Zürich

Ok...Don't kill us. Marvin and I loved Zürich so much that we spent most of the day dreaming about how we could move there. Resigning ourselves to the next year or two to studying German so that he could get a good Architect job there and I could sing at the Zürich opern haus.

Take a look at the pictures, I think you'll fall in love with it too!

http://homepage.mac.com/jeffreylindquist/PhotoAlbum12.html

Lucerne

Marvin and I weren't as impressed with Lucerne as we thought we would. We were expecting Heidi-esque views and ended up finding a modern small city. Instead of tooling around the city a second day we decided to go back to Zürich and explore that city.

Here are some cool shots from Lucerne. We saw our first Jean Nouvel building of the trip. Two more to come in Paris!

http://homepage.mac.com/jeffreylindquist/PhotoAlbum11.html

Tivoli - Part 3

Finally...We ended up hiking through the Villa Georgiana. It was a hot, hot day. Pretty hike, but I'm glad we took water.

http://homepage.mac.com/jeffreylindquist/PhotoAlbum10.html

Tivoli - Part 2

Marvin and I caught Villa D'Este on one of the rare nights in the Summer they open the Villa at night and light the fountains.

http://homepage.mac.com/jeffreylindquist/PhotoAlbum9.html

Tivoli - Part 1

Ok...

Too many pictures to load onto blogger. Check out the first part of our Tivoli trip.

http://homepage.mac.com/jeffreylindquist/PhotoAlbum8.html

Marvin Arrivata!

He's here!

Now it's onto Tivoli e nostra vacanza!

Ciao!

Brandylions?

There's so many flowers in Rome. Well, flowering trees, which for me is a little unusual to see. It's not an orgy of flowers, but it does seem like you can't get very far without seeing some color. There's almost as much flowers as graffiti!


This is the little garden in the courtyard of one of the school's building. I go there during breaks to sit and chill out. It helps to refocus away from the class.


Some oranges in the courtyard


One up close


The terrace on one of the buildings next to the school


A shot looking down on two of the terraces of the school.


Some more of the color


And again...


a little closer


Ah... Here's some "color" of a different kind. Jack and Ryan on the town the night before the Feast of Assumption (that's the day when the town shuts down and everyone goes to the beach. I went and have the burns to prove it!)


Jimena and Anne (I wont tell you about Jimena's embarrassing night. Too drunk!)


Jack, Jessica and Ryan


Jocelyn wasn't ready


Now she is!


Ah...One of the many beakers of wine that Jocelyn and I shared


Anna finally consented to a picture. She usually ducks and covers.


As mentioned, yesterday was the height of the Ferragosto, or August Holidays. The city pretty much shut down to celebrate. Most people go to the beach for the day and I was no exception. Anne and I went early in the morning and Jimena and Jessica joined us later (Jimena was a little "sick"). I didn't really get burnt to a crisp. I was a little uncomfortable last night, but am all cleared up today! I think it'll be a nice tan :-)

I think I'm done with touring Rome. Today I'm going to be doing some laundry at a place near my school and tomorrow I'll be packing. Marvin is coming on Friday and we're going straight out to Tivoli in the afternoon. I'm not sure when I'll be able to blog again after tomorrow, so my vacation pictures with Marvin may have to wait until after we return! We'll see if we can get to an internet cafe somewhere along the way, but I have a feeling that Marvin and I will be doing a lot of touring, and not a lot of sitting!

Ciao!

Lazy Weekend

No pictures.

Sorry everyone, but it was a LAZY weekend. I went out with a bunch of people from school on Friday and spent most of Saturday recovering! Piazza di Campo dei Fiori is a lot of fun on the weekend :) On Saturday, my roommate and I did finally drag ourselves out to Villa Ada. Villa Ada is a huge park not too far from where we live. I wish I had known about it before, because it's a great spot to do some walking/hiking. Lots of trails and very quiet.

Sunday I did get into town briefly and saw a beautiful small oval shaped church called Cheisa di Sant'Andrea al Quirnale. It was very nice, but I forgot my camera so it'll have to stay a memory! The rest of the day was spent napping and getting dinner with my roommate and another guy from school.

Lazy, lazy day!

Tomorrow I'm going to go to the beach with a few people from school. It should be packed since tomorrow is a National Religious holiday in Italy! Apparently everyone goes to the beach :)

Churches & Organs & Doors, oh my!

