Graphically Happy

So I’m back and very confused…I don’t know where anything is. It’s been a year since I’ve lived in Boston. And I’m not even living in Boston, I live in Jamaica Plain. Luke and my whole family picked me up yesterday. I tried to talk a little bit, but truly, as predicted. I was asleep pretty immediately. Waking up intermittently rather confused. I woke up at 6 am this morning. Needless to say my new found sleeping patterns are driving Luke crazy. But I’m so confused. None of my friends are here. I will see them tomorrow at class. I don’t have class on Mondays. Luke is at class now. I can’t really leave til he gets back, because I don’t know where to go. I just keep looking down my street. I don’t understand where all the people have gone. Just yesterday I was living atop a piazza, a loud, raucous piazza, with a nighclub!…It’s so quiet. Luke says I’ve gone from a place of saturated culture to one of barely any. I like putting it that way. Later today I’m going to try to find some people. I called Ford, we are getting gelato tomorrow. But I don’t know about this. I think I’ve seen one person all morning. I guess Boston’s just pretty dead in the summer. Meh what can ya do. Its funny, I thought it would be terrible to start class right away. But I’m so excited, I miss everyone already. Its been 1-4 days since I’ve seen them. You would think I would like the break, but I cant wait. Mmm I’m tired. Tis nap time

last night was fun …everyone is gone, but in there absense me, jesse, and danielle filled my room with beds and set up Jesse’s laptop to play Happy Feet. Sleepover! haha so fun, I needed. So tonight is it. Soon I will be leaving. It should be rightfully atrocious. My plane leaves at 6 am. So I am being picked up by a taxi at 3 am, going to the airport… then taking a 2 hour flight to Paris. Where I have a 4 hour layover. Good luck to me if I can manage to not be passed out at that point (as you may be able to guess I’m probably not sleeping tonight). Then I have a 4 hour flight from there. I arrive at 3 pm Boston time. But for me it will be 9. All of my parents and Luke are planning to pick me up. I hope I can still articulate at that point. Then there I will be onto the next saga of my life. In my Jamaica Plain apartment. I am living with Luke and Beth this summer. However, Beth won’t be there for a bit. She’s leaving tomorrow morning to bike to Chicago. What timing huh? Hokay, so I guess I return to packing. This has been such a dismal slow goodbye to Italy. The only people here are Jesse, Danielle, and I. Laura went to Verona for the weekend. Its soo quiet. Boo

Oh dear, I didn’t realize that by choosing to leave later in the group I would just be doomed to endless goodbyes. Yesterdays we had our last AIRC thing. We said goodbye to all of the staff and they gave us these big books. I appreciate the big books, but damn…I don’t think I’m going to be able to pack all of this. Shane and Irene left this morning. They are the first to finally do it. They are gone. Alot more people are leaving tomorrow, and the next day. Oh dear. this is soo morbid Tonight we are going to our favorite bar for the last hurrah, because the majority of people are departing tomorrow. Perhaps that will cheer me up

So writing because I guess I should. The rain has continued to exist in Rome. But perhaps its good because I’ve been doing last minute shopping for all my loved ones. Ya know, so they can have stuff to say is from Italy when I lived there. I think its some sort of tradition. I wouldn’t exactly call them souveniers, these things I’m buying them. They aren’t touristy. But are simply things from Italy. I don’t know, I don’t think these days, just do. So today I went about the shops of Rome. Lets just say I like buying men ties. I know that gives a little away. But boy do I like buying ties. They are soo fun.

