Not Built in a Day

Here's another throwback post from something that happened last year, but was too good not to share since I have photos. Imagine our surprise when we open the mailbox and discover...  a one-pound coconut!  (Despite its mailing labels, I suspect it was delivered by a pair of sparrows.)  Well, you know what they say: when life gives you coconuts, make delicious coconut macaroons macaringues ... chocolate-covered coconut balls! YOU WILL NEED: 1.  Hammer 2.  Coconut 3.  Some other ingredients... suit yourself 4.  Chocolate 5.  Patience and safety goggles 6.  Did I mention a hammer? Step one:  Using hammer and nail, poke hole in coconut to drain coconut water.  Wait.  Set aside coconut water. Step two:  Again using hammer, crack open the coconut.