Day 2

Well today was a long day. First day of actual class. Went to the colosseum and man is that sucker HUGE. Pretty sure pictures do it no justice whatsoever. We had four reports given by people today and while Steve (the prof) talked to us I was sitting on a rock and pretty sure I bruised my bum, it is killing me right now. We again saw some serious land marks. Took some serious notes and pics, again these are only ones from my point and shoot so not that cool. Roman Forum, Colosseum, Column of Trajan, than Stefanie and I went to Villa Borghese a huge park. Had my first taste of Italian Lasagna today. It was pretty good, the sauce is much creamier than in America.And here we (stefanie and I) are so glad to have some Coke after a long day of study and walking. We cruised around by ourselves, basically I am pro at the Metro because of London and Paris. So tomorrow I will probably go solo to check out some ancient baths and try to get some sweet pics or maybe a museum of some sort!! Pretty sure I found my favorite European treat, I think I love it more than Gelatti even!! Buenos are my life here, so I have vowed to take the stairs almost everytime I can, and no need to worry I sleep on the 5th floor, so there are a lot of stairs, they sure do come in handy though, calorie burner baby. We went about 6 miles today and everyone was dying, (well not everyone) but it seriously didnt even phase me. My roomies are all so tired and sore and I am just ready to go chill at the Spanish steps or something. Maybe some other night, I need my london girls ;( they can keep up with me and want to do anything and everything!

Also at the grocery store I found these snack things called yonkers, so in attempt to try something new everday I bought them to try. They are little puffy circular things, they smelt like cheese. So we tried them and they are actually pretty yummy. So yeah new experience of the day! Had dinner @ 7:00, cream pasta, roast chicken, broccoli, squash and fruit for dessert. Dad you would be proud I have tried everything I have been served! At least taste everything is my goal this trip!! K love ya all!!

Ciao Bella (goodbye beautiful)

Real Day # 1

So here I am in Italy, it still seems so surreal. Today I went and saw some serious tourist sites, the Collesseum, freaking huge!, Piazza Navona, The fountain of Four Rivers, The Spanish Steps. It is all so crazy! Also the Trevvi Fountain, which is in the Lizzie McGuire movie, I threw a penny in backwords. And actually a boy in my group Cameron and I were taking pictures in front of the fountain for each other and this older lady walks up and say so do you want me to take a picture of both of you. We were like uh sure and kind of laughing. So we took a picture of her and her husband, and than they took one of Cameron and I. It was super funny, I will have to see if I can get the picture from him. Than the lady asked where we were from, we said Utah and they were talking to us about Zions and Bryce Canyon. Cameron said I havent ever been there so the little lady walks up to me, grabs my arm and says, you guys have to go there. I was trying not to laugh and said yeah I will talk to Cameron. It was so funny.Here I am so excited to throw my penny in!

Next we headed up to the Spanish steps, however on our way this creepy Italian man stops me and says scussi, miss what is this? Beautiful, bella, bella. I was like oh gosh just stay away. Than his 2 friends across the way were like scussi beautiful, and they told this other girl that I had a nice butt it was SO humiliating!!!!!

We than kept exploring and messing around at places. Had some marghareta pizza and a coke of course for lunch!! So delish! Later we got a crepe with nutella, my favorite!! I am finally getting the hang of how to say Grazia (thank you). Everything is going really great. Having tons of fun. Classes start tomorrow, I am so stoked!

And of course me being a doof on the balcony of our hotel room. I was actually being productive and reading Michealangelo and the Popes Ceiling. Great book, def recommend it!

Until tomorrow love you all, and yes Jess the invite is still available to share my bed!!!

Ciao

Alive and well in Italia

So I made it! I am loving being here and trying new things! My goal is to try something new everday. As for today I will say I tried veal with lemon sauce for dinner, not good!! Also this cream caramel stuff, it honestly looked like a sliced piece of Velveeta had been put on my plate, so gross!!! But I tried that as well. It was some seriously long time in the air, but I managed all 3 flights without using the nastoid plane restrooms!! And surprisingly everything went smooth, I got my baggage and had no problems checking in. The weather here is amazing, perfect! It is 60s with a slight breeze and I could not ask for better weather. We already went for a stroll into the Vatican, which is incredible!! So this is just a crap hole pic frpm my point and shoot. Hopefully more exciting and better ones to come!!