I don’t really have that much else to say. I’m sad…I’m not ready to go home. Its weird to say I’m living in Rome, but I won’t be in a 5 days. Oh dear

So I’m just chilling out. But I remembered something I always want to remember about the place we stayed in Paestum. One night we had this extravagant multi course dinner in the hotel’s restaurant. The guy in charge of the place pretty much ran the show. I couldn’t figure out if he was the chef or waiter, or all of the above. But he would come out and tell exuberant stories about each course. One dish had water buffalo cheese in it. I never even knew this area had water buffalo, but apparently this man at least thinks it does. He said the way Paestum’s ranchers would gather the water buffalo for milking was by naming them the words of a song. That way he could just sing the song out to the hills and all the buffalo would come when their word was called. So for Mary had a little lamb. One buffalo would be names ‘mary’, another ‘had’, then next ‘a’, and so on and so on. Its a funny concept. I think he made it up..but its charming

So I’m done, I’m back. I’m just hanging around Rome. People are starting to pack and now I’m sad. I just finished my Digital Sketchbook. This pescy little thing I was supposed to do over time, but none of us did. So now I had to finish it all when I returned from Positano. So after my lovely, still sweet, vacation, I have been sitting in a silly room on a computer taking everything from my sketchbook and putting it into Digital form. Why? I dont know! I have already done all the part that matters in my sketchbook. It seems silly to transcribe it all to this other medium. But it does it make it easier for portfolio reasons.

My brain is currently in such a frantic state of jumping between the present (I’m still in Rome!) to the future (I’m going home in a week!). I still don’t know where I’ll be working when I get back. I have one interview set up. That’s it. Kind of scary. But I don’t think now is the time to think about that. A month ago I felt like returning to my old life was such a pipe dream. It was so far away it was never going to happen. But here it is. I am in purgatory, the place between. I no longer have anything to do. I had originally thought about going to Cinque Terra during this time. But I don’t want to keep moving anymore. And in a few days I won’t be living here anymore. So this time is for living in Rome. Its also raining. I guess its supposed to rain til I leave pretty much. Whatever. I don’t know what I’m doing with my life anyways. I guess its just a time for sitting in the Pantheon and watching the tourist look so baffled as a tiny waterfall flows into such an important place.

Mmmm such a lovely vacation. I guess I should start at the beginning, as usual (I would hate to leave out something and have it get lost to time). So I last posted in Naples. From there we went and saw tons of old stuff, pretty boring. Actually I don’t really care to talk about it. We had some fun times at the beach, but the great part starts on Friday afternoon when Scott tells us he’s dropping us off at the Paestum train station. We get there, there’s nooo station. Yeah the train stops, but you can’t buy tickets. Not knowing what to do we just hop on a train to Sorrento. An extreme no-no in Italy!! Lucky for Danielle and I, Laura’s Italian has become impecable. She talks to the conductor when he comes around looking for our tickets. It turns out we could have been fined 90 euros each and even jailed for not buying a ticket. We explain that we couldnt buy tickets in town (not that we knew we were supposed to) because the office was closed. The conductor, to our extreme luck, thought that it might have been a holiday (thank goodness for Italy’s lack of standardization). All in all he let us go and just let us pay him for the tickets on board. Thank you Laura. By now I owe this girl so much. I don’t rememeber if I’ve mentioned it. But this trip has been completely funded by the Italian familia of Laura. I guess her Grandpa wanted to help his home country’s economy. He gave Laura a great sum of money and told her to have fun, the only condition was that it had to be spent in Italy. Only have a week left, she could not fathom what she would do with this money. Then again, Danielle and I came into a bit of luck when she decided she was taking us all on vacation!! What a great friend. Its so nice to have come on this trip not knowing anyone and be here, near the end with such good friends.

Anyways, we get to Sorrento and have to take two buses to Positano. While this awful amount of transportation sounds terrible (a train and two buses), it ends up being rather worth it. The bus rides are beautiful! The whole time hugging the slope of Italy’s mountains. So for two more hours we gazed out on the most beautiful scene of steep, tropical land plunging into the beautiful Meditteranen Sea. Its funny how a place unfolds to you from a train or bus ride. I remember being equally awed as I arrived in Switzerland.

