Weeks 5 and 6

I am starting to get really behind with this stuff so bear with me. I am doing my best to at least post pictures on my Facebook page. Hopefully this will be sufficient for the next day or so until I can post about last weekend when I went to cinque terre.

Week 5
Monday 9-24:

After getting back from Oktoberfest, I found myself feeling really homesick. Mostly because I was thinking that though the trip was really fun, it would have been even more fun with my family and people that I know really well. For the most part, even the other students from ISU are still acquaintances, I get along with them but I don’t really feel like I know them or that they know me very well. It is similar to traveling with strangers and I am so used to traveling with my sisters or my entire family that I don’t like traveling with “strangers”.

Another factor to my extreme homesickness was stress. I was really exhausted from the trip and I still had a lot of homework to do for the week. So I was tired, stressed and homesick. After I went to class I was much better, I think I just needed to get out and do something but I had so much to do that I didn’t get a chance to earlier in the day. I got back from class and continued to work on homework before going to bed early.

Tuesday 9-25:

In Italian Cuisine class today; we made two different types of pasta. One was dry pasta, which is the light colored one with the cheese on top (goat cheese by the way). The other is hand made spinach pasta; we rolled it and cut it to put into a soup. I personally liked the dry pasta better but that was just because our soup lacked flavor and by the time it was done we had very little time to eat it so it was really hot while trying to eat it.

Below are some pictures:



In publishing design we turned in our posters. It had to be two sided and be about the famous speech that Steve Jobs gave to the graduating class at Stanford. I wasn’t really happy with my poster but I was gone all weekend and didn’t really have a lot of time to work on it. It is a decent poster still but I know I could do better. We also got our next assignment, which is to make a typographic poster using a quote.

Here is a picture of my two-sided poster:

In pairing food and wine class we went on a field trip to a local wine and Panini shop. We met the owner of the store whose name is Pino. He gave us free samples of two of his sandwiches and gave our class two full bottles of wine to sample. The wine was a really good pairing with the Panini and both Panini tasted great. After we ate, we went a couple of blocks to Pino’s wine shop/cellar. It is in a historic building that used to be attached to the prison. Here Pino had a wide collection of cheap and expensive wines, some of which are hundreds of years old. When we left the shop Pino gave us all discount cards so we could get a student discount on wine. It was really fun visiting his shop.

After this we went back to class and made a few different types of bruscheta. I did such a great job cutting the bread that my teacher had me cut up two loaves for our bread salad. I spent the whole time cutting, taking occasional breaks to eat the food which was perfectly fine for me.

Here are some pictures:



Wednesday 9-26:

In professional blog design class I admittedly didn’t do so well. I only managed to make one post (since I was gone during the weekend) so I only got 7 page views. I didn’t think that was too bad but that was before I saw that two of my classmates had a hundred or more. :O. Basically we worked on logo types and making our blogs look better…I think I am finally getting the hang of it now but It will take a lot of work.

Here is the link to my blog for class:

After Blog design I went to Italian then came home for dinner and a nice evening at home.

Thursday 9-27:

I basically just went about my normal Thursday routine…cleaned, went to the market, did laundry, and homework. In the evening I made a meat loaf for our “apartment family dinner”. It was pretty good considering the only experience I have with making a meat loaf is watching my mom make one. We had meatloaf, carrots, mashed potatoes, and rolls, it was a very home-style meal and it really seemed to hit the spot.

Here are some pictures:



Friday 9-28:

CINQUE TERRE...see specific post (soon to come).

Saturday 9-29:

This will be included with Cinque Terre, there was a parade!(soon to come)

Sunday 9-30:

This was a day of some well needed R&R. Catherine and I went to church in the morning then spent the rest of the day working on homework and getting some stuff done. It Thunder stormed for the first time here and I loved it, even though we don't get that many storms at home, it was kind of nice to have something so familiar as a thunder storm happening right outside.

