Below are the 10 most recent journal entries recorded in yeahisucktoes' LiveJournal:

Wednesday, November 17th, 2004
11:17 pm	Student Protest Today was our last core field trip of...ever really. Sigh, tear, the end is near. Wednesdays just won't be the same. We went to Firenze (that's Florence in English terms) for the third time as a group. We went to see some mannerist cathedrals and art. Pretty neat, yet really anticlimactic for a final class field trip. That was until the student protest. We were standing about, aimlessly in all truth, when from down the street came a roar of commotion and hullabaloo. The sound of music and people screaming was impossible to ignore as it approached us. "Wow, commotion! I wonder what it could be. Lemme see, lemme see!" said myself and other students as we abandoned our professors. But I think the real attraction was that in the back of all our minds we knew what the commotion was. From chants from a PA system being returned from hundreds of youthful exuberants it was pretty damn obvious it was a protest. I wasted no time in becoming one with the crowd. My camera was out immediately. Hundreds turned to thousands as protesters seemed to leak out of every crevice in the street to join the march around the Duomo. And on one was over 19 years old. Picture a pick-up truck with a hearty PA system playing rock music and four teen agers passing around a microphone and yelling various chants in the bed as it slowly wove its way to and around the Duomo. Trailing the truck like a slow and swaying boat wake were thousands of students chanting with banners and fists in the air. In my mind I was thinking "cool, students protesting...something! I shal join them and protest my own oppressive field trip." After marching for a while I was pretty lost too. I couldn't have gotten back with the group if I'd tried. I was snapping pictures like a mad man. I managed to make my way up to the conductor truck and was practically pulled aboard. "You can take better pictures up here" a protest leader told me. So now I'm in the back of the protest truck with all the protest leader people. Great vantage point. I quickly burned through four rolls of film. And at this point I still didn't know what in the hell all these high school students were protesting. I picked up a flyer and that helped a little. It was something about school. OK. Something about school was pissing these kids off. All I was sure of was some of the chants were like "we have a voice" and " blah blah blah Berlusconi! (their president)". It was really cool being a part of these young, politically conscious (or so my little mind assumed) kids taking to the streets on a school day to make their message (whatever it may be) heard. And they were having a blast! When "Light My Fire" (The Doors) played over the PA they turned into a walking mosh pit. It was nuts. Everyone in the bed of the truck was dancing the entire time. Dancing and chanting. Living free. And I got some great shots. I can't wait to turn them in for photo class. The march ended somewhere between the Duomo. I hung around for a while. Eventually the enthusiasm petered out. The kids just hung around and listened to music thoroughly satisfied with themselves. Kinda like most other kids when they're skipping school. I hung around a finished another roll. Then I was purposeless. I was separated from my "class" and had no means of reuniting with them. Nor did I want to. Screw a bunch of chapels and whatnot, this was my time during my last day in Florence. I decided I would walk. Just walk without my camera out and see what I could find. I walked in a strait line for about an hour until I had left Florence proper behind. I ended up in a really nice residential neighborhood it was really surreal. It was quite and woody. Definitely a side of Florence most people don't get to see, which is exactly what I wanted. I hung around in the quite, you know, pondering life, for a good while. Then I went to the Baboli Garden. I walked around the wall of the garden for a good 45 minutes looking for a door or a gate and for the life of me couldn't find one. It was like the garden was supposed to be an impregnable fortress entered only by chanting an ancient elvish prayer or something, I didn't get it. But a lack of an entrance is only a hindrance to those without gumption or ingenuity. Besides, you're hardly noticed jumping a fence into the Baboli Garden from the Art Institute of Florence. The garden was a true treasure. It was a mixture of a forest and sculpture garden. And I had it all to myself! It was really cool. Sculptures were really grotesque and crazy. The entire place, at least 50 acres, looked like it hadn't been touched in a thousand years. After