How many steps can you climb in one weekend?...or, a Jew's weekend in Rome

Last weekend four other people on my program and I flew down to Rome for a our three day weekend. Our flight left late Thursday night and we wondered around Rome until about 1 a.m. until we found our cleverly named, although not as cleverly located, Sunshine Hostel. It was a late night considering we had 8:30 a.m. reservations for the Vatican the next morning. Getting reservations was the best decision ever. It was only 4 extra euro and we already had discounted tickets because we are students under age 26. So we got to skip the weaving line that was already too long at 8:30 a.m., zip through security, and weasel on into Vatican city. This was our route through the Vatican:

So first we went through a bunch of museums with fragmented sculputres, stone heads and limbs, etc. Shawn's observation: "God there is a lot of shit in here." No better way to put it. Then we weaved between the overflowing tour groups through the tapestry room, under elaborate and exquisite ceilings, walking on mosaic floors and past many images of Jesus and shops selling rosaries and other souveneirs. Here is a beautiful mosaic floor and an example of just one intricate ceiling.


The Vatican museums then tooks us through the Raphael room which was pretty much a dream come true. Two of my traveling companions and I had just studied "The School of Athens" in our Leonardo da Vinci Art History class so we looked for all the different mathematicians and philosphers that we had discussed. Then Patrick and I took a picture in front of it to prove our presence.

You can see just how gigantic the "School of Athens" really is here. All of the Raphael rooms were pretty extroadinary but the constant new testament images/scenes were really starting to overwhelm me. We did get to see "St. Jerome" by Leonardo da Vinci as well though, which is apparently rarely on display, and we had just studied this unfinished painting in class. Soon after we stumbled into the Modern Art wing of the Vatican. I had no idea the Vatican even had a Modern art collection!!! This was super exciting. I saw Braque, Rivera, Fontana (of course), Klee, Chagall, among others. I even got to see a piece by an artist that was friends with my mom when we lived in Houston. I had no idea that the Vatican had a piece by her! That was a pretty cool painting to stumble upon. Little claim to fame. After this we weaved into the Sistine Chapel. In here we were not allowed to take pictures. My head almost snapped of my neck from leaning up for so long. The figures on the ceiling really looked like they were about to jump out at us. It was so incredible. And of course we saw the heaven/hell wall, "Creation of man," and all the rest. We actually went through it twice due to its awesomeness. Then we went to St. Peters and climbed the Basiclica which likes 800 steps or something and cost 5 euros. Halfway up we were inside the dome, walking around the inside to see the mosaics and the paintings and architecure, and then the next part of climbing almost gave me an claustrophobia-induced panic attack. The stairs were SO narrow and then they curved so walls curved so it felt like building was curving in on you. Definately started hyper-ventilating a little bit and I wasn't sure how I was going to make it. But we finally made to the top of the Cupola and stepped outside. Here is us (minus Kathleen) at the very top with an exquisite view of the Vatican and Rome.

After that we climbed back down, successfully with no full on anxiety attacks, and went into the bascilica itself. That was pretty incredible. It was so packed full of tourists from everywhere, so many different languages, so many tour guides. The paintings and architecture were mind blowing. I can't even describe it. We also got to see Michaelangelo's "Pieta."

After we went to the Vatican we found lunch nearby and walked around a bit through this confusing labrynth of castle-area and across the river. We decided to make our next ultra-touristy destination the Colosseum. No one successfully stole any rocks, unforuntately.

The Colosseum was really awesome and it was beautiful weather so we took lots of awesome pictures, sat on various shaped rocks to rest our sleepy feet, and imagined all sorts of bloody gladiators roaring through the theater. After this we went through a forum which was basically mounds of old rocks and ruins and lots of beautiful trees. Here I am climbing around the ancient bricks and being pensive aka resting amongst the beauty.

After strolling leisurely through the forum, we took the metro back to Sunshine Hostel to shower and rest. It had been a long day of walking, sightseeing, and being expert tourists. We went out to dinner after this and followed up with a bottle of wine at the Trevi Fountain and at the Spanish Steps, jam packing our day with tourist activities.

