HOME!!!!!!!!!!
I don't really have too much time to talk right now, but I just wanted to let everyone know that I'm home safely and happily. It was a fun break, not as fun as it could have been, but fun none the less. Now we get back to work and all that jazz.
I'll be sure to write more and post all my journal entry things from the trip. But right now, I need to eat some delicious pasta.
DAN
Monday, October 30, 2006
Thursday, October 26, 2006
Hello from BARCELONA
Hey hey everyone. It's Dan, just in case you were wondering.
I'm in Barcelona now, a city so corrupt and disease ridden that I can't wait to leave. We have 2 more full days here, which is 2 full days too many. So far I've been offered pot, cocaine, and any number of different drugs that I can't even remember the names for. This city is horrible. Unlike London and Paris, which were both beautiful and wonderful cities, Barcelona seems to be centered on it's "fun" activities, which aren't fun at all. Our hostel is pretty disgusting and the people in it aren't much better.
On a brighter note, the shining point of this city is Gaudi and his buildings, best of which is Sagrada Familia, an extraordinary church that sucked the air from my lungs. I have hundreds of pictures from in there, so watch my Facebook for updates when I get back to Italy. We saw all 3 of his major buildings here in Barcelona, so that at least made up for some of the crap we're in. On a slightly sour note again, seems that old Calatrava has only done 1 tower in Barcelona. All the rest of his work is basically in small towns around the city, far enough away to be a pain to get to in the time we have here.
So to review, don't ever come to Barcelona. And don't ever ever ever do any type of drug. Seeing the people here has tripled my stance on that subject. And don't ever travel with people named Chris. They are automatically idiots and very annoying. I wish I would have gone with the girls somewhere. They are awesome and I miss each one dearly. I even miss silly little Brandon. I wish I was back in Italy. Through it all though, I have Mark, who is proving to be a really great friend. A good laugh with a friend is all it takes to make me feel better.
I can't wait to see everyone again soon.
DAN
I'm in Barcelona now, a city so corrupt and disease ridden that I can't wait to leave. We have 2 more full days here, which is 2 full days too many. So far I've been offered pot, cocaine, and any number of different drugs that I can't even remember the names for. This city is horrible. Unlike London and Paris, which were both beautiful and wonderful cities, Barcelona seems to be centered on it's "fun" activities, which aren't fun at all. Our hostel is pretty disgusting and the people in it aren't much better.
On a brighter note, the shining point of this city is Gaudi and his buildings, best of which is Sagrada Familia, an extraordinary church that sucked the air from my lungs. I have hundreds of pictures from in there, so watch my Facebook for updates when I get back to Italy. We saw all 3 of his major buildings here in Barcelona, so that at least made up for some of the crap we're in. On a slightly sour note again, seems that old Calatrava has only done 1 tower in Barcelona. All the rest of his work is basically in small towns around the city, far enough away to be a pain to get to in the time we have here.
So to review, don't ever come to Barcelona. And don't ever ever ever do any type of drug. Seeing the people here has tripled my stance on that subject. And don't ever travel with people named Chris. They are automatically idiots and very annoying. I wish I would have gone with the girls somewhere. They are awesome and I miss each one dearly. I even miss silly little Brandon. I wish I was back in Italy. Through it all though, I have Mark, who is proving to be a really great friend. A good laugh with a friend is all it takes to make me feel better.
I can't wait to see everyone again soon.
DAN
Monday, October 23, 2006
Hello from PARIS
Hey hey party peeps.
We're in Paris right now, doing what all the Paris people do; be smelly and eat silly meals. Our hostel is not quite up to par. In fact, our hostel is quite possibly the crappiest place I've been to in a long time. The rooms are tiny, the showers are dirty, the bathrooms are shared between 15 people, the breakfast was cold and moldy, our roommate snores like an elephant, and worst of all, everyone speaks French.
We saw the Eiffel tower last night, all lit up and sparkly, so that made us feel a bit better about the whole situation, but lets just say that these buildings we're going to see better be pretty damn amazing to make up for this place.
I think today we're going to go and see Notre Dame and the Louvre and anything else we can get in there. Hopefully not hours and hours of walking because I'm tired out and I just want to relax for a day. Oh thats another thing... Even if you feel horrible and just want to stay in the room all day, you can't. They kick you out at 11 and you can't go back in until 5. Quite silly. No wonder the English don't like the French. I'm proudly wearing my ENGLAND shirt today, so hopefully I can get in a fight with some French sissies and make me feel better.
Ok, well, I've been writing down all of my adventures in my journal, I just haven't got around to putting it on here yet. I'll be sure to get them up soon. I've got lots of smashing pictures too, so you'll just have to wait for a bit. Ok, adios!
We're in Paris right now, doing what all the Paris people do; be smelly and eat silly meals. Our hostel is not quite up to par. In fact, our hostel is quite possibly the crappiest place I've been to in a long time. The rooms are tiny, the showers are dirty, the bathrooms are shared between 15 people, the breakfast was cold and moldy, our roommate snores like an elephant, and worst of all, everyone speaks French.
We saw the Eiffel tower last night, all lit up and sparkly, so that made us feel a bit better about the whole situation, but lets just say that these buildings we're going to see better be pretty damn amazing to make up for this place.
