transatlantacism - deathcab for cutie.

okay so i just freaked out about my future. i'm almost in the real world! i need a job! i need somewhere to live! i don't want to move back home! i looked up urban planning and architecture firms in the bay area to get some ideas... i am not exactly looking forward to being a true adult and working...

so it is a slow friday. class this morning. jeremiah slept through urbanistica so i was a bit of a loner. had a nice chat with the girl who's name i can't remember. it's been so long now that it is just too awkward to ask. so i can almost hold a real conversation in italian. but my sentences are so simple it's like talking to a kindergartener. "ciao. come stai. sono andata alla biennale il weekend scorso. a mi piace architettura." (hi. how are you. i went to the biennale last weekend. i like architecture.)

...

i have a comforter! yeay. 29 euro at the weekly street market. so excited to sleep.
it's late. goodnight.

say yes - elliott smith

so i finally updated my itunes because otherwise it wouldn't let me download project runway. (bitches) and guess what happened! it found music hidden on my computer! it was like christmas. new albums new artists. i am in love with sondre lerche. he is my new 'rainy day on a train' music.

after being unbelievably excited for days and telling everyone i possibly could about it, i finally made it to the ferrara balloon festival. it was a huge hassel. i got lost. got hasseled (repeatedly) by some gross middle aged italian man on a bike. (i didn't understand what he was saying but it didn't sound nice.) A nice bus driver picked me up and after my confused babbling (balloons! festa! andiamo a balloon?) he dropped me off without a stop (and for free) close enough. ..and then there were no hot air balloons to be had. there were only deserted, empty baskets waiting for their canvas balloons. instead there were lots of kites and kids games, a small renaissance fair, soccer field, and food. jeremiah showed so we got paninis and watched the teenage girls hip hop.

Venice is only an hour away so we hopped a train around mid-afternoon and got in by 6. Our "campsite" was only a bus and short walk away. We stayed in Mestre, which is on the mainland right outside of venice. We had a cute little trailer containing a small bedroom with one bed, a bathroom large enough to fit three, and a tiny table with bench seats. somehow it was called a "four person dorm." we took a bus into Venice for the evening.

It is like a labyrinth. We bought a map but found it useless. half the streets are narrow, 4ft. passageways between 4 floors tall buildings. i felt slightly clausterphobic. i vaguely wonder how they get emergency vehicles through town. (i understand they mainly use the canals. but what about down those barely accessibly alleys?) after wandering for over an hour we finally found a cafe to fit us. The tourists were everywhere so food was horrendously expensive, and they decide to include a service charge tip at the touristy spots. After dinner we found a nice bar near the main canal that seemed to have mainly locals.

Looking for a discoteca, we ended up talking to a guy who turned out to be a golandiere (gondala driver). He offered us a ride the following evening to complete our stay in Venice. He ended up being a really great guy and followed through completely. We took over an hour boat ride through the little canals and a bit into the Grand. He let Brenna and I each try steering the boat (though only when the waterways were clear and there were no policemen). It was amazing. The piccolli canali are so different than touristy venice. they were quite calm and entrancing. i find the waterways much prefereable to the dirty streets.

So our main reason for visiting Venice was the Biennale exhibit of Architecture. It is a huge deal, including exhibits from all the countries. The theme for this Biennale was about cities. The exhibits were divided into two locations, one at the Arsenale, an old shipyard, and one at the Giardini, a huge garden. We woke up early to make it there by 10 and took a water ferry through the grand canal to maximize our viewing of the city.

It was the best exhibit. ever.

My favorite exhibit was the "Cities and Society." It was a visual, written, and multimedia exhibit comparing and contrasting about 10 major cities throughout the world (ex: LA, Tokyo, Mumbai, London, Mexico City, etc.) looking at issues such as transportation, land use, and economic disparity. For each city the discussed the major projects currently working to improve the city, either visually, socially, or economically. I thought it was a very very well done exhibit. The initial figure-ground maps showing the makeup of each city was striking. The countries are all so distinct, and absolutely no other city looked like the suburban LA. Other impressive sites were the models showing the cities as building skylines showing the density of the population. (see the london image. behind it is shanghai.) Ooh, and very italian, it had a small pause in the center with little espresso machines so you could take a quick coffee break and rest your dying feet. Who would have thought of that here. The whole exhibit was layed out down a long former warehouse or perhaps boat storage.

