camminare su cheetas

so, it has been awhile.... in the time when i have not written all the wonderful things i do with my life, ive been drowning in flash floods.

just kidding! but i did nearly cut my thumb off. gushing blood for an hour really put me behind in my book arts. and three days later my thumb is still this:

better than cutting my thumb off, i journeyed to san jimmyjohns, volterra, and just spent a whole saturday in cortona being unproductive. but it was one of the best days yet :) we spent hours in a coffee shop on our "go down the hill for 20 minutes" break. followed a few minutes later by an overall giving up for the day. last week was also overrun by fog clouds! you could barely see the first row of trees over our mountain. it was so dense it looked like we could jump off the mountain and land in a soft world of fluffy clouds. it was crazy. and beautiful..

we also had a halloween party. which made me feel better about missing halloween... and instead it ended up being one of the most fun ones yet! everyone dressed up... and on a budget, in a country that has celebrated halloween only for a short time, we as art students did a pretty good job. jesus showed up, and so did bill cosby, lady gaga, a mini roman soldier, michelangelo, and a creepy madonna and child. i myself, was a zombie bride- that smelled like a thrift store. we got a really good dinner with WINE FOR EVERYONE, followed by a dance party, and a trip to the local bar. since it was a few days early, and halloween is fairly new to italians, we got some weird looks, but it was all worth it to experience another night of 'creepy-vest-guy!'

(Marco as Lady Gaga)

out "mostra" (show) is this weekend, and then we only have one week left in the wonderful cortona. i am not looking forward to coming home, but i guess it means i get to snuggle with a kitty again- which with certain frustrations, is an actual strong desire here and there and i have yet to capture one of the four hundred wondering wild through out the town.

Vorrei Formaggio

The biggest news lately is two fold...
Uno: I found a RED wine that I like! This past weekend we went to Montejasdlkfjasodjf. Which is well known for its wines. It has this wine called "Nobile" that was for the Nobles, who would come there to get away from the bustling Rome life. And so for lunch we obviously got a white and red wine for the table. While there was a 250 euro bottle, we resisted and settled for a 7 euro 0,5 liter of each. And even for 7 euros.. it was the best wine! even the red! And of course we had to follow up lunch with a taste of a wine bar. Where I got a glass of white, but tasted this famous Nobile wine which are red...and even better than the 7 euro red wine!

Due: A bird flew into the ceramics room. And I was like "oh bird!" and my friend and I observed it, commenting on its beauty. Then I guess he got overwhelmed with the attention and decided it was time to depart. However, there are glass doors in ceramics, and the bird did not quite make it through the open one. I watched him fall to the ground and I turned to my friend and was like, "I think he just died..." she did not see the accident and was confused until we went over and there he was...twitching on the ground. In a panic we tried to help the little guy make it through. But alas, while he was quite the fighter, and we were trying our best, he didn't quite make it. We both felt he needed a proper burial. One, because we both were sad to see a bird dye in our arms, and two, because there are a lot of stray cats here and we did not want him to be ripped apart by the scavangers. So he is now resting in peace with a leaf bed and pumpkin seed up on the sculpture terrace.

Sfumato

phew, art history mid term is over! so now, i can finally write down my experiences. such as my day as a model! i got a hair cut, style, and dye, along with lunch and transportation to arezzo for free!! a cute photographer video taped us, while a large group of italians observed us, and then we got professional pictures taken. which will now be displayed somewhere in the hair salon in cortona. when i returned to campus everyone raved about our hair cuts and when we said "oh you can do it next monday! they want several people!" everyone said "...no..." that in combination of me overly excitedly saying "BYE STEFANO" at the bar a few days later, he probably hates us.

we also got to visit arezzo with the program and experience a wonderful antique fair! i once again saw several vendors selling the same plates and bowls as we have at our house. and we finally got a saturday to stay in cortona. which turns out, has a market on saturdays! we did a scavenger hunt and then stomped some grapes for wine.

oh, and in 4 days, i ate a whole box on honey nut cheerios on my own. no big deal.

macellaia

Remember when I was studying in Italy? Yeah, I should probably work on the "studying" aspect. It seems that there is a midterm for art history on Wednesday. Wonderful Friday night in Cortona spent making a study guide. Don't worry, as my typical "work under pressure" procrastinator, I won't actually use this study guide until about Monday. It is just unfortunate that I was making a box until 2am last night and am napless today. But here is a nice drawing for "y'all:"

why yes, this only took me a few hours!

La lettera C è la più soggetta al tradimento - cugino, cognato, e compare

(Le Cella)

So in the Franciscan church the friars and what not take a vow of obedience, chastity, and poverty. But the interesting thing about that is, that in these monasteries (such as Le Cella) and churches that were built solely on donations, and gathered (or still do gather) people also following the same vows as hundreds of years ago... there are... GIFT SHOPS! not, "take a postcard, we accept donations" but real, "buy this overpriced book" gift shops. Any church with a gift shop really throws me off, but these Franciscan churches just seem overly ironic, and somewhat hypocritical.

But the Cathedral of St. Francis in Assisi was beautiful. And in more importantly, the chocolate in Perguia was delicious!

To be honest, outside of walking up and down mountains, drawing, and eating, I'm not really sure what I've been doing here!? I did make 12 drinking vessels, that I was told were very good. I guess "something clicked" in ceramics according to Thomas. I've also eaten a lot of gelato. But what is a girl suppose to do when Tuesday and Thursdays they give us FRUIT for dessert? Unacceptable. Those are our designated gelato days. Yesterday the power went off several times. One time I was in a restaurant and the entire city went out..it was the darkest I have ever been. Sadly, it meant the Italian "Minute to Win it" also went out.

But to leave you with a proverb by Walker.... "a stitch in time, saves two in the bush"

Lui sta per pagare

Some good news bears, and some bad news bears...

Good news bears: When I was on my four hour walk, I forgot to mention that a woman and child stopped and watched me for a good 15 minutes. A few minutes later, the woman returned and watched me again. She told me "BRAVO!" and "MOLTO BENE!" and "BELLISIMO!" followed by... "MAMMA MIA!" hahaha, yeah that happened for real... someone used "mamma mia." Second good news bears, I successfully ordered in Italian! Granted, it was literally 30min after the lesson on "how to order things in italian." But still, at first I was a struggle but I redeemed myself in the end. The waiter even shook my hand! 

Bad news bear: I drew some mountains while standing by the ledge of our mountain. The drawing blew away when I was nearly finished. No, it did not just blow down the street so I could chase it...It legit blew OFF the ledge... My drawing that replaced it... not so good. Thankfully, I am good with inks I guess! So I got one good drawing from today. This is about where I lost my drawing...

io non prendo niente per ora

I went for a four hour walk. Which ended up with this...

...but also a lesson in wearing sunblock when walking around for four hours on top of a mountain!

However, it resulted in this view...

yeah, pretty sure that is my campus?

And i created this...

...i dont know why this is sideways.

Overall, awesome day :)