"Florence" via ACM in Google Reader

Thanks Alex for the acknowledgment on the COIL fine arts...

2012-05-01T17:52:21Z

COIL 2012 cover by Jessica Bingham

Thanks Alex for the acknowledgment on the COIL fine arts magazine. I am lucky to know an artist like yourself.

One of my comics was included on this year’s COIL- Monmouth College’s annual student creative works magazine. I’m honored to share the page with my good friend, Will Terrill, whose poem ‘We Have Had Rain For Three Days’ is just wonderful.

Congrats to everyone who was included in COIL this year!

Oh, also, the cover is an image from a painting by Jessica Bingham, another wonderful artist at Monmouth. Here is the link to her tumblr where you can check out more of her work.

http://jessmbarts.tumblr.com/

MV DECOUVERTES

2012-05-01T17:50:00Z

MV DECOUVERTES

Reminds me of my watercolor paintings from Italy. Artist Minh...

2012-03-07T02:02:49Z

Reminds me of my watercolor paintings from Italy.

Artist Minh Dam {Part 3} on We Heart It. http://weheartit.com/entry/18211762

Kitty Fonts

2012-02-18T17:47:27Z

Kitty Fonts

Photo

2012-02-17T15:17:27Z

Couldn’t help but make one of these…

2012-02-17T15:13:12Z

Couldn’t help but make one of these…

Had an amazing time with the most wonderful people

2012-01-13T03:23:00Z

First Night

Table Service

Breakfast with all the Girls

Sugar - Amazing food and drink

Everyone!!

Dinner at the Palms

Limo

Last Night

Had an amazing time with the most wonderful people

I went to England for a second time and made some disastrous...

2012-01-10T17:23:40Z

I went to England for a second time and made some disastrous cookies at Rosie’s house.

The Last One

2012-01-07T05:18:37Z

Hey there : )

So I wanted a little time to get home, soak it in, see what seemed important about the whole ~abroad~ experience once I’d had the opportunity to mull it over. That was four weeks ago, and I head back to my home campus a day from now, so pretty sure time’s up.

Summary’s impossible, of course, but big takeaways (or at least those coming to mind):

1) I can no longer not hear language as a construct. You always know that it’s just sounds with assigned meanings that people combine in various ways, but after 3.5 months in another country with a brand new language, you *know,* and there is no unknowing.

2) I still miss Florence/Italy incredibly, and even more now than when I first left, but I also have a new appreciation for my native area — I’ve just found it stunningly beautiful, every day. Increased love of everything everywhere = …idk, success?

3) The studio class has a very specific range of efficacy, but it rocks that range. I believe I have improved my drawing : )

4) For any ACM students: the handbook was quite prescient and remains a trustworthy source of information. Specifically when it warns of the the possibility of reverse culture shock, and of an inability to really communicate about the trip with friends and family. Neither was especially a *problem*, but they’re very real experiences.

5) The desire to emulate the cooking remains (somewhat sadly) overwhelming. I have attempted one Italian dinner, with middling success, and will have to adjust some recipes and resign myself to the fact that I will have to make my own bread. Aside from that…god almighty I just miss their tomatoes.

6) Relationships are…interesting when tested by a semester abroad. Of the ~30 of us, most came in with significant others, and for many the situation devolved very quickly into high drama that was by turns entertaining and honestly tragic. So, if you’re going to do this, be solid with your boyfriend/girlfriend, or accept the possibility that your budding romance may not survive the experience. (In my own case, it was in many ways horrible to only get the occasional skype date, because I’d get just enough time to feel all warm and fuzzy about seeing him and then the time difference would demand that one or both of us get going. At the same time, though, ‘absence makes the heart grow fonder’ definitely applied, and ultimately we got through it and just managed to tack 3 freebie months on to our running total. So I’m certainly not saying it’s hopeless ; )

7) I’m going back to Italy and to Florence at some point. Have to. Will probably be years from now, and will probably require much scrimping and saving to make it happen, but I’m going back. And will hopefully be dragging some people along with me because it’s magical, dammit. (And yes, I know that I have explicitly stated before that you can’t go in expecting a constant land of enchantment, because you can’t, but that doesn’t mean it can’t sometimes just sneak up on you.)

Long story short: a rare opportunity no matter who you are, but an astounding, amazing, fill-in-the-adjective etc. one for those actually prepared for the realities of it. Not everyone took it seriously, and I’m sure that will still be the case for future classes, but even a month later I can still say without a doubt that it was an honor to be part of this.

And P.S. –

Still love you, Duomo. Don’t ever change <3

In LOVE

2011-12-30T22:07:07Z

In LOVE

LOVE

2011-12-30T22:03:30Z

LOVE

Family

2011-12-30T00:24:29Z

Family

An Adventure Through Music

2011-12-28T18:53:00Z

Music is life. Some of you may have noticed that all of my blog titles were also song titles. Generally, either the song lyrics, mood or the title or both corresponded to an aspect of what I was writing about.
So in case any of you were wondering, here are the songs that I used at blog titles...all sixty-five of them.

