Greece! Day 1 in Nafplio

June 17. With school finally over, and people heading their separate ways, I departed for Greece to meet up with Jeana on my first real vacation in a long time...
After a long day of travel from Florence to Rome to Athens to Nafplion on the Peloponnese peninsula, I arrived just in time for dinner. We had dolmades--grape leaves stuffed with meat and rice, stuffed peppers...some wine of course...
My travel companions, the folklorists! Adam, Linda, Kristi, and Jeana
And my moussaka. Delicious!
We walked around Syntagma square afterward. Even in this tiny tiny town, everything was open very late, it was so beautiful...

Biennale 2009, Venice

June 9th, my roommates and I journeyed to Venice to see the international contemporary art show, the Biennale. Participating countries have their own pavilions in the Giardino--there was so much to see in just a day!The Exhibition Hall:
The Russian pavilion was pretty neat, with a room of black lit crowded frescoes and the theme of "victory over the future."
The International Exhibition hall was immense and maze-like. We got lost, but saw a lot of cool stuff
And we spent some time wandering the streets of Venice of course! Good ol' San Marco full of pigeons...
Adventures continued with catching 3 am trains to get back to Florence, huddling in the cold, and watching bum fights. But that's another story!

oh wow....

It's been a busy busy hectic wonderful-ish time. Our numbers are slim here in Florence. The last of us art kids are packing and traveling, eating their last kebabs and pizzas. I visited the Biennale in Venice (more on that later!) And now I am off to Greece tomorrow. It will be a very interesting travel day....I've never been alone in a country where I don't speak the language...but I'm meeting up with Jeana and her conference friends for some time in Napflio before heading over to Athens. Oh, and I booked my flight home finally, I'll see you all in July!

Final days in Florence (for everyone else)

It's been an interesting week. It went from everyone pulling all-nighters--studying, drawing and writing papers, to all night walks around Florence and piazza hang outs to say goodbyes to everyone who's leaving. Some highlights--I got to do several portraits while Jackie was working on her drawing final...
Wonderful sandwiches!! at Noe
Aladdin pants and hammocks!
Dinner with la Marsha at Pizzaiolo....soooooo good. Like pizza straight from Napoli.
And breakfast with Tony! Definitely the best way to start the day.
Allora, now, I'm trying to start and finish paintings....say more goodbyes, and manage to get more sleep!!

CSU Banquet

Last weekend, we had our final banquet at a lovely restaurant near the Bargello. We all got dressed up and ate yummy Tuscan food--our last hurrah as a group...
Our lovely dinner..
Followed by spumante in Santa Croce
...and karaoke, which I usually can't stand. but it was really fun this time!

So now that finals are over CSU Firenze is officially finished. People have already started leaving, although most of my friends are staying at least until the end of the weekend or maybe even a little longer. Our apartment will soon become a refuge/hotel for now homeless students as they complete their travels. But all us art kids are still here another few weeks finishing up exams at the Accademia! Speaking of which, I have to go finish my sugar lift for my second to last etching!

Last Week-ish

Last week I went to the Pecci Museum in Prato with Avery! It was super hot but we took shelter in the almost empty contemporary museum to see a new painting the museum acquired by Lorenzo Bonechi (really neat contemorary tuscan artisit!) and an installation show by Loris Cecchini (dotsandloops) Very interesting!
Me with "Conversazione"
Then, later that week, Marsha had all of us art kids over for dinner. We all made fabulous things (and Marsha loved my porchini mushroom risotto--yay!)
the food (second course):

I have a lot more to post, but I'm really stressing out about my etching final--I have to do it next week, instead of in two....so lots of work to do. Wish me luck!

Mostra Nostra!

We had our final show yesterday! It was a big success, tons of people came, the art looked great...I'm so proud of everyone :)Along with my Annunciation piece, I had a wall for a few of my small portraits I've been doing!


All the art kids with Marsha and Domenic (photo stolen from Jackie!)
Other than that...the semester is winding down--one more week until finals. And then I have until mid June to finish a bunch of etchings and do some more paintings. But I just booked a flight to Greece to see Jeana while she's at her conference in June!! I am so so excited and also terrified that I don't have enough time to do everything...I dread to think about packing up all my stuff from the whole year. But I'm going to paint all day tomorrow, hopefully...