A Beautiful Week...

So, I recently had a visitor. My darling Keith came to visit me for a week during my Spring Break.  I nervously awaited his arrival, Sunday night at 10:00 pm.  I had some trouble with the airport bus shuttle, well it really ended up being a communication error between me and the ticket guy.  The bus station closes at 8:30 pm and I was going to catch the 9:00 bus to the airport, he said that it would be outside the BUS STATION, but it was really outside the TRAIN station.  So, I was a little late getting to Keith.  But it was amazing to see him finally.  I almost knocked him down in the airport with my gigantic hug.  :)

We stayed in Florence the entire time.  He wanted to see the places that he hears me talk about on the phone and stuff.  So I showed him everything.  And the punk that he is didn't want to go to any museums!  Dork! how can you visit the art capital of the world and not want to go to a museum?  haha.  But it was his vacation, so we didn't go to any.  I give into to him too easily.  Pretty much all Keith was interested in was the FOOD!  I have never eaten out so much in my life.  And he loved it.  However, I was correct in guessing that the Italian food portions would NOT be enough to fill him up.  He ate a lot.  And fell completely in love with the olive oils and fresh mozzarella cheese.  We had waffles and nutella.  He drank beer with every meal, yup even breakfast, b/c thats what they do here.  He was all for that too.  

We climbed to the top of the Duomo, conquered all 463 stairs up it.  It was quite a view.  And that was when I learned that I'm a touch claustrophobic.  Not cool.

We also had a short photo session in the Gardens.  Since, I can't get married there we had my wonderfully talented roommate, Megan, take "engagement-like" photos of us in the Gardens.  And they turned out wonderful (all 225 - yup she took that many, and only stopped b/c her memory card was full). Above are a few of my favorites.  :)

Enjoy.

Peggs.  

Halfway Over....

Midterms are OVER!

Yay.  A huge weight off my shoulders.  I feel like I did well on all of them.  I got my Italian Midterm back today.  Drum roll please...................

83, B!

Yeahhhhh, which is VERY good for me!  I'm so pumped.  I believe it may call for a celebration tonight.  

And now that I'm officially on Spring Break, I only have TWO days til I see KEITH.  I may burst with excitement before he gets here.    

Peggs. 

5 days and 3 midterms to go....

I had my first midterm today.  Painting critique.  It went  pretty well.  There's only six of us in the class, we each had two paintings and it took about 4.5 with a 30 min lunch break.  So, not bad.  Marsha takes her critiques "very seriously".  She gave a lot of constructive criticism with a few compliments to each of us.  She says that this isn't a beginners course, so I'm not handing out compliments unless you deserve them.  So, we all have things we need to work on.  Its just amazing to me that we all paint so differently.  I love seeing all of our work together.  No one's is better than the other necessarily just a different painterly style.  Marsha says I'm too hard on myself and that I take things too seriously.  That I need to enjoy it more.  I agree.  And I'm working on that.  

But, it was good.  I took a lot of notes, things to think about later.  And ways to improve on my next painting. Which will be a double portrait, including myself and a model.  I'm not sure how I feel about this.  But I trust Marsha to guide me through it and challenge me all at the same time.  Then the painting after that, our last one, is going to be a diptych and we will have more free rein with it.  I'm excited about it although I have no idea what I want to do with it yet.  I still have time to think about it.

Tomorrow I have what I think will be my toughest midterm, Italian.  ugh.  I'm learning to not like this language as well (because I suck at it).  I hated french (because I sucked at it too).  But oh well.  As long as I get a C I'll be good.  :) 

I also have Marble tomorrow too.  But no midterm, because in the words of Jana (the professor) "We don't have time for that test crap." Haha.  She cracks me up.  I think I'm going to get brave tomorrow and use the air hammer to speed things up a bit.  My stone (yeah its a stone now not a rock) is finally taking some shape.  Sure, it doesn't look like anything yet, but who's does?  lol.  It's starting to look like my sketch a little.  Which is reassuring, its just such hard work.  I'm not used to such physical art.  But I like it, just not for 5 hours straight.  

But, after I survive this week I will be rewarded.  With  my dear Keith coming to visit for a week!  I can NOT wait to see him.  I'll probably tackle him in the airport I'm sure.