On Saturday we slept in until about 10:30 and got up to to go to the Pantheon. This was pretty awesome as well, feeling all centered by classical architecture and all. More and more and more Christian imagry and celebration. Because of this, after lunch, I begged my fellow travelers to accompany me to the Jewish Ghetto. They obliged but we barely got to see anything besides the outside of the buildings because it was Saturday, Shabbat, and EVERYTHING was closed. Bad timing. After this, Gloria went back to the hostel because she wasn't feeling so well. Shawn and Patrick and I continuted to tour some beautiful churches, saw the "Ecstasy of Theresa" and huge, monumental buildings. I don't even know the name of everything we saw. I found some more gifts. Exhausted, we finally headed back to the hostel for a nap before dinner. We took the train to a new neighborhood we hadn't explored yet near the Espana metro stop and found a pizzeria for dinner. After his we split a bottle of wine by the traditional entrance to the city of Rome. We had an early night because we had to get up at 3:30 am to catch a shuttle to airport to get on a plane at 6:50 am. Weekends are no longer a time to catch up on sleep.

Rome was incredibly touristy but really great. The entire time I tried to decide if Rome would have been a better place to study abroad than Milan. Although I am not in love with Milan, I don't think the overwhelming touristy-ness of Rome would have really been my thing, either. It was an incredible weekend jam-packed with all sorts of art I'd been studying for years and never thought I'd get to see in person. Even if it was all, of course, suffocatingly about the New Testament. I returned to my apartment in Milan around 9:15 in the morning and slept from then until 3:30 in the afternoon.

A Weekend of Day Trips, or Gray Days in Bologna and Padua

This past weekend I cut down on the cost of hostels and airfare by staying in Milan and taking two day trips. On Saturday I went to Bologna with two girls from my program that I hadn't traveled with before. It was really fun, minus the gray and the cold and the drizzle. When we got off the train we found a book fair with all sorts of books, art books, music books, novels, how-to guides, recent books, and old nice smelling books. They even sold one euro records! After the book fair in a white tent, we wondered into a really nice park with some awesome statues, especially turtle statues sitting in the middle of a man made non-fountain circle of water. It was in this great park with cruchy golden leaves that we stumbled into a massive market. This is when I realized I really liked Bologna, it was the most like Seattle. People spoke Spanish to me, sold all sorts of Mexican-type goods (wondering where that influence came from...) and then tapestries and scarves from India, lots of stands with earrings for all sorts of body parts, a couple booths for hairwraps, and then a plethora of general clothes and shoes stands. A lot of it was really cheap, 1 euro for scarves and jewlry. I got a couple presents but besides that was quite proud of my ability to refrain from spending. We got lunch at a little coffee bar and found an awesome CD store that had a fairly extensive American indie/rock section including such hits as Broken Social Scene, Born Ruffians, The National, and Tokyo Police Club. Helllz yeah! After a little while of wandering through gorgous architecture and a million arches, it began to drizzle so we headed back to the train station and hopped on a train back to Milano.

Today, Sunday, my roommate and I left bright and early on a 9:30 AM train to Padua. I had made reservations for us to see the Scrovegni Chapel where Giotto's frescos are...the beginnings of Renaissance art history. When we got to Padua, it was quite chilly and gray and we got a map and some falafel. Finally food with some spicey-ness! So delicious. And definately practiced our Italian. Then we wondered over to the Chapel and attatched museum to pick up our tickets. Then sent us through this multimedia center to gather information on the chapel. Most of it my professor had just lectured about in my art history class last Monday. Then we went and waited outside the chapel. Its pretty intense there. You have a reservation for a specific time and then you go into this glass room for 15 minutes where they show you another video of history and bits about restoration while they restore the temperature to the appropriate degree. After this you're allowed to enter, but only for 15 minutes! Inside the chapel there is someone to watch the time and someone to talk about the different panels and point out specifics. Unfortunately this person only spoke in Italian. The Scrovegni Chapel is very small but absolutely stunning. It really is bright, bright, bright blue!!! The panels are stunning, so many stories, the depiction of hell is overwhelming, the opposites and the juxtapositions of virtues and bible stories...aahhh!!! Unfortunately there was some we couldnt see due to a bit of scaffolding in front of one of the windows and limited areas where you are allowed to walk. I am so glad I went though. Such a huge art history moment for me. I think I've studied this in art history classes since high school!!! After visiting the Scrovegni Chapel we visited other parts of the museum, lots of archeology and then lots of religious paintings and portraits. You know...art from the 1400-1700's. After this we wondered around through the cold for a while, found the duomo, lots of amazing architecture. Padua is really interesting architecturaly because there is medieval architecture, Renaissance, French influenced, and even some Moor influenced! Crazy. Saw plaques that would say things like "Dating back to 1107..." and stuff like that. I really liked it. There were a few food markets but for the most part everything was closed due to it being Sunday afternoon. Ah well. Still a great day, despite shivering. Around 6 pm we headed back to Milan.

