SWade from Italy

Villa Picture

2007-05-01T07:33:00.000-07:00

The traditional end of the year Villa Picture...

Pompidou Center (this is out of order, but it was a very special favor...this building is actually in Paris, France)

2007-04-20T14:41:00.000-07:00

The inside out building...all of the structure of this museum/gallery is built on the outside skin of the Pompidou building, and it's all functional and (as I've been told) it allows for "flexive spaces."

These giant tuby things were across the plaza...I don't know if they were just for decoration or if they're functional ooooor what.

The reception area.

The gift shop and gallery area.

Escalator going up to the gallery spaces...located outside the building.

The main gallery space...

The museum did have some really cool exhibits...this one was a little "room" that the artist made and it was interactive for the guests...

Some of the stuff was really strange...I have no idea what this mess is, I guess you can just hang crap all over the place and call it art.

A kinda cool wall covered with really colorful art works...

A giant "airplane" hovering within the gallery...

...and it had hundreds of scissors stuck in it...I don't know, I guess it's open for personal interpretation...

aaaah yes, the masterpiece and highlight of the exhibit...a minimalist painting series (no you're not missing anything, there is really NOTHING painted on these canvases).

Come on guys, we can do better than this...they could have at least put it on a red wall or something for some contrast

A piano in a room which I guess is designed to absorb the sound

Really the gallery was pretty cool, even if some of the stuff was pretty far out there. I can't say it wasn't interesting. This artist was completing an unfinished series in the gallery...I guess he was part of the exhibit too.

oh man, the giant red rhinoceros..."if you can't make it good, make it move; if you can't make it move, make it glow; if you can't make it glow, make it fly; if you can't make, it fly paint it red..." (designers' anthem...it's a joke, but I think it applies here)

Matisse

A room full of Picasso...

Picasso...

...aaaand another Picasso.

Spring Break: LONDON

2007-04-20T04:14:00.000-07:00

YAY LONDON!!! It was soooo nice to hear English again...even if it was a strange and snooty version of English that actually took some time to get used to so that we could understand it. But being in London was almost almost like being home again...

They had actual hearty meals again...(even though they call them "patsies" which I thought very strange...these people run around saying "I want a patsy" why not say "meat pie" it sounds so much less retarded than "patsy") This was a cottage pie with a meat and vegetable gravy with mashed potatoes and cheese on top. yumMY!

and Starbucks... (there were Starbucks on literally every corner, sometimes there were more than one on a block...it was crazy)

...they even had a waffle house!!! (although they clearly do not have the right idea because the place was clean and not at all sketchy...we were very disappointed).

But England was very lovely, it was actually really really clean...I'd always envisioned a smoggy soot filled city (probably an impression I've gotten from history classes where they talk about England in the industrial revolution or something). But compared to Italy England was immaculate, and there were no beggars camping out everywhere and pestering you pitifully on the streets.

We stayed on a street that looked very similar to this one (streets like this were everywhere). Rows and rows of the same house repeated over and over again in the same color and everything. But it was really very pretty.

Our shady hostel room...we were in a five person mixed bedroom (mixed meaning boys and girls). SOOOO SKETCHY (excuse me "dodgy"...those Brits have got some straaaange words). We were kinda (ok really) nervous the first night there...

...so we shoved this closet-like thing in front of the door. The thing probably weighed like maybe a pound because it was made of some sort of foam-core material but we figured it would make some noise or something if someone was trying to break in.

They had some pretty cool buildings, though... this was their city hall.

The London Tower bridge

holy CRAP these people stunk! I was seriously gagging...

Probably why the streets were so clean...this guy was vacuuming up bits of trash on the street.

The Peter Pan statue...the story on the tour bus said that Mr. Barrie (creator of Peter Pan) had the statue made and then placed in Hyde Park in the middle of the night so that children who walked through the park on their way to school saw the statue the next morning and thought that it appeared magically.

HAHAHA...this was a hippie peace rally or something. These people had been here for so long they had killed the grass with their tents. Anyways, it made me laugh...