Week 6:
Monday 10-1:

Happy first of October everyone! I am excited for the fall season to start up though it doesn't quite feel like home here in Florence. It is about 60 or 70 degrees and there aren't really any trees for me to watch the leaves change. It was pretty cloudy this day so I spent most of the day indoors. I worked on some homework in the morning then went to the photography studio with Catherine in the afternoon. I took some pictures of the photo shoot, some of them turned out kind of blurry because it was dark so the shutter speed was long. Plus they didn't know I was taking pictures so they kept on moving. I will have to see if I can get some of the pictures from Catherine so you can see what a great photographer she is.

Here are my pictures from the photo shoot:



Tuesday 10-2:

In Italian Cuisine class, we made a few different things, we made Foccacine ai porri,Cialdine con mortadella e mele (this was like a cookie with apple), and Triangoli di pasta fill al pollo (these are the chicken wrap things). All of the food was so delicious but we were late finishing it so we didn't get a lot of time to enjoy it. My favorite thing was the Cialdine con mortafella e mele, like I said, it was like a pistachio cookie served with apple and it was so good my stomach is growling right now.

Here are some pictures:



In publishing Design, I turned in my typographic posters. I made two, one that I liked the content more and one that I liked the symbolism more. My posters were much better this time since I had a little bit longer to work on them. I also had to make a logotype so I made a couple of different versions, the one I ended up making digitally is "the bleeding art". For those of you who aren't familiar with the term, a bleed is a graphics term click here for the definition.

Here are the posters I handed in:

In pairing food and wine class, I was in the group to taste and evaluate the wine while the other group made food. They made fried ham and cheese sandwiches and also a pasta I think. It was really delicious. This week we studied sparkling wine (champaign) so we got to try a few different types of that.

Wednesday 10-3

Wednesday I didn't really do much other then go to classes (not that I can remember anyways). Blog design was a little more successful but I think I will still have to step up my game a little bit to get more views. I will be trying to advertise it a little bit more so that I can get more views, but I also need to create more posts.
Here is the link to my blog for class...again

Thursday 10-4

After class, Catherine and I decided to go get something to eat, and then check out the local Oktoberfest celebration here in Florence. Catherine ordered a pesto gnocci and I had chicken and vegetables. The food was really good and not to expensive. After we left the restaurant at about 10, we headed to the Ponte Vecchio to check out the Oktoberfest. When we were walking to the bridge, we met a group of Swiss high school students who were partying on the street. We talked to them for a little bit then they offered us a shot of jegermeister, so we took a shot with them. We met up with some of their class mates and walked around with them for about an hour or so, talking about differences between America, Switzerland, and Italy. Also talking about some basic introductory things like year in school ect. Cat and I both had a really fun time and thought we should go out a little more often.

We took some pictures, see below...



Friday 10-5

Catherine, Brianne and I went to a farm/vineyard visit on the outskirts of Florence that was provided through the school so it was free. We got a tour of the area and learned about how they make olive oil, wine, and about their cured meats. The scenery was beautiful and the weather was really nice. After the tour we got to participate in a tasting. We had bread with olive oil, some cured meats, and tried four different types of wines. The vineyard we were at specialized in Chianti wine which is a really famous type of wine in this area. All of the wines were really good but Catherine and I decided to get the desert wine that we were served at the end. We got a bottle of wine, and a jar of their home-made honey which was delicious.

Here are some pictures from the farm...



After the Farm we came back to the apartment and waited a little bit until we were supposed to meet Mario for dinner. Mario is an old man who has been working in the same camera shop since the 40's. He has lots of interesting stories about how he was here when Hitler spoke at the Duomo during the world war, and how he lived through the great flood in the sixties. It was really interesting learning about it from someone who was here.

We went to dinner at a self service place not far from his shop. The food was really good and Mario payed for the whole thing. It was really nice. After dinner we went and saw where mario lived and showed him how to use his computer a little better. When it was time to leave, Mario took us back to the center and we headed back to our apartment.

Here are some pictures of Friday evening...



Cinque Terre, The Parade, and my trip to the Tuscan Country side will be posted soon...hopefully. Until then, enjoy the last two weeks.