My drawings from Italy

So these really have nothing to do with Italy. One night we watched The Hobbit and I was inspired to draw some Hobbit Holes!

The last two are not finished yet.  I will update when I get  a chance to finish them.

Reflection on my time in Rome

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When I found out that there was the opportunity to go to Rome I jumped at the chance because Italy has always been a place I have wanted to go. My sister and I actually squealed at each other and then waffled back and forth about whether or not we should do it about ninety times before we sent an email off to say we were very interested in going. I still have the email from Meg telling me when the information session was going to be. It was really fun telling all my coworkers that I was going to a meeting about going to Rome for school. Moving forward to our first meeting as the “Rome Group”.  We met at Zeppo’s for wine and really yummy food for more details about our trip. It was the first time we had all met as a group. I could tell from the get go we were going to be a fun group because there was a lot of laughing right off the bat. We talked about apartment details and about what we would like to see and do. Time flew by and soon it was time for all of us to meet at the airport. I was a ball of nerves. I kept thinking “I am getting on an airplane to fly to another country!” The longest flight I had ever been on was when I went to Florida and that was only six hours. Nine long hours later we arrived in Amsterdam for a four hour wait for our connecting flight to Rome. We found the most uncomfortable bench in the entire airport and I still can’t believe I fell asleep as fast as I did. Okay I am going to skip to our arrival at Rome’s airport. All I could say was “Holy Smokes I am in ROME!!.” We got off the plane as quickly as we could and made our way to baggage claim to wait for our bags so we could meet Meg and our chariots that would take us to our apartments. I have to say the ride from the airport was am experience. Oregon driving is very different than the way Italians drive and let me tell you I have never been so happy to get to where we were going,

 

Rome was a great city to explore. There was always something amazing to see around every corner.  Beautiful churches with gold ceilings and statues of saints adorning every nook and cranny.  The highlights for me were being able to stand inches from a Bernini statue. My favorite was Apollo and Daphne. I thought that it would be surrounded be glass or roped off so you would have to be feet away. Being able to get that close was like looking at the piece through Bernini’s eyes. Swimming in the Mediterranean Sea was fabulous. My experience with ocean water has always been the cold Pacific Ocean where it takes you half the day to get brave enough to get past your knees. This was like walking into a heated pool. If I was able I would still be there floating. My last highlight was being asked directions by three different strangers on how to get to Trastevere. I felt like I had become Roman because I could tell them what bus to take to get there and back.

 

Rome is an experience I will never forget. I am so grateful that I got to experience everything with such awesome people that I now call my friends.

 

My favorite piece(s) of art…

My favorite pieces(s) of art that I saw in Rome have to be Apollo and Daphne at the Borgese Gallery, Da Vinci’s St. Jerome and St. George and the Dragon by Raphael both from the Vatican Museum. I still am blown away that I could stand literally inches away from each of these pieces. I thought that they would all be surrounded by glass or roped off with feet around them. I was so tempted to touch but I could feel the guards were watching me so I restrained myself.

This statue is a favorite because off the detail and how hard it must have been for Bernini to carve out each leaf. I wish that I could time travel back to watch him work.

 I love Da Vinchi’s work and to be able to see this one was amazing.

  I remember reading a story about St. George and the Dragon when I was little and to see this painting in real life was so awesome!

 

Robert Hughes ROME: Chapter 1

In the first chapter of Hughes’ book” Rome” he talked about the story of how Rome came to be. Romulus and Remus were born but because their mother was a vestal virgin they were thrown into the Tiber River. They were saved by a she-wolf who nursed them back to health. They were later raised by a herdsman into adulthood. The story goes on to tell about how Romulus founded Rome and killed his brother because apparently Remus didn’t like Romulus’ decision on where the city was placed. In my opinion that was not very nice of Romulus to kill his brother and Remus should have started his own city instead of complain. Clearly this story was embraced by everyone in Rome because the she-wolf and the babies’ statue was everywhere. The image was on man hole covers, trash cans, banners, etc. along with S.P.Q.R which means” Senatus Populusque Quiritum Romanorum” which means “The Senate and People of Roman citizens!”

