It's Days Like This

Today in my Firenze neighborhood

It's days like today that make me think the world is perfect. After getting up and dressed, I head out the door and am welcomed by the city streets of Florence. The weather is gorgeous - upper 60s. With the sun shining, politely asking me to put on sunglasses, and the light wind kissing my cheeks, I fail to see any kind of flaw in God's creation. Now, this definitely doesn't happen every day, believe me, which makes today that much more special. After a month and a half of freezing cold and a month and a half of rain, it's more than refreshing to see the sun's face and feel the heat on my head.

I know that I haven't blogged in about a month, which has been pointed out to me on numerous occasions. However, it's not that there hasn't been anything to blog about - on the contrary. I've had so much going on that finding time to blog has been about as promising as getting eight hours of sleep. With only two weeks left in Italy, I'm trying to soak up as much culture as I can while at the same time meeting the demands of my professors. Having written two research papers, given a presentation and completing two projects, all within 10 days, I've decided that school just gets in the way of studying abroad. Don't worry, Dad, I'm only semi-joking. You should know that I'm learning just as much inside the classroom as I am outside of it.

My walk home from school. Beautiful, isn't it?

After much contemplation about the arrangement of my blog (since there's so much to cover), I decided to give you an overview on the most important things you've missed this past month.

Let's start with Easter...

Easter break was definitely not the traditional family get-together with church and a nice Sunday brunch. Instead of spending the holiday with my family eating a great meal and getting a little Easter basket from the Easter bunny (yes, I still get surprises from the Easter bunny at 20), I spent the holiday soaking up the sun in Ibiza, Spain.

Ibiza is a beautiful island situated in the Mediterranean Sea and is the third largest of the Balearic Islands. While known for its night clubs and crazy party scene, Ibiza was just our relaxing outlet. Sorry to disappoint some of you, but I have no ridiculous stories about wandering the Spanish streets at four in the morning or having strange encounters with Spanish men at discos. Blair, Amanda and I went during the off season, so the night life I'm referring to wasn't even an option. And to be perfectly honest, I'm glad it wasn't, because we needed relaxation and rejuvenation, which is exactly what we got!

For three days, we slept in, walked two or three miles along the coast, took pictures, basked in the sun, ate, drank, talked, joked around and people watched. It was wonderful! Honestly, that really is all we did. It's crazy how life takes on a new meaning when you just sit back and soak it up at a slow pace. With no school demands, no pressure to speak Italian correctly and no cell phone that is either constantly buzzing or acting as a reminder to call someone, it was nice to just enjoy life. To be outside all day, from sunrise to sunset; to spend three hours at a restaurant enjoying the food, view and company; to only have the birds and waves be your background noise. With two good girlfriends to enjoy tranquility at its utmost, I couldn't have asked for a more pleasant weekend. While there was no Sunday sermon or family brunch, there was lots of talking and getting to know each other. And I will say that you don't need a sermon to tell you what God has given us and what he's done for us. I saw his beauty in the horizon, his love in our laughter and his grace in our very presence. Easter in Spain was a thought-provoking one. There were people I spent it with who reminded me of why Christ died - to save people like us, to give us freedom to live life and make bad decisions along with the good ones. The cross is such an accurate representation not only of our existence and free will, but of God's love for us. And for me, it's easiest to see His love for us in other people. So, the weekend with Blair and Amanda in almost complete isolation gave me tons of insight into God's love.

It definitely was a different kind of Easter. No less significant, no less special. I will say though, I did miss being with my family, and that got me a little homesick. But no worries - the Easter bunny still managed to find me, even thousands of miles away from my usual location. Thank you for the Godiva chocolates, Mom! I mean, Easter Bunny...

Ibiza

Me, Amanda and Blair at lunch in Ibiza

Venice

This past weekend I went to Venice with one of my art history classes, and it was just as picturesque as the movies say it is! Being a city that houses little bridges every 50 feet and has gondolas galore, it also contains narrow streets and preserved history and beauty that really make it special. Each Italian city has its own attribute, uniqueness and set of qualities that set it apart from the rest, but Venice seemed to have a kind magical, romantic atmosphere that truly won my heart.

It was a quick trip - only two full days and a night, but my professor goes at lightening speed and loves to lecture, so we went, went, went (or as my mom says, "goed, goed, goed"). Venice is the home of Titian and Tintoretto, two of the most famous Venetian Renaissance painters, if not the most. I don't have any pictures of their works that I can share with you, because, of course, pictures were not permitted inside these museums or churches. However, I highly recommend that you google some of their works.

