Long Days Journey into Night...

I'm starting to realize that the harder the week (or day) is, the better it will end. Last week felt like it dragged on forever, since we were so busy and we barely got any time to rest. However, the weekend I had was definitely worth the wait.

On Saturday, Pete, Zach, and I went into Florence for the day. It was really nice to spend time with them outside of class, plus I needed boy time (I miss my Cuddle Crew!). Pete had yet to venture to Florence, so it was fun to show him around the city. We started out at the (Whoa) Duomo, which, for every ounce of decor there is on the outside the inside is equally as bare. Seriously. Thank God it was free, because I would have been upset had I paid 6 euro to get in there. Nevertheless, it was still pretty cool- if you go down into the basement there's an archeological dig (which we didn't see cause you have to pay) and Brunelleschi's tomb. Brunelleschi designed the dome of the duomo, and it was kind of a big deal since it was the first dome to be built since ancient times. Go Brunelleschi.

After that we walked over to Basillica di San Lorenzo. Pete and I posed for some pictures out front. We headed in and proceeded to surrepticiously take more pictures, since we technically weren't allowed to. We got to see Donatello's grave (the artist not the turtle), which was pretty cool. While we were in the Old Sacristy this little kid knocked over one of the ropes that keep people from walking over things...suffice it to say, it was loud. And we ran away.

After that we grabbed some lunch, wandered through the Central Market, and found this really neat mask shop. The shop was closed, so we decided to go to Santa Croce until it opened. On the way over to the Basillica we stopped at the Loggia dei Lanzi to show Pete the pretty sculptures. By the time we got to Santa Croce it was closing, but we're definitly going to go back, because Galileo and Michaelangelo are buried there. On our way back to the mask shop we stopped in the Bargello (we snuck in as it was closing so we didn't have to pay teehee) and got to see Donatello's David. Pretty awesome. After that we went back to the mask shop, which turned out ot be really cool and now I want to spend all my money there. We ended up talking with the owner and his friend, who teaches anthropology in Tokyo. Snazzy.

Sunday was a pretty lazy day. Monday night was stressful as hell, since I had the write my first paper since last semester, and I pretty much ended up rambling in circles. Today I woke up feeling even sicker than I have been lately. I almost fell alseep in Philosophy- thank God I had already made my contribution to the discussion (Kafka's the Hunger Artist is a comment on capitalism- take that Scott McGehee!). Movement helped a lot though- I only did the warm-up and sat out for the rest of the lesson, but I think it was good for me to get the blood flowing for a little bit, even if it did knock what little energy I had left completely out of me.

Siena/Florence Pictures on Webshots (these are from a week and a half ago)
Siena Pictures on Facebook

More should be coming soon, I've been having trouble with the internet and Facebook is being difficult. Last weekend's Florence trip will (hopefully) be up tomorrow. Maybe.

---
Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.
~ Pablo Picasso

Sunrise, Sunset..

I just wanted to say that tonight's Tramonto was really beautiful. I don't think I mentioned this before, but every two weeks we have this meeting called Tramonto (Italian for 'sunset') during which we essentially st around and talk about our feelings. It sounds really lame, but it's actually a really good way to get rid of stress and what not. Plus it's planned by students so they make sure it's something that everyone needs during that specific week.

Well, this week, they had everyone write down 3 things- the funniest thign that has happened ot them, the most touching thing that has happened to them, and their biggest worry. We put the funny ones into a bucket, and everyone pulled one out and read it (it was a anonymous). It was really great ot be able to laugh our bums off- I love laughing! Then we went around and read our touching moment ones, and a lot of people has some really touching moments. My friend Zach talked about how he had taken a walk to the cemetary with Natalie and that they had foudn a grave that wasn't taken car eof very well, so they found it a flower and tried to put together the headstone again. He jsut talked about how he doesn't think we should ever forget anyone, and how this experience is going to stay with him for the rest of his life, and I think he really summed up how a lot of us are feeling at the moment. It was a just a really wonderful experience, because you could feel the love in the room (cheesy, I know, but it's true). I just find it so amazing that after such a short period of time, we have all become to close-knit- very much like a family.

