arielarena

Hung out in London with nibbes and klo_the_hobbit (at least when Klo wasn't working) and had a blast! Nicole and I saw HBP and wandered around the city. V. fun! Also got to see my Auntie and Uncle before heading to Canada to stay at their house (while they went off to Spain).

Got picked up at the Toronto airport by other Auntie and Gramma. We stopped by to get cousin Joanne and the four of us went to get food. Later Jo and I went to see The Proposal and hung out. Twas very nice. Next day the grandkids (so Jo, Daniel, Ricky and me--Kev was at a wedding) went to lunch with Gramma. After that I called up melisus and we met up. We proceeded to walk all around Toronto, passed something being filmed and eventually made it to the Hard Rock Cafe. We talked about all things nerdy and awesome and came up with a brilliant bakery idea. I had a wonderful tome, Melis! We will definitely do it again (and if in NYC I will take you to my favorite food places because that's the kind of tour guide I am :D ). Got back and had tea with Jo and played with the doggies before bed (love the doggies!).

Today Gramma got me for the airport and I sat next to a nice guy who teaches history in Philly. Was going to wait for the parents to arrive but their plane was delayed so I got myself a cab and am now finally home, showered and relaxing.

Only thing that could make this perfect is if there were some freakin' food in this house. SHOPPING!

Overall I had a good time these six months. It's had it's ups and downs, of course, mainly when it came to NABA but it was worth it. I met great people (whom I hope to keep in touch with) and I'm pretty sure I got more outgoing. Did things I probably would not usually do (like going clubbing until 5 AM) so yay! So, worth it!

Last week and a half of school. SO eager to get out of Milan. Booked my ticket for Berlin and am currently looking for a hostel (Twitter is awesome because some random cheap hostel place @replied me offering help). The plan is as follows:
-Head to Berlin for three days (maybe head to Weimar and visit Ma'ayan if time allows).
-On the 12th, catch the train to Hamburg and visit Sandra/explore the city for about three days.
-On the 15th or 16th, head over to Paris to stay with Mum's friend Pierre and sons. Stay for four days.
-If prices allow, maybe hit up Madrid/Salamanca on the way back to Milan to visit Carter. So far this part of my trip is a no-go as it's too much money to spend for only three days.
-Alternatively, head back to Milan and then directly to Rome to visit Nadine for a few days (two or three) and then head back to Milan.
-Be back by 23rd at the latest because I need to pack up the apartment and then get the keys to the place the family is staying in.

Before all that, however, I must finish my projects for the semester. So far most of them are at that point where I need to get just a few more things done. The project that's killing me is Lettering. He wanted us to design two typefaces, one serif and one sans. Done that bit. We needed to do it by hand and making it fucking perfect, mine is...less than perfect. But I'll fix part of that tomorrow. Then we need to scan the letters and vector them (almost done serif). Then we need to design three posters for various museums in Milan. Thing is, I haven't been to any of these museums (though I will definitely go to the da Vinci one with my brothers and maybe the natural history if we have time) and I don't know anything about them. I have vague ideas of which face I want to use on each poster and took notes on what they're known for so that's a start...but I have no idea what image I would use in the background or what colors. I need to start at least 2/3 tomorrow. Then I need to finish my books for photography so they can be printed, along with my work for art and copy (Speaking of, OMG their aesthetic can be so freakin' annoying!). Wow, this is turning into a to-do list (and I have about five of those already).

Other than work, I have actually had some fun. I went to Lake Garda last week to visit Fallen since she's working as an au pair stuff near there. It's a gorgeous area and we went swimming in the lake. Did I mention this was near a freakin' castle? It totally was. Anywhoodle, I got horribly sunburnt because Mother Nature thinks I'm part Irish. And I applied sunscreen. Twice. (The sunscreen song went through my head the entire day..."Ladies and Gentlemen of the Class of '97, Wear Sunscreen").

This coming Saturday we're having a dinner party at my place because Sandra, one of the girls I hung out with my second week here, is coming to visit! It should be fun. So lots to do so I can justify not having Saturday as a work day.