And of course me eating gelatti! Strawberry and Hazelnut yummy yummy!! Tubby Tubby two by four, I am going to have to get a seatbelt extender on my way back home!! Tomorrow is orientation of Rome so I should have more to update than! love you all

Ciao , )

Tomorrow!!!!!

Tomorrow is the day, I am waking up bright and early to head to the airport! I am getting super anxious to leave, I just want to be there already! Hope all goes well at all of the airports, I leave slc at 7:50. I go slc to denver, denver to phil, phil to rome! I will arrive in rome at about 9:00 on Monday morning, long day ahead but I am so stoked, update soon from Italy!!!


Ciao ;)

I know ridiculous right?

Okay I am sitting here packing for Italy and I am pretty sure I have a ridiculous amount of undies and socks packed. Because I had the asinine idea of packing enough pairs to avoid doing laundry for the dumb little things. As a result I thought this pile that I am about to shove in to a compartment of my suitcase was super funny. Well since I am blogging about it, it must be right?

How many pairs of socks does this look like?

If you guessed 28 you are darn right, absurd I know. But I will be gone 33 days and think that I probably won't be wearing socks everyday, so 28 ought to cut it what do you think??

Time for a change

Okay I know that this picture is a gay point and shoot of myself but I cut my hair, and I wanted to show everyone. I was super hesitant while I was getting it chopped but I love it now.
p.s. If you ever want really yummy smelling hair product I made a new discovery. Chi (like the straight iron) is amazing!!!

I need to sleep on it

So usually I am the little girl who hates change, lately however (and i can not quite find the reason for this turn about) I have been enthralled with the idea of change. In a previous post I mentioned that I had a new life plan. That being that I would graduate next spring 2009, with a BS in art and visual communications. That following summer/fall depending on what happens, I would than move either to New York, Seattle, Portland, Boston, maybe even North Carolina to be an assistant for a few years. I want to do potraits and think that being an assistant in the field would be more beneficial than staying in school taking classes that are great but not as beneficial as the experience and portfolio I would get otherwise. I have been researching ( I know it is early but I am such a planner!) photography jobs and assistant positions and think I could handle that. I am however still open to new ideas, seeing that I have a year left. I will be taking 15 credits the next 2 semesters to complete the 122 credits I will need. It is going to be a lot but manageable! As a result of new choices and changes in my plans I feel that I need to sleep on my decision and see how I feel in the morning. Wish me luck!!

Ps I finally got my lighting portfolio done. And I got Travis' final done, here is one image from the work for Travis that I shot in Portland that I really LOVE!!

ROADTRIP

Pretty sure I should be writing my paper on Robert Rauschenberg but I guess it is going to have to wait because I want to post some pics from our trip! The trip was so fun, the drives were long, but totally worth it. (the worst drive was from our hotel to Shanna's reception, I got directions from mapquest and it took us like an hour to get to the reception a little longer because I entered the freeway going east instead of west, ooops. And pretty sure on our way back to the hotel I had a new set of directions from mapquest that only took us 20 minutes, we were laughing so hard but we were SO bugged!! We should have used the 2nd directions on our first trip out)

Well we headed out at about 5:20 am and when we left there was snow on the ground and on my car. Jess snoozed for an hour or two and I jammed to some serious songs. It was pretty fun, the sun came up and a few hours later we stopped in Idaho for gas and some breakfast. (For those of you who have never traveled through Idaho you aren't missing much, but you are missing out on a stench that occurs quite frequently and randomnly throughout the state, it made me giggle everytime.) We were back on the road, somehow I missed the OREGON state sign and for several hours we were debating about whether we were in Oregon or Idaho and finally came to the conclusion of Oregon because of the dandy Oregon Trail signs. We than stopped in Pendleton for the restroom and a little Starbucks, as well as gas. Don't worry they pump your gas for you, which was hard for me to remember just ask jess!!

