Paris, je t'aime

I am in love, really.  Paris is amazing.  Karen and I got to Paris on Thursday afternoon, and used the fantastic, incredibly intriguing, albeit grimy metro system to get to our friend Mike's apartment (see picture of view from the window!!).  That night we tagged along with Mike on his job- he's a tour guide for a pub crawl.  The next few days consisted of exploring Paris, usually guided by Mike, who speaks fairly good French.  We were planning on leaving on a Sunday night train to get back for class on Monday, but Paris had other plans for us, because all the trains were booked until Tuesday night.  I may be paying the price for it now, but who is going to complain about 2 extra days in Paris???  Here are some of the highlights and the reasons why I'm finding my way back to Paris somehow.....

In Rome, cars and people battle for the right of way in narrow winding streets intended for pedestrians alone.  In Barcelona, people walk alongside cars on their narrow strip of designated sidewalk, and cars reign supreme.  In Paris, people have their own streets to walk on, with a wall of greenery between them and the cars.  The city is still dense, but feels as though it has been stretched open so that air and people can flow about. PIC

Notre Dame:  We happened to walk in at night mass, which was an experience to behold.  Right away I am received by the ethereally floral, yet earthy smoky smell of incense.  My other senses are engaged in equally sensual yet immaterial ways: In the stony cold, hazy darkness candles burn in a warming glow of flickering orange, and light takes on a physical presence.  The powerful ring or organs occupies so much space it invades my body, and the ephemeral chanting of the priest floats into the vast depth of the ceiling, reverberating back down with a haunting profundity.

I'll write more about the following when I'm less sleep deprived (also more pics if I can get the internet to cooperate):

The Louvre

Pomidou

Tulleries, axis

Tomorrow we are headed to Tuscany to visit Siena and Firenze (Florence).  We are staying in a haunted farmhouse in the country on Halloween! ;)

La Playa en Barcelona

I"m going to post the two portions of my trip as separate entries, so here's Barcelona!  After a very long day of traveling Sunday we made it to Christine's grandmother's house on the beach in Hospitalet de l'Infant.  On Monday Karen and I spent most of the day on the beach collecting rocks and water-coloring.  We also ate a real Paella Catelana, which was delicious.  On Tuesday we took the train into Barcelona to see the Sagrada Familia (Gaudi), the Barcelona Pavilion by Mies van der Rohe.  Christine and I also decided to go Park Guell (Gaudi), (even though we didn't really have much time) a fairy-tale like park with panoramic views of the city....the buildings look kind of like gingerbread houses and there are cave like structures....I have to admit that my impression is: the original Disney Land.  My camera died, so no pictures.  We had to climb so many stairs to get there but the views were worth it, even if we only got to be there for 15 minutes.  We also got to walk around Barcelona, and use the metro system which is muccch more extensive than the one we have in Rome.  We were searching for a good place to eat which was shockingly difficult to find....I even practiced my spanish by asking a few people where nearby restaurants were....eventually we found a little place where I tried another paella.  On Wednesday we borrowed Christine's grandmother's car to explore the spanish hill towns Tivissa and Llaberia.  They both had a sleepy ghostly aura about them, but the few people we ran across were warm and friendly despite the cold soggy weather.  We stopped by the bakery in Tivissa and bought cookies and honey.  We also stopped by the spring where everybody in the area get's their water.  On Thursday we got up early to begin or journey to Paris....Barcelona and Paris are not that far away from each other, but after a car ride, train ride, another train ride, bus ride, flight, bus ride, and metro ride, you wouldn't know it.  All in the name of saving money...

