Week one of classes is over and done with. Sadly I don’t
have any pictures to share with you, but I have plenty to tell. Where to
start…well we left off on Sunday I think so I will start with Monday.
Monday:
9a.m-12:40am- Florence Sketchbook
I woke up for my 9 am class at 8:10 in the morning so I was
a little bit flustered, as I got dressed and ready to go. I left the apartment
at 8:50 and thought for sure I was going to be late to my first class, turns
out that my class was just around the corner a few blocks away so it only took
me 5 minutes to get there. I made it on time, and was told that we were to take
an assessment test and that the models would be in the room soon. “What?!” I
thought…I didn’t know there would be an assessment, or models or any of this,
but I did as I was told.
When the models arrived (clothed
for those of you thinking otherwise), we were instructed to sketch them,
loosely at first then adding more detail, as we got farther along. Now a little
bit of background about me…I have taken one 2 drawing classes in my entire life
and one of them was in high school. I am not horrible at drawing, but I am by
no means a Picasso. I can do well if I have time to make my drawing look nice
but I am not very good at quickly sketching, especially people. Needles to say,
by the time we were done and met with the teacher I was feeling a little
overwhelmed and out of place. Not only were there only like 8 people total in
the class, they all seemed to be at intermediate to advanced drawing level
where I am still obviously in a basic to intermediate level.
Anyways, this is halfway through
the class and I am highly considering dropping/switching the course to
something different. My teacher, very nicely suggested that an intermediate
drawing class (something a little more studio based) might be a better fit for
my skills. I agreed with her and though she said I passed my assessment, I went
strait to my apartment to email my advisor. I met with my advisor and was given a list of other possible
courses.
1:30-2:45p.m. Italian 101
After all of this, I was off to my
Italian class. This is the farthest building away from my apartment, but is
still only about a 10-minute walk. I had some trouble finding it at first
because instead of a specific street address, it is a piazza, which is
basically an entire building. I had been there before for our orientation
meeting but didn’t know where the actual room number was. After wandering for a
little bit I finally found it (poorly labeled and hidden behind construction equipment).
It was on the fourth floor, there is an elevator, but in Italy typically
elevators are meant only for disabled people not lazy people. So I took the
stairs…It wasn’t so bad, though the stairway was poorly lit and hard to see,
one other observation I have of Italy is that the stairs here are not as steep
as some of our stair cases in America, they are typically shallower and more
narrow but not steep. So, I made it to my class about 20 minutes early and
passed the time until class began.
Class went fine, learned a few phrases but mostly it was pretty average,
nothing super special to report on.
Tuesday:
12-2:30p.m Current Trends in Italian
Cuisine
I went into this class with very little expectations; mostly
I thought we would be learning to make simple Italian dishes such as bruschetta.
I was completely incorrect; some of you may have noticed that I enjoyed this
class based on my facebook status the other day. After basic introductions, the
teacher says “this class is not to teach you how to make things like
bruschetta, or tiramisu, those are too easy” immediately everyone in the class
kind of gaped at her in disbelief…”easy?! What?”. Basically, this class is
going to be nothing but nutritional, fresh, and delicious meals with extra
focus on presentation.
We
went over the syllabus and the dishes we will make over the semester (my mouth
was watering the entire time), and then we went to the local market place. This
was my first time there and it was amazing. It is a huge fresh/farmers market
where you can get anything such as fresh hand made pasta, fish, meat, produce,
bread, and wine. The teacher took us to a few different booths and explained a
little bit about the local produce and what to look for when buying it. I took
several pages of notes, probably misspelling every other word, but it was fast
passed and I had to keep up. When we stopped at the bakery, (this place was
very crowded all morning, it appears to get a lot of business on a regular
basis) the nice young lady behind the counter gave us free samples of a local
dish, it was a special kind of bread with a pesto sauce and it was delicious!
We
went through a few other booths then went to the fish market last. Everything
looked so fresh and delicious my stomach was growling. It was just past closing
time and the nice young man at the fish market gave us a plate of various fried
fish to try, I had a piece of shrimp and a piece of calamari…I don’t usually
like calamari, but both it and the shrimp were so delicious, my mouth is
watering as I am typing this. I will definitely have to go back and get a
fishplate for lunch sometime.
3-5:30pm Publishing
Design
This
was my first graphic design class. It is an upper level class so I had to take
an assessment again. The assessment was a packet with some basic questions like
when to use vector or raster images ect. Then it had a picture of a simple girl
illustration and our task was to re-create or use the same elements as the
image. I re-created the girl with ease, I know my way around adobe illustrator
like it is the back of my hand (even so, I am sure I only know about 20% of
what it can actually do). I think I intimidated the girl sitting next to me (by
accident), she looked over at my screen and saw that I was finished and talked
to the teacher about taking a lower level course. I felt bad because that is
exactly how I felt with my Florence Sketchbook class and it is not a good
feeling. Anyways, I finished, and turned it in. When I got up to turn in the packet, the teacher looked at
my work and said “very good…since it is the first day I don’t have anything
else so you are free to go.” Needless to say I passed the assessment with
flying colors. I was the first one finished and got out of my class at 5pm, 30
minutes early. I used that time to go back to the apartment and cook some
dinner/lunch.
6-8:30pm Current
Trends in Italian Culture: Pairing Food and Wine
I walked into this class and I already
knew two people, one from ISU, and the other was a girl named Ashley who was in
my Florence sketchbook class. Then the teacher came in and we did
introductions, the teacher was funny and seems like a nice guy, I think he will
be a very entertaining teacher, as if the subject wasn’t interesting enough. We
started by going over the syllabus and went over some basics on how to “taste”
and examine wine. We started with a white wine (a rather strong one at that, it
was like 30%) I enjoyed this wine, it was strong yes, but it was sweet and
smelled and tasted of apples.