I think today we're going to go and see Notre Dame and the Louvre and anything else we can get in there. Hopefully not hours and hours of walking because I'm tired out and I just want to relax for a day. Oh thats another thing... Even if you feel horrible and just want to stay in the room all day, you can't. They kick you out at 11 and you can't go back in until 5. Quite silly. No wonder the English don't like the French. I'm proudly wearing my ENGLAND shirt today, so hopefully I can get in a fight with some French sissies and make me feel better.
Ok, well, I've been writing down all of my adventures in my journal, I just haven't got around to putting it on here yet. I'll be sure to get them up soon. I've got lots of smashing pictures too, so you'll just have to wait for a bit. Ok, adios!
Saturday, October 21, 2006
Hello from LONDON
Hello everyone from jolly old England!
Things are going quite smashing so far. It's only day 2 of the Fall Break, and all is well in the world of Dan. I don't really have much time to write everything down, because I'm in a hostel, with only a limited number of time to be on here.
So far I've been to: Pretty much every major site in London.
So far I've eaten: Prawn butties, bangers and mash (sausage and mashed potatoes), apple crumble, sausage roll, and a steak and kidney pie.
I miss everyone terribly, but I'll try and cope. Wish me luck everyone! Paris tomorrow!
DAN
Things are going quite smashing so far. It's only day 2 of the Fall Break, and all is well in the world of Dan. I don't really have much time to write everything down, because I'm in a hostel, with only a limited number of time to be on here.
So far I've been to: Pretty much every major site in London.
So far I've eaten: Prawn butties, bangers and mash (sausage and mashed potatoes), apple crumble, sausage roll, and a steak and kidney pie.
I miss everyone terribly, but I'll try and cope. Wish me luck everyone! Paris tomorrow!
DAN
Sunday, October 15, 2006
Before Venice
Hello everyone.
This isn't much of a post, it's just to keep everyone up to date with everything for the next two weeks or so.
We are leaving to go to Venice this coming Monday, and I'll be there thru Thursday. After that, I jump on an airplane and fly to that fantastic city on that fantastic island; London, England. Of all the places we're going for the fall break, I'm quite possibly most excited for London, just to be back there, back home.
Soon the sweet taste of Prawn butties will be in my belly again. Or Fish and Chips. Or Bangers and Mash. Or Steak and Kidney pie. Or Sausage Rolls. Or maybe just a good old bag of Monster Munch. I can't wait. And finally, finally, finally, I'll be able to understand what everyone around me is talking about.
After London, we head down to Paris for 3 days I think, where we'll cram in as much Gothic architecture as humanly possible. Then after that, we go to Barcelona, where there is a metric ton(ne) of contemporary stuff to see. I'm really looking forward to both of them, but London still excites me the most. But who knows... I've never been to Paris or Barcelona, so they could be just as cool.
Alright, well that's what I'll be up to for the next 2 weeks. I'm pretty sure I'll be taking my computer with me so I should be able to check email and facebook some pictures along the way. So with that, I'll bid you all a good night.
DAN
This isn't much of a post, it's just to keep everyone up to date with everything for the next two weeks or so.
We are leaving to go to Venice this coming Monday, and I'll be there thru Thursday. After that, I jump on an airplane and fly to that fantastic city on that fantastic island; London, England. Of all the places we're going for the fall break, I'm quite possibly most excited for London, just to be back there, back home.
Soon the sweet taste of Prawn butties will be in my belly again. Or Fish and Chips. Or Bangers and Mash. Or Steak and Kidney pie. Or Sausage Rolls. Or maybe just a good old bag of Monster Munch. I can't wait. And finally, finally, finally, I'll be able to understand what everyone around me is talking about.
After London, we head down to Paris for 3 days I think, where we'll cram in as much Gothic architecture as humanly possible. Then after that, we go to Barcelona, where there is a metric ton(ne) of contemporary stuff to see. I'm really looking forward to both of them, but London still excites me the most. But who knows... I've never been to Paris or Barcelona, so they could be just as cool.
Alright, well that's what I'll be up to for the next 2 weeks. I'm pretty sure I'll be taking my computer with me so I should be able to check email and facebook some pictures along the way. So with that, I'll bid you all a good night.
DAN
Sunday, October 08, 2006
Cortona
Teresa’s birthday was yesterday, Saturday October 7th, so we all decided that it would be fun to celebrate with her. It was her 21st so naturally something had to happen, according to American college rules everywhere.
On Friday, our normal group of scallywags (Haley, Melissa, Christina, Brandi, Amber, and me) were planning to walk down to the co-op to get some party supplies for a surprise thing at midnight for her. Everything went great until we ran into Teresa right before leaving. We tried to leave her behind, which is kinda mean, but she eventually ended up coming with us all the way to the co-op. Apparently Amber has been there before, but judging from our very scenic route, I’ve come to question that. Once we got there, I was charged with the task of keeping Teresa out of the way. So I got her to walk down an aisle with me and “suddenly remembered that I need something on this aisle” and searched rapidly for something I might possibly need. Trouble was it was the hair dye and diaper aisle, so pretty much everything was girly or covered in cartoon elephants. Stalling for as long as possible, I saw some bars of soap and pretended to look for exactly the right kind. Teresa helped out and I found a bar of soap that I completely don’t need, but I bought enough time for everyone else. And she didn’t notice a thing.
