A new stage

I think I will now adapt this blog as a general purpose blog now, instead of just a travel blog. More useless random general blogs to come.

Made It...

If you're ever thinking about driving 12 hours the day after your 15 hour flight - think really hard. Especially if it involves large portions of Kansas - I've never seen something so green, yet still flat and treeless. Off to my first day of work!

Man Can not Live on Pasta and Pizza Alone

Well its Tuesday the 12th, and my trip home is starting to rear its ugly head this Saturday. Its not all bad though – I am about pasta and pizza’d out, that seems to be 80% of my (and many other Italian’s) diet. The fun part will be driving to Denver to start work on Monday. Its funny that I’m flying westward, because somewhere in that Saturday time period I spend a whole lot of time on a plane, but I still have half a day in Italy and half a day in the states.
I’m working on my series right now for the final project, but I will have to do most of it while in Denver also – I think some late nights are in store there. And speaking of Denver, its business wear there, so it looks like I might need to pick up an extra suit, dang. Work doesn’t really sound like a good idea right now after almost a month of touring the city and drawing – but the money will be nice. I’m sure after a week or so I’ll get back into the flow of things, but for now… And at least I know the people are awesome, maybe I can snag someone to go see Transformers with on July 4th.
I’ll just interrupt my travel-blogging right now to say how awesome Transformers looks. And I’m not talking intriguing plot type good, I’m talking kick ass special effects and explosions good. Its like my childhood grew up, grabbed a flamethrower, and went to town – which is just about as much as anyone can ask for in a summer movie. Maybe this movie will help ease the pain of watching Spiderman 3.
Coffee here is really… really good. So I now have about 3-4 pounds of it coming home with me to the states. One pound to Dad and Papaw, then I’m stocked up for a while on sweet Italian coffee. Its ironic though – Italian culture believes that you should take as long as possible to eat a meal and chat with friends, but if you order coffee drink it at the bar and get out the door. American culture on the other hand believes in getting the maximum amount of customers through a restaurant – so they encourage you to leave as soon as you are done. Coffee places, however, want you to stay and work, hang out, and generally just buy more of their overpriced coffee and snacks, so they offer free internet, nice atmospheres, and other amenities. In Italy, coffee comes as a shot of espresso unless you ask for caffe Americano – that way they can drink it down in one shot at the bar. Generally if you want to sit down with your coffee here you have to pay extra, or they just won’t even let you. So its back to the land of rushed meals, open space, and no more damn public transportation.

sketchbook again

From a statue bust

sketchbook

More from the sketchbook...

Florence

By the way, this was the amasing view from our room in Florence. I'm thinking that I liked Florence the best so far... but my wallet didn't.

Not Dead Yet...

Dont worry, Im not dead yet - just rather busy. Ill leave you with this picture taken from the window of our hotel in Venice.

In other news...

I'll take a quick break from spamming Rome stuff to ramble about something equally as cool - Video Games :]. In particular - starcraft II. It only took Blizzard about a decade to finally come out with a sequal to possably the best RTs released yet. Check out the cool 5tuff over here. I think I just drooled a little bit.

Back on the Rome front, I'll post a few more images - though I'm uploaded most to Picasa. Headed to Florence tommorrow, should be awesome. Also - my s key sucks... you never realize how many s's you use until it breaks. Every one I 'typed' was actually copy paste.