Positano has many many steps. Our bus dropped us off on the lowest part of town. Believe it or not we actually had to take a bus up to our hostello (which is on the highest part of town…wooohooo, that was sarcastic). But we get there, have a mixup with a reservation that resulted in us having to stay an extra night. Hahah how terrible. But to get to my point, it is as we walk into our hostel room that the best thing about Positano happens. We meet Mariana! Mariana is an Italian and the only other person staying in our room for 8. She is beautiful. When we walk in, she was butt naked, and very okay with it. She introduced herself, and that was it. My first conversation with a real Italian who wanted to be my friend, me blushing and her naked. Hehe, after consulting Laura and Danielle, I invited her out to dinner with us. She is so sweet and charming. We go to a place a local had recommended to her, Laura doesn’t have any cash, sits down and asks where there is an atm. The guy says “What do you need an atm tonight for? Come back and pay me in the morning” How sweet! and that’s that. I love Positano. In the first few minutes of being there it has given me breathtaking views, an Italian companion, and sincere hospitality. Beyond all the luck I am already counting at this moment. Mariana is from Rome and driving back the same day as us. She offers to give us a ride. Che carina! My life is beautiful. When I grow old that is how I will remember my time traveling, as the greatest show of friendship and hospitality I had ever experienced. Mariana is in her late twenties. She teaches the Italian equivalent to kindergarden and lives at home (typical Italian). We agree to have dinner the next night.

Laura, Danielle and I had agreed to spend our bonus day in Capri. We take a small charter boat the following morning and its soo much fun. It zooms past the huge touristy boat. The Captain even lets us young chicks sun bathe on the front of the boat instead of sitting inside. Talk about a view! Gliding up to the awe-inspiring rock formation that is Capri. He drops us off, tells us what time he’ll be back and we go exploring. It was nice, some beaching, some shopping. I bought my mom a present, no mom you cant know what it is yet. Then we boated back. The boat back was extra nice. We circled the island and peaked inside all of the grottos. Came back and had dinner with Mariana again.

Sunday we spent with Mariana, someone had told her about a beach that only the locals went to, it was nice. Seaglass everywhere. While Danielle and Laura sun bathed like Italian beauties, Mariana joined me in collecting seaglass. It was fun. I have a hard time speaking Italian for a long time (my brain starts to hurt) and Mariana knows English but doesnt speak it for the same reason. So there we stood, picking up seaglass on the Amalfi Coast of Italy..picking up seaglass. She speaking Italian, and I answering in English. I will cherish this forever.

The next morning we walked around town for a bit (this is a hard and unappealing idea because Positano is soo soo veritical..too many steps) And then we leave with Mariana. It’s a beautiful drive home. We learned more about Mariana. I napped for a few. It was sad to say our goodbyes at the end of the ride, but at the same time we are so fortunate that she lives in Rome. We have all made plans to meet up again for dinner soon before the return to America. Gosh I’m returning to America. How scary.

Hehe, Naples = soo silly. So I joined everyone for Griff’s birthday last night. And to my complete surprise we all made it on to our train at 7 am today! Go Navona. In a 30 minute (rather hungover) walk about the city we managed to see a man gutting fish in the street, a wedding, a funeral, a religious procession, and Tom (yes my teacher) said he smelled pot. Go Naples. Haha, but apparently that was too much for us all. After they dropped us all off at some museum, we all proceeded to leave, grab a canolli and go to sleep. I just woke up. Everyone else is still sleeping. So I guess that was Naples. I think I might go grab a kebab in a few. Somehow I feel like this nitty gritty city would be proud of me though. They don’t seem really into the touristy scene. I ran into Danielle on the way to the hotel’s internet friendly lobby. Her and Juliet were the only ones who actually tried to explore the city, and they got caught in torrential rain shower. Its a sign, Naples was just not meant to be explored in such a fashion. I wish I could be here for longer. Tomorrow we are going to see Herculaneum and Pompeii (just as stops), and then ending up in a hotel in Paestum. Its quite a bit for one day. Paestum is supposed to be nice and along the water though. Should be fun, Italy is so hot these days.

