Time is going by way too fast.

HOW is tomorrow March 1st? I cannot believe how fast my time in Italy is going by. But it's been so great, I am so so so blessed and thankful. The past two weekends were really fun.

So last weekend, on Friday I went with SAI to Chianti! Chianti is in the beautiful green Tuscan hills, and we went to a winery and old castle there. The weather was perfect. We had a short tour of the winery and then wine tasting! I'm not a huge fan of red wine, I've been learning to appreciate it a lot more since I've been here (I really like how here in Italy they savor and make wine into an art instead of using it to get drunk) but it was the best wine I've ever had. We tried 4 different kinds, and I actually ended up buying a bottle of my favorite one, the Chianti Classico. We also tried a Rose wine, Chianti reserve, and a dessert wine with biscotti. Along with the wine they also gave us prosciutto, salami, little breads with various spreads, and the best thing everr was the crostini (toasts) with the most amazing extra virgin olive oil I've ever had. My roommates and I bought a bottle for special occasions. That was such a good day, so many of my friends were there, and the trip was FREE!

Friday night me, Haley, and Haley went to a "gospel choir concert" at our church. The choir was about 10 old ladies & one guy singing, with a guy playing piano. They were singing SO loud because there were so few of them, they were pretty good, it was just really funny. But a nice, different thing to do!

Saturday I just did homework and finally cleaned our apartment (we finally found a mop, it was desperately needed) because Sunday was the trip with our program to the Carnival kick-off parade in Viareggio! Viareggio is a town on west coast of Italy, about an hour and a half away by train. We left Sunday morning, got there around lunchtime, and after a bite to eat went to see the parade! The parade was absolutely amazing, but really really strange. The parade floats were HUGE and quite detailed, they had tons of people dancing to loud happy music on them (especially the song Barbara Streisand by Duck Sauce, look it up if you haven't heard it, it's so funny!) and everyone was dressed up. It was a nasty, cloudy/rainy day, but still really colorful. Anyways, the weird thing was that the floats were all politically charged or had nudity or something like that, not exactly for kids! But there were tons of them there which was fun. We also happened to stand under an apartment that had a kid with TONS of confetti that he kept dumping on us, it was fun though! The weather was bad but it was a good day!

This weekend was awesome. On Friday I went with some art students to the studio of multi-media contemporary artist Robert Pettena. He has photography, sculpture, video installation, and a really cool studio/home. The coolest piece was this big nest made out of plants, vines, and mesh, that had 8 birds living inside it! It was hanging by cables from the ceiling in his studio, and we, one-by-one, got to put on this jacket thing and look inside it! It was really cool. He was really nice as well, and gave us biscotti with sweet wine at the end. There are many artists in Florence whose studios you can go visit, I would really like to go to some more but we'll see! Here's some pics of his studio/nest:

On Saturday I went to Venice!! I love Venice. We left at 7:30 on Saturday by private bus. There were about 50 people (it was with SAI) and it took about 3 hours to get there. I mostly dozed on the way. When we arrived we checked into our hotel in Mestre (I roomed with two sweet girls from India who are actually roommates with my friend Cara), and then took a bus and then a ferry into Venezia! We arrived at San Marco square which was where everyone and everything was. Huge crowds of people you could barely walk through, every type of mask and costume, it was so cool. We were supposed to have a tour but we got separated within 10 minutes of it with all the people and distractions! But I am not sad about that. We (me and 5 others that managed to stick together) bought masks for people that didn't have them, (I bought mine in Florence the night before) and wandered around a bit. Then Haley, Andrea, and I decided to go to the top of the bell tower! It was 8 euros to go up, but so worth it, and it was just an elevator ride. The pictures at the top were perfetto.

We came back down from the bell tower and wandered around some more, had dinner, threw confetti at people, etc. We met back up with our friends and it was a fun night!

