Ciao! The end of my program is approaching quickly. We present our final projects tomorrow in Locarno next to Leonardo Da Vinci's Il Rivellino. After that I will officially be done with class. Mom and Dad, you guys should be on your way to the airport in a couple hours. I cannot to wait see you and for you guys to experience Europe. You're going to love it!  (below: House by Mario Botta below)

Since my last post we have traveled a little around Ticino (the surrounding area) but mostly stayed up in Scudellate working on our studio project. It's so nice not having 3 other classes and finals to worry about at the same time. Definitely the best/easiest quarter yet! Oh, and we got a tour of Mario Botta's new office. He's an architect, basically a celebrity in Ticino! (below: And there the celeb is with our teachers)

Myself and 3 others from our group took the day off and went to Locarno to do a little work, a little wandering, and see a film at the famous international Locarno Film Festival. Unforgettable night. Hundreds of people come there each year to watch movies in their Piazza Grande. The main street is closed off, the piazza is filled with hundreds of seats, and an enormous screen stretching from building to building is used to project the movie on. Since no bus goes up to our town late at night we decided to stay up most of the night and sleep a little in a park next to the lake. I can check that one off my bucket list!

There's a little cafe/bar next to our hostel owned by an amazing little lady named Piera. She's basically the town grandma or town greeter. I swear everyone in Ticino knows her! She's alwasy giving us free drinks and food even though we cannot understand 95% of what each other are saying. Last Friday she made oso bucco for our entire class, and supplied us with, lets say, generous amounts of wine, champagne, and amaretto:) Life's good in the Scood
(below: the oldest Christian church in Ticino)

15 day trip and then some

Sorry its been so long since my last post. They've been keeping us really busy these last few weeks. Our class took a 15-day trip around Switzerland and its surrounding countries (Austria, Germany, France, and Italy). Here's a recap of the trip and my favorite cities...
Zurich... My second time visiting the city this summer, and as awesome as the first visit. Our class rented bikes for free and rode them around the city, so much to see! The best/cheapest meal in the city were kebaps from a street vendor. Some locals we met took a few of us around the city after dinner to see all the hotspots. Pretty interesting even on a Monday night. We took day-trips to nearby cities each day including Ron Champ in France. Gorgeous chapel way up in the hills. Another great day-trip was to this architecture-kind-of exhibit. A bunch of famous architects designed buildings all within a mile of each other for all of us architecture nerds to enjoy. (Ron Champ below)

Vals... aaaahhh the most relaxing place I've probably ever been! We stayed here two nights, soaking in the thermal baths and exploring the tiny little town. Ive never been to a spa before, and will probably never go to one any that compares to it again. (below: hydrengeas for you momma! they're everywhere in Switzerland!)

Basel... another great urban city I'm in love with. Kate, Andrea and I met a bunch of really fun locals who invited us to their celebration of Swiss National day which they celebrated in a park. Well, more like a forested park with a grass opening in the middle where a couple guys had set up music and a barbeque. It definitely helped make up for missing the 4th of July in the states! (Below: a museum in Bern)

Lugano... If I'm ever rich I may have to buy a vacation home here like George Clooney has. Best lake town I've been to... sorry Lake Wildwood. 5 of us rented a boat and took it out on the lake for an hour. So glad I knew how to drive a boat:) It felt awesome being out on a lake again but made me miss the lakes back in california and wakeboarding a lot more! Somehow we planned it right so that we could celebrate Swiss National Day on the 31st in Basel and again on the 1st in Lugano. Our entire class sat up on a hill by a castle and watched fireworks. Pretty sweet.

The rest of the trip included traveling around Ticino (the state in Switzerland that our study abroad hostel is located) so we got to stay at our "home" the last few days. This last Sunday there is a celebration between our town Scudellate and a nearby town Erbone (which is actually in Italy, about a 15 minute walk through the woods).  A bunch of people from nearby come for the festivities, live music and great swiss/italian food! (below: A castle in Bellinzona)

I'm glad to be back to our hostel but now we have to get back to our studio project and finish it up in the next 2 weeks. Wish me luck!
Miss you all

Weekend in Switerland

This last week we visited the site for our studio project this quarter. Very cool little building by Leonardo da Vinci in Locarno near Lake Maggiore. Another fun Swiss town. We'll be heading back a number of times for a Gorgio Armani event our class was invited to, an international Film Festival held in the square, and our final presentation. Thur and Fri we had our metal workshop which we had to hike an our up a hill to get to. In those two days we came across horses, 2 donkeys, dogs, cats, a goose, and a herd of goats. (pic on left is the Rivellino where our project is located, right- our group sculpture next to our teacher's sculpture)

We started the weekend off right on Saturday when everyone headed down to the river for a local BBQ to celebrate some b-days. The Swiss-Italian definitely know how to barbeque! After a beer and food about 10 of us caught a train to Zurich. Most went to see Harry Potter (it was the closest showing in english) but 3 of us (myself, Kate, and Andrea) split off from the group to see Robbie playing with Yacht at midnight. The night couldn't have gone better with great food, people, and getting to see Rob and Jenny in another country! We met back up with the other group and caught the 6am train back to where we live. Perfect day. 

(above- Michelle and I by a waterfall we can hear from our hostile, after a thunder storm)

Our class leaves this coming weekend for a 15-day trip. I'm sure there will be many more stories after that. I can't believe our course is already 1/4 over. Times flies in the Scood

First 10 days...

My first day went completely different than planned, but I successfully arrived in Scudellate, Switzerland mid-day after a day of traveling. We live in a city in the lower Alps called Scudellate, population (before we arrived) 25. Population doubled with our architecture studio here! We’re living in an ostello (hostile), sharing one shower room, two toilets, and 3 bedrooms full of bunks. We’ve got the most amazing Swiss-Italian cooks (who also live part-time in Nevada City near 5 Mile Restaurant!) A typical day of meals goes something like this… bfast: yogurt with fruit and granola, toast, and coffee. lunch: proscuitto and ham sandwiches, apple, and crossaint. dinner: salad, melon, bruscetta, cheese, amazing pasta, and bread:) life’s pretty tough here in the Scood (pic below)

Classes have included water coloring class, resin workshops, metal sculpting workshop, ceramics workshop, plus the regular studio project. Today was our first metal workshop waaay up in the hills in a nearby city. Goats, horses, cats, donkeys, and dogs were the variety of animals we saw on our walk up to the workshop from the bus stop. A herd of goats decided to stop by for the day. Nothing really better than welding with a little goat petting/feeding on the side.

Our 5 day trip through northern Italy was incredible! So many new experiences and crazy adventures. Navigating the cities and finding hostiles were adventures in themselves. We started off in Milano for a day and toured the city. Verona was day 2 which was filled with exploring a few famous buildings as well as an outdoor opera in an ancient arena. It was probably my favorite experience so far even if I couldn’t understand anything other than the song ‘Figaro.’ Days 3-5 were saved for Venice. The days were filled with visiting famous sites, wandering the narrow streets, Italian pizza to die for, an art exhibit with work from all countries, meeting a bunch of single back-packers from all over the world and all the best gelato a human could want! (Below is a pic from the opera)

(Duomo on left)

I’m so lucky to be living here in this gorgeous city. A group of us just got back from a hike down the mountain to a waterhole/slide in the river. Thunder storms are pretty frequent up here and yesterday’s storm made the river a lot more full than usual. Absolutely nothing here to complain about in the Scood

Miss you fam and friends! I’ll try and update this more often than every 1.5 weeks:)