Catch up.

Its been a while since my last post. Mostly because not a lot has been going on and because school has actually gotten pretty busy. After our Italian tour we picked up an extra class- sculpture! Three days a week I get to play with clay! The first project was an abstract one where we used 3 or 4 basic shapes to create a dynamic form. It was cool how different everyone's was despite us all using the same few shapes. We just finished the project and now have to transform our sculpture into a human form of some sort. Mine has currently been transformed into a very abstract child rolling on the ground... we will see how it turns out! Studio has also picked up the pace too and we are now in full designing mode.

While school has picked up some we have still found plenty of time to go out and enjoy Krakow. Saturday, Caitlin and I braved the snow, yes snow, and went downtown walking around picture taking for at little bit. This past weekend we especially enjoyed Krakow's nightlife. Friday night a group of us went out to a place called Club Blue. It was tons of fun! We met a group American students who are studying in Prague but were in Krakow visiting. I also met a guy from England who ironically works as an engineer. Scott (english guy) and I talked for a while as I was playing wing-woman for the night as Caitlin let loose and had some fun. Saturday a small group of us went to a place called Bar Italiano to meet up with the Eurasmus (European students) people, who party there on Saturday's. My roommate and suite-mates invited us with them, so we met them there for another fun night! Met tons of Spanish students and a couple French and Turkish guys. I had so many names spinning around in my head by the end of the night! Once again I played wing-woman to Caitlin who finally got to meet this guy from our history class that she thought was cute. So she spent the entire night 'getting to know him' ... I eventually had to drag her away so we could catch the last late night bus. The whole bus ride back she kept telling me that she shouldn't have left, it was comical! Sunday was a recovery day, mostly from a lack of sleep! We also went out last night for Phillip's birthday (he is another UT student here). Just about everyone went out to club Coco where we were all getting our dance on and having a good time! Thankfully, we don't have class till 1pm on Thursdays so we were all able to sleep in some!

Other than that not a lot to report. Oh! a week from today myself and 6 others will be heading to the airport for a 4 day trip to Greece!! I cannot wait!! Also, in about 3 weeks is spring break, and my mom and grandma are coming for a 10 day visit! I will be showing them all the sights of Krakow!! And rest assured they will be eating a kebab or two while here!!

Anyway, time to do some studio work. I will leave you with a few Photo-shopped photos from my wandering around Krakow over the weekend.



(Jacqueline, any thoughts?)

Whirlwind of activity!

Dear blog followers,

Sorry it has been a while since my last post. I have been busy roaming through Italy, and a little bit of Austria, on a 10 day school led field trip! Life is tough, I know! Now, I thought about giving a run down of every city we visited but that could take me days to write about. So, I am going to give a brief run down of everything, highlighting my favorite places. So...

The trip started two Fridays ago. All 20 of us loaded up on a coach Friday night and had an overnight ride to the city of Graz, Austria. It was a beautiful European city! Lots of charm, very historic, and a definite sense of culture- something I have found in nearly all the countries and cities I have visited in my various travels. If only the U.S. had such a rich and deep root in its history and culture!


From Graz we loaded back onto the bus and headed for Vicenza, Italy! The ride there was beautiful as we drove through the alps, which were still capped with snow! When we reach the Italian boarder we were stopped and had our passports checked. We were all cleared to enter the country! We arrived in Vicenza around 9 and after sorting out rooms we headed out to find some dinner. Vicenza is known for being the home of Palladio, and thus many of the best examples of his work. As a result, our visit there focused primarily on his works which were pretty interesting to see in person, especially since we studied them in our architecture history classes. While in Vicenza we took a day trip to Verona. Home of Juliet Capulet- to which we of course went to her house and saw her balcony and made a wish! Verona itself was a beautiful city and one of my favorites. It was bustling with activity, the main street was packed- it took some maneuvering for everyone to stay together. The main city square was much smaller than Krakow's but was also teeming with activity as tons of vendors were set up in the center selling all sorts of things - masks, scarves, jewelry, you name it!


From Vicenza we headed towards Venice stopping in Padova along the way. Padova is most known for its university. The first female to ever receive her undergraduate degree went to the university. It was also well known for its science/doctoral program.

After an afternoon in Padova we ventured on to our hotel outside of Venice. We arrived around 8 or so and once again went out in search of food around 9. We found a very delicious restaurant with amazing pizza. I had half of a Viennese and half of a Hawaiian. Both were delicious. We all also indulged in some vino de la casa - house wine- which was also amazing! And since Amelia already started blabbering about it, this place also won the award for best looking Italian server! The guy even told us to come back the next night, which I gladly would have done had we not been celebrating Carnival in Venice the next night! Oh well... After dinner we all headed to the beach, which was only 2 streets down from our hotel, for a night walk.

