working on one a day.

My art professor last semester told us about how Michelangelo created something everyday, whether it was a sculpture, or a drawing, or a painting. These weren't necessarily finished or great works of art, but his dedication was inspiring and my teacher encouraged us to try and create something everyday. I'm no artist. My drawings are rudimentary and my paintings are really just crap. I'm actually not too bad when it comes to sculpture, but I'm limited with what I can do while I'm here in Cortona. I regret not bringing some of my art supplies, especially my charcoal and conte. But I managed to remember my travel watercolour paints and waterbrush, and I bought some pencils and a sketchbook here. So I'll be doing something at least.
I decided that everyday this month I'll attempt to create something. I'm not promising anything good, but I'll also be posting these to show my progress. I hope it works. I've been putting this off, thinking there'll be time later, but really there's no better time than now.
 

I painted this a few weeks ago. They're clementines from Sicily. I love clementines from Sicily.

This isn't supposed to be anything. Just a study in colour and how to use the paint.

Yeah I can't really draw, and I wasn't trying to do a good job here either.

I'm finding the landscape here daunting, so I doubt I'll even try to draw or paint it. But you'll see photos. There's a lot of neat architecture so I want to try some perspective drawings of the buildings. And I'll also attempt blind contour drawings, maybe of some of my classmates.
I need to find some charcoal. That's my favourite medium. I also think I'll try to work on some graphic art. I found out I enjoy drawing with Illustrator.
Anyway. Ekosi.

In Cortona.

I've been here for 4 weeks. I enjoy it very much. I haven't been much elsewhere. (Elsewhere much? What?) I've mostly stayed here. There's quite a lot to see here. I don't even know how to go about explaining it, but basically, I'm living in a small medieval city whose roots go as far back as the Umbrians. It was taken over by the Etruscans, and then conquered by the Romans. Society built over top of another. In the basement of one of the Tabacchis is an Etruscan well, modernized with lights to showcase the goldfish living in it. Halfway up the hill to Cortona is an Etruscan tomb, basically just a pile of stones now. At the top of the hill is the Medici fortress; and throughout the town there are many churches. The streets are made of stones, and go either uphill or downhill. There is only one street that's flat, and it's the main street that all the tourists see when they visit.
There are 34 students in my program, and we are all from the U of A, so there's a comfort in talking with someone and them knowing exactly what you're talking about when you mention an Edmonton location. They're all younger than me, of course, but I enjoy hanging out with them. Most of us live in a hostel managed by a local, which is basically our dorms. Except for me and my roommate, everyone shares with 3 or 4 or 5 other people. The people with only one roommate, or with no roommates, live in a convent down the hill. The reason me and my one roommate are living in the hostel is that she couldn't afford the double occupancy rate, so they put us in the hostel where we share bathrooms with everyone, and pay the multiple occupancy fee. So, huzzah! Single or double occupancies get their own bathrooms, and something else I'm sure is awesome. But living in the hostel is nicer because it's where we gather for breakfast and supper, and the people from the convent end up coming to hang out here anyway. My roommate is nice. We get along fine.
I've taken to drinking tea. It warms me up when all else fails, as there is no central heating. I don't drink Pepsi anymore, it's all Coke here. After a few days I gave up on finding Pepsi to drink, and even walked past the bottles of Pepsi when I went to the Co-op down in Camucia last week. I drink Coke sometimes when we go out, but mostly it's water and juice and tea drinking for me. Who knows what it'll be like when I get home and can buy Pepsi from the corner store. We are fed breakfast and supper, and supper is always a delicious time. Olive oil is in everything and it's so yummy, I'm going to have to buy a few bottles to bring home with me. I don't know how I've gone so long without pesto in my life. Seriously guys. PESTO! It lives in my belly. Along with the roasted chicken we are fed once a week; it makes Swiss Chalet's roasted chicken taste like melted rubber covered in hot garbage.
Anyway. I keep getting asked about the men. To which I usually answer, "I dunno." Like, what else do I say? They're men. We have men back in Canada you know. I see the men here like I see the men back home, not until I walk into one of them. They're really not that different here, except that they're Italian and have dark hair and brownish complexions. Some are good looking, some are not. Some are old, some are young. Some dress well, some don't. There is one who's caught my eye, but my Italian is so bad (and who knows if he speaks English) that I do not hold any hope for contact beyond the furtive glances I give when I see him. Leave it to me to be awkward in any language.
We are starting midterms next week. I can't believe we are halfway through. I can't believe I get to go home in six weeks. I've bought gifts for my girls - matching pink Italia hoodies, and leather coin purses that are shaped like elephants; and a gift for my mom - a red leather purse made here in Tuscany. No idea what to buy my brothers. Belts and wallets maybe? I don't think they'd enjoy a sparkly scarf so much. (Do I have sparkly scarves from Florence? Yes!) And I owe my cousin something from Milan, preferably with an authentic Prada or Chanel or something logo on it. So I'll be going to Milan sometime while I'm here.
So... clearly I'm not so great at the blogging with photos part. But I'll get around to it sometime. Next up, Florence.

Getting Weepy. Awww Crap. (Long post!)

