studio356

Hello!
How is everyone? Doing well here. We are just finishing up in our last week. Can you believe it?
Just writing to let everyone know since it is our last week we will be concentrating more on film photography and I dont know how many more chances I will have to use my digital as well as film. I do have 11 more rolls to complete...yikes.

We are working in the dark room now just got 3 more rolls developed. Took night shots last night by the river...as far as I can tell they turned out nicely!

Later today we will be going to a few more museums and getting some lunch. The plans for the rest of the time are...

Thursday...dark room time in the morning and then gallery of photography
Friday and Saturday and Sunday are our time and we can do whatever we choose...shopping, beach, dark room, shooting...ect.
Monday...we have a critique that will discuss our work and each others as well as our experiences
Tuesday...we have cleaning to do...haha...and a farewell dinner from the school
Wednesday...we leave early morning.

We have lots to do before we leave...I will definitely be keeping you posted by blogs if not by the pictures...although I will do my best.

Lots of love to all

Hello everyone!
I just wanted to say real quick...thanks to those who have sent me emails lately...I have been getting them but time in the computer lab is limited and I will write back as soon as I can.

We took a day trip to Sienna yesterday. Its an ancient Medieval city that has brick buildings dating back to the 11th century or so. It was really amazing. Sienna also has a very competive horse race each year...and good pizza.

Today we are visiting more muesums and having a group dinner tonight.

See you all soon...11 more days:)

Hey everyone. Just to let you know I have loaded up new pictures of our Pisa visit and also some pictures of me that Becca has taken.

I just got back from the Accademia Gallery and saw the original David. It was breath taking...so much detail and precision. An example of the excellence in everyone.

Tomorrow we are off to other day trip to Sienna.

Developed more in the dark room today but I didnt get a good print. Try again this weekend.

Hope all is well there and see you all soon!!!

WAS AWESOME...

We caught the train early morning and rode for about 3 hours...stayed over night in Venice and came "home" that evening. The city was really interesting to see and explore. First out of the train station you have to catch a water taxi, a boat that is equal to a bus, to take us to our island. There are walking bridges everywhere so you can walk across the canals. We took a gondala (no idea how to spell it) too...which was so cool. Just like in all the pictures you see...but he didnt sing:)

It was so much fun and i hope you enjoy the pictures...we are off to get some lunch. We just spent the morning working in the dark room and I successfully developed another 3 rolls of film!!

15 more days till we leave...

I just developed my first roll of film in the dark room. How exciting!! The negatives are drying right now...cant wait to get them to paper!

Today later the girls want to go shopping...uh-oh! :)

As a class later on today we will be visiting a church and having dinner together at our teacher's apartment.

I have lots of pictures on the way...hopeful to get those up and loaded today.

Everything is going great and we are all still having a great time, but are just amazed how fast the time is going. This weekend on Saturday we leave for Venice. We will stay the night there and leave Sunday evening. We are planning on having a guided tour and self exploration. Its really funny the paper with our schedule and map reads: Here is a map in case you get lost...because you will get lost. haha. I am so excited to take A LOT of pictures there!!

Okay I have to go get my negatives out of the dryer now. Be back later!!

Hello everyone. Just posted new pictures and to fill you in a little bit the wine tasting went very well, we took a bus to Chianti and stopped at a few little cities along the way to take pictures and walk around. The first city was Greve, and then to Chianti. The wine was excellent! We tried both red and white wine. They served us lunch in a buffet style. We had pasta and bread with certain toppings...like tomatos, liver, and i think somekind of fish. I accidently ate the fish one but I thought it was good:) until I knew it was fish. haha.
Today we went on a walking tour and viewed the city in a medieval/historial way and learned so much about the buildings and how for centuries they have been left undamaged but have been altered to accomidate the present. We will continue our tour on Wednesday morning.
Tonight we are all getting together craming into our small apartment to have a family dinner. This should be really good and I am looking forward to it!!

More blisters and its HOT. We have all decided we are craving a cheeseburger. We got really excited the other day because we found american french fries! I am getting the hang of walking around the city...actually remembering how to get from here to there. We are going to Venice this weekend and I am so excited about that!

