I'm home. And it feels good. There is nothing like the comfort of your own bed. In the next few days I will have to un pack and re pack and make my way up to Merril, NY to have another great summer at camp. I can't wait. I've been going to camp for years, and if I close my eyes I can sometimes smell it. It has a sense of security and home.

Venice was a wonderful experience that I will always remember. Coming back from Rome and Florence I almost felt that "home" feeling, but I don't think I would ever live in Venice permanently. The stay was nice, but I could never live in such a touristy city. I enjoyed the walking, the art,  the maze, and the water...but I missed the comfort of being able to drop my spazzy laptop off at a repair store spur of the moment, or take a drive in my car with the windows down, or order tap water (with ice and lemon) with out confusion. I'm so lucky to live in a place with many luxuries that I can sometimes take for granted.

A common theme in class was "finding one's self in Venice". I don't feel like I've found myself necessarily, but more that I've found I am content with myself. I do not have to apologize for having different interests, thoughts and ideas than my peers, and vice versa. We are all different and take away different experiences and thoughts from studying in Venice. I am excited about the things I have learned, and I will keep them with me for the rest of my like. I learned through our excursions, outings and lectures, but also from observing and absorbing. The knowledge I have acquired here is invaluable.

The end. For now ;)

xo - sam

Yesterday I went to the Guggenheim all by myself. I knew I could not leave Venice without seeing one of the best art collections in the world. It was really impressive. Also impressive: that I was able to navigate myself with no help! I didnt even get lost! 

I saw Robert Rauchenberg's Gluts exhibit. I really loved the use of found metal objects and street signs. I didnt realize until I was there that I have not seen a street sign in almost a month! The permeant collection was also interesting. Picassos, Duchamps, Kandinskys, Pollacks, Dalis - some of my favorites! It was 12 euros well spent.

Experience: Today I spent a few hours at the Biennale. I was a bit underwhelmed. I was expecting some AMAZING work, but for some reason nothing really struck me. I couldnt and cant even find the name of the artist that did this really interesting take on a dysfunctional couple's apartment. After the Biennale being hyped up SO much, maybe my expectations were too high.

Thought: I hate to admit this, but I'm sort of counting down the days until I come home. Living in Venice has be an awesome experience, but I'm ready for eating sushi(no more Italian food for a while, thanks), driving my car, sleeping in my bed, and being with my friends and family.

Experience: Today may have been one of my FAVORITE days in Venice! My professor set up a meeting at a gallery to meet with an amazing artist, Gaspare Manos. I had never heard of him before, but immediately fell in love with his work. This particular gallery had his most recent show, Kimono. He explained how the Kimono is a beautiful and respected article of clothing, but when it is worn you feel free and easy in it. He had small canvas' lined up in a kimono shape, each canvas a small painting, all expressing a certain emotion. He also had small abstract sculptures that looked like contorted dogs with muzzles. His last painting in the back was a spiritual yellow figure splashed with a cranberry color. It was also expressing freedom. Gaspare was kind and patient with our questions. He seemed to really enjoy talking about his work. He took us to his studio to show us more work and answer more questions. His work reminded me of one of my favorite painters, Cy Twombly. When I told him this, he seemed really happy and impressed! He asked me who my favorite artists were and told me he could see me being a great art critic  or curator: one of the BEST compliments of my life! He gave me his book and inscribed it : "In the hope that you will curate one of my museum exhibitions!" He seemed to really enjoy my opinions and comments. So exciting!

http://www.gaspare-foundation.com/

Thought: Gaspare told us to do what we love and live a happy life. I want to find what I love and live a happy life :)

Home sweet home! It feels weird to refer to Venice as "home". At least it's home for 5 more days.

EXPERIENCE: Last Thursday we took an 11:00 pm over night train for our "big" trip to Rome and Florence! In Italy, you have to reserve seats on long train rides...unfortunately, we reserved them for the wrong night train. After a minor stress out, we were able to find some seats and luckily did not get kicked out. Friday morning at 6 am we got into Rome and crashed for 5 hours in the hotel. When we finally woke up, we found a great tour bus for 18 euro for two days. The bus drove us all around Rome and took us to the biggest sights. We stopped at the Colosseum and walked around. After sight seeing for a while, we payed 20 euro to go on a Pub Crawl. Basically a Pub Crawl is a good way to meet other American Students. It was really fun, and had open bar for the first hour. After the open bar we "crawled" to different bars, free shot at each one. Free T-shirts too!