Away we go

Today we are leaving for Barcelona and then Paris on Thursday. We are staying right on the beach in a town outside of Barcelona at Christine's grandmother's place. So when I come back next Sunday I should have a wealth of stories and pictures (since I sucked it up and bought a camera). Yesterday we went to Villa Borghese, a giant park on the north end of the city. There was a running event going on, so the paths were taped off, and runners continually passing by. Throughout the sprawling park are scattered museums, a pond (where people rent canoes and feed the ducks), and a dirt track. The trees create a genuine escape from the city, a micro-climate where people stretch out on the lawn, walk their dogs, display a little bit too much public affection, picnic, and even cycle around on 4 person bike-carts. We also went to the main museum, where they have two of the most famous Bernini sculptures. I've uploaded a scan (will later if it ever worrrrrks) of a sketch of Apollo and Daphne: the story goes that cupid wounded Apollo with an arrow, infecting him with an uncontrollable desire for the nymph Daphne, who he alternatively wounds with an arrow that renders her resolutely repulsed. Just as Apollo is about to catch the fleeing Daphne, her father Peneus (river god) turns her into a laurel tree. So that is how laurel trees became sacred ;). The sculpture is a great example of the Baroque...the figures are literally frozen in twisting motion, and the work is compelling from every angle.

Come Va? Va bene....piano piano

This Tuesday we had a big deadline for urban design course.  We had to do analysis of the area with the intent of inspiring design ideas.  So this weekend we tried to get a lot of work done, but still ended up working late on Monday night....and into Monday morning.  I walked home for a shower at 6 in the morning, seeing the city for the first time in the first moments of daylight.  Vendors had just begun setting up in Campo dei Fiori for the morning market.  It was a relief to not have so many cars and scooters driving up behind me for once, but instead I had to squeeze past produce trucks as workers unloaded boxes, restocking the stores.  After a shower and breakfast I saw the city waking up a bit more, some shops beginning to open up, and a few people walking on their way to work.  This weekend we also went to a free public concert in Piazza San Giovani to see the CURE!  We watched them perform under flashing lights as we waded through ankle deep glass bottles, trying to get closer to the screen displaying the fantastically teased and tortured mass of ratty hair belonging to the singer.  It was a perplexing feeling to be crammed in among so many people and be outside in a huge open plaza.  This week has been mostly work and more field trips (today we went to the Ara Pacis museum and the auditorium designed by Renzo Piano)(and an italian test on Wednesday), but tonight we are going to our French friend's house for a movie night with all of our non-american friends.  We're watching a spanish movie about a group of foreign exchange students from all over who come together and have a life changing experiences....how appropriate ;).

Sun and Shower, Wind and Rain

Ok, I will try to bring you all up to date on what I've been up to.  Where to start?  It's been a little more than a week, and my memory seems to be about a week long, so I'll start with last Friday...Friday night Karen and I went to the opening of a indie music club called Fish and Chips with our italian friends.  I don't know how to describe it in a way that will make sense to everyone, but it was this sheek, hip, underground gathering of fantastically dressed italians, and the girls all had perfect Audrey Hepburn hair.  The next morning....or that morning I guess...we left for a four hour bus ride to Pompeii, an ancient city that is really well preserved because it was engulfed by a volcanic eruption in the 1st century.  It poooooured down rain, and we got to jump puddles while we explored the ruins.  We stayed in a hotel in Paestum, where we also got to see some ancient greek ruins, which are the oldest ruins we will get to see.  I will try to upload a sketch soon.  The trip was very fun overall, and we got to meet some more students from Tulane, which was really cool.  However, we developed a deep appreciation for the fact our group is so small, because everything went soooo slowly with such a big group.  On the way back we also got to stop by a mozzarella di bufala factory (where they make mozarella with buffalo milk, which is how it is traditionally made, and the flavor is simply delicious....sweet, creamy, fresh, and with a distinctive flavor you just don't get with cow's milk).  This weekend I also lost my little backpack on the bus (at the time is contained by telephone, camera, sketch book, and journal/calendar).  I have seriously gone through a mourning period, a spent some serious time contemplating the value and role of material objects in life.  Out of those four things, I am most pained by the loss of the journal- words: thoughts and memories in written form.  Other than the sketches and lost pictures, the other things are just money, and money is only time.  I'm beginning to move into the acceptance stage.  This week we've been working more on our urban planning project, including exploring the area of town where our site is.  I'm getting more and more excited about it, because I'm going to use it as an excuse to explore my interest in urban agriculture and food distribution.  This Wednesday Karen, Christine, and I organized a "mixer" at our apartment and invited people that we've met from every avenue of our experience:  other study abroad students from Tulane, Northeastern University, and Penn State, as well as our French friend, and some of the girls from all over that always seem to be floating around whenever he is there, and our Italian friends.  It was a complete and utter success:  it was a potluck, and we ended up with tons of food and wine, with a perfect balance of types of food.  Everybody had so much fun, it never got too loud, and we were proud of ourselves for creating an opportunity where so many people got to meet that otherwise wouldn't have.  Last night we went to a bar called Ombre Rosse (red shadows) to listen to a blues band.  The music was amazing, and Christine and I got up for a song to dance even though there wasn't much space (she is teaching me to follow and teaching herself to teach by leading....if that makes any sense).  Today was a beautiful sunny day, much warmer than it's been, and Christine and I went exploring around our site more.  Tonight we are supposed to go out dancing but I'm crying uncle, because I've been fighting a cold that I can't quite shake.  I'm still having trouble uploading photos, because our internet has been very unreliable lately, but I will keep trying.

