First few days in Italy

Ok, so this week has been so wonderful! My flight was fine..didn’t sleep at all though. I sat next to a young lady from Seattle but she is originally from South Korea. She was really nice and we talked about Twilight some because she went to visit the town of Forks and apparently there is nothing there. They didn’t film anything there b/c Stephanie Meyer never researched the town- she just randomly picked it, so nothing about the town relates to the book. There were six of us on my flight. We had no other problems going through customs or baggage claim in Rome, so smooth sailing!
Our quarters in the palace are very neat. We have a large kitchen with stainless steel industrial equipment. There was a lot of food/unperishables leftover from the other groups. I cooked some pasta last night with pesto from a natural food store. And some others got fresh mushrooms too for pasta – they were soo good!! We have a common room that’s rather large and we have a projector that we can all watch movies on together.
When we arrived to Ariccia on Tuesday we had porchetta paninis on focaccia bread. Porchetta is pork and the food staple of Ariccia. There is actually a Porchetta Festival this weekend here in town. They’ve been setting up..There’s a stage set up right in front of the palace and there will be lots of porchetta stands and live music all over town! We are going to experience it all tonight!
For dinner our first night we had a four course meal at the Hotel Ariccia outside on the Veranda. It was so gorgeous, and the food was amazing!
We’ve gotten a few cat calls but it’s really not as much as I thought it would be. We have also only been in Ariccia and other small towns around. I think I’ve been staring more at them then they at me!
Also my camera really doesn’t work so I haven’t taken many pics. Going to get a camera today! So more pics to come!

I'm leaving on a jet plane...

Last week our group of 19 met five days from 9:30 to 3:45 in Auburn. It was an intense week: we learned some Italian, history of Italy, information about the different regions, food, culture, how to get along and solve problems, what to expect from Italians (especially the men).  Here is a link to see where I will be staying- Palazzo Chigi (Chigi Palace) built in the 16th century and designed by Bernini, he is very famous- he also designed the Piazza of St. Peter's Basilica and many more:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ariccia


I'm looking forward to everything about this trip: fresh food everyday, staying in a palace, learning Italian, seeing amazing art and historic places, our wine tasting lessons, harvesting wine, meeting all different types of people, traveling to other countries, etc!

Though we don't have AC, we do have our own kitchen, common area, and washers and dryers!


I'm very pleased with my group! It's going to be great! Plus I will have some pretty awesome roommates!


I leave Atl airport August 31 at 2:45 central time. ETA in Rome is around 1am Tuesday morning but that will be 8am in Italy!

A presto! (see you soon),

Claire

Art on the Rocks at the Birmingham Museum of Fine Art

Life is a Highway...

and I probably shouldn't be driving a car on it!

As many of you know I am cursed when it comes to cars. Just this past year, I've had to my radiator hose fixed ( I figured this out when my hood began smoking as I was leaving my final exam in Dec), I had to get a new tire, and a new motor for my window so it would stay rolled up).
My latest episode occurred over the last month, but unbeknownst to me I just realized the graveness of it last night. It began when I got my oil changed about a month ago. About a week after I got it changed I went to Bham and noticed this greasy stuff all over my hood. I thought it bazaar, but kept on trudging as I thought, "I just got my oil changed...I must have just driven through some road work and some grime/oil must have splattered on it". A week or two after that I noticed my car kept pulling to the right and was shaking....not good..but since I usually am told that I overreact...I trudged on yet again and went to Bham this past weekend- drove all over Bham. Needless to say when I got home last night and Royal opened the hood of my car, my oil cap was not even screwed on!!!!!! So basically I had been driving for about a month with no oil cap on and oil was oozing out of the hood!!

As for the vibrating and pulling to the right...I just need a new front tire! So thank the Lord above I didn't mess up my frame/alignment!

I've Got the World on a String...

Hola,

So far this year has been incredible! This past spring was the semester of concerts, road trips, good grades (4.O0-sorry for the boasting, but I just had to add it) and quality time with my best friends! I can't complain. It was during spring semester, however that amongst all of these funtivities that I realized that I did not know what I wanted to do after I graduated in May. After a few months of panic, I decided that I would go abroad again to study...but this time Italy, a country full of art, art history, wonderful food, wine, and people that I had never experienced. I decided to create this blog so that you can all be "in the know" about my travels abroad, but also what I'm currently doing.

So to catch you up to speed: I am currently living in Auburn this summer interning at the Jule Collins Smith Museum in the Marketing and Events Department. It is a quite flexible schedule and relaxing work environment...and yes, I have learned a lot so far. In my spare time I am trying to learn Italian, read Harry Potter so that I can see the 6th movie when it comes out July 15, paint some, lay out by the pool, hang out with my friend before we all separte, and basically get all of my stuff together for my trip.

Stay tuned...

Claire

FYI:I decided to theme my blog around music since I love it so much! I'm trying to have all of my blog posts to be either a line from a song, song title, or musician all the while relating to the content in my posts...hopefully I can keep it up.