The next day we got on the tour bus again and ended up at the Vatican. AGAIN we found a sick deal: 5 euro for a tour. Our tour guide was really awesome, and pointed out all the coolest stuff there. He also suggested a GREAT restaurant, hands down BEST food of the trip for the best price. 16 euro for mushroom risotto (THE BEST), some kind of blue cheese meat (interesting), really awesome tiramisu, and endless red wine.

On Sunday we woke up early and took a train to Florence. I felt like this portion of the trip was less successful. The same tour group was more expensive, so we didnt have a great way to get around and hit the best sites. We did see the David for 10 euro, which was a rip off because we saw him AGAIN for free outside in a square. Sure the one in the museum was the original, but as an art history major I saw literally no difference. Mostly we spent the day at the market shopping for souvenirs. My friend Christian bought a great leather jacket!

Today we spent most of the day at the train station in Florence. Our train was delayed but we had fun playing cards. On the train ride home we hit one more "bump". There was an oldish woman (probably around 65) who REFUSED to move out of our RESERVED seat. It was a bit of a struggle to fight with a stubborn Italian speaking woman. Two train conductors got involved and eventually made her leave. My friend that speaks Spanish understood that she said in Italian "I don't care if the president comes, I will not leave this seat." Another Italian woman next to us said "Italy is a beautiful country filled with not very beautiful people". Interesting that an Italian would say something like that about her own people. I always thought Italians were very proud (kind of like Americans).

Thought: Even though I felt relieved to be back in my Venice apartment, I think it will feel even better to be home in 5 days :)!!!

So it looks like my laptop is a done deal. I'm going to have to go the rest of my stay here without one. This would be upsetting under normal circumstances, but I'm REALLY upset because it looks like I'll have to bite the bullet and accept 2 incompletes for my courses here. I have two major 10-15 page research papers due, and there is no way I can complete them without a laptop. I've talked to my professors and they have agreed to let me finish the papers after I come home from camp in August. Now I'm going to have these two papers looming over my head the whole summer...birthday wishlist: new MACbook Pro please. No PC ever again.

Today was packed full of cool things. First we went to Chisea di San Rocco which was COVERED with Tintoretto paintings. Tintoretto's are some of my favorite paintings since I just finished my Art, Artists and Society class last semester. It was basically a 1400-1800 European Art study. My professor was really passionate about Tintoretto's Crusifixion, so to see it in person was unreal. I LOVED it.

Next we visited Ca' d'Oro, which translates to House of Gold. Here's some info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ca%27_d%27Oro

Lastly, we FINALLY went to Murano! This is the island where they blow Venice's famous glass. It was really cute. I took awesome pictures at the presentation we went to. Unfortunately, no more pictures on this blog :(. It's so cool of Christian to let me borrow is laptop, I don't want to clog up his computer with my pictures.

xo - sam

This sounds so "American", but I really miss the pleasures of speedy service. While in the states I complain all the time how about slow things can be, but it's NOTHING compared to Italy. I was on the phone with Dell Tech support for 2 hours to find that no, they do not ship AC adapters to Italy. So here I am, writing to you from my friend's laptop while he is out.

Experience: Wow, where to begin? I've been doing so much lately! Thursday at 6 am we woke up early to take a 4 hour train to a small town called Belluno. I wish I could load some pictures to show how BEAUTIFUL it was. The town is located right at the base of the Alps, with beautiful skylines and mountains, the Dolomites. We drove about two hours up to get really high up to the top. Unfortunately the ski lifts were closed for the season, otherwise we would have gone all the way up!

Experience: We stayed at a hostel Thursday night. It was my first time in a hostel, and it wasn't horrible. The hostel was a little creepy because it was mostly for nuns and priests. It was errily quiet and seemed like a good place to film a horror movie.

