don't let it become a memory

I can't let my time in Italy fade to become only a memory.

CSULB classes have started. I'm returning to the same places I used to know 2 years ago. I feel different walking around campus. Everything looks like I remember, but I'm seeing them with changed perceptions. I'm realizing how much I've changed.


Sometimes, I even feel stronger.

final days

After a year, I finally saw my mom again when Eri, Megu, Sei and I got back from our trips to Spain and France. It was a nice reunion, and on the same day we met with Uncle Larry, Auntie Anita, and Jon. We had dinner at Pizzaiuolo, and gelato at Vivoli. We also climbed up to the top of the Duomo for some beautiful views of Florence. It was an interesting climb!

After a couple days in Florence, Mom, Eri, Megu, Sei and I hopped on a train headed to Rome to meet my dad. As soon as he got to the hotel, we were off to the Colosseum and the Roman Forum. It was still awesome and interesting the 3rd time - there's always something to learn. Later on we went to the Trevi Fountain. My favorite spot in Rome so far! After gelato at San Crispino we went to the Spanish Steps.
The next day we went to the Vatican and its Museum. It was a free day so the line was long and the museum was packed, but hey, I'm not complaining...It was my 2nd time seeing the Sistine Chapel but it's still a crazy sight, as is Michelangelo's Pieta. We left the mini country of the Vatican to go see the Pantheon, where I only just discovered is the buriel place of Raphael.
Our last day, we did something I've never done in Rome before; we went to see the Boca della Verita! Remember the famous scene from Roman Holiday with Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn? We walked around the Campo di Fiori area and the surrounding shops. Then it was time to head back to Florence.
The next couple days was spent packing...it was really difficult to move everything out but I was lucky; I had my wonderful family to help me take stuff in extra suitcases. It was really sad moving out of my apartment, but I'm also grateful because it prepared me for leaving Florence itself.
The fam and I also went to Cortona where we saw that they were filming a movie, something connected with the Cannes Film Festival. We saw Juliet Binoche acting! Cortona was as cute and beautiful as I remember, and it actually rained for about 10 minutes! Later we went to a Oltrarno typical Florentine family style restaurant called "Sabatino" with Uncle Larry, Auntie Anita, and Jon, and said our goodbyes.
The night that Dad, Eri, Megu and Sei left, we had dinner at Pizzaiuolo again, and then at about 4 AM they began their 27 hour journey back to California.
My last two days in Florence with Mom were very relaxing. On Saturday (4th of July) we walked around and did some last minute shopping...on Sunday we went to an early mass at the Duomo and then took a trip around Florence in the red doubledecker "City Sightseeing Bus." It went all the way up to Piazzale Michelangelo and Fiesole. It was really interesting to see the city I've lived in and walked in for 10 months from the perspective of a double decker bus.
It was a good last day.
more to come...

~photo album~

barcelona, madrid, paris

I'm back in California now, but I'll start where I left off...

On the 14th of June Eri, Megu, and Sei showed up in front of my apartment. It was a short reunion because the same day we headed off to Pisa to catch a flight to Barcelona. Unfortunately Eri had the wrong plane ticket so she ended up having to stay in Pisa for one day longer.

BARCELONA
In Barcelona Megu, Sei and I spent the first day exploring the Market La Boqueria. We had some paella and some delicious fruit juices. We shopped around La Ramblas and the Gothic Quarter, went to the Barcelona beach, and finally met Eri when she got off the bus.fruit juice!

the beach.

The next day we accomplished a lot. We had another round of juice and paella at La Boqueria, and saw Casa Batllo, a house built by Gaudi, who is an architecture genius. The house felt like it had an ocean or water theme, and the roof was an homage to the story of St. George and the Dragon. Another Gaudi masterpiece we visited was La Sagrada Familia, a cathedral. Construction begain in 1902 and now after 107 years they estimate that it will be done in 2026! It was really intricate, with doors carved all over with words or scripture, and Cubist/Futurist looking sculpture. I want to visit it again when it's done!Casa Batllo

La Sagrada Familia

stained glass inside

Another delicious thing we had in Barcelona was the chorizo! They gave us huge sausages of chorizo sandwich style, only for 1.70€!

