Thusfar!

Hello everyone!

I'm safe and extremely happy to be here. I couldn't stop smiling the biggest, dorkiest smile today. So, I've decided to keep a blog while I'm in Venice to help me keep track and remember forever the details of this trip  and to share with you but you only have to read what you think is interesting!

This picture is taken from the plane as we flew over the Alps from Zurich to Venice on SwissAir. SwissAir was fantastic and gave me so much wine on our big flight over, dinner, breakfast, personal TV with video games, movies on demand, hot towels, and a camera that let's you see the pilot's view and Swiss Chocolate at the end. Highly recommended.

 Anyways I hand wrote about Day 1 but I'm going to recap here...

I'm staying at a beautiful modernized monastary called the Don Orione (below). The Don is in a neighborhood called Dorsoduro-in between the Grand Canal and Guidecca Canal. It's all marble. There's a really cool spiral staircase up to our rooms on the third floor. I'm rooming with two really nice girls, Julianna and Corey. We have four twin beds in our big room but there's just 3 of us. There's a nice bathroom with a bidet (which I totally used last night for fun at 4 am after a night of drinking hahah). The classrooms (aula) are right on site we start tomorrow morning at 9am! Digital Photography is Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays starting at 9 and Venecian Art History is Tuesday, Thursdays starting at 9 as well. I'm going to be epically busy--but I'd hope so because this trip is 8 credit hours in 4 short weeks. Our instructors; the Andrea's and Holly seem amazing. Holly is the oldest and has lived in Venice off and on for 25 years but lives in the Boston and teaches at NEU mostly. Her and her husband moved here first along time ago with their yong children because her husband got a water biology position (makes sense that's all this place is!)

I woke up extremely early Saturday (7 am) to the sounds of bells, birds, and the water fountain down in the courtyard. Had breakfast in the Don and went on a mini adventure with Melissa and the Katie's to Santa Maria delle Salute (health) near Ponte dogana (customs) and to S. Marco neighborhood across the Ponte (bridge) Accademia I thought this was a big deal but you'll never hear about this bridge again because I now realize I'll be crossing it everyday. It spans the grand canal and is made of wood. A sweet, old gap-toothed Australian man traveling alone had me a take a picture of him there today. 

Anyways, we had a group meeting about classes at 11 and then we all had lunch (4 lil tapas and a mini salami sandwich and birra Domani beer for me). We took the #62 vaparetto boat to an island in the lagoon called Lido where there is a beach. I saw two sets of boobs, one young and one old and fat haha. While there, we also watched the bikers (including Lance Armstrong!) race in the Giro d'Italia. We went to dinner and the bars last night--always a good bonding experience. Kamikaze shots for a toast to NEU PHOTO VENICE '09. This is the 3rd year the program has run. I bought a big ass bottle of wine for 4.90 euro that should last me a while.

Today I woke up at 1 p.m (woops, but so did everyone else!) and got bruschetta and espresso for lunch with the T.A's, Annie and Vanessa. Both freshly graduated and here for FREE! After being with the group non stop for a while I decided to strike out on my own for the afternoon to explore and do our first assignment; get all of the touristy kinds of photos out of our systems! So I walked over to Piazza San Marco (epic!), the Giardini Pubblici (public gardens), took the vaparetto to the Fondamente Nuove stop (North section of Venice I'm on the south of the island), Ponte Rialto, and got lost just for fun in multiple neighborhoods. 

I can see why in a month I will know this place well--it's actually sort of small, like Boston. Big lil' city. Yes there are lots of tourists but not where I'm staying. We have a month pass for the vaparetto--the water subway. It's like the T in that the card taps like the CharlieCard and you wait in the station (on a dock). There are tons of lines that are color-coded and numbered. Instead of inbound and outbound it's sort of like up and down the Grand Canal or counter clockwise or clockwise around the island. The above picture with the big yellow building on the right is taken on the Ponte Accademia overlooking the Grand Canal.

I thought this marking on a side of a church was cute :)

Now I know why they gave us the assignment to get all of these sorts of pictures out of our system. I must have taken 50 bridge pictures today haha. I took 253 pictures around the city today. We went to dinner near the bars we went to last night. I had shrimp scampi and salad and gladly passed on drinks tonight. After all, it's a school night for me! I also had crem caramel gelatto! 

Whew, that was alot. It won't be that long everyday I just had a lot of start-up things to say! Well, Happy Mother's day everyone-- I iChatted with my family today it was really cute.

 

Buona sera!

Peace 'n' Love