Well, I just wanted to update everyone.  And let you know that I survived my first midterm/critique.  Lets hope the rest of the week flies by! :)

Peggs.

Ugh, midterms...

Yup, midterms even suck in Italy.  I just felt like whining about it publicly.  But after midterms, its Spring Break, which means I get to see Keith.  And thats only 7 days away.

I have things to look forward too.

In the meantime, I have midterms to study for.  

Sad Day.

Peggs...  

The Last of Paris Pictures...

A few pics of Notre Dame.  We didnt go in.  But it was pretty from the outside.  

Museum d'Orsay....

The redhead reminds me of Miles.  You agree?

She was so pretty, I couldn't stop taking pictures of her!

This guy was cute, front and back.

Beautiful clock, came in handy for we had no watch on. :)

Rodin.

Yup, I got to see this piece! It was so exciting. Considering we spend about 2 weeks on it in Modern Art class last semester with Dr. D!

This place was amazing as well.  Beautiful museum interior.  And so many masterpieces, especially of the Impressionist period.  Degas, Monet, Manet, Renoir, and MORE.  It was great to roam this place.  I recognized at least 3 pieces in every room.  It was amazing.  We spent about 2.5 hours here on our last day.  And would've stayed longer but we were ready to go to the airport and be early.  Which ended up not happening, b/c our bus wouldn't take us until it was 3 hours before our flight.  So we killed time at a mall across the street from the bus station.  It all worked out in the end.  We made it home in one piece. But the Museum d'Orsay was beautiful.  I loved it.  And now there are so many more "famous" pieces I can add to my list that I've seen in person.  It was a rewarding experience.

Peggs...

Now, Mr. Eiffel Tower....

Sparkly!

Its so pretty at night.

I was trying to be cute.

We wanted to go to the Ballet, but it was already sold out when we went to get our tickets.  So we decided that we still wanted to get dressed up and we'd eat dinner then have a date with Mr. Eiffel.  He was super-impressive.  Huge.  And really pretty at night.  It took us a while to figure out how to get the typical tourist pictures with the Tower.  But we finally figured it out.  And spent about 2 hours there.  And it was COLD too.  In the 40's and us in our dresses.  Brrrr....

It was fun though.  And it really make us feel like we were in Paris.

Peggs...

Let's start with the Louvre....

On our way there...

HUGE.

I always forget to put it on auto focus when a stranger uses it. :(

ha.

Oh you know, the stairs to my apartment.  Lol.

Fancy.

Pretty stairs.

I love this handle for some reason. Reminds me of my friend Jess, for some reason. :)

This was fun.

From the inside looking out.

Beautiful view.

:)

Gotta Love Botticelli!

And there she is.  Ms. Lisa.  So small, and on a huge wall all by her lonesome.

Contemporary Art.  Wicked awesome.

Exhausted.

Isn't she beautiful?

Phi Mu's in the Louvre!

The Louvre was pretty amazing.  It is SO freaking huge.  I knew it was big, but my mind didn't understand how big huge really was.  We spent about 5 hours there and didn't see everything.  Didn't even see all of the key pieces.  But it was so big, and we were exhausted to say the least.  I'm so glad that I got to see this museum though.  It was beautiful.  The layout was a little confusing, so we just roamed.  And you are allowed to take photographs there, as long as you didn't use flash, which people did and it got on my nerves sooo bad.  People really don't understand the damage that can come from a camera flash.  Oh well.  And the museum staff weren't really paying attention.  So, I took it upon myself to remind some people that flash is NOT allowed.  What else do you expect from me? I'm a redhead.  

Also at the Louvre I met up with some fellow Gtown friends.  Jami and Katie are both studying in Spain, it was wonderful to see them!  Some sisters finally!  It was refreshing to see familiar faces.  They are both coming to Florence in early April, so I'll get to see them again, before I leave here!  :)

Overall, the Louvre is my favorite museum that I've seen this time around (it doesn't beat Tate Modern in London though).  I can't imagine having those masterpieces at your fingertips everyday, if you lived in Paris.  But I can't imagine myself ever living there.  I liked Paris, its just not a city I could picture myself in for longer a month or vacation.  

But the Louvre was amazing.  And an experience I will never forget.  One that I am forever thankful for as well.

Peggs.