_______sanda in roma

Ciao amici,

The past two days have been interesting ...

Yesterday I caught up with Keihly and a few guys from my apartment and we followed Trestevre south to a marketplace. Have you ever been to a market in a Chinatown type setting? Well, rather than Chinese being the dominant language, Italian was spoken (obviously). There were small metal type boxes that opened up and were arranged in four rows creating two aisles. Fresh fruits, vegetables, cheeses, meats, and clothes (yeah, go figure) were all on display for purchase. It was a very fast paced (but not too fast) environment. After walking around two or three times, I built the courage to order seven potatoes, three oranges, and a half-kilo of these foot long sugar snap peas. Everything there was incredibly inexpensive and we are sure to return! In the tram on the way back someone with an accordion and a crappy bass (like the big cello kind) got on and started to entertain us all. I think they played "Somewhere out there" but I wasn't too sure. (Ironically, I saw them the next day at a completely different location and minus the tram).

I had to arrive at studio at about 2PM so we could start our drawing class. We walked over to the Roman Forum and drew (drawed? drewed? was drawing? made lots of pretty lines which represented?) some really old stuff. See the picture to the right. Or to the left. Or is it above? It has columns ... ? Drawing this was pretty fun because everyone -- no matter from where -- was interested to see what we (as a group of about 12, I think) were drawing. I was on the end so I think I got a lot of attention as people were walking toward us. And, obviously, I am the best drawer and the best looking so I was strategically placed there to make everyone else look better. We moved off to the coliseum and sketched there, but then it started to rain. Sad.

After studio we went to the grocery store, which wasn't as complicated as I thought it would be. Or maybe it should have been more complicated but I was too stupid to know that it was? Or to think that it wasn't? Surprisingly, Barrilla brand noodles are popular in the stores here. From my understanding, this is the same company with a factory in Ames, IA. Thus, when I saw roommates of mine had purchased noodles from this particular company, I harassed them endlessly. At any rate, I purchased the necessary ingredients for cooking a meal for my "group" in the apartment. There are 13 of us living together, so there are three groups that will cook dinners together on weeknights. This is the part that will make my brother proud .. I think? I hope? Jenny - pay attention to at least this part and tell Robert about it. I was the third and final round to cook in the kitchen (it's a small kitchen, really only two people can be in it at once). For the meal, I prepared: really awesome not-from-Iowa fettuccine with a provolone (need suggestions on better cheese for sauce) and Parmesan cheese sauce with slices of chicken breast. With that, balsamic-mashed potatoes topped with a few foot-long crisp, fresh sugar snap peas purchased earlier in the day. It was very delicious. Much enjoyable. The potatoes looked like cookie dough.

So then, after finally falling asleep at 230 in the morning (did I mention my apartment is right on a very very extremely uber busy street with non stop traffic that flows through the single-pane windows and reverberates off of my hard plaster walls? No? Well, my apartment is right on a very very extremely uber busy street with non-stop traffic that flows through the single-pane windows and reverberates off of my hard plaster walls. It makes it difficult to sleep) I woke up late Friday morning. I was SUPPOSED to get up at 730AM, and be at our first day (well, "introduction" day) of class. INSTEAD, I woke up at 949AM and got to studio finally at about 1030AM. My roommate was late with me, so it wasn't so bad.

Here comes the fun story: for drawing today we went to the Pantheon. For those of you don't know much about the Pantheon, unfortunately, neither do I. Read this. I do know it was a shrine/temple/something for 'all of the gods' and thus the design of it somehow reinforces that. The diameter of the dome equals the height of the structure. In essence, a perfect sphere can fit within the space inside. A circle (or sphere) is composed of completely equal parts and is perfect in every way, and thus is 'of the gods'. The coffered ceiling (square panels sunken in) adds an interesting dimension to the interior of the dome, and the oculus in the center omits the only light into the space. It was built in 125 A.D. Now that's old!

See my photos so far on my facebook album, open to the public (ie, you don't need a facebook profile)

ohh my goodness ... I am late for dinner! Tomorrow I am going to the Vatican. I will post pictures of my apartment, too.