about 15 minutes I started to get a sinking feeling that something was wrong. Then I realized what it was. The garden was closed and I wasn't supposed to be in it. No body was around but construction workers and I the only gate I found while inside was locked and kind of guarded. Fortunately no one saw me, most of the paths were thruogh thick woods. So I kept awalkin, taking pictures and enjoying the beautiful natural surroundings I had all to myself. Eventually one of the park rangers or whatever caught up with me. He asked if I was tourist. Hah! "Studento," I replied. "I study in Castiglion Fiorentino. What, the garden's closed today? I had no idea, nobody told me. Sure, I got in through a gate...more or less. I have to leave? But I just got here! Oh, you'll escort me out. That's very kind of you. Lead on good sir. Hold on a sec, lemme get a picture of that." Speaking Italian helps a lot in nearly every situation. The dude was more amused that pissed at my shenanigan. And I'm so damn lovable, how could you get mad at a face like mine? It turned out the garden was closed because a major storm two days prior had made some of the tree branches a safety hazard and they had to trim off any likely to fall on peoples' heads. I could have been seriously injured. So the Baboli Garden was a good experience. It was a small, Italian forrest completely opposite of the city in which it thrived. After that I left Florence. It had been such a perfect day. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Tuesday, October 19th, 2004
12:17 pm	Sculpture Class So I'm enrolled in this really cool bronze sculpture class. Every Thursday from 2:00 until 6:00 I and four other students go to a local artist's studio and sculpt. His name is Andrea Roggi and he's pretty well known throughout Castiglion Fiorentino and the surrounding are. I think he was even commissioned to do a sculpture or two for UT. I'll update there exact whereabouts later. Bronze sculpting is a pretty thorough process. First you carve your sculpture out of clay, make a silicone cast for said clay, use the cast to make a wax reproduction, put any final details on the wax, make another cast, melt the wax out of the cast and fill it in with bronze then touch up the bronze. I'm pretty much done with my bronze. My sculptue is a figure of a person morphing into a tree. Right now I'm carving a marble base for it. It's pretty exciting. Working in the studio is a reason to look forward to Thursdays. (Comment on this)
Friday, October 8th, 2004
2:58 pm	Grape Harvest One of the local vineyards has their game plan figured out. They allow students from Santa Chiara to come and harvest their grapes for them. It's a cool cultural experience for us and they get free labor. "It's like making Nikes" as my professor Marco pointed out. So practically all day a group of students, including yours truly, was out under the Tuscan sun clipping grapes. It was pretty fun. They tolerated us joking around, eating a grape every now and then and even having small grape wars. Your hands get really sticky from da juices. In return for our services they fed us a grand feast. And I think Italians have an aversion to water because the only thing they gave us to drink was wine. Wine wine wine and more wine. During lunch/the grand feast they kept giving us bottle after bottle. We couldn't drink fast enough for them. Needless to say gathering grapes after lunch bordered on counterproductive. (Comment on this)
Sunday, October 3rd, 2004
2:35 pm	Amsterdam Let me begin by apologizing for the vast amount of time between entries. I'll try to be more consistent in the future. So let's talk about Amsterdam. It's one of the most beautiful cities I've ever seen. The architecture is immediately captivating. Everything in the city is so ornately designed, from the lamp posts to the museums. No building was constructed with out and deliberate attention to every aesthetic detail. I wish I had an architect there with me to talk about all the styles and forms. It was like classicism meets the industrial revolution. Very different from Italy. Amsterdam is a place where you are free to be yourself. There are very few social constraints other than being tactful, polite, and respectful. It's a great place for the whole family. It wasn't uncommon to see grandparents strolling down the road with their grandkids just lovin life, being fancy free in Amsterdam. The food there is delicious. Amsterdam is like one huge cultural melting pot. You could find food from just about any culture there. I had some of the spiciest Indian food ever there as well as some pretty tasty indonesian. Saturday we went to the Van Gogh museum. Getting there was pretty tricky though. There was a massive