Bulgaria

What I know after 2 days in Bulgaria

1. it is awesome and beautiful

2. there are way too many mullets

3. there is a carving painting thing in a rock and no one knows anything about it

4. it had one of the coolest monuments i have ever seen in Shumen

5. sleeping on a train does not count as a full night’s rest

6. the cities are darker

7. i have excellent non-verbal skills

8. DJs/MCs can wear a jacket full of lights seriously.

9. too many mullets

10. drinks are just tastier there

Tunisia

For fall break a Temple U Professor Maria Ponce deLeone brings a group of students to Tunisia. About 20 students went from Temple Rome Molly and myself included! We traveled all around Tunisia. We went to Tunis, which is the capital, Sousse, Douze, and another place.

We saw so many things! Beautiful vinyards, sheep on the side of the road (alive and dead), unofficial gas stations, beautiful people and scarfs, the desert, camels, a salt lake, and a million stars. it was absolutely gorgeous!

I got to ride a camel in the desert and meet Tunisian college students and even made some friends. which was incredible. we also went off roading with some Tunisian drivers, and it was crazy!!!!!

Tunisia felt as if new orleans met arizona in Africa. it was such a unique and beautiful place i dont even think i’d be able to find words to describe it.

The first day we were there it was like a shock. We went to this perfume place then to the sook, which is a market, and it was nutty! there were colors everywhere and we went into this shop and could not decide if it was above ground or below or inside or outside! it was crazy and everyone was trying to sell something. By the end of the trip i felt like an excellent bargainer who could walk the streets of Tunis fairly easily. We smoked hookah and bought hookahs to come home with. in arabic it is called a shesha. i learned 1 word, which meant hello, Aslema.

My favorite part was Douze, which is the desert in the south. I want to go back to africa and camp in the Sahara now! one night we went out as a group with the desert man, Sadook, to gaze at the stars. We walked until there was no light and we stayed quiet for a few minutes- my God the silence and multitude of stars was incredible! i felt like i could understand why Christ went into the wilderness for 40 days. i was awestruck!

It was incredible and i recommend anyone given the chance should definitely GO GO GO!

i will be uploading photos soon!

Class

So today in my sculpture class we went to a modern “art” museum. it was definitely interesting. BUT afterwards we went to the Villa Borgese which was gorgeous and we rowed boats on a tiny lake with a mini temple like thing in the middle. we got to look at some turtles and fish and ducks. it was a lot of fun!

Marino Wine Festival

Yesterday was Italy’s wine festival in Marino. It is the Italian’s version of Ocktobrfest it was incredible and insane. On the train ride there an italian guy with 2 dogs sat with us. The train was a mad house and packed brim to brim with Italians, Americans, Spanish, Indians, and so many other types of people. All headed the same direction. So the guy who sat across from us let us pet his dogs and we talked in some butchered italian and him some butchered english. My favorite thing he said was “Under your ass is a dog” to let me know there was another dog beneath the seat. Which just made me laugh and look under the seat.

So we arrived to Marino and climbed a giant hill. There were vendors everywhere selling things from balloons to wine to blow-up crowns to food. It was incredible. So we got some tasty cheap wine from a random place and wandered around looking at things and eating a random sandwich. We tried out a water fountain which had carbonated water!! Which Molly had just been talking about the day before on our trip to Tivoli.

We watched a creepy parade talked a little italian. Waited by the fountain, and then found some students from Temple and got together with them. Finally the fountains turning into wine began! and the crowd started swirling as people tried to get to the fountain and away from it. It was a mad house! Full of pushing students and families and italians! It was the best thing.

Somehow in all of this i lost Molly and Christi (my roommates) but i managed to find my neighbor and helped me find a bathroom and also the train home. The train ride was ridiculous! The train was crammed! But Dustin had managed to find us seats, which was awesome! I ended up giving my seat to an italian girl and squishing on Dustin’s lap the whole way home, but at least we were sitting. Haha the italians across from us i must have asked them 10 times if they lived in Rome. At one point was sitting on a mix of Dustin’s lap and the guy across from us. Which just shows how packed this train was! it was so much fun and i highly recommend checking out the Marino Wine Fest if you ever find yourself around Rome the first Sunday in October.

Pompei Marathon

This weekend my art history class took a trip to pompei and naples to look at ancient architecture and sculptures. It was pretty interesting. But mostly consisted of the entire class chasing after our professor who would point towards something then walk away while the class looked at it. Then the class would turn to look for Dr. Gedynne and see a tiny spec in the distance after looking at something for only 30 seconds. By noon we had all given up on taking notes and were ready to eat and sit down and hopefully just die.

i did manage to learn something about 4 different painting styles, all assigned numbers, so are easy-ish to remember. But probably even easier to mix up. Though ancient italians knew how to live. Their homes seemed to be most public and when the doors opened in the morning the public was allowed to enter their court yard and hang out and look at their gardens and fountains and family history room. So i did learn something, though was disappointed by the lack of dead bodies made of plaster.

Things to remember while Studying in Rome

1. Buses do not stop. do not walk out in front of them unless you want to die

2. Mopeds think they are pedestrians until a person gets in their way, then they hit you.

3. Professors who are Italian are very funny and fun and wonderful

4. Italians are incredibly attractive

5. Always go out with dry hair so no one thinks you are crazy.

6. You will get lost in Tresevere

7.The Dean of Temple Rome is the greatest

8. The wall the surrounds Rome is a long walk

9. Take art history

10. Do everything Temple offers

Tonight

Tonight was full of novelty moments, like following around my sculpture teacher as we looked for boxes in the trash of Rome. It was so surreal just walking in front of stores and snooping with our eyes around the trash for interesting boxes. So there i was following a master artist who rides a moped and wears trendy glasses looking through boxes and other various things weaving through the street of Rome.

Then i came home and washed some of my clothes in the sink, which just made me laugh, and made the floor really wet.

Walking

So Friday night we went to Tresever, the most confusing street set up in Rome. We hit up a bar and while we were there these italian men came and sat near us. I was ignoring them but could feel eyes on me so i turned to see where they were coming from. I found an Italian man staring intently at me and he makes eye contact with me and with a deep italian accent in a loud voice yells to me, “I LOVE YOU!” 

i laughed, and could not stop.

Yesterday school organized a wall walk were a group of students lead by a professor walked around the Arian wall that surrounds Rome. We walked for 8 hour. It was a pretty neat experience, but definitely something I would not want to do again. But i do have a better sense of the city and where things are, which was neat. Though i was exhausted.

Trevi!

So today my printmaking class went to this place to look at master printmakers’ pieces and things they used to make them. Well the class we were in was in the building behind the Trevi Fountain. So we got a 10 minute break and the professor opened the windows. When we looked out them we were starring down at the Trevi Fountain and people. When we stepped out of the window we became apart of the Trevi Fountain. So i can say, “I was in the Trevi Fountain.”

1st Day Scola

Today I got up early and went to the Pantheon. Somehow my friend and i magically found it. But on the way we were a little lost (like a block away) and saw this really neat looking building and decided to go in. It was this incredible church! that was incredibly beautiful and plain shocking. The outside was beautiful but reflected non of what was on the inside. So afterwards my friend and I continued to pop into churches all the way back to school for the first day of class.