Guess what ya'll? I have to get tested for TB! That's right, someone in one of my six classes had TB and now we've all got to get stuck with those small needle things. I somehow doubt they will draw a bunny on my arm and use the needle thing to give it a nose because I'm obviously too old for such things. :-(

Went to a club with friends on Friday night (Fallen, Nadine, Raef and Manuela, the last three all know German so at times Fallen and I had NO idea what was being talked about, it was more amusing than annoying). We arrived too early so we had a drink at one of the few cafes nearby. At the club there were A LOT of men. Some quite pretty. Some making out with each other. Turns out we arrived on gay night, for lack of a better name. Of course, realizing that we were not surrounded by the pervy Italian guys who apparently will grind with unsuspecting girls I felt much more comfortable about dancing, something I rarely do. But damn, was it fun! Lots of boy love and Britney Spears (with some Justin and Beyonce thrown in for good measure). Was thrilled when the two songs I wanted to hear were played (I blame crudelydrawn for my Lady Gaga love). Even slightly inebriated, I couldn't help but appreciate the comedic value of hundreds of gay men singing along to Katy Perry's "I Kissed A Girl" (not to be confused with Jill Sobule's "I Kissed A Girl", a superior song in my opinion but not nearly as danceable). Fallen made a friend with one Italian dude who kept finding us to dance with our group throughout the night. We didn't put our stuff in the coat room so we settled with putting it on the floor and dancing around it, so we made more friends that way when making sure no one tripped over it. One guy pinched my cheek in that "well, aren't you JUST PRECIOUS!" sort of way.

We danced from 11:30 until the club closed at 4:30 AM. We walked to the Duomo, hoping to find some food place along the way. Alas, it was not meant to be (we found sammich trucks but they were busy and we were impatient). Raef, usually quite quiet, is LOUD when he's had a bit to drink. Also, I'm pretty sure I'm the first Jew he's ever seen/hung out with. We sat down outisde the McDonald's and discussed what we'd do since nothing was open, it was 5 AM and we were hungry. The homeless guy sleeping in the flowers across the way began yelling at us in Italian because were were being too loud. Anyway, Raef and Manuela were close to their respective homes so they walked home while Fallen, Nadine and I sat outside the McDonald's. Apparently it doesn't open until 9 AM? That's just wrong. We wanted our freakin' Egg McMuffins!

Whilst debating over what to do, two guys walked by and motioned for us to share a cab with them. I know, not the smartest idea but there were three of us, two of them and they looked harmless. And they were. But they did try to get us to go back to their apartment and "smoke a joint" and "play Guitar Hero". I admit, I really did want to play Guitar Hero but not with them and there was no way in hell we were going to their apartment. After a few more minutes of trying to convince us they gave up, the cab driver even chipped in and told them they should leave us in the taxi. He was awesome, by the way. We joked with our driver friend on the way back to Fallen's place and told him stories of our night at the club and laughed at the men we'd just dropped off. After arriving at Fallen's door, we opted to head to our apartments. Nadine didn't live too far away and could walk and the bus I needed was running at this point.

I got back to my room about 6 AM and went to bed shortly after. I ended up sleeping most of the day away. We had discussed going to another club on Sat. night but I never got a message telling me a meeting place or time so I assume either it didn't happen or it did but I didn't get the message. Oh well, I was tired and I don't mind alone time.

Today involved waking up much earlier than Saturday and heading to the shops (praying they were open, surprisingly a bunch of clothing stores were) because I'm in desperate need of new pants. Gotta love H&M. I know, I'm in Italy and should be checking out their stores for clothes but the places I looked were WAY overpriced for what I wanted. I'll save that kind of shopping for later.

So back to class Monday (which is technically now but whatevs). I'm not sure if this week is normal because there's a design fair thinger and I THINK we might not have class? I'm going to ask tomorrow (today?). I hate how uncertain I am about scheduling at this place! Which reminds me, I need to do that OIA forum post thing...but not now.

