Carnivale

So hello all!  

It is time to update all of you on what has been going on in the past few days.  And what has been going on has been pretty crazy, actually.  

First off, we went to Venice.  But we didn't just go to Venice.  We were there during Carnivale!  If you have been to OU for halloween, imagine it in your head for a second.  Now, take away all the drunk belligerent idiots.  Add some adults in full costume, masks, and water to the mix, then imagine the whole thing on crack.  That is Carnivale.  Time passed strangely there, sometimes fast, sometimes slow....sometimes it felt as if there was no time at all.  There were so many amazing costumes, masks, colors, faces.  I felt like I was in the middle of a Toulouse-Latrec painting, the film Amadeus, and every single one of my childhood fantasies (and nightmares) at once.  

Venice is a beautiful city.  The light there is otherwordly.  I know now why Turner was so in love with Venice.  

Katy and I spent the weekend with my friend Biz, and her roommate Liz.  The four of us had a lovely time together.  Biz is in my digital multimedia class.  She is so smart and cool, I really enjoy hanging out with her.  She is also an incredibly talented ceramicist.  I've seen some of her forms-some of them are quite large.  They're beautiful.  I want her and Andy to sit down and chat, they would really get along.  Actually, I would love to organize a show of the two of their works.  Their forms would play well off of one another.

Anyway....by the end of saturday night we were wandering around Venice, lost in quite, deserted residential areas.  Some places were eerie, the dark water and the damaged brick seemed like they might swallow me whole.  I started to freak out, so walked into a bar and asked how to get back to Piazzale Roma.  The most wonderful and strange thing happened...a woman at the bar was walking back to Piazzale Roma and we got to follow her all the way there.  She was beautiful and smelled nice.  It was such an odd experience, to be following this venetian woman through the small winding streets, next to water, constantly. It was so nice to see the water, to be near it, to hear it.  The canals didn't smell all that great, but it was so lovely to see water.  I forget that how much I love the ocean.

The second awesome thing that has been going on is that Melissa came and visited!  Oh my goodness seeing her was just what I needed.  Melissa has this way of calming my insanity and also giving me clear and concise answers to problems.  But more so than that, it was just fun to hang out with her.  It was really really hard to say goodbye to her.  

You know, I love it here, I love living in a city, but there are things about Ohio that I miss.  There are things about Powell that I miss, and there are things about Ada that I miss.  I miss being able to go to a grocery store at 9 in the evening.  I miss coming back from a run on the Green Monster.  I miss a dollar fifty actually being a dollar fifty.  But more than anything else, I miss everyone back home.  

Em

I'm having a love-affair with Florence

Hello all!  

I just want to check in with you guys.  I haven't been doing anything too exciting lately-I've been ill and I've actually having to do work.....But I have been exploring Florence quite a bit.  I love this city.  She's dirty, she's small, she's quite odd, she's confused, but I love it.  

Saturday Anna and I went to Boboli Gardens-they were beautiful.  Its at Pitti Palace, the summer home of the medici.  It was refreshing being there, there was sunlight, trees and greens, fresh air....it was lovely.  There was a woman there feeding all of the cats, girls picking flowers, American tourists getting lost.....it was a lovely way to spend Valentines Day.   If anyone is ever in Florence, go to Boboli.  

Monday Katy and I went to this place called San Salvi.  Its where a mental institution used to lie.  It was one of the weirdest experiences of my life, actually.  It's all walled up, around the entire (vast) area.  The day was beautiful, with sun and birds, which was a strange contrast to the sadness and edgy feeling of the complex.  Some of the buildings are falling apart, just literally deteriorating.  One of the buildings has been taken over by the anarchists of Florence, and they all just live there.  Some of the buildings have been fixed up and are offices.  Some of the former patients (who I assume have no where else to go), just wander around the area.  But what made the whole area, the whole experience so unnerving for me is that one of the buildings is an elementary school.  So I had been wandering around this quite, decrepit, uncomfortable place, then I turn a corner and there are children, many children, running around outside.  In this awful place.  I didn't quite know how to react to that, or to the whole experience.  I'm a bit afraid to let the whole thing sink in, if you want to know the truth.  I'm already disturbed.  I'll tell you more about it when I'm ready.

So we're going to Venice this weekend!  Carnivale!!!  I'm so excited.  Except I don't know what to wear!  Any ideas?  I'm thinking of just dressing in all black and getting a white mask.  I'm going to get a mask tomorrow.  Maybe I should dress up like Pierrot!!!!  

Anna and I are currently working on a Florence food pyramid.  I'll post it when we're done.

I love and miss you all so much!!!

Emily

We are Rome! (we aren't Pisa)

Ciao all!  I hope you are all doing well.

So lets see, there is a lot to say.  I went to Rome!  Joey, our roommie Anna and I went with our Baroque class.  I don't know where to start, actually.  It was such a beautiful city-much more a city than Florence.  I love Florence, don't get me wrong, but she is small and in a certain way trying to retain a past that is so far gone that she becomes a fantasy facade hiding filth behind the initial beauty.  I love this about Florence, but Rome is much bigger and busier and real.  

Anyway, can we please talk about all of the great art I saw?!!!  The Caravaggio's I saw were so moving....he is the greatest painter that has ever lived.  The Calling of Saint Matthew was beautiful.  The Matrydom of Saint Matthew is horrific.  It really is.  I stared and stared at it and it was violent and disturbing.  The nude body, just bearing down....I really had a hard time looking at it.  But my favorite was Judith and Holofernes.  Oh my goodness Judith is so beautiful, the whole piece is a punch in the stomach of a painting.  I stood in front of it for about 20 minutes totally transfixed.  And the Bernini sculptures (particularly his Daphne and Apollo) were breathtaking, like powerful poetry in the round.  There were moments where I would look at a Carravaggio and would be unable to move.  I am still so over taken by him and Bernini and completely moved by the power and grace that came out of their hands......

We saw the Roman forum-so amazing!  And we saw the coliseum!  Anna and I are going in two weeks to rome again on our own so we can go in and go to the vatican.  But I touched it!  I touched the coliseum!!!!  and the Pantheon!!! I went in the Pantheon!!!  I went in then just starred at the oculus...it was so freaking beautiful.  Though, all of the tourists walking around and bumping into me really took away from the experience.  It was odd to stand in front of the Forum, to think that this was where everything all began, this was what set everything up for now.  "Empires rise and empires fall" our professor said just as the sky cleared and the sun came out.  I couldn't help but think that America is the Rome of today, and think that some day there would be ruins of ancient America (okay maybe there will be..."look that was a wal-mart!'...how embarrassing)

Katy and I are currently chilling in the kitchen of our apartment, listening to JC Superstar, singing along like loons.  It's pretty fun.  We took the train to Pisa this afternoon.  It rained like crazy, but it was cool to see the leaning tower.  Pisa is weird.  Its really quite boring.  Its the Cathedral and the tower with green space around them, then urban suburbs.  But I love riding on trains; the countryside is so beautiful.  Sometimes I look out the window and feel like I'm in a fairy tale.   

Thats all for now, I want some foodies!

I love and miss you all,

Em