That night we somehow got Teresa out of her room and set up in there, with balloons and cake and a banner that could have said “Happy Birthday” or possibly “Happy New Year”. She finally came in and we “sang” happy birthday to her in our sick and cloggy voices, scaring the poor girl half to death. We sat around and talked and laughed and finally went to bed at around 2.
The next day we all met up to get tickets for the bus ride to Cortona, Teresa’s town of choice for the big day. Cortona is a very beautiful little town on the top of a rather large mountain, and is the place where they filmed Under The Tuscan Sun, starting Diane Lane and some other people. I’ve never seen it.
Anywho, we got tickets and got on the bus with our “bus buddies” because we had to share a ticket each. It worked pretty well actually. We got there in about 30 minutes and headed off to find the restaurant of our reservation, Fufluns, which means “Expensive food restaurant in Cortona” in Italian. I think. Our final group consisted of Haley, Melissa, Christina, Brandi, Teresa, Amber, Mark, Matt, Brandon, (big) John, and me, so we had quite a crowd. The food was good, as was the wine, and we were all quite content after the meal. We all stepped outside into the sprinkling rain, set upon shopping for things we probably don’t need. Our group somehow split into two, as it usually does, and that was the first part of what went wrong for my little group.
Somehow we split, leaving Mark, Amber, Christina, Teresa, Matt, and me together, and the rest of them went somewhere else. The rain started to come down after a while, and the wind picked up, making it really quite cold. I was wearing jeans and a long-sleeve shirt and I was feeling a bit chilly, but the girls were wearing skirts and not much else, so they were really starting to shiver. So we stayed in as many shops as we could and then finally headed back to the bus stop, where I assumed everyone else would meet us. Matt claimed in his infinite knowledge that he knew when the bus was going to get there, but as usual, he was wrong, and when asked about said wrongness met we were with silence. However, we didn’t know he was wrong until after the bus failed to show, so we had to stand out in the cold windy rain for about 45 minutes, waiting for a none existent bus. The girls, Mark, and me huddled around a big tree, somewhat sheltered from the rain. The girls were absolutely freezing, so we shoved them in the middle and tried our best to keep them warm. 6 rolled around, and I told Matt that he could wait here if he wanted to, but I was taking the girls back into town to a coffee shop to get them warm. I figured out the bus schedule, while Matt complained about everything and anything, from “it’s not that cold” to “we better not miss dinner”. Amber was about to strangle him, so I shunted everyone down the road to the nearest coffee shop and plopped some hot chocolate in front of them, which was answered by big grins.
I left them in the coffee shop with Mark, who I know would look after the girls, and Matt, who was more interested in dinner or something, and I headed out into the rain to try and find the rest of our group, because they knew that we were supposed to meet up at the bus stop. I walked up and down the main corso about 10 times looking for any of them, but eventually gave in when my left ear fell off from the frostbite. Hopefully Brandon figured out the schedule too, and we would just meet them at 7 for the next bus. I went back to the coffee shop and warmed up in the glow of hot chocolate and the warmth of friends.
7 rolled around and we all made our way back to the bus stop, where we found the others boarding the bus. Apparently they had been sitting on the second floor of some fancy coffee shop for the past 3 hours, warmer than bugs in a rug. I sat next to a chilly Amber and spent the next 30 minutes in and out of sleep.
Dinner was a fancy occasion, mainly because it was Teresa’s birthday and we got ice cream sandwiches for dessert. Mmmmmm…
After dinner, we all turned in for a while, recovering from the day. After a much needed rest, all of us went out to the slamma-jamma new pub in town, The Velvet Underground. It is really pretty cool over there. There are tons of people that go, and its fun to just sit around and talk with everyone while having a drink to relax. Last night was pretty fun. And that was Teresa’s birthday.
These things sure are a lot easier to write when you write them before you forget all the silly little details. Like Haley pouring water at dinner, or Amber nearly punching Matt. Good stuff. Remember way back when I said that I knew things would be better?
Well, they are.
On Friday, our normal group of scallywags (Haley, Melissa, Christina, Brandi, Amber, and me) were planning to walk down to the co-op to get some party supplies for a surprise thing at midnight for her. Everything went great until we ran into Teresa right before leaving. We tried to leave her behind, which is kinda mean, but she eventually ended up coming with us all the way to the co-op. Apparently Amber has been there before, but judging from our very scenic route, I’ve come to question that. Once we got there, I was charged with the task of keeping Teresa out of the way. So I got her to walk down an aisle with me and “suddenly remembered that I need something on this aisle” and searched rapidly for something I might possibly need. Trouble was it was the hair dye and diaper aisle, so pretty much everything was girly or covered in cartoon elephants. Stalling for as long as possible, I saw some bars of soap and pretended to look for exactly the right kind. Teresa helped out and I found a bar of soap that I completely don’t need, but I bought enough time for everyone else. And she didn’t notice a thing.
That night we somehow got Teresa out of her room and set up in there, with balloons and cake and a banner that could have said “Happy Birthday” or possibly “Happy New Year”. She finally came in and we “sang” happy birthday to her in our sick and cloggy voices, scaring the poor girl half to death. We sat around and talked and laughed and finally went to bed at around 2.