Experience: Our main objective for going on this overnight was to see this HUGE dam that was used to block out water. We woke up bright and early, 7 am, to see it. The dam was built originally to block water from this small town. The dam was unsuccesful in 1963, and completely demolished a small town in a surrounding area. Very sad.

Friday afternoon my friends from camp came to visit! Katie is studying in Rome and Jen is studying in Florence, and they both came (with Jen's lovely friend) to spend two days and a night in Venice with me! We had such an awesome time! First we just sat in my room talking for hours...we hadn't seen each other in a year! They had made a reservation at a really beautiful resturant on the water. We were all exhausted from traveling, so we didn't even go out later that night. We all went to sleep around midnight! Very early for us. The next morning we went to San Marco so they could see all the things I had seen the week before. Experience: We did spend 8 euro to go up to the top of San Marco Tower. I took AMAZING pictures. I'll be sure to post them as soon as I fix my laptop :(. After we put Katie on her train home to Rome, Jen, Ellie(her friend), and I went back to the ghetto, but unfortunately everything was closed for Shabbat! Jen and Ellie still really seemed to enjoy themselves there. We strolled back towards the transtation and looked around in all the shops. We had a really good time!

On Sunday, Christian and I had planned to visit Verona, but it was a national hoilday and realized that most things in a small town would be closed. Luckily, most places were open in Venice, so we spent 5 hours just wondering around and shopping. It was really awesome. We bought some really fun things :).

Thought: You would think all the churches in Venice could sink up their bells. I don't need an alarm clock here, with bells ringing every 10 minutes i wake up just fine :).

Thought: What happens when it thunderstorms in Venice? Christian and I were caught walking home in the rain for the first time since we've been here. It was slippery and wet on the cobblestone and all the umbrellas opened walking down narrow streets was really strange. There was no thunder or lightning, but what happens when it does? Does the Vaporetto close the same way everyone has to get out of the pool? Hmmmm.

I'll post pictures from my weekend soon! Hopefully!

xo - sam

Yesterday a Shakespearean scholar, Shaul, came to our apartment to discuss The Merchant of Venice. It was an interesting discussion but my class and I were not told to read The Merchant of Venice, so the discussion was mostly based on the movie. I think our professors are having trouble communicating exactly what they want. 

After our discussion, we walked over to Gallerie dell'Accademia, a wonderful collection of Venetian art. It was SO incredible to see some of the artists I've studied in person, rather than in a text book or on a slide. There were video cameras everywhere, so I couldn't take any pictures, but this was my favorite painting:

The Tempest

Today it was FINALLY a comfortable temperature. Since we've been here, it has been exhaustingly hot. 85 to 90 everyday. Today was 72, but really windy! I was wearing a dress and I had to keep doing the "Marilyn Monroe" dress hold. First we went to Universita Ca' Foscari Venezia and listened in on a lecture by Ferit Orhan Pamuk, authour of My Name Is Red and Nobel Pize winner. So cool, right!? The only problem was that the lecture was said in English, Italian and Turkish so it was kind of hard to follow. Plus, again, none of us had read the book, so we really had no idea what was going on. Bringing us to the lecture was a good idea, just not really well executed. It was cool to see what a classroom/lecture hall looked like though.

After that we walked over to the Jewish Ghetto. It was SOO interesting to see the different synagogues. The ghetto was very different than the rest of the squares in Venice. For one, there were trees and plants...very little nature besides water in the rest of Venice. Also, the buildings were much taller than the rest of Venice because the Jews were confined to one small area, so they would build new floors on top. Again, no pictures allowed, but I got some from outside.

the ghetto

outside the synagogue museum.

The Ark where the torah is held. The one picture i snuck before the tour guide came in. 

The synagogues were so beautiful and ornate. It was so interesting to see three of the oldest temples in the world.

Matzah ball soup for lunch! the matzah ball was kind of brown looking, like a whole wheat matzah ball. I was so glad it tasted just as good as Bama's. I also had some falafel. Not as good as Israel, but better than New York!

After our tour, we slowly walked home and looked in some shops, my favorite thing to do. Tomorrow were going on some type of overnight in the Alps? The details are fuzzy but I'll report back later!

xo - sam