Roma - Settimana Uno

Hello again,

It has been a few more days in Rome. We have done some more sketching, and the more that we sketch, the more i will try and take pictures of, but here are some pictures of the places we have been at so far.

Has my first weekend in Roma. It was good, but it was raining all weekend. I did get to see la fontana di trevi (theres a picture of that), and piazza di spagna, which i guess is the most tourist place in Rome. Otherwise the weather hasn't been too bad. It has been kinda chilly, but a lot warmer compared to Iowa of Minnesota.

On Tuesday, Blake and I went to the Protestant Cemetery. Apparently its like the only non-catholic cemetery for foreigners in Rome. Because of this, it is really hard to get into, so everyone in there has huge and ornate gravestones. They are pretty cool, I have a picture of one, it has an angel weeping over the grave. It was really really pretty in there, it had high walls so most of the outside sound of the city was blocked out. There were a lot of trees and plants and stuff like that. People from all over are barried there. The European writers Keat's and Sheally are also barried there. It was nice walking around just looking at all the grave stones. The place was also a cat sancuary. There are a few places in Rome like this, where they stake stray cat's and bring them into an enclosed are like this so they are not wondering around the streets. They also have one of these in the the ruins where Julies Ceaser was murdered. So there where cats all over the place, which was kinda cool. Blake befriended the one that was sleeping by Keat's grave, and we came to the conclusion that the cat was the reincarnation of Keats himself. Along the wall to the cemetery was a large pyrimid. This was constructed by and ancient senitor who was working in Egypt while Rome had rule over it, and

Cooking has been interesting, but pretty good. On Friday we made spaghetti with onions, peppers, mushrooms, and italian sausage. On saturday we made spaghetti with butter, olive oil, mushrooms, onions, and other random spices. Then on sunday we made a soup that had potatos, sausage, mushrooms, snap peas, onions, spinach, chicken broth and condensed milk. We has also made risotto with mushrooms and spinach, that was really good. I think that when I return I will have a better grasp of cooking and know some interesting recipes which I can make. I will have to make sure and write them all down so that I will remember them, so I have something to cook when I go back home. We also have wine every night with dinner, just like a glass or two. I've gotten kinda used to it now, and I think I am going to be very disappointed when I return and can't get a good bottle of wine for $2. But I am afriad that this will just work now, and once we get started and really into studio, I don't think we will have much time to cook. Some nights, especially if we have an art history lecture at 5 (which sometimes run til 7:30), we won't eat til 9 or 10 at night. If you add studio on top of that, it really doesn't leave much time for cooking. Also sharing a kitchen with 11 other people doesn't help, and sometimes we have to wait for someone to finish using the stove or the saucepan or a cutting board so that we can cook our stuff. And it is always packed in the kitchen.

We started Italian classes on Monday. I am liking them very much, and every little bit that i learn helps me learn more about both English and Spanish. If I get Italian down pretty good, or at least have a good knowledge of it like I do Spanish, then I think I could probably take on French too. The vocab is sometimes similar to spanish, and the grammar rules are the same, but all the articles, pronouns, pronunciations, stuff like that, is all different and tricky for me to remember.

We also started our art history class. The guy who teaches it is a very cocky englishman. the lectures are supposed to be 1 hour long, but our last one went 2.5 hours. But I guess he is supposed to be an expert at the Nolli map (what we are studying right now) so no one wants to cut him off. We went on a walk that was down the original salt road that lead to Rome. It's still kinda here. but it was 3 hours of standing/walking down this road and then pausing to listen to him talk. It was cold. I am glad that it is over.

I am really enjoying the drawing classes. Im not very good, but I like the time we spend drawing. We are usually outside when we sketch, which sometimes is very cold (but like I said before, not as cold as Minneapolis or Ames). We have been to quite a few sites. We went to the Roman Forum, the Colosseum, the Pantheon, the chapel dedicated to St. Peter's crucifixtion, and a church called Santa Maria della Pace. We draw mostly architecture, but we spent one day just drawing people at the Roman Forum. That was probably my favorite day. We also spent a day where we were given three different drawings that we had to copy exactly, like same scales, tones, almost like our drawing was a photocopy of the original. That was hard, I didn't like it too much. But overall, the class is good, and the instructor I have is really good at drawing, so he is good at helping out, and keeping us on track, but will also talk to us for about 5 or 10 mins while we are drawing. They spaced out our drawing classes so that we have 2 weeks of studio, then a week of drawing. It will be nice after having an intense week at studio to have a week off where we just draw. Maybe once I gain more confidence in my drawings, I will put some pictures up of them.

Studio has not started yet, that is next week. So far, I just have the drawing class, the Italian class, and the art history class. It is very nice not having studio since I don't have any large amounts of work to do outside of class right now. It kinda allows me to wonder around Rome, maybe do some extra sketching, or spend more time on making dinner. I also have been able to read a little every night. I am currently reading a book called What is the What, by Dave Eggers. It is very good so far (I'm about halfway), I highly recommend it to all.

As for next week? Well this weekend we are going to try to go to an Aldo Rossi exhibit, and also a visit to the E.U.R. building. Next week studio starts, so I suppose I will be busy with that, but hopefully I will have some pictures and more news to put up.

Caio e bouna notte!

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