MADRID
Stop number two was Madrid; on our first day we had tapas, and saw the crowded streets and bars of the nighttime Madrid. We also visited the Prado Museum, where I saw some El Greco, Georges de la Tour, Las Meninas by Velazques, The 2nd and 3rd of May and Saturn by Goya. The Museo de Reina Sofia was really cool - they had more modern art, and featured an artist named Juan Munoz, who you should look up! We also saw the Guernica by Picasso! On the final day we went to the Royal Palace. It was huge, and although it was "no photos" I took some anyway (check my shutterfly!)

the Prado Museum

the Reina Sofia Museum

"Guernica"

PARIS
Our final stop was Paris. We went to Notre Dame by the Seine river; the stained glass windows were gorgeous. Afterwards we went to the Pompidou Center, which is a huge center of galleries, theaters, a library, and research center. We went to see their Calder, Kandinsky, and elles show, which was an exhibit featuring only women artists. If you have seen the film Amelie, you might know the town of Montmarte, where we visited the Sacre Couer church. Also in Montmarte there is the famous Moulin Rouge, with the red windmill, and the Moulin de Gallets, where people like Toulouse Loutrec, Renoir, and Van Gogh hung out. Because it doesn't get dark until about 9pm, we took advantage of the extra daylight to see the St. Madeleine church (for Eri) and the Place de Concorde where Louis XIV and Marie Antoinette were executed. As an artist, I knew I had to spend an entire day at the Louvre. We met up with Nancy and Elsa from CSU Firenze and staying at the museum from opening to closing and saw Victory/Nike of Samothrace, Mona Lisa, Venus of Milo, The Women of Algiers, La Grande Odalisque, and The Raft of the Medusa, to name a few. Afterwards I went to the Arc de Triumph, for a panarama of Paris. Our final dinner in Paris, Eri, Megu, Sei, Nancy, Elsa and I went to a cafe called CHEZ ANDRE where Eri and I had escargot for the first time. It actually wasn't that bad! And the fried goat milk cheese with pear sauce and rucola was one of the highlights... The next and last day we spent at the famous cemetary in Paris known for such residents as Jim Morrison, Oscar Wilde, and Chopin. It was a very peaceful way to end our trip.


the Arc de Triumph

the Nike of Samothrace

the Eiffel Tower

Notre Dame

the Pompidou Center

"The Fountain" by Duchamp

escargot...

It was a really fun trip, I loved all the art!

photo albums:

Barcelona
Madrid
Paris

art nerd.

So the year that I'm in Italy, the Venice 53rd Biennale is happening. Dozens of countries have a representative artist who gets to exhibit in a building dedicated to the country. My favorite was the Russian artist Pavel Pepperstein. The whole thing was so inspiring! It was spread out across a garden and a pavilian, plus there were three other spaces and a few smaller venues around Venice.

outside the Biennale

The only thing was, it was TOO big. There was no way you could do it all in a day! And Nancy, John and I really, really wanted to go to the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice. The only thing to do was to see it the next day when it opened at 10. We decided to spend the night in Venice without booking a hostel, so we would end up sleeping outside the train station. It was all very last minute, and a very interesting experience to keep.

outside the train station

We went into the Galleria dell'Accademia di Venezia to use their bathroom to wash up (since we get in for free...) then waited outside the gate of the Guggenheim. It was worth the night out in the cold! Every important thing we learned in 20th century Italian art was there. Boccioni, Balla, DeChirico, Marini...also Picasso, Pollack, Mondrian, Giacometti, Magritte...etc. It was amazing...

Art Nerds.

Another thing I tried for the first time was this Venetian pasta, which is spaghetti with squid in its own ink. I know it sounds strange but it was delicious!


Yup.
Eri, Megu and Sei come tomorrow for our European adventures to Spain and France. I'm definitely not ready. I should still do some more studying for Anatomy and pack some suitcases. There seems to be so much to do, but at least I know I won't be able to do all of it.
People are leaving from Florence...there is a bittersweet atmosphere, and a need to cherish every second we have left.