So as you can imagine I am here to tell you about my presentation yesterday. It did not go as great as I imagined. I had really liked my idea. I did something completely different in my strategy. I tried to feel what Rome was, and designed for it. Everyone else in my class just demonlished a block of the city and designed as if they were anywhere else. But we arent anywhere. We are in Rome, where everything overlaps and coexists. So I didn’t demolish anything, just expanded and retrofitted in a creative way. It was a struggle to this in my design, so as one could imagine it wasn’t the strongest most developed project. But I had a lot of interesting concepts to present. At first no one liked it really. They were confused, but then everyone started to understand. Unfortunately presenting last was bad for my self esteem. By the time I stood up I was so nerve racked from watching everyone else that I just wanted to be done. Moreover, since everyone else had already presented…everyone was watching me. So it took me a few minutes for me to convey with the proper vocabulary what I was doing. Then to my luck Tom liked it. I quiet enjoy Tom. He’s a hippie, he’s the dean of the AIRC (aka he matters), and he figured it out. Everyone else continued to get distracted by some of the smaller moves I chose to do, yes it wasn’t that developed. But Tom even came up to me afterwards and said how much he liked it. I was soo happy. Elisa really stood up for my design too. Which makes me happy. I have worked very well with her this past semester. She never really contested anything that I did, but gave me good precedents and inspiration. It felt so good to present to her what I had each desk crit and just see her smile as I was explaining my approach. I wish I had just left some information out of conversation (like materials) so that the rest of the gang (besides Tom and Elisa) could have talked about what I was talking about. Hehe, yes its all as silly as that sounds. But meh its over. After the crit we took Elisa and her husband out to dinner. She was so sad, I have never seen her show such strong emotion. She normally acts like your little latino toughie. But she was crying. Her husband is a funny Italian. In all the night was extremely charming. It feels so good to be done (well besides silly electronic sketchbook stuff). Tonight we are celebrating Griff’s birthday I think, I don’t really want to go out. We will see.. Tomorrow, very early…we leave for Naples. Followed by Herculaneum, Pompeii, and Paestum. Yes, bring on the ruins!!

So this weekend has seen a bit of sunshine. Rome is starting to get reeaallly warm, like beach warm. As in a went to the beach :]. Its been a tumultuous week. So I was working like a dawwg. Then Scott finally said no on Friday night and kicked us all out. Kicked us out! WEehee!!!! I have wanted that to happen my whole life, for someone to kick me out! of the studio. So after walking home extremely sleep deprived I passed out and woke up on this fine day to go to the beach!!! Unfortunately the beach is one heck of a public transportation adventure away. But I went with some friends and it was fun. The beach was kind of nasty. It was in Ostia, and near industrial junk. How nice, swimming next to industry. But meh. The sand is oddly dark here. Its kind of gross, you cant help but get really dirty. I got so mad at one point Jesse ran up to me and gave me a hug after rolling around in the dark sand. I have a white bathing suit! The putz! Oh well, I had him in the water. Silly boy, Jesse can’t swim. And me!, being a Cape Codder, kicked some serious butt. Hehee, its so nice to be able to talk like this after my last post. I even went to the Spanish steps and Trevi fountain for the first time. Julieta is sooo cute! I heart her. We did all these touristy things together. And I made it to Villa Borhese with the girls. Yes thats right folks, all this basic Rome stuff I hadn’t done, no time! But now I feel really good. Everything I could put into this semester is done with, it will be what it will be. I present tomorrow, I’m very last. Of course I will post afterwards. Should be interesting. I really like my design and feel I have grown through my last co-op experience. But bah why am I talking about that now, its still the weekend! Annd I have finally found peace here. My goodness how happy I am, a true high! Its all over, and here I am with two weeks still! And this week I leave for Southern Italy, that should be interesting. Laura, Danielle and I are plannnig to stay in Positano and Amalfi for the weekend. It will be just what I need. :] .

 Another conclusion of this week’s end is that Luke is an extreme sweatheart, during the allnighter I pulled on Thursday night he sang me ‘you are my sunshine’. Life is good.