The Italian Myth of the Public Restroom

There is no such thing as a public restroom here. However, there are excellent clear, free flowing water fountains that give crystal clear drinking water all over town. It is ironic that these two things can combine to make a nice situation - of me really needing to use the bathroom in a city of none. I did find a bathroom in a metro stop - but it was a pay restroom. Not only that, but it was an automatic one, that cleaned itself after every 4-5 people by closing the coor and washing down everything inside with water and cleaner. The walls were metal, and the floor was a black plastic - a very interesting experience. Especially since it cost me 50 Eurocents to use it.
We went out to the Hard Rock Cafe, Rome tonight. It was an excellent little island of American culture - Hinds ketchup, Rock Music, and Hamburgers. It was a bit pricey, but the short exposure to American culture really helped, and I'm good to go for another week at least. Its suprising how hearing English spoken around you and the welcome taste of the food can make a difference.
Every church that we go to is insanely decorated on the inside. Ms. Golden said there is a term for the italian 'fear of free space', that I can't remember. The churches are awe inspiring - but it makes me appreciate the Protestant(sp?) belief in a lack of images and decoration.
Thats all for now, its time for some much needed sleep. And oh ya, I got a Google Picasa account with 1G of photo storage, so all of my pictures will be there from now on. There is a link on the right side of the page and here.

Flickr is already full...

Well I hit my monthly upload limit for Flickr today... hmm. So it looks like I might be uploading to my comp account and rigging it through that - annoying. I could sign up for another Flickr account, but that would kind of defeat the point of uploading the files to many different accounts.
We went to the Vatican Museum today, so I got to see (and sketch) the Sistene Chapel, works by Raphael, Roman statues, and everything in between. The price for this awesome experience? Two and a half hours in a very long line outside and the complete and total loss of any sort of personal bubble for the entire day. Worth it? Definitely. But I do have an understanding of why people hate public transportation. There is nothing like getting nice and intimate with the 10 other people in your vicinity on a metro bus to make you appreciate that we usually drive 1 person to an SUV in the states (if you don't live in a major city that is). The same goes during the line today, and in the Vatican museum. During a good 50% of the time (line and museum), I was elbow to elbow with the people around me, shuffling forward. It is amusing because the Romans and/or Italian visitors have a disregard for personal space and will elbow their way forward (this includes at least 50 old ladies). However, as soon as there are only foreigners around, the line resumes its nicely spaced position.
Anyways, I don't have any pictures to post because I didn't take my camera (I assumed no cameras were allowed, but mainly just no flash - oh well). This allowed me more time for sketching anyways. I'll temporarily link my Rome art to -edit, now working - here, and get a better setup soon.

Ignore the bad quality on the sketches - I'm taking pictures with my digital camera and trying my best to do some photoshop magic on them, but the lighting is still horible.

Napping on the coast of the Mediterranean

Mediterranean
Originally uploaded by Falcon -.

Judging from the title – I bet you can guess that we went to the beach today. It was quite a bit of a journey to get there time-wise, but not really that bad distance-wise. Take the #8 tram one stop, catch the (overcrowded) #3 bus until you get to the pyramid, then enter the (old) train station and board the train to Ostica… 30 min later get off and catch the #7 bus to a better beach location. As you can imagine, I was a bit tired from all of this travel – so I took a nap :]. Combined with the approximately 11 hours of sleep I got last night – my eyes are finally NOT bloodshot.
Will couldn’t make our meeting today (which prompted me to join the group headed to the beach), which is a bummer. But what’re going to do, both he and I only have so much control over our program’s schedules.
Have you ever had a chance to travel on a Metro Bus on cobblestone? If you do ever have the chance… well just don’t. It is impressively bumpy, and I feel for the driver who has to do it all day. There is no telling how many times they have to change the shocks on those things. Metro transit in general here in Rome is about the equivalent of any major city. Crowded, and filled with people who would really rather not be squished like sardines into a vehicle that has to make stops around every corner. Buses themselves are pretty well detailed with information, and finding our way around has become pretty easy. We no longer have to stick to strict instructions on how to get somewhere – and can improv as we see fit.
I’ll leave you with one last thought – Mosquitoes have 43 teeth (thanks Dad), but in Rome I think they must have 100. My body sure doesn’t like these mosquito bites very well…

Sketch Page II

IMG_2712
Originally uploaded by Falcon -.

Arch of Constantine.

Sketch Page I

IMG_2714
Originally uploaded by Falcon -.