We kept cruisin along and came up to Hood River where we stopped for a little Chinese kind of good, kind of gross, but mostly cheap and a good break from the car. Hood river itself was a cute little town on a hill! loved it.....the best part was that jess had us pack up some food to go so we didn't hurt the Chinese ladies feelings, classic.

We finally arrived in Portland/Gresham at the Hampton Inn around 4:30, I took a little nap and Jess got ready, I hurried and changed and we left for our excursion to the reception. After the disgustingly winding road, and slow speed limits drive (don't forget the dollar toll across the freaking skinny bridge!!) We arrived at Shanna's reception which made the day worth it. We first saw her now husband Austin and it took him a minute to recognize us and than he said what are ya'll doing here? We didn't even answer we just asked where Shanna was, so we ran downstairs and saw her at the bottom of the stairwell she turned around and saw us and screamed, and we had a little freak out moment. IT was SO good!!! We than enjoyed meeting friends and family and chatting it up with Austin's parents and I stuffed my face with delicious cupcakes from St. Cupcakes!! After a few hours we departed back to the hotel and good thing because Jess got quite the headache, so thank heavens for the short ride home!!

The next day we got up got ready. We did some researching and decided to go check out a place in Portland called 'The Pearl District' I was intrigued by the description of the pearl, it had some old warehouses (i love old things!) ya da yada. Mapquested again and we were on our way. After a few minor setbacks we arrived and parked my car. (There are so many one way streets in Portland it is kind of creepy, I got so concerned about which streets are and aren't one way. confusing....) We walked around, got a hot dog, shopped at the Posh Boutique. Ate a frozen yogurt that had honey, granola, banana's, strawberries, blueberries. No need to worry it had the calcium you need in one meal, only 130 calories and 0 grams of fat! (not that we cared ahha). We kept walking around, just going into places, taking pictures, talking, giggling, looking at hot guys, and jess found the dog of her dreams! Later we went to Pizza Schmizza for lunch where we ended up laughing so hard at the people working there, they were very nice however!! The weather was so hot, nice but hot. We later decided to check out downtown Portland and rode the street car into town. It was fun minus the stinky man who smelt like our BO couch in Germany. We went to go to an art exhibition but decided against it and spent the money otherwise. I am sure it was the better choice, haha, Leatherheads.

The theater was nice and cold, and they had the biggest drinks for a movie theater and slurpees!! SO GOOD!! After that we decided on Macaroni Grill for dinner, which was of course delish! Our waiter was something else........... Came back to the hotel and enjoyed a slice of cheesecake and Ty on extreme home makeover.

Left Sunday morning at around 9:30 portland time. Made a few pit stops, one at Multnomah falls which was beautiful but misty!! I would recommend this for sure! Than we stopped at BurgerVille by the Dalles Dam to get the infamous raspberry shake that jess had as a tot. No need to worry that it was only 10:30 am, we weren't quite sure the burger joint would be open. The place was open and was serving strawberry shakes, which were pretty darn good. We kept traveling and laughing as we heard and saw bugs WHAP on my windshield. (ps whap is a word) We made a stop just before Boise and got some Jack in the Box and gas. And we made our final Road trip stop in Rupert to get some delicious A&W root beer ice cream. As if I hadn't eaten enough crap the past 2 days, but it was well worth the dollar. So next time you are near Rupert you should stop on in.

Before we made it all the way home we stopped in SLC to attempt to take some pics. We ended up laying in the gutter of State street in Salt Lake to get some pics, good thing Jess is such a good sport! Only got whistled at and honked at like twice, that is always a plus, made it home with a few minutes to spare for it to be a full 10 hour trip. And of course the perfect end to a perfect roadtrip day was Kelly Clarkson, 'Can I have a Kiss' 'You Found Me' and Matt Nathanson 'Come and Get Higher' (he is my new found musician;)

That was all for our trip although there was much more behind the scenes..................hope you enjoy! ps here is the bug whapping windshield before i got a car wash today! You can't see it so well but trust me there are plenty of bugs. And what is the last thing that passes through a bugs mind when it hits your windshield? Its butt. (courtesy of Jess!)

Spontaneity

The state, quality, or fact of being spontaneous.