---
Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion. I myself prefer to laugh, since there is less cleaning up to do afterward.
~ Kurt Vonnegut

Minor Threat

Today started out rather poorly, but by the end of of the day it wasn't so bad. First of all, it was a loooooong day. Since we were performing tonight, and we had Commedia all day, we had to use our break time (read: siesta) to put together out piece for tonight. I still haven't recovered since the weekend and my throat is all congested, so right away I knew it wasn't going to be fun. But during Commedia today I had to get up and do some improv (while masked) and I completely blanked and had no idea what to do. I don't even remember what I did, but I just got really frustrated and kind of emotional, which wasn't good. I'm not very confident in myself, especially when it comes to performing, so being put on the spot liek that kind of freaked me out. Plus, I don't like putting things on my face (which makes mask work rather difficult). I was actually okay today, but I kind of got lost in the mask and forgot what I needed to be doing. Everyone has been really supportive though- we all know we need to be able to work together so we're all pulling for each other, becausee if one person gets left behind then that ruins the whole group dynamic. So if any of ya'll are reading this...thanks. :)

The performance tonight went REALLY well. I mentioned before that I was doing a duet movement piece (there were actually two duets going on at the same time, so essentially it was a quintet), which I was a little worried about, especially because the stage was raked and we changed a lot of it around, but it felt really good while we were performing, which means it probably looked too. I know some people recorded it, hopefully I can get a video to post here for you all.

---
If you hear a voice within you say, 'you cannot paint,' then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced.
~ Vincent Van Gogh

Someone's got a case of the Mondays...

Not much to talk about for today. We have a performance tomorrow night in one of the theatres in town. The event is sponsored by this group called Nausika, which, well...I'm not entirely sure what it is, but I think it essentially consists of groups of artists and art supporters. Anyway, the ADA has done a lpt in the past with them, and they invited us to do some stuff tomorrow night. We're doing about 15 minutes each of movement and voice work- so 30 minutes total. I think for voice we're singing a song andplaying aroudn with that, then for movement our professor asked me and Liza to do our movement duet, which is really excting. The entire class is doing something together, but there are only 2 other duets, and 4 people are doing solo movement work, so I feel really honored to have been chosen. I know it's only a small performance, but a) it's exciting to be getting onto a stage and b) it's wonderful knowing that the amount of work I'm putting into class is being recognized and appreciated.

Additionaly, I forgot to mention that we started Commedia last week. We're working with two people on Commedia, Marcello and Michella, both of whom speak little English- Michella actually speaks a fair amount, but Marcello knows about two words (one of which is "stop"- we hear that one a lot). Despite this, I've actually been surprised with how well I've been able to understand them, although responding to them is compeltely different! I'm glad though, since my goal was to be nearly fluent by the end of the semester, and I think that if I'm at the pint tha I'm at now I may very well be able to reach that.

On a compeltely different note, my computer/internet has been on the fritz lately, so pictures are in the process of being posted. Webshots may be up by the end of the night, but Facebook keeps wimping out so Lord knows when those will be up.

---
We are such stuff
As dreams are made on; and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.
~ William Shakespeare, The Tempest, Act IV Scene i

Whoa Duomo!!!

I've noticed that I for the little time I have to write in this blog, I tend to have even less energy. Alas, life must go on. Speaking of energy, this weekend was insanely fun. Friday night we had a karaoke party, which was fun despite the fact that I had to get up at 5am the next day to make it to the train station on time for my first weekend excursion!!!! Yaaaaay!!!

My first weekend excursion consisted of: Saturday in Siena, Saturday night and Sunday in Florence. Both equally as beautiful. There was a group of about 12 of us that went to Siena, but only 10 of us went to Florence. We got into Siena around 9:45am after a few, um, incidents. First of all, we had to switch trains in Florence and had about 5 minutes to do that. Those five minutes consisted of frantically buying tickets and running (literally) to the other side of the train station to make it to the train on time...which some of us almsot didn't. Then, after we got into Siena, we almost got arested. Yeah...about that. We crossed over the tracks, which you're not supposed to do. In our defense, there was a road-lloking thing that went across, ad we were following two other Italians, but we were the ones who got stopped. The security guard who stopped us asked for our passports- but didn't tell us why- so I, being slightly suspicious, didn't give mine up. Me and the few other peopel whose passports he didn't take ran off and hid in the bathroom for a bit. Turns out he didn't give anyone a fine-jsut told them not to do it again. Even still, the catch phrase of the day quickly became "Hey guys, remeber that time when we almsot got arrested?"