Westminster...this place was not what I was expecting. We've been visiting churches all semester but this was without a doubt the most cluttered place I've been in yet. If you think about how many famous kings, queen, scientists, poets, and writers are supposed to be buried there...well they're all really there. There were sarcophagus and coffins and statues and plaques everywhere...I mean EVERYWHERE. I don't see how they even know who all is buried there...there are bodies in the floors, in the walls, in marble tombs in chapels, and in the hallways...it was crazy! Quite literally a cache of tombs. I guess I was expecting to see a large graveyard (especially considering how many people I've heard are buried there) but they're all inside the church!

British taxies

British guards (it's quite odd to see cops walking around with these massive machine guns...a little unnerving too. But they do this all over Europe.)

London had lots of cool pubs and bars and stores with these strange names...

"bag o' nails" (whaaaat?)

"the high and mighty" (oh puleeeese!)

the Globe theatre...

Buckingham Palace and the changing of the guards...really not the spectacle I was expecting. They had all these weapons and they didn't twirl or throw any of them! They just marched in and played some songs and not even good songs either...they opened with "that's the way (uh-huh uh-huh) I like it." From what I hear, I think the Citadel cadets could take them on any day. AND you know how you always see these pictures of people trying to get the guards to move and stuff, well you can't even do that because they keep their little soldiers locked away behind those big gates the whole time...very disappointing.

The grounds were really beautiful, though.

Oh la la...the Ritz, baby!!!

Riding around on the Big Bus tour...it was a really good way to see the city.

The RE Swiss building (or St. Mary's Cross)...it took us forever to actually find this thing...we kept seeing glimpses of it in gaps of the skyline and reflected on other buildings but we really could not find the actual building (well obviously we did eventually find it, but it was very frustrating).

Yay for Spring!!!

The House of Parliament and Big Ben.

Big ol' Ben

Hyde park and "Speaker's corner." Apparently speaker's corner is where you can go to just rant about whatever you want and the crowd is encourage (actually expected) to heckle the speakers. Sounds like a good time...we saw this crowd and planned to come back when we had more time to watch what was going on but the next day we found out that they only do it on Sundays and "Bank holidays" so we didn't get a chance to check it out.

All the tons of chimneys on the tops of the buildings...apparantly each room in the house used to have a fireplace and a flue, hence the smog that I was expecting. However, most of these chimneys are not used now and so the pollution is not nearly as bad as it was.

Message in a Bottle

2007-04-20T03:35:00.000-07:00

Like I said, you can find all sorts of things floating in the canals of Venice...one one of our tours we passed by a bottle with what appeared to be a message in it floating a ways out. BUT when we passed back by, it was a lot closer...

So of course... we had. to. have it!

Being architects, and therefore very creative and sometimes ingenious, we used Mark's portable tripod to fish it out of the water...we were gathering some spectators who undoubtedly thought we were retarded and it took us forever to get it out and of course everyone was hollering directions and trying to tell Mark the best technique in retrieving the bottle.

But finally we got it out and all was well. The message was something really stupid (of course) so we wrote our own message and threw it back. It was a very exciting highlight to the trip.

Some St. Patty's Day Fun

2007-04-19T15:33:00.000-07:00

Soooo the night before St. Patty's, which we spent in Venice, some people went out and found this bar were if you buy two Guinness you get this really really cool hat. Of course they got one and brought it out the next night on St. Patty's and of course everyone just had to try it on, myself included. While I had the hat on, someone said "SWade looks like Slash." So I have no idea who slash is but if they say I look like him, sure why not. So they make me pull all my hair forward and put the hat on again and take all these pictures...

When I get back to the villa I Google this "Slash" and was shocked to find that yes indeed with the hat and the hair, I do unfortunately resemble this character quite remarkably.

Venice

2007-04-19T03:13:00.000-07:00

Shopping...

Venice is know for it's production of glass...especially blown glass. So of course they had some really nice and really cool glass platters, glasses, cups, etc.

these glasses were my favorite...too cute!!!

there were also some vases...I didn't like them as much as the other things but they were everywhere so I thought I would include them just in case...

They also had street artists everywhere. You could buy these oil paintings that were just on like a watercolor paper or you could get a black and white drawing of the city. Inside the actual gallery shops were more paintings that were actually on a stretched canvas instead of paper...those were often framed and obviously more expensive.
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Beautiful Venice...

