La Vista Bella

I'm a graphic design major from the University of Georgia, and this is my travel blog while I study in Cortona, Italy. Thank you for visiting!

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7.28 [excited noises]

It's been busy these last couple days. Well, last two days. Hmmm. Maybe just Friday.

Friday included my art history final exam, our end of the semester exhibition, and trying to go see an opera ('trying" because it didn't quite work out...)

The final exam was... okay. If you need me to tell you about Renaissance art sometime, just ask. (I also have a pretty solid theory that Raphael and Michelangelo had an amazing bromance.)

The exhibition was super cool! I sort of had to rush from my art history exam to go shower and get lookin' nice, but my roommates and I got there just a few minutes after 5:30, when it opened. I don't really have many photos of it, but let's see...

Here's my roomies (2 of them, the third is somewhere else...) in the show space.

And here's some of the work on display

So yeah, we all dressed up fancy, and actual Italian people, like speaking Italian and everything, came in and looked around! It was crazy!

The opera thing was part of a movie-type-festival being hosted by Cortona, but there was some mix up with tickets and seating that resulted in us spending a lot of time walking around the seating area and burning carbs, at least. What was cool was that they gave us some kind of deal on the tickets for last night's screening of a silent movie from the 20s called Metropolis. That was way more fun, since it's easier to understand a silent movie with Italian subtitles than a long Italian opera... OH AND THE COOLEST THING WAS THERE WAS THIS LIVE ORCHESTRA PLAYING THE MUSICAL SCORE SO... YES.

Okay well, better get back to work; the rest of my time has been taken up trying to finish projects before our classes end on Tuesday! 

Also, I come back in a little over a week! We leave our campus in Cortona this Saturday, and then fly out from Venice next Monday. 

Loco...

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7.24 Art History final this Friday!

So I was studying some flashcards that someone else in my art history class made just now, using this online site.

And I burst out laughing because of the image they used for the Mona Lisa

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6.21 More recently...

Photos again! But this post is about this week, because I'm organized like that. (ahaha I'm so funny)

Dessert from Friday, meringues and mousse:

My teacher's choice drawing that's going in Mostra (It's called Bar La Posta at 11:30):

And the other drawing I'm submitting (sorry it's a little... weird. Also I tweaked a few things since this photo):

Proof that my roommate is enjoying Ouran High School Host Club in the form of graffiti outside the Academia in Florence (don't worry, for some reason there's tons of graffiti there any way):

Hobbit pun graffiti is the best kind of graffiti:

TV Show-/Fandom-related graffiti in the bathroom stall:

I went to the Hard Rock Cafe in Florence and they have a big frame of pins from all the cafes, and apparently the one from Atlanta has fencers???

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7.21 KITTENS

YOU GUYS

LISTEN UP

CORTONA CAT WATCH 2013: SUPER SPECIAL AMAZING RIDICULOUSLY CUTE BALL OF FLUFF EDITION: 7

SEVEN. THAT IS THE NUMBER OF KITTENS LOCATED ABOUT HALF A MINUTE FROM OUR SCHOOL BUILDING. THEY'RE MAYBE 4-5 WEEKS OLD AND I PHYSICALLY CAN'T DEAL WITH HOW CUTE THEY ARE. [inserts image of me weeping tears of joy]

TODAY I WENT TO VISIT THEM AND SOME OF THE NICE LADIES WHO HELP OUT AROUND THE SCHOOL WERE OUT LEAVING TRAYS OF FOOD FOR THEM AND THEY SAID I COULD TOTALLY PET THEM AND I DID EXCEPT YOU CAN'T PET THEM SO MUCH AS PAT THEM BECAUSE JUST LAYING YOUR HAND ON THEM ENCOMPASSES THEIR ENTIRE LENGTH AND YOU GUYS HOW ARE KITTENS REAL LIFE??

If I can I'll try and post some photos of them. In the meantime, here's some other photos from last weekend.

Me and the giant meringue that I bought last Sunday:

No seriously look at this thing:

And then there's an even more ridiculous monstrosity from the same shop:

Nobuko in the lake:

Me 'n' my sunflower (too bad it died before we could get to Ota's house and water it):

Sculpture by the lake:

How the sky looked:

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HOW IS IT GOING, DEAREST EMMY?

IT'S GOIN' REAL NICE, SIGNORE ERIC. I'm feelin' accomplished cause on Friday I turned in my pieces for the Mostra (our end-o'-semester-show/shindig in town) (this is also extra cool cause most students only enter one piece but my teacher made one of my drawings her teacher's choice pieces so... woo!). It's a big relief, although of course I still have like 50 assignments to finish. Siiigh. How's it going on your end?Also I'ma make a blog post real soon, so don't let me forget!

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ALSO MY TEAM TIED FOR FIRST IN THE SCAVENGER HUNT

me:

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7.17 Time mangament? Is that some kind of pasta? I've never heard of it.

Hi! Sorry, this post is pretty long but I'll divide up into parts if that's okay.