I forgot to mention that I have been sick for a few days now. It's nothing bad, just congestion pretty much, but it's annoying. So Sunday morning I was soo tired when I woke up, and I always feel more sick in the morning and late at night. But the hotel breakfast was pretty good actually. We then went back to Venice and went to a glassblowing factory! They did a demonstration and it was amazing. The guy made a freaking horse out of glass in one minute! It was so cool, I wish we had glassblowing classes! We then looked in their shop and I bought a little bowl thing that I really liked.

After that we went to lunch which, although it was close, took us forever to get to because we somehow got caught in a crowd of people close as sardines. Lunch was good though, and was paid for in the trip which was nice. After that me, Andrea, and Haley went to see the Jewish ghetto. It is a part of Venice in which Jews were forced to live in, could not leave, and had huge gates that kept them in the small area. It was the polar opposite from San Marco square, it was so quiet. We went to the really small museum and looked around the square, it was a good thing to remember what those people went through. Funny story: Because it was raining a bit I had my scarf wrapped around my head in a Jewishy way, and a lady asked us where the synagogue was, and I knew where it was bc it was near the museum we went to haha!) At about 6:00ish we headed back to Florence, it was a nice bus ride, we even saw some snow!

It was a great weekend, I really want to go back to Venice when there are less people there. I think I am feeling a bit better, I want to be totally better before I go to Rome this weekend! Well that's all for now, ciao!

~ Elisa

La vita è bella

Hello there! Look at me blogging a week and a half after my last post. I'm getting better at this I promise. Well I think I'm just going to hit the recent highlights instead of painstakingly go through each day haha

Soo what exciting things have been happening lately?

This past weekend on Friday, I (along with Haley and 5 other art students & a teacher) went to an event the art department does every Friday called "Arty Fridays". I have to go to 3 of them for my Florence Sketchbook class; they are different artsy events like going to artists' studios, contemporary galleries and museums, etc. Anyways we went to Prato, about 30 minutes outside of Firenze (Florence) and went to a contemporary museum and gallery. I'm sad I didn't bring my camera, the museum had a kinda interactive exhibit by Asian artist Michael Lin in which you are supposed to take your shoes off and step on his rugs, turn on music, sit on furniture, etc. Everything was very brightly colored and printed with beautiful floral Asian patterns. The whole concept was the idea of the museum as a home. Alot of the things such as the rugs, music, bookshelves were from Lin's own house. It was the most joyful, least offensive/shocking contemporary art exhibit I have probably ever seen; I liked it alot, but for that reason it also didn't have a huge effect on me. We then went to a smaller gallery with some sculptures and works by Mexican architect/artist Jose Davila. It was okay, a bit too minimal for my taste. Prato is a really cool old town, randomly with alot of Contemporary art and a large Asian population. Very unique. I would like to go back, it's just a bus ride away!

On Saturday I went with 4 friends to Pisa! It was only about 6 euros one way, one hour away by train. We actually missed our first train but the ticket is good for 4 hours so we hopped on the next one 30 minutes later. It was a rather gloomy, misty day but we had a good time. We got there late morning and explored a bit, there were some cool random old buildings and stuff, and we got random, but good, Indian food for lunch. After that we headed to the main Piazza with the leaning tower!

After a few run-ins with the grumpy guard at the entrance to the tower, we figured out that we had to buy our 15 euro ticket to go up it and had to kill some time till we could go up it. So we went to the church/duomo right by it which was thankfully free. I LOVED it, it was really beautiful inside. Kinda dark which didn't help for pictures though. 

After exploring in the chiesa, we climbed to the top of the freaking leaning tower of Pisa! Can cross that off my bucket list! It was alottt of stairs, definitely a good workout, and you can really feel it leaning! It was worth it though, the cloudiness wasn't so nice for the view, but it was still really cool. 