Once we were free from the judicial system, a few people in the group opted to take the bus into the city (the train station is jsut outside the city walls), butthe rest of us decided to walk into the city, which was a great choice. It wasn't too far of a walk (about 15-20mins) and it was worth it just to get to see everything. We stopped at few cool-looking buildings, but our ultimate destination was the Piazza del Campo, the main piazza- this is where the famous horserace, Il Palio, takes places ever summer. It is HUGE- I think I read somewhere (i.e. Rick Steves) that it's the largest piazza in Italy. We got some lunch, looked at the Fonte Gaia (Fountain of Joy), which was being worked on to it wasn't all the fun to see, plus it's jsut a reproduction (the original is in a museum because it was starting to corrode). We walked around to the Torre del Mangia (literally, the Tower of Eating) but opted not to climb to tower and save our money for something else.

We then headed over to the Duomo, which was beautiful. The facade is made with pink, white, and green marble in teh Romanesque style, and the interior looks like a quarry vomited into the building and happened to end up looking really nice. I saw my fist Michaelangelo sculpture! It's super small and was behind this scaffolding they had put up (i guess they're doign renovations) but it had a little window so peole could still see the statue. There's also a whole bunch of sculptures by Bernini and Donatello (St. Jerome and St. John the Bapstist, respectively, are the ones that come to mind at the moment). Inside the Duomo is also the Piccolimi Library, which houses a set of illuminted musical scores (I thinking mostly chants) which were stunning.

Fun Duomo Fact: The Sienese and Florentines were big artistic rivals, which comes through in their respective Duomos. Siena was cosntantly adding to theirs, and they had started an addition to the nave and got as far as the exterior wall when the Black Plague hit the city and wiped out a third of the poulation and the extension as never finished. The wall is still there though, and part of it forms the Duomo Museum.

Afer the Duomo, we got some lunch (which was rather tastey) and moseyed on down teh the Basillica di San Franceso. While not as large or as ornate at the Duomo, it was still really pretty (plus it was free and it was nice to be away from the crowds). We then met up with eveyoen else in Il Campo and headed back to teh train station for our Florentine Adventure! We spent the night in a hostel righ next to the Ponte Vecchio, which was really convenient. Ate a late dinner at a place called MammaMia (canyou say toursit trap? I can!) but it was really good so it was almost wort it. Plus we ate outside anad there was a Christion rock concert- complete with worhsip dancers- so it was really nice to experience some of the culture and listen to some music while dining. Then it was off to bed for some sleep (which I got very little of).

We started off today (Sunday) at the Boboli Gardens at the Pitti Palace. We spent most of the morning wandering around here...there wasn't much, since it's fall and all teh flowers are gone by this point, but it's worth it jsut to be able to experience the sheer size of the gardens themselves. Pus there's statues and excellent views of the city (of which pictures do little to no justice). We also popped into the Costume Museum, which woul dhave been worth it even without the costumes- all the ceilings had paintings on them, and the rooms themselves were amazing. I kept saying to everyone, "Okay, let's do a role-playing game. That's your house (pointing to the palace) and this is your backyard. Go."

After the gardens, we stopped at a caffe and got some really great (and inexpensive) panini. We head over to the Uffize Gallery, knowing full well tht we wouldn't be able to get in. However, the couryard of the Gallery is lined with statues of famous Italians (Dante, Vespucci, Da Vinci, Michaelangelo, etc.) so it was fun to see how many people I recognized. Afer that was the Loggia del Lanzi, which was the original home of Michelangelo's David. Now there's just a lame reproduction (the original is now in the Galleria dell'Accademia) but there are several other statues, including works by Donatello. I pretty much peed my pants running around to each of them, since sculptures are my favorite art form. I'm pretty sure I took enough pictures to fill about ten art hsitory textbooks, and even then the photos don't capture what it's like to see them in person. Suffice it to say, it was definitely worth the stop.