So pretty sure I have been attempting to be more spontaneous with life. Pretty sure I am getting much better at going with the flow. But today proves my overall progression. My friend Shanna got married today in Portland Oregon and her reception is tomorrow in Camas Washington. Jess and I really have been wanting to go but because of other obligations decided against it. However earlier at precisely 12:00 I was just about to get out of her car when she said I wish we were going to be in Washington tomorrow night. I said LETS DO IT!!! So a few minor complications figured out,(like taking work off, figuring out gas, directions, hotel, etc.) we are going to leave tomorrow at 5 am. I am super excited because I am taking pictures of Jess for my lighting portfolio and it will be sweet as, (and yes I meant to say as!) No one else is going to have cool pics from Oregon and Washington. Anyway it is getting late and as spontaneous as I am becoming I would like to pick the clothes I bring instead of being surprised when I arrive. (ps more of my life plans to come soon, I am finally figuring it all out!!)

hope everyone has a great Friday I'll post again soon, jess just told me the hotel has free wireless hahahha

London: One year ago

I am working on making an etching out of photographs for my printmaking class and thought it would be fun to make one of pictures from London last May! (I can't believe it has been a year almost!) And I thought it would be super fun to give one to all my girls, shanna, jess and jilli. So here is the first step I montaged some together I am excited to start the process tomorrow!!!! I will post a b&w and a color just because I think they are fun, it will be

b&w though. There are several different images, the house one in the background is 13-14 madson place we lived there, obviously big ben is there, south kensington tube sign, the london eye and a few other things!!!!

SPRING

Spring has sprung, as a result I am itching for the semester to be over. Granted it has been a great semester, but there comes a point when you need your space. I am hitting that point, so Italy could not be coming at a more perfect time. I am researching places to go while I am there so if anyone has any suggestions let me know!! Also I am selling Krispy Kreme cards for 10 bucks. It is a card that you buy a dozen doughnuts, get a dozen free 10 times. So its a pretty sweet deal, and the money helps me with Italy. If you or anyone you know are interested hit me up. Progress is coming on the lighting portfolio. And this is my latest assignment from Travis' class, the surrealism one. It turned out fine, but this was seriously such a hard assignment for me. Regardless here it is. It looks even worse on my page because the white background now looks gray, but whatev.

You know when you are feeling great and untouchable for a few days, basically you feel invincible, nothing makes you mad or irritated. I even had difficulty concentrating. I have felt that way for the past few days. Today however I was quickly shot down. I woke up feeling fine, but quickly realized my Cloud 9 ecstasy was fading. I made it through the day fine, nothing majorly bad happened, but neither did anything good. (wait I had lunch with Jess, and an amazing cherry coke, what else could I ask for? and took some images, which is always great) I went running this evening to try and boost my spirits which actually did wonders! I had a nice relaxing ride home and decided to check my school email account just in case I had received news about the BFA program. Before I logged in I thought maybe I should wait until tomorrow I am not so sure I can handle bad news right now. But I logged in anyway. Sure enough I have an email from the lady Rae Ann Ellis. I am kind of super nervous but open the email anyway. I skim through the crap at the top and reach the part that says we regret to inform you that you have not been accepted. That was fine shockingly I handled that well. When I got to the reasons for being denied that is what made me so freaking irritated!!! For example:
There is a need for over all consistency with the portfolio.
Okay wait, I am pretty sure this is my 2nd year in school, not even in the art program, just college. I don't know what I am planning to do when I graduate yet. I am considering moving to New York and being an assistant for 2 years, but who knows. I don't have an artist's statement. Not only that they asked for multiple pieces from DIFFERENT classes, I went into this thinking that I should show my ability in all different areas, not excelling in only one area, or one type of photograph. Than it continues to say that the instructors and especially Simon Blundell will be here to help and guide you. Pretty sure that Simon did help me!! Why the freak didn't he just tell me I had no chance and tell me not to apply this year. Ugh. I feel like I need to go running again. I just might do that. Anyway sorry for the venting and frustration. I'll be fine in the morning.
Here is the beginning of my lighting portfolio that took me weeks to come up with my idea.