And now another week of classes and work awaits...

An Artsy Fartsy Week in Milano

This past week, my study abroad program IES gave us tickets to go see the ballet "Onegin" at La Scala! Big deal since La Scala is this super famous, beautiful, and historical opera house in the center of Milano. Since opera isn't so much thing, I hadn't planned on even walking into this prestigious place of performance. I don't think I would ever go out of my way to pay for tickets to the opera, even at La Scala. But a ballet, I was totally up for this ballet with music by Tchaichovsky. And boy was I in luck, this ballet even has a gun shot!!! It was all about revenge and love and stealing women's hearts and the like. I liked it, I loved watching the dancing...I haven't watched dancing in so long. I used to watch dancing all the time, at least three times a week, in person. Even if the music and style and level of competancy was on a totally different end of the spectrum. Of course me being me I couldn't stop thinking about when the dancers last injured themselves and if they were dancing on injuries and what countries they were from and how many times they had danced that ballet and how long they studied ballet and the competition to get to perform in La Scala. Then I started thinking about ballet as a possible epitome for all things graceful, delicate, and cultured. But this is only one perspective on all these traits, how Western civilization dictates what is considered good and bad, classy and trashy, through out most of the world. And then I started thinking about how based in Western civilization my education in the humanities is. Art history and all the Jesus and Mary's, all the literature and poetry I study written by Americans and Europeans...it just all seems like one piece of the pie that too much of the world eats from. I want another perspective. I am prisoner to ideals and values and to the making of Western civilization's history. I'm not sure this is what I want. Anyways, here is a picture of me and my friend inside La Scala.

Then on Wednesday I went to the Castello Sforza with my Renaissance art history class to look at a ceiling painted by Leonardo da Vinci for the Sfroza family. No one really knows exactly what the room was used for since the French came in shortly after and painted over it and the room probably wasn't used for whatever its purpose was for very long. Then we saw a sculputre by Michaelanglo of Mary and Jesus which is this really cool sculputre where Mary has a face and a half and her leg is showing in what would be considered a scandalous way and it almost looks like Jesus is holding her up instead of Mary carrying Jesus. All very interesting. This is the kind of art history class I came to Italy to take...best field studies ever.

On Friday, it was my RA and my roommate's birthdays so we had a short celebratory lunch before my RA went home to Verona and my roommate took off for her weekend trip. Then my other flatmate and I went to the Piazza Reale to see an exhibit on Dali. This exhibit was interesting and definately included work spanning many decades. We saw the lips couch and the statue with the fur on it and one of his videos in addition to many paintings. Dali isn't my favorite and the exhibit was very stylistic, fitting for an exhibit on Dali I suppose, but I'm very glad I went.

After a little more than a month living in Milano...

So I've been here for a little over a month now and still can barely speak Italian, only just a found a teaching position, have visited two other countries besides Italy, have only been in class for 2.5 weeks and use the currency convertor online everyday. I'm trying to diversify my diet but my cooking skills are mainly limited to pasta, cheese and pesto sandwiches, eggs, and veggie burgers. Ryanair is my new best friend. I miss my true, long-term friends desperately. I can barely interact with Italians due to my severely and disabling limited Italian. I've learned to really dislike the discothecas a.k.a. the clubs. I've been really inspired to write character sketches, poems, etc. I miss Shabbat dinner and the convenience of a college campus. I miss blues dancing so much. I miss real conversation and my professors. My professors here are just so-so. I miss not having to buy water when you go out to eat (which I almost never do anyways).

