Frustration and Innovation

This weekend was definitely filled with its’ frustrating moments, beginning with Friday’s art trip to Tuscania. First of all, Tuscania is not, as you might imagine, in Tuscany. It is still in Lazio (the region where Rome is located) and was not what I had thought it would be like. The countryside was pretty, but the town was not as beautiful as Todi from the week before. It was also very cold and even snowed a bit. After the first week of warm weather we have become pansies and can’t handle the cold weather! Anyway, we began drawing inside a medieval church. The church was also not what we expected since it was bare and frigid. I tried drawing a rose window and experienced terrific frustration the entire two hours while my fingers became numb and I could occasionally see my breath. We then moved to town for lunch and spent quite a while wandering around looking for something cheap. Sara and I decided upon a café where we had extreme difficulty communicating and found ourselves severely embarrassed more than once. After lunch we drew Etruscan tombs inside a museum. I admit I was bored and was having difficulty drawing. I sincerely hope I can improve my drawing skills this semester.

Tuscania

Among other frustrating things this weekend were grocery shopping and public transportation. My roommates and I feel like we’re constantly visiting the fresh market and the supermarket for groceries. Once a week works just fine for the U.S. but everything goes bad so quickly in Italy. Milk only lasts a few days, juice comes in such a small container that it needs replenished often, and bread gets stale in nearly one day. Everything is so different in these grocery stores too. How can you tell the difference between powdered sugar and baking powder when it’s written in Italian? We tried asking for sliced cheese at the deli and apparently that was really odd. Also, maple syrup does not exist. It takes so long to find the best prices on bananas, apples, oranges, and clementines in the fresh market. Saturday evening we couldn’t figure out how to catch the bus to La Feltrinelli (kind of like Border’s books). When we did find it we only had 15 minutes to look before catching the bus to the church where we saw the sculpture of The Ecstasy of Saint Theresa by Bernini. 

This weekend was filled with a few positive innovations, however. We did our laundry together and then hung it up to dry all over the apartment in any strange place available. We also made our own pasta sauce. It turned out alright, but next time we need to use canned tomatoes because ours were not exactly ripe. Anyway, the weekend was filled with learning experiences. The only problem is we are sick of learning experiences. Hopefully sometime soon we’ll begin getting things right the first time!