Blog Song Title Playlist:

Who Knows What Tomorrow May Bring – Traffic
Something Sort of Grandish – Finian's Rainbow
Old Man Waltz – Calexico
Walk It Out – Unk
Circles in the Sand – Fly By Night
Fire Coming Out Of The Monkey's Head – Gorillaz
Wish You Were Here – Pink Floyd
A New Way To Say Hooray – Shpongle
Ego Tripping at the Gates of Hell – The Flaming Lips
Love & Some Verses – Iron & Wine
Just Another Night – Cat Stevens
Down By The Water – The Decemberists
Walking Far From Home – Iron & Wine
Bridge Over Troubles Water – Simon & Garfunkel
Words – Train
Denglisch – Wise Guys
Es Fliegt Gleich Alles In Die Luft – Wise Guys
Mechanical Breakdown – Tripping Daisy
We Speak No Americano – Yolanda Be Cool and Dcup
Do, Make, Say, Think – Do, Make, Say, Think
Beautiful City – Godspell
Quando Quando, Quando – Fergie
London Calling – The Clash
Too Marvelous for Words – Billie Holiday
London Telecommunicating – The Polish Ambassadors
Postcards from Italy – Beirut
Play That Funky Music – John Brown
A Medly: For Sentimental Reasons, Tenderly, Autumn Leaves – Natalie Cole
November Has Come – Gorillaz
Old Friends/Bookends – Simon & Garfunkel
Hurly/Burly – Man Man
Float On – Modest Mouse
Art Is Hard – Cursive
A Call From The Vatican – Nine
Off To The Races – The Mystery of Edwin Drood
Don't Get Lost in Heaven – Gorillaz
Cosmik Debris – Frank Zappa
Naked As We Came – Iron & Wine
Long Way From Home – The Heavy
Mambo Italiano – Dean Martin
Musetta's Waltz – La Boheme
It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas – Johnny Mathis
Academia – Sia
My Head Feels Like A Frisbee – Shpongle
Che Finalone – Cirque Du Soleil's Corteo
All We Have Is Now – The Flaming Lips
Pressure Zone – Beck
Two Thousand Places – The Polyphonic Spree
Paris Holds The Key To Your Heart – Anastasia
Main Title: An American In Paris, 'S Wonderful, I Got Rhythm – George Gershwin
Holland – Sufjan Stevens
God Bless The Child – Billie Holiday
Vincent (Starry Starry Night) – Don Mclean
Train Song – Tom Waits
Dickes B – Seeed
Deutschland – Die Prinzen
Hallo Berlin! – Wise Guys
Feed Me! – Little Shop of Horrors
You're My Excuse To Travel – Baths
La Vie Boheme – Rent
I Hear My Train A Comin' – Jimmi Hendrix
Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas – Judy Garland
Monkeys Uptown – Iron & Wine
Fasten Your Seatbelt – Pendulum
Homecoming – Kanye West

28: December 2011: Homecoming

2011-12-28T18:49:00Z

My last day in Florence was a lot of running around. Martha went to the Uffizi and then boarded a train back home--it was a great short and sweet visit. Joe and I ran around town, seeing the last of the sights and buying the last few buys. All that running around yesterday broke my body down a little more than I could handle so today was a fair amount of gritting my teeth and bearing it. Needless to say, I will be grateful to be back in the states and sleep for several hours, or days.

I must now get to packing--well, unpacking and then repacking.

To any prospective ACM-ers or anyone interesting in traveling or studying abroad, please feel free to ask me any questions at all! My email address (at least for the next two years) is fmayer@knox.edu

Ciao everyone and thank you for reading about my adventures.

And thus, the whirligig of time brings in his revenges...

Then I pulled my first all-nighter on my last night in Florence,...

2011-12-28T17:48:04Z

Then I pulled my first all-nighter on my last night in Florence, went to Paris and was almost homeless for a night, then flew home to Portland. Here I am.

The art show was a wild night.

2011-12-28T17:46:10Z

The art show was a wild night.

I went to England for a second time and made some disastrous...

2011-12-28T17:44:52Z

I went to England for a second time and made some disastrous cookies at Rosie’s house.

Thanksgiving was wonderful, and I cried a lot. I was so full of...

2011-12-28T17:42:37Z

Thanksgiving was wonderful, and I cried a lot. I was so full of love (and great wine)!

Then, of course, I went back to Italy for the rest of the...

2011-12-28T17:39:55Z

Then, of course, I went back to Italy for the rest of the semester.

Then we went to Ireland, where we stayed with Erik, whom I had...

2011-12-28T17:36:11Z

Then we went to Ireland, where we stayed with Erik, whom I had met in July. He is a true gentleman.