Italy seems to produce a permanently purple tongue!

We had a blast at dinner last night! The local people came to pick us up. It was the first time I've ridden in an actual car since the taxi ride in Rome. It was one of the most scary car rides I've ever been in... except for maybe the one on the way back up. Dad, if you think I'm dangerous, you should come ride with some Cortonese people. We were going down a very steep mountain and doing it very quickly... I saw my life flash before my eyes several times. The dinner was such a cool experience. There was karaoke.... which to my own surprise I did not participate in.... well I kinda did near the end but that doesn't count.... some man was roaming through the crowds of dancing people and holding the mic up to their mouths... haha... I was just screaming the words and I'm pretty sure no one noticed the difference... there were bottles of wine every three seats and if it got even close to empty a new one suddenly appeared. It was 5 courses and each one was amazing.... I was full by the second one. You would all be so proud... I drank red wine the whole night and didn't spill ANY on me... I did spill the dessert wine all over the table though. haha... speaking of dessert wine... this stuff was amazing. It was so sweet and it was a really weird color.... one girl got it poured down her throat by our waitress. We made great friends with our waitress Hermania.... I think she was enjoying practicing her english but she kept coming over and telling us how she had a crush on the karaoke guy who by the way had an amazing voice and sang in english like he was american... He sang a lot of Elton John haha. The dinner lasted almost 4 hours and then the locals drove us back up again. As I mentioned before... scariest experience of my life. Our driver Thomas was in love with us haha. He played "I will Survive" all the way back up which we were screaming at the top of our lungs. Becca who was in the front seat had a much more scary experience and was yelling at him around every turn. I think he thought she was singing... but she was legitimately freaking out... haha... I'm really glad I went. I think it was an awesome chance to see how Italians celebrate and to experience a little bit more of what real life is like for them. 

Classes are going well. I've realized that I do not have the ability to envision something and then make it happen. I have to have instructions and guidelines. I was freaking out about book arts there for a while because most of the assignments required actually filling the books with prints and pictures. I can't do it. I spent an entire afternoon in the studio trying to make some prints and they were awful and none of them turned out how I was picturing them. I think my idea of the book is so much more traditional than my teachers. I see the book as a reading experience with text. I love books. I love to read. I love to journal and write.... so these are the kinds of books I want to make... I want to replicate the reasons I love books.... not make up books that aren't really books in my mind. So I told my teacher how I was feeling and I think she understood that my mind works differently than art majors... I think she saw how hard it would be for me to push the limits and create something totally original... so she is going to let me focus my projects on structure and the binding of books. My first project is going to be a series of sewn books. I'm going to use lots of different types of sewing techniques to bind the paper and covers and hopefully use a lot of exposed stitching so that there are cool patterns on the outside of the book made from the thread. She has a whole book of stitching techniques and she said I can just pick out my favorite ones and then find some cool material to bind with and then just make as many as I can. I'm so excited about because in my mind I'm thinking I'm walking away with a bunch of new journals!!! i love journals.... sometimes I buy them even when I already have two or three at home that I haven' t started writing in yet. I can picture what it will look like with my writing in it and sometimes I won't be able to not start writing in one because I'm so excited about it. haha. I know I'm a nerd! 

Ceramics has been frustrating. I spent this whole week throwing on the wheel. We had to cut our first twelve bowls in half so that we can learn from our mistakes by viewing the interior and the thickness of the walls. I didn't even get to twelve. I think I got to nine. I was much slower than some of the other girls and when I did finally complete a pot, she usually had a lot to say about what to change about it the next time. So it's definitely going to be a slow learning process... I don't expect to be coming home with a ton of dishes.... I'll be lucky to finally get to twelve haha. Next week I'm on hand building all week. I'm kind of excited to get off the wheel for a while and to actually have something to fire by the end of the week. At least this class isn't stressful. We don't have assigned projects with due dates. We just have a certain type of work assigned to us each week and then on fridays we go around and look at everyone's work and critique... which is always interesting haha. 

MOM IS COMING IN A WEEK!!!! we are planning some traveling while she is here. I think we are going to spend a few days at the Amalfi coast and then a few days in Rome... and of course she will be staying here in Cortona a few nights as well.... it should be interesting to see how mom and I survive all the trains and metros on our own... I'm definitely going to need to journal about that haha. I'm just so excited to share this experience with someone. It think Italy is magical no matter what but having someone here to share it with makes it that much more amazing! Mom is going to love it here!