We spent i think over 2 and a half hours in that one exhibit. We then had to race a little to get through everything else before it closed. We didn't take any breaks for fear that we would miss something. (my feet were killing me!) In the Giardini my favorite country exhibits were Belgium's Beauty of the Ordinary, which was a very simple white building with a center room with a map on the ground of the country and exercise balls to sit on. In the outlying rooms there were theatres playing small videos of the ordinary throughout the nation. a beautiful change of pace.

After the Biennale closed we sat in the Piazza San Marco and waited for our gondola ride. We had dinner with our gondola friend, Luca, in a nice pasta and pizzeria place and then he walked us back to the bus station.

and now we're back in ferrara and it is raining like hell.

...
we still don't understand the bus system. we don't know where to buy tickets and you don't have to show anythign to get on.. but there are little validation machines on the buses. basically we have been freeloading.

track you down - sondre lerche

I think I am moving closer to urban planning from architecture. I am taking an urbanism class and it is so fascinating to hear the history and theory of urbanism from a different culture's perspective. already the presentation of material is so different.

Today we will visit the hot air balloon festival in town (ooh.) and then take the train to Venice. Our first time. I couldn't be more excited. It takes about an hour to get there. We're staying at this hostel campground that seems a bit out of the way but... it's still venice! who cares. There is the Biennale architecture exhibit which should be amazing. The theme is "Agenda for XXI Century Cities," which is perfect because I can't get enough of cities these days. We have to head home monday for class at 1. So. a short trip but I plan to make more excursions.

I'm tired.

oh. ps. my urbanism class takes a week long trip to paris. (eee.)

je ne veux pas travailler - pink martini

we got out of italian class today and everything seemed perfect. the buildings made complicated shadow skylines on the cobblestone streets and women biked with small children sleeping draped across their backs.

it is our second week in ferrara. i love our italian class! we take a class at inlingua, a language school in town. Our professoressa is adorable, she tries to relate our activities to architecture (ie: explaining floor plan layouts to each other in italian). it's like girl scouts (eh kelly) -- never want to go. whine about it. get there. love it. ends too soon. the class is just the three of us so there is no pressure about our horrible accents or lack of vocabulary.

architecture school is another story. as in. it is hard. really hard. This week and next week the three of us are trying out a bunch of different courses to see what works and what doesn't. the classes only meet once a week. the catch is that when they meet... they meet for at least 4 hours. It is such a long time to try to concentrate, translate, and take notes. I think i will end up picking my classes based on which professors are easiest to understand: speak clear and don't have accents. So far I've been to a class on the theory and history of restoration, and one on techniques of representation in arch (graphics and programs basically). During the second class I was totally distracted by the two huge screens they had blinking renderings and short animations behind the professors. consequently i really have no idea what the class is about. i don't think i will be taking that...

the architecture school admits 150 new students each year. the program is considered the best in the country and is therefore pretty competitive to get in. I get the feeling people here take school very seriously and I am a bit nervous.... the other consequence of a small student body is that everyone else knows each other and they all stare at anyone new (us.). it isn't considered rude to stare here and people are pretty obvious about it. i haven't quite figured out what is the best response to that. do you stare back? ignore it?

We are still trying to figure out the night scene. Brenna and I went wandering around town on saturday night and it seemed totally dead. Wednesday is the big evening. All the students go to get drinks and socialize in the main square in front of the cathedral. We're planning to go tonight with the american girls we met in our building. should be fun....

Oh! our building manager, Giorgio, invited Brenna and I and a couple of other americans to his house for dinner tomorrow. He said he is a great cook and especially good with tiramisu! he said if i like his he will give me the recipe. :) I'm pretty excited for a real italian home dinner. I think he likes to practice his english with us and hopefully we can practice our italian.

still needing a bike....

everybody cares, everybody understands - elliott smith

eating: my first pasta attempt - rigatoni, sausage, tomatos, basil and onion
drinking: red wine
listening: to the pouring rain.
feeling: content and lazy.

we walked into town this morning in hopes of finding a sunday market. instead we found a veteran's ceremony(?) commemorating WWII (i think). The main piazza was blocked off and filled with a horn band, brigade, nurses, a horde of bicycles. Various importanti gave speaches on peace and rememberance. Everyone stood at attention in the downpour, their feathered hats matted to their foreheads.

