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