The day our friend Heather left, we went up to Piazzale Michelangelo to watch the sun rise.

Also, there was a complication/misunderstanding with our landlady so we have no internet at our house. I'm currently sitting in the stairwell by the door of our school because there is a connection here. So I don't know if I will be updating that much!

Ciao for now, I'll see some of you very soon!

sicilia.

Sicily is like a separate country from Italy!

I left for the island on Saturday night to arrive in PALERMO the next afternoon. The train ride was long, but I talked to some Sicilians who were returning to their "terra." They said that Sicily has been conquered by 20 different groups, like the Romans, Normans, and Arabs, so the culture is very mixed - even the language is its own dialect.
Palermo is dirtier and shadier than Napoli, but just as fascinating! Some parts remind me of LA though.
I went to Sicily with Nancy, and the first thing we did was walk to a bar recommended by our hostel owner for ARANCINI and CANNOLI, and GRANITA by the Palermo harbor.

We also walked around to see some sights, like the Palermo CATHEDRAL and THEATER.
Other places we went to were the CATACOMBE dei CAPPUCINI. It was really eerie - there were thousands of bodies lined up on the walls - some still had hair and skin! But it was interesting to see so much death presented in front of me, and to think about the fleeting nature of life, and how we should really cherish the time we have.
There was also the MARKETS; we stopped by VUCCIRIA with lots of clothes, seafood, and antiques, where we had a mixed plate of seafood and grilled and fried eggplants.
We also made it to CEFALU', a cute town by the beach. It was a little cloudy that day so not many people were at the beach but we hung out there anyway, with BRIOCHE FILLED WITH GELATO, MARZIPAN, and CANNOLI. We tried climbing up the ROCCA, where there is a Temple and Castle but it was closed off. We got a nice view of Cefalu' anyway! Later we had pizza at a restaurant by the shore.

The next day was an Italian holiday, but the museums were open! We went to the GALERIA di ARTE MODERNA di Palermo, which was really beautiful. They had a collection of Sicilian art from Neo-Classicism and Romanticism to the "Novecento." We stopped afterwards for Macedonia and Frullati (fruit dishes) and then a final cannolo and a cassata before heading back to the hostel.
After an exciting but nerve-racking episode in which we were locked out of the hostel (unable to pick up our backpacks) and barely made it to the train on time, we were on our way home.


And on the train ride home, I got my purse STOLEN!
...but I got everything back.
It was about 5 AM and the 3 of us in our compartment were all sleeping. I half woke up, to see a man leaving our compartment. I thought it was weird, and then I thought, "WAIT A SECOND!" I looked down to see that my purse was gone. I ran down the hallway, (still half asleep) and at the end saw 3 dudes just standing around. When we told them that someone had taken my purse, one of them seemed to remember something. He looked in the bathroom for a bit then came out with my purse. Luckily I had no money on me, and he didn't even take my camera or Ipod.
It was weird because the entire trip Nancy and I kept talking about how lucky we were to be in Sicily, and to experience living and studying in a place so different; being able to grow in such a different way than we would have if we had stayed at home. We knew we had to always be thankful for life, after seeing the Catacombs, we knew how lucky we were to have caught our train on time, we knew we were lucky to be able to study abroad...and the whole episode of getting my purse stolen and then getting everything back just emphasized all those things...somehow. I don't know if it makes sense. Maybe I'm just thinking this way because I only have 32 days left.

SHUTTERFLY ALBUM di SICILIA

Other things that have been happening:
I took the EXAMS for my Painting and Etching classes. For painting I got a 30 and Etching a 28! I'm relieved now that those are out of the way but I still have Anatomy left!
There was also a SCAVENGER HUNT last week. It was fun to run around Florence looking for things and realizing that I knew where most of them were.


Yesterday was our final Art Advising. Everyone has done such amazing work this year! I'm going to miss Marsha but I'm looking forward to seeing her in LA in August!