New luggage

Tyler--

 I bought some new luggage today. It's olive green. Here is a picture of it.

Look forward to informative and interesting posts just like this one from me in the future.

-T

It's Happening...

Emily here. The past couple of days, I've been gathering my possessions (clothes, travel supplies, school supplies, electronics, etc.) and putting them in a central place in order to begin packing.  For a while, the spare bedroom in our house looked like a tornado had gone through it, which was a little overwhelming, to say the least.  But eventually, I began packing.  My miscellaneous items were the first things to be packed.  These things included woolite packs, extra toiletries, medicine, and random travel supplies.  That was pretty easy.  They all fit nicely into my small red duffle.  The more challenging aspect was the clothing.  I have a lot of clothes, and I really enjoy all of them, so eliminating was a struggle.  Luckily, most of the places I'll be going are warm, so there weren't any bulky sweaters or pants.  Then, I had to consider what I wanted to wear while my family and I are in the Bahamas and pack it separately from the rest of my clothes (which are currently in space bags).  The elimination process went like this:

What is even happening?  Note: pillow pet (Rafael) is going to stay home. I'll share pictures with him upon my return.










After sorting through my clothes, I came up with what I think is a fair amount to bring on the trip.  You know how "they" always say, "lay out all the clothes you want and then put back half"?  Well, I chose to ignore that because I think it's a load of crap.  (This may prove to be the biggest mistake of my trip). But look!  After all of my efforts, I am packed and possibly ready for my trip:

As you may be able to tell, that's one rolling duffel, a smaller duffel, and a large backpack.  And who is that, peeping out through my luggage?!  Why, that's Buttercup, who will be joining my adventures.  He may show up at some pretty neat places!





Well, I guess that's it for now.  I'm leaving for the Columbus airport at 4:15AM tomorrow, connecting in Atlanta, and then I'll be in the Bahamas!  And I'll probably have a pre-departure post sometime while I'm there.  Catch ya on the flip side!

Partying Partying Woo

It is the weekend after all. But I, Colin, did nothing interesting Friday. Nor today. I'm sick. Oh well, I hope to recover by Monday at least.

This week I finished all of my first week of classes, so I know what to expect, I think. In case you were wondering, that includes Painting, Drawing, Serigraphy (screen printing or silkscreen), Women in the Arts in Italy, and Contemporary Art in Italy and Europe. This is the first time I've had all art-type classes. Feels good. My painting and drawing classes are taught by the same guy, and he seems like a good professor. He's very passionate about the theory of art and the process of art making. Serigraphy looks to be a structureless class, which could be nice considering the rigor of the others. I've always wanted to learn screenprinting; maybe I can make some shirts:) Women in the Arts will be a slow course I think. It seems to be long lectures, lots of them. There are some exciting field trips at least. Contemporary Art feels over my head. Thick, academia-type art theory and complex lectures about the nature of art history.

Here's a view of some rooftops:

It was from the Palazzo Davanzati, a palace from the 14th century. There are several palaces in Florence, mostly museums now, once owned by powerful families. It was unusual for me to see a building that functioned on so many different levels (no pun there). Ground floors for these places were often used for practical purposes, like food storage, or offices or public use of some type. The upper floors held kitchens, living rooms, bedrooms and everything else. There once were battlements on the roof, but it was replaced by a portico covering.

I had pizza this week. Pizza that was really good. It was thin, doughy but crisp around the outside, then gradually more soaked in olive oil toward the center. If it weren't 6 euro I would have it everyday. No regrets with pasta every single day. I will always love pasta.

As I'm still sick, I'll keep watching Zoids (thanks Tyler) and eating cheap cookies from Conad, the supermarket one street from me. One last thing, I love the accessibility here. Coming from subdivisions, where everywhere is inconvenient without a car, I like being able to walk to buy food. It's glad this is a walking city.

See you in the summer.

Sunday Morning Coming Down

Colin - Actually, I woke up Sunday afternoon. I spent much of Saturday night at a friend's apartment, until about 5am. So it's been an easy day. I've really done very little. I purchased this shirt I'm wearing. Go me.

warm and fuzzy, as is my new sweater

Orsanmichele

Duomo

This first weekend went by fast. I've purchased just about everything I need except a bath towel, which I can't find, and which is unfortunate because the old collared shirt I'm using doesn't take moisture well. I learned a little about the politics and history of Italy from a professor, but in my usual lecture fashion I fell asleep midway through. I took a tour with another professor to most of the major monuments of the city.

enjoying the macro food shots

I've noticed Duff Beer is sold at a lot of street carts and convenience stores. Indeed, Duff Beer. I've no idea why. I know only that before coming to Florence, I had no idea someone even made that. It's bizarre because it stands out in the display cases, like a joke to the other beers. Not sure if I should indulge the novelty.

In other news, there's a particular street that caught my attention. Inside the welcome packet SACI gave me, in the personal safety section, is advice #7: Do not walk on Via Sant'Orsola. That's it. No explanation? All I heard was, "bla bla walk on Sant'Orsola." I searched the entire internet, all of it, and found just one reason for the warning. From a forum, "littlefrogling" said:  
There's an odd outcropping of a building that creates a very large blind spot. You will see people walk here in the day, but at night it's best to walk around the block - and the next street over is Via de'Ginori, which has plenty of stores and restaurants that are worth checking out anyway. (BTW - Via Sant'Orsola is basically a public toilet, so besides the safety issue, it can get pretty rank in the hotter months.) 
Maybe I'll take a look in the daytime. I'm curious now.

