Mweeb
I think I'm going to wait one more week to write the big email because it seems weird that I'd be doing two in February...obviously doing them every four weeks will throw the month thing off, so now I guess I'll just do it the first week of every month.
This week I was extra busy because of the University of Florence class starting up. The first one I went to I discovered was a Master's level Contemporary Art History course, so the entire two hours had me rushing to keep up with taking notes, and realizing I was leagues behind the other students. The next day yeilded better results in Muslim Art History, so I decided to take that one instead. I'd never really been interested in it, but it's a good opportunity, I guess, to see what it is I'd not normally look for in books. I can always study Modern and Contemporary artists on my own.
Most of the week I've been coming down with something and trying to fend it off. I spent 3 hours in bed yesterday (and I've been getting around 9 hours of sleep a night for most of the week) and then went to bed at 9:30, to wake up this morning at 10:15. It's the middle of the afternoon now and I'm about to call it quits again. I really hope I'm not catching the flu. Apparently it's been kicking people on their butts left and right outside of the Sede, but I'm not sure if any of us have gotten this one before. Gar. Going to bed soon.
As a result of feeling sick I didn't go to the Villa or to choir last night. Tuesday night's choir rehearsal was a little annoying because it felt a little like middle school choir again: the back row wouldn't stop chatting with each other and people weren't paying attention to the director, and all of this was making the director steadily more angry. The difference between Valentina and Mrs. Curry is that Valentina didn't explode about it. Thus why Italians are self-centered unto death...they never have someone slap them around for not paying attention when they should so they do what they want. I mean, when the concert is about 3 weeks away, you need to be serious or you're going to end up looking like an idiot. I did ask the Villa if I could start coming twice a week. I really think I can start doing some good now that the kids trust and respect me. I'm combing my brain to come up with games and things I could teach them so that they'd learn something...English especially, since in this country it's what I'm good at. We'll see what happens.
During my internship I was lead around the city of Pistoia and went to see an exhibition by Giovanni Parmiggiano (I think that's his name) at one of the palaces. He's a contemporary artist whose style is really strange and a little disturbing. I saw the show called "Apocalypses", and although several of the pieces were brilliant (like the anchor hung from the ceiling above shattered sheets of crystal in a way that kind of looked like the sea) there were a few that were a little hard to understand (like the white box shaped like a house whose roof was elevated a little above the walls...). There was also a real human heart suspended in front of a window (I didn't understand what they'd done to it to keep it preserved). I also started transcribing letters from 1943, but didn't get very far as they were hand written in early 1900s Italian script handwriting. Beautiful, but woah.
I came in to the Sede today to watch La Dolce Vita for Cinema, which I confess I didn't understand, and now I'm going to finish up here and head back home to probably conk out. I hope everyone is doing well.
This week I was extra busy because of the University of Florence class starting up. The first one I went to I discovered was a Master's level Contemporary Art History course, so the entire two hours had me rushing to keep up with taking notes, and realizing I was leagues behind the other students. The next day yeilded better results in Muslim Art History, so I decided to take that one instead. I'd never really been interested in it, but it's a good opportunity, I guess, to see what it is I'd not normally look for in books. I can always study Modern and Contemporary artists on my own.
Most of the week I've been coming down with something and trying to fend it off. I spent 3 hours in bed yesterday (and I've been getting around 9 hours of sleep a night for most of the week) and then went to bed at 9:30, to wake up this morning at 10:15. It's the middle of the afternoon now and I'm about to call it quits again. I really hope I'm not catching the flu. Apparently it's been kicking people on their butts left and right outside of the Sede, but I'm not sure if any of us have gotten this one before. Gar. Going to bed soon.
As a result of feeling sick I didn't go to the Villa or to choir last night. Tuesday night's choir rehearsal was a little annoying because it felt a little like middle school choir again: the back row wouldn't stop chatting with each other and people weren't paying attention to the director, and all of this was making the director steadily more angry. The difference between Valentina and Mrs. Curry is that Valentina didn't explode about it. Thus why Italians are self-centered unto death...they never have someone slap them around for not paying attention when they should so they do what they want. I mean, when the concert is about 3 weeks away, you need to be serious or you're going to end up looking like an idiot. I did ask the Villa if I could start coming twice a week. I really think I can start doing some good now that the kids trust and respect me. I'm combing my brain to come up with games and things I could teach them so that they'd learn something...English especially, since in this country it's what I'm good at. We'll see what happens.
During my internship I was lead around the city of Pistoia and went to see an exhibition by Giovanni Parmiggiano (I think that's his name) at one of the palaces. He's a contemporary artist whose style is really strange and a little disturbing. I saw the show called "Apocalypses", and although several of the pieces were brilliant (like the anchor hung from the ceiling above shattered sheets of crystal in a way that kind of looked like the sea) there were a few that were a little hard to understand (like the white box shaped like a house whose roof was elevated a little above the walls...). There was also a real human heart suspended in front of a window (I didn't understand what they'd done to it to keep it preserved). I also started transcribing letters from 1943, but didn't get very far as they were hand written in early 1900s Italian script handwriting. Beautiful, but woah.
I came in to the Sede today to watch La Dolce Vita for Cinema, which I confess I didn't understand, and now I'm going to finish up here and head back home to probably conk out. I hope everyone is doing well.