Monday, February 22, 2010

Holland

So, we decided to take a weekend trip to Amsterdam. The problem with traveling to a city for only a weekend is that you either don't have time to do everything that you want to do, or you're rushing to cram everything in. We weren't exactly rushing, but I'm so exhausted because of how much we managed to do this weekend. Friday, we left our residence around 4AM, to catch a 6:30 flight. The weather in Holland was pretty much gloomy and cold all around. Over the course of the weekend, I went to six museums, went on a boat tour of the canals, rode bikes in the rain, among other things that I'm probably forgetting. Our first museum stop was the Anne Frank house, which is somewhere that I've wanted to visit since I was 12 years old, and reading books like Number the Stars and Anne Frank's diary. I'm really glad that we went. The museum was just set up so well, between the quotes from her diary, the pictures, and the videos of people who were close to her. To lighten the mood, we got bagels after the museum, and then we went to the Van Gogh museum, which I enjoyed a lot more than I was expecting to, even though we were all sleep deprived. On saturday, I saw the Jewish museum which had this really cool exhibit (I took some pictures of it, ill up them later) on this one artist whose name I don't remember. Then we putzed around a flea market and went to the Rembrant house, and then to a photography museum. Yesterday, I went on boat tour of the canals, and even though it was rainy and foggy, it was really pretty. Then, the rijtmuseum, which is hyped up a lot, but I didn't find it to be that exciting, and then we all went for a bike ride. Amsterdam is such an amazing bike city. It was nice to hear people speaking english again. I was also really excited that there was a grocery store right across the street from our hostel. Even more exciting, it was a grocery store that we have in Philly, but literally everything in this store was different. [I really like going to different grocery stores and seeing what products they sell/who they cater to/how their prices are.] Almost everything cost approximately one euro. They sold giant jars of peanut butter for one euro, which wouldn't be exciting, but in Italy they don't really have peanut butter, and in my local grocery store in Rome, a smallish jar of peanut butter costs over 5 euro (which is approx $7). And, I've been eating a lot of peaunit butter here, to get in my proteins...so one euro peanut butter was exciting to me.

















Thursday, February 18, 2010






Because midterms are next week (I'll up some pictures of the work i've done so far soon), and I'm traveling this weekend, I haven't had much time to explore this week. Last weekend, though, we had a full day's outing. First we went to a gelateria (Old Bridge) near the vatican and got the most delicious gelato. Then, we went ice skating at a castle (Castel Sant'Angelo), followed by a delicious sit down dinner at a nearby restauraunt.
I also included the picture of Micheangelo's Moses, because I forgot it in my entry last week. Tomorrow, we go to Amsterdam! Pictures and stories to follow!

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Also...

With my art history class, this morning, I went to the church of San Clemente and saw some frescos by Masolino and then we went to the church of Aracoeli. There is so much extraordinary history here. I feel like I'm being blown away by all the incredible art and architecture just about every day. Like I said before, I will add some pictures later. I keep forgetting to bring my camera cord with me to school

Some thoughts.

After being here for a little over a month, I can honestly say that I feel really comfortable living in Europe, and could definitely get used to living on this side of the world, more long term... Even though no one can really understand a word that I say here, and despite a lot of strange cultural differences, and close living arrangements and being thrown into so many situations way outside of my comfort zone, I think that in this very short period of time, I've learned so much. I have to take public transportation just about every day. My art classes are forcing me to work out art-related issues that I've had for years but just avoided because I felt I was no good at it. My friends here come from different backgrounds and lifestyles and decisions from me, it is especially refreshing because I was so used to being surrounded by inconsistent people who generally weren't good to be around for so long. I've been going to the market every week, picking up fresh fruits and vegetables, and cooking family style dinners most nights. I think the biggest downside to being here is the fact that I am taking four intensive studio classes, which don't really leave a whole lot of time for exploring. But, after this weekend, I have three weeks in a row that involve some traveling. The 19th, we are going to Amsterdam. The next week is midterms, which makes the following week spring break, so I will be in Tunesia that week. Then, the week after classes pick up again, I am traveling to Florence and Siena with my Art History class.

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Recap

Saw Michelangelo's Moses this morning and sketched it, with my drawing class. Over the weekend I went to this enormous flea market, and spent two fulls days working on my prints in the printmaking studio. Pictures of what I saw in the past couple of days to follow!

Thursday, February 4, 2010

Excited!

I'm going to Tunesia in March for my spring break! I'm really really excited to go to Africa. I'm also going to Amsterdam in 2 weeks. And, I'm in the process of planning out my travels for the month of May. I just want to go everywhere!


Yesterday I went to the vatican museum with my art history class and also saw the sistene chapel. One of those Rome things I felt I needed to see. I wasn't disapointed. I'm kind of excited to go back with my class and hear my professor talk about the celing.

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Dadadadadada

Today, I went to a dada and surrealism exhibit. I couldn't take pictures in the exhibit , and I was amazed at how much I enjoyed it. In general, I'm not so into that kind of art. But, I was just so awestruck...for lack of a better word. I wrote a really long list of the artists that I want to look more into. There were a bunch of pieces by artists that i was familiar with, but there were SO MANY pieces by artists that I had never heard of before. My favorite was Victor Brauner. (see directly below)
(not taken by me. i found it on the internet.)
After the dada/surrealism exhibit, I saw a brief exhibit on concentration camps (pictures to follow) which was especially interesting, because I couldn't understand any of the words in the exhibit. Between the german and the italian translations, it was more haunting to me.