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transomwhiplassIt's never felt so good to wash my feet before. That sounds bizarre. Explanation.
Today we took a field trip to Tivoli, a town about 30 miles outside of Rome. There, we visited the lush yet meticulously manicured gardens and fountains at the Villa D'Este. The palazzo used to be the home off Tivoli's governor, an almost-pope. It was his consolation prize. Best consolation prize ever. The house is huge, it's now a museum full of art--a lot of it modern. One display was basically a giant entourage tree except cut out of plexi-glass. The real splendors were outside in the vast gardens. The villa is famous for it's revolutionary fountains that were the joint projects of two architects (one extremely conceptual and the other highly practical). Together, they designed over 10 giant fountains along with countless water features. It was a great excuse to get out of the city and even better because we were able to get in for free in the end. The agenda was mostly to do media sketches in our notebook and just kind of relax. It was really nice. They don't make too many things like that in the US anymore, at least on that scale for private use.
The second destination was the Villa Adriana, or the Villa of Hadrian. The master complex is now almost in complete ruins save a few standing walls. They have restored a couple of the ponds which are full of fish that look that they could be almost 2000 years old. It was hot and dusty. All the paths were lined with countless number of olive trees. We all speculated how gross things must get when all of the olives fall of the trees. Most of the time I trekked around with Adria, Tina and Duff. Duff talked about how when he gets the chance, he does an Ancient Rome day in Structures. He's been really great to have on the trip. He's incredibly nice and has led the program in the past a couple times so he's pretty familiar with everything. Not to mention, extremely sympathetic. I have to believe that Ihab has softened some of his demands thanks to Duff. Anyway, *something* to look forward to in Structures.
The third location was a Travertene quarry where the current owner of the family business showed us how they cut, slice and clean the marble that gets shipped through. He was really nice and generous so it was pretty enjoyable. However, I got sprayed with marble water and the marble dust on top of the Adriana dust pretty much has dried my feet out completely.
Today was a pretty enjoyable day. I've decided that it's really just Rome that I'm not digging too much. I don't like that attitude of the people or the places we visit. I just feel confined and under a microscope the whole time we are in the city. There are police everywhere, people glare at you, and your belongings are at risk at all times. The pace is just insanely breakneck at times but intermixed with this bizarre laziness. It's too hard to get used to and I'm constantly exhausted. I felt like today I was able to really relax. It was so nice to just be able to draw, look, take some pictures and look for more information when I desired it instead of being bombarded with it on a slowly meandering tour. This is more what I expected our trip to be like. Not the constant hours in studio and pressure to study the city, leaving no cobblestone untouched by our aching feet.
It just goes to show that if you want to travel, studying abroad isn't necessarily the best option--at least for an architecture student. I realized the other day that studio in Italy isn't much different than studio in Oregon. Similar room, same tools, nicer light & an older room but more importantly, the same vigor, the same hours, the same over achievers and under achievers. Anyway. Apparently our power is out, lol. I need to post all of these backdated entries tonight. I've just been writing in my journal so it's been pretty nice. I can write whenever I feel like it which is surprisingly often. I'm remembering how I used to vent. Haha. Maybe I should drop out of this studio and join the kids using the UW center for a creative writing class. Well, the project is getting a bit more interesting so probably not...
Maybe when I get a chance I will scan some sketches and post a couple pictures. I haven't been photo crazy. I have a lot of the pictures my roommates took because they didn't bring their computers to get them off their cameras, lol. It's been nice because I get to look at things with my eyes more. It's forced me to spend some more time drawing too. I took quite a few today though, so maybe I will intermix them with posts later.
btw. I'm still having really traumatizing dreams. I don't know what my mind is trying to tell itself but it's getting really difficult to wake up in a state of dysphoria, guilt and utter confusion only to realize, again, it was a bad dream.
Today we took a field trip to Tivoli, a town about 30 miles outside of Rome. There, we visited the lush yet meticulously manicured gardens and fountains at the Villa D'Este. The palazzo used to be the home off Tivoli's governor, an almost-pope. It was his consolation prize. Best consolation prize ever. The house is huge, it's now a museum full of art--a lot of it modern. One display was basically a giant entourage tree except cut out of plexi-glass. The real splendors were outside in the vast gardens. The villa is famous for it's revolutionary fountains that were the joint projects of two architects (one extremely conceptual and the other highly practical). Together, they designed over 10 giant fountains along with countless water features. It was a great excuse to get out of the city and even better because we were able to get in for free in the end. The agenda was mostly to do media sketches in our notebook and just kind of relax. It was really nice. They don't make too many things like that in the US anymore, at least on that scale for private use.
The second destination was the Villa Adriana, or the Villa of Hadrian. The master complex is now almost in complete ruins save a few standing walls. They have restored a couple of the ponds which are full of fish that look that they could be almost 2000 years old. It was hot and dusty. All the paths were lined with countless number of olive trees. We all speculated how gross things must get when all of the olives fall of the trees. Most of the time I trekked around with Adria, Tina and Duff. Duff talked about how when he gets the chance, he does an Ancient Rome day in Structures. He's been really great to have on the trip. He's incredibly nice and has led the program in the past a couple times so he's pretty familiar with everything. Not to mention, extremely sympathetic. I have to believe that Ihab has softened some of his demands thanks to Duff. Anyway, *something* to look forward to in Structures.
The third location was a Travertene quarry where the current owner of the family business showed us how they cut, slice and clean the marble that gets shipped through. He was really nice and generous so it was pretty enjoyable. However, I got sprayed with marble water and the marble dust on top of the Adriana dust pretty much has dried my feet out completely.
Today was a pretty enjoyable day. I've decided that it's really just Rome that I'm not digging too much. I don't like that attitude of the people or the places we visit. I just feel confined and under a microscope the whole time we are in the city. There are police everywhere, people glare at you, and your belongings are at risk at all times. The pace is just insanely breakneck at times but intermixed with this bizarre laziness. It's too hard to get used to and I'm constantly exhausted. I felt like today I was able to really relax. It was so nice to just be able to draw, look, take some pictures and look for more information when I desired it instead of being bombarded with it on a slowly meandering tour. This is more what I expected our trip to be like. Not the constant hours in studio and pressure to study the city, leaving no cobblestone untouched by our aching feet.
It just goes to show that if you want to travel, studying abroad isn't necessarily the best option--at least for an architecture student. I realized the other day that studio in Italy isn't much different than studio in Oregon. Similar room, same tools, nicer light & an older room but more importantly, the same vigor, the same hours, the same over achievers and under achievers. Anyway. Apparently our power is out, lol. I need to post all of these backdated entries tonight. I've just been writing in my journal so it's been pretty nice. I can write whenever I feel like it which is surprisingly often. I'm remembering how I used to vent. Haha. Maybe I should drop out of this studio and join the kids using the UW center for a creative writing class. Well, the project is getting a bit more interesting so probably not...
Maybe when I get a chance I will scan some sketches and post a couple pictures. I haven't been photo crazy. I have a lot of the pictures my roommates took because they didn't bring their computers to get them off their cameras, lol. It's been nice because I get to look at things with my eyes more. It's forced me to spend some more time drawing too. I took quite a few today though, so maybe I will intermix them with posts later.
btw. I'm still having really traumatizing dreams. I don't know what my mind is trying to tell itself but it's getting really difficult to wake up in a state of dysphoria, guilt and utter confusion only to realize, again, it was a bad dream.
