go cyclones!

This Saturday is the infamous Iowa-Iowa State football game.  It happens every year and every year the Iowa Hawkeyes are predicted to win, and more often than it seems it should be possible, Iowa State wins!  In the last 4 times Iowa has played in Ames (at Iowa State), the Cyclones have won!  Since it is again our turn to host the evil Hawkeyes, I think that we again have a good shot at winning!  While I am very excited to be here for the game, I will admit that I’m dreading dealing with the Iowa fans.  Rude, obnoxious, and downright mean are good ways to describe them as a whole.  Just hoping they aren’t too disrespectful when I’m working at the bar this Friday and Saturday night!

So back to schoolwork for now – I have PLENTY of it – but I’ll see you all either at Headliners Friday and Saturday night, or tailgating in the student lots outside of Jack Trice Stadium on Saturday morning….hopefully I’ll be there about 7am.  Can’t wait!  Gooooooo Cyclones!!!!

it begins

The semester from hell has officially begun.  This holiday weekend I was supposed to spend one of the days in Waterloo visiting my family.  They are fun, so I was pretty excited to get out of Ames for a day and enjoy myself.  Sadly, the amount of homework and projects I have to work on has trumped my need to escape Ames.  I knew this semester would be really rough, mostly because I’m taking a heavy class load that includes two studios (very time-consuming classes) and need to continue work on my thesis.  At this point I think that my thesis will be lucky to see ANY work done on it before December 18th (the last day of finals).

Some of my current projects include:  designing a kiosk for the North Grand Mall (in Ames), which wouldn’t be so terrible if it didn’t require a 1″ scale model to go along with it.  Models take forever!!  For my graphic design studio, we are working on designing a signage system for the College of Design building.  And for my architecture class – which is a lecture – we somehow also have a design project.  Last year they designed modular mini-homes.  This year we are designing a house.  For a real client.  That he actually wants to build.  Yikes!  So I’m on a team of 4 architecture students + me.  I’m also reading a ton of extremely boring books for my research methods class (aka: how to do research correctly).  And my last class is all about culture and how it relates to and affects design.  I’ll have to teach class for 1 1/2 hours on a related topic of my choice for my cultures class in about a month.  I think I’m going to talk about the forced divide of cultures within Berlin, Germany during the time that the Berlin Wall was standing and different governments ruled each side of the city.

So that’s a little taste of what I’ll be working on school-wise in the next month or so!  In my “spare” time I’ll be working, hanging out with Lucy, and missing my friends in Rome.  And MAYBE a little bit of tailgating in there….after all, football season has officially begun!  Go Cyclones!!!

breakfast time

I’ve been this way since I was a kid…..and the habit persists today:

Who else can tell from memory what’s on their cereal box?  I am a Fruity Pebbles girl, so obviously there is Fred and Barney and my latest box also has a promotion for a movie.  Yep, breakfast time is HIGHLY exciting at my house….or not.

back to school

Reality has officially begun in the form of my last year of graduate school.  Day 1 has gone well so far.  I managed to wake up at 6am to go for a run and take a shower before class as planned.  I made it to class in the correct location on time.  I even got out of class early!  But….I only had 1 class today (3 tomorrow) and it seems that the edition listed in the syllabus of my class for one of our textbooks doesn’t exist.  Strange.  I wasn’t able to avoid a nap, so here’s hoping I’m still able to get to bed early tonight to do it all again (run included) tomorrow.

While I’ve been dreading this semester – as it should be my busiest yet – I am glad to finally get it started so I can quit worrying about how awful it really will be.  And, in 16 weeks, it’ll be over!  Also happening in the next 16 weeks – some of my classmates from last year are headed to Rome to study for the semester.  I am very excited for them and can’t wait to do some mental revisiting through their blogs and photos!

To anyone in school – good luck on your own first week of school.  To anyone finished – I can’t wait to be there with you this time next year!

new job!

Upon my return to Ames I began looking for a new bartending job.  I could have returned to work at Es Tas in campustown (where I’ve worked the past 2 years), but I was hoping to find a different job that had better hours for me….and maybe better tips potential!  Though I’m regressed a bit in job title, my new job is getting me the hours I want, live music on site, and a whole new crew of fun coworkers.  I began cocktail waitressing at Headliners in campustown last night…and so far so good!  Looking forward to a busier night tonight thanks to a reggae-ish band that’s playing.  So if anyone is in the Ames area on a Friday or Saturday night, stop by as I’ll more than likely be working and there will probably be some live music to check out also.  See you there!

withdrawal episode 1

Last night I dreamt that I was at the grocery store and stumbled across an entire section of Nutella.  (Nutella is a hazelnut-flavored chocolate spread that I fell in love with in Rome.  It is available in the States, but I haven’t sought it out yet.)  In my dream I bought the huge jar of Nutella and a big pack of little biscotti crackers.  The “big jar” is typically seen at gelaterias that also make crepes with Nutella in them.  This jar is literally the size of my entire head.  When I woke up I had a big rush of Rome withdrawal – not the best way to start the day!

rose-tinted memories

In the week that I’ve been home, I’ve spent much of my time appreciating the beauty of the farm I grew up on.  I don’t think it’s ever affected me this strongly before.  Everything I see here has a bit of nostalgia attached to it.  Even things that have some fairly unpleasant memories attached to them – namely some farm chores that I loathed doing as a child – have become at least a little rose-tinted to me this week.