Photo post! So today I felt sick and after discussing it briefly with my roommate (Katarina) I opted to stay home today instead of going to class because I need to justify this sort of thing before I do it. Messaged one girl in my class to let her know I'd be MIA so it's all good. Feeling better now and I've decided to p--and here's where I rushed to the oven because I totally forgot about putting those mini-pizzas in the oven and I smelled burning, they're still edible

Anyway, back to what I was typing. I decided to post some Venice photos (and by some, I probably mean many) and, as usual, they're unedited.

( Venice, a city slowly sinking into the ocean )

Pretty much, I love Venice. There were times when it smelled a bit but I don't care because I loved it anyway. I've decided to go back with my parents when they come to Italy. I was going to split from the family vacation and get to my own travels...not so much anymore. I will but two days later than originally planned. So yeah.

Tomorrow I head to Israel for Pesach. My roommate Annette and I may head over to the airport together since she also is going somewhere for the holidays. I plan to meet up with the Carols (and hopefully check out the nightlife in Tel Aviv with Lauren) and maybe even see Liora, one of Mum's friends (they've been friends FOREVER). I want to see Jerusalem and pick up some more Israeli chocolate spread (that shit is GOOD). Maybe get some other foods I can't find in Italy.

Tonight I'm headed to Fallen's for a very un-Passover-y dinner. As much as I like Freida and her family (the Chabad peeps in Italy) I still don't feel very comfortable in an Orthodox environment. I will, however, join them for Shabbat dinner again sometime soon.

Side note: I hate my neighbor's ridiculously loud alarm clock. Stop waking me up before I have to get up! And stop putting it on snooze, you douche.

I never thought I would miss the insanity that is Pratt but I genuinely do. I feel so unproductive here (though I am working on a side project for BW so that's good). It's been a month and I've been given a total of ONE real project and a bunch of vague directions for projects that will be done in the future. It makes it difficult to WANT to do anything, too. Speaking of assignments, the one that I do have is a group project (which is good for a first project because I'd be lost without Manuela and her amazing patience when it comes to explaining shit to me in a mix of Italian and broken English) and we JUST got a typed brief today.

When I got to class Silvia, the girl who wants to go to Pratt next semester, came over and we talked briefly. She asked me if I'd read New Moon. Kind of random. I guess it was because Twilight is a huge thing in the US for certain age groups. Or I give off a vibe that reels lovers of the Sparklepire.

Uploaded photos to photobucket and will post them tomorrow. Promise. Tweet me if I don't, 'kay? *expects Erica, Amanda and Nicole to respond alla Pee Wee's Playhouse*


Random observation: You tweet once using the word "vegan" and all of a sudden you're followed by one on Twitter.

Lettering is probably going to be like Type I, which is bad if I want credit for Type IV but maybe the teacher will give me special projects or something? He's English. That is all kinds of awesome. Not only will we be able to communicate easily but even if he speaks Italian quickly I can mostly understand him. I don't know why I'm so shit at understanding native Italian speakers...maybe it's how the words just flow seamlessly so I'm all "What the hell did you just say? Something about cars?" (this totally just happened, by the way...a woman asked me something about cars and I have no idea what it was...I translated it in my head to "There were/are cars here?" and since they were right in front of us I doubt that was it. Perhaps she was talking about the illegal parking?). Hopefully this will improve with the next week of lecture. Decided that despite this being early on a Friday, I like this teacher so I will stay with him rather than move to Wed. nights. Still need to drop multi-layer...need to find out how the hell to do that *emails Aleksandra for help*.

Helped a girl who wants to get into the exchange program and go to Pratt next semester with her letter of motivation. Hope my edits don't make her sound too American or whatever. I want her to get in and I think Pratt could be very good for her. They seem quite laid back here and I'm just waiting for the other shoe to drop. When am I going to have five projects due on the same day when the printers happen to be down and the closest print shop is closed? Does that even happen here? Also, from what I've seen, they don't even have large format printers at NABA! And they use paper sizes A3 and A4. Blowing my mind.

Need to unpack like whoa. Landlady and nephew are coming to check out the room to make sure previous girl didn't damage anything.