Before we get started, here is a shot of my whole class. Fun folks! Some from Holland, Germany, Spain, England and France. I'm the only American!


Yesterday I had a whirlwind tour of a bunch of churches and different historic parts of Roma. One of my classmates from Holland brings her students here every year for a tour (she's studying Italian to help her understand and communicate better with the locals when she comes). Trix took me around to some of the churches and other sites ieri pomeriggio (yesterday afternoon).

Santa Maria Maggiore. This church is important, because this was where the Pope supposedly saw Maria and it snowed in the Summer. Now, every year, they drop white rose petals from the ceiling to reenact the snow.


The organ at Santa Maria Maggiore


And another one off in the wings.


Basilica di San Giovanni in Latereno: A statue of St. Bartholomew


There are 10 sacred doors in Rome. They are opened one day every 10 years. The Pope will go around to each of the churches where they are and open them. Many people make this day the focus of a pilgrimage. It is said that if you walk through all 10 doorways you will be cleansed of all your sins.

Well...4 more years before the next time they open. I have plenty of time to sin!


The apostles on top of Basilica di San Giovanni in Latereno


Me in front of the Basilica di San Giovanni in Latereno


Next door there is a building that houses the Sacred Steps (Scale sacra). These are the supposed 2? steps that Jesus walked up to stand in front of Herod to stand judgment (Lucky Barrabas!). Many people come to these steps and pray for those who are very sick or those in need. You're supposed to pray on each step and stay on your knees all the way to the top!


Statues of Romulus and Remus as young (naked) men.


Ummmm...Don't know who this is.


Athena, with pidgeons.


I caught these two amorous statues stealing a kiss in front of the window of one of the museums.


The original statue of Romulus and Remus suckling at the tit of the wolf.


A little closer.


Me beside the statue. It's not really that big.


The Pantheon! Impressive, no?!?


A funny thing happened on the way to the...


Ummm...Then Andrew met us and we got drunk. Ciao!

Blogger è in italiano!

Today I'm trying something new. I'm typing my blog using the Italian interface. Scrivi, crea, modifica post... It's all pretty similar and easy to understand, but it's also nice to know that I know what it means :)

Yesterday was very relaxed. I had my first private lesson with my teacher and already my spoken Italian is greatly improved. I went back to my apartment after class and did some laundry and practiced. Just like last Friday, I realized that the study I've done so far has already vastly improved my comprehension and pronunciation! It's very exciting to finally have a grip on the language that was such a mystery to me for so long! Italian is supposed to be the easiest language in which to sing, but for some reason it wasn't for me. Those days are over!

Ok. No pictures to share today. Tomorrow I'll post a few snapshots of my class and some of the sights in Roma. I'm off to see some churches today!

Villa Borghese

School is getting better and better. I'm understanding more and more and I'm more conversant. I am starting to be able to communicate the basics, though I'm not great at using the verbs correctly. I'm going to my first private tutoring session this afternoon. I think I'm going to start by asking her to help me with the basics. When do you use essere vs. avere with the past participle. When do you use qual or quale or quello or quanto or quando or qui or qua, etc. etc. (so many q's!)

Here...Let me tell you about my weekend. Friday night was tame. In fact, I can barely even remember what we did on Friday! Saturday, Ryan and I went to the Villa Borghese. Afterwards we met up with the "gang" and went out drinking and dancing. Well, the dancing came as a result of the drinking in my case! It was fun. Many of the Italians are very friendly and delight in meeting up with foreigners and teaching them more about their language. Sometimes the words they teach you are bad, so be careful when repeating what they teach you!

Here are my pics from my day at the Borghese:

A cool temple in the middle of a little lake/pond.


The goddess in the temple


A shot from the side.


A cool fountain of a fawn and a maiden holding a little fawn up in the air. The water is spouting out of the rabbit's mouths.


A nice fountain in front of the Museum of Modern Art


And a nice surprise at the bottom!


Speaking of turtles. We went back to the pond and found LOTS of them playing around. I've never seen turtles so active!




















Well, these guys weren't in the pond, they were in the Zoo at the North end of the park. The zoo was pretty depressing. The animals didn't have great environments and were pretty sluggish. The bears seemed to be the only ones having any fun!