Here are a few things I captured with my camera while taking a walk about the farm one evening with Lucy (my dog).

the hog feeders we used to feed our 4-H pigs about a decade ago

i can always count on fresh raspberries to be picked and eaten on the spot

every time new cement was poured on the farm, our names and the current year were written in it - I was 2 years old when this was poured

the pine trees that line the road

a lilac bush my mother and I planted before my high school graduation

the remnants of the tree from which our tree swing hung

sunset through the west grove

i’m baaAAAaaack

First, let me apologize for not updating my blog for a week!  As you may have guessed, I have made it back to Iowa.  The trip was long and involved a lot of running around the Philadelphia airport between flights.  I made my flights though and was greeted at the Minneapolis airport by both of my parents.  This was a surprise as usually it is just my dad who does the airport pick up.  We stopped at a McDonald’s where I proceeded to eat one of the new 1/3 pound burgers – all by myself.  Maybe Italy DID stretch out my stomach a bit!

Now that I’m back, I’ve been spending most of the last few days at home with my family.  I walked beans on the farm on Sunday, repaired a curtain on one of my dad’s hog buildings Monday, and cooked a pot roast on Tuesday.  It’s been fun!  It’ll be nice to be back in my own apartment in Ames next week, but I sure am enjoying quality time with the family for now.  Tonight I even got a wok pan (like I blogged about wanting before) compliments of my wonderful mother.  Very excited to use it!

While I already miss Italy, I’ll admit that the cornfields are a welcome sight.  It’s nice to be home

the final stretch

With only two days remaining in my big summer abroad, it’s definitely time to get nostalgic.  All I have left to do here is eat a few more meals out, drink some vino, and pack up.  Right now I’m not too upset about going home, but I know that it is due in large part to my inability to deal with the heat here.  As soon as I am on that plane and settled in for the 9 hour and 40 minute trip to Philadelphia, I wouldn’t be surprised if I teared up a little.

This summer has been a dream come true for me and I couldn’t be more grateful for it.  I have landed on a thesis project that I truly feel passionate about thanks to some European retail inspiration.  I have seen places I’d only read about up until now – and many more that I had no idea even existed until I stumbled upon them.  While I’ve lived outside of Iowa before, living in a new country whose first language was not English, was an incredible experience.  I still don’t really speak Italian, but I do know a lot of words now and am pretty good at deciphering written words.  Verbally, I’m often pretty lost still.  I have a great sense of satisfaction at how well I’ve adapted to living here in Italy.

Comparing my time in Italy to my three weeks of backpacking, I am extremely pleased with myself.  Immersing myself in a new country with a new language about every two days for three weeks put me on international information overload.  But I handled it and believe I’m a better person for it.  After living in New York City I’ve often been known to say “if I can live in NYC, I can live anywhere in the world”.  I think this summer I’ve proven that to be true!

In addition to the wonderful places I’ve been and the things I’ve seen and done, the new friendships I’ve made this summer have truly made it unforgettable.  Some new friends, I just spent a day with and traded contact information in case of our paths crossing in the future.  Others, I’ve kept in touch with long after we parted ways.  And still others I’ll be seeing again – some of them quite often!  My housemates and I already have plans to tailgate together during the football games this fall and I can’t wait!

For those of you back home, be prepared for me to talk about my summer…a lot.  I also may use Italian phrases.  I’ll be trading in ‘thank you’ for ‘grazie’ and hello/goodbye for ‘ciao’….and I’m certain there will be others.  So please be patient with me as my return home will be a little like a breakup.

So for now, I’ll say goodbye.  Italy, I’ll always love you, but it’s time for me to go home now.  I’ll treasure the many tokens I’ve picked up along the way (mainly shoes) and the thousands of memories you’ve given me.  Arrividerci!

“cold” in july

I’ve never understood how it’s possible, but here I am again, coming down with a head cold in July.  With only 4 days left in Roma, it couldn’t be worse timing.  I take that back – this could be happening during a week that I need to pull multiple all-nighters to finish projects for school.  I’ve been there, and that is no fun at all!  Though feeling like crap while unable to escape 90+ degree weather is a pretty close second.

Now I’ll get back to writing my literature review!  Possibly a nap later as between the oppressive heat and this lovely head cold, I’m already exhausted.  Then out to eat somewhere new in Trastevere with Sarah and Madeline later tonight.  And then maybe, just maybe, I’ll get to sleep before 4am tonight.  It’s been too hot for me to do much besides toss and turn before 4 or 5am during the last week, and it heats up again by about 9am, making it difficult to sleep in either.