After we were at the top for a while it started raining so we decided to head back to Florence. Pisa is cool but there really isn't much there besides the tower. Oh and we took those cheesy "holding up the tower" pictures but they are on Haley's camera and she takes forever to upload her pictures. Love you Haley :)

The train ride back was hilarious though. We were all planning on taking a nap because we were exhausted from all the walking but this random guy, our age, pinned his student ID to his jacket to look official and was "checking everybody's ticket" (we thought he really was checking out tickets at first!) His jacket looked really official  haha he really just wanted to talk to some American girls but it was really funny. Somehow everyone else in our traincar was in on it, it was so random!

On Sunday went to church and there were like twice as many people there which was awesome! There were randomly like 10 people from Texas! Helloo bible belt haha. And there was a whole family from Dallas! They were really sweet and just opened up their home to us students. They just felt like living in Florence for a few months, I really admire their freedom and stepping out in faith to do that!

Monday was Valentines' day. For it my roomies cooked some amazing food and then we ate wayy too much chocolate. It was awesome.

Tuesday after L&A Photography, Haley, Haley, and I went to a pizza place our teacher recommended called Spera Pizzeria. It took us about an hour to find because we took a wrong turn, plus it was really far north, past the train station, but we finally found it and it was so worth it. It was super legit and local and amazing tasting. I got a white pizza with pesto, yum. We then had to walk back in the rain, and at least 5 people tried to sell me umbrellas because I didnt have one, or a hood, and was pretty drenched haha. I have alot of fun with the Haleys, it was a good night.

This week of class has been really good. I really like all of my art classes and art professors! I do not, however, like Italian. I don't think anyone likes that class. And for some reason our teacher does not like me, and I have no idea why. I really am liking my internship though. Everyone I've met with the company is really cool. I think I am going to Morocco with them for spring break!! We will be riding camels in the Sahara and stuff, whatever no big deal. Just kiddingg I can't wait! I am probably going to Istanbul with them for a weekend too! Looking at my calendar, I am traveling almost every weekend this semester! Howw did that happen? haha I need more weekends!

Oh and last night I went to Ganzo for appertivo! Met my Brazilian friends Alcigius and Giselle there, along with my roommate Haley, and our friend Haley and her roommate. Only 5 euros for any drink and all-you-can eat buffet. It was soo good, it was Brazilian night actually. We had a swell time, I think it's going to become a weekly thing!

Well overall, as you can see, I am still having a molto bene time here! Trying to use my Italian, discovering new places, meeting new people, taking lots of pictures, getting so sick of Italian men whistling at me, eating great food all the time (alot of which is all of my sweet roommates' cooking, I lucked out with them!), and staying healthy. Having an unforgettable experience. So thankful and blessed! Going to Chianti tomorrow and Viareggio for Carnivale on Sunday, both with my program for really cheap! That's all for now, a presto!

Oh and here is my art website, just throwing it out there: www.wix.com/elisafisher/photography

Due Settimana

I cannot believe I have been here for two weeks! It really feels like a month or something! - Not in a bad way at all, just that I experience and take in so much everyday it feels like a long amount of time.

So sorry I haven't updated since I first got here, I'm still behind in my journaling too, but hopefully I can hit all the highlights. FYI this is a huge, long post. Sorry. 

Thursday (1/27)

 Went on a walking tour of all the FUA buildings. We met up at where 3 of my classes are (media & communication buildings - 5 minutes away from my apartment) and they showed us the fine arts building, cooking school, Ganzo (the dining place), Italian school, and the locations of some of the markets. The buildings are rather spread out, but my apartment is in a good location and not too far from any of them. FUA has really nice facilities, they are modern and a bit too minimal for me, but then you look up and there's a freaking fresco or something on the ceiling! Like so: 

I'm sad I don't have any classes in the Fine Arts building, and I couldn't get into a cooking class, but I feel so blessed to be at such a nice place. It's so weird because the FUA locations look just like every other building in Florence from the outside and are in next to shops and apartments, they don't have "college campuses" like we do.