Part One: things are getting busy here as we get closer to our big end-of-the-semester show. I need to finish a few projects that at home wouldn't be too bad but something about the atmosphere here makes me not want to work on them at all. I'm a real Italian now guys!

I meant to write here about last weekend and add photos buuuut guess who forgot the camera-to-computer cord in her room which is unreasonably far from this area that actually has internet? This giiirl!!! :D

Anyway.  Saturday we went to Siena, land of the most intense horse race of all Italy and also a kickin' main square.

My day was pretty chill; one cool thing is that we saw the oldest stained glass window in Italy. I also bought some more gifts for you guys. If you want a specific souvenir from Italy, let me know!

Part 2: Sunday was my favorite day in Italy. I really wish I had my camera cord with me so I could upload some of the pictures and videos I took, because it was unbelievable.

First, some background: there's this artist here named Kohei Ota, a Japanese man who moved to Italy 40 years ago and has lived here making paintings and ceramic art since then. In our UGA group, there's a graduate student named Nobuko Ogawa (everyone calls her Coco though) and she and I have sort of become friends. We went to Ota's exhibition in Cortona together a few weeks ago, where they ended up talking a lot. Last Friday she told me he'd invited her on a daytrip and said she could bring other students, so would I come with her?

So on Sunday, we met up with him and piled into his jeep to drive around the countryside. It was really surreal; Ota only speaks Japanese and Italian, and Coco speaks Japanese and English, so I couldn't talk directly to Ota except in broken Italian... though. he was very easygoing and we could talk with Coco's help when we needed. So yeah, I was riding around Italy with two Japanese artists, looking at sunflowers and dipping my feet in a lake.

We had lunch at Ota's house. prepared by his wife Francesca (who he met in Italy). She speaks Italian and English so our conversation over lunch at times went though a chain of translation from me to Francesca to Ota to Coco, and back around. Lunch was fantastic, but what really impressed me was the variety of liquids I drank in that one meal: water, carbonated water, beer, tea, juice, wine, dessert wine, and coffee. It was all AMAZING. After we ate we all just talked and sat outside and "played" badminton for a while. 

There are a few specific things from that day that I have pictures of, like buying a ridiculously big meringue at a small town by the lake and holding up a sunflower that Ota cut right out of a field and gave to me, that I'll have to post here later. It was just... a great day.

Part Three: Yesterday was my roommate Allison's birthday! I really like Allison; she reminds me of a lot of my friends from Athens and is watching a TV show (Ouran High School Host Club) with me since I introduced it to her. I drew her a funny little card, and I think she had a nice day yesterday too. Her fiance sent her an adorable bouquet of flowers through some international floral delivery company, too, so that's brightening up our room right now.

Alright, I'm gonna get some drawing done. Sorry for the long post, but if I don't get this up now I'm worried I never will. Ahhhh seriously what is this "time management" thing I keep hearing about?

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I can't reply to these like normal because tumblr had some weird update that Missing e hasn't fixed yet.

half-eatencarrot replied to your photo: Guess who made a tiny ceramic breakfast set? Ahaha...

This is now your dishware in your apartment next year. How do you feel?

Super excited because that could mean I shrank and am now tiny and will live among miniature everything.

half-eatencarrot replied to your post: 7.8 Addendum

The thief is still a winner.

NOPE. Unless the cat stole it. that would be okay and kind of cute.

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Guess who made a tiny ceramic breakfast set? Ahaha I love how generous the ceramics students here are with their clay.

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7.8 Addendum

ALSO I AM VERY VEXED RIGHT NOW

ONE OF THE GIRLS HERE BOUGHT A 1000 PIECE PUZZLE OF THE SISTINE CHAPEL

AND ALL THE STUDENTS WERE WORKING TOGETHER ON IT HERE IN OUR COMMON ROOM (I must have done like an eighth of it on my own seriously)

AND TODAY WE FINISHED IT

EXCEPT

SOME STINKING, INCONSIDERATE, ALKJFSHDDSGNAGASS UGH

TOOK THE MOST IMPORTANT PIECE

I KID YOU NOT

[SCREAMING]

*EDIT* IT BOTHERED ME TOO MUCH SO I TOOK MATTERS INTO MY OWN HANDS

**EDIT 2** I HAD A BETTER IDEA

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7.8 Gotta Scavenge 'Em All!

Buona sera guys! This Saturday we had a belated 4th of July party on the 6th of July which I guess is an Italian thing. (kidding). There were "hamburgers" and "hotdogs" (they had this quirky Italian quality to them that just made it funny because it was supposed to SO AMERICAN) and also dancing and fireworks and sparklers, so that was fun.

BUT MORE IMPORTANTLY THERE WAS A SCAVENGER HUNT. We had to break into teams of 2 to 4 and run around Cortona taking photos of a list of "findings." The clues were tricky, and my team sort of left me halfway through because they had schoolwork they desperately needed to finish, but that said it was a lot of fun and I think I might have come in one of the top 3 spots?