The next day we all met up to get tickets for the bus ride to Cortona, Teresa’s town of choice for the big day. Cortona is a very beautiful little town on the top of a rather large mountain, and is the place where they filmed Under The Tuscan Sun, starting Diane Lane and some other people. I’ve never seen it.
Anywho, we got tickets and got on the bus with our “bus buddies” because we had to share a ticket each. It worked pretty well actually. We got there in about 30 minutes and headed off to find the restaurant of our reservation, Fufluns, which means “Expensive food restaurant in Cortona” in Italian. I think. Our final group consisted of Haley, Melissa, Christina, Brandi, Teresa, Amber, Mark, Matt, Brandon, (big) John, and me, so we had quite a crowd. The food was good, as was the wine, and we were all quite content after the meal. We all stepped outside into the sprinkling rain, set upon shopping for things we probably don’t need. Our group somehow split into two, as it usually does, and that was the first part of what went wrong for my little group.
Somehow we split, leaving Mark, Amber, Christina, Teresa, Matt, and me together, and the rest of them went somewhere else. The rain started to come down after a while, and the wind picked up, making it really quite cold. I was wearing jeans and a long-sleeve shirt and I was feeling a bit chilly, but the girls were wearing skirts and not much else, so they were really starting to shiver. So we stayed in as many shops as we could and then finally headed back to the bus stop, where I assumed everyone else would meet us. Matt claimed in his infinite knowledge that he knew when the bus was going to get there, but as usual, he was wrong, and when asked about said wrongness met we were with silence. However, we didn’t know he was wrong until after the bus failed to show, so we had to stand out in the cold windy rain for about 45 minutes, waiting for a none existent bus. The girls, Mark, and me huddled around a big tree, somewhat sheltered from the rain. The girls were absolutely freezing, so we shoved them in the middle and tried our best to keep them warm. 6 rolled around, and I told Matt that he could wait here if he wanted to, but I was taking the girls back into town to a coffee shop to get them warm. I figured out the bus schedule, while Matt complained about everything and anything, from “it’s not that cold” to “we better not miss dinner”. Amber was about to strangle him, so I shunted everyone down the road to the nearest coffee shop and plopped some hot chocolate in front of them, which was answered by big grins.
I left them in the coffee shop with Mark, who I know would look after the girls, and Matt, who was more interested in dinner or something, and I headed out into the rain to try and find the rest of our group, because they knew that we were supposed to meet up at the bus stop. I walked up and down the main corso about 10 times looking for any of them, but eventually gave in when my left ear fell off from the frostbite. Hopefully Brandon figured out the schedule too, and we would just meet them at 7 for the next bus. I went back to the coffee shop and warmed up in the glow of hot chocolate and the warmth of friends.
7 rolled around and we all made our way back to the bus stop, where we found the others boarding the bus. Apparently they had been sitting on the second floor of some fancy coffee shop for the past 3 hours, warmer than bugs in a rug. I sat next to a chilly Amber and spent the next 30 minutes in and out of sleep.
Dinner was a fancy occasion, mainly because it was Teresa’s birthday and we got ice cream sandwiches for dessert. Mmmmmm…
After dinner, we all turned in for a while, recovering from the day. After a much needed rest, all of us went out to the slamma-jamma new pub in town, The Velvet Underground. It is really pretty cool over there. There are tons of people that go, and its fun to just sit around and talk with everyone while having a drink to relax. Last night was pretty fun. And that was Teresa’s birthday.
These things sure are a lot easier to write when you write them before you forget all the silly little details. Like Haley pouring water at dinner, or Amber nearly punching Matt. Good stuff. Remember way back when I said that I knew things would be better?
Well, they are.
Assisi
Ok, due to my complete lack of timing and political coordination, I’m going to skip past the few adventures that I haven’t got to yet because if I don’t then I’m going to get bogged down and never write everything down, which would be a tragedy in itself. So I’m going to start fresh today, with our trip to the pleasant little town of Assisi.
I didn’t really know much about Assisi up until I read the chapters that I was told to read, a week late no less. Apparently it is a very religious little town, holding the very center of the Franciscan order, started by St. Francis himself. Old Francis was apparently a party dude up until he decided to change his ways and follow the Lord. He went and asked the Popey for permission, and the Popey saw it as a chance to reunite the people and the church, which was struggling thanks to it’s dominating presence in society. Basically, the church was the society. This was back in the Ages of Middle. Anyway, Francis did all this stuff and it was actually very interesting.
So we got to Assisi by bus, which is pretty great because we all fall fast asleep for the duration and feel energized when we get to the place. Anyway, we arrived not 100 feet from St. Francis Cathedral, which is pretty impressive. Impressive for the fact that it is essentially a church on top of another church, but also impressive for how mean and strict all the monks and authorities were. No pictures, no talking, no admiration of the building, no entertainment whatsoever. It was pretty crazy actually. They are sitting in one of the more important churches in the country, full of very powerful and amazing frescos and sculptures, and they only way you can remember it is if you buy an overpriced postcard. There is something sneakingly evil about that.