protest going on and the streets were flooded with about 200,000 people. Most roads were closed and if you were walking against traffic, like I was, forget about it. I was like a lost little salmon trying to swim upstream against a torrential current of people. So for a good while I just went with the flow ad protested with them. They were protesting the government attempting to raise the retirement age and lower minimum wage. It was really cool being a part of a mass of people taking to the streets to demand basic social rights. I can't remember the last protest in America that was about something less significant than a war. It'd be cool to protest a tax cut for the wealthy or something. The Van Gogh museum was really cool. His paintings are so powerful, especially his thick, sweeping brush strokes. I almost felt like I could crawl inside his landscapes and frolic through the vibrant textures he creates. All and all Amsterdam was a blur. Too much to do, too little time. The night life's pretty cool, the red light district is lame. But it's impossible not to love every moment spent in a town like Amsterdam. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Tuesday, September 28th, 2004
5:29 pm	Bike Ride Today's Tuesday. Classes are going well, though those deadlines from the beginning of the semester are approaching far too quickly. Tests? What the hell are you talking about? I'm on vacation damn it! Ooooh, school, that thing, riiight, I'll go study now. And by study I mean go out to town with about six friends and drink with the locals or play soccer. We'll see how tests go. Saturday was perhaps one of the best days in Italy. I went on a bike ride. One of the resident coordinators named Sue has a friend that leads bike tours. Fairly infrequently she borrows bikes and goes out with her friends. While she was beating me to a pulp in ping-pong one night we struck up a conversation about biking. She learned about my enthusiasm for biking and I jealously learned of her previous adventures. I begged and pleaded for her to get a bike. Saturday came, she had two bikes and the weather was perfect. It was a tad bit chilly outside as we rode through vineyards, corn fields and sunflower patches. It was heaven. For five hours we rode together through the Italian back country. There's no way to experience a place like you can on a bike. You move at a pace perfect for the eye to fully absorb the scenery around you, you can hear the wind through the grapes and leaves, feel the wind on your face, feel the muscles in your legs tighten and loosen and continuously beg to go just a little bit further. As the blood circulates a rapid rate the mind becomes clear, euphoric. Then you don't want to be doing anything but what you're doing right at that moment. The sense of accomplishment is something I find hard to duplicate. I could spend the rest of my life on a bike. I could spend the rest of my life in Italy. I couldn't have asked for a better companion than Sue. She is Costa Rican and speaks English and Italian nearly fluently. She has a beautiful soul. I look forward to biking with her and others in the future. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, September 25th, 2004
5:31 pm	La Nota Bianca Faithful reader, please excuse the extreme infrequency of entries. If you feel like complaining about the lack of communication talk to my parents, you and they could have a tea party and discuss the subject thoroghly. I'm trying to think about everything that's happened between my previous entry and this one...too much...it makes my head hurt. Let's just stick to the juicy stuff; the stuff people back home want to hear about. "But Whitney," I ask myself, "isn't that all the minute, culturally enriching details that happen in your day to-day-life?" "No you fool," I answer. "They only want to hear about parties and excitement, debauchery and mayhem." "I don't agree. I think--" "No body cares what you think! Debauchery and Mayhem. Only." Enough of that crap. Let's examine a compromise between the two: culturally inspiring mayhem. Last Saturday was La Nota Bianca, White Night. From 6:00 pm to 6:00 am all of Rome is put on display in the streets. Everything from food to music to art is on display and free to all. There's so much to do and see spread out all over the city that it can be a bit overwhelming, without proper planning. On the train to Rome our ring leader Joanna meticulously huddled over a map and a 15 page itinerary printed from the internet. After the two hour train ride she had all major events listed planned out on the map cross-referenced by time and appeal factor. Joanna's an architecture major with a large, beautiful mind. We arrived in Rome with a battle plan like no