September 20, 2011

September 20, 2011

This morning was pretty dreary. As we walked to the bus stop it was drizzling and it was fairly chilly outside. During the first half of Italian today, we reviewed for and took quiz #4. There was some confusion as to the subject matter of the quiz (for some reason, our quiz was on a different topic than the other two classes) but it was still not difficult at all and I got all of the answers correct. For the second half of class, we started off playing charades and guessing games in Italian, which were a lot of fun and tested a lot of the adjectives and vocabulary we had been learning. After that, we reviewed for our midterm, which is this coming Thursday. Can you believe we have a midterm already? I think that’s just crazy!

After class, I had my bag lunch and then went to explore the market for fun with some friends. We got a few pastries and fruits to try and they were delicious. It’s so much fun just to walk around the market and see what you can find. And, of course, try new, delicious foods. After that, I went back to school for about an hour to use the Internet. My Dad found out the other day that you could make a Shutterfly share site to share photos with friends and family. I decided to follow in his footsteps and make an Italy photo share site for two reasons. First of all, it takes a long time to upload just one photo to my blog so I can’t post as many photos as I would like to. Also, when I get home in December, I am going to make a big Shutterfly book with photos from my whole trip. Because I know this will be a VERY daunting task, I am doing my best to stay on top of things now so it won’t be as difficult. Every week or so, I am going to go through my photos and choose my favorites for the book and put them in a folder. Then, every few weeks when I am at school I will upload those photos to Shutterfly. That way, by the time I get home, I won’t have to choose and upload all of the photos I want in my book all at once. So basically, it’s saving me time later and sharing more photos with all of you if you want to see more :) Here is the link if you are interested: http://kariinitaly.shutterfly.com/ I Skyped briefly with my Mom and then caught the bus home around 3:15.

When I got home I decided to tackle my homework for my classes that begin next week. I started with Dante, thinking it would be the most difficult to read. We only had to read the first two cantos of Inferno but I was still daunted by the idea of it. However, once I started reading it, I took an immediate liking to it. Because no one else was home, I read it out loud, which made the poem much more understandable. I really really enjoyed reading it and am looking forward to reading all of the Divine Comedy. I was very pleasantly surprised by it; hopefully that feeling will continue throughout all three sections! After tackling Dante, I moved on to my reading for Weaving the Tale. Our first assignment is The Castle of Crossed Destinies, which I did not know anything about. However, prior to reading the book, we were instructed to read an essay online about the history of tarot cards. I read that first, which was very interesting and understood more of what the story was going to be about. In fact, the book is more a reading of tarot cards than actual text. The tarot cards are on the outside of the page and the textual analysis is inside. It was a very intriguing tale and the illustrations of the tarot cards made for a very interesting read. The book also contains one more story in similar fashion, which is our next assignment so I look forward to that!

Now that I have tackled a fair amount of my homework, I decided to take a little break to write my blog. Franzi and I are also going to do some laundry tonight. We aren’t supposed to do it until after 7:00 because it’s not as expensive so we can start it pretty soon here. I’m not as hungry as I usually am at this time of day but will definitely be in an hour when it’s time for dinner. When I came home today, Daniella was on her way out but before she left, she gave me a chocolate-ice cream Popsicle just because. I was lamenting the fact that I had not gotten gelato today but had not wanted to get in the habit of having it every day or I would run out of money! It was the perfect treat and so sweet of her :) Well, the clock just chimed 7:00 so I’d better go start some laundry. More after dinner!

We had gnocchi for dinner again! This time we had it with fresh tomato sauce and Parmesan and it was just delightful. I love gnocchi :) For our main course, the others had beans and tuna fish while I had beans in olive oil and bread and cheese. Beans in olive oil are really quite delicious…I’ll have to continue that tradition upon returning home. It’s so simple but so good. For dessert, we had fruit salad, which is quickly turning into one of my favorite desserts. Here I was so worried about getting lots of fruit while I was in Italy; I obviously did not need to be worried in the least! After dinner, Daniella told us that she was going to show us her studio. I had seen it from the balcony but had never been down there. When we went down the stairs, we found a little guesthouse, almost, and a patio, as well as a pretty big backyard, as far as Florence goes! They have a lot of space out back. Once we entered into her studio, I immediately fell in love with it. It is all one room but is sectioned off with a curtain separating a kind of living room with a couch from the studio. There is a small spiral staircase that leads up to a loft that has a bed in it. She said that Mattheo (their son) lived out there when he was living at home. Talk about every teenager’s dream! Different paintings she has done line the walls and each one of them is stunning. My favorites are one of her mother when she was a young woman and one of Massimo a few years ago. She really is an incredible artist.

When we came back up from the studio, we hung our laundry up to dry. Now I am going to do a little bit more of my homework for next week and then go to bed. Tomorrow we have our Venice orientation, which I am excited for because, as of yet, we don’t really know what we are doing. I’ll be able to update you more on that tomorrow! I hope all is well with each and every one of you and I send to you all my love!

Buona Notte,

Kari

My Italian teacher, Umberto :)

Daniella's Art Studio