Took off from the airport in Sacramento at 12:oo am on Wednesday morning and got to JFK at 7:00 am leaving me 14 some hours of layover before taking the next flight to Rome. It wasn't so bad. I basically slept in the terminal and read a lot. Then after we got to Rome I took another flight to Florence and by the time we got there it was about 3:30 in the afternoon. So, basically I hadn't slept for two days or something of that nature and as consequence I was ready to fight an army of dragons to get to bed. However, to try and fight the jet lag I forced myself to go out, get something to eat and go see some of florence, and then crash at 6. The first thing i noticed was right when I stepped out of my apartment and turned the corner I was in front of a massively huge building. Turns out it was the duomo. If you have never seen the thing, it is fricking huge and towers over the entire city. After being mesmerized for a good hour I got something to eat and then went to sleep.
The next day I woke up and went to market with my room mates. My room mates are great people, but I am a bit of a loner sometimes so we all split up when we got to market. Now Italian market is kind of like going to farmers market in Davis, except everyone speaks Italian there, and it is everyday. I got to show off what little Italian I know, and bought some groceries to last me a couple days. After I was finished buying groceries I went to orientation for classes, which was incredibly boring but lasted an unbelievably long time. Before I knew it it was 8 pm and I was beat and ready for bed.
The next day I made it my mision to do STUFF. So I started off by going to the top of the duomo, which as fore mentioned is HUGE so it consequently took a while, and saw the entire city from the top of this massive building. The big treat was really getting to look at the paintings on the inside of dome. My dear god they were amazing. All the figures where in ideal human male and female proportions and they were HUGE figures and there was so much to take in all at once my head nearly snapped off from looking up and spinning my head around so much. I took some pictures but it doesn't do it justice. It is amazing how the artist had to take into account every aspect of how the viewer was looking at the pictures and how large and scaled they would have to make it for anyone to even see the paintings. Once I had my fill of nerding out on pretty pictures I went to the Uffizi and the central square where I saw amazing art. I got to see the copy of David in the plazo (which I thought was real at first, so I got that genuine surprised and amazed feeling) and Perseus slaying Medusa which I wrote about in a paper and was the most amazing thing to see in person. I also say the Primavera, the Birthing of Venus, and some other pictures that I knew from studying art history last year. After 5 hours of wandering around Florence I decided to head back and nap. It was a good life decision.
Sunday I decided not to do anything because I was becoming a bit overwhelmed by everything around me suddenly changing all at once and I needed some time to adjust. I stayed in and read all day, which really gave me comfort. I found that when I start freaking out in a new place it helps to find something in your life that can't change and hold onto that for a little while. Like facebook, or reading, or drinking yourself into a coma. Anything to make you feel like you are still within the norm of your day.
That leads into today. I woke up around 7, worked out, went to market again and got to show off my fancy speaking skills, which is always fun, and got ready for class at one. I am taking painting 1 from 1-8 and I absolutely hate painting. I can't see colors which makes things frustrating but also there are so many techniques and styles that I simple haven't learned yet that it becomes a confusing mess that I don't want to deal with. The teacher did not make anything better. I have never met a man with the ability to talk and mumbling on so long that it takes him 5 hours to go over the syllabus. Either he is really insecure about his teaching abilities or he just really loves to hear himself talk, I'm thinking the latter. Anyway, that is what I spent my day on and now I am tired, so it is off to bed. More updates to come. NIGHT MOM.
No comments:
Post a Comment