This is Embarassing...

Really?

Have I REALLY not updated in almost a month?

How Disappointing.

Meanwhile, I've been traveling around Europe.

I know it's a little sad that I'm updating about my North Field Trip, when I've already had my South Field trip that was a month later...but I assume you'll be okay :)


We were forewarned about the Nastiness that is Naples. They were right...but the pizza there was utterly DELICIOUS. only 1.5 euros for a pizza slice way to large for me to eat... I don't even know what was on it...but it was more delicious than any of the pizza I've had in Rome...ever. That's saying alot. The amount of pizza I've had since stepping on Italian ground is mind-boggling. I wish I had a picture, but I was too busy having the most delicious pizza I've ever had. Anyways, Naples kindof smelled...apparently some of my classmates got harassed by some rude Napolians...we visited a museum with some Old Pompeii stuff and called it a day and headed towards our next stop: Sorrento.





We ate at the most DELICIOUS restaurant. I realize i've almost only talked about food...but such is life. It was the first meal I had over my 10 euro limit and it was divine. 4 courses. Delicious. Wonderful.

In the middle of our stay in Sorrento, we made a trip to Capri!


Capri was too beautiful for words. We went on a chairlift, walked around and really just soaked in the beauty of this place.










Then...Pompeii!
Many years ago, when I was homeschooled and my mother taught us about Pompeii I never actually even thought I'd ever get to actually go there.

It was pretty cool to say the least.











I actually have walked the roads of Pompeii.

That fact still takes my breath away.



Venice, Parents Visit, Northern Field trip, still to come... but for now..homework.
The amount of homework they give is here is absurd. I'm just putting that out there.
However, It must be done.


Love,

Pj

I am an Original Masterpiece...

Sifting through old unread messages in my gmail account,
I came across a link that my adopted Uncle (Mr. Beckley) sent me.

http://www.tangle.com/view_video?viewkey=849dc7c803281df74bb2

It featured a skit about how difficult it would be to chisel out everything that is wrong and unGodly out of our lives. It got me thinking...how much would I have to "chisel" out in my life? Sometimes I worry if there would be anything left...

It's scary to think how much I would need to take out of what I consider "me". It's scary to see if anything recognizable of "me" would remain. The skit assured that what would be left would be an original masterpiece. The masterpiece that God intended for us to be when he created us.

I place "me" in quotation marks, because I wonder if this "me" I think I am is my old or new self, or some combination thereof? Have I truly died to my old self? Should I really hold onto these features or parts of what I have accepted to be my personality if they are not of God?

I feel that one of the biggest thing I struggle with when trying to get closer to God is fear of losing myself. I'm afraid that I won't be the Original Paula that I've grown to like over the years if I relinquish these bad things and personality traits in my life.

But if you really think about it...that's stupid. Why wouldn't I want to be a better me?
Why wouldn't I want to leave my old crappy self behind?







But I guess if it were easy, it wouldn't be that big of a deal.



Love,

Pj

Cribs....Roman Style

Finally, it's the long-awaited episode of Cribs! I finally got around to editing it...
I thought I'd give you all a chance to see where I stay here!

Love,

Pj



p.s. We made the beginning like that because when we first arrived at our apartment we couldnt get any of our keys to work (well, except actually mine...) we've now figured out how to jiggle and turn them so it only takes a minute or two to enter... And our buzzer doesn't work for our apartment, apparently...it instead connects to another one? oops..

O, Oded...

These past few days were a blur. As I mentioned in my previous entry,
Oded Ezer came here to spread some of his typographic knowledge by giving us assignments and lectures. I got really excited about this workshop because it was more open and allowed me to work with video! Print work becomes so dull to me now that Video has entered into my life...

Yesterday we were asked to create yet another letter. This time, we worked separately.
Each of us chose one letter, and had do choose a person whose name started with that letter. Then, we had to reflect that person's style, essence or look or personality in the letter form in 3-d. Also, we had to represent this 3-d typographic sculpture in 2-d as well.

I chose "O" and Oded for my personality. I wanted to convey his style of design work (how he chooses to peel off letter forms often) as well as his layered, frayed, and densely packed personality. It was a lot of time spent into both creating the letter and the video. I presented this morning, My project and video went over really well... here it is:

This Entry is Brought to you by the Letter H.

Oded Ezer, a famous experimental typographer ( http://www.odedezer.com/ ) made the long trek from Israel to here to work with us for the next few days on typography. We were asked to do a project before he came. We were assigned to create a letterform out of any material, take it somewhere where it clearly doesnt belong as well as somewhere 'ordinary' and document it and people's reactions via photograph or film. I ofcourse chose film...

You're beautiful, Assisi...it's true.

This post is long overdue. I can readily admit this.

Upon entering Assisi it was evident...this was the most adorable town I have ever laid my naked eyes upon. Everything is cute. Peaceful. It makes Rome look like an obnoxious cousin that has a "wonderful personality".

The light here was perfect. Such a pure light...

Picture attack:

















Serendipitous Sorrento, Nasty Naples, Poor Pompeii and Captivating Capri this past weekend... oh, that'll have to wait another post! A real one. with more than a few sentences...

Love,

Pj

Packaging, Primo, and Parents.

Life has been busy. The majority of this business is filled with ridiculous amounts of homework.

The first portion of my week/last weekend was spent on this beaut:



This might look easy enough to do... but trust me, around 30 laborious hours of designing a pattern, cutting, redesigning, failing, redesigning again, and cutting....

It was rough to say the least. We only had 6 days to complete it! We were asked to draw 2 class-suggested nouns from a hat. I "Flip Flops" and "Pantheon Dome", Immediately throwing out Flip Flops. I love the Oculus of the Pantheon, So I knew I wanted to make sure that was conveyed as well as the elaborate and delicate detail in the interior of the structure. It was convenient I knew so much about the dome already because of our Densely packed Art History class, so research was already done.

I am not a fan at all of packaging, making things out of paper really isn't my forte. Because of this I have to work extra hard...so it was a struggle, but definitely worth it.


The second portion of this week was filled with a "Packaging workshop". Primo Angeli, world famous Designer from San Fransico, came for a 3 day visit here in Rome to work with us on a packaging project. We were divided into 6 groups, and were asked to select an Italian product and redesign and innovate the packaging.

OK, so this is kindof cool. Really really cool actually. However, the crazy thing is they expect a phenomenal finished innovative package redesign that should take weeks or even months to do.... in. 3. days.

So this means 3 very restless days and nights. This means 3 days of shirked real meals. This means 3 Late nights at the studio. This means 3 days of rough, intense, depressing, crazy, stressful, rediculousness... But I liked how everything turned out. Primo (or should I say Mr. Angeli, He's old enough to be my grandfather) is a hilarious, blunt and kindhearted and sometimes harsh man with phenomenal experience and an eye for talent and innovation. It was great to work with him, and I was astonished to see how blown away he was with all of our finished projects. It was a great experience, and although I am exhausted I'm really pleased that we had the privilege to have this "workshop".


2 very time consuming projects in the last week. I'm spent. But it's off to Assisi early tomorrow morning for a day trip. Pictures will ensue.

Love,

PJ

P.S. My parents are coming to visit me next month. While I don't want to rush my stay here, I am beyond excited about seeing their lovely faces. I miss 'em.

P.P.S. "Cribs" Video to come soon, so you can get a nice tour of my apartment! I'm half way through the editing process...