Well the picture quality is horrible, because I took a picture with my digital camera - but here is a page from my sketchbook.

Starcraft II

I may be in Rome, but damn if Blizzard didn't finally announce the successor to (in my opinion) the best RTS to date. Check it out - here.

Pigeon Season

I forgot to mention on my last post. Two days ago, I declared it open pigeon season. Why do you ask? Well I was happily minding my own business, drawing the Roman Forum while sitting underneath the Arch of Titus, when I feel something that registers in my mind as a snowball hitting me. A split second later, when I realize that it is summer, and I’m in Rome – there is no way that I would be hit by a snowball… and wait, its not even a cold feeling. I was crapped upon by an unnamed pigeon sitting on top of the Arch. It landed on the lapel of my shirt, thankfully – and not my computer, my head, etc. I was able to mostly wash it off in one of the cool Roman water fountains nearby, but rest assured pigeon-kind – I will have my revenge.

Coliseum

IMG_2258
Originally uploaded by Falcon -.

Ya, this is me in front of the Coliseum. Its awesome, I know... you should be jealous :].

Complete with Spelling Errors

Well the free wireless connection I was bumming off of in a building nearby disappeared today – I think they got wise to the bandwidth drain… So its back to hiking it a few blocks to the internet café and paying 2 euro an hour for internet, which isn’t too bad really. On a side note, the ‘s’ key on my keyboard is acting weird, so I’ll use that as an excuse for some of my spelling errors.

So Rome is great, and it is also a good learning experience to be outside of the US for the first time. It has been several days since I last saw a one story building, or a one stop shopping type outlet. If you need food, you go to the grocery store. If you need something else, there is a specialty shop for it. And when you are walking to these shops – you are careful crossing the street. Drivers here are crazy – it seems they have traffic suggestions, not traffic laws. Its common for cars to drive down the tram lane and dodge it as it comes.

After I overcame the initial culture shock – and we went out started exploring the city – well, Rome is awesome. We’ve been to so many churches in the past two days… and the Roman Forum, and the Coliseum, the Pantheon, and the list goes on. I’m really enjoying being able to sit down and draw some of these imposing structures and amazing statues – I think it helps me to absorb the experience more. There a bit of a fantasy quality to seeing so many immense ruins and elaborate buildings all so close together.

I forgot my camera battery on the second day, but its ok because everyone else took at least 300 pictures each – at least. I also got my picture while touring the Coliseum :]. Getting around the city is a bit of an adventure, and we’ve already experienced finding our way on our own today (with pre-directions from Ms. Golden), but its not too bad. Catch a bus here, cross over and catch a tram here, etc.

I’m going to give Will Parker a call later today, apparently he is over here in Italy this summer and will be in Rome on Sunday (my day off). Hopefully we can meet up and have some lunch. Speaking of lunch – there is definitely no problem finding a resturante to eat at. Especially downtown, there is an eating place about one in every three shops it seems. Food is pretty dang good here – though sometimes my tastes disagree with the Italians (not a fan of bacon-tomato sauce on my spaghetti apparently). And it is all freshly prepared. Italians also believe in taking your time eating – and socializing while you eat. So generally you can spend well over an hour at a restaurant eating, talking, and waiting. It makes the impatient American in my want to stand up and ask for my check so I can get out of here, but its good medicine to learn to take it a little slower sometimes.

That’s all for now, I’m staying really busy. We leave at about 9am and get back around 6-7. Then you have to cook, hand wash dishes and clothes, shower, grocery shop, etc. Check out my Flickr page for pictures and sketches.

-Stephen

Made it

Well after two connecting flights, and a long 8 hour cross-Atlantic flight - here I am. My first impressions: Rome is really, really busy. And the roads are crazy - I'm being a very careful pedestrian. More stuff to come soon... if I can just remember my account log in for flickr....

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Test Post 1

Testing bogger