Parti, Parti, Parti

Ciao, amici. The area by studio has been out of internet for at least three days now and I guess they sort of fixed it. Our one and only washing machine has also been broken for a few days but it has now been fixed so at least we can finally wash clothes. Yaaay.

The past week was rough schedule-wise because while Michael Graves is here we don't have our normal class schedules. We have these random walks and talks about the city and strange studio hours (like studio on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday...not Friday) and some of our normal classes have been squished into one massive multi-tasking fest. We still have the structure of the 9:00 am - 6:00 pm full class day with a break for lunch. We have four classes but the shortest classes are 3 hours long mostly because we never, ever sit during them. We haven't had two consecutive weeks of the same schedule yet since we arrived in Rome because we had one normal week, a field trip week, and now this scheduling mess. The Michael Graves project is due on my birthday, however, so that's not far off and once the review is over we will say farewell to the Miami students and Professor Graves.

We all have been grumbling about the terrible disorganization of all of this but really we are still fortunate for this opportunity. We've already had two reviews in front of Michael Graves and the rest of the faculty, not to mention the times when some of us have asked him about our parti ideas one-on-one. The first time I did that one of my friends said "Even if you cry it will still be a great story." because he said very harsh things to other groups that day. I did not cry nor do I consider it a great story because our conversation didn't last very long. It's still exciting that he is actually our professor though. I saw one of his tea kettles being sold in Piazza Navona the other day...

The tea kettle designed by Michael Graves. This is his sketch for the design.
He gave us each a book of his sketches when he arrived.

Anyways, our project is in the Jewish Ghetto by the Portico D'Ottavia. It's an urbanism project so I enjoy it though we are designing in groups and mixed with University of Miami students. It's odd how I enjoy urbanism but am not at all a city person. I mean I wouldn't choose to live in a big, bustling city such as Rome or Chicago or Paris. I've realized in these past few weeks just how much I miss grass. We went to the American Academy in Rome on Friday and that was fantastic. Out in the back they had an actual lawn with grass! I just wanted to lie there and feel grass again instead of cobblestone, cement, and brick. (Fun fact: this lawn I speak of is where Galileo tested out the first telescope.)

GRASS!

They also have a garden and fruit trees which explains the delicious food.

The Academy overall was amazing and beautiful and we all talked about applying there one day. 30 fellows get accepted to the academy and their studies range widely in the realms of music, art, architecture, history, and classics. Professor Graves and our history professor Ingrid Rowland went to the American Academy. We were given a tour and an extremely delicious lunch and then we attended a lecture by M. Graves that was the same one he gave when he visited Notre Dame last year. We naturally also saw the rare book room that he designed. I got to look through very old editions of Plutarch and a book by Galileo from 1653 among others.

The rare books room.

At lunch I sat next to an ex-fellow who happened to be a friend of Professor Rowland. It was pretty awkward because as soon as he and the woman sitting across from him introduced themselves to me I promptly forgot their names. Typical. The majority of the graduates from the Academy are known for high achievements and can be quite famous so it became increasingly awkward when the thought occurred to me that these two people might be really famous and I looked very ignorant. I felt like they had expected me to ooh and ahh when they introduced themselves and because I did not I was inferior for not being familiar with their accomplishments. I wanted to ask them questions but was too afraid after I said "What did you do while you were here?" and they both sort of laughed at me and said "Painting." I was going to ask what kind but just shut up after that. I also couldn't figure out the relationship between the man and the woman because they seemed very much like a couple but the woman referred to her kids when talking to the man. Previous marriage? Are they wearing wedding rings? It was awkward. It didn't help that earlier the tour guide spit out a bunch of names of alumni who she assumed we all would recognize but none of us had any idea who these supposedly famous people were.

Where lunch was served.

Besides that the lunch was great and I tried my first actual fig. At least I don't remember eating a fresh fig before. Yum, yum, yum. I bought some figs and apples at Campo di Fiori on Sunday after mass.

We walked by the Acqua Paola after we visited the Academy.

Speaking of food, I'm already missing non-Italian food. Our cooking group has had quseadillas and breakfast for dinner during the past few nights thankfully! I love pasta but I can't explain how nice it is to eat banana pancakes and scrambled eggs for the first time after weeks on weeks of just pasta and pizza. I also bought some cereal the other day because I miss cereal and milk. They don't sell gallons of milk (at least I've never seen a gallon of milk here) and when I went at least two weeks without a glass of milk I realized how much I missed it.

So, Rome is fun but exhausting since we have an actual work load unlike most other study abroad programs. We have joked that our La Fun runs have turned into gelato runs when we are stressed. Before our most recent review one of our professors said that they would allow time for us to get gelato (because she knew we were all stressed and grumpy) so she pointed to a specific gelateria and then promptly ran off in the other direction. This is funny in a sad way because that gelateria was closed due to the power outage and by the time we got back to studio we didn't have time to try another place. The professors, of course, got gelato because they went elsewhere. But it turned out ok I guess because that night some of us went gelato hopping and went to two places because we were particularly unhappy with life. I still can't believe we actually did that though.

Speaking of de-stressing, I'm so happy there's a communal guitar in studio. Some people cook to de-stress but I need to play music. Now if only we had a piano...

By the way, I still haven't uploaded pictures from Siena and Florence to Facebook. I promise that is coming eventually. I haven't forgotten, it's just that the internet is incredibly slow.

We saw Bramante's Tempietto before we went to the Academy.
That's certainly of note though I didn't say anything about it. It's so tiny!!