In case you hadn't guessed it the next day was spent in Venice. This was the first city we stopped in that I had previously been to and I was looking forward to being back and experiencing the city again- this time through my own eyes and not through a camera screen! The city was more amazing than I remembered, although that may have had something to do with it being the last day of Carnival- its a giant celebration that lasts several days with lots of festivals and wearing masks and throwing confetti all in celebration of the upcoming Lent. It was pretty cool to experience as we all bought and wore our masks around, fitting in perfectly! It was a lot of fun! The other thing I did, which I didn't do last time, was a gondola ride. Myself and 3 others split the cost for a 45 minute cruise around the various canals. It was a really neat way to experience the city, especially since boat was meant to be the primary means of travel.




Man, this is getting long... From Venice we went to Pisa, which was another repeat place for me. We toured around and of course did the cheesy Pisa pics. We actually met a few fellow Americans while taking pictures. One was an OSU alum- blehh. And another was a Florida fan! Small world! After Pisa we continued on to Florence! It was fun to be back in Florence and see all the sites again, even went to the top of the Duomo for the second time! I will admit that of all the Italian cities Florence is not one of my top cities. Its much busier than all the others and has a slightly different feel to it. Not to say it isn't an amazing city, just not one of my favorites.



After Florence we headed for Siena. The city actually surprised me with its charm and character. At first it seemed like many of the smaller cities we had seen, but there was a certain boldness to it that seperated it from the others. It may have been partly due to the fact that it contained the only church/cathedral that really caught my attention. The cathedral was a complete contrast to all the buildings around it and really had a presence. The city square area was also unique- it was a semi-circle rather than the typical rectangle/square shape in every other city.

From there we headed to our final Italian city- Rome. It was just as impressive as I remembered! It was fun being back in Rome too, because despite having seen nearly every place we went to on our tour of the city, I got to experience them at a different time of day. For instance, the last time I went to the Pantheon was in the middle of the day and this time we went later in the evening so the whole experience was different! I also went into the Colosseum and explored the ancient ruins of the roman forum, which I didn't do last time. And as I said earlier, this time I got to experience the city more with my eyes than through the lens of a camera!

The final stop on our way home was Vienna, Austria. It was a very charming city and an interesting contrast to the Italian cities we had been seeing! It probably would have been one of my favorite cities had I not been so tired from the previous 9 days! But despite being exhausted I did my best to enjoy the city. It was lively like many of the others- which actually impresses me since we were there on a Sunday and other than the fact that all the stores were closed I never would have thought a place would be that active on a Sunday. There were people/families everywhere!

Fat Thursday

Panoramic of Market Square - with blue skies!

Today was a Polish holiday known as Fat Thursday. Basically a day to pig out on donuts and other delicious treats before Lent; which explains why people were loading up their carts with packs of donuts yesterday at the store. We decided to part take in the festivities and so after class we hung out in market square in search of a cafe or bakery shop selling delicious treats! We ended up going into a cafe we had been in once before and grabbed a seat. After a thorough inspection of the menu, everyone chose to get a donut except me. I figured its Fat Thursday, a day to indulge... and well a donut wasn't quite what I was feeling. So I ordered an ice cream- fruit dish that looked delicious based on the picture in the menu. The waitress had a hard time understanding us, so while everyone thought they were ordering a chocolate donut, they all ended up getting a chocolate milk and a plain donut with a raspberry filling. It was pretty funny. Luckily, my order was simply pointing to the item on the menu so I got exactly what I ordered. And it was beautiful when they brought it out... and delicious. I forget the menu name, but it was amazing. It was 3 scopes of ice cream- one of lemon, one of mocha, and one of raspberry- topped with whipped cream with a layer of fresh fruit - clementines, kiwi, grapes, pineapple, cantaloupe, and pomegranate - all on top. It was delicious!!

Before
After

Once we finished our snacks a group of us headed out to wander around market square and take some pictures as today was the first day I was down there while there were blue skies! The weather is slowly improving; hopefully by the time we return from out 9 days in Italy it will have warmed up a few more degrees! And yes, we are getting ready to go on a 9 day excursion to Italy, with stops in Austria! The bus leaves tomorrow at 10pm (4pm eastern standard time) and we will head to Austria and then a bunch of cities in Italy. I have to admit I was kind of hoping that our European tour would be some place other than Italy, but we got to the itinerary today and are going to 5 or so Italian cities I haven't been to along with places in Austria. Needless to say I'm pretty excited! Vicenza, Verona (home of Juliette), Firenze, and Siena are a few of the places we are going that I haven't been. I have a feeling its going to be a long 9 days as we will be visiting 11 cities in Italy and Austria, but well worth the exhaustion that I know will follow!

Anywho, just thought I would give a quick updaete! I'm tired and have class in the morning so its bedtime for me. I'll try to post a time or two while in Italy, but no guarantees as I am not taking my laptop and don't know when I'll be able to find an internet cafe.