It was a bit hazy but not in a smoggy sort of way, more of a mist that faded out the distance. And the water was gorgeous (even though it's supposed to be toxically disgusting...a professor was honeymooning in Venice, got off the train and looked at the Grande Canal for the first time and saw a dead pig just bobbing along...you never know what you can find in these waters). You know college kids love to do crazy things and we probably would have ended up jumping in at some point in the trip but we were very strongly (and effectively) discouraged with stories of last semester's students who jumped into the canals and became horribly sick...yikes.

As you would expect, there were gondolas everywhere and we actually got to ride in one one day...we were all excited and getting all wound up and we get in the little boat and we're riding away and then like 2 minutes later (after we had crossed the canal) we docked and had to get off...quite a tease. But apparently there are only 3 bridges that cross the Grande Canal and so a quick and cheap way to get to the other side is to pay like 50cents to ride in a gondola across.

see...I am definitely waaaaaay too excited.

And there were restaurants that had out-door dining on the canal and little accordion players ...so Italian.

and of course you've hear that Venice is sinking...

well it really is...a lot of the stairs leading up to the doors of houses are under the water (as you can see). We actually heard something about some possible deal with Walt Disney. Something like Disney wants to buy the city and the city is considering it because Disney is so good at handling large crowds and they could market the city and raise more money which could be used to help restore and preserve the place.

A Palladian church...they were everywhere and they all look the same.

On the island of Murino there was a glass museum where they displayed the history of glass making and glass blowing in Venice. These were some reeeeeally old pieces...

and a little bit of stuff from the 17th century...

and some really cool modern stuff like this octopus by Carlos Scarpa (who is also an architect). There is actually a larger (actually HUGE) octopus that he designed which is held in the gardens of this museum but the gardens were closed so this is all we got. But I really liked this little octopus...you have to remember, too, that this was hand made!

This was just a really pretty more medieval church that I don't even remember the name of...it was just picturesque...

A delightfully cluttered bookstore...I'm definitely a literary person because little stores like this just make me happy...we poked around and found everything from cook books to architecture and fashion to novels to romance novels and ancient leather bound copies of The Canterbury Tales to some pretty explicit... ummm... material...lol. Anyways it was fun to just poke around in here.

We went up into the tower of one of the churches and got to see the whole city...we were up in the bell tower, and we about shat ourselves when the thing actually went off...I mean, we were practically inside the stupid bell when it rang.

Awwww! This is my cute little Italian professor, Stephano Fera. He teaches one of our History and Theory classes and he meets up with us in the cities we visit and gives us guided tours of the cities' architecture. This man is full of information...he knows random and interesting details and stories about everything. Anyways, he is just too cute and looks like such the Italian...

The Love/Hate with Architecture

2007-04-03T08:41:00.002-07:00

The Tuesday evening before our trip to Venice, Prof. Ron Rael arranged a wine tasting party for the studio to teach us how to enjoy alcohol in a mature and more sophisticated manner... the party also served as a surprise birthday party for his wife (our professor) Virginia. There were two red wines to taste with a spread of meats and cheeses, and a dessert champagne that went perfectly with our strawberry cheesecake AND...

the sugar cookies I baked! Unfortunately they came out hard as rocks but once you broke off a piece and let it kind of break down a little in your mouth, they were really good. And they actually went very well with the champagne.

This is Ron and Virginia in the picture.

A couple of "cultured," wine tasting ladies...my friend Janis and I.

So first you look at the wine and determine it's color and "cloudiness" and transparency. The clearer the wine is the better the quality. Red wines have several different shades of color to determine the quality and type of wine you've got...ruby, rose, oranger red, crimson red (burgundy), etc.

I love this picture...Patrick looks like a priest at mass. hehehe.

THEN you smell, trying to decipher the layers of scents that compose the "body" of the wine. The longer the wine's scent remains the better the quality. You're supposed to be able to distinguish the secondary and tertiary scents...people were pulling out stuff like "wood" and "lavender" (???).

I would recommend you try fresh mozzarella cheese (the kind that's still in the water), it's a favorite around here and it's really very very yummy (Buffalo mozzarella is especially good). All in all it was a very lovely and most enjoyable evening...very deceiving, we should have known.