other. Now check out what we did for the next twelve hours, cuz La Nota Bianca is nuts! We arrived in Rome at 6:30pm, perfect timing. We first attempted to take a bus to the middle of the action. This quickly proved futile. The streets of central Rome were surging with people, no automobile traffic allowed. We got out of the bus at Trajan's Market. Trajan's Market is right next to the Coloseo and the Foro Imeriale and countless other monuments. Not fifty feet from the market was a team of fire spinners. Their performance was complete with colored lights and an industrial fog machine. The show commenced with a pagan-like fire ceremony and slowly progressed into men swinging fire balls from bungee cords, a woman spinning with torches in hand and six fire balls attached to her midsection by chains (does that discription carry over in writing?), to men with watering cans filled with carosein pouring liquid fire...um...everywhere! In short, these people set everything on fire and played with it in assorted ways. Next we set to the task of dinner. We found our way to Il Campo di Fiori, a piazza filled with food booths. Each booth was giving out free samples of things like bruschetta, honey, bread, panini, etc. It was like eating lunch at Sam's Club. Then we made our way down South to a show at the Piazza dei Congressi involving hot air balloons. We arrived late to a giant fish balloon dancing around a balloon caterepillar woman with six teets, she looked like she was strait out of The Wall. Next came two balloon dragons. They battled. Then came a woman dangling in a hulahoop suspended from a balloon. She performed some acrobatic feats, then battled a dragon. Then the dragon left and a woman strapped to a blimp came out and danced with the hoolahoop women to Sinatra's "Strangers in the Night." All this accompanied by music and lights. Next we went to see Cirque du Solei. The put on a free performance on the Spanish Steps. Luckily we watched the show from the top of the steps because below was a surging mass of, I don't even know, thousands of people cramped into a space not for thousands of people. The performers had a small stage set up at the base of the steps, my vantage point was up and to the left. The show started with the usual clowns and singing woman, then progressed into a chinese yo-yo performance, a contortionist spinning hulahoops, and a strong man and woman body-balancing feat. The crowd went wild. Next Godiva Chocolates had an exhibit called Fiori e Chocolato, Flowers and Chocolate. It was intended to be an experience for all five senses. Unfortunately by the time we got there we could only entertain four of the five, they were out of chocolate. But the intense smell of flowers, trippy ambient music and enticing lazer light shows made the trip worth while. At this point we only had about 2 1/2 hours left and decided to hit up Trajan's market to see the sculpture exhibit there. The line was so long for everything in this area that we knew we only had enough time for one more activity. We abandoned Trajan's Market to see the Coloseum at night. We arrived at the Coloseum to find it closed, entrances ended at 2:00. There was, however, an outdoor rave at the building's base. That was retarded. Why oh why was there a rave at the Coloseum? La Nota Bianca, La Nota Bianca. Nuff said. I was all for walking back to Trajan's Market to catch the exhibit if possible, others were tired. We'd been on our feet for about 10 hours, fatigue's understandable. We walked back to train station, had a pastry and a capuchino, got back to Santa Chiara at about 8:00 am, and slept. Slept like the dead sleep after La Nota Bianca. Later we woke. (Comment on this)
Monday, September 13th, 2004
1:12 am	Classes Classes are going well. Last Tuesday our photography class traveled to the neighboring city of Cortona. It's an enchanting town. I mainly took pictures of butterflies, flowers, elderly people, or a combination of. I love my new used camera and hope all the photos come out as I intended. I can't wait to start developing. Last Thursday I had to lead a discussion on Socrates' piece of Plato's Symposium in Robert Fulton's Truth In Painting Class. I felt it was a little rushed but Robert gave me very good feed back. I'm looking forward to more of that class. After listening to Robert lecture about Plato and wisdom and truth and beauty I feel like my previous education was a waste, like I didn't really learn anything. I felt more programed than educated. Modern schools don't try to get students to exploit the power of the mind. I fell more programed than educated. There's such a rich tradition of wisdom and knowledge in Plato that most teachers don't even touch on. Most of our modern teaching techniques