midterm break

so for the week i have off in the end of october-- i should do something right? right?

well i have a few ideas... so far- my idea would be to go to edinburgh for the weekend, of the 26-30th- see some castles and misty scotland- and maybe a pint with melissa k-p...? Then to dublin for a couple days.

... but a couple of things bother me.

1) traveling alone scares me
2) will i be able to occupy myself? and have fun alone? as much fun as with friends...?

well saying that no one wants to go with me- i kinda have to hope that i do, but traveling is also expensive- so far with planes and hostels it would be probably around 700 dollars- without food or entrance to museums etc.

IS IT WORTH IT?

Adv Graphic Design

So, some of you might already know... but the reason i am here at an art school is because I need a portfolio for applying to grad school, and wanted the resources that an art institute has to create it, with still graduating with my liberal arts degree in the spring.

I am in the adv. graphic design studio and we have just finished our first project, just an introductory thing to get to know our skill level etc.

Our class has started a blog as well, in order to keep a posting of all of our works and so we can continue to give comments to our classmates about projects throughout the semester...

the blog site is http://sacidesign.blogspot.com

- so take a look at my first project: I am near the bottom of the page. And i'll let you know when we update the site, so you can follow along with my graphic design portfolio.

more photos

so that you all know-

I went to Vinci and a couple Medici Villas the other day-- and there are photos of Vinci and the Leonardo museums we saw there on the picasa sight. Enjoy!

Blech. Being Sick in Italy.

EH.
So it seems i have contracted some awful virus/infection that has completely made me unable to hear, talk normally, or breath without wanting to cough or blow my nose. My apartmentmate Jamie i believe is the one i got it from, and since it took her about 4 days to get better, well shouldn't i feel great by now? This nyquill thing is truly getting on my nerves, however the good part to that would be the way that finally me, Meg, I am the one to get a good nights rest. or sleep. from the alcohol or whatever is in nyquill that lets you pass out for 8 hours. A flip side to the situation, but the snoring situation has not changed. When i am better i will find the energy to find some earplugs.

Being sick in italy is so different, than say when you are in the US. This also is partly dependent on the school... grr. In the us, say when I was at wheeler, if i felt sick and could barely keep my eyes open at school then i could go take a nap, talk to a teacher, and make up the work. Go home, get better. At rice, hey... you're in college now, you are a responsible adult. If you miss class. You're fault, get the lecture notes, and make sure you catch up with the professor. Here at saci, there is the most strict attendance policy. No unexcused absences, and if you are skipping for a medical reason, it has to be one that needs a doctor. So, the flu and a fever doesnt cut it. You still sit through your lectures for the week. One kid tried to go to the doctor when he had a fever earlier this week, and the guy said- haven't you heard of advil? and the poor student was just like, yeah, and i need to go rest so could you sign this and let me get some SLEEP??? So weird. I understand that studying in Italy is not a vacation, but still- if they fail their classes... it's their fault and that if a student taking say their friday classes pass/fail- I truly feel that they should be able to skip one friday in order to take a trip to Venice or Milan or Munich or Paris etc. to experience the whole studying in europe.

Ok. back to being sick.

In the US. The brands of soups vary extremely from can to carton and condensed to ready made, to add water to soup in a cup. And the price is cheap cheap cheap. Here, soup gosh darnit is expensive, and the choices range from... potato soup, ribolleta or minestrone. Not that they aren't fantastic.

And the Ribolleta is not AMAZING (florentine soup made over 3 days with bread and veggies)

but... dude. i just want some turkey or chicken soup. Some cheap BROTHY soup. How hard is that??? They don't even sell broth. So i'd have to go to the market and find scraps and boil them myself to get broth... not something i would ever do when sick.

What do the italians eat when sick you say? I am convinced that they too love brothy soup, however because they have the comfort of usually not living too far away from family, whether extended family or your parents, your relatives would be more than generous in boiling up some scraps from the smelly meat market for your sore throat and fever.

