Monday before we could do anything, we had to double check the bus and train schedule for Elli and Lauren’s journey onward to Florence. To get to the travel office in Cortona, you have to go through this glass-tube door. It reminds me of the cylindrical tubes that money comes out of at drive-through banks, except it was (of course) human scale, complete with blinking lights and colorful buttons as one side facing the outside opened and closed, you stepped in, and then the other side opened for you to step into the office. The actual travel office experience was not anything remarkable…but that glass tube door was beyond thrilling. Because my favorite produce people are closed on Sundays, I was extremely eager to take Elli and Lauren to one of my fruit and vegetable market, which very well may be one of my favorite locations in town. When the date for our art exhibition comes closer, I plan on inviting the produce people to come. I believe I should learn their names; that will be my task for this week. After buying some delightful produce, I took Elli and Lauren to our grocery store in town, Mollesini’s, where they can make you incredibly delicious and cheap sandwiches to go (remember that amazing sandwich I had a few days ago…) Now fully stocked with food, we went on another beautiful walk along the mountain before they had to head down to the train station. It was beyond wonderful to have Elli here…and in just a month we will be reunited again in Paris!
After Elli and Lauren took off on the bus, my Monday resumed to its usual activities. I had painting, where in my critique, both my class and my teacher loved my pepper with the bold background stripes. I plan to apply this concept of the push and pull of the flat brush strokes with the gestural brush strokes in future paintings. That night at dinner, I was slightly homesick because it is the first night of Passover, and I was missing all the seders going on at home. It was the first time I wished that I could zoom home for a seder and then come right back to Cortona. As for keeping Passover in Cortona, I will not be as strict as I usually am, only due to the lack of Passover foods available here. I am collecting ingredients to make my own charoset, although I have not made it yet. I only wish there was some way I could have some fried matzah…That evening, we had a mandatory meeting the mapped out the schedule of our LAST month in Cortona. We discussed logistics of our upcoming art show in town and then the processes of shipping home artwork, which I quickly learned is going to be a very tedious process, especially because I have such large paintings. Either way, everyone is in shock that we are leaving our beloved town in only four weeks to travel on to Venice before the program ends. I am trying not to think about that.
Tuesday and Wednesday both started out with fantastic runs. The weather has been perfect. Tuesday was filled with class: art ed and book making. I have to start thinking about my final project in book making, and I still have no idea what I want to do yet. I have been focused so far on making books look perfect; I have not at all been thinking about applying meaning to them, to give them more significance than just being a precious object. If anyone has any ideas, I would love to hear them. Tuesday night at dinner, another Jewish girl on my program, Julie, and I had a brief seder at our table. We recited the four questions, and explained the significance and story of Passover to the people at our table. We recited the plagues with our drops of wine, sang Dayeinu, and even saved a cup of wine for Elisah. Although it was brief and lacked any matzah, it was just what I needed to have some Passover here in Cortona. That night after dinner, we had our final faculty presentations; this time they were given by Tricia, the English professor, and a woman named Zena, who is a visiting artist who specializes in paper making. I was fascinated with Zena’s presentation because she has her own beautiful luscious gardens where she grows her own fibers, flowers, and plants to make her own fibers to make paper and dyes. She brought some examples of the paper she makes, and they smelled so good because they were made of flowers. She made me want to stop everything I was doing a plant a huge flower garden.
Wednesday, I was as productive as possible until art history that evening. Dinner was especially exciting that night because, I had happened to forget to bring my vegetarian card that tells the servors to not give me the meat option. However, the meat option that night was actually salmon! Yay! I had not had salmon since I had been in Italy, so it was especially delicious. To everyone celebrating Passover, I hope it is joyous and exciting.
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