So I left Canada on the 28th of December via Calgary. I enjoy the Calgary airport, back when I used to work and make money instead of being a poor student, and when I lived in Calgary, I used to take little trips around Canada and the U.S., so I'm well-acquainted with the good old YYC.
This time was much different though. I was leaving on an international flight, and I would not be returning for about 11 weeks. All the way up to my departure people would ask if I was excited to go - I wasn't. Not really. I was terrified. Absolutely scared shitless. But I knew I had to go, it was something I was meant to do.
I always thought studying abroad would be something cool to do, and when I started attending the U of A, I looked for programs I could possibly apply to attend abroad. I came across the Cortona program and thought, "That's neat." I even brought home an information booklet from the Arts office to peruse, but didn't think to apply. I figured I would do it eventually, some other year. My mom found the booklet and was all like "Dude! You should go!" and so I thought about it all summer before deciding to apply in September.
One of the reasons I applied, and it's really the biggest reason, was that my Kohkom Muriel had passed away last January, followed four short months later by my Kohkom Mary. Both women had a hand in my raising - Kohkom Muriel was my dad's mother and my only real link to him growing up. I didn't see her as often, but we were still close. She's the most generous and gentle person I have ever met. Kohkom Mary was my mom's mother, and we often lived with her and Mosom William on the rez when we were growing up. Kohkom Mary was like a second mother to many of us at times, and she never made us feel like we were burdens she had to bear when we lived with them. I always felt loved by both sets of grandparents. It was Kohkom Muriel I would talk to about my mini-adventures to Toronto or Las Vegas or Portland, though, and she was proud of the fact that I would travel on my own and told me so. When I found out I was accepted into this program, she was the first person I thought to tell, and would have been the first person I called.
So here I am, in a foreign place. I don't speak the language that well. And the first few days I was here I was frightened and wanted to go home. It was a complete culture shock getting off the plane. And totally humbling to realize you don't know that much about the world; even though I already knew I didn't know much, it was like BAM! You actually know NOTHING! Here I was, this girl from an Indian reservation in Canada, raised in the small city of Edmonton, alone in the world. I thought that I should feel glamourous! Such a globe-trotter! It didn't help that my cell phone didn't work in Italy, and the person who helped me set up my cell account with an international plan didn't tell me that my phone wouldn't work outside of Canada, and I didn't think to ask. Lesson learned. So I couldn't text or call home to speak to a reassuring voice.
It took me a long time to figure out how to call my mom from halfway across the world. I didn't have money, and since we don't have landlines in my family, I couldn't call her collect. So after a while I managed to figure things out. Thanks to a friend who willingly accepted my collect calls and passed messages between my mom and I, and then to my travel insurance company who would patch me through to my mom's phone.
So why didn't I have money in a foreign land? Because I'm really that stupid. Duh. That I don't have common sense is really what it boils down to. I had money at the beginning of December, but decided that I would use it to pay off bills. Responsibility! Yay!  I  had hoped that other money I was expecting would come through before I left, but it never did, and I'm still waiting for it. And I desperately did not want to ask my mom or brother to help, especially since their gift to me was buying part of my plane ticket. And my brother purchased my travel insurance for me. (So I owe him a few hundred dollars, and a Christmas present. My brother puts up with a lot from me. What a guy.) I even remember my inner voice, the one that's usually all like "Common sense! I has it!", telling me to just save my money and catch up on bills later. They really could have waited a month. There was also an issue with a cheque I had received before I left wherein they had misspelled my name and I didn't notice before sticking it into the bank machine, and the bank took back that money while I was in transit. It wasn't a huge amount, but would have helped a lot. Another lesson learned. In the end my mom and brother were able to send me some money, and meanwhile I spent a couple of days hanging around FCO. Fun story right?
Anyway, I ended up at the YWCA in Rome for a couple of nights before having to meet my classmates and program director on January 2nd. My roommate was an older lady who was residing there, and she was from Tunisia. She spoke very little English, and so we communicated through exaggerated hand gestures and my very limited knowledge of a Latin-based language. I spent the two days walking around, mostly in the area of the Colosseum, and to various sites like the Piazza di Spagna, Trevi Fountain, and my personal favourite, the Pantheon. (Oh the Pantheon, I fell in love with it when we studied it's structure in my Art History 101 class.) I also spent New Years Eve, counting down to midnight, with like a million other people at the Colosseum. I was on my own but had fun. I stayed long enough to get sprayed with champagne and watch people randomly set off fireworks in the street before going back to my hostel. Some of the other people staying there were up watching a New Years Eve show, eating cake and drinking champagne and invited me to join them. So I sat down and had cake and conversed with people who were excited that I was from Canada and spoke english. Then I called my mom and wished her a happy new year and told her 2012 looked to be great from where I was.
What a turnaround. What a huge spectrum of emotions to feel in a few days. I remember walking along Via dei Fori Imperiali feeling very lonely and realizing that I was in ROME! In ITALY! That's in EUROPE! and deciding that it wasn't a bad place at all to be feeling lonely.
Finally, I met with my classmates on the Monday, and met my roommate, and off we went on the bus to Cortona. I was exhausted but happy. The food we're fed here... I'm ruined for food for good! It's delicious!
My next post will have photos, I promise. Just sorting them out and deciding which ones I'll be posting.
Until next time.

In Italy!

So it's been about two weeks, and I've been through a whole range of emotions since I arrived in Rome. Now I'm in our hostel in Cortona and thoroughly enjoying the experiences I'm having here. There's so much to do and see just in this one small town! I'm waiting for some funding to go through before I can do any travelling, but I don't mind.
Last weekend we walked up the hill to see the Medici Fortress of Girifalco and the next day out to the Hermitage Le Celle. Tomorrow I hope to walk to one of the Etruscan tombs close by. This evening I went into a Tabacchi to look for an agenda for 2012, and a lot of the shops here look tiny but have connected rooms and basements so there's a lot more to see even in the shops! In this Tabacchi they have an Etruscan well from about 400 BC in their basement, and they set it up with a light and some goldfish, so it looks really cool. Found an agenda, but will have to wait for more moneys to purchase it. I decided the Italian leather would be too good to pass up, so I'm definitely going back.
I'll be posting photos and adding captions/commentary to them, so even if you've seen my photos on Facebook, you'll be able to enjoy seeing them here too, I hope. Keep an eye out for those.
Arrivederci!