After the ceremony we walked into the square and got some breakfast (croissants and cappuccinos). ate outside under an overhang and felt very italian.

Brenna stayed in town to read or wander and Ashley and I headed home to check out the gym. The small palestra is on the 8th floor. An inspiring view of the old town monuments accompanies the eternally vacant bikes and treadmills. perfect.

Now we're hanging inside, attempting to get ready for our classes tomorrow.

--postnote: what the hell. this blog is pissing me off. i edit. i add entries. i change the background. and then they only show up on my preview. not the real blog. dammit.

bring it on home to me

Okay, so things are starting to settle down a bit now. Not unpacked but I am moved in. Brenna and I are a bit of a mess but I think things will find their place soon. Jeremiah is currently living on our couch, as his previous housing arrangements fell through. He is the picture of zen. He has some prospects in gorgeous flats in town. I'm sure he'll be set by monday.

I am starting to really love Ferrara. The people. the monuments. the streets. Yesterday we wandered into the town cathedral. You push back the red curtains that pause the light and noise from outside. Inside is this ornate vaulted hall that seems to recede into a cone until it reaches the largest and most detailed alter. chandeliers hang from the ceiling and seem to suspend in space above you, augmenting the height of the roof. You feel so small but not lost in the this huge space that is somehow both awe-inspiring and comforting. We are going to try to make it to a mass one of these sundays.

We had our first real apperitivo with a friend of Jeremiah, Francesco. He took us to this old enoteca behind the cathedral. It is a converted house that used to belong to Copernicus. (unfreakin believable). Inside the walls are covered in photos of musicians, records, books and instruments. They played quiet jazz as we drank a nice dry white wine (always white before dinner) and had small appetizers. We headed to Francesco's place for dinner to meet his roommate, Marco. Their apartment is the cutest thing. It has a lofted ceiling, a small spiral staircase up to the bedroom and (ikea) furniture. very homey. We had pizza and the boys played us the english songs they knew on guitar (radiohead, rem, pearl jam... aww).

We start school monday so this weekend is a bit about getting everything together. cleaning. buying a bike. etc.

We still don't have internet at the apartment! bah! (i am currently stealing some from someone downstairs? but it is slow.... and won't let me sign on to aim.) We turned in our information and the registrar said it would be up by friday... but aparantly they didn't do it so we have to wait until at least monday. everything in italy takes twice as long to happen. everyone is just so relaxed. no one worries about deadlines.

okay. i think i am going to try to post some pictures. maybe flickr?

ooh we're going to make coffee..

first photo in italy.

the magic of a kind word - belle and sebastian

bene. ho creato uno blog italiano. i had to go through all the steps in italian because i can't get to the english version. but.. tutta va bene. this blog will be easier than sending mass emails. so check back.

i wrote these before i had internet:

Okay so I guess this is my 4^th day here now. I’ve finally made it to my final destination, ferrara. It is a really adorable town. Accessible, friendly, and clean. I already like it much more than Florence, which I found, though impressive in monuments, standoffish and dirty. Here people are much more welcoming, use the kind ‘ciao’ instead of ‘buon giorno’ and smile.

I think I am getting more used to this. I still cry every day but I don’t regret coming. It’s strange. I didn’t realize what my reaction would be to this place. I think I went immediately into culture shock when I arrived. Getting my luggage out, finding a taxi, checking in. all worked alright. I just kept thinking that I just needed a room and then I could calm down. Take a shower. A nap. When I found my room was not ready I was sort of put out into the street with a tiny map and no idea of where I was. I couldn’t find the street signs. There was no grid. I wandered close for fear of losing my way back. I found an internet café where the girl working was more interested in her cell phone than helping. I understand the difference in ideas of service now. Things are slower. There is no real rush. Everyone answers their cell phone. Even in the middle of a conversation. But at the time I felt affronted. Sending out my first email was a trial at not crying. And at not saying how alone I felt.

I spent about half of my first day in Florence crying in my room, perusing the channels trying to find something in English. The best I could do was sometimes bbc sports (which came on intermittently) and a bit of mtv. The second day I realized that the room was more depressing to me than anything else and I wandered out early in the morning. I bought my train ticket for bologna for the following day and then set out to find the duomo. I could see it peaking out behind buildings from the entrance of my hotel so I forwent my useless map and just followed it. I arrived around 9 am. The piazza was near empty, only a few go-get-em morning tourists. It was impressive. In scale. Decoration. Everything. The church itself was closed but I visited the nearby baptistery. After the duomo I walked to the piazza di signorina and the uffici. By 10 am I had filled my camera’s memory card. The rest of the day I mostly picked shady spots and piazzas to sit or people watch. We tourists are so obvious.

