Dear Friends

My dear friends,

I wanted to let you know that I have not forgotten about you, but I have been very busy this week because I had my midterm exams. I did well, I think, and am glad to have them finished. Apart from studying all week I have been preparing for my spring break trip. My friend from school, Randi Brown, and I are going to travel to Paris, France and Barcelona, Spain and stay in each place for 4 nights. I am very excited but also nervous! She and I are in art class together and are excited to see many artsy things and practice our drawing skills.

When I come back I will have pictures to put up of a Mask Painting workshop I attended where I got to go to a professional mask maker's studio shop and paint my own Carnevale mask! I also have many things to tell you about my wonderful day with my host family in Assisi, Italy. It was one of the most beautiful places and we had the most relaxing sunny days. : )

I am going to be in Paris from March 19-March 23 and then in Barcelona from March 23-March 27.

Night time in Venice

Photos taken by my friend, JJ Prior.

Venice Trip #2

I went to the beautiful island of Murano about 15 minutes, by water bus, away from the main city of Venice. The island is famous for its glass work. There are many glass blowing workshops and stores all around the island. Fun Fact: The reason there are so many glasshouses on this one island is because the city of Venice was worried, in the 1500s, about the city burning down so they ordered all of the glass makers to move their workshops to the island of Murano.

This is one of the many glass stores. I am looking at this amazing spiderweb made out of glass!!! I don't know how it hasn't broken yet because the web strands are so thin! This is definitely a "do not touch" kind of store.

This is the piazza, square, San Marco (named after the church that was built on the square). The symbol of Venice is a lion, for strength and courage. If you had a city what would you have your symbol be?

Venice Trip #2

This is a mosaic. Mosaics are pictures that are made up of small stones and pieces of glass. This is an up close picture of a mosaic that is decorating the outside of the San Marco church. The inside is covered with mosaics from the walls all the way up to the ceiling. Can you imagine putting all those stones and glass in place one by one? It must have taken so long!

Here is a mosaic from far away...you can see the different colors being used and shading in the people's robes, that is all done using small pieces of glass! I think it is amazing that from far away it looks like a painting but when you get up close you can see all the little pieces. So cool!

When it is high tide the main square, San Marco, floods and these planks are used so people can still get around. Some people wear rain boots and just walk right through the water. If only I had brought mine...

This is the Grand Canal in Venice which is the main street in Venice. When a supermarket has a delivery the products are brought to the store on a boat, not with a big truck. Instead of buses they use water busses which is a boat that makes stops all around the city.

In Italy, there are only a few things for breakfast like rolls, fruit, or little sandwiches. They do not eat pancakes, waffles, bacon, eggs, and home fries for breakfast. That is one thing that I really miss about home, the big breakfasts and pancakes! I usually eat a roll or 3 with Nutella, which is a chocolaty nut spread that people put on everything here! It is kind of like how we use peanut butter, except I like it better!

Yummy food and a beautiful city!

This is the really yummy spaghetti that I love to eat! The pasta here is so good! No mater what kind it is or what kind of sauce it has on it. So pasta is my favorite food here in Italy. However, my host mother made some pan cooked chicken last week that was slightly breaded and cooked with lemons! It was the most delicious chicken I have ever had. The food that I eat in America is similar to what I eat here, but everything is more fresh and rich in Italy. I also really really like Gelato, which is ice cream that is smoother than ice cream back home. I usually get chocolate and vanilla. I will get a picture soon of a gelato shop.

This is a picture of me ON TOP of the dome of the Duomo...I had to hike up many stairs, 436 I think. The view was amazing and I had fun seeing all the places I have visited in the city.

"In fair Verona where we lay our scene..."

Later that night, Martina, fell asleep after we ate dinner at a family friend's house. It was a long day for us all. : )

These notes on the wall are all love notes that couples have written and stuck to this wall that leads to Juliet's balcony. The notes on the wall are supposed to represent everlasting love. I just thought it was interesting to see so many pieces of paper stuck to one wall.

Pretty heart lights that lead the way down the street and to the Valentine's market where people were singing, dancing, selling strawberries and chocolate! Yum!

This is a amphitheatre that we saw when we first got to Verona. It looked similar to the Colosseum in Rome but this one was much smaller.

After visiting Venice we went to Verona which is about 2 hours away from Venice. Verona is where Shakespeare set his play "Romeo and Juliet" and because we went to visit the day before Valentine's Day there were hearts and chocolate everywhere!

Venice Carnevale February 13

On Saturday February 13, my host family and 9 of us students went to Venice which is about 2 hours away from Florence. I saw so many amazing things! People in costumes, boats, yummy looking food and high-tide flooding! It was a crazy and exciting day. Venice is a city that was built upon water, so although there are roads for people to walk, there are no cars. The main way to travel is on foot or on the canals which are the main streets of Venice. People usually get around their city by boat. These boats are called Gondolas and they are fancy boats that are just for fun rides/tours around the canals.

There were not as many people in costume as in Viareggio, but here the costumes were much more extravagant. I am not sure how this lady fit down some of the streets! Many more people were wearing masks here, even people who weren't in costume wore masks.

This is my host father, Paolo, and his 8 year-old daughter, Martina.

These are some pretty ladies I saw that were having fun taking pictures and they asked me to be in a few too!

In the morning it was high tide so much of the main square, San Marco, was flooded, and even some of the shops were inaccessible! This is a main walkway where many shops and a few restaurants are. It was difficult to get around the city with the flooding and with so many people all around.