Sunday, March 29, 2009

just for daddy :)

Harry's Bar, I came across it just by accent while I was lost, (again) but not really, you are never really lost in Rome. It was near walls of Rome next to the Spagna metro stop that says it leads to the Borghese museum.. lies all lies, much easier just to walk from Flamino Metro stop.
Still you can always find new sites and treasures when wandering "lost" in Rome :)

zoo pics 03/20/09

I didn't like the zoo, the animals looked for the most part sad and frustrated. I only posted somewhat happy looking pictures of animals. I was there for 4 hours (in the freezing cold and windy day) and this is all I can post.




Assignment: approximately 50 or more sketches of animals at the zoo
Oh and the assignment as hard as all heck, animals apparently don't hold still much or curl into a ball and just look like lumps, which makes them kinda hard to draw.




The orangutans broke my heart, they really looked you right in the eye, like they were trying to read your soul. They were really interacting with us ( watching us draw putting hands, faces and food up to the glass for us) , I wanted to take them home, cause they looked so sad and bored.

Random pictures from 3/18/09 and so on... enjoy!!

I like poppies, 3 euros and almost 2 weeks of classically beautiful flowers to brighten my kitchen here.



So I come home late one night from school, and I look up the street and I see these bright lights, so I run in to grab my camera and back down the street to see what's going on... I have no idea what was going on..LOL!! The lights were there for 3 or 4 days, I think it was to honor a Saint of a nearby church but I'm not sure, it was around St. Patty's day but it wasn't for him:)

On my way to see the lights I saw this graffiti on the ground. I thought it was sort of sweet, my Italian is pretty bad but I did recognize this. "Piccola dolce ti amo". It roughly translates to "Little Sweetie, I love you!", now yes, that is romantic, but if she/he doesn't feel the same...it's then translated into a "little Awkward" LOL!!!

There is a church that I really like, the ceilings and continuous barrel vaults and arches are just amazing I believe the name is The Basilica of Saint Mary Above Minerva near the Pantheneon.







St. Peters Baldacchino ( the 50 foot high brass canopy) is a large sculpted bronze canopy designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini and located over the high altar and beneath the dome of the Basilica of St. Peter in Vatican City. The baldachin was intended to mark in a monumental way the place of Saint Peter's tomb. It was commissioned by Pope Urban VIII. Works began in July 1623 and ended in 1633.

Also in St. Peters, the main alter designed by Bernini-Cathedra Petri or "throne of St. Peter" a chair which was often claimed to have been used by the apostle, but appears to date from the 12th century. As the chair itself was fast deteriorating and was no longer serviceable, Pope Alexander VII determined to enshrine it in suitable splendour as the object upon which the line of successors to Peter was based. Bernini created a large bronze throne in which it was housed, raised high on four looping supports held effortlessly by massive bronze statues of four Doctors of the Church, Saints Ambrose and Augustine representing the Latin Church and Athanasius and John Chrysostum the Greek Church. The four figures are dynamic with sweeping robes and expressions of adoration and ecstasy. Behind and above the Cattedra, a blaze of light comes in through a window of yellow alabaster, illuminating, at its centre, the Dove of the Holy Spirit.








and a statue of a goddess I attempted to sketch in piazza del popolo.














OK lets see,(gosh I wish I could control how these pictures pop up on this blog so I could describe them better)

There are 2 pictures of a gate with cool sculpture and lamp, can not remember the museum or Palazzo at the moment, I only remember I was there for my Baroque class.

Next I took a random picture of an archway over a busy street while I waited for a bus with my classmated somewhat lost trying to find the catacombs. Yeah, no. I was not impressed with the catacombs, not much to see and I'm super claustrophobic so I wasn't diggin it. ( no photos allowed, but really nothing to see anyway, just wholes.)








The most awesome yummy salad. Around the corner from the Spanish Steps in a little outdoor cafe where I pretended to be Italian one day, I sat and ate 3 (lite) courses for like 2.5 hours and people watched :)

The fountain is Bernini's famous Triton fountain near the Barberini metro stop. Bernini executed of travertine (local marble, that looks like stone) in 1642–43, an over-lifesize muscular Triton, a minor sea god of ancient Greco-Roman legend, is depicted as a merman kneeling on an opened scallop shell. He throws back his head to raise a conch to his lips: from it a jet of water spurts, formerly rising dramatically higher than it does today. The fountain has a base of four dolphins[1] that entwine the papal tiara with crossed keys and the heraldic Barberini bees in their scaly tails.

Thursday, March 26, 2009

FYI: back to 6 hour time difference

Daylight Savings Time begins in Europe this Sunday, March 29. Move clock
forward one hour at 2:00 a.m. on Sunday morning.

So for friends and family back home that means back to 6 hour time difference, if you are trying to call or skype me. Please see the clock on the lower right corner of the blog if you are confused.

Saturday, March 21, 2009

My Italian Mama cooking lesson

* * sorry but I had to remove the video because every time I came on the site it would automatically start and it annoyed me, and that means it may have annoyed you too, so it you want to watch the 9 short videos of my Italian mama cooking lesson you just need to click on the link below and it will take you to photobucket and after you watch the first you can find the #2-#9 videos are on the right had side.

http://s410.photobucket.com/albums/pp184/Reneestique/my%20Italian%20Mama/?action=view&current=VID00042.flv


You have to keep hitting the play button, there are about 9 - (10-30second) videos of my landlord teaching me how to cook this very simple and delicious dish.
Sorry if they may not appear in order (I hope they will though) I'm still learning how to upload my videos and again, I apologize for being a terrible videotographer, but this was such a great experience I wanted to share it with you all :)

Friday, March 20, 2009

FYI: don't bring a phone to Tunisia

I just got my phone bill for last month and I just had to post this because I thought it was hysterical.