Anyway, we followed Paolo, our ridiculously brilliant tour guide and teacher, around for a good while, up hills and through the town, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Assisi is a lot like a bigger Castiglion Fiorentino. It’s quite hilly and everything seems to have been built according to what was already there, not by some master plan at all. There must have been some fancy thing on though because there were merchants all over the place, selling everything from neon green socks to frying pans to puppies.
The tour ended up at the restaurant that we were to eat at. Thankfully our meal was free this trip, so we were all pretty happy. I sat with the usual suspects, in between Melissa and Haley, so I was happy. Now, to fully appreciate the situation I’m going to have to explain the day previous, so bear with me for a minute.
Yesterday, our second project was due in studio. We had to do an artistic representation of our first project, the 6 meter cube thing. Anyway, we all came up with things to describe how we felt going through the project and how to represent it somehow. And that was where everything started going bad. We all had to talk to Peter Lang about our projects, at first as an initial concept and then on going throughout our development. Knowing Lang and his idiotic take on perfection and art in general, I decided to kinda experiment with this idea. I told him my initial plan for the project, which I thought was decent and would work well for me, and I was extremely confident about it when telling him, which I’ve found is the only way to deal with Lang. Every question he had I would answer, even if I just made something up. He approved my idea on the sole basis that he thought that I knew what I was doing. And I didn’t talk to him once more until the project was due. Everyone else met with him 4 or 5 more times, each with similar results. Lang has this uncanny ability to change his mind each time he talks to you, so you never have a clear idea about what he wants or what you should do to make him understand you. Every person I talked to about it was supremely mad and wanted to either punch him in the face (which I recommended) or give up and do what he wanted. Unfortunately a lot of the people in studio took the second road and took so many “suggestions” from Lang that the project was no longer there’s. A few people didn’t, mainly Haley who my respect for grows daily, and I think their projects were the strongest. After one of her sessions with Lang, she came over to us nearly in tears, and told us that she had basically told Lang to stick his ideas and leave her alone. How is a project hers if she has no input into it? She fits into the story too.
Anyway, sorry, I’m sidetracking. So these projects were due yesterday and nobody was really excited about them. We really weren’t excited about the fact that we were going to have an “important” Greek artist come to the review either. This lady, if you can call her that, has destroyed everything I thought about the Greeks. I thought they were all athletic and artistic, but no. She was large, mean, and completely lacking any sort of artistic talent whatsoever. The first few projects went through without many problems, everyone was nice and pleasant. But then all of a sudden the Greek lady started getting really critical and mean about “our” projects. She called some of them childish and stupid, and even went as far as to say that they had no meaning. This is where Melissa and the story comes in. We got to Melissa’s project, which was a taste-testing thing to display how everyone has different descriptions for similar things, and the lady was one of the tasters. She went through the project, not saying a positive word the entire time, and by the end of it she basically called it a gameshow that had been done before. Melissa started crying and then this crap of a woman feigns sympathy for her. I stayed with Melissa the whole time and I was ready for punching the Greek lady in the face. She finally left to see other projects, but not before promising to work with Melissa on her project the next day in Assisi.
Fast forward a bit to my project, which Lang introduced as “an independent work” so he apparently got the idea. I made a movie from clips on the DVDs that I brought with me. It was rather funny in parts, but also really intense and serious. I thought it came out really well. Anyway, it finished and the lights came on and I got a round of applause, the only one of the day, and nobody said anything. Haley, my little co-criminal, said “Bravo” and I said thanks. Paolo, who was in there too, said that it was really well done with the sequencing and the editing, which was great to hear from him. Any compliment from him means a ton. But not a word from the Greek or from Lang. There were some subtle undertones to my movie too, mostly directed at Lang, and I think he might have picked up on them. Anyway, I explained my ideas for a while and everyone was happy. I think it turned out really good.
So Greek lady made a horrid impression on pretty much everyone there. And you can imagine our expressions when we saw her walk through the door of the restaurant. Melissa’s eyes watered over and I nearly choked on some pasta, which is hard to do. I did not want to talk to Lang at all today, and even less was my desire to communicate with that other thing. (I know this sounds horrible, but she really was one of the worst humans I’ve ever met, so full of herself that she believes her work with Gypsy farms is phenomenal and groundbreaking. Whatever.) Anyway, I quickly started hatching a plan to escape before Lang captured us for the afternoon, surely to show us graffiti on a dumpster or maybe a single Coke can in a field of dead grass or something along those lines. To my surprise, Haley was really on board with all of this, apparently feeding off the extreme dislike of Lang too. The only problem was Melissa, who we were basically doing all this for anyway. We didn’t want Melissa to have to go through another afternoon of crap with this woman, so we wanted to get her out into the town and get her mind off the whole thing. Trouble was, the Greek lady had already come over and talked to Melissa, saying that they would work after lunch.
Anyway, our plan was set into motion as Lang headed out the door to the upper balcony. Haley, Melissa, and I shot out downstairs, right underneath the balcony with Lang and the devil lady. It was pretty great actually. The feeling of rebelling and actually standing up for what we believed in, not this tripe that he was trying to feed us, was fantastic. And having my friends there with me, feeling the same thing I was feeling was almost overwhelming. Short lived was our three though, as Melissa cracked under the pressure, that pressure to follow what we’ve been told to follow for so long, and she said that she couldn’t just leave. Haley and I tried to convince her, but I don’t think she was ready for it just then. So she went back. And Haley and I left together, off to wander the city with no real goals or direction, just the odd bond of two people understanding that what we just did was bigger than both of us. Rebelling against “authority” is never something one would recommend, but sometimes you have to stand up for yourself and your ideas, just as Haley and I did.
