Days 9 and 10

This was the first morning we were able to sleep in slightly.  It felt great.  I even showered.  Our first activity of the day was a tour of Cortona.  Which of course was awesome.  Everywhere you turn there is a new little alleyway or stairway or café or grocery store.  Everywhere people are smiling at you.  There is a little movie theater, a chocolate shop, pastry shop, bread bakery, flower shop, art store, thrift shop, and antique store.  I immediately visited all the produce markets, which are open in the morning and have the freshest fruits and vegetables I have ever seen.  In most of these markets, you are not actually allowed to touch any of the produce.  You have to point or tell to the vendor what you want and they will pick the best of that fruit or vegetable available and weigh it for you.  Between the first two days, I have already bought several apples, the biggest red pepper ever, some clementines, some dark leafy greens (I don’t actually know what exactly they are), some mushrooms, tomatoes (of course), broccoli, carrots, strawberries, kiwi, and even a pomogranate.  The pomogranate was actually for my painting class, even though I plan to eat it immediately after I paint it.  Our first assignment for my painting class was to buy three random items (preferably from a Tobacci, which is the equivalent to a tiny 7-11 or Walgreens, but as I said, very tiny.  With these objects we were to paint them in a way that makes them seem extremely important or holy.  Personally, I just loved the color of the pomogranate.  I also bought some bright yellow rubber gloves.  I am still not sure what my third object is going to be yet.  In the afternoon on both of these days, I went on a walk (one day) and a run (the other) exploring right outside the walls of Cortona. It is truly the most dramatic view I have ever seen.  The walled in city is on one side, and the rest of the world is on the other: basically a cliff that goes down and down and down.  I started these excursions through a park that starts right at the bottom of the hill from our school, which is completely flat, but then leads to a road which is a gradual long uphill.  It was not long until I realized that runs here are going to be no picnic.  The hills are so difficult because they never end.  It is even difficult running on the downhills, because they are either so steep or go on for so long, that it puts so much pressure on you not to lose control with how fast you are going.  On this second day, we had a brief run though of all our classes, to get a sense of the syllabus and what we will be doing these next few months.  My painting class seems very laid back, a nice change from school.  I am also taking a paper and book making class, which will be completely new to me, considering I have taken nothing like it.  I am so excited to take home all the adorable and extremely satisfying little books that we will be stitching and sewing together by hand.  Maybe I will make one for some of you…I am also taking an art education class, and although I will not get any art ed credit for this class at U of I, it gives me the amazing opportunity to teach the Italian children here in Cortona, which I cannot wait for.  It will definitely be interesting to teach students who do not speak any English.  My final class is art history, which will go over basic Renaissance history, which is nothing new to me. Classes officially start tomorrow (Februrary 11^th).  All my professors seem really interesting; they are all women, which is another nice change of pace.  I am sad that I will not be taking Italian with Marco, but I plan to sit in on it as much as I can.