and such are bases on the writings of Plato and his disciples but most of the richness of life that he emphasizes is ignored by most teachers. School is so bland, throwing in some Plato or Hume or Nietzsche, would really get people thinking instead of merely filling out paper work for a grade. And the funny thing is that all of the greatest thinkers in the world wrote hundreds or thousands of years ago. Most of what they talk about is still current today, very few new ideas are being produced. But students have to go out of their way in high school as well as college to tap into such an easy, abundant and enriching resource or knowledge and wisdom. What is school for if not to grant wisdom to the masses. When I discussed my disgust for the modern educational system Robert said, "I agree, that's why I became a teacher." "Hmm," said I. Food for thought. (Comment on this)
12:31 am	Bologna It's been a while since I've updated. Time constraint is my excuse. Last weekend, specifically Saturday Sept.4th Kelli, Alysah, Barrett and I planed a trip to the city of Bologna to go to an all day music festival called Independent Days Fest. When I say planned I mean didn't plan but went any way. Let me start from the beginning. Thursday night Kelli comes to me and asks if I want to go to this music festival that coming weekend. Without knowing anything about who was playing or anything like that I agreed. That night we start looking up ticket prices and hotel reservations. On-line the tickets appeared sold-out. And as for hotel reservations we said, "to hell with reservations, who needs em. We can always just sleep in the train station." Good plan. So the night before we're discussing our brilliant scheme with one of our professors, Robert Fulton, who teaches in Bologna. He gave us some pointers on what to see there, including a gelateria that has the greatest ice cream in the world, as well as a few student oriented hotels in the center of the town. "Thanks Robert," we said, "sounds like a plan." Train schedules are pretty easy to navigate and we spent all night traveling and got to Bologna at about 10:00 am. Our first order of business was to locate the recommended hotels. After a self-misguided tour of Bologna (a beautiful and warm city, temperature wise and culturally) we found the hotels. "Yikes!" we exclaimed when they quoted us a price for one night. They demanded too much, we were on a budget. Looks like the train station for us. Va bene, no big deal. Our next order of business was to get to location of the festival. We figured we could scalp tickets there. But while buying bus tickets at a Tabachi we found that there were a plethora of tickets available, someone on the internet lied to us. We quickly snatched up one ticket each and headed toward the venue. To make a long story short. The venue was located in a park that normally served as a carnival, bumper cars and all. It was still early so we headed back into town to stock up on food and such for a little picnic on the hill that overlooked the stage. While doing so we searched for the gelateria Robert recommended. At one point we must have seemed helpless Americans (or Germans, people think Kelli and I are German all the time) because two girls ask us if we need assistance. Kelli and I in our child-like Italian explained what we were looking for and they not only offered to help us find the gelateria but to take us there as well. The gelateria didn't exist, or rather, not where Robert said it did. But these girls were a real treat. We walked up and down the streets of Bologna talking to them for at least 45 minutes. Kelli and I discussed all sorts of things, that we knew how to say, and really learned a lot. We talked about everything from the humidity to other things besides the humidity. I'm telling you it was a fantastic day for language. You remember a lot more than you may think when you're forced into a situation and have to take hold of the reins. By the end of our futile voyage we had grown to be such close friends that we took a picture together and exchanged information. They told us to call them after the show let out. To what end I wasn't sure but call them we did. The concert was Fantastic. Sonic Youth headlined. They were pretty lame. But one band, Franz Ferdinand (who can currently be seen on MTV) was excellent. Truly one of the better live bands I've seen in a while. We were only one or two people away from the stage barrier in a mosh pit of thousands. Our clothes were so drenched in sweat afterward that my shirt didn't dry until a day later. It was a wild show. They were very European and real crowd pleasers. We left during Sonic Youth's lame attempt to follow Franz Ferdinand and raged the bumper cars