaul.jpg

Why is this important? Why would you come to see this one specifically? Did'nt the Romans conquer the Gauls?

The Romans would have killed thousands of these people in their conquering them. Here we see them in an attempt to humanize these future-franco-phonic phellows. In making their enemy noble, they are basically saying "we must become even more noble to truly earn our victory"
or
if you want to be an idiot and look for the obvious meaning "omg! lolz, pwnd!!!!111"

There were some amazing paintings as well, including some by the baroque knife-fight-rambo Caravaggio. The way Caravaggio captures drama and passion through oil is remarkable, but he was a dramatic passionate guy, so I guess his art must be a reflection of personality. Only difference is his art did'nt die of heat stroke while trying to escape exile.

Eventually I made it around the Capitoline and came into the courtyard.

INTERMISSION

Where these two ladies from Ohio asked me if I knew how to get to the Pantheon, I told them I was heading there myself and would be glad to escort them. So we walked and talked I told them I was an architecture student studying abroad and they told me that they were trying to get to everything in three days under the helpful gaze of "Rick Steves: Italy 2007". Eventually we began talking about the Pantheon and they asked me if I knew anything about it. I told them I knew a little bit if they would like to hear it, and so I walked them around, told them what I knew of the history, the structure, the terms and the monuments inside. Eventually I told them I had to leave and they said they wanted to give me money for the tour. I declined, but it got me thinking, if those guys on the street can trick you into paying 5 euros for a piece of string tied around your wrist, I could probably make some money giving under ten min. tour of the Pantheon. So if i'm ever low on cash look for a sign that says "The Thirsty Student's Guide to The Pantheon - 2 Euros"

Part 2 The Museo Di Roma or 'I'm always on B-Squad!''Yes, But You're the B-Squad Leader.'

The Museo di Roma is located at the northern end of the Piazza Navona which is an entoxicating place, originally built on top of roman ruins you can see through the grates, it's prime- people-watching real estate. There are a bunch of tourists as well as street preformers and pick-pockets. At the time I was there, there was a feast day for what I believe to be the patron saint of Civil Servants. There were lots of people dressed in multi-colored jumpsuits and nuns with megaphones. They had a band there as well, and aside from looking like the Italian's version of an Uhmm-Pah-Pah band, they were pretty standard. After this was over, I went inside. The museum was interesting because it was all the stuff that wasnt good enough to make it into the Capitoline. Basically the Capitoline B-Squad. Lots of Busts of Cardinals, painted ceilings, 18th c. watercolors and some portraits. Maybe it was because it was so ecclectic that I liked it so much. I don't think I would ever go again, but it was definately worth the trek.

My favorite part was probably the carving on the walls of two lions flanking what appears to be a block structure heavly resembeling a Jenga set. But one of the lions has a what is either a pinecone or a pineapple on a stick and is trying to place it inside the Jenga set. I don't know, you explain it to me.

Part 3 or "Looks Like someone's got a case of the Muun-days"

This morning I went to class, remembering that one must "study" at "study abroad". It can't all be nuns with megaphones and hellenistic statues of giant babies. For my photography class he said he enjoyed my photos, but techinically I didn't "do" the assignment.

Prof: "They're interesting, but these are not still-lives."
Molly: "Sure they are."
Prof: "These are statues."
Molly: "Well, are they moving?"

I hope one day to be the thorn in the side of art and architecture. mccormick offline.

First let's start out with, what might actually be, the greatest picture ever taken. Ever.

http://chillicheesefries.deviantart.com/art/Cowboys-and-Marines-65504164

That one is for you Tim.

This was a pretty cool weekend. I'm finally getting used to being here, the streets which were previously so intimidating are starting to become a little bit more familiar and there are circumstances you can always count on. (The teenagers will be loud and at the bus stop at 8 am with another showing at 12:30 pm, Fabrizio at the film store will never have the slides done on time, The Trestevere market is the perfect place to find...whatever, etc.) It will never have the same charm as the Old-Line State or even the Keystone, but I've come to think of it as my Home sweet Rome.

