Pisa to LONDON!

Fall break has finally arrived, and it is time for me to get the heck out of Italy (no hard feelings Florence, I love you) and go to LONDON to visit Paul!

First stop: Pisa Airport.

We decided to get to Pisa early and check out the only think it has to offer: the Leaning Tower! Let me just tell you, it is WAY more amazing in person than in pictures! I traveled to the airport with 6 girls from school who were also heading to London. 

After many attempts at taking pictures trying to "hold up" the tower, we meandered through the city in search of some food. We ended up getting some delicious pizza, and after that, ventured to the Airp

Upon arrival in London, this nice fellow was holding a sign with my name on it, and drove me to the Voge's house!! (Thank you so much Bill & Jamie!)

I didn't get to the house until 1:30 in the morning but Paul stayed awake to greet me! What a sweetie :)

DAY 1: In London

outside the Voge's house

Naturally, since I didn't get there until the wee hours of the morning, I slept in until about noon. It was then that I went into the kitchen only to find the most AMAZING spread of croissants, bread, jam, fruits, and like 15 different types of cereal. Every college student's dream. Oh, I forgot to mention that there was PEANUT BUTTER too...not that exciting....anyways, I'm pretty sure I poured a little bit of every type of cereal into my bowl. 

So today, Paul and I spent our first day in London together!! We walked over to Notting Hill, cruised down Portobello Road but really what was on our minds was 'How soon are we going to get some fish and chips?' So we hopped on the tube to Covent Gardens, and ate at one of London's oldest fish & chip shops (and Paul says it's one of the best and his personal favorite) called "Rock & Sole Plaice". He was right. It was delicious all the way to the very last bite (I am a proud member of the Clean Plate Club).

Paul patiently waiting for his Fish & chips

sitting outside the Rock & Sole Plaice

the masterpiece

All I can say is, CLEAN PLATE CLUB

Street performer in Covent Gardens, yes, he's in his underwear in the freezing cold.

Reunited in London!

Later that night, for dinner, as if we didn't have enough fried fatty foods, we went to a burger place called Byron's. We ordered burgers, onion rings and oreo milkshakes. Paul had to roll me home.

Please stay tuned for DAY 3 in London!

an afternoon with my camera

valiant effort Italy

CHOCOLATE FESTIVAL

So it's been a while since my last post because I have been busy with the following things: a Basketball tournament, Scandicci Street Fair, eating, studying, CHOCOLATE FESTIVAL, Cooking bruschetta all day, gelato, dancing...clearly I'm a busy girl.

The basketball tournament was a blast--we went to the finals and lost but still got a free shirt, basketball, keychain, and a bunch of new friends out of it! In fact, the Italian girls who played in the tournament with us invited me and Krissie to come back and play with them on Tuesdays and Thursdays!

Emily, me, ScottieBeth and Caroline at the Scandicci Street Fair

Two days after the tournament, Caroline and I met up with two of the girls I met--Emily and ScottieBeth at the Scandicci street fair. In case you couldn't tell by their names, they are from Texas and Louisiana and are the SWEETEST girls!

They go to a private university back home called Harding University and are also studying abroad this year.

The other day when I was walking around the city, I saw this street vendor who sells women's gloves. It instantly made me think of my Grandma Swancutt because growing up I had a bunch of her gloves that I would wear when I played dress up. She had such tiny hands! This one goes out to her, and the rest of my Swancutt family!

CHOCOLATE FESTIVAAAAAL! 

So I know I sound a little bit excited about this, but believe it or not I didn't really want to go. But sure enough I was talked into it, and woke up the forsaken hour of 6:30am to make the early train to Perugia. There were about ten of us going together, and it was a two and a half hour train ride. 

We arrived in Perugia. At this point most people would take the bus, we decided it would be better to walk uphill for about 45 minutes to get to the center where the festival was held. Out of the whole day, this actually was my favorite part (yes I am serious!!) because we got to see a side of Perugia that half of the tourists missed by taking the bus. We walked through the quiet and beautiful streets that twisted and turned up the hill, and tried to imagine what it would be like to live in one of these beautiful little homes.

one of the streets we walked up

The festival was PACKED with people who were pushing and shoving to get their free samples of chocolatey goodness. 

We payed 5 euro to get the "Chococard" which allowed us to get:

2 big bars of chocolate

1 cup of cioccolato caldo (drinking chocolate)

1 little bottle of Chocolate-coffee liquor

and other little random gadgets.

