Classes!

We have enjoyed this week so much more with the start of classes. For the most part they are very exciting and enjoyable but will also be challenging. We are delighted with our professors and student assistants. They are passionate and energetic, also open and helpful. They are very willing to make ...suggestions and offer advice for questions you may have about how to live in the city- which will prove to be infinitely valuable. However we were a little bit blind-sided by the costs of our classes, we kinda forgot to prepare for that, but we are not used to paying for lab fees. For this reason and others, I (Kait) am unfortunately dropping my intermediate drawing class. I honestly don't have the interest or concentration to draw and draw well for 5 hours straight. My brain will explode. I will still have enough credits, now the same amount as Cody, meaning more time to devote to my work in other classes as well as more time together. :D

My classic photography class sounds like a typical course on the topic but is extra exciting for what I have available to me to take pictures of :D Next week we're going to the market to take some photos! I am so incredibly excited for this opportunity I have to take a fashion design class. I soaked up all kinds of interesting info about the industry in class this morning. It will be a very foundational study of fashion drawing and fabrics. So I'm not sure that I will really get to make anything but I will learn so much about the design process and fundamentals from a man who has actually designed under big names in the industry for 20 years! Both of these classes are 5 and half hours long with a short break for lunch. This is a little crazy and wearying but at least I'll be moving around and working. So excited. These classes are structured so that the professor is lecturing, demonstrating, and helping during the first half and then after lunch a student assistant takes over during your work time to guide and assist. I'm not quite sure yet if these assistants are grad students, professors themselves, or ?

We have especially enjoyed our cooking classes so far because they will do a great deal for our understanding of how to shop and cook while we're here, and will hopefully help us impress you with some authentic Italian cooking when we return! It looks like we will be coming home with many recipes from different regions all over Italy.

(Note a change of narrator...this is now Cody writing)

My classes are going to be really good. As usual, they will challenge me, but (hopefully) in good ways. My history of Christianity class is instructed by a sweet, elderly, English nun named Julia Bolton Holloway. Her focus for the class is more of a historical one, viewing Christianity through the lens of global history and how the two intersect, which will be really cool, but she doesn't really have a very comprehensive understanding of American protestantism as I've experienced it (which makes sense, coming from an Anglican who's been living for quite a while in Roman Catholic Florence) but it makes her comparisons a little troubling.

Watercolor may prove to be the most challenging one yet. Our instructor Paride is passionate about improving our "calligraphy," the movement and stroke of the brush, so we begin with a lot of drawing exercises. I'll be fine, and I'm excited to learn more; it's just that I have somewhat shaky hands and a very GraphicNovel/PopArt/Toonish kind of style when I paint, so we'll see how studying the Renaissance masters impacts my work.

Italian is going really well. Both our instructors are very helpful and energetic, and we're very excited to learn this beautiful language (partially for its beauty, mostly so we're not so disoriented here).

(Back to Kait)

It's been a bit cooler for weather here this week. We actually had a very rain day yesterday. unpleasant. I bought a cool umbrella though.

Culture Clues
* More Italian Lessons: Greetings: Buongiorno - We thought this meant "Hello" But! It means "Good morning" and is usually used with someone you don't know or formally. "Ciao" is a very general greeting, hello, goodbye. It is used with people you already know/familiar. We were confused about this for a while because many of the employees at the school greet us with Ciao probably to be welcoming. But now we've learned the difference, and so have you!

* Street numbers. It can be difficult to find places not only because all the buildings are connected, but because none of the street numbers follow any particular order. Even the street names are not always printed at each intersection, and sometimes you have to walk a few blocks in a certain direction until the street becomes the name you were looking for on your map. You would expect our university buildings to be these big, outstanding buildings with huge signs proclaiming UNIVERSITY. But... no. They look like everything else, old and beautiful of course, but rarely are there obvious signs.


Quirky Quotes *NEW :D
* More on the topic of Italian drivers, especially the operators of "scooters." Luca, an activities director in charge of getting us involved with our community, had many words of advice for us concerning these ever popular Italians. Luca describes them as "Liberal Drivers", "Because we are being polite, no?" He says driving is a "Social Game" and my favorite, "Signs, you see them everywhere. Yes? Those signs are just street decorations." :D

* Luca also inspires us with this, "Life is made of details. All experience is about life appreciation. Enjoy every bite of food, every sip of wine, every step of a walk."

* I loved this: Neri, my photog. prof, spent a great deal of lecture encouraging us to think about the meaning of the word "photogrpahy" It means, "Writing with Light" Ooooo. ;)

* My fashion design prof was full of good ones as well, like: "Fashion shows have to be out of reality." and, "High fashion is fabric sculpture." Good stuff.

That's all for now. We'll write more next week when we return from our weekend trip to tour the Tuscan country side - an included trip through our school!