Days 65, 66, 67 (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday)

            Tuesday was beautiful.  Unlike yesterday, I had a rain-free run.  We had a discussion day in art ed of various issues that arise in the art classroom.  I began my final project in bookmaking.  I actually changed my mind about illustrating the children’s story for my final project.  I am still going to do that, but not as my final project because I decided my final project should be completely by me.  Instead, I am going to make an obnoxiously fat book (fat because it has so many pages sewn in) inspired by the antique objects I have collected at the antique markets I have visited.  (I am making a fat book only because I like the overall aesthetic of a book overflowing with pages).  I am planning to collage the cover with pages and drawings from the antique children’s Latin school book in addition to the vintage photographs, which are also going to be integrated throughout the pages of the book.  The pages themselves are a sepia hue, which in itself appears antique.  The overall theme of my project is going to combine the concept of time and history with the idea of memory.  There is also an element of anonymity considering that I am using only artifacts of individuals who I do not know or have any relationship with.  There is still a lot of room to push this project in a slightly different direction, but I am quite excited at where it is headed.  After book making, I went on a wonderful walk before dinner.  Our fearless leader and program director, Rick, has returned to us from working on administrative stuff in the states for several weeks, so it was nice to have him back at dinner.  His 64^th birthday is coming up soon before we leave Cortona, and he is throwing a Beatles-theme party for everyone in the program on his birthday.  This is of course because of the song, “When I’m 64.”  Everyone has to dress up like a Beatles song.  I still am not sure about what song to be.  We have all be contemplating this since the day we arrived in Cortona when Rick forewarned us about this birthday event.  If anyone has any ideas of how I can dress up like Rocky Raccoon or Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds or any other song, please let me know as soon as possible!  I will gladly accept all suggestions. 

            Wednesday was another picture-perfect day.  It was particularly difficult to concentrate on homework.  I decided to bring my art history notes outside to study, but of course I was distracted by all the flowers, dandelions, passers-by, and cats roaming around.  In the afternoon, my art ed class went on a special excursion to visit the school we would be working with the following week during their day devoted to the arts.  I was picturing a school much bigger than the one in Cortona, but it was more or less the same size.  It was right down the mountain from Cortona, in the middle of a grove of olive trees.  The third graders, (the class I will be teaching) was in the middle of recess when we arrived, and they were the loudest, craziest children I have ever seen.  However, they were so excited to see us at their school.  When my co-teacher and I made it into their classroom with them, all twenty-two of them huddled around us asking us all sorts of questions.  I was proud that I recognized a few of the questions from my limited Italian vocabulary:  When is your birthday?  How old are you?  Do you have brothers or sisters?  What are your favorite colors?  How do you spell your name?  Do you like cake?  Do you know Lady Gaga?  Or Barak Obama?  Unlike our small class of twelve in Cortona, this class was mostly boys, which might have been the reason for the overall rambunctiousness of all the kids.  It was really fun to (attempt) to talk with them.  I wish we had more than one day of art making with them.  Their school was completely adorable and colorful.  I felt at home here.  Back in Cortona, I went on another walk (IT WAS SO BEAUTIFUL) and then later on for art history, we had a scavenger hunt in the history museum in Cortona.  I had no idea how gigantic this museum was.  I had never explored it before.  I soon realized that a scavenger hunt was not a good way to properly explore the museum because everyone was racing to get done with the scavenger hunt first.  (The first group to finish would receive extra credit).  Each group had a list of things we had been studying in class to find and take a picture of.  Items on the list included a Franciscan and Dominican monk, a Madonna and Child, a sculpture in a contrapposto pose, a painting displaying linear and atmospheric perspective, a roman column…The competitive spirit was fun, but I want to go back to the museum when I have enough time to properly explore this amazing place.  When my friends and I all finished the scavenger hunt, we all treated ourselves to some well-deserved gelato.  (This time I had melon, strawberry, and yogurt together.  So delicious.)  It was definitely a perfect pre-dinner snack. 

            Thursday I went on another great run.  Each morning, I usually see the same people in the same places depending on my route for the day.  Even though I do not know their names, we all wave at each other; there is such friendly interaction between everyone in Cortona.  Before heading back up to the school building, I stocked up on my usual red peppers, pink lady apples, tomatoes, carrots, zucchini, and broccoli from the wonderful produce people.  It has been such a treat to be eating such fresh produce.  Everything is grown locally and the produce people (I still have to learn their names) are the kindest people I have met.  They are always amused that I come right after my run, panting, sweaty, and out of breath.  But as far as I know, they do not seem to mind.  I was quite proud in painting today, when my painting teacher, as kooky and crazy as she is, told me that my painting had grown a lot this semester.  I feel that my artwork has gotten stronger here in Cortona, and it is especially nice that my teacher noticed this.  Later on in the day, I went into town to study in a café, although I did more people-watching than actual art history studying.  Once again, a group of us got a pre-dinner treat of gelato…it is becoming quite a bad habit craving gelato at this time of day; I figure though that we only have a few more weeks left here, so we might as well make use of the wonderful gelato while we have it.  This time I had some mixed berry and lemon together, which was actually very refreshing.  The only problem was that it had gotten significantly colder, and we were all shivering on our way to dinner.  Luckily, we had soup (my favorite!) at dinner, so everything worked out in the end.  The one last significant moment of this particular Thursday was that in the middle of dinner, Rick, (our director) called me out on my running.  For some reason, all the teachers had just received a gigantic chocolate egg from an anonymous gift giver (maybe they were on sale because it was now post-Easter).  Rick apparently did not want his, because he stood up in the middle of our dining area, and announced that he was going to give his chocolate egg to the person who was able to run to the town down the mountain and back in the shortest possible time or any time at all.  And he proclaimed, “That person is Hannah!” and handed me his egg.  As many of you can imagine, my face was BRIGHT red.