We knew that we were having a pin-up on the Wednesday before leaving that Thursday to go to Venice (a pin-up is just like a presentation of the projects' progress). Studio is from 1:30 to 5:30 on Wednesdays and so we were all preparing for the final push before our little mini-break travelling...we were to leave the Villa at 6:15 Thursday morning to catch our train to Venice.

Wednesday morning with 36 hours until departure time we received an email specifying the renderings and images we were to have ready for our pin-up which was re-scheduled for 6:00 am (that's IN THE MORNING) on Thursday before we leave. That is basically straight up, no beating around the bush "you will be pulling an all-nighter."

Around 1:30-2am I grabbed my camera in a sudden moment of brilliance and decided to capture and document everything from the maniacal freak-outs to the silent fuming frustration each student displays (everyone handles this stuff in different ways). This is the Daniel Center, about 4 hours to pin-up (you have to keep in mind many of us had been up either all night or really really late the night before as well).

This is what we do all day and night here...we build the models in 3D programs such as Rino and FormZ and then we render them and then we photoshop them.

We literally sit here all. day. long.

Virginia is demonstrating the classic case of deadened numbness...you just work, don't think just work. You are numb, except for your stomach which is in knots and your eyes which are burning and you JUST HATE LIFE...

Janis grabbing her hair and freaking out...

chomping on Tums and generally JUST HATING LIFE...

Who feels like crap?!?!?!

Poor Mark, all hunched over, developing future back and eye problems...he will stay in this position with those earphones blaring for hours on end.

It is absolute misery.

So we stayed up all night long...working and then taking a frantic 15 minute break to pack...we all had the most random crap in our bags for the trip because we were literally in a state of complete delirium and exhaustion. We had to run through the train station because we were late When we finally got on the train, our reserved seats were taken by some stubborn old Italian ladies and the only seat left when it came time for Sarah to sit down there were no seats left, so I just plopped down on Janis and we both (apparently) passed out.

For the first two days of our trip, we were recovering from this nightmare. We're used to pulling all nighters and we've pulled several this semester. But the whole 6 am thing was a bit ridiculous.

Weekend Trip to Nice, France

2007-03-29T05:16:00.000-07:00

We were going stir-crazy in the Villa so for one weekend we had free, everyone evacuated. Some people went to Barcelona to visit the Clemson students in the program over there and other people (like me) went to Nice, France.

The Board Walk

We were hoping to lay out and get some sun but it was quite chilly and pretty windy sooooo we stayed fairly clothed for the most part.

Mandy and I on the beach at sunset...

I stayed in a Bed & Breakfast there because it was really inexpensive (only $20 a night for a private room). This was the breakfast room, in the morning they served fresh French bread and homemade jam. YUMMY

There was a map on the wall and I had to represent Chucktown (it's the black one)...I was actually the first pin from SC. Notice the massive clump of pins in the North...apparantly those Yankees evacuate to nicer places--it's just interesting, I think.

This was my room, it was kinda sad and small BUT it did have two of these huge floor to ceiling windows with French balconies (the Frech one's are the balconies you can't get out on).

And both windows had really nice views...

We we walking around the city and found these beautiful gardens everywhere filled with flowers and water features. It was kind of weird because I could recognize a lot of the different types of plants but we architecture students have noticed that the landscape architects we are travelling with really don't know their vegetation...I guess it's kinda like us not knowing structures. HA.

We climbed up this thing to see the city at sunset...really nice.

Salone Satellite

2007-03-06T05:48:00.000-08:00

Salone Satellite is the exhibit that Clemson University has been invited to participate in this Spring...our studio projects this semester are Clemson's submissions for the event. We are participating in the Milan extension...you can click on the link (make sure you click on EN for English) and you can check out what the exhibit is all about.

Ice Cream in Florence

2007-03-06T05:32:00.000-08:00

This is an older post that I put up in the "school's" blog...

Ice Cream Rip off

Another Amsterdam Blog

2007-03-06T05:30:00.000-08:00

University of Utrecht (Library)

Italian Food is Nice BUT...

2007-03-06T04:54:00.000-08:00

LOW COUNTRY BOIL
Delicious!

Even though we looooove Italian food...sometimes we could just kill for some real American good stuff. So occasionally on the weekends we'll do a 'cook-out' kind of thing. This past weekend we decided to do a Low Country Boil and it was amazing. Seriously amazing. And there was plenty of it too, Italians really don't know how to get good and full. But we were all fat and happy after this!

