Weekend Getaway

This study abroad Italy may seem like a joke based on all of the pictures of the amazing time I am having that in post on Facebook but it is shaping up to be quite a bit of hard work, not hard in a sense that I am having to think but very time consuming. Classes really only meet on Tuesday and Wednesday and then on Thursday's we have a day trip as a class. Then by the next Monday we have 18 sketches due of specific types. There must be:
3 urban scale drawings ( monumental stair, pizza, park, bridges, public areas)
3 detail elements (handrails, fountains, stairs, windows, roof elements)
3 axonometric drawings (basically a 3-D drawing)
3 facade studies (a look at the front of a building and it's symmetry and composition)
3 portals and thresholds (doorways, gates, arches, bridges, all things you can pass through)
3 composit drawings (includes any three of the above types and a floor plan)

So as you can imaging we look like little architecture nerds sitting at cafés and in piazza's drawing buildings and so on. I have lost count the number of people who have taken my picture and stood and watched me draw, amazingly I have started to ignor them, I thought it would be distracting, but I don't know these people so I guess I don't care what they think of my work.

This Thursday was our first clas day trip and we went to Milan where I was disappointed to find out the only plans my professors had was to show us the main cathedral of Milan and a covered boulevard. They had not made plans to bring us to see the last supper which was sort of implied in the weeks before and the reason is that you have to book a tour about a week in advance and so I was not able to see it. (sad face). But two of the other girls in the group and I hopped a train to Padova and spent the night, spent Friday in Vicenza and Saturday morning in Venice and Saturday afternoon in Verona. It was a quick trip but so wonderful! We say everything we had hoped to see and ate some amazing food. The food innmost of Italy has been a bit of a letdown, but if you find the right side street and basically if no one in the restaurant can speak English, you can bet the food will be good.

Late last night we arrived back at the villa and now after a hot shower and a good night of sleep I am ready to do the last of my remaining sketches and turn them in a day early. ( my classmate Sara has to leave for a week to accept a very prestigious award she won and the ceremony is in Nova Scotia so she has to turn them in early so I promised to do so too so she wasn't working hard alone) by turning them in early then I get Monday to myself to go out and explore Genova alone and get a jump start on next weeks sketches, now that I know what is expected of us. My hope is to find the Sacred Heart school here, I saw a father walking his daughter to school the other morning and she was wearing the classic blue sweatshirt with the white RSCJ logo on it so I know I was close.

I will try to post some pictures and until my next post, goodbye for now!

Cíao!