Hey All!
So, now the second week has passed, and once again I forgot to bring my camera to upload more pictures. Sorry bout that.
So this week classes went by quite smoothly. I like all my teachers, and I am very excited to get things rolling. In Italian, I was the only kid in the class, but then they moved the time slot an hour forward so that we could include one more student from New York. The class is really fun, we spend all our time talking about where we are from and learning various things, but the only requirement is that we speak only in Italian (the teacher helps us out a lot obviously...). I've made it a rule not to speak English in the supermarket, and yesterday I went and ordered stuff and cuts of meat and cheese all in Italian and was successful! It is very fulfilling to learn to speak another language in the country. The only mistake I made as asking for 50g of Provalone instead of 50kg, and the woman freaked out thinking I wanted more cheese than anyone could ever possible want.
Animation class is cool as well. All the students from USC who came to SACI and one other student are in it, and our teacher is a friendly person who is teaching us how to do traditional type animation in Flash, which is a program I have wanted to learn but have never been able to figure out.
Book arts is awesome because we are making books, and as I write this post I am finishing up a new sketch book to use (it's also an assignment), and its cool being able to sew my own binding. I think I may make most of my notebooks from now on. We are going to learn to make about 20 different kinds of books or something like that.
In Italian Cinema we watched "L'ultimo baccio" (The Last Kiss), which was remade poorly in the US a couple of years ago. I thought it was a really good film. It was not really anything we are going to learn about - simple for enjoyment - so we'll see how I enjoy the rest of the class. I hope I will though. My teacher was the editor for 'Weekend at Bernies', "Godfather part 3," and a bunch of other Francis Ford Kopolla movies, so she knows her stuff.
Last but not least, Creative Writing, once again seems to be awesome. The teacher is a really fun guy with a phd and we are pretty much allowed to write whatever we want and bring it in for critique. I'm working on a story already, so I'm going to bring that in to get it work-shopped into something great.
We've been cooking lots of food left and right, and finally cleaned the kitched (with mop) yesterday. Justin (my roommate) is an ex-assistant chef, and he cooks up the most insanely awesome seafood dishes (even thought I'm not a seafood fan). And I made some breaded chicken the other day, and a tomato sauce for some more ravioli. Its nice to cook with wine for once, because it really adds an interesting flavor to my food.
Me and my friend Matt have been going out for night walks all around Florence to explore and we have found some cool stuff and places. Still trying to find a Japanese food place that isn't more expensive than a house in Malibu on the beach. Going to clubs and such has been interesting though because on the dance floors theres lots of creepy Italian dudes who kind of walk up and begin to dance awkwardly with any girls in the group and then all the guys have to move over and shut them out until they walk away. It's kinda weird.
Other than that all is fun. I'm making plans of various places to go in the next few weekends, friends to visit and places to see. I think tomorrow I am going to catch the free shuttle to IKEA to get a plate of meatballs. That should be tasty.
I'm sure other stuff that is interesting has happened but I can't think of it all right now. Gotta do my laundry later.
- Ezra!
Making Books for Book Arts! I made a Sketchbook!
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Monday, September 7, 2009
The First Week
Hey!
So here is what I’ve done in the past few days. This will be slightly summed up and I didn’t take enough pictures, but Ill take more in the future (at least I’ll try).
Well my Mom and I caught the train up from Rome and after meeting up with her friend, we spent the day walking around Florence, checking out the Duomo, several other cool things, and of course – eating Pizza and Gelato – which is indeed yummy here (as it should be)!
Then after waking up on move in day and having a decent breakfast at the hotel (I have to admit, I am not a fan of most European Hotel Breakfasts… too much ham and not enough of anything else) I caught a 7 minute taxi ride and went down the street to my school SACI, where I checked in and got my keys. Then I walked to the apartment and was amazed (Its gigantic – Pictures will follow when I can upload them properly).
My roommates are Justin and Justine – both from Malta, Mellie from Australia, and Marissa from Southern California as well. They are all nice and very fun people to live with. We live directly across the street from the Academia, which is the museum that holds Michelangelo’s “The David”.
After checking out SACI and having an orientation and small reception (they promised food – but it wasn’t substantial) we went to the Central Market which is a place where you can buy your meat fresh, same goes for produce, fish, and pasta. Spending only 4 euros I was able to buy enough food to make a huge plate of Ravioli with Basil and a Bolognaise sauce. I made up the recipe on the spot, but it turned out quite good – I wish I had taken a picture.
I put: Ground beef (that I cooked in olive oil before hand with celery and green onions) in a basic tomato (with no pre-added flavor) sauce. Then I mixed it all together and added some cream. Then I mixed it with the ravioli I bought fresh from the market as well, and it was very good!