Anyways, after the tour I got my first gelato with my roommate Haley and my friends Amanda and Annie. We went to a place near the Duomo and it was sooo good. The most exciting thing though was that I got to have my first legit conversation in Italian!! It was with the sweet old lady who served us gelato, I talked to her about what and where we were studying and stuff. It was a really broken conversation but I was excited I got to use my Italian, alot of it has been coming back to me! She also gave us free cokes, Italians are so generous. 

After gelato Haley and I shopped around, most exciting purchase was I found some over-the-knee black leather boots! Then we, along with our other 3 roommates, went out to a really good appertivo place called OIBO, it's 8 euro for any drink and all-you-can-eat buffet of appetizer foods; it is just the first part of a typical Italian's evening meal, but enough for us! We are definitely going back there! 

Friday (1/28)

 Had to wake up early and do something having to do with our residency permits, got my first Cappucino (I don't even like coffee.. but it's so good here), and went to the San'Ambrogio market with my roommates Cristina and Alyssa! The market was awesome, such good fresh food and great prices! It was a really cool experience and made for a delicious lunch. Definitely going back there too! 

For dinner on Friday we went to another palace and people from other programs were there. It was pretty crowded but awesome and again really good catered food. After dinner went out with the roomies and our friend Jordan which was fun.

Saturday (1/29)

 Had to wake up early again for residency permit stuff, but napped and relaxed in the afternoon, and in the evening Haley and I, along with Annie, Amanda, and Jordan went to a traditional Catholic mass at the Duomo. It was very serious, sacred, cold, and beautiful in the Duomo of course. Oh and it was in English which helped! We then went to dinner with all our roommates at a cute, familyish, traditional Italian restaurant. It was expensive and the portions were TINY but it was good (Polenta with cheese, chicken with tomato sauce, roast beef, and bread). We split the entrees to save money and the waiter gave us a "gift" of some cheesy flan stuff, again those Italians being generous! We then came back to our apartment and just hung out and talked and our friend Kevin came. 

Sunday (1/30)

 Slept in super late, then at 6:30 Haley and I went to Florence Gospel Fellowship, an English-speaking, Protestant church. It was really really good (and really close by which is nice), I am so thankful we found out about it. It was great to sing worship songs and be around and meet people with similar beliefs. They had tea and cookies after and we got to meet some really nice people, there is actually quite a few Asians and Africans there, even a Kenyan! Church was great and we will probably go back as often as we can this semester! 

This is to show how COLD it is in our apartment:

Monday (1/31)

 First day of class! At 9:00 I had Florence Sketchbook. I've never been so exited for a drawing class! It has some random papers and things that may not be fun, but the whole concept of the class is just awesome. (Going around drawing the city of Florence, what could be better) There were some people in there who had never had drawing classes, whereas I have had 3, so hopefully I think I should do just fine in it! At 12:00 I had Intermediate Italian I. There were only 6 other girls in the class and we sat at a round table. I like the class okay, I'm really only taking it because I have to. (I've already finished my foreign language credit but we have to take Italian to be at FUA) The teacher is a bit abrasive but I like her. As long as we dont have toooo much homework I won't complain. After that I was done at 1:15 which was nice, I ran some errands and got my drawing supplies (116 euros) and Italian books (46 euros).

So during orientation on our 2nd day here, a guy from SnoworSand travel company came & spoke to us and gave away a free trip to Morocco. For some reason I decided that it would be cool to be a photography intern for a travel agency so I spontaneously went up and talked to him about it. Anyways I ended up meeting with him Monday night and he offered me the internship! It's basically a normal internship with a photography emphasis. I finally convinced my parents to let me do it, I am only in 12 hours so I will have the time to, and I can go on any of the trips whenever for a discounted price! They go to really cool locations too: Morocco, Dublin, Istanbul, and Greece! I'll probably only end up going on 2 long weekend trips but I'm soo exciteddd! Traveling is seriously the best thing ever, I really hope I get to do it a lot. I'm so thankful to God for giving me the opportunity, it's really flexible and we only meet once or twice a week. Also if I do a good job, they will offer me a real job with them after graduation! So I feel like it could be a really good thing for me in the long run, I had never thought about working for a travel agency but it could be pretty awesome! God is so faithful. 