Birthday on Sunday. Possible Purim party Monday night. Do I want to party with most likely orthodox Jews? The men get weird when they get drunk (see: Jewzapalooza, freshman year). Other party Tuesday night, I think. Will probably make appearance at that once since nice Chabad family invited me. Purim = Holiday with costumes, A LOT of booze (not to be confused with Passover, which has a four drink minimum but no costumes...and no yeast) and food (ie. hamantashen: dough with filling--often fruit--in shape of triangles, like Haman's hat).

Ridiculously lazy day. Class wasn't that special either. He talked about stuff that I couldn't quite understand (language barrier, how I hate you) but the gist was that we will be incorporating image and type and whatnot from the various Creative Suite programs and making, at least for the first assignment, posters. So far I'm not that enthused. Then he showed us examples of work that I'm assuming came from the previous year. He seemed to like the ones that used hand drawn images and illustrator-text and photography together. I think they looked too busy and many were illegible. The few that I did like he said didn't quite get the whole "multi layer" thing down (or that's what I think he said). At the end of class he talked to me in stilted English, which was very kind of him, and explained that our first project is based on this social design zine's project called "Basta" ("Stop" in Italian) and it can be anything like, "Basta la guerra" (stop the war) or "basta hip hop music" (his example, not mine). It sounds like I need to have a brief for next week on what I want to do. The question is, is this a series of posters or just one? Because I think it's one and I think he's giving us a month to do it...I think he mentioned that we do about three or four projects during the semester. I know that we have long term projects at Pratt, too, but is it just me or does this seem like an excessive amount of time for (I'm assuming) one poster?

Tomorrow is Art and Copy. It is SO FUCKING LONG (9 AM - 1 PM) that it had BETTER be good or I am going to cut a bitch. Seriouly, out of all of the classes I have I'm considering dropping this one the most. This or multilayer (which could be fun if I ignore most of the design rules we've been taught at Pratt...may be good for me, you never know). Mostly because I just don't want to take a four hour class if it's boring. I do, however, want to move my lettering class to tomorrow but will talk to Aleksandra about that later.

People at Pratt RIGHT now: What are you guys taking next semester? I asked in my last post and NONE OF YOU ANSWERED because you are obviously losers. :-) Tell me so I can make a schedule that doesn't suck ass!

My NABA classes start tomorrow. I'm nervous for many reasons. One, I don't speak Italian very well and my classes are All IN ITALIAN. I knew this was the case but it's hit me that I am so very screwed. Two, I don't know if the schedule I made is the schedule I have. See, with the International Affairs person, Aleksandra, I made a schedule (well, she made it and I sat there hoping to get the times I wanted and while the schedule she gave me isn't ideal it'll do) and was told that there is no guarantee that I will actually get into those classes since they're mostly in computer labs and a limited number of computers means a limited number of students. Fair enough. But I haven't gotten any word from her about whether this is my actual schedule or not. Hence the confusion and uncertainty.

( Rant )

Now I'm in my new apartment, kind of loving it. It's with two other girls who are a bit older than me and are doing fashion marketing. They're from Sweden and Finland (though I don't know which girl is from which country). One of the reasons I really wanted this place, other than it being nice and close to the school, was that in the house we speak English. I'm glad that communication will be easy. Also, they're both really nice and helpful. Will post photos of new apartment later. Promise. P.S. Laura K, you can find photos of the old studio on facebook.

( Carnevale and whatnot )

Tomorrow's classes include: Motion Graphics (aka Adri Plays with After Effects, hopefully) from 9-12 and History of Graphic Design from 1-3 (or as they put it on the schedule: 13-15). Must talk to teachers about the whole "I speak English and my Italian sucks but I'm honestly trying to get better...please don't fail me" thing.

Question for Pratt Graphic Des. people (so Michele): What classes are you taking next semester and do you know what teachers you want for senior project? I want to challenge myself but also have fun. And possibly and internship. Speaking of, how does one go about getting an internship anyway?

P.S. My birthday is this next Sunday. Perhaps I should have a party on Friday or Saturday?