I love being around so much history all the time. I love the Alps. I love gelato. I love the field studies in my Leonardo da Vinci art history classes. Every Wednesday we have class on some site of historical importance. Last Wednesday we went to the church where the Last Supper is housed, Santa Maria della Gracia, and talked about the dome designed by Bramante. Today we are going to Castello Sforza and looking at a fresco by da Vinci. This kind of art history class is the main reason I chose to study in Italy. I love the freedom of traveling around Europe, even just around Italy and the Lombardia province.

They say traveling abroad is like U. You begin elated, amazed, and in awe of the culture you are exploring. Then you start to sink a little bit, missing the comforts of home and familiar cultural norms. What I miss are the people I trust and feel connected to and unfortunately they are all back in the States. By December, the theory says, I'll have fallen in love with Italy and will be resistant to leaving. So we shall see.

Quirks I've noticed about Italy thus far:

1. Parking. Cars will often park half on the street and half on the sidewalk. If you're lucky. I have definately seen some cars parked entirely on the sidewalk. Makes for a weaving walk to class many mornings!

2. When you go out to eat in America, water is complimentary with just sitting down. Not here. You have to order it and its bottled water and then you have to pay for it.

3. The elevators. They have a door on the floor, doors in the elevator, and its all manual. Often you can see the floors as you pass up and down because the walls of the elevator are glass or even mere screens.

4. Pineapple and avocados are really expensive.

5. Vespas. Everywhere. More than just a stereotype.

6. Speaking of stereotypes, gestures are definately part of the Italian language. Confirmation was learning particular ones and their meanings in my Italian language class.

7. McDonalds is everywhere.

8. Coffee culture. But I've already written about that extensively.

9. Wine is really cheap at the grocery store. And I'm definately developing a strong affinity for wine, red and white.

10. There are no dryers. The washing machine in my apartment takes about two hours and then you have to hang up your clothes on a drying rack to dry. Makes me appreciate the poor dryers at UPS that barely dried your clothes...but at least you could get your clothes to shrink back again.

There are definately more I just can't think of them right now.

pictures from Barcelona

This is one of the performance artists on La Rambla.

Cultivating a Love for Gaudi and Sangria, or a Weekend in Barcelona and Reus

This past weekend three girls in my program and I ventured to Barcelona. Our journey began at 3:30 am last Friday morning as we trekked across the city, past trench-coat wearing prostitutes and schizophrenic bag ladies, drag queens and pimps, to catch our shuttle to the airport. Our flight was at 7 in the morning and it was still dark outside when our plane left Milan. We arrived, yawning and incoherent, at the Barcelona airport and by 9:30 or so we arrived, sweaty messes, at our hostel and very eager to check in and shower. However, our room wasn't ready until 1 p.m. so we dropped our stuff off and went to find breakfast and Starbucks. Starbucks might be my favorite part of traveling outside Italy because that venti Pike's Place roast seems to be the only thing to adequately caffeinate me...or at least satisfy some inkling of homesickness. Our hostel was located near the University of Barcelona and the Museum of Contemporary Art. After breakfast we went to the museum which was just as pretentious and confusing as any contemporary art museum maybe. The really exciting part, for me at least, was to see a Lucio Fontana painting. According to my modern art history professor, Lucio Fonatana is THE defining artist of the Italian spatial concept movement/explorartion. I had just had an entire 2 hour lecture on this one dude the previous day so it was pretty neat to just stumble upon one of his canvases with holes poked into it.

Finally it was time for us to check into the hostel. Oh, this hostel was a trip. The door person was really late for check-in and there was a group of probably 10 of us waiting for him to come back. We were really exhausted since we had woken up a little before 3:30 am and dying for a nap and a shower. Finally we made it to our room where there was a Finnish dude on his computer. We introduced ourselves and he told us he was a chef at a restraunt and hadn't found an apartment in Barcelona yet. Good thing he introduced himself as a chef because about 15 minutes later, while we're all lying on our beds contemplating sleep, he pulls out a set of knives and begins sharpening them. SCARY. I mean, I know he's a chef and all but couldn't he have gone in to work early to sharpen his knives? I mean four young girls had just walked into the room. Needless to say, I couldn't fall asleep until after he had left for work.