After meeting about the internship we celebrated my roommate Andrea's birthday with Alyssa cooking a delicious pasta & salad dinner and an amazing chocolate tart/cake from the bakery next door! 

Tuesday (2/1)

 Got to sleep in because I didn't have class till 3:00. I decided to eat lunch at Ganzo, the program-run dining place, and it was reallyy good! I had a grilled chicken panini with lettuce and cheese on ciabatta bread with roast potatoes. I had enough to take home for a 2nd meal too. At 3:00 I went to Landscape and Architecture Photography, which I am also super excited for! The teacher in that class has a way with words, he makes art sound so beautiful and philosophical, I can really tell that he is passionate about it. He also kind of looks like George Clooney which is a plus. I also really like the TA. Again, some people in that class that have never done photography so hopefully I'll do well! Thankfully got out of that class early (normally it will go till 8:30 pm!) 

Tuesday was Alyssa's birthday, so we decided to go out for dinner. We found a place by the Duomo which was a little pricey, but sooo good. I had my favoritee gnocchi con formaggi! 

Wednesday (2/2) 

 Only had Italian from 12:00-1:15, so I had a lot of free time. After class I decided to walk around and take pictures and shop a bit. I walked around the Ponte Vecchio area and got some good pictures but didn't buy anything. It's so amazing to walk by beautiful piazzas, cathedrals, statues, museums, bridges, etc. everyday that are just a few minutes away from where I live. I love getting lost, discovering new places, and finding my way back to a familiar place. It's still so unreal that I'm here! There are huge tour groups of Asians that are taking over, I'm not excited for more tourists to come, it's been so nice without crowds of people.

Thursday (2/3)

 At 3:00 I had Photojournalism. The teacher was pretty young and energetic which will help with that 5.5 hour class! He showed us some of his work of Malaysian refugees which was amazing. We also watched a short documentary on an African traveling to Europe, and we had to analyze a photograph from a book. It was all very interesting and powerful work, Photojournalism is more intense than I thought! But I'm excited for it. One of our assignments is going to be taking portraits of random people we don't know, I'm kind of nervous for that but I'm sure it will produce some really cool shots! I think we also will have an assignment photographing a small business, I want to do the pizza shop on our street corner because those pizza guys are really nice, but we'll see! In that class and in L&A Photography we will be using Adobe Bridge to edit our photos which I haven't used, but I think it'll be fine. 

Soo yeah that was my first week of classes! (I don't have them on Friday) and overall, I'm excited for the semester. 

Friday (2/4)

 My favorite day so far I think. Me, Haley, and Amanda decided to go to Fiesole! It's just about 20 minutes outside Florence, and it's special to me because it is where I stayed last time I visited Florence! We got up early and took the bus (kind of confusing but we figured out the system). We somehow got off about 5 stops too early, but it was the best accident ever. We just decided to walk up the hill (about 2 miles?) to Fiesole, and it was a lovely, warm (finally!) day and the view (it's in the hills of Tuscany) is just perfect. We found a place to get a pastry and cappucino, and a beautiful chapel and graveyard. Once we got to Fiesole we just walked around for a bit, and then when it came to be lunch time we decided to ask a random lady where a good place to eat was. We asked the right person! She was going to lunch herself and was very nice, helping us with our Italian, and she led us to a super legit local place. There were only Italians there, mostly old people, but it was only 5 euros AND it included water, wine, and coffee! That would usually be at least like 12 euros so that was amazing, the food was really good, and the view was spectacular. Definitely going back. 

After lunch we hung out, played with some random cats :) and walked up and up and up to the top of the hill, it was beautiful! We left around sunset back to Florence. I was absolutely exhausted, but it was an awesome day! Here's some pictures from it: 

Chapel

Graveyard

Random Hellenistic tombs! So freakin cool!