Amsterdam

2007-02-19T04:47:00.000-08:00

Canals of Amsterdam

We noticed that all of the buildings sort of tilt forward along the streets...our guide said that there were actually several reasons for this. First, you can also notice the little pulleys attached to the top of the facades...this was used to haul stuff up to the top floors of the "row houses" because they are so cramped and the stairs are honestly almost vertical.

The windmills of the Netherlands. The city keeps building and developing new areas of the Netherlands by creating new islands where the city and suburbs can expand. Because these places are way way way below sea level, they have developed a system of windmills that constantly pump water out of the areas and that is the only thing keeping these new developments from sinking back into the water. If these windmills are to stop working, the entire place would be submerged again (about 200,000 people live here).

P.S. Thanks for the rain boots mom, they were really handy here. Amsterdam is very rainy and cold and windy.

A really ugly building that my professors insist is a wondrous marvel of modern architecture.

The really ugly (and tacky) housing development.

Brian Williford...this is one sketchy guy. (hehehe)

Riding around Amsterdam on bikes. We have decided that engineers (or maybe architects) need to develop a new type of bicycle seat that is actually bearable to sit upon for more than 3 hours (we rode for 8). We rode around all of Amsterdam and at the end of the day, the guide said we'd ridden about 40 km (something like 25 miles). OOOOUCH. But it was a lot of fun.

PRECIOUS little Dutch children were everywhere! And they're all blonde and happy (Dutch children are the happiest in the world, but its because their parents are so liberal). Everyone in Amsterdam rides bikes, so when the parents take the kids around with them, they have these cute little seats with a mini little handle bar set up for the kids on their bikes' handle bars. It is too cute.

A row of Amsterdam housing. Amsterdam is known around the world as a prime spot to find the most innovative and funky architecture. They are constantly building new projects and trying new experimental designs and they get away with it because unlike the rest of Europe (and the world) the Dutch do not build with the intention of having that building last forever...they build something and then in 15-30 years they tear it down if its not successful. The cost of construction is also 1/3 less here than anywhere else in Europe. They also use really cheap materials and construction is fairly shoddy and quick...as a result the buildings don't wear very well.

The Clemson biker gang (lol).

Its hard enough trying to keep everyone together on walking tours...it was near impossible with 25 retarded college students on bikes. Janis and I were in the restroom towards the end of our lunch break and we came back out and realized that everyone had left us...we had no phone, no itinerary, no map, and no IDEA where we were. Thankfully some people noticed we were missing and came back. Still it was about 5 minutes of quality freak-out time.

A housing development that has a shuttered facade that kind of resembles my project this semester.

These apartments are an example of the 'experimental' architecture that is frequently done in Amsterdam.

This was a really cool art and mixed media museum/gallery. The front and back walls were made of this multi-colored glass that was really beautiful when you saw it from far away (and up close) in the context of the other buildings around it.

There was a large stadium seating area that filled maybe 1/2 of the entrance level where you could eat or read or whatever.

Genova Port / RUNNING

2007-02-19T03:53:00.000-08:00

Industrial Genoa

Tons of yachts everywhere (the site for my project this semester is behind the big yellow building)

The port of Genoa

Windmill sculptures that are inspired by the palm trees

Genoa is a port city so it reminds me a lot of Charleston in that there are tons of boats everywhere and palm trees and the cargo containers (and corresponding cranes). Its really starting to warm up here...

Valentine's Day from my insainly sweet and absolutely ADORABLE boyfriend

2007-02-14T14:37:00.000-08:00

I go downstairs on Valentine's Day after only 2 hours of sleep, and I'm HUNGRY, and I'm grumpy because I can't be with Brandon and my project is frustrating, and then I walk into the dreaded studio...and I find this monsterous floral explosion sitting on my desk...and I think "Oh my goodness, I am gonna KILL that boy!" Brandon Walter's been at it again, watch out!

HOLY CRAP you've got to be kidding me, this thing is HUGE...and its beautiful and it smells wonderful and I LOVE it!

Yup, I LOVE it!

Love it,
LOOOVE it!

I counted 26 roses (red ones, pink ones, an orange one, yellow, pint and white striped, white, EVERY COLOR) and then there are tulips, freezia, and some sort of camellia or cabbage rose.