Originally I planned to take this weekend to go to Florence for a day-trip, However when the time came to organize it there was not enough time to figure out casting and travel arrangements. Instead I made a list of the things I have yet to see in Rome which I need to, and happily completed two of them. One of them was to visit the Piazza Navona, which my friend Brian Reynolds led me to. (It should be noted that he didn’t know how to get there, but to get to the pub next to it)One of the fountains by Bernini was under renovation which was ok because there was a puppet-show next to it, so I was satisfied. Also there is a great church by Borromini that's there.

* Let's take this moment to review *

Bernini = Sculpture that defies the nature of rock
Personality = http://www.buddytv.com/articles/Image/The-Bachelor/jesse-palmer-retire.jpg

Borromini = Architecture that defies the nature of gravity
Personality = http://www.angelfire.com/emo2/prettyxlittlexlush/the_emo_loser_who_dyes_her_hair_too_much/rawr.bmp

Their rivalry is legend.

Back to the Navona

The Piazza is actually a pretty touristy area, which is kind of interesting. I like the tourists in Rome, every so often you hear a familiar dialect, plus when you go there with a sketchbook people like to look, even if they are in the way of what you're trying to draw.

Rome and tourism seem to be inseparable bed-fellows. I think Roma, in all her glory is actually fairly lazy. Unlike Milan or Torino which cling to fashion or business, Roma is content to be herself. She doesn’t have to re-invent her appearance to keep you interested, she knows you will come to her and even if you try to resist, she's been alluring far too long to be ruffled by the likes of you. You will come to her and you will be begging for more.

Later that night we went to Botticello's (the pub I was led to earlier) and had a few drinks, mine was of something green and then something light brown; the other girls had something bright pink. A couple of us eventually made it to a club opening, but it was about 1:30 in the morning the line was about a block long and the likelihood of us getting in was not that great. So we headed back home, taking a taxi for my first time here. Most of the time public transportation is the way to go, but our driver was great and it was not entirely unreasonable.

This morning we got up early and went to the Catacombs along the Appia Antica. It's pretty far out from the city and you get that whole "Italian Provincial" look that seems too perfect and must therefore be a fake. It leads one to think that you're not actually in Italy, but you took your study abroad semester to a soundstage in Burbank.

The catacombs held the remains of the early Christians of Rome, as well as some of the first Popes. The remains had been removed for "aesthetic purposes" which was actually morbidly disappointing. It was 30 feet underground and I was really surprised that, in terms of architecture, it's definitely way up on the top 10 places I've been to so far.

This was not architecture to impress rivals, or an overly decorated allegory hiding under the mask of salvation, establishing authority (I'm talking to you Barberini family). This is a structure of redemption and will and belief. They didn’t allow you to take pictures so I’ll try to describe:

First we went down a long set of stairs until the smell of damp earth is wrapped around you like a blanket. There is a series of arches and vents (some of which were added when the catacombs were re-discovered after being lost for centuries) but unlike some other structures, this isn’t forced, there is an earnestness to the spaces with which you can tell that each shovel of dirt was done in grief. They move in scale from the large, tall rooms to the cramped hallways, to the niches of history. There is also a beautiful sculpture that stands over where the remains of St. Cecilia were found. St. Cecilia being the patron saint of music.

http://members.chello.nl/~l.de.bondt/StCecilia.jpg

There are three different kinds of tombs, the "family" tombs, like an underground mausoleum, (several of these came with frescoes that had never been restored and still kept their reds and blues intact from almost 1800 years ago, depicting the themes of The Last Supper, John the Baptist, the Fishers of Men and the Lamb of God) the tombs of Popes and Martyrs which were room-like shrines, which also had some really old frescoes, including one that was clearly a Greek-inspired and finally there were just holes in the wall where you would lay the bodies of everyday citizens. These were then covered with stones which had carvings in Latin and Greek. They also had a room which contained all of the old amphorae and oil lamps.

The catacombs went around for over 13 miles (over 1/2 a million people were buried there, many of them children as a large number of people did not live past childhood) and were set up like a labyrinth so I naturally stuck to the tour guide like glue. Finally we walked up back towards the light and could smell the fresh fields. Nothing like death to remind you of life.

Tomorrow I'm going to keep working on the list. I'll let you know how it goes.

gather 'round children

it's story time.