One more comment on being sick in Italia. WHERE ARE THE TISSUES???? Seriously. I was told to cross town over the bridge to find the american store- which i will NEVER go to while here to find them. So, i felt like asking this nice chinese girl working in the supermarket- so where do you buy your hankercheifs, and is there a pocket protector for the hanky from my snot?? - i know rude right...

I think a nice glass of chianti and some pasta i have in the fridge with some minestrone i bought will be a nice touch- then a movie, some reading and some nyquill. OH italy. What have you brought me. LET ME GET WELL, so I can experience the entirety of VINCI- the Home of Leonardo DiVinci (of Vinci- get it? get it?) -This weekend.

Ciao for Now...

A few things I have noticed about Italy.

Peeing. It is totally cool for guys to pee in certain alley ways. Yup, usually you will find these alley ways by noticing that you can't see the other end when looking down. These, dont even think of walking down- even without tredding down the cobblestones you can see needles lying there waiting for some other druggie to use them and contract some bad disease. But back to men, this rule especially applies at night- go ahead, gotta piss, be my guest. The idea of this is like the middle ages, but instead of throwing the bed chambers out the widow, the whole idea of the bed chamber was tossed out and peeing freely became ok.

Also, while on the topic of men, if they gotta scratch, go ahead, hold on to your... and scratch a way! OF COURSE WE DONT MIND! -- The ammount of revolting men scratching or just holding on to their privates in the street is so wrong.

BUT- to top off this topic, i then go to harassment. It's one thing if they are just annoying everyone by what they are doing, but it's completely another if they start grabbing at you instead. And what i mean by this is the ass-grabing, boob- grabbing, hair touching men that wander this city. For example, elli and I were going out to dinner, we looked nice, but not dressy- and i had to turn fast in order to get away from a guy who was trying to grab my boob! WHAT THE HELL! You would go to jail and end up with a bruised face if you did that in texas! Then we get to the restaurant, and while the waiter is showing us to our table- YIKES! Elli gets a full on butt pinch. Whatever Italian women are not completely sapping a guy for doing that and now made it possible to happen, should be ASHAMED.

That is all, I just wanted to get that out. GRR.

Photos Posted!

For those of you without the infamous facebook, i have started posting photos with picasa through my google email account...

http://picasaweb.google.com/meg.sheeley

go to the link above to check out the photos i have taken of firenze so far!

apartment pictures

this photo didn't end up on the previous post...
Allie, Ellie and I in the SACI Gardens!

-- ADDITION: PHOTOS FROM DAY 3


Elli has a chance to stop for 3 seconds and snap a photo!


dirty rat pigeons. But nice to photograph.


The statue reminds me of the man who has recently died in Florence because he was shat on by a pigeon and contracted an avian virus, and now his wife is trying to get an ordinance to get rid of the many many pigeons all around the city.

This is Allie, Ellie and ME above before 'wine night' described below? or above?

SACI – day 2; after politics tour- we went out for pizza and a night of wine drinking!
We are in the saci gardens here in the photo.

Back to Day four: After the market and the 99cent Euro store- where we got a couple of needed items for the apartment- aka: trashcan for bathroom and sponges, and dishsoap etc. I went back to the apartment and chilled for a while, just talking to my roommates- Khris was out and so it was just Jamie and Nikki and I, which was truly awesome- my type of galls.

When Khris returned we decided that it might be fun to head out and see the Duomo on the day of the Virgin’s Mary’s birth, however we were too late for the free admission to the towers and to the gallery’s which are never opened any other day that we are in italy. Oops. So we decided to just walk into where everyone was going- we ended up walking into the Saturday mass for the Virgin Mary’s birth. So, we stayed for most of the mass, and a nice Italian family shared their programs with us so we could follow along- even though who I was sitting with could not stop flipping the pages around so I could read the Italian. Ugh. Oh well, people are people.