The trip to bologna by train was the most harrowing experience. The station is a caucophony of people baggage languages. It is a mess. Finding your train is only half of the problem. (the train’s platform is not listed on your ticket, but displayed on a large timetable 10 minutes before your train leaves… and it only shows trains by their final destinations… something else that’s not on your card.) but getting your baggage in. luckily the man in front of me was nice enough to help. But dragging my rolling suitcase, big bag, backpack, and purse (we all know how big my purses are) through the narrow cooridor is not something I’d like to repeat. Oh! The trains are very harry potter. I thought of chez…

At bologna I met my study center aids. They are all the nicest people ever. After not talking to anyone who cared about me for days it meant so much. They set me up with a place for the evening in ferrara and I got to talk to my coordinator. Everyone spoke in Italian but I don’t think I did too terribly. They helped me find a Vodophone store to get my cell and I took a break to wander around bologna a bit. It is a big city. Lots of bussle, and I was grateful to be in a cosmopolitan city as the Vodophone employee spoke English. Once he learned I was from California he got much more helpful (he vacationed in San Francisco in February). I had lunch in a café near the main piazza and sweated in the sun a bit.

Then I had to get my bags. Again. And get on another train. This one was worse because there are no elevators at the train station. I also took a local train so I didn’t have a reserved seat. I accidentally sat in first class (after asking the attendant, I can sit anywhere?) the ticket puncher was nice and didn’t fine me but just asked me to move. Should have payed for first class. There was no room in second.

My first night in Ferrara I stayed in a small pensione near the center of town. The couple running the place was super nice. I managed to banter in Italian with them a bit about my luggage problems which pleased me. I left my stuff and attempted to find the Residenza Darsena (where I am living now) but I didn’t understand the numbering system of the houses (I found Via Darsena 80 and Via Darsena 82 but no 81) There were only houses on one side of the street (the other side had a river so I couldn’t figure out where they would put it. Turns out it was like 2 miles down the street. I gave up looking and instead headed back into town to look around a bit.

So I moved in today. I’m in my room now, which is a double I will be sharing with Brenna. Our complex is basically part of a mall; there is a grocery store, movie theatre, vodaphone, etc. Unfortunately it is also a bit out of town, but with such cute streets I don’t mind the walk. The apartment is nice. There is internet (though my school-given username and password are not working yet… need to find out who to ask about that.) so I can’t log in yet. I am getting a phone tomorrow (I can receive calls for free! You know you all want to run out and buy a phone card so you can call me.). It is a one bedroom, small kitchen, no oven, a fold-out couch (for guests he said… so I guess mafia laws are to be ignored?) and large floor to ceiling windows overlooking the river (and freeway…)

I unpacked and bought sheets for my bed, toilet paper (which has mostly been used for crying Kleenex) and mineral water. I’m functioning better now in Italian. At least I can get by, and people don’t automatically speak to me in English. So.. now I don’t’ really have much to do. It takes about an hour to walk into town. And it is already 6. I don’t want to walk back in the dark so I guess I will just hang out here. I am sort of tempted to go see if there are any movies playing I want to see.

It is strange how much better I feel now that I have my cell phone and my computer. For a couple of days my computer charger wouldn’t work and I couldn’t turn it on. (I bought a new converter and now it seems to be fine…) Even though it doesn’t have internet it is just such a comfort. Strange. I had no idea I was so attached. … god I want internet. When I finally get it and can talk to Brendan I think I will cry so much. I called him from my cell about an hour ago to tell him to buy a phone card and call me tonight.. but he was asleep and I don’t think that he will remember… through the whole conversation (all 30 seconds of it) I was crying. I wonder if he heard anything… I don’t think he realizes how much I miss him.

I will meet up with Brenna and Jeremiah tomorrow in front of the Castello Estense. I’m not sure if either of them are in town yet. My program officially starts Thursday with a reception and a walk around town. Friday is my placement test. I should probably start studying for that. My grammer is so horrendous.

Bye.