first day of classes...

i have two classes...and neither of them meet in the classroom...!!!!!!!!!!! excursions all over rome all the time. amazing. i am so excited. tomorrow we meet at the colloseum, and explore some ruins. i never thought i could say that my class was just meeting up at, you know, THE COLLOSEUM?!!?!?!?!

by the way, we went to see if we could hear andrea bocelli last night at the colloseum.. but we missed it. oh well, i walked out of a subway station and the first thing i saw was THE COLLOSEUM......i think that'll do.

there was a young guy playing the accordion on the subway today...it was almost like a gondola. he was awesome and cute. the subway is SO MUCH NICER AND BETTER than the broad street line. there is a treno every 3 minutes and its big and wide and air conditioned and clean. THEN we switched over to the B line. ....that is definitely the broad street line of roma. graffiti all over, but i have to admit, it looks awesome...




my art history professor is the only italian teacher at temple rome. his name is paolo and he is awesome. funny things he said today include:
-"this will make one homosexual" (referring to a statue of a naked man with his genitals facing the audience"
-(referring to St. Mark's Church and Venice in general) "i think there should be an exam to enter this place, I met a man in Houston, Houston..YUCK...he said 'Venice, it was too stinky', I wanted to kill this man..."
-(also referring to Venice) "if you are a person with personal troubles...you cannot truly appreciate art...you must get rid of these personal troubles first"
-(referring to a picture of a half naked man) "this is....so sexy....he is like a jim morrison...."
-"we have a 15 minute sort of unspoken law here in Italy.. a professor will not show up to class until 15 mninutes after it is supposed to meet. and sometimes we get lazy and that can be 30 minutes, 45 minutes..."





also, my sketch professor, she is so nice too. as we leave the classroom we met in for about..10 minutes, to walk to the art store and the piazza de popolo to draw, she just says, "does anyone want to stop for coffee?"

she is an "ex-pat" or ex-patriot who was in the temple rome program as a junior 30 years ago, and never went back to the US.

also, a fun fact about coffee here...there is no such thing as take out. italians drink their coffee at the bar (cafe) in regular cups. they chill and socialize in the morning while they drink their coffee, then they finish and go on their way. if by any chance they do take it to go, its because they need a way to take it to their place of work. then once they get there, they sit and enjoy it. italy is a place that is relaxed, not fast-paced like the cities in america. they are laid-back and enjoy life. it is guarenteed to make you live a longer, happier life. i am IN!



--<3