american style. Italians are wusses on bumper cars. We all had pretty bad cases of whiplash afterward. Hell Yeah! We left the carnival area and called up the girls from earlier that day. "Stay there," they said, "we'll be there in an hour." "Sweet, maybe they'll take us to a hostile," we thought. So we sit around for an hour, they come get us and walk us back to their appartment where a spare king size bed is ready and waiting for the four of us. These sweet girls... so nice. It beats the hell out of Southern Hospitality and surely beats sleeping at a train station. I tried to thank them profusely but they consistently shrugged it off. This is common practice in Italy. If you warm up to them they warm up to you. And that is the story of how we went to a music festival and Bologna without a plan and ended up having the best experience ever. Italians are the nicest people ever. Everyone I've talked to has made a concious effort to be helpful and providing without the least bit of expectations of reciprocation. When they say "make a friend" they mean it. It makes all the difference in the world. (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, September 1st, 2004
10:49 pm	Firenze The Aggies arove this morning. I awoke at 4:00 am and couldn't ignore the blaring voices of noisy Americans in the courtyard. I can only imagine the anguish of the locals. We left at 6:30 for Florence (Firenze). It was a prompt departure time, so prompt, in fact, that we left several sleepy students behind. They caught up later thanks to the miracle of Italian taxis. One of the crazy hobos approache us for money and offered to do the most outlandish things I'd ever heard in my life, much too lacivious to mention. We visited a Franciscan church that housed the remains of Micheal Angelo (?) and a statue in honor of Dante. Dante was exiled from Florence so the fact that he is Florence's prodigal son is ironic. During the Renaissance Dante's works were readopted as the great literary works we perceive them to be today. Despite the anguish of banishment Dante won in death and is honored in the city he loved so much. Pretty cool. It sucks it wasn't until centuries after his death that the masses truly appreciated his works. The inside of the church is lined from wall to wall with mind blowing frescoes by Jotto, a prodigy of M.A. We then headed to the Duomo. We didn't go inside but the architectural relief outside was captivating enough by itself. Still, I wonder why we didn't go inside. After enough wheeling and dealing I was accepted into the Photography class. Originally this class was reserved for Fine Arts student only (which I am not), but your truly pulled some strings and traded an art history class for my new elective. I bout my first 35mm camera today, used of course. Many on the other Liberal Arts students are green with envy. There's no good reason for Smiljia to let me take the course. It was way too full to begin with. It was either my gracious charm or my rugged good looks but hot damn I'm taking photography. I have no earthly idea how to use my camera or a dark room but all things reveal themselves in time. We returned home from Florence tired and drenched in sweat. We had a beer with the A&M kids who aren't so bad for sheep lovin country bumpkins. (8 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, August 31st, 2004
11:16 am	First Day of Class Today was our first real day of classes. I thought making it to an 8:00 class would be a hassle and was pleasantly surprised when I was wide awake at 5:30 (am). I went down stairs to our court yard and watched the sun rise. And took about 6 trillion pictures. Then I went jogging through town under a brilliant pink sky. I'm out of shape, but hopefully will build up this stamina thing everybody keeps talking about. My first and only class today was my history of Roman architecture. It's very stimulating. I get to learn the history of the testaments of some of the most ambitious men in the world. Most of the basic stuff was taught in earlier history classes but it's put in a much more relative context. We discuss places we visit. If only school could be like that always. After class I taught some people how to play dominoes. I don't think I could survive without bones. I then went to start on my all too extensive reading I have to do. I walked to a piaza near by and bought a peach from and elderly toothless women who couldn't have been sweeter if she was my grandmother. I started a conversation with her and quickly realized I was out of my league. Never the less I will persist. I will be able to hold my own in a conversation with this women before I leave if its' the last thing I do. The peach was delicious. (2 Comments |Comment on this)