Braaaaandon, you really are too much...thank you ;)

A Couple Randoms...

2007-02-08T11:39:00.000-08:00

A medical students' anatomy lab classroom. They would disect the body in a 24 hour class in which the best student stood inside the ballastrud with the body while the professor (who never touched the body) indicated with a long pointer where the student was to cut. The students could not ask questions, take bathroom breaks, or eat during the class, which was held once a week. The entire room is made of wood because this material best absorbs the smells of the disection. Bologna is credited with having one of the oldest universities in the world...the university offered a wider variety of other schools of its time and was also unique in that it was a public university...meaning that if you could pay you could attend (despite gender, class, race, etc).

A slightly awkward fountain in the Main plaza of Bologna...I mean, what does one say about such a statue? "That's...nice(?)" "How...interesting(?)". I just don't know...but it reminded me of the Will & Grace episode where Grace's waterbra springs a leak.

The legend of the town is that this giant bowl in Bologna is the bowl that Pilot used to wash his hands during the trial of Christ.

In front of the Arch of Constantine in Rome.

On top of the Duomo in Florence....this is really only 1/4 of the group...we tried to get this guy to take a group photo of us but he didn't understand the "group" part so we ended up with a bunch of random pictures.

At the Trevi Fountain in Rome.

The naked fat man riding a turtle (a really random statue we found in the gardens of one of the Palazzos in Florence.

Part of the really pretty garden in Florence where we found the fat naked turtle man.

I am not one to get all excited about cars, but this one is preeeety sweet...a classic 1950 or 60 something Farrari at the Farrari museum...we wanted to get a tour of the factory but apparantly only Farrari owners are allowed.

Siena

2007-02-08T11:16:00.000-08:00

Climbing the tower in the main plaza in Siena (503 stairs).

The absolutely amazing Tuscany countryside viewed from the top of the tower in the Centro de Campo in Siena.

Hot Boots!

2007-02-08T09:44:00.000-08:00

Everyone ended up getting a pair of boots...everyone in Europe wears them everywhere. They actually prefer boots with no heel (like riding boots) because they wear them around during the day...however, most of us went with a heel because that's how we do in the states and lets be honest...heels are hot.

oh man, oh man, oh man!

2007-02-05T14:51:00.000-08:00

Absolutely awesome! This is perhaps my new favorite building: Richard Meier's Jubilee (ahem, Catholic) Church, Rome Italy.

The white shell of this building was specially designed and engineered for this project to be self-cleaning so that it always remains pure and white.

Lookin' good even from the back.

Unfortunately the church was closed for siesta...so I couldn't check out the interior BUT apparently there is no interfering walls that interrupt the view through the building, and light just fills it during the day.

The Coliseum

2007-02-05T12:24:00.000-08:00

scholarly sarah in her librarian glasses...

where the gladiators were kept during the games.

architects to-be

The Arch of Constantine.

Probably the most demanding street performer I've ever met: he made me take off my purse and glasses, then he made me take down my hair and actually arranged it, then he asked if I had a boyfriend who would get jealous of him...as you can see he positioned me on the chair for the pictures.

He started singing and saying the most ridiculous things that only a foreigner can get away with (I really can't remember now exactly what he said but I wish I could...I just know I couldn't stop laughing).

The Vatican

2007-02-05T00:40:00.000-08:00

The Vatican

Crazy insane claustrophobic stairs climbing the dome of St. Peters, at one point there was actually a rope to hold onto to help hoist yourself up the steep steps.

Since we were climbing in between the shells of the dome, the passageway began to curve following the shape of the dome...my camera was straight in this picture!

We were visiting the Vatican on Sunday morning and I'd remembered reading in some tour book that the pope blesses the crowd some time every Sunday and Wednesday...when we got to the top of the dome, I saw the crowd and started freaking out because I thought I was missing the blessing...then I heard a bunch of kids singing and realized it was some sort of concert (I didn't get blessed and I don't want to know if/when I missed it).

Again, we were climbing up the dome and I started freaking out because I could smell the incense and I just knew I was missing a big mass and of course I was but I got to see the procession out and it was nice...later I caught a mass held on the main alter...pretty cool.

