I’m not really known for staying with things a long time (for example with 3 and a half semesters left I just dropped my econ minor). Those of you that have been following might have noticed that there are constantly long breaks of posting for me. However I return to post eventually. When I noticed that I was in the 90’s of number of posts in the fall during my first few weeks in Italy I realized that I can have that 100th post be a photograph from my travels so I was determined to reach that 100th post. And so here it is, my 100th post!

In honor of my 100th post, I’m including pictures that I took of the Eiffel Tower during my second trip this semester to Paris. (My cousin is studying this semester in Parigi (Paris) and I have taken advantage of her apartment.) During my second trip, I was traveling with a close friend from Bates and really wanted to take her to see the Eiffel Tower at night. My cousin and I had heard this rumor that there was a light show at night in honor of the Eiffel Tower’s 120th birthday but we thought it was just the hourly flashing of white lights. So we took my friend to the tower for her to see the hourly flashing, watched it and took tons of pictures. Then we heard music and the side opposite of us was lighting up in time with the music. We ran under the tower and watched at the tower lit up with multi colored lights and continued to take pictures (It reminded us of the rainbow road course from Mario Court). It couldn’t have been more magical or perfect for our last night in Paris!

I’ve been m.i.a. again but this time with reason. I have not stopped takeing pictures but have really just been getting caught up in this semester. It’s hard enough just to fit work in between travels around Europe or fun days around Florence. So far this semester I have been to Sorrento, Capri, Positono, Pompeii, Pienza (twice), Siena, Arezzo, Pisa, Paris (Twice), Bologna, Venice, Perugia, and Orvieto. I also have trips to Interlaken (Switzerland), Rome, and Torino lined up. I’m going to try to post more frequently but if not, I will do a wave of posts when I am back in the states and looking through my pictures thinking about all the fun times I have had.

In honor of all my recent traveling (mainly hours spent on a train) I am posting a picture I took of the sunset on the way back from Perugia (we went for a chocolate festival for a day). I like it because of the way the backlight greenery has blurred to create a cool effect with the sunset in the back of it.

The one country in Europe that I have always wanted to go to (think mainly because of the food) was to visit Italy. I’ve been it England, Amsterdam, Paris, and Spain (twice) but not Italy. Because Italy had always been my frist choice of place to go in Europe, it was my obvious choice for place to study for a semester abroad. So this desire to go to Italy as made me say this to myself once again “I’m in Italy…WOW!” I truly can’t believe I’m here, let alone studying here. Someone needs to pinch me so I know this is real.

While in Italy I am going to take as much advantage as I can of the ability to travel during out three day weekends. My first extended trip (i.e. not a day trip) was with my friend Jenny to the Amalfi Coast where we spent time in Capri, Sorrento, Posotano (sp?), and Pompei. The cities were all pretty but Pompei was unbelievable solely because of what it is. I had studied the discovery of Pompei in my art history classes looking at how it influenced art during the Neoclassical, Rococo and Romanticism Periods, and it was therefore one of the places I had to go visit. So as I walked through the ruins of Pompei, I had to keep telling myself what I have been telling myself since I have been here “I can’t believe I’m here” and “this is for real.” The following pictures are come Pompei.

When I fell in love with Italy I had this idea of it being old, like in the movies. Of course that is not what it’s like at all because there are tourists and cars everywhere. This makes it difficult for me to take the pictures that I have always dreamt about taking; a picture of an older building that you cannot tell what time period it is in. Yet I have figured it out and am thus taking a lot of pictures of deserted streets or the upper portion of the building. In addition about 75% of the pictures I am taking with my D 40 are black and white. This picture is from the Town of Assisi where I spent the day yesterday with some friends, where I spent a lot of time taking pictures in black and white, and just taking a lot of pictures (I was constantly behind my friends).

Two days ago was my fifth day in Florence, but my first day without some orientation meeting to go to. Of course I headed out to the Uffizi with my roommate and my D40 tucked safely in my purse. But in the end I only took three pictures of a deserted alley with it (I did however take some stealth photos from inside the Uffizi my little camera and I will post those later). I was disappointed with my lack of use of my D40. I love the camera and I know it wants to be used here.

But yesterday, when my host mother and her son took us to the Piazza Michelangelo, it was pulled in to excessive practice. I took colorful pictures of amazing views of Florence and black and white photographs of churches and marble.

Although the view was amazing, and those pictures clearly show the city I will be studying in for the nest 3+ months, I like the black and white ones a lot better. The first is a section of the façade of a church near Piazza Michelangelo. The second is the back of a grave marker at a cemetery at the same church; supposedly there are a lot of famous people buried there. The last picture is of staircase and marble banister leading down ward from that church to Piazza Michelangelo. My D40 is enjoying all the sites that Florence has to offer.

I’ve been in Florence (or as the locals call it Firenze) for about four and a half days and have only really seen a small section of the city. This is not because I do not want to, I would love to spend a day walking around every niche and cranny of the center of town, but because I seem to be repeating the beginning of freshmen year. We have had meeting after meeting to make sure that we are all set for the next 3+ months we will spend here.

Out of all the important places to see as of Thursday afternoon, when I moved into my home stay, the only thing I could  check of my list was the Ponte Vecchio (in case you don’t know what that is, it’s a famous bridge with shops on it). And then Friday afternoon I finally made it to Il Duomo. Seeing it reminded me that a building that is as large and has as much detailing as it does cannot have its presence justified in a picture, not even a group of pictures.

As you’re walking down the street, it’s just there at the end of the street, sitting like a wall. You almost run into and you’re not expecting it to be as massive as it is. ( According to my guide book it is the world’s 4^thlargest cattedral and took about 150 years to complete. You look up and awe at its façade and then look back to the actual dome portion and have a it fans out at the tip to create the cross shape that cathedrals are built in. (The art historian in me is coming out, I can feel it.) The cross is then topped with a large cupola (dome). The decoration of the façade is breathe taking. In addition to the geometric layering and placement of colors, there are navati (naves) with carved marble statues of saints.

I’m obviously in awe of the building and am happy to post my first picture from Italy of Il Duomo.

(Feel free to correct my Italian).

These are some pictures of my neighbors new garden. The worked for three years on creating this Chinese Scholar Garden. I went over quickly this after noon to look at it before I left because it was officially completed yesterday.

The pathway goes in a zig zag to make it harder for the demons to travel.

This is the gateway into the garden.

This is one of two dragons (that’s bamboo in the background) that protects the garden from demons.

I leave for Florence Italy tomorrow. I’m a little bit nervous to go, but overall very excited to go! I can’t wait to take all the pictures of buildings and of all the different places I plan on going outside Florence alone. I have no idea where in the city I will be living, all I know is that I will be living with a family.

So here I go, flying across the pond to live in a different country for about 100+ days and take a trip of a lifetime. Look forward to all the pictures I will post from the trip in a special, “Semester Abroad” Category.

So even though I stopped posting during the past few months, I never really stopped taking pictures. The following pictures are from a lake called Upper Lake about two blocks away from my house that I took when I was taking my dog for a walk. It was a beautiful spring day, and the pictures do not feel like they were taking by a lake surrounded by houses but more in the wilderness.

My beer bottle project and collecting is still happening, but a lot more informally. I currently have 9 different bottles (So 90 more to do!).

This summer I discovered Sam Adams Summer Ale, which is probably now my favorite type of beer. It’s really good, I don’t know if I can explain how good it is. Since it is a summer beer I took a picture of the bottle placed in the sand, which I thought was fitting for a summer beer.