So I spent the afternoon with Haley, a girl I know more about now than I did 24 hours ago, and a girl I have so much more respect for now. We met up with other groups of people, but it would always be us two together going places and deciding what we wanted to do, and I couldn’t have been happier. We even went into Santa Chiara together, a big church outside our meeting place, and went down into the crypt together, more amazed by the ceilings than anything else. We came up laughing and realized that maybe that wasn’t the best thing to do coming out of a crypt. Just another story to tell, that’s all.
And that was Assisi, and my day. Tonight will hold a movie, Monty Python, and probably out to the pub to hang out for a while. And I can’t wait.
I didn’t really know much about Assisi up until I read the chapters that I was told to read, a week late no less. Apparently it is a very religious little town, holding the very center of the Franciscan order, started by St. Francis himself. Old Francis was apparently a party dude up until he decided to change his ways and follow the Lord. He went and asked the Popey for permission, and the Popey saw it as a chance to reunite the people and the church, which was struggling thanks to it’s dominating presence in society. Basically, the church was the society. This was back in the Ages of Middle. Anyway, Francis did all this stuff and it was actually very interesting.
So we got to Assisi by bus, which is pretty great because we all fall fast asleep for the duration and feel energized when we get to the place. Anyway, we arrived not 100 feet from St. Francis Cathedral, which is pretty impressive. Impressive for the fact that it is essentially a church on top of another church, but also impressive for how mean and strict all the monks and authorities were. No pictures, no talking, no admiration of the building, no entertainment whatsoever. It was pretty crazy actually. They are sitting in one of the more important churches in the country, full of very powerful and amazing frescos and sculptures, and they only way you can remember it is if you buy an overpriced postcard. There is something sneakingly evil about that.
Anyway, we followed Paolo, our ridiculously brilliant tour guide and teacher, around for a good while, up hills and through the town, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Assisi is a lot like a bigger Castiglion Fiorentino. It’s quite hilly and everything seems to have been built according to what was already there, not by some master plan at all. There must have been some fancy thing on though because there were merchants all over the place, selling everything from neon green socks to frying pans to puppies.
The tour ended up at the restaurant that we were to eat at. Thankfully our meal was free this trip, so we were all pretty happy. I sat with the usual suspects, in between Melissa and Haley, so I was happy. Now, to fully appreciate the situation I’m going to have to explain the day previous, so bear with me for a minute.
Yesterday, our second project was due in studio. We had to do an artistic representation of our first project, the 6 meter cube thing. Anyway, we all came up with things to describe how we felt going through the project and how to represent it somehow. And that was where everything started going bad. We all had to talk to Peter Lang about our projects, at first as an initial concept and then on going throughout our development. Knowing Lang and his idiotic take on perfection and art in general, I decided to kinda experiment with this idea. I told him my initial plan for the project, which I thought was decent and would work well for me, and I was extremely confident about it when telling him, which I’ve found is the only way to deal with Lang. Every question he had I would answer, even if I just made something up. He approved my idea on the sole basis that he thought that I knew what I was doing. And I didn’t talk to him once more until the project was due. Everyone else met with him 4 or 5 more times, each with similar results. Lang has this uncanny ability to change his mind each time he talks to you, so you never have a clear idea about what he wants or what you should do to make him understand you. Every person I talked to about it was supremely mad and wanted to either punch him in the face (which I recommended) or give up and do what he wanted. Unfortunately a lot of the people in studio took the second road and took so many “suggestions” from Lang that the project was no longer there’s. A few people didn’t, mainly Haley who my respect for grows daily, and I think their projects were the strongest. After one of her sessions with Lang, she came over to us nearly in tears, and told us that she had basically told Lang to stick his ideas and leave her alone. How is a project hers if she has no input into it? She fits into the story too.
Anyway, sorry, I’m sidetracking. So these projects were due yesterday and nobody was really excited about them. We really weren’t excited about the fact that we were going to have an “important” Greek artist come to the review either. This lady, if you can call her that, has destroyed everything I thought about the Greeks. I thought they were all athletic and artistic, but no. She was large, mean, and completely lacking any sort of artistic talent whatsoever. The first few projects went through without many problems, everyone was nice and pleasant. But then all of a sudden the Greek lady started getting really critical and mean about “our” projects. She called some of them childish and stupid, and even went as far as to say that they had no meaning. This is where Melissa and the story comes in. We got to Melissa’s project, which was a taste-testing thing to display how everyone has different descriptions for similar things, and the lady was one of the tasters. She went through the project, not saying a positive word the entire time, and by the end of it she basically called it a gameshow that had been done before. Melissa started crying and then this crap of a woman feigns sympathy for her. I stayed with Melissa the whole time and I was ready for punching the Greek lady in the face. She finally left to see other projects, but not before promising to work with Melissa on her project the next day in Assisi.