Medieval Alleyways

2007-01-21T11:44:00.000-08:00

In the medieval part of Genoa, down closer to the port, the city streets become a zig-zagging confusing web of 5' wide alleyways...add insane moped drivers to the mix and you have a very hazardous environment. Many of the alleys actually used to feature arcades which made the places not so claustrophobic, but in order to make more room for housing and commercial buildings, the city filled in the arcades making the narrow streets you can see above. In this picture my hands weren't touching the walls BUT yesterday we were walking around and I found one alley that I could press both my palms against. One guy took some pictures of himself bracing himself horizontally between the walls with his feet and hands.

Personal Space (or the lack thereof)

2007-01-21T11:14:00.000-08:00

They told us in advance that the Italians have a different sense of personal space, I have decided that its different in that it is non-existent. There is NO CONCEPT of the entire idea! We were sitting on these steps, sketching the facade of the church across the plaza when this camera guy comes up in front of us and starts filming. He started over by the guy in the red shirt and we were watching Averette as the camera guy got right up in his face as he was sketching (apparantly there's no zoom on Italian cameras, you have to physically get up in there). So we were laughing and whatever as the cameraguy kept moving along the line of us, narrating in Italian as he went. When he got to me I tried to stop laughing and started sketching intently so that he could get whatever film he needed...but then his head banged into mine because he was so freaking CLOSE. My head shot up because I was kinda grossed out, but when I looked up the camera was pointed straight in my face...he'd actually hit me with the fuzzy gray microphone on the camera.

I just started busting out laughing (as did everyone else), we just could not believe that he was getting sooooo close! So when the guy circled around behind us some of the other students with us got a picture of him violating our space. You can't really see me in this picture, but I'm sitting closest to the column on the right.

Milan, Italy

2007-01-20T07:16:00.000-08:00

The building to the right is by Renzo Piano (he's a really famous architect whose office is actually located in Genoa). Piano did the addition to Richard Meier's High Museum in Atlanta, GA.

A bit more modern architecture...

When we got to the older, more central part of town, there was more traditional Italian architecture...lots of the palazzios (palaces) had these beautiful little couryards inside them.

Milan is supposed to be the height of European fashion...

But we kept finding these skanky unitards with random holes cut in them...(???)

The Piazza del Duomo was full of pigeons...

And this goofy looking guy would come up to you and put corn kernals in your hands, and you're like "ok this could be fun, I'll feed the birds"...

...then they decend upon you and its maddness, but the guy keeps refilling your hands with food...I think he does this to amuse himself all day. You can tell by his face (in the picture above) he's getting a kick out of the stupid Americans (I'm serious, click on the picture with him in the yellow jackt, look at his little smirk, and tell me that turd doesn't know exactly what he's doing to the poor tourists! I can't be too hard on him though, its actually a good idea...someone should set this up on one of the beaches or docks in Charleston and we can get the tourist to feed the seagulls hehehehe...)

another helpless victim...

El Duomo de Milano (1386-1887)
This cathedral is HUGE, and its unique because it was done in the Gothic style but in a white stone, so because it has a "lighter" look the style is called "flower gothic". Also, it took 5 centuries to complete and they maintained the original design and producion process throughout the entire construction as they built it from back to front. With the heavy clouds, it made the place look really misty...and very beautiful...

They had prayer candles set up along the side isles with smaller prayer alters.

(smaller places of meditation)

(the nave...or main isle)

(the side doors in the front)

The door is made up of these tiny religious vinettes that are amazingly detailed. You can see the Roman gaurd's leg (I think its a Roman guard) and Jesus' leg has been rubbed so often that its stays "polished"...the whole doors are actually this bronze/copper metal, not the greenishness.

Man, those Catholics know how to BUILD a CHURCH! (what, what!?!?) There are over 40 churches in Genoa...and all of them are Catholic.

You can tell from the pictures that it was really cloudy (kind of depressing) and absolutely FREEZING, but we had a good time.

We also saw the church that holds Leonardo's The Last Supper but we couldn't see it at the time because in order to get a group our size in there, you have to call in for reservations. Our prof. called in September, and nothing was available until JUNE! Some of us are planning to go back and see it as a smaller group.

The most amazingly massive cookie I have EVER encountered

2007-01-19T04:36:00.001-08:00

I wish I had put something next to this thing so you can actually see how big it really is, but it is most definitely bigger than a man's head.