So Once Upon a Time, In a far away land....

There was an Architecture student who was comming back from her drawing class in the downtown area of this particularly far away land's city. She hopped on the tram after having a leisurely stroll and realized that her bus-pass was going to expire the next day, not knowing when the next time she would have an opportunity to buy another bus pass, she decided to buy one on the tram to be used on a future date. So she did. And who should appear not but thirty seconds later but a nun. The nun asked her in the native language of this foreign land, if she was in fact "siete italiana?". The girl stumbled through a "no" and the nun frog-marched the girl towards the buspass verifier. (this is a magical device to make sure people don't use public transportation for free) All the while the girl was trying to explain that she already had a valid pass and that this was for a future date. Nevertheless the nun was unrelenting and demanded she validate her pass by means of the magic device. The girl gave up and rode the rest of the way on the tram with two perfectly good passes, not sure whether or not she should feel miffed about the nun, and whether or not she was allowed to be miffed. Because the woman was, after all, a nun.

Epilogue:
The girl went home and checked out this phrase:

Sorella, questo biglietto è valida per l'oggi e questo biglietto è per domani.

roughly translating to:

Sister, this ticket is valid for today and this ticket is for tomorrow.

...just in case it ever happens again.

and then I took a nap.

Today is quite possibly the most epically long livejournal entry ever. I highly recommend taking breaks.


So my exceedingly long weekend was interesting. It all started when I had a dream that I had decided, two weeks into study aroad, to go home. (I think a by-product of being homesick for my mom's cooking and a washing machine that dosent take 3 hours for jeans). I can't really remember what the specifics were but I do remember feeling dissapointed with myself having not done more. Then I woke up and was still in Rome. With this knowledge I tried to do a lot with my weekend.

THURSDAY:

On Thursday I took my reading outside and enjoyed the scenery of via ottavilla while reading some Harold Swift.

Then I rounded some of the troops and we headed down to Spanish Steps around 6:30pm, We caught the steps at twighlight and it was great, if not a little crowded.

I think I'll go back and visit the Keats/Shelly museum that's down there eventually as well. (It's right next to the steps, I mean RIGHT NEXT the steps,in the sense that they physically touch.) Apparently it had once been a house owned by a Keats and he had died in it, which prompted the museum. I find that house must be a constant reminder to me how convienent it would be to have rediculous sums of money.

After that we walked down in the area and looked into all the shops, there were, of course Versace, Armani and all the hot-to-trot stores where it costs 5 euros touch the merchandise, so we did'nt go in. But apparently (and keep this hush-hush...) black is in. We decided to walk back to our apartment from downtown, not as long a walk as it sounds, but nevertheless picked up some gelato for the trek. I got one that was called Zuppa Inglese (English Soup) which turned out to be Trifle. While trying to figure out the taste it was, it was collectively decided that it tasted like childrens cough-syrup.

http://www.cdkitchen.com/recipes/cat/180/0.shtml

We enjoyed the sites and sounds of via trestevere, including a semi-bazaar that was lining the tiber river. We came back around 10:30 had some wine a light dinner and watch The Venture Bros. (what can I say, I was still a little homesick).

FRIDAY

I did my permessio on friday, I'm sorry to not have a more interesting story but it was organized by the school and was terribly efficient. I was in and out in 5 min. I didn't even have to go down to the police station. I was looking forward to the badge of honor but to no avail. Sorry Dom.

I got out to the art-supply store to buy my materials for Intermediate drawing. Thank God our teacher had already packaged away what we needed at the store. The supplies we got were about 40 euros (relatively 50 dollars). I had heard some horror-stories about buying art supplies. My two fashion-design majors had, between the two of them, spent 300 euros on markers, paper, sketchbooks etc. He apparently had a deal with the people at the store and all I had to say was "Conosco Tim". Then I dropped off my film to be developed into that's right...slides! So look forward to that family and friends. I spent most of the rest of the day finishing homework. There is an absurd amount of reading I need to do for my art classes, more so than my other classes, it's kind of weird. After which I took a nap. I have really come to love the Riposa. I don't know if I can go back to not sleeping in the middle of the day, it presents a real problem for the ghosts of corporate future.