Fast forward a bit to my project, which Lang introduced as “an independent work” so he apparently got the idea. I made a movie from clips on the DVDs that I brought with me. It was rather funny in parts, but also really intense and serious. I thought it came out really well. Anyway, it finished and the lights came on and I got a round of applause, the only one of the day, and nobody said anything. Haley, my little co-criminal, said “Bravo” and I said thanks. Paolo, who was in there too, said that it was really well done with the sequencing and the editing, which was great to hear from him. Any compliment from him means a ton. But not a word from the Greek or from Lang. There were some subtle undertones to my movie too, mostly directed at Lang, and I think he might have picked up on them. Anyway, I explained my ideas for a while and everyone was happy. I think it turned out really good.
So Greek lady made a horrid impression on pretty much everyone there. And you can imagine our expressions when we saw her walk through the door of the restaurant. Melissa’s eyes watered over and I nearly choked on some pasta, which is hard to do. I did not want to talk to Lang at all today, and even less was my desire to communicate with that other thing. (I know this sounds horrible, but she really was one of the worst humans I’ve ever met, so full of herself that she believes her work with Gypsy farms is phenomenal and groundbreaking. Whatever.) Anyway, I quickly started hatching a plan to escape before Lang captured us for the afternoon, surely to show us graffiti on a dumpster or maybe a single Coke can in a field of dead grass or something along those lines. To my surprise, Haley was really on board with all of this, apparently feeding off the extreme dislike of Lang too. The only problem was Melissa, who we were basically doing all this for anyway. We didn’t want Melissa to have to go through another afternoon of crap with this woman, so we wanted to get her out into the town and get her mind off the whole thing. Trouble was, the Greek lady had already come over and talked to Melissa, saying that they would work after lunch.
Anyway, our plan was set into motion as Lang headed out the door to the upper balcony. Haley, Melissa, and I shot out downstairs, right underneath the balcony with Lang and the devil lady. It was pretty great actually. The feeling of rebelling and actually standing up for what we believed in, not this tripe that he was trying to feed us, was fantastic. And having my friends there with me, feeling the same thing I was feeling was almost overwhelming. Short lived was our three though, as Melissa cracked under the pressure, that pressure to follow what we’ve been told to follow for so long, and she said that she couldn’t just leave. Haley and I tried to convince her, but I don’t think she was ready for it just then. So she went back. And Haley and I left together, off to wander the city with no real goals or direction, just the odd bond of two people understanding that what we just did was bigger than both of us. Rebelling against “authority” is never something one would recommend, but sometimes you have to stand up for yourself and your ideas, just as Haley and I did.
So I spent the afternoon with Haley, a girl I know more about now than I did 24 hours ago, and a girl I have so much more respect for now. We met up with other groups of people, but it would always be us two together going places and deciding what we wanted to do, and I couldn’t have been happier. We even went into Santa Chiara together, a big church outside our meeting place, and went down into the crypt together, more amazed by the ceilings than anything else. We came up laughing and realized that maybe that wasn’t the best thing to do coming out of a crypt. Just another story to tell, that’s all.
And that was Assisi, and my day. Tonight will hold a movie, Monty Python, and probably out to the pub to hang out for a while. And I can’t wait.
Monday, October 02, 2006
Day 3 of Rome
The third day of Rome was arguably the worst. Not the worst in the sense that I absolutely hated it, just the worst of our 3 days there. This was all mainly due to our wonderful teacher and all-around idiot, Peter Lang.
We started off the day with a little blunder, which was innocent enough at the time, but turned out to be a lot worse than we imagined. Everyone met in the lobby of the hotel at 9:30 so we could leave and get down to the Piazza Popolo again to meet with Peter Lang and follow him around all day. Everyone made it down there fine, except for Melissa, who didn’t show up. And then all of a sudden, everyone decided to leave. I was completely tired and not thinking very straight, or this would never have happened, but I just followed everyone else and went to the Metro. I should have stayed and waited for her, I know, but like I said, I wasn’t thinking clearly. And it wasn’t just me either, everybody left.
So we got to the Piazza and met with Peter Lang, thankfully we waited on some steps and didn’t go anywhere for a little bit. About 10 minutes later, Melissa shows up and is supremely pissed at everyone, for which she had a right to be. Our group apologized and tried to make her feel better, but it didn’t work very well and we were cold-shouldered all day long. Thankfully it passed the next day, but it wasn’t a good start to the day.
Anyway, we followed old Petey around Rome for the day, which pretty much sucked. First off we walked through a garden, which was pretty enough, but not exactly architectural. Then we got into a Villa full of Etruscan artifacts and six billion pieces of pottery, which was slightly interesting but given our 30 minute timeframe was completely rushed. Skipping lunch, which does nothing but annoy college students, we went on to Renzo Piano’s Auditoriums, easily the best thing we saw that day.
The Auditoriums, which are mainly concert halls, are huge structures almost looking like turtle shells covered with lead. They are big, round, grey, and completely modern. The insides were quite fantastic and impressive as to how they were constructed. Apparently they cost eleventy billion dollars to construct or something like that.
Anyway, after the auditoriums, we convinced Peter Lang that if we didn’t eat something there was going to be mutiny, so he was kind enough to give us 30 minutes off. We all ran off and got some grub and then prepared ourselves for the crappy rest of the day ahead of us. Peter Lang wanted to take us to one of his projects, something with a group called Stalker, which makes perfect sense if you know Peter Lang. He said that it was only a short 30 minute walk down the river front, so we set off. 2 hours later we made it to the area of his project, tired out and supremely angry.