Later that afternoon we walked down La Rambla which is the big shopping and tourist street with postcard/souveiner stands, performance artists, and McDonalds. After oggling the performance artists ability to be perfectly still until someone gives them money and clasping our purses tightly to ensure our wallets' return to Milan, we took the metro to Guell Park. Guell Park is the park designed by Gaudi with the longest bench in the world!!! I had gone here with my mother and brother when we biked through Catalonia when I was 16 but I really liked this park so it was nice to come back. Unfortunately the day was rather overcast. We walked/climbed around for a bit, took lots of pictures, goofed off, etc and around 7 or so we headed back to try and find tapas for dinner. We went to a little place near our hostel and unfortunately vegetarian tapas are pretty limited, at least at the more inexpensive places. I ended up eating a lot of potatos and Spanish omlettes all weekend. But the sangria was soooo delicious. I think I would go back to Spain just for the sangria. And probably to see the Alhambra.

On Saturday, we got up and left at 10 to check out of our hostel. We still stored our stuff there and then I split off from my travel companions. They had signed up for a bike tour but hadn't told me until after I had packed up and arrived at their apartment Thursday night before our early flight Friday and all I had packed were skirts and dresses. Not my favorite biking attire. So they went off on their bike tour and, after my venti Pike's Place roast, I went to the National Museum of Catalan Art. I saw a huge amount of Romansque pieces, room after room of gold and Jesus and Mary and tryptichs (sp?) and pre-linear perspective scenes. But I also got to see some of Picasso's cubist portraits and I got to see a portrait by Goya. I think this might have been the first time I saw a Goya in person. I'm glad I went. Afterwards, I tried to find the Miro museum but got kind of lost and ended up wandering through some beautiful gardens and ran out of time. It was really nice to go around on my own, however. It gave me a chance to think and decompress and just be myself without having to worry about all that stuff I worry about when I'm with other people. The previous week had been really crazy and especially Thursday and travelling had been really rushed and thus rather stressful. After the museum, I met back up with my travel companions and we went to retrieve our stuff from the hostel, got dinner, and caught a train to Reus.

We had booked our outbound plane from Reus because it had been a less expensive flight but what we didn't realize was just how far Barcelona and Reus are from each other. So we caught an 8:00 train to Reus in order to spend the night there and catch our early plane. Reus is a very, very small town and there isn't much going on. Around 11 or so we ventured out to try and explore and we found a piazza with some restraunts. Two of my travel compananions ordered paella and I got some more potato based tapas and we split some delicious sangria.

I really like Barcelona, I really love the organic and flowing Gaudi architecture. It was so nice to be able to speak Spanish instead of Italian, although I definately started to confuse the two due to their similiarities. I wish I had gotten to visit more of the Gaudi architecture I saw my first trip to Barcelona with my family and I wish I had been able to go to the Miro museum because I really like Miro. However, the biggest challenge of any overnight trip is saving money. Eeek.

Oktoberfest, or a reminder of my distate for cliche frat life

This past week was the start of classes and its definately been a shock and an adjustment to get back into the academic state of mind. On Mondays I have class from 9-10:30 and then from 1:30-7:30. Thats six hours of straight class in the afternoon. Most other days I have four hour blocks of class. I am take Italian still. I am not quite sure what to make of my new classes yet. But I already have an essay due Thursday for my Modern Art hist class. Yikes. I am excited for the Photography class, however. I am excited for assignments and to go out and be working creatively with a camera again. The focus of this photo class is much more on the digital world and photojournalism and the use of photography in communications and media. It made me really miss the craziness of photography at lab, coming in during free periods to work in the darkroom and to appreciate the magic of film and the darkroom itself. This will definately be a different perspective on photography. I have heard that IES classes aren't challenging but I guess I'll just have to wait and see. I just hope I can keep traveling as much now that I have homework and papers and the like.


