life!

I have no idea how these are going to turn out. because there arent so many words in this post yet, but people asked to see the apartment so here it is!





ugh its been a busy week. not really but i sort of feel like we dont ever have time for anything

classes are still fairly unchallenging and thats frustrating. the one htat i actually have to put out effort for is photo and effort in that means practicing and that means spending lots of money to develop film. which is unfortunate but! so worth it. were starting to learn how to develop b/w film next week so im really looking forward to that. finally some hands on stuff!

but yeah so i figured out my photo portfolio project theme. Essentially its "life and death" with the basis that life is always intertwined with death. we base who we are off the past and how we interact with history and tradition. we interact daily with buildings and monuments and structures that have been converted over the centuries. for instance there are old roman law courts (basilicae) that are now law offices, though many were transformed into the basilica that people know and love as churches today. thus the dead never truly die but are reborn each period in a new form because of how the living interact with it.

which i realize now is so very much a part of why i want to do archaeology. but i came up with the idea with the help of liz and the idea that it would get me out to people watch and bask in pretty things more.
i was going to use the crypt of the capuchin monks
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_Friars_Minor_Capuchin

soooo cool. essentially a crypt and a church almost thats decorated entirely with the bones of the deceased monks and other romans. so eerie. so creepy. so freaking cool.

but sadly...you cant take pictures in the crypt. which is really sad. i couldve got such awesome shots for my project.

but yeah so we get the name for cappuchino fromthe color of these monks robes. im never going to be able to drink a cappuchino now without thinking of the crypt and getting creeped out.
perfect way to start the day! cappuchino, cornetto and creepedout-edness!
hehe

oh and how they got the idea for the designs? had to have taken a skeleton of someone and just stick a stick of dynamite in his ribcage and KA_BOOM! all over da room and you have basic layout. or youve got jaya's bunny theory.
perhaps it was frank they esploded
we will never know.

other than that. yes midterms. i have 3 this week. one is at 9am tomorrow morning. ive studied a little but so much of it is just memorization and i hate that. i can discuss why these ideas are important but i dont remember all the little names of all the facets of the ideas and he wants that. bah.
ill get it by tomorrow though and life will be well.

im really looking forward to spring break though. amsterdam and the van gogh house and dykes is going to be awesome. as is seeing sarah. then paris to see all the tulane girls we know there and then to aix-en-provence to see shanna for a few days.
and then back home again jiggity jig
and then mommy will visit soon and yay!
i love visiting people.

oh and last night was great. so when i first got here i met this kid, bank, and his wife, simona. bank is a poi performer and does street shows and i performed with him. so we ran into him this last night (by the way: AMAZING ECLIPISE! oh man so cool) and ended up going to the bar with him and simona and two of their friends. we met up with another of their friends while at the bar, some very rich half asian- half italian guy who ended up paying for everyones drinks at the end. since only half of the people at the table spoke english with the other half speaking italian, and only simona to be a translator, it made for an interesting night. was alot of fun though.
we have plans to hang out with bank and simona more and meet some of their other friends and performers. and simona wants me to teach her some poi since shes embarrased to ask bank. shes too cute. i love her. and i think that most of the kids she and bank are friends with are guys so i think she really likes having some girls around. and we like her so thats very good.

but yeah last night made me realize that im starting to have a life in rome thats outside of school. it really makes me want to stick around the city for more weekends and not travel so much anymore, since i have these friendships that im really interested in broadening and am really excited about. it was really nice to chat with bank about bangkok some, since hes from thailand and im one of the few people he knows around here that knows the city at least even a little bit. we talked about kao san road and MBK and yeah..makes me miss thailand and danai and jess' family there.
id really love to go back.

and ive been thinking about grad school recently and it kind of is freaking me out. i mean im graduating in a year and have to decide where the rest of my life is really going to go. its like college applications time 8ZILLION!

but this summer will figure it out. and ive got my ticket to wildfire (the fire arts weekned workshop with my friends) and im looking forward to that. and im set up to teach fire eating which is so super awesome. and yeah.

i find myself amazed every so often at how happy i am with life. and that life really is good and that days arent just ok..but theyre actively amazing.
i mean..
i live in ROME

it was gorgeous today and walking through the piazza with all these people eating gelato and kids running around..
i really love this city.
and im kind of excited that i may end up spending the rest of my life here.

of course i miss home. the lack of bagels and nachos is really sad, but food aside this is an amazing city and i..yeah.
so much love