After that, we headed over to the Church of San Lorenzo, not to go into the actually church (which I eventually want to do) but to go to the Medici Chapels. This was the one thing that I knew I absolutely had to do while I was in Florence or I would have kicked myself. What had initially spike my interest was the fact that one of the Chapels included several of Michaelangelo's sculptures. Can I just say...whoa. I didn't realize that the chapel I wanted to see wasn't the main Chapel, so when I walked in I was confused for about half a second until my jaw completely fell off my face and bounce along the marble floor. The place was gorgeous. And HUGE. Can you imagine being so gosh darn rich that you could say to yourself, "Hell, I'm gonne build a ridicuously large and beautilful chapel to bury my dead family members in. By the way, Michaelangelo, chisel me some sculptures. Kthanksbye." The main chapel is made with red and green marble and contains six tobms- all of which are humogous. Off of te main chapel was a smaller room which contained quite an array of Holy Relics- i.e. the bones of saints. That's kind of a big thing here- wait for someone to do somethign really holy, then die, and cut off a part of their body, put it in a really pretty container, and display in your church.

Anyway, I was itching to see me some Michaelangelo, so I took one last look at the main chapel and ran off (literally) to find the second, much smaller (and simpler) chapel. And Oh. My. God. Absolute beauty. It was so much simpler thatn the main chapel, but no less astounding. The room contains 9 statues in total, four of which are the sculptures Night, Day, Dawn, and Dusk, all my Michaelangelo and all unfinished- Michaelangelo left Florence before he was finished becasue he was fed up with the political turmoil that was going on. Even still, despite the lack of fnished, the scupltures are amazing and completely worth the 7 euro I paid to get in. I honestly would consider going back. No joke.

So I've got 3 of several things to do in Florence crossed off my list. I definitely plan on going back (it's so close, so how could I not?) to do the Uffizi, the Accademia, the Duomo, and probably the Duomo Museum and the Bargello (sulptures galore!).

Pictures wil be coming soon- it's getting alte and I need to get up early for class tomorrow. Until then, I'm goign to work on putting together a list of gelato flavors I've tried (my goal is to try everything at least once before I start repeating flavors). I also have a few other projects in mind, but they're not worth talking about here because it would be too hard to explain. Until next time, buona notte.

---
I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.
~ Michaelangelo

Rain, rain, go away...

It smells like Vermont when it rains here. One might ask, "Why the hell would she know what Vermont smells like?" Well, I used to go camping there, and I've always associated a very damp, cold scent with those memories. It smells like that when it rains and therefore it has been smelling like Vermont for the past few days due to the amount of rain we have been having.

It's actually kind of nice. It's been giving us a break from the eternal heat that seems to bear down upon the Villa, although it did make us cancel our Saturday morning hike- we were supposed to take a hike through this old chestnut forest that's kept up by San Franciscan monks. Cool, huh? Too bad it didn't happen.

Despite the hike being canceled, we did have a rather enjoyable weekend. First of all, it was the first time in a week that my body was properly functioning, due to the extreme decrease in muscle soreness. Well, let's start with Thursday night. We had a cabaret, and it was lovely to see so many people show off their stuff, and even lovelier to see some people do things that were sligtly out of their element- like one of the music students doing a dramatic reading of Dr. Seuss' One Fish, Two Fish. My friends and I did an interpretive dance to Alanis Morisette's 'Ironic', and we've been talking about starting a musical improv group. And then, we had a toga party. Yes...togas. It seemed appropriate, being in Italy and all.
And yes, I am wearing my Little Mermaid towel as a toga. Be jealous.

Friday night was rather uneventful. We were supposed to watch La Vita E' Bella but everyone was being loud so I left early. Instead I went on to of the Teatrino (one our the theatre studio spaces) and tried to take some pictures of the lighting- it had stopped raining at this point, but there was some sweet lightning going on up in the sky.









Cool, huh?