Here's some of the photos we had to take:

there are a lot of these shrines called edicole around the streets, but this one is special because of the light. we all call it the Neon Madonna...

 me with the statue of St. Margherita, the patron saint of Cortona

my team getting gelato (it was one of the findings we had to do! I swear!)

and there are a ton of fake, painted windows in Europe for some reason, and we had to find the one with a cat.

so... don't wanna jinx my chances but I think I might win. I did get 21 of 23 findings...

Otherwise, today was a typical Monday here. It's weird to think that Saturday marked our halfway point, though. Less than a month left--crazy!

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7.5 No longer America's birthday over here

Here we are with another installment of I Should Really Be Asleep Right Now: an Autobiography. In today's episode we have--

me with a tiny cone of gelato:

a flower ring that I made for myself:

2 of my cute roommates:

me with a superhero I made up at dinner called Acua-man:

portrait shot of the superhero (the W is for Water because I wrote that before we came up with the more clever name):

and a sleeping picture of the campus cat, Bella Signora:

Wish me luck on my art history midterm!

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7.2 FOOOOOOD! I didn't cook these but I DID eat them and that's half the battle right there

I want to write a post about this weekend too but the computer here is possessed so for now: a culinary photo diary. Also the keyboard here has this fancy § symbol on it instead of the cute tilde I usually use. 

Night one:

Day 2:

Lunch on Day 3:

[chromochaotic]

6.26 part two serious electric bugaloo

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The U.S. is freaking me out a little bit right now… Catching up on political events after I wake up is a bit disorienting.

Also I drew two things I wanna show y’all.

This one: (I told my teacher I didn’t like drawing scenery and she was like “challenge to give you a challenge: accepted!” and sent me out to do a landscape)

That took about an hour. The cooler one is this second drawing, though. Our assignment was to draw a spot in town where “change is evident,” so I drew this toy shop that’s housed in some really old building, cause you can tell by the heavy stone and wrought iron gate that it wasn’t always a toy shop so the property must have changed ownership, with the toy shop moving in like a little hermit crab finding a new shell. 

So I just sat down at a cafe across the street from the shop, bought a glass of pineapple juice, and got to work for two hours. Eventually the owner of the shop came out to chat with the owner of the cafe, and saw the drawing. She liked it and asked to take a photo of it when it was done, and also gave me this little bracelet-type-object as a present.

One of my more productive days, anyway. Okay, time for Art History—hope you’re having a chill day if you’re reading this—OH WAIT I ALMOST FORGOT

CORTONA CAT WATCH 2013: SPECIAL EDITION!

I HAVE OFFICIALLY SEEN/HEARD 4 CATS OBVIOUSLY IN HEAT. Ahhhhh, to be young and a cat.

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6.26 IT'S OFFICIAL, I AM A CULINARY GENIUS

YOU GUYS, I THINK TODAY MARKS THE CREATION OF THE WORK OF ART OF WHICH I AM MOST PROUD, EVER. 

LOOK AT IT. LOOK AT THAT SEXY PERFECTION OF SANDWICHDOM, FEAST YOUR EYES UPON THAT HARMONIOUS COMBO OF TASTE AND TEXTURE.

I HAVE REACHED THE PINNACLE OF MY ARTISTIC CAREER, NOTHING I HAVE MADE OR EVER WILL MAKE WILL RIVAL THE EXQUISITENESS OF THIS FOOD. 

THIS MASTERPIECE CONTAINS:

FRESH TOMATOES, SLICED.

FRESH AVOCADO, ALSO SLICED. 

PECORINO CHEESE, ALSO REALLY SLICED.

AND A JUICY SUNNY-SIDE-UP EGG RIGHT ON TOP.

ALL NESTLED BETWEEN TWO SLICES OF WHOLE GRAIN BREEEEAD!!!

I AM SO EXCITED ABOUT THIS. I THINK IT'S BECAUSE I NEVER MAKE GOOD FOOD FOR MYSELF BUT NOW I'M GOING AROUND OUR DINING ROOM AND TALKING AT PEOPLE LIKE "I JUST MADE A SANDWHICH NO ORDINARY SANDWHICH A SANDWHICH MADE WITH ITALIAN CHEEEEEESE."

I also made an open spread on a single slice, with that same ingredients, as an appetizer. c: and got gelato for dessert. 

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She sounds really nice and probably felt flattered that you liked her work. I think it's so nice that you are giving so much respect to her and her artwork. Aunt Nancy

Hi Aunt Nancy!

Ahaha, thank you. I feel like it was an overall nice exchange, I just like getting dramatic about it.

On an unrelated note, I bought an avocado today and plan to make it into a sandwich with some pecorino cheese tomorrow. I'm still looking forward to having some home cooking in 6 weeks or so though. Peas in a nest! Omelettes! Turkey chili! Salmon sushi! Wooooo!

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Things are just super boring here lolz. Also it's been raining so much lately. It's ridiculous. Also you can do the work Emmy! Show it who's boss! Lolz

Make it exciting! Climb a tree! Eat a birthday cake! It has rained exactly once since I've been here... and thanks, I will show it who's boss! I will march up to Work, put my foot down, and whip out a photo of Chris Robbins, our Program Director—Ha!