Titian was the leader of Venetian art, later influencing other Venetian artists, and even Florentine ones, in a profound way both during his career and years after his death. His particular interest in color, nature and soft figures are so apparent in his works. The way he softens his figures by means of a paintbrush and transforms naturalistic scenes from life to canvas is absolutely breathtaking. The fact that you cannot see any outlines creates this kind of continuous flow throughout, bringing about a unique unification. And all of this combined allows for a very emotionally moving experience when you see his works first-hand. They're truly silencing.

Tintoretto overlapped with, but mostly followed, Titian. He was nicknamed, "Il Furioso" for his phenomenal energy and quick speed. By looking at Tintoretto's work, you can see his enthusiasm and true love for painting. He painted as much as he could, and quickly! However he did not compromise beauty for speed. His interest in light and perspectival space helped pave the way for Baroque art. Not only was he an influencer, but also an innovator. Tintoretto was extremely talented in taking a scene shown a thousand times before and turning it into something new, fresh and different. For example, when depicting Biblical scenes, he didn't base his composition on what artists of the time typically included; he went back to the original text and painted how he saw the scene. In this way, his works were very personal, as he openly gave his interpretation, often straying from tradition.

24 hours was not enough in Venice. If you ever go there, make sure you plan on at least three days!

Venice (taken from one of the million bridges)

Festival

One of the things I love about Florentines is their love for festas. I've learned not to be surprised if I'm walking along the streets and see a string of tents set up with food celebrating a festival of some sort. On one of the first warm days of March, Blair told me of the festival of Santa Maria Annunciata, which is a church down the street from our school. She didn't even get the words "food" and "candy" out of her mouth before my feet were running. So, after class, we walked about 10 minutes to the piazza and browsed the festival tents. I bought one of my favorites: candied almonds - yum! It only took about five seconds after my first purchase until we stopped at the dried fruit tent. This was so neat! The vendor had all of his dried fruits and gummies displayed in barrels with scoops and bags available for self-service. The amount of dried fruit he had was unbelievable! From dried strawberries to mango to coconut to apricots to figs, even dried kiwi! I just grabbed a bag and helped myself to a little of everything. And Blair did too! I think we ended up spending around 10 euros each, but it was so worth it!

That was such a great day! After browsing the tents, we took our sweets stash back to the school's garden and sprawled out on the lawn, soaking up some beautiful sun while drinking a cappuccino. That's Italy for you!

My dried fruit from the festival. Well, half of it (the other half was already in my stomach)

Bologna

A few weekends ago I took a class day trip to Bologna, which is about an hour and a half train ride away from Florence. Bologna was a cute little city, with the neatest open fish, produce and baked goods markets. Karolina, you totally would have loved it! However, we didn't go for the markets, we went for the modern art. More specifically, my painting teacher took us to the Morandi Museum. Giorgio Morandi was an Italian painter during the mid 1960s who specialized in still-life. He painted hundreds of pictures that hang in his museum, about 90% of which use a colorless palette. Morandi paints the same sets of objects over and over with slight variations, focusing on the spatial arrangement between objects and their negative space.

I'll be honest and say that I'm not a fan of modern art, and I was trying really hard to appreciate his work. My painting professor, Kirsten, and I had a long conversation in the museum about art, modern and Renaissance, and what determines good, successful art from the cop-outs. After talking with her, I realized that the criteria I consider good art to contain are: lots of time invested, color, realism, narrative and a whole host of other things. But Kirsten did open my eyes a little wider to the beauty of Morandi's dull pallet still life paintings, and how just by the placement of objects, so many emotions can be conveyed: sadness, tension, excitement, etc. I know it sounds weird that just the arrangement of bowls and carafes can have an emotional goal, but to understand that effect, you have to slightly altar your way of thinking and approach to modern art.

One of Bologna's produce stands

Well, I have to run now, but there are still a couple more things I want to share with you...

Some other things I've been up to:

-Practiced our Italian with some Italian students who visited our school

-Had a picnic at the Boboli Gardens with Blair and Amanda

-Went to the Uffizi with Jay and had dinner later that night with him, Amanda, Blair and Maria

-Attended our school's talent show and supported two of my friends/classmates who were in it (one of my friends sang opera, and he was amazing!) Everyone was really shocked when he announced he would be singing opera.

-Gained more insight into Italian culture through an Italian music lecture where we learned the history and listened to Italian music ranging from over a century

-Got a little stomach bug

-Found a new gelato spot with Blair and one of her friends from Spain- AMAZING!!

-Went on a class trip to the Medici chapel

Amanda, me and Blair in Boboli Gardens

View from the top of the Uffizi

In the school's garden with Italian students (all guys!)