Ciao, Roma...

Time goes by so quickly.

It really shouldn't be surprised anymore at how fast it travels, but it still manages to amaze me.

My time here has been surreal….



Things I will miss about Rome:



1. Having easy access to wonderful places (Athens, Pompeii, Capri, Switzerland, just to name a few…) at such a low rate.

2. The intricate detail on the building surrounding me.

3. The rich history in so many beautiful buildings and ruins.

4. The FOOD. Yum, yum yum.

5. The Fountains. There isn’t much better than sitting by a fountain on a gorgeous day in Rome.

6. The Villa Borghese, and all it’s beauty, largeness, and confusion.

7. Being able to see amazing artwork (like the works of Caravaggio) in person.

8. The Weather. I am NOT excited to come to the freezing tundra that is the Midwest.

9. The Inspiration this place gives me. This place shines a light on my mind and reveals itself in my cooking, my music, my art, and more.

10. Simply being outside my box and doing something new and exciting. It’s wonderful

11. Being able to get away a little while… it made me think a lot about myself and

who I want to be and where I want to be, and everything. I don’t know how or why, but this place has managed to change me a little bit. Hopefully it’s for the better.





Things I won’t miss about Rome:



1. Angry old ladies! They need to chill, and stop starring at me and judging, and yelling at me in rapid Italian. It get's old, ladies. Real old.

2. Being away from my Family and Friends. Eh, not ok.

3. Personal Space, or lack there-of.

4. Blatant Stares—and often more---from creeper men. It seems I am a creeper magnet. I’m not a fan.

5. Pickpockets. Don’t EVEN get me started.



The good definitely outweighs the bad by far, and I hope to return someday.

London again tomorrow, then home on Tuesday! I am excited to give my family one giant hug...



Love,



Pj

Venice, It's about time I talk about you...

I reaaaally am excited to write about Greece.

I just got back today, and it is by far my favorite place I've been to...ever. However, making up for lack of blogging is quite important so I will proceed with a few ramblings and a photo attack of epic proportions of the beautiful Venice!

Melissa and I traveled to Venice and met up with another friend of mine from school, Gaby. I was blessed to be able to see the beautiful Venice with two beautiful people. This city is SO unique because of the water, water everywhere! I've never seen any place like it!


water alley! how cool.


Realto Bridge.

This place was, for a lack of a better word....enchanting. It was so amazing how the whole city just seemed to float on this body of water.



Venetian masques! I want to host a masquerade ball in Friley... It would be splendid.
Me taking a picture of Gaby taking a picture of me taking a picture of....


It's hard to take a bad picture of this place.
A night in Venice...
I see this boy with the frog everywhere on posters in Rome... I never knew what it was called or where it was until I got here. Apparently, it is creatively called "Boy With Frog" by Charles Ray.


How romantic... ha.



Take care!

Love,

Pj

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...