Una settimana piu

It's been a week since I've written because I've been molto occupata-very busy- and the internet at studio stopped working for a few days.  This past week we finished up one of our calsses (a course in Roman sustainability) and began an new one about urban design.  Today we rented bicycles and Tom gave us tour around the area where the site for our design project will be.  If I had any doubts about the value of studying in Rome, they are gone after today.  I'm excited to get into this project because I'm realizing more and more how interested I am in urban planning, specifically how it relates to agriculture.  We also ate at a place called Gambero Rosso- a food center that gives wine and cooking classes, sells culinary equipment, and serves a gourmet buffet.  Needless to say, I was in heaven.  We ate finocchi (fennel) cooked with a creme sauce, pollo con peperoni (chicken), melanzane, radicchio, peperoni al forno (roasted eggplant, radiccio and peppers), cicoria ripassata (endive), and broccoli romaneschi ripassati (cauliflour).  It was delicious and I ate wayyyy too much.

This past Saturday we went on a field trip to Hadrian's villa (a sprawling retreat built by an emperor in the 2nd century) and Tivoli (a city just east of Rome), where we visited Villa D'Este, a 16th century villa known for its gardens and fountains.  The ruins at Hadrian's villa are fabulous: the monumental structure that housed the baths has deteriorated in such a way that the structure looks even more impressive than if I imagine it whole:  a narrow strip of stone precariously stretches above your head, hinting at a long-gone dome.  We also explored underground tunnels, which have are now lit by ghostly shafts of light because they've dug holes in them connecting up to the ground.  The trip was also a good chance to meet some new people because we went with a huge group of Northeastern architecture students.  That night we went to a house music battle, which is a stlye of electronic dance music, with some of the guys we met from Northeastern.  Two dj's battled, taking turns mixing.  It was crazy, but so fun.  On Sunday we went to a soccer game- the stadium is awesome, and I actually managed to focus on watching the game for most of the time, so I was proud of myself.  The best part was watching little puffs of cigarette smoke come from the massive audience and join the hazy cloud hovering above them.  Last night we went to a blues club with some new friends of Christine's- Christine is a fabulous dancer and is trying to help these people jump-start a dance scene in Rome by helping them out with lessons.  We listened to great music and I learned how to dance some blues, which was soooo fun, even though I'm not so graceful!

Pictures:

Still been trying to upload these pictures....

1.  An ancient house in Ostia Antica that we analyzed as we were finishing up our sustainability course.

2.  Tunnel in Hadrian's Villa

3.  What remains of the bath complex at Hadrian's Villa

4.  Soccer game

pics

ostia

665

baths

soccer game-714