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:)