Saturday, like I said, was the date of the non-hiking trip, so some friends and I spent the down in town. There was supposed to be a circus-type thing, but that was half-cancelled because of the rain, so instead we played with all the cool circus toys and showed off some of our sweet acrobatics.

Sunday was mildly uneventful. We got dinner at this restaraunt called Buca di San Francesco, which is in the basement of some building and all the walls are covered in frescos. Nifty, huh? Anyway, we ordered our food, thinking we were just getting entrees. however, our order also inclused a bread salad- a Tuscan specialty- and some dessert wine. Yum.

Again, if ya'll want pictures, you have two options...Facebook fiends can go here and here, while all the non-creepers can go to my Webshots here.

---
All was silent as before -
All silent save the dripping rain.
~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

My body hurts.

I had to act like a monkey today. And I HATE monkeys. In the past two days, my classes have forced me to deal with two of my fears: pregnancy and monkeys. What are the chances?!


Today I woke up feeling like every inch of my body was rebelling against any kind of movement- something I was not alone in. Due to a combination of walking up and down hills for the past four days and being in class for the past two days, everyone is sore like the dickens. Well, at least the theatre kids are. Everyday I look at the music kids and wonder why they're not wearing more comfortable clothes and tell them that they're lucky that they aren't as sore as the rest of us...then I remember that that they have to sit at desks all day. heh heh heh. Not that I don't enjoy music- I'm minoring in it!- but I wouldn't give up what I'm doign for anything in the world right now.

Can I just give you all a direct quote from my movement teacher? Today she says to us (in reaction to us being sore), "Go easy on yourselves today..." and then proceeds to have us hold downward facing dog for about tens minutes, lunge for a nother ten minutes, do handstands, and roll over each others backs from a kneeling position, and carry each other around on our backs. Personally, I couldn't consider that 'going easy'. But I'm totally okay with that, because that's what I like most about this program- it's challenging me and making me push myself harder than I've ever wanted to push myself before. Not that I've ever had motivational problems when it came to theatre, but being knowing that I need to push myself harder to achieve my goals just excites me. Or maybe I just like being sweaty and sore. You choose.

Kevin's class today was nice. We did a lot of partner massaging, which was definitely appreciated. But that's not the part hat stick out in my mind. The part that sticks out in my mind is the part WHERE HE MADE ME ACT LIKE A GORILLA. We were doing a call-and-response vocal improv, where one person would do something and the others would have to respond to it. Well, my turns comes up, and I ended up making these really deep, dopey kind of sounds and was bent over and letting my arms flail around and DING! Kevin gets this grand idea to make me act like a gorilla. He calls up one of the other people and has up improv together, and I nearly cried. I used to love monkeys, but now they kind of creep me out (thanks a lot, Dean Koontz). Anyway, we did out little improv, and it actually turned out okay! I was able to put aside my dislike for monkeys, and we actually had a really great moment where we were fighting over food and pantomimed eating it all, then turned around to the other kid like "Oops...I don't know where it all went!" He then proceeded to pick me up and march me aroudn the room. My gorilla self was not pleased.

We ended the class with an African lullaby, which was sooooo pretty. It kind of sounded like a Gregorian Chant, and when we sang it in cannon we ended up with these really haunting and dossonant harmonies. Anyway, he had us separate into our groups and aget as far away from the other groups as we could...my group went into the bathroom. We started singing and moving across the room (as if we were nomads roaming through the desert). I was worried that I wouldn't be able to sing my part, becaise we were still singing in cannon and I tend to have trouble with harmonies and what not, but I was surprised that I could more or less carry y own weight.

Italian is still kind of daunting, but everyone in the class is at different levels (even thought we all have at least some experience in the language). I jsut hope I remeber eough by the time we start workign with Marcello next week, since he speaks zero English (although apprently he knows the word for 'water' and is very proud of himself for knowing). Other than that, I am super excited to work with him, since (from what I've heard) he's pretty much insanely good at what he does.

Right-o. Time for bed. Buona notte, i miei bambini.

---
Many of our fears are tissue-paper-thin, and a single courageous step would carry us clear through them.
~ Brendan Francis