I found another one in Milan, Italy...now I see them all over! I don't understand why our cook can't construct something like this for dessert...

We're walking along (up-hill of course) and I'm looking into the store windows, just checking it out, and all of a sudden I spot (one of) the most amazing thing I've ever seen in my life....yes, it was a massive cookie. I tell you this thing absolutely blew my mind...I was in such a state of shock that I didn't insist we stop to investigate further and then later I couldn't find the store again. However, I did re-locate the giant cookie only to discover that its actually more like an un-cut biscotti (which means it's hard as a rock). Nevertheless, I know that one day I'm going to break down and buy one and I think it'd be good if I dunk it in some coffee or milk (BUT I'D HAVE TO USE A BOWEL BECAUSE THIS THING'S NOT FITTING IN A GLASS!) I still think it's just too cool, just because of sheer size...it has actually made me want to try to make a cookie of these proportions...I think it could be something wonderful.

The stairs from hell

2007-01-19T04:05:00.000-08:00

It looks nice, but all I see here are more stupid stairs that Sarah has to climb...we go down the stairs and then down that ramp by the yellow house.

Please notice that this is not just an incline (its a very steep incline) and like most of the walking roads in Genoa its paved in cobble stone and uneven brick.

A typical Genovian vista...all of the roads look like this.

Cute little Italian lady putting us to shame.

There is only one word to descibe the streets in Genoa: INSANE, ridiculous, wish-you-were-dead-miserable! You can probably count on your hands (maybe just one hand) how many level streets there are in the city...we are always walking at an incline of some degree. And its absolutely amazing because there are tons of old people in the city who can definitely take on these monsters and I (almost) can't. And they never end, you get to what you think has to be the top and...oh, no you've actually just begun.

So even though I'm eating pasta and bread like its going out of style...I am walking at least 3 miles a day, up-hill both ways. Really though, because we work, eat, and sleep in the same building we absolutely have to get out of the villa or we'll go crazy...plus a lot of our classes involve walking tours. To get to the center of the town, because that's where all the stores are, you have to go down a mountain to the port. And honestly I don't know which is worse: going down, bracing yourself against the slope (and knowing you have to come up again) OR coming back up and realizing how embarrassingly out of shape you are. Stair-master's got nothin on this place...I'm going to have buns of steel before I leave here.

Via Privata Piaggio XIV

2007-01-18T03:48:00.000-08:00

Our villa is the pistachio colored one...malto bella

The academic floor: off to the right is one studio and the general classroom, to the left is my studio. The walk-way directly across connects the two studios.

Italians put marble on EVERYTHING

The main "classroom"

The Gardens...and the grotto (like Hugh's except we have goldfish, not bunnies)

My room has the balcony above the classroom...there are 6 other girls sharing the same room...

The orange grove, there's also a banana and lemon tree...I saw some calla lillies and camellias in the garden as well.

I was actually surprised when I got to the villa and realized we were pretty much still in the city...I'd always thought a villa was more of a country home. But its really a pretty nice set up (except for the whole sharing of the room thing...my room looks like one of those orphanages that you see in the movies because of all the beds). We all have to share bathrooms but there plenty so that's not a problem...the problem is hot water which we are all being deprived of (the whole stinky European thing might be explained by this hot water shortage because I cannot STAND cold showers). Hair driers and curling irons (that work) are also a hot commodity around here...we had a communal hair drier but one day it just disappeared (like magic!) and is yet to be found. Thankfully we rounded up another one, which I keep in my personal drawer, and all is well (currently).

We have a cook who prepares 2.1 meals (breakfast is only fruit, bread and coffee so I don't think she gets credit for preparing that one). But the meals are set up so that there is always a pasta or soup of some sort, then usually a meat or fish of some sort, usually a salad (made of very bitter lettuce), and occasionally a vegetable like zucchini or broccoli. My favorite food is currently rolls with honey.

While all the food is great, I am very disappointed with the desserts...because there are none. I think the cook is holding out on us because I know those Italians can whip out those pastries...nobody's fooling me. And I'm sure we would all agree that fresh fruit is NOT a proper dessert (there's not even any cool whip or anything to go on top...definitely NOT a dessert).