This past weekend I went to Munich for Oktoberfest with a group of international students at the business University in Milan called Bocconi. We left on Friday night from the main castle in Milan and drove all night through Switzerland and Germany. We all had a rough sleep on the bus with crooked necks and stiff backs. We arrived in Munich around 6:30 am on Saturday morning, crusty eyed and, at least I was, cranky. We went on a search for a bakery to find breakfast and by 9:30 am we were in line to get into the first tent. It was a bright, gray day of white clouds and a bit chilly with scattered showers. Entrance into the festival is free I think we had our first beer a little before 11, after searching, pushing, and waiting in lines that were shaped more like mobs. We made friends with some Australians who sat down next to us with crazy, huge felt hats. In the early afternoon, we wandered around the festival for a while. The best way I can describe Oktoberfest is carnival meets frat party meets german costume party. It seemed like frat boy heaven. Beer beer beer, food, girls in drindles and men in leederhausen (sp??), beer, and carnival rides. The rides baffled me a little bit because combining spinning, upside rides and roller coasters with a bunch of drunk people just seemed like a recipie for vomit. But a lot of families bring their young kids, as well. I definately saw some 6 year olds in the beer tents. So I guess it makes a little bit of sense.




Honestly, the entire festival baffles me a little bit. Maybe its because no matter how hard I try, I don't like beer. Maybe its because I'm not much of one for crowds or getting pushed around in mob-mentality ridden festivals. Maybe its because I still cannnot suscribe to the general objectification of women that reaches a whole new extreme when you add revealing versions of traditional German dress and drunk men together (although the objectification definately goes both ways, plenty of women are guilty of it, too). Or maybe I just got bored by noon of the whole scene or maybe I was just too exhausted from being undercaffeinated and having not slept very well on a bus and waking up way too early.




Around two in the afternoon, we left the festival to try and explore what of Munich was in walking-distance from Oktoberfest. Soon after exiting the festival, we saw a Starbucks cup sitting on a trash and went into a hotel to ask where the nearest one was. Strange that we would be so desperate to find an American coffee change admist a celebration of German culture, right? All I wanted was a strong cup of coffee and the familiar interior decorating that is identical to most other Starbucks. I never thought I would find so much comfort in Pike's Place roast and the signature wall paper. We rested in this American setting for a little while, gathering our strength and developing a game plan, soaking up the setting. I'm not sure if this trip to Starbucks calmed down my underlying homesickness or caused it to spike up. But I never thought I would be so happy to find a Starbucks. I guess you have to understand that coffee culture is so different in Italy that I doubt there is even a Starbucks in this entire country. I have yet to see one in Milan and Milan is basically the NYC of Italy. Here in Italy, you walk up to the bar and down your espresso shot and drink your morning cappucino with a brioche in your other hand while still standing at the bar. The giant, complicated drinks in to-go cups that we cherish in America do not seem to exist in Italy.


After Starbucks, we walked up and down what turned out to be a major shopping street in Munich. We saw a couple giant old buildings that are probably churches of some kind with gothic architecture. We went into the craziest department store that had a "Havana Bar" in their coats section. They were selling cocktails for 2,50 and had salsa dancers twirling in the aisles. It was the craziest thing ever. We even tried on drindles (picture below). We found the oldest brewery in Germany: Hofbrauhaus. We got dinner at a cheap, middle-eastern place and around 9 headed back to Oktoberfest. Exploring Munich was way more fun than the actual festival and I'm glad that we got a chance to do that, especially since I had never been to Germany before. In the back of my head, though, I couldn't stop thinking about how I was walking on land that Jews, my own family members, were forbidden from walking on just a little more than 60 years ago. It was so strange to think about the history of Germany, how most of where I was walking had probably been bombed out. I wondered what it would mean to German Jews of the 30's to know that Jews now walked on and lived in the very country that had murdered them. It was just strange remembering that every now and then throughout the day. I consciously made sure not to tell anyone that I was Jewish. I didn't know what kind of reaction I would get.


After returning to the festival, we walked around some more and found another tent to sit down near. We made some German and Dutch friends and around 11 we left to go back to our bus. The bus took the group of us to a hotel just 45 minutes outside the city. We left the next morning around 10:15 and, although it was a long day on the bus, since it was actually daytime for the drive we got to see the Alps. So beautiful. So many rivers and creeks run beside them. At one point I looked out the window and saw a hardcore, decked out biker speeding along on a bike path and I thought about all the biking through Europe my family used to do. So now I am back in Milan catching up on class readings and generally trying to gear up for a week of classes.