Also this was the day that I figured out how to get pictures off of my camera, an epic task indeed. I figured that Heather's old camera takes the same size memory chip as mine and i can download the photos using hers. Which is nice because then I can prove that i'm not actually making all this up.

SATURDAY

This was the day we finally made our way to the Vatican. We didn't have time to do the museum as well, but we did do the basillica, the catacombs and the dome. The Dome was amazing, I think it is something you should do once in your life. You pay 5 euros to walk, a price I would usually find rediculous, but it takes 7 to get the elevator up half way. We climbed 16 stories up the thinnest most dangerous spiral staircase I have ever seen. But we got to see not only the inside from the dome and be right next to, like can physically touch, the mosaics but also saw all of Rome from the "god's eye" view of the top of the bascillica. I don't think I could do it twice because it was so exhausting the first time but I'm really glad I did it. It makes you appreciate the enormity of the structure and also the great human task that it makes to create a city like Rome. It was such an extraordinary experience I felt like I had to propose to someone, so I asked Joanne to marry me she said she would not but thanks for the offer. Better Her than a stranger who might actually say yes. As for the art on the ground, it was overwhelming. I had been before when I was 13 with my parents, but seeing it again was, well, I was floored. They always tell you, you have to see it in person, and they're right. Michelangelo's Pieta was of course, surrounded by people but we deftly manuvered our way to the front and got the full view.

http://www.christusrex.org/www1/citta/0w-Pieta.jpg

He made this when he was 25 years old, which means I have three years to match it..awesome.
I'll have pictures up soon so you can see the amazing sculpture and mosaics. We then took a break by the statue of constantine (a bernini...as if you could'nt tell)

http://z.about.com/d/atheism/1/0/y/f/ConstantineBernini.jpg

and pondered how much money this must have cost over the years, I speculate that the number is partly infused with infinity.

On the way back we got lost on the bus, but eventually found our way to a McDonalds, so it was not in vain. When we finally got back Bridget and AJ convinced me to go out to a Bar. (Botticelli's to be precise). It was an intersting bar, it was in a mostly Italian area (a far cry from Campi di Fiori which could be center-city Philadelphia) but the American College presence was undeniable. American Football on the screen and pennants on the wall, plus the Bar tender spoke with a flawless Minnesota accent. We drank and sang and had a great time, but on the way back there were some girls (not AUR) whose friend had gotten so drunk she could no longer stand and then preceeded to vomit all over the tram. We werent sure where they were from, but seeing as how most Italians frown upon public drunkeness I doubt that they were from there. P.S. they were also unpleaseant to be near.

SUNDAY

In the morning we got up around 10 am and made our way down to the Bazaar at Trestevere, which was in fact bazaar. There were some really cool things there, including an old school rotary-phone that was bright-barbie-pink, I would have bought it for the novelty but then I realized I would have had to bring it home and that was just not gonna happen. It was very, very crowded and seemed like most people had just cleaned out their attics and expected you to buy it. Used shoes, Old Pornography, massive amounts of batteries that may or may not have "fallen off the back of a truck" pretty much anything you can imagine. There were also new smells that I never thought could come out of the human body. Apparently to come to this thing you were not allowed to wear deodorant, I missed that memo. Aside from the 24 different flavors of B.O. that were to be found our poor friend Bridget had worn a jean skirt and was continually being felt up by guys. We tried to tell ourselves that they were pick-pockets but it's a sad occurance when the best you can hope for is theft. The Bus ride home was really packed, I stayed near the back and hung out with the old man who brought his dog on the bus. Then I rested.

Tonight we have fajitas and it's going to be delicious.

the end.

pictures!

this is just the first enstallment, i want to get them in before my computer dies.

http://chillicheesefries.deviantart.com/art/Forum-and-Church-64934931

http://chillicheesefries.deviantart.com/art/Marcus-Aurelius-64935070

http://chillicheesefries.deviantart.com/art/Rome-in-3-different-times-64935183

http://chillicheesefries.deviantart.com/art/pantheon-from-the-back-64935261

http://chillicheesefries.deviantart.com/art/m-aurelius-again-64935338

http://chillicheesefries.deviantart.com/art/lighting-64935379

http://chillicheesefries.deviantart.com/art/the-umbrellas-at-san-marcello-64935670

http://chillicheesefries.deviantart.com/art/the-umbrella-64935746

http://chillicheesefries.deviantart.com/art/riposa-blinds-64935817

http://chillicheesefries.deviantart.com/art/triumphal-arch-detail-64935916

the last one is from the triumphal arch of septimus severus and everytime i look at it i just think.. (from left to right)

