Being Here

First off i must say that it is nice to finally be writing down all my thoughts and reflections about this trip that have been floating around in my head for the past several weeks : ) And i am slowly but surely making my way through all the images and editing them (again, since i had already edited them once before my computer crashed) These two are of the vista off the coastline at Vico Equense, my first stop in Italy. This is pretty much what we saw when looking out the back side of our hotel, which was awesome. I tried going to the beach, but there were far too many speedos for me to handle, a bit intimidating/scary for your first day in europe.

I know that a lot of my friends who have gone on study abroad trips have had a lot of spare time to travel around, the ability to cut class basically whenever and a lot of scheduling flexibility. I wouldn't say that is the case with the cortona. we have a lot of work crammed into an extremely short amount of time compared to what we're used to. it all leads up to our big show at the end that we put on for the whole town over an entire weekend. the pace can be quite draining, but i think i actually prefer it. the ability to be in an environment where you are completely immersed in art and making art is something i know i am lucky to be afforded, and it has thus far been extremely helpful to me. i don't really even know if it has been helpful in the sense that i am making better art, but if nothing else it is settling my mind. at home there are so many things to worry about and distract from my work and the very few other things that are actually important in life, and here those things are gone. it makes you wonder why theyre really such a big deal in the first place. oh well, ignorance is bliss for now.

i think this trip came at an ideal, and possibly crucial, time for me. it is a great time to reflect and focus on my work and figure out exactly what im supposed to be doing after this. it is my time to finally get serious and to take myself seriously as an artist. most importantly it is time for me to settle the internal struggle ive faced for quite some time about what i really want out of my life. ever since i could remember, when i thought about my future i thought about not "settling" and living a life that made the most of my abilities and being happy. those things are all nice, but they are also quite vague. i cant stand the idea of waking up twenty years from now and feeling like i made the wrong choices or didnt follow my heart or didnt do the best i could. hopefully this summer will shed some light on at least which direction to face before i start walking.

so here i am being here.

so far i am enjoying my bookmaking class the most. it was a scary course for me to take, and i almost didnt. my measuring skills are not exactly at college level and ive never been one of neatness and good craftsmanship no matter how hard i may try. im so glad i went ahead and took the course because the skills ive learned are going to come in great handy for sure especially when putting together my port for the end of school. i had a feeling it would be my favorite class and it definitely is. i really like being able to make something by hand. im on the computer so much its nice to actually be offline and do something on my own. the books have an emotive and personal quality that i think is lacking in graphic design often times. its nice to make something that makes you feel something for once haha.

i started thinking: what if i combined my photographs in a book form? what would happen? a startling revelation, i know, but this truly is a new concept for me. its so nice to feel inspired and feel like you have ideas and work that you want to make come to life. my head feels like its about to explode and i like it haha.

i spent all weekend working on a book and though the craftsmanship was way off point, i think i can do a reprint and make it what i want it to be. i took a few pictures along the way but forgot to get one of the finished product, so ill post those as soon as i can.

im going to try to get more pictures done asap so i can post them here! until then everyone eat a hamburger and some french fries, or drink a lemonade for me: i am craving all three.

While We're Here, Let's See What Happens...

Oh hi there.

It's me, starting my blog, almost a month after i got here. if you follow me on facebook, twitter, or in life you know the technological fire and brimstone ive been through since my arrival in italy. and yes, i did everything you're supposed to do: brought backups, carried in proper luggage, etc. still yet the technological gods had it out for me: within three days i went from everything running smoothly to a dead camera, two days worth of corrupted cards (of rome pictures nontheless) and a completely corrupted braindead macbook. i couldn't believe my misfortune! and true to form, in italy time moves much slower than the US. most of my problems still are not fixed. thanks to lanny the wellbabambabam wizard i do have a semi functioning computer so i can finally start writing on this thing!

normally, i might give you a play by play of all the traveling we did with pictures of everything. but with all of the issues i've had thus far, i am just now seeing for the first time pictures i took over three weeks ago and i honestly am forgetting a lot of what we've done. long story short: we did a lot of shit in the first week we were here.

i flew into rome and was initially very concerned about making the journey over three different trains to get to naples, but fortunately i had three professors on my flight. i stuck with them and we made an entire day-long journey throughout the southern italy train system to get there. i was extremely glad that i had adopted the "pack light" mantra, my backpack served me well. i am finding it much easier to get around in italian versus german-speaking countries. i learned in the train station how to order a sandwich in italy (order at the register, pay, take your ticket to the cook, tell him you want it to go otherwise he'll assume you'll eat it standing at the counter.) of course it was delish! seven hours after we landed we finally arrived at vico equense, a beautiful coastal town near naples. what a beautiful place to begin the trip! we were in vico for three nights then we headed to rome. where we stayed at a hotel that happens to be the recommended hotel of the vatican. there was incidentally a calling by the pope for priests all over the world so the whole hotel/city was covered over with priests and nuns. out of respect i didn't take any photos, but it was a sight to see for sure haha. rome was really cool and i enjoyed the fast-paced chic and modern city atmosphere. and then there was cortona: bella cortona! it really does look like it does in the movie (under the tuscan sun), we have a beautiful view out our bedroom window of the italian countryside and the city of camucia below. it's still surreal to look outside and see that scenery, and i still find it hard to believe i'm actually here and that i'm living here for real! we got a few days off to unpack and get acclimated which was a nice change of pace since we had been constantly moving for the past week and a half. initially it was very cold here: in the fifties for several days and it was miserable! of course i didnt pack any warm clothes so i ended up going to a bennetton in camucia and ordering some sweatshirts off of amazon uk to get by. one thing ive learned for sure about being here is that you really do give up a lot of control living in a foreign country, particularly under the guise of a program like this where your time is not necessarily your own. it's been an exercise in patience for sure! since then i have been starting my classes: signs and symbols (graphic design), renaissance art history and book making. i'm loving them all so far, but i have to say nine hours in the summer is tough stuff! perhaps this in conjunction with the technological problems explains the extreme lack of blogging lol.

so, there you go, an extremely brief rundown of the last three weeks of my life which have been absolutely packed with stuff but appear to be not busy at all based on this summary.

but really, you've all read these study abroad blogs, they get super boring because you won't know the places i'm talking about nor will you care to hear every detail about my life in italy. frankly when i'm looking back on this blog after i come home i probably won't care about these things either. so this blog's going to be a bit different. there will be pictures of course (cameras and other technology permitting) as well as my thoughts about my experiences in italy and even more stuff about the work im doing while here in italy. i hope that you can enjoy living vicariously through me and with your good karma i can avoid anymore technical difficulties and spend less time fiddling in the lab and more time what doing what i came to do: making work and exploring! thanks for stopping by!