After a semester-long hiatus from my blog I'm back in Syracuse and ready to blog my little heart out. I have so much to catch up on because... about a week and a half ago I returned from a four month long study abroad adventure in Florence, Italy! My semester abroad was really a life-changing time and I can't wait to share my experience with everyone.
Although my heart is breaking because I'm no longer in Firenze, all hope is not lost. For the first time I am spending the summer at Syracuse.
My plan for this blog in the next few months is to report the weekly happenings of Syracuse in the summer and supplement it with tales from abroad.
To begin: My First Week of Summer in Syracuse
I moved in on Sunday and will be staying here until next May. While its strange to be in Syracuse without my usual group of friends, the first few days here have been great so far. I'm temporarily subletting a room from a friend until the lease begins on my apartment begins in the beginning of June. Where I'm currently staying is a really big house which is great because I have a lot of roommates and consequently a lot of new friends. (Whats not so great is my attic bedroom which, despite the cold, cold Syracuse winters, is blistering hot in the heat and humidity of Syracuse's late May weather.)
I'm taking classes in the first 6- week Summer Session. Syracuse offers a glass fusing class that I have been trying to take since my first semester freshman year when I had a foundations class with the professor who teaches it Carmel Nicoletti. However, whenever I had time to fit it into my schedule, the class was either not offered that semester or it had been filled by the time I got to register for classes. Not this summer however. University College is offering it this summer and I am so happy to finally be able to attend. The class meets twice a week (Mo&W) from 6-9 pm at the Comart building. It is a class of mixed age and skill level which offers a lot of different opinions and point of views. (This is always the type of class I like best because you can learn so much from your classmates). This week we learned about the different types of glass for fusing and the forms it comes in, how to cut the glass, prepare it for firing (including cleaning the glass and layering it to the proper thickness for the best firing possible), and how to load the kiln.
I am also taking a ceramics course in wheel throwing. It is a very small class and it is also of mixed sill level and age. There are only two other true beginners in the class in addition to myself. There is also a very sweet Scottish woman at an advanced level and a ceramics major who just transferred to SU. The class meets Tu&Th afternoons. Our professor, a ceramics graduate student, taught we beginners the basics of throwing vessels on the wheel including wedging the clay, centering, and raising a form. It's really amazing how much improvement can be made in just two days. On Tuesday my forms were short and wobbly but by the end of yesterday's class I was able to make some taller, more even shapes. Our homework for next Tuesday is to have 8 quality cups made, which may not seem like a lot but is actually quite a bit of work.
In addition to taking classes I am also have a work study position at the Admissions Office for VPA. I love talking to and helping prospective students and incoming freshman so the job is a perfect fit!
The second order of the day: Orientation Weekend in Florence
My flight to Florence left from New Ark Airport on the afternoon of January 11. (I took a group flight arranged by SU which was really a stress free experience and I am so happy that they offer that.) After a short layover in Rome, we arrived in Florence at Jan 12, 7:10 am. I have to admit the first few days in Florence were pretty rough, not from homesickness or anything like that, but from real sickness. I must have eaten something funny on the plane ride over because for the first 2 or 3 days there I felt so sick. Fortunately, I met a really, really sweet girl from the University of Vermont who was so understanding and so helpful. And this is one of the really cool things about studying abroad-you meet people from all over. Of course there were many SU students there (which is also cool because now I have a lot of new friends from all over SU beyond VPA) but there were also people from all over the country as far away as Alaska, and even all over the world (one of my good friends in the program was Ecuadorian).
The first days were filled with lots of orientation meetings preparing us with what to expect from the school, the city, our host families and things like that(students in studio arts also have the option of staying in an apartment but I chose to stay with a family which was the best choice I made for this trip). Many important forms had to be filled out, including those for our permesso di soggiorno-the residence permit. Classes had to be enrolled in (and although the enrollment system there is seemingly a bit haphazard-enrollment is not on line but rather you sign your name on a piece of paper for each class you want to take-somehow it all worked out smoothly). And of course there was sight seeing to be done. Florence has so much history to offer and on our first few days there it was always such an excitement to stumble on one of the major sights of the city (such as Santa Croce) while trying to find our way from here to there. And even to the last day these sights never failed to kindle excitement and wonder in me.
That first weekend we also met our host families which was scary and exciting. But my host family deserves a blog entry of their own so I'll wait until another date to write more about them.
Views from the cupola of the Duomo: Orientation Weekend
Me on the right with my friend Sam
Santa Croce
Have a great Memorial Day weekend everyone!
Until next time,
Gitta
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