Italian

Bonjourno! Welcome to Castiglion Fiorentino. When I left off I was in France, well the trip to Italy was another real pain in the rear, literally. We took an 11 hour train ride to Florence. It was a sleeping cabin train, so we had 6 people in our little ass 10 by 10 cabin. I probably wouldn't have minded the trip but I was cooking Hersey’s chocolate all night so it was not a good time. Don't trust the Grek's from France, even though they are delicious...Anyways... This little town I'm living in under the Tuscan sun is beautiful. Its located on a hill top, and we have this amazing view out over half the city. The palace we are staying in, use to be a nun's residence. Then became an orphanage. Then there were too many babies donated to the orphanage so they buried like 400 under our school. Next thing you know a bunch of college kids are running around this beautiful place. AKA this place is haunted. A lot of creepy stuff happens on a nightly basis. There are a bunch of stories of little girls dancing in a circle, someone dying in a room that’s closed off, and the maids refuse to clean a room without someone else in the room with them. Other than the ghost that might posses you, its a great place. We get two three course meals everyday, and the food is delicious. There is also a bar next to the kitchen, so basically we have everything we need at this place.

Castiglion Fiorentino has around 5,000 people living in it. You think the Brea bubble is small? Shut your mouth. These people all have respect and love for their city when it is like 10 times smaller. Everyone knows everyone and you see the same people out at the bars every weekend, the bar scene is a lot of fun too, people travel from great distances just to come here. Below is the roommates of "Viva Mexico and a Quarter" They all speak Spanish and I am a quarter Spanish. We also have the local basketball court, isn't it nice! And a that corner shot of the beautiful architecture is where we all live in. I really can't believe I'm living in such a cool old building.

One night we decided to go out to a winery for some drinks and dinner. Little did we know that I was walking into the best 7 course dinner I have ever had in my life, best dinner in my life, hands down, even artistically.

Now I know what your thinking, "That’s only 5 courses" well they consider the ample amounts of Vino(wine) a first course. Then as the last course they give you some delicious grappa. Which is basically vodka wine. This meal was too much fun, and way too good. Every Wednesday we go on a day field trip somewhere in Italy. Our first stop was Florence.

Florence was O.K. Has nothing on France except for a lot more history. The next field trip we went on was to Sienna. Sienna was really pretty, a lot of cool roman architecture. We also went into this church with a saint’s head and finger on display. It was pretty creepy I must say. I wanted to take pictures but you weren’t aloud to. So I did anyways hence all the crooked pictures of the stained glass windows and what not.

The church I'm standing infront of was really cool inside. There were insane amount of details on all the pilars, ceilings, and sculptures. I was struggling to take pictures because there was way too much to look at.

Probably the coolest thing in Sienna is the Piazza de Campo. Featured below. It was this huge square that everyone hangs out in, like its a huge grass field. But it’s not, it’s a stone plaza on a large incline. It was weird to see 100's of people all hanging out and relaxin on stone. I decided to post up and do a sketch there, then all of a sudden it started raining. I thought I'd be a bad ass and draw in the rain with an umbrella, but then the storm really came in. So there I was in the middle of this famous square by myself frantically trying to clean up my art supplies. It was fun, I might just become a transient with a dog, a hat full of change, and a sketch book.


School in Italy is the best education I have ever paid for. My design class is focused on the precognitive awareness. Basically how you see something, before you realize what it is, then provide a name to it. So we are suppose to take these trippy pictures where you don't know what your looking at, yet its still interesting. Then we talk about our future careers as Landscape Architects and what were gonna do once we graduate. Its pretty surreal actually, talking about getting a big boy job, its coming up and it scares me, yet I'm ready to start makin' doe and move out! Sorry Mama and Paps... Then we have graphics class where we get to Watercolor. I also signed up for this mixed media and print making class. Which is way too sick! I get to get away from all the my class mates that i love so much and go do real art, sometimes accompanied by a bottle of wine. All in all I get to draw for like 3 to 4 hours each day, paint, and work with ink in print making class. It is hott like Kobe, and I hate Kobe. And that shouldn’t even be a saying because he’s old and is going to suck this year.

This weekend I decided to go to the leaning Tower of Cheeeeeesa. Sorry goofy movie flash back, I meant Pisa. I heard some mixed feeling about it but I really loved it. I thought it was the most interesting thing i have seen in Italy thus far. Ate some delicious pizza while staring at this big mistake, grabbed some gelato, and some grappa and called it a day.

Every night is a new experience at Santa Chiara (that’s my school center) one night we were chilaxin out and realized that two bats had somehow gotten into our hallway. We decided to pull out some Steve Erwin techniques and try to catch them. It was a lot of fun catching them then almost getting hit by them, then screaming like little girls. In the end we caught them both and set them free. Bat man would be proud.

Italian culture is very similar to French culture, except they aren't complete assholes for no reason. But almost none of them speak english, which is kind of fun because that makes me have to try a lot harder to learn Italian. The Damn siesta sucks though. Tyler I know you thought I would like it, but on the weekends I get my beauty sleep till 12. Then I go to walk around the town and realize that all the shops will be closed for the next four hours. I don't know how anyone makes any money around here. The siesta is Wack. Point USA.