This chapter was a good one to read because it gave me a little history into the story of Rome and how it came to be. I knew a little about ancient Rome from school and television shows, but that story was never talked about. We learned about Julius Cesar and the other Roman Emperors, but nothing about Romulus and Remus. I was pretty excited coming to Rome with that knowledge because I knew something that the Romans know. I want to go and research more into the story now that I am home.

Romulus and Remus and the She-wolf.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Museo Nazionale and Ostia Antica

We went to Museo Nazionale and got to see many awesome sculptures. The highlight was seeing  Boxer at Rest, a really cool bronze sculpture. It was really cool to see it up close, a couple of us got a little to close and we set off a motion sensor. No body came running so it probable happens all the time. The rest of the museum was kind of blah, a lot of busts of people.

Ostia Antica was a really cool ancient Roman town that was a major port back in the day. It was really cool to be able to walk on the ruins. The bath’s of Neptune were really cool because the mosaics on the floors were still there like they were finished yesterday.

 This is Misha, he welcomed us to his town.

 Wagon ruts still visible on the road in the ancient ruins.

beautiful mosaics in The Baths of Neptune

 The amphitheater

 John and Stephanie.

Mosaics in front of some shops. I think that this shop dealt with some kind of shipping.

 another shipping shop.

 grain or bread shop.

 not sure what this shop was, but it was cool.

Nate reading Marcus Aurelius at the amphitheater. It was awesome to hear how clear his voice was. Then a rude French tour guide shooed him off the stage.

BEAUTIFUL view out of Alexander Helix’s house.

a gigantic Aloe Vera plant and it’s friend.

Until my next post. Arrevaderci!

Capitoline Hill and the Forum

This is what I saw today!

Turtle Fountan

Sarcophagus of Hurcules

I want this tiny car!

Just beautiful!

on our way up to Capitoline Hill

View From the top!! I can see the Pantheon!!!

WOW!!

The floors in this church were just gorgeous!

Basilica di Santa Maria in Aracoeli

This  dog was pretty cute

Isn’t this ceiling AWESOME?

This was a really niche off to the side where Bambino Jesu sits at Christmas time.

Romulus and Remus and the She-wolf.

Eating lunch at the cafe by the church. Great sandwiches.

The Forum

More of the Forum

Julius Cesar was burned here after he was assassinated.

Vestal Virgin statues

 

Me as a Vestal Virgin statue. LOL!!!

Basilica of Constantine

The Arch of Titus

OLIVE TREE!!

What an awesome day! We are off to the National Museum tomorrow!

MY ADVENTURES IN ROMA!!! Travel day and first official day!

Today was my first official day in Rome! I’ll get to today in a minute! Let me tell you what went on travel day. Thank goodness for no drama! The flight was long so I had time to watch 3 and a half movies! They were playing Star Trek: Into Darkness! WHOOOO HOO!! We arrived in Amsterdam and that is when it hit me that I had really left the country! We then began out 4 hour wait to get on the plane to Rome. I basically past out on a really uncomfortable bench, but I didn’t care because I was so tired. After our wait we had to go through a security check to get to our gate for our flight to Rome. I was expecting to encounter some cranky people but they were all very nice. I like nice people! Our flight from Amsterdam to Rome was on a jenky plane and the flight attendants were kinda rude. When we finally arrived at the airport and got our bags(they didn’t get lost!) we found our teacher hopped in our vans and headed to our apartments. I have to say that Italian drivers are fearless! I don’t think our driver used his blinker once and he was on his cell phone for half of it! After our crazy drive in we made it to our apartment. It is so cute! we have a small living room, kitchen and two bedrooms and it is on a quiet little street above a small restaurant. we haven’t tried it yet, but it smells really good.