I’ve been making turkey sandwiches everyday for lunch (buying lots of turkey and bread) to save money, and making big meals for desert. Tonight I’m making a thinly sliced steak with salad on it (my cousin Albert can tell you what it’s called ;)) and Ill let you know how it goes. I also made myself an egg salad sandwich today and that was good as well.
Besides trying to make food, I’ve met a lot of people in the program and they are all very nice, and we’ve been going out and around the town often looking for something to do. For instance, the other night we climbed to the Piazza di Michelangelo, and looked over the city at night and it was incredible.
Tomorrow classes start, so I suppose Ill try to get a better nights sleep than I have done previously. I’m excited, and I hope they are good. In a couple of weeks, I am hoping to meet up with my cousin Jesse and my friend from school back home, Jose, and hopefully we’ll all do something interesting and worth writing about! If I’ve taken pictures since I’ve written this (since I do it in advance) , Ill post them now. If not – talk to you all soon and hope all is well!
I took pictures, I jsut have not uploaded them yet.
So here is what I’ve done in the past few days. This will be slightly summed up and I didn’t take enough pictures, but Ill take more in the future (at least I’ll try).
Well my Mom and I caught the train up from Rome and after meeting up with her friend, we spent the day walking around Florence, checking out the Duomo, several other cool things, and of course – eating Pizza and Gelato – which is indeed yummy here (as it should be)!
Then after waking up on move in day and having a decent breakfast at the hotel (I have to admit, I am not a fan of most European Hotel Breakfasts… too much ham and not enough of anything else) I caught a 7 minute taxi ride and went down the street to my school SACI, where I checked in and got my keys. Then I walked to the apartment and was amazed (Its gigantic – Pictures will follow when I can upload them properly).
My roommates are Justin and Justine – both from Malta, Mellie from Australia, and Marissa from Southern California as well. They are all nice and very fun people to live with. We live directly across the street from the Academia, which is the museum that holds Michelangelo’s “The David”.
After checking out SACI and having an orientation and small reception (they promised food – but it wasn’t substantial) we went to the Central Market which is a place where you can buy your meat fresh, same goes for produce, fish, and pasta. Spending only 4 euros I was able to buy enough food to make a huge plate of Ravioli with Basil and a Bolognaise sauce. I made up the recipe on the spot, but it turned out quite good – I wish I had taken a picture.
I put: Ground beef (that I cooked in olive oil before hand with celery and green onions) in a basic tomato (with no pre-added flavor) sauce. Then I mixed it all together and added some cream. Then I mixed it with the ravioli I bought fresh from the market as well, and it was very good!
I’ve been making turkey sandwiches everyday for lunch (buying lots of turkey and bread) to save money, and making big meals for desert. Tonight I’m making a thinly sliced steak with salad on it (my cousin Albert can tell you what it’s called ;)) and Ill let you know how it goes. I also made myself an egg salad sandwich today and that was good as well.
Besides trying to make food, I’ve met a lot of people in the program and they are all very nice, and we’ve been going out and around the town often looking for something to do. For instance, the other night we climbed to the Piazza di Michelangelo, and looked over the city at night and it was incredible.
Tomorrow classes start, so I suppose Ill try to get a better nights sleep than I have done previously. I’m excited, and I hope they are good. In a couple of weeks, I am hoping to meet up with my cousin Jesse and my friend from school back home, Jose, and hopefully we’ll all do something interesting and worth writing about! If I’ve taken pictures since I’ve written this (since I do it in advance) , Ill post them now. If not – talk to you all soon and hope all is well!
I took pictures, I jsut have not uploaded them yet.
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Hello From Florence!
Hello Everyone!
This is the blog that I shall write about my semester abroad in Florence on! Ill post pictures, recipes I make or eat, and general fun stories I suppose. Classes start tomorrow, and I am at an internet cafe right now without much time left so this post is short.
Instead of writing everything I've done so far,I'm posting a few pics from Rome with my Mom before getting here. Check them out! There are plenty more to upload, but it takes a while, so When I have the internet in my apartment Ill put up more pictures and tell you about my first few days so far!
This is the blog that I shall write about my semester abroad in Florence on! Ill post pictures, recipes I make or eat, and general fun stories I suppose. Classes start tomorrow, and I am at an internet cafe right now without much time left so this post is short.
Instead of writing everything I've done so far,I'm posting a few pics from Rome with my Mom before getting here. Check them out! There are plenty more to upload, but it takes a while, so When I have the internet in my apartment Ill put up more pictures and tell you about my first few days so far!
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