"Hey guys, guys, what are you looking at?"
"I swear to god."
"Flavius, you're out of you're element."
"Flavius, just look somber and knowledgeable"

the rest will probably be on facebook
byeeeeeeeeeeeee

SO as of today I am done with my first week of classes, and why write this on a thursday you may ask yourself? Because I have no classes thursdays or fridays, which is a strange feeling. My mondays and wednesdays are packed so it's kind of an anti-climactic way to end a week. I guess it's TGIW now (take that respective restaurant chains). I'm going to go into town for a little bit and try and figure out my manual camera today, it's actually starting to make sense, though it took me about an hour to figure out how to change the aperture.

http://www.scphoto.com/assets/images/aperture.gif

The classes this week were interesting, what I think is going to be the two most challenging are the Photography class and the Drawing class. The Drawing class seems like it's going to be very interesting, we get our supplies and meet somewhere in Rome and then just draw for four hours. Our prof. seems to be really into a writer by the name of Harold Speed, who wrote mainly in the 1910's -1920's. His philosophies are a little restrained in some ways but he makes good points.

I'm also taking Mythology, which for me was a second choice, but seems like it should be interesting. If nothing else so I can know what the hell is going on in all these murals everywhere.

Hold on for: The Iteneraries of Contemporary European Architecture. Come for Gehry, the stay for the Leibskind.

http://myfourthirds.com/files/1139/Ddorf_Gehry_silver_up01.jpg <--- Gehry

http://www.yume.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2007/02/libeskind-berlinjewish.jpg <--- Leibskind

and last but certainly not least is Modes of Drama, the class in which I learn, I know nothing about theatre. We are currently going over Oedipus Rex ( the story of the original bad-ass mother- f***er). Fortunately my roomate Bridget has read most of the plays on our syllabus so when I come cying to her about "Waiting for Godot" she'll know what to do.

(I think a better play would have been "Leaving Messages for Godot" BEEP hey Godot, it's Vladamir, we're still at this train station, umm, you said you'd be here, like an hour ago. And this metephorical bush that keeps dying and comming back to life is freaking me out. Call me back, it's Vlad. BEEP Godot, hey, Vlad again....)

But as for right now, I think I'm going to go see if I can figure out how to do my Permessio, so they don't kick me out of the country.

La Notte Bianca was surreal. That's the extent of it, there were people everywhere and unlike earlier events in which there are a large number of foreigners, specifically of Americans, this was a night for the Italians. We all went together in a group, my roommates and I, and left the house around 9pm, the sun was just setting and because it is "la notte bianca" we assumed it began at night. The first museum we went to was a museum about capitol punishment in Rome, complete with actual skeletons, murder weapons, medieval torture devices and dioramas (the most deadly of all 'ramas). That was an interesting museum because up until this point, I had not witnessed anything truly violent about Italy, we had heard horror stories of course, but it seemed so unbelievably that a culture responsible for such breathtaking beauty could have a deadly side. After that we stumbled upon this breathtaking church that had some of the most beautiful wooden bossstones and some great, if not a little expected, frescoes. Eventually we made our way to the Capitoline Museum. There was a concert being set up in the middle of the piazza so after shoving and mi scusi's for about 15 min the whole group of eight people made it to the door, which turned out to be the exit. Another trip across the piazza, this time avoiding the old man with the cane who would yell at you when you got a little too close. We found the entrance and it is at this point of the story when tragedy strikes. The museum, like the street and the piazza, was completely packed. Doug, our friend had been lost to the bowels of the Capitoline Museum. We waited for ten min and then tried to find him, gave him up for dead and moved on. There was some great art, including the famous she-wolf statue with Remus(Lupin) and Romulus. When we left, the piazza had gotten even more crowded ( I did'nt think it was possible, but there you go )and to an obscure italian band singing "Goodbye Ruby Tuesday" we made our dramatic escape, over the barriers throught the woods ( there were trees, it counts) and to the magical land that is the roman bus system. As we departed, my heart was sad that we had had a casualty of the evening, but as we waited for the tram home, who should it be leaning against the wall as if he had'nt escaped from the clutches of a museum, but Doug. And lo, we rejoiced on the street corner and returned to our apartments, victorious, at 3 am.
The next day we went to the beach at San. Marcello and did nothing but relaxed on the beach to watch leathery middle-aged ladies bare-all in the sunlight. Man, these ladies let it all hang out, to almost epic proportions. Of course I now look like a horrible halfwoman-halflobster. But hopefully if i grow more tan, I'll be able to fit in with the sun-drenched city.
Now that classes have started maybe I can get a little more direction with my day and not be in crazy culture shock. I'm looking forward to it :D. Love and miss you all and GO TEAM VENTURE!