Saturday (2/5)

 In the morning me, Haley, and our friend Eliza decided to go to the Uffizi gallery! It was just as awesome as I remembered it. So many beautiful Renaissance paintings and sculptures, and soo many freaking famous and influential works! Botticelli, da Vinci, Michelangelo, Rafael, Caravaggio, Giotto, Titian, you name it, they have it. We also got the student museum passes (40 euro) that will get us into all the Florence museums as many times as we want, and we can skip the Uffizi lines. I am definitely going back, it was somewhat touristy on Saturday, but I still enjoyed it alot. Can't wait to go to all the other museums as well! I feel so free that I can go any time, as many times as I want! They are definitely too overwhelming and extensive to be able to appreciate in one visit.

After the Uffizi we got Kebabs for lunch. They were so good and cheap! They are like wraps kind of, and are really popular around here, I think they're middle eastern? After that we went to the CHOCOLATE FESTIVAL. That place, is dangerous. Dangerous for my wallet and my self-control. But it's awesome, it is in Piazza Santa Croce right by my apartment, and they have every type of chocolate. Fondue, hot chocolate (basically melted chocolate), truffles, bars, every shape and size, fruit & chocolate, etc. The craziest things to me were the marijuana chocolate (it doesn't get you high, but it's really strong!) and the absynthe shots in chocolate cups haha! Crazy Europeans. 

We had lots of samples and ended up buying some melon-chocolate (sounds weird but it's so good) and some truffle-like things and tried some chocolate covered fruit. My taste buds were partying. Why is everything so good here? I really want to get chocolate to bring back to people, but I don't think it'll last. 

After that we bought groceries for dinner, went over to Eliza's, and Haley was craving Mexican food so she made for us salsa lime chicken with corn on the side, and bread and bree for appertivo. It was really good! Bree might be my new favorite cheese here. The Pecorino Romano, which they make in this area, is really good too. We then watched a movie on iTunes called It's Kind of a Funny Story (with Jack Galifianakis), a sort-of indie movie that was actually really good, I recommend it! It was nice to relax after a busy week & weekend! 

Sunday (2/6)

Slept in and relaxed and then went to the same church as last week with Haley and our friend from class who is also named Haley haha. Got to talk to some new people and it was good! Stayed up late doing homework (which my professors didn't even end up checking) and skyped for a bit with my brother Ben and parents. I was actually rather sad to not be with them for Superbowl Sunday, and the game was too late here for me to watch. But I'm doing good & not homesick, no worries! 

Monday (2/7) - Today (FINALLY, I'm proud of you if you've read this far!)

 Today I got up early to finish homework and then had Florence sketchbook at 9:00. It was kind of boring till we went outside to draw. Of course it was extra cold today, more so than it had been in a while, so it was hard to draw with numb hands, but it was exciting and our professor liked my drawings. We went out to Piazza Santa Croce right by school and had to draw the tents lined up for the chocolate festival (we are working on 2 point perspective) for 30 minutes and then we could draw anything we wanted for the last 30 minutes. I drew the statue of Dante in the Piazza and he liked it alot. It's kind of hard to draw expressively when your subject is architecture, but hopefully I can find a style, I like. Then I had Italian which was fine, actually randomly found out that my Italian teacher has Celiac disease like I do, and she said you can cure it which I had never heard! After that I went to eat at Ganzo with my friend from class Haley and her roommate. It was delicious, I got chicken with spinach and pine nuts with a mixed greens salad and a caramel "parfait" for dessert. After that I took a longg lovely nap, and worked on this freaking blog until dinner, (Alyssa made awesome pasta and green beans, with some great bread) and now I am finally caught up and am about to go to bed. 

I commend you for reading this far, I hope it was somewhat interesting. Hopefully I can update more often! I can't believe how long I made this post, why am I an overachiever even when I blog? haha well it's obvious I am tired and delusional now, but thanks again for keeping up with me and for your prayers. I have all my pictures on facebook so check that out. I guess that's all for now, buona notte!

~ Elisa