Almost done…

It feels crazy that I’m almost done with this trip to Italy. Everything has been moving so quickly; after the first part of this week we’re packing up and heading to Rome. We’ll be in Rome for 3 days before we travel to Florence, where we’ll be for 3 more days. We then finish in Milan, and I catch my flight back home on June 15. Crazy!

Since everything is about to move really quickly and I’m not sure what my internet situation will be, this may be one of the last posts I have on here. But I’ll try to write more often this week to make up for that.

In other news, my teacher for the technical sketching class that has been the bane of my existence for the past few weeks decided that he was asking unfair things of me and Mamie (the other graphic designer on the trip with me). He said he felt guilty about changing up the class requirements when we got here and that most of the sketching the class was about to get into was beyond our abilities. Basically, he realized that there was no way to get decent work out of two people that haven’t spent the past 3 years studying architecture and practicing technical sketching (sucks that it took him 3 weeks to realize this, but oh well). So now me and Mamie are going to be putting together a book of the trip including the sketch work and the watercolor work that everyone has been doing. That way, we’re getting a possible portfolio piece that can also be a souvenir for everyone on the trip. We’re both incredibly excited and extremely thankful that we don’t have to waste our time (and our teacher’s time) doing bad sketches and practicing a technique that we’d never use again.

I also took a day trip with some friends to a lake last weekend. The funny thing about this lake was that it was a clothing-optional lake. The slightly more funny thing was that none of us had any idea that it was this sort of lake before we had already rented chairs for the afternoon. So we decided that we’d just make the best of it and enjoy the sunny day and nice water anyway. The only completely naked people were little kids, and even though the gross European bathing suits that the adults were wearing could barely be considered clothing, most people were at least wearing that. So maybe the more appropriate term would be “topless beach/naked babies” lake. Either way, it was a fun and relaxing time that was super awkward and super funny. We went back to the lake yesterday, and found a great sushi restaurant to eat at afterward. It was a really nice change from eating nothing but pasta and pizza for the past 3 weeks, and it wasn’t very expensive (although if you convert the euro to dollar amounts, it’s somewhat discouraging). But now I’m off to work on book design, hope “the sun is shining and the weather is sweet” back home, keep chillin. I miss everyone, but I’ll be back soon.