And then Peter Lang takes us down this really rundown area in the middle of nowhere, into a campsite of sorts, surrounded on all sides by walls of graffiti and communist logos. People resembling Osama bin Laden came out to see what we were doing, although we were so paranoid that we thought they were just going to shoot us and then have a party. Peter Lang spoke to the ringleader dude and told him that he was part of the group that made the garden in the middle of the site, and that these were students of architecture, and that we shouldn’t be executed. The guy looked at the garden, which looked like the lousiest garden known to man, and looked back us and laughed, said something to his counterpart and waved his hand, giving us permission to live for another 5 minutes or something. Peter Lang looked back at us and proceeded to talk about all the stuff they had done to this space, which basically consisted of making this horrible garden and pretending to have worked elsewhere.
After we left that wonderful place, we went to a slaughterhouse and looked at an art exhibit all about death and clothes. Peter Lang really knows how to pick them.
Anyway, after all the walking and completely pointless locations, a number of us were not in the finest of moods. Our group went back and showered and then went to the Hard Rock Café, which was absolutely glorious. After walking all day and being ridiculously mad at Lang, a bacon cheeseburger seems like heaven on earth. It’s not that I’m tired of Italy, not at all, but it was nice to have a slice of home for a change.
At the Café, we happened to run into Amber and Alison, and we all decided to walk around and take pictures of the attractions at night. We went to Trevi Fountain, the National building, Trajan’s Column and Forum, and finally the Colosseum. It was a pretty great night actually.
We started off the day with a little blunder, which was innocent enough at the time, but turned out to be a lot worse than we imagined. Everyone met in the lobby of the hotel at 9:30 so we could leave and get down to the Piazza Popolo again to meet with Peter Lang and follow him around all day. Everyone made it down there fine, except for Melissa, who didn’t show up. And then all of a sudden, everyone decided to leave. I was completely tired and not thinking very straight, or this would never have happened, but I just followed everyone else and went to the Metro. I should have stayed and waited for her, I know, but like I said, I wasn’t thinking clearly. And it wasn’t just me either, everybody left.
So we got to the Piazza and met with Peter Lang, thankfully we waited on some steps and didn’t go anywhere for a little bit. About 10 minutes later, Melissa shows up and is supremely pissed at everyone, for which she had a right to be. Our group apologized and tried to make her feel better, but it didn’t work very well and we were cold-shouldered all day long. Thankfully it passed the next day, but it wasn’t a good start to the day.
Anyway, we followed old Petey around Rome for the day, which pretty much sucked. First off we walked through a garden, which was pretty enough, but not exactly architectural. Then we got into a Villa full of Etruscan artifacts and six billion pieces of pottery, which was slightly interesting but given our 30 minute timeframe was completely rushed. Skipping lunch, which does nothing but annoy college students, we went on to Renzo Piano’s Auditoriums, easily the best thing we saw that day.
The Auditoriums, which are mainly concert halls, are huge structures almost looking like turtle shells covered with lead. They are big, round, grey, and completely modern. The insides were quite fantastic and impressive as to how they were constructed. Apparently they cost eleventy billion dollars to construct or something like that.
Anyway, after the auditoriums, we convinced Peter Lang that if we didn’t eat something there was going to be mutiny, so he was kind enough to give us 30 minutes off. We all ran off and got some grub and then prepared ourselves for the crappy rest of the day ahead of us. Peter Lang wanted to take us to one of his projects, something with a group called Stalker, which makes perfect sense if you know Peter Lang. He said that it was only a short 30 minute walk down the river front, so we set off. 2 hours later we made it to the area of his project, tired out and supremely angry.
And then Peter Lang takes us down this really rundown area in the middle of nowhere, into a campsite of sorts, surrounded on all sides by walls of graffiti and communist logos. People resembling Osama bin Laden came out to see what we were doing, although we were so paranoid that we thought they were just going to shoot us and then have a party. Peter Lang spoke to the ringleader dude and told him that he was part of the group that made the garden in the middle of the site, and that these were students of architecture, and that we shouldn’t be executed. The guy looked at the garden, which looked like the lousiest garden known to man, and looked back us and laughed, said something to his counterpart and waved his hand, giving us permission to live for another 5 minutes or something. Peter Lang looked back at us and proceeded to talk about all the stuff they had done to this space, which basically consisted of making this horrible garden and pretending to have worked elsewhere.
After we left that wonderful place, we went to a slaughterhouse and looked at an art exhibit all about death and clothes. Peter Lang really knows how to pick them.
Anyway, after all the walking and completely pointless locations, a number of us were not in the finest of moods. Our group went back and showered and then went to the Hard Rock Café, which was absolutely glorious. After walking all day and being ridiculously mad at Lang, a bacon cheeseburger seems like heaven on earth. It’s not that I’m tired of Italy, not at all, but it was nice to have a slice of home for a change.
At the Café, we happened to run into Amber and Alison, and we all decided to walk around and take pictures of the attractions at night. We went to Trevi Fountain, the National building, Trajan’s Column and Forum, and finally the Colosseum. It was a pretty great night actually.
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