Another Saturday, another day trip. This one started out with a stop in Assisi, home of St. Frances and site of the first Franciscan church. As it stands now, it may be my favorite church we've visited. It's not overly lavish (relative to other Italian churches), with dark, low arched ceilings and, of course, frescoes and other art lining every wall. The outside architecture, though, is what I found most appealing. The surrounding space filled with columns leading up to the large, castle-like church set against the sky created a great, almost fairy-tale like effect.
After the church, we walked the streets up to a quaint little piazza. Nothing extraordinary, but it had a nice little vibe to it. We stayed there a moment and moved on the the next city—Perugia.
After the bus driver spent about 45 minutes trying to get into the city, we took the train in. Almost immediately upon entering, Stephen saw a girl he recognized from a random encounter on a bus in Cortona. Her & her friend agreed to walk around with me, AJ and Stephen to show us the city. Most of our trip was comprised of walking around the city. It had much the same feel as Cortona, but clearly was a much larger city. We walked along an ancient aqueduct, stopped in an antique market, and walked through the cobbled streets until it was time to go home
It feels so strange to be talking about the end of the semester, but it's coming up quick. Today was the first day that I seriously started considering how I will finish all my work in time. My parents come on sunday, and they'll be here for two weeks, then Kristen comes for the week after that, at the end of which is the final show. So, in the next two weeks (if I want to be done with my work and still have time to see everyone) I have to film and produce possibly two movies, keep on top of this blog, and continue making lessons for Art Ed. I'm not stressing too bad about it, but It's a bit of a reality check that the end of my time here is coming at me pretty quick.
I think the reason my workload is even an issue is that, although I know I can get it all done, it all involves computers. Unfortunately, that means that when the weather is nicest I'll be cooped up indoors. I need to make sure I don't lock myself inside for this last month in Cortona.
The plans for booking my final trip are slowly materializing... A little bit too slowly—I really should be taking more of an initiative on it. As it stands right now, I will be going to spain, then Paris, then Amsterdam, then London, and back to Zurich for my flight home.
...get laid, get drunk, break something, be debaucherous."
These last words left on the dorm's common room by Bret the day that he and Fitz had to leave. These two were ex-students hanging out for a couple weeks in Cortona. It might have something to do with the fact that they had no work to do, but these two kept it lighthearted and reminded us all not to take ourselves too seriously. We are in Europe, after all.
I would like to retract my previous post. Spring is currently fighting and elbowing its way past winter, with some give in either direction. Yesterday our saturday trip was cancelled because of a (relatively) large snowfall. Though as a Chicagoan 2-3 inches might not seem like a enough for a snow day, when you need to drive charter busses down winding, unplowed mountain roads, it is.
Today, on the other hand, was sunny and 60ยบ. We spent the morning at the bookmaking prof Jo Ann's apartment for a southern-style brunch. Incredible. She and her son Fitz cooked the food as long as we kept bringing it. Eggs, peppers, bacon sausage... the food kept coming as we stood out on her sun-bathed patio overlooking the city.
We talked while Johnny cash played in the background, moving later to the Beatles. It was a small, wonderful, taste of home.
Spring has sprung. The past few days have been sunny, warm, and glorious. Sunday, after going into town for breakfast and gelato, Stephen and I went hiking along the city wall. Most of it was only 4 or 5 feet wide on dilapidated rock with at least a 20 foot drop on either side... probably not the best of ideas, but i'm young and invincible, so it doesn't matter. Also, I got some great photos out of it. After lounging out in the sun a bit, we went and played our weekly soccer game and ran ourselves ragged in what felt like sweltering heat (even though I'm sure it couldn't have been over 65).
Today was just as good. After waking up at 9 to do some preparation for our next lesson in the schools, I went into town for lunch. I ended up staying down in town and reading for an hour or so, finally finishing On the Road after dragging it out for an absurd length of time. After reading, I sketched the tops of the Cortonese roofs for another hour, then came up the hill.
It was too gorgeous to stay inside, though, so I ended up sitting on the wall outside of the Kehoe Center and playing guitar for a while as the sun set.
If the weather stays like this for the rest of the trip, I won't get any work done. Ever.
Right now I'm on a train back from Florence. Last night we went to an Animal Collective Show. Although the show was great, the process of getting there was kind of a bitch. First, we missed our bus from Cortona to the train station in Camucia, so we decided to walk. Although it was a beautiful walk, it ended up taking over an hour (longer than it would have taken to wait for the next bus). Then, after taking just a minute too long to buy our train tickets, our train was pulling away as we stepped onto the platform. We caught the next one an hour later. When finally we got to Florence, we found that we had arrived too late for our hostel, and it was already closed. We managed to stay at the "Plus Florence" hostel. And, although it was a little bit nicer, cost twice as much. After that, we tried to meet up with the other half of our group who were scheduled to arrive later. Without cell phones, we failed at yet another of our objectives. As the time of the concert drew closer, we decided it was time to try to catch a bus to our destination. And, of course, the 35 was nowhere to be found. We ended up buying a cab, which was the first thing we did right that night. As we got to the venue, the opening DJ was finishing up his set. And the show began. It was a relatively small venue, so we were able to get front row relatively easily. The crowd was digging it. They played a lot off of Merriweather Post, but the best song in my opinion was Fireworks. I was as little disappointed they didn't play more off of Strawberry Jam, but it was a great show either way.
Posts