When we returned to the apartment we decided to go to dinner with us and JoAnn and her roommate as well… Nikki had a place picked out she wanted to go down by the Palazzo de Republica and we had fun down there with preseco and pasta and girls. Then I was going to meet some youngins down by the river so we walked there and saw the floating lantern boats there, and then we wanted a drink, but supposedly these other people were going as well- but when we arrived at their apartment- they weren’t ready. Owen, me, Veronica, Elli and Allie all sat there with these other kids we didn’t know real well, just to find out that we were getting tired sitting there. Well- Elli and her roommates plus Owen wanted to hang up in the north- so they decided to go home, and since I knew no one and didn’t feel like hanging with freshman in college I returned to my apt, but of course I tried some gelato with the group on the walk across the city- I had mint chip again. YUM. The caramel one was super sweet and awesome as well.

SO- here’s my point in describing every moment of Saturday. A few years makes such a huge difference in how people act. The older group, ranging from 21/22 – 49 enjoyed every minute of sitting out in a palazzo and spending money on enjoying friends. We bought fresh food for the following days so that we could afford to go out and sit at a café for a couple of hours on the weekend. And then the silly people who are younger just like to hang around and never decide on the same thing- we’ll see what we are up to- whether we are too hungover from the night before, or if we get our hands on liquor etc. and have a vision of getting SMASHED, versus getting slowly buzzed and happy with friends outside enjoying company more than anything. Funny how the young version of Americans is what the city of Florence probably thinks of most of us Americans since there are more students than I’ve ever even seen in Houston ever. Just something to think about.

Saturday, September 8, 2007

My third full day in the country of Italia, and a splendid September day it was. But to start off lets travel from Rhode Island to Europe so I can fully talk about every aspect of my experience.

Tuesday, September 4th 2007
The plane. When mom, dad and I arrived at the airport and got my overweight bags checked through to Florence, (lucky since they were overweight and I wasn’t charged for them) I was so beyond a nervous wreck that we sat down to have a bite to eat and a drink at the place in the international terminal. The beer felt so good, calmed me, just set me in an ok mood – enough to say goodbye to my family for 3 months. It’s different than texas, at rice I have access to internet wherever I am, and always have my phone, plus I usually fly home twice during the semester… mom and dad waved to me during the security, and said goodbye. Nervousness came right back over me. But after I found my fb friend elli and hit it off with her, we had some food and another beer and finished with enough time to call our parents for one last voice chat to hear their voices.

The plane ride went fine, I didn’t sleep however, so jet lag has lasted longer than expected. Also I am nervous about ordering un café- so… that’s a problem too. One thing to note is that when the Florence airport says we lose luggage a lot, it is damn true. So many lost one or both of their suitcases and either now have them, or are still waiting for them to arrive at the school!

But once the situation about so many with no luggage was fixed, we headed out for saci to dump us in a taxi and send us off to our apartments. I got in the taxi with elli who had lost her luggage so she didn’t really need to go to her place just yet, we went to mine, FINALLY understood the European locks, and met my roommate Khris and apartment-mate Jamie both who are cool, but older- Khris 49 and Jamie 29… whatever. Then we walked to Elli’s place- and got lost, but who cares- because we found the duomo, it was like we were supposed to see one big Florentine monument before we crashed for the night! After we found her apartment, we grabbed the healthiest dinner ever, also an Italian staple- gelato chocolato. È fabuloso.

Day Two. The start of orientation, we went and found breakfast, Jamie me and Chris --- Cappuccino e Pasty. I had a chocolate croissant. Ha. More chocolate. Woops. Orientation was a blur of facts mostly repeated from the orientation papers they had given us when we had arrived, or from the handbook which I had read earlier in the summer. We then headed through to the market for a fresh lunch. I had un mele (an apple) and a piece of white veggie pizza from the paneria around the corner. After unpacking my bags, my roommate wanted to head out to find some adapters for our electronics, we found them, but Khris was utterly convinced that she knew a shortcut to get back. Note to self. Don’t believe her when she says that. A nice old lady who didn’t speak any English was trying to help us by pointing us to the Duomo, and once I figured out where we were I got us back to SACI in time for dinner there. After 3 pieces of ravioli and a small spoonful of risotto I headed to the apartment, there I met up with Jamie and Khris and decided to go out and find something to eat. We shared a pizza and each had a glass of preseco before hitting the sack. Man jet lag is a killer.