They told us it was expensive as all hell to make calls from Tunisia and I had no intention on making any. But, when I saw that I missed a call from my father, after sternly warning him not to call me while I was in Tunisia, I could not help myself but to call him back, just to make sure there was not an emergency reason behind that missed call... Everything was fine, he was just trying to catch me before I left for my spring break to wish me a good time (I guess the timezones confuse him).

The call lasted 26 seconds...

It cost 6.20 euro ,

the equivalent of $8.42 US dollars!

You can pick your mouth up off the floor.. I just laughed, after I picked up mine...

http://www.geocities.com/jezebel7411/fainting.gif

Janet must have seen my phone bill... the others look shocked at well, LOL!!!

My Italian Mama :)

It might not sound all that exciting but I had a really nice day today with my landlord. I am so lucky because she is like my own personal Italian mama here, as she treats me like I am part of her family. I don't usually see her that often because she works 6 days a week 12 hours a day, so today was a treat for me.
We went to the Mercato (fresh open air market) in the morning and she instructed me one how to choose the best meats (their meat looks nothing like ours, there is usually the skinned animal head in the cases right along side of the meat, to show how fresh it is), fresh vegetables and fruit. Then she took me around and introduced me to various friends and acquaintances of hers that she thought I might like, mostly artist and craftsmen.
http://s410.photobucket.com/albums/pp184/Reneestique/my%20Italian%20Mama/?action=view&current=VID00042.flv
Back at our apartments she made me speak Italian to her so I could work on my horrible pronunciation while she taught me how to make 2 authentic simple Italian dishes (as she put it stuff you would never see in cook books or restaurants). I got some of it on video, and OMG was it delicious!! So I didn't explore any ruins, museums or new piazzas (town squares), today I got to explore and spend some personal time with true Romans and it was lovely.

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Sigh... still no comments

Why doesn't anyone comment?
Does my blog suck? Are you not interested in the pictures cause I'm a terrible photographer?

Does anyone read this thing???
Sigh.....

Monday, March 16, 2009

random pictures of time well spent

Santa Maria Del Popolo Choir ceiling (behind the alter!!)





Mime in Piazza del Popolo

Some random temple

Saint Valentines skull, aka a catholic church relic









Finger up the nose just for Dad and Dan :)








La Bocca della Verità (in English, "the Mouth of Truth") is an image, carved from Pavonazzetto marble, of a man-like face, located in the portico of the church of Santa Maria in Cosmedin in Rome, Italy. The sculpture is thought to be part of a 1st century ancient Roman fountain, or perhaps a manhole cover, portraying one of several possible pagan gods. (Yeah for Wikipedia!!)

Another random temple and fountain.




Circus Maximus ( the grassy part not the ruins), Chariot racing was the most important event at the Circus. The track could hold twelve chariots, and the two sides of the track were separated by a raised median called the "spina". The spina was set slightly diagonally. Statues of various gods were set up on the spina, and Augustus erected an Egyptian obelisk on it as well. At either end of the spina was a turning post called a "meta", around which chariots made dangerous turns at speed. On the spina, there were rotatable metal dolphins that were turned down to mark laps around the course. Chariot racing was an extremely dangerous sport, frequently resulting in spectacular crashes and the death of one or more of the contestants.









Me sketching in St. Peters Square

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Ostia Lido






I just had the nicest day, I took a couple of trains (3) and 45 minutes later I was at the beach staring into the sparking waters of the Mediterranean. (or at least I think that was the sea I was looking at), I spent half the day just wandering around alone and at peace with myself and the sea and then I thought I could I hear my name... One of my very cool young classmates was out there doing the same thing as I was when he spotted me, so we hung out and had an expensive and very leisurely (the only way Italians do it here) light lunch on the beach by the sea. Then walked around till it was time to go home, it was nice to be alone, but also just as nice to have someone to share it with. It was a good day:)



PS I swear I wasn't posing or trying to look mean, I had just taken off my sunglasses and it was mighty bright out and it's not easy to take your own picture, LOL but just look at how beautiful it was there~

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

My favorite part- Thank God I didn't have Katherine's camel!











OK, I have to say I was actually scared to death, when we walked out into the desert in our way too cool turbans and robes. I was actually thinking, "no, I can't do this, camels are mean, they spit and bite" and I've had some bad horse back riding experiences in the past which added to my anxiety. Oh and these are not camels, camels have 2 humps, we rode Dromedaries, the one hump version. They took us out in groups of 3. I asked the other girls I was with to help me be brave. I had tears in my eyes and screamed as my camel stood up, I was terrified... Minutes later I had tears rushing down my face soaking my turban and robe, but they were tears of laughter. Poor Katherine, had the worst camel, it was puking, foaming at the mouth, trying to headbutt her, making all kinds of disgusting noises making me practically puke, all the while Katherine's saddle was lop-sided and her camel just looked like it was angry and gonna die. I don't think I ever laughed so hard. I could barely breath and almost fell off my own camel ( it's too hard to type dromedary each time). So much joy came from some elses misery and it helped me to not be afraid and really have fun on my camel.

We got to the desert late in the day and were able to watch the sun set, it was magnificent!