I'm actually going to school here... right?

So I've failed to mention anything about my classes thus far. Now about the third week in I'm pretty used to my routine for school during the week. Mondays I have off. Which is splendid, and has allowed me to go to the Santa Marinella beach a couple times with Linsday who also has off and Kate, who is done with class at 10am. But back to classes--

Tuesday's I have my Intro to Painting class from 2:30 to 5 with Guy and a different Lindsay, one he went to high school with. This class is probably going to be my most challenging because I haven't painted at all since 9th grade and even then it was an abstract and a still life for Mrs. Pepe who loved me and gave me A's regardless of what my 'art' looked like. I really like the lax setting of art classes but at the same time I don't think I'm going to be getting enough instruction and input from the professor. Jeremiah has him for a different class and we agreed that art professors are teachers or artists and him being a real artist isn't going to have anything to help me with but telling me whether he likes what I'm doing or not, which could be bad news for me. I'm trying hard though I really am. Today I went to the studio on my own and thankfully it was empty. I was able to work on my still life alone with my music playing and the windows open.

After that class I rush over to main campus with Lindsay for my Intro to Art History class. This is the only real academic class I'm taking with a written mid-term and a short term paper about 4 pages on any work of Roman art created before the Renaissance. (any suggestions?) Probably the most boring thing in the world because we sit in a dark room for an hour and a half and listen to this middle aged man talk in monotone about his slides and scribble notes furiously to make sure I get all the information before he switches to the next slide. Thankfully I found out he posts all the power points online so I can catch up with my notes before the next class, or before the midterm. Hah. We've been in this class twice a week for three weeks and he still has no idea of anyone's name and how many people are in the class because he just calls attendance and doesn't directly address anyone for the rest of class. At least last week we were doing Egyptian art so I was super interested in that, and the pyramids and stuff, really cool.

Wednesday's I have only one class from 2:30 to 5 and that's Rome Sketchbook. Lindsay (my roommate this time) is in that class with me and we just sit and draw buildings from different perspectives. Each class we meet at a different piazza in Rome and find something cool to sketch. The professor for this class seemed much like my painting professor at first but I've come to learn that he lets us draw on our own and as we do he comes around asking us questions about proportion and perspective and straight lines and other things. I like the way he teaches because he makes us realize our own, not so much mistakes but little wrongdoings along the way of the sketch, and if they're too large to correct in the current sketch or if he is generally unhappy with the proportions or something like that then he'll tell us to start over and improve as we go on to the next sheet.

Thursdays I have Black and White Photograpgy from 10:30 to 1 and then Art History again later in the afternoon. Photography is only a class of about 6 and is instructed by the only Italian professor that I have. Serofino has been speaking English for the last 5 years and still struggles with sentence structure sometimes. My favorite parts of class time is when he can't think of the word he's trying to translate and he looks to us for help. Sometimes we understand and other times we give him the same questioning stare back. The miscommunication between us doesn't effect the understanding of class material. This is my favorite professor and I think part of it is the mysterious brow he always hides behind and only occasionally allows his wonderful personality and passion for pictures out for the world to take in. Even after only one class I learned a lot about lighting and shutter speed and lines in photos. You have to listen to him carefully to decipher the little tricks and hints about taking pictures he hides in his accent.

So that's a little info on my classes. Now I'm off for Henry and Lisa's birthday celebrations, next update will be about the Amalfi coast trip API took us on last weekend.

Ciao!


ps. leave commentsss! i think enabled comments for people who don't have blogs so you can try again if you're still reading Aunt Susan.

Love and miss you all! <3