Andrew (fruitattack owner) told me I got 200+ page views for my cheesy iMovie experiment. Derek got a bunch too thanks to his reply. No, I’m not going to put it on YouTube. Yes, I will make one again one day. The question is WHAT. I need a theme, a song, and people who wanna be famous. Any suggestions? Think of something easy since I just use my Mac webcam to shoot.

So no matter how much you make fun of me, Derek (and stoopid Yoshi), you got those page views because of MY video. Lets do one on Thursday 391 work day!

Hello. Yes, I’m still alive.

So I’ve finally fallen asleep in class last week. I said earlier that I wasn’t bored by the class and no matter how long and dragging people might think of it I would still stay up and listen. Nope.

It was the week when I had April as a partner. Non c’e male! I stayed up till 6am and dozed off during Rus’ lecture on Florence. Woops. April did our topic on contemporary Rome, a nice change to all the historical research we’ve been doing for the first 4 weeks. I’ve always thought of the city as an outdoor museum, a preserved archaeological site. By doing a presentation on the cool new buildings and projects made me see it in a whole new light. I even got props from Rus for getting info on visiting the construction site of Zaha Hadid’s new project: MaXXI. 10 points for Kiks!

Zaha Hadid’s MaXXI

Lateran University Library by design firm King Roselli

outdoor concert in Auditorium Parco della Musica by Renzo Piano

ES Hotel by design firm King Roselli (we’re going here too!)

Last week was the start of research on Florence, the birthplace of Renaissance. Morgan and I did our topic on Brunelleschi, the guy who started it all. He was a weirdo and a genius who made the switch from Gothic style architecture (think Hunchback of Notre Dame) back to Classical inspired by ancient ruins in the cest pool Rome had become during the middle ages. He designed the dome of Florence’s cathedral S. Maria de Fiore without concrete! It was the easiest week ever since Morgan already did a whole paper on the topic and yes, I got a good night’s sleep.

After class, Simone, Karen, Brad + girlfriend, Derek, Yosheezy, Ryan and I (and Andrew!) had a celebratory movie night: Be Kind, Rewind. Funny! Super cute. Chinese MSG cheap food afterwards in Richmond. <3

Italian exam tomorrow (or rather, later).

It’s 3:36am and I am posting on my blog to procrastinate. Italian class is so much fun but my brain juice gets drained everytime. I can do individual words and cute little phrases but I don’t think I’ll be able to carry on a conversation with the hotties (and of course the world’s most innovative designers). We have a workbook with tons of weekly exercises to help us remember as much as we can which should make things easier…except I haven’t been doing them. We have to answer till page 67 and I was only in page 24 before I started my full on review this evening. Thank you, instant coffee. You are my savior.

P.S. I was also doing my nightly stalking of people and I came across Morgan sans beard. Hihi!

School

I’ve had Brad and Azmina as partners in the past 2 weeks. With Brad, we did churches and basilicas. I learned that we we’re going to live down the street to the first church in Rome ever. It’s called the San Giovanni in Laterano and it’s the MOTHER of all churches even higher up that the Vatican. And right across the street from our apartment is this other fancy church called San Clemente built on top of St. Clement’s old house. Sweet. That’s on my list of go-to’s.

With Azmina, we did Piazza Campidoglio, Michelangelo and the Sistine Chapel. I was so into it that I can recognize EVERYTHING on that ceiling and also the mural of The Last Judgement on the altar wall. I’m so excited to stand in line for hours in anticipation of entering that squishy chapel. OMG noway.

Shopping

Yay for dresses! I went on a shopping spree this past week. 3 dresses from Urban Outfitters and some more guilty buys from Richmond Center. Though the whole mall was on sale, most of the stuff Steff and I got were not. Oh well, I’m happy. I got the dress down there but it’s too fancy for all day sweat-fests in Italy… or is it?

DDR

Okay, it’s impossible. There’s no way I can do an hour everyday so I’ve reduced it to half an hour. AND Stef found out how to crack open the hidden songs! Hoorah! More motivation to play.

Sad Part

1. Valentines Day [or Single Awareness Day] is coming up and I’m still single. Can someone hot pretend to like me for a day and make out?
2. I deleted my whole 391 folder. Shut up about it already!
3. I’m still fat.
4. I’m kinda hungry.
5. Money. Can I have some? I need a job but I’m picky…and I don’t wana work.

So I decided to tinker around with iMovie…

…plus a cup of French Vanilla, and we’re still here. Omg. It shouldn’t take this long but it always does. I’m going home with Karen in an hour and a half to catch the 5:30am skytrain home. I’ll be back after a quick shower and a home cooked lunch of toast and bananas. Happy February!

It’s Thursday, the official Italia all-nighter day and 11 of us are working in the microwave area/student lounge. It’s pretty awesome. There were other people working here but they’re gone. “We’re just like the Romans”.

L-R:Me, Azmina, Jenny, Derek, Karen, Yoshi, Simon, Alex, Ryan (MIA: April, Morgan, Brad)
(edit feb 2: Sorry. I forgot Rob. He’s the photographer.)