After
a little more discussion, we started to cook. We made Spaghetti alla Carbonara,
basically, we each had a different job in making the food. I was in charge of
sautéing the bacon with some garlic for added flavor. Others were in charger of
beating eggs, others were in charge of grating cheese, and others were in
charger of the pasta. Basically, what we did was once the pasta and bacon were
cooked, we used the egg and the cheese to make the sauce. It was creamy,
cheesy, and delicious, we paired it with a strong red wine. The red wine was
good but the white wine was better and would have been a better fit with the
spaghetti. I think this class is going to be really fun.
Wednesday
11am
Permit of stay
This is when I took my forms to the school to file for the
permit of stay, a very important step in my stay here. I should know in a
couple of weeks when to pick it up or what the next things I need to do. After
this, I went to my advisor to pick up my revised schedule…after a couple of
meetings and the final decision as to what class to switch to, I finally got a
new schedule figured out.
New Schedule
12-2:30pm
Professional Blog Design
This is the class that I switched to in place of my Florence
Sketchbook class. I got there about 10 minutes early to find that the teacher
is late, the schedule on his door said 12:30 where all of the other schedules
say 12. After arriving a little late, the teacher opens the door for us. There
are 5 students total and all of them are part of some certificate program or
something so they have been at LdM for more than a semester and have all been
in classes together. Needless to say, everyone else, the other four students
and the teacher, know each other, so I am the only one no one really knows
anything about. That’s not to bad though; it is the same teacher I have for my
Publishing Design so he saw that I was good at illustrator in the previous
class.
As
he was going through the syllabus, he was talking about the assessment that we
had to do for the course and said “it should be easy, I know all of you can do
it, the only one I don’t know for sure is Mary, and I saw her speed through the
assessment yesterday so I’m not to worried” that was reassuring…sort of. I
think that I should be able to keep up in the class though it is hard to tell after
the first day. All in all the course sounds like it will be a lot of fun, and
even though I feel a little out of place now, I am sure that will change.
6-7:15pm Italian 101
That’s
right, since my classes changed I had a conflict with my previous Italian class
so now I have Italian at 6pm. It isn’t so bad, the teacher was very helpful in
getting me caught up and two of the girls in that class are also in my Pairing
food and wine class. Looks like it’s going to be an interesting couple of
months. I can’t wait.
One thing that I have also noticed about
the market and several Italians in general, is how very nice they are. I have
seen two instances where there is either a shortage of money for an item or a
credit card issue and the owners use an honor system where they basically say
“you can bring back the money you owe tomorrow”. Not only is this very
trusting, it is also kind…I only hope that the Americans they are being
trusting to bring back the money honor their trust. I also notice this kindness
with my teachers; they are very polite and understanding of our adjustment to
their culture. They are very hospitable and always eager to answer questions
even if they don’t have to do with class. I think that the longer I stay here,
the more I will enjoy it and the wonderful people.
Thursday
I
woke up at 11am (stayed up late Wednesday night because I knew I didn’t have
class). After showering and eating breakfast, I went out to run some errands. I
needed to pick up a text book for both of my cooking classes, and I needed to
pick up a couple of things for publishing design, not to mentions some various
other things I needed to pick up. I got a little lost but was eventually able
to find my way to the two different copy shops that sold the books. Here,
instead of a textbook it is more like a compilation of readings and articles
that the teacher has printed and bound for students. It was only 15 euro for
one book and 20 for the other, maybe American universities should do this also,
sure the books don’t look as nice, but I don’t have to pay 150$ for a book I
will use 4 times throughout the semester. Seems like a good system to me.
After
getting my books, I stopped by the art supply store to pick up a sketchbook and
some pencils for publishing design. Then I stopped by the shop down the street and picked up a
bag to carry my books in, some folders, postcards and a couple of other various
supplies.
I
took the stuff back to the apartment then went down stairs and bought some meat,
a liter of coke, and some cheese slices, then brought it home and made cheese
burgers. They were delicious, I had been graving meat a little bit since I have
been eating mostly pasta, I haven’t really bought any meat except for
yesterday.
After
lunch I did dishes, swept the hallway, my room, the bathroom, and the kitchen.
Then I wiped down the bathroom sink and counters, and did the same with the
kitchen…All of this while my laundry was in the washer, so it was a rather
productive day. I didn’t really
work on much homework, but it will get done.
Thursday
night, Cat and I walked around a little bit and bought chicken Panini’s for
dinner, we stopped on our way back and bought a bottle of Chianti red wine. We
ate in the living room and decided to flip through some channels on the T.V.
the only ones not in Italian were music stations. They had a lot of eighties
re-runs like the Cosby show on, they were in Italian so it just wasn’t the
same. We ate, drank wine, and just had a good time until about 12:30am. Then we
got ready for bed, I talked to my parents on FaceTime, then went to bed.
Friday:
This
is a day scheduled for homework. I have a lot to do this weekend, but I will be
gone on a weekend trip to Pompeii, Capri, and Sorrento, so I have to get all of
my work done now. I will probably also go get some groceries sometime today, or
at least something to eat for lunch and dinner. Other than that, there really
isn’t much planned. If I end up
doing anything fun and exciting today, I will include it in my post about the
weekend travels. Caio!
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