After we got settled we made our way to Santa Maria in Trastevere to meet out classmates for dinner. We got lost about five times before we finally found it. When I walked around the corner my mouth dropped to the street. I didn’t know where to look first. There was a fountain in the middle with masses of people sitting around it and off to the right was  Basilica di Santa Maria in Trastevere with it’s beautiful mosaic at the top with lots if gold glittering in the evening lights. While we waited for our classmates to arrive we decided to go in the church. My jaw hit the floor again. The ceiling was covered in gold and gorgeous paintings and mosaics were everywhere you looked. From the outside I would have never expected to see what was on the inside because it was very dingy except for the glittering mosaic at the top. I am going to wrap this up by saying we had dinner at a cute restaurant ant then we hit the hay! Now on to Saturday!

It started out by waking up at 2:30 PM! I must have been really tired from traveling! Thank goodness we didn’t really have to be anywhere. So we decided to explore a bit and took a hike up a very steep hill, the prize was a fantastic view of the city and a really cool fountain. After that we went and had really good pizza at a restaurant across from the previous nights dinner. We then met everyone for dinner at a restaurant in the Compo de Fiori where we had fantastic food. We started out with antipasti of melon, prosciutto, green apple and a little bit of cheese, beef with a tuna sauce, I tried it and that is branching out for me, we also had Caprese salad. Our main course was Rigatoni with veggies, and Lasagna with sausage and a white sauce. We had an assortment of different desserts as well.

After dinner we made our way over to the Vatican for the Pope’s peace rally. It was amazing! I was really blown away about how many people there were and how quiet it was. Another cool thing was that we got to hear the Pope speak and that was really cool.

That is about it for now! I will post pictures later of everything once I figure out how, if any one know you can let me know in the comments.

Arrivederci!

I wish……….

After reading trough Joe Brainard’s I remember I was inspired to do my on version of his poem thingy =O)

I wish….

I wish I could watch televion

I wish my hair was straight

I wish I could draw and paint for a job

I wish I could work at the zoo

I wish I was in Italy

I wish I were asleep

I wish my headache would go away

I wish I had more chocolate

I wish it were snowing

I wish I had perfect hair

I wish I could live in Italy

I wish I lived in a castle

I wish I could travel the world

I wish I were a cat so I could sleep all the time

I wish I could take care of orphan baby animals

I wish my apartment was bigger

I wish I lived in my own house

I wish I could be thinner than I am now

I wish won the power ball

I wish fairies were real

I wish Hogwarts was real

I wish to have a dog of my own

I wish…………to be continued =oP

My writing prosses

I loved Haley’s post about the writing process so I thought I would add what my writing process is like.   

 I start out looking for information on the world-wide web.

I cry

 mess about with my cats 

surf the web some more….ooooh look Farmville!!!! do some typing cry some more, more typing and more crying and FINALLY…SUCCSESS!!!! MY PAPER IS DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 I then pass out from sheer exhaustion

How Audio Books Saved my School Reading Life!

This term has been the term for reading and I am only taking two classes! I have read the total of eight books! If it wasn’t Audible I  think I would be really behind. I had to read three books for my online class and they were all very depressing. One was about the history of how different cultures got their own food identiy. The second book was Tomatoland: How Modern Industrial Agriculture Distroyed out Most Alluring Fruit, the title really explains what the book is about. Needless to say I will only be eating tomatoes that my Dad grows in his garden during the summer because the way they are being grown to be sold during the winter frankly makes me sick, way to many chemicals being used.

                

The last book I had to read for the class was called Enough, really depressing, it was basically about how Americam agricultire has screwed over farmers in less developed countries by not allowing them to sell their crops to make enough money to feed themselves and thir families. Again I thank Audible for helping me read these books because if audio books didn’t exist I think I would have gotten fired from my job because all I would have been doing was reading. I liked the books Jay assigned because the were a tad bit shorter and a tad bit less depressing =O)