=

pretty worth it.

Lauren and I with our cioccolato caldo (and Fossi creeping in the background)

Some of the girls and I...and a giant Chocolate ravioli man

Chocolate Ravioli with strawberries

I'm a happy girl because...

I GOT INTO THE ACCADEMIA! 
The statue of David and I are going to be best friends this year.

so when I say Wednesday, I mean NEXT MONDAY

that's cool Accademia. No, I can totally wait until NEXT MONDAY to find out the results. It's not like it's a big deal or anything

on a lighter note, here are better pictures of my last painting from Day 4 of the Accademia exam!

A little thing called the Waiting Game...

So typical italian style, the results for the Accademia entrance exam have been pushed back to Wednesday afternoon!! We are all patiently waiting, but I am very hopeful for the students in my program. Just from walking around, we produced some really great stuff, and the Accademia would be missing out if they didn't accept all of us :)

Speaking of games, I played in a Basketball tournament tonight! There were girls and guys from Gonzaga, Syracuse, Harding University, my school (California State University IP), and then a bunch of Italians!! We were divided up into 3 different teams of all girls, and turns out one of the girls on my team played for Sol, my club basketball team back in San Diego!! She was on a different team than me, but we still recognized each other right away. What a small world.
There were 4 Americans and 4 Italians on my team, and we ended up winning our first game, lost our second, and now we are in the finals tomorrow!

I had such a great time, but lets just say SOMEBODY is NOT in basketball shape. That's for sure. But it definitely felt good to get some cardiovascular exercise.

Cinque Terre

So finally, I have posted pictures from my adventure to Cinque Terre last weekend. Our train departed at  6am and we managed to get there--but from the time I woke up until about 8am is all a faint memory--we were barely functioning. 

Cinque Terre stretches about 10 kilometers on the eastern coast of Liguria, where the Mediterranean sea and the mountains meet. There are five small villages: Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza, and Monterosso where there are paths that curve around the coast between and through each village. The view (as you can see from some of the pictures below) is absolutely breathtaking! We started from Riomaggiore and finished at Monterosso which has a fantastic beach which we figured would be the BEST way to end a hike--by running straight into the ocean.

our first view after getting off the train!

 I felt like Sebastian and Flounder should have been hanging out with me here

Manarola (please note the old lady in the top right corner on her balcony glaring down at the tourists haha)

my fellow explorers (left to right: Lizanya, Lauren Cono, Lauren Roberto, Brittani)

Vernazza. is. BEAUTIFUL

Final destination: Monterosso!! 

Day FOUR of the Accademia Exam

DAY 4: Free choice painting

LAST DAY!

this is the painting room we were in the 3rd and 4th day

Jessica J., myself and Jessica S.

CSU Art crew

My painting on the 4th day--Rainy San Francisco street, 50x70cm, acrylic

After 24 hours of painting and drawing jammed into 4 days, I am left feeling proud of my work as well as exhausted. We find out the results on Monday, so I will keep you posted!!

Also, I have some Cinque Terre pictures to post that are well overdue--you will be seeing those soon.

Thank you everyone for all of the prayers and support! Love you all

Day THREE of the Accademia Exam

DAY 3: Create a mural for a wall in the foyer of a theatre. Paint one to scale, and paint a detailed section of the piece.

OK. So I know alot of you may be thinking "wait, didn't she already do this painting??" And the answer is yes. I painted this subject matter a few weeks ago when practicing for the exam, so when I got the prompt, my friend Brittani suggested that I do this painting since it seemed fitting. So I did. 

However, it is actually very different than the original painting I did a few weeks ago. My painting style is much looser in these ones, and I am pretty amazed at how well I remembered this scene ( I painted it completely from memory). 

When I got home today I was very curious to see how they compared, and I actually like these ones better than the old ones!

Mural in scale, 10in x  20in.

Detail, 50cm x 70cm

So after the exam today, I went home, ate an apple, and met up with some friends to play some pickup basketball against a bunch of Italian guys. We played 3 games (I have no idea where the energy came from to play because these exams are REALLY taking it out of me) and now I am practically falling asleep at my computer. 

Short story: walking home last night I had to apologize to Caroline because I was so delirious that I would just say everything I was thinking. It went something like this: "wow something just smelled really good I wonder what's in that store look its sprinkling WOAH thats a big crowd" etc.

I NEED SLEEP.

Tomorrow is the LAST day of the exam and we are doing a free expression painting, which means what ever we want.