Day Three. Day two of orientation was a blur of literally running through the city of Florence. Got some jet lag? Feel a bit tired still? Can’t quite sleep normal hours yet? Too bad, lets run around and take a 3 second glimpse of every monument in the city, and at the same time expect you to still be able to figure out where you are so you can go back. So of the 18 sites we saw in and hour and forty five minutes, I could barely tell you where things were in relation to each other… a few of us skipped out of the last two monuments since we lived around them and decided to get some lunch around the center of town. We grabbed a pannini, I had tomato and mozzarella, and a diet coke – woo… caffeine that was quick and American! After that we all headed back to check our email etc. Which we did, then we crashed for an hour to nap- and then our lecture on political and cultural Italy- learning about the two miracles, of the revolution and how Italy has become one of the top economic countries in the world when only a hundred years ago when immigrants were racing out of Ireland, there were actually many Italians racing to Ireland because Italy was actually that much poorer than Ireland during their potato famine. Really fascinating information. Our tour around Florence for the post office, cinema etc. was just as fast as the morning jog, and helped burn off some of the calories that the gelato had brought us! After the tour, Elli and her two roommates, Allie and Veronica both from MICA- Maryland Institute of Creative Design, and myself went for pizza and we bought a bottle of wine and enjoyed time at a café, plus the sight of our waiter was relatively nice as well…

After that we bought some wine from the market below my apartment and went back to their apartment to chill and drink. Then we called our friend Owen to see what he was up to- and we went to meet him and two of his roommates at a paper lantern festival where kids made paper lanterns and paraded them throughout the streets later to burn them in the square by the Hospital of the Innocents- the first Renaissance building in Florence. We had a beer and chilled, later to go back to the apartment and hang out before crashing at our own pads.

Day Four- Saturday—slept in. Till 11am. Fun! Then Since another of our roommates had arrived we went to the market for some food, the abundance of meats and veggies and olives and wines and olive oils is amazing, there’s also dried fruits and the most amazing selection of cheeses I’ve ever seen ever.

so. my heart is officially racing out of control.

dad will be home in 2 hours to pick me and my bags up, and then we head to wheeler to grab mom...

depending on traffic it could take us between and hour and an hour and a half to get to the airport- which would get us there around 330- 4pm. 4 HOURS before take-off, but with checking in for charter flights that's when they want us there. fabulous. however, my fb friend elli will have already have been there for 4 hours, so i'm not the one to complain.

then.

810pm take off- Boston to Munich.

5:00am arrival in Munich,

with a 10:00am take off to Florence (probably and hour long flight)

so 11:00am Italian Time- and 5am East Coast time, i shall arrive in the city which i shall be calling home for the next few months.

I already miss my family, but am so bored of not having much to do here that i need something new... and i miss Rice people too, however i know my mother is right in saying I would be relatively bored there as well... so why not throw myself right into a new adventure, a little bit of art history- learning a new language- and a taste of what i want to do with the rest of my life (graphic design).

Of course I have to complete the graphic design applications, but in the most part, I should be focusing on the essays and the portfolio, I can fill out my SS# and school codes when I return, but if you can... those who read my blog- REMIND ME TO GET MY TWO TRANSCRIPTS BEFORE I LEAVE ITALY. Have them be sent FROM rice before i leave and have my Italy ones when I leave as well... Oh. Rubbish. That sucks, having more applications that is...

however. I would never take back the times i had at rice, or truly do them over- i am me the way i am now, and taken i have had ups and downs, and done fabulously at some things, and failed at others- i am me because of each and every up AND down.


So... send me a postcard from the US and i'll send you one too!


And for the rest of the SACI kids, travel safe and i'll see you tomorrow!