Well I'm really tired. Can't write more. Have some Kris Kristofferson in the meantime.


Later.

To The West

Hello all, this is Chelsea speaking.  Yesterday was an extremely long day.  I was up at 3:30AM, at the airport by 4:30AM, through security by 5AM... and boarded my first plane at 5:30AM.  From there I flew to Houston, and was on the second plane by 8:50AM (central time).  That plane felt like it lasted forever, however I landed around 11:30AM (pacific time) and I finally arrived at my apartment around 12:30PM yesterday. (I didn't fall asleep till 12AM pacific time.)

I don't have too much to write about, so I'll put some pictures in for fun.  If anything we got a "safety" brief from Glenn Platt (IMS Director) -- we're supposed to avoid Market Street and night, and basically never go down 6th.  However.  Last night my roommate, a few of the guys, and I went out for food after the meeting, and on the way back we went down 6th.  Let me tell you, the advice is correct.  It's rather uncomfortable -- there are a lot of homeless in San Francisco (temperature is great here)... but that street specifically seems to have more than the others.  We may have heard a few of them fighting over who had to pick up a dropped bag of crack.  So.  You know.  We were safe.  Haha.

Another fun time was putting together our second bed.  The apartment has a queen bed... so Miami bought a few fold out "beds" (I'd call them cots) so we each have our own bed.  We couldn't get it to not fold in on itself.  We almost gave up for the night, and then we found the extra parts (yes, we had dismissed them before because we only saw wheels... and at the time we thought "wheels, we don't need those - we're not moving it around anywhere").  Turns out that there were also some connectors and knuts in there to make it not fall every time you touch it.  It was a real struggle to make it work, but we won.  We're doing what Colin and Tyler did last semester - I'm on the small bed for half the semester, and then I'm taking the big bed over Spring Break till the end of the semester.  I've included a picture of the tiny bed for your viewing pleasure.  The upside is that it's right under a window with a great(ish) view of things.  Another picture of said view is included for your delight.

Otherwise I don't have much to write.  Today we're adventuring to Whole Foods to get some groceries (apparently Walmart/Target/Kroger/any major store is more of a midwest/not San Francisco kind of thing... so expensive r' us is what this trip is going to be) and for lunch (yay salad bar and mac n' cheese!).

Oh! I do have an interview for an internship on Tuesday.  It's with a company called Zozi (basically, Groupon with a focus on "adventurous" things, like learning how to ride motorcycles, and such).  They're interviewing four of us with the hopes of taking on two of us.  So we'll see how that goes.  Also.  Here's a big deal:  we're going to Google on Friday.  So that's going to be really exciting and fun.  Pictures will be taken.

That's all I have for now.  Exciting times are to be had this semester.  Adventure is out there!  Haha.

Cleveland is the reason.

Tyler - Well now Colin's started this precedent, and I like uniformity, so y'all better start your posts with your name in bold from now on.

I don't leave Cleveland till the 20th. I actually found out recently that I should have made plans to leave the 21st, because pretty much no one in Copenhagen wants anything to do with me to the 22nd. So, alas, my first night overseas will be spent on the chilled streets of a local to which I know nothing of, desolate, left on my own to incur the peril and jeopardy that await me on the frozen thoroughfares of a bare, Nordic town. Or in a hostel.

Anyways, these days I'm spending my time in bed till 3 in the afternoon, eating mini-ravioli at 4am (seriously, the last 3 nights), and watching fringe television shows on Netflix that I normally wouldn't have time for. Man, Netflix better work in Denmark, you know?

This is more or less a test post so I can have a grip on using this site once I'm overseas and have too many other things to worry about. So here's a picture of a building in Cleveland that randomly has whales painted on it. Because I can Cleveland can:

Man, Cleveland's great.

Peaces,

-T

She Packed My Bags Last Night

Colin here (I think I'll start every post like this, so you know who it is),

I got to Florence this morning (central european time), and thus begins my blog. With my new haircut, I arrived at O'Hare from Columbus, bought a beer and a hot dog,
and did nothing more important. I took the next flight to Munich, then finally to Florence, all the while feeling the weird semi-hallucinations of sleep deprivation.

I met up with one of my roommates Weston, and we ducked outside for an while. Looked around the streets, inside the school's building (right next to our apartment), did an awkward job of ordering pizza, and took a quick peek at the Duomo.

We had a few different locks to figure out just to get to our apartment, including one that looks like it belongs to a vault. Plus the corridor outside our door uses a light that has a timer of maybe 20 seconds, and if it goes out, you trip in the pitch dark on a weirdly placed step. It's a good apartment though, lofty ceilings and tiled floors and real life funky European outlets. 

I am now severely jet lagged. I'm fighting to stay awake for a few more hours at least, so the next day feels normal. I'm overwhelmed, but Italy is looking promising. As the semester goes on, you should see better posts than just a summary of my day (plus, Tyler and Chelsea and Emily), but this will do for now.

here's to staying up