I am sure I have forgotten so much that I wanted to say. Enjoy the pictures and will post again soon.

okay well hopefully you see the new pictures I just posted, unfortunally I could load all of them right now because my laptop died and for some reason nothing in Florence likes to work...so I am dealing with that...now I am connected through the school computer.
The pictures are great so far...Today we went inside the Duomo which I found out is of course a church but it has the first free standing dome. Walking up to the top is 463 steps up and down. i got some great shots from there but unfortunally I wasnt quick enough on downloading.
Remember that dinner I said the school was going to take us to? Well it ended up being a really nice resturant called..Ristorante de' Castellani - Piazza del Grano. They first served us a salad with a muffin that had peas inside with a red sause over top, some fresh pershutto and salami with bruschetta - a tiny piece of hard bread with tomatos...also the same kind of thing but with cheese and cooked apples slices. They were good. Next came, pasta one served with red sause and the other was called risotto - a rice like pasta. All the while being served with Chianti red wine. Followed by limon chicken and some potatos. Dessert was tirmisou. Dinner lasted 3 hours and was awesome.

The pictures of us at the market...we were exploring artistic views and how things work there. You have to be careful of children coming up to you and either holding up a newspaper or some other sort of distraction while another child runs behind you to either pick your pockets or actually cut a slit in your bag. But dont worry we havent seen anything like this since we have been here...but we are paraoid!!

Tomorrow we are going for a wine tasting.

Just a few random thoughts. I stink and it is hot. I have blisters...and I am LOVING it.

Let me know what you think!! I will try to get the rest of those pictures up here today.

Hey everyone!!
WOW. where do I start?

Well, we did arrive safely and everyone has settled in nicely. Thanks to Tim we have this great setup to communicate! Today was the first day of class we met at the school and did a really fast run through of the dark room and the equipment we will be using. After that we walked around Florence and took lots of pictures, which tonight I will download to my computer and load them up here asap. Unfortunately I can only show you the digital pictures but rest assured I am taking both film and digital.
Tonight the school is taking us to dinner for authentic pizza!
Tomorrow ...We are meeting at school again to do some work in the dark room learning the ropes hands on.
Friday...We are going to the top of the Duomo in the morning. This building is amazing and beautiful and from the top you can see the whole city. I dont know much about this church but will fill you in as I learn too.
Saturday...we are traveling to a vineyard to do some wine tasting!!!! (Tim I am putting that class to good use now!)

Sunday...we have "off" or can do whatever we like that day.
Monday and Wednesday mornings we are taking a walking tour.

Ok now...our apartment is "charming" in which we have all girls, in fact all of the girls from IUSB are in the same building. In our apartment we have 5 girls and one bathroom:) Two girls are not from IUSB but are from other schools in California. The boys however, have really nice apartments...a little less "charming" then ours, if you know what I mean. I think they have 3 boys in one apartment with 2 bathrooms and chandlers!! We are jealous:)
I have also taken pictures of our rooms to show as well.

Today we were over at the boys apartment (meeting there for a walking trip) When we decided to leave they were 6 of us going together...3 decided to take the elevator that is extremely small!! REALLY SMALL. So those 3 crammed inside and the rest of us took the stairs...we got to the bottom waiting on them still when one of the girls called my cellphone and was so frantic..."push the elevator button!!...we are STUCK!"
HAHAHA. It was so funny. (its okay to laugh because they are okay now.) The really funny part was that our teacher wasn't with us and we had to call her so that she could contact the school to contact emergency help. Meanwhile they are stuck inside freaking out...while us unhelpful outsiders were laughing and taking pictures!! Yes, I will make sure those get here too:) One person who works in the building stopped to help us but didn't speak a word of English. Well, the emergency people finally showed up and got them out safely.

Walking around the city was an adjustment for sure. Basically because the streets are small and narrow and those people driving buses, cars, and motorcycles are CRAZY DRIVERS!!! :) I think we got the hang of it now though.

I think that brings you up to speed as to what is going on and how I am doing. I have to be honest...I wasn't so well the first 24-48 hours being away from home, but I am okay now and feel at home here, I am making lots of friends and having a good time.

I will write soon and get those pictures here as soon as I can!

-Amanda

To call Amanda from the US:
011-39-3315708441

Standard international rates apply (or you can use an international phone card).

These calls are free for her to receive, only the caller pays.

Amanda has finally let us know that she is still alive.

I'm going to sleep now.

...since her plane landed. Still no phone call.

No, I'm not sleeping tonight.

Where are you?

I looked up her flight information on lufthansa.com. Her flight landed on time.