As the Romans do....

So we went on a walking tour of the down-townish area and got to see some really cool stuff. We first took the bus down to the Pantheon (not the Parthenon.) Ok, so not that i'm easily that star-chitecture struck but deeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaammmmmnnn. You see it on the cover of a bunch of art-history text books, but it was so different in person.

*You can skip this*

Now the Pantheon is important not only because it was an ancient temple to all the gods (rebuilt several times during the Roman empire, and then converted to a church by the Christians) but also because of it's structural dimentions. The diameter of the Pantheon dome was so wide that no other dome was as wide until the Huston Astrodome in the 1960's (which was demolished, so a point to the Romans). The only dome that came close was Bruneschelli's dome in Florence, about 1000 years after and just a few feet shorter. What else makes this dome so cool? I'll tell you, the section cut of the dome is a perfect circle, so the inverted top of the dome would just barely touch the floor.

http://www.faculty.sbc.edu/wassell/ArchMath/Unit4/thumbnails/PantheonSectionA.jpg

This building most famous feature is the Oculus, which is directly in the center of the top. It was originally designed to hit each statue at a different time of the year, on a specific time of day. I'm not sure if it had anything to do with the placements of the gods, and the times of the year. (Dom or Melanie if you're reading this, help a sister out) Also there are several famous people burried here including Raphael (the artist not the turtle)and the first two kings of unified Italy. Raphael's epitaph was very beautiful: roughly translated it said

"This is Raphael whom in life Mother Nature feared defeat; And in whose death did fear to die"

But on an artistic scale the building breathes with the slow pulse of antiquity and an indescribable air of unreachable goals, but the desire to strive for them regarless of your victory. (neeeeeeeeeerd)

*you may return to your regularly scheduled livejournal*

Then we went to the Church of Santa Maria (directly behind the Pantheon and directly adjacent to the room in which Galileo was tried in the roman inquistion).

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/88/Galileo_facing_the_Roman_Inquisition.jpg

Santa Maria had some really beautiful mosaics which you could'nt entirely see because of how dark it was on the inside, but I suppose that whole phenomenon of jewels in the darkness was what they were going for. Then onto the Forum, just passing the Capitoline Museum (right next to where the mayor of Rome works, also you can get married there, we passed by a wedding party). We walked around the forum and saw all the ancient what-nots. I was especially blown away by the triumphal arches of Septimius Severus (Snape) and Titus. Titus' arch was a depiction of the sacking of Jerusalem, i'm not sure what Severus' depicted. (Again, Dom and/or Melanie) I also liked the temple of Romulus. We took a few pictures of the Colosseum, but they make you pay to get in and it was starting to rain so we walked back to the bus.

I took many pictures of this adventure, but my computer won't let me transfer them over, so i think i'm going to have to eventualy get my future photography professor to help me out so check back.

Tonight is a festival called "La notte bianca" or "the white night" which is when all the Museums are free and open all night, so we're heading back to the Capitoline Museum and the Colosseum also a couple other ones. We thought of doing the Vatican, but that's the kind of thing that's an all-day affair, plus I don't want to wake the pope up, he probably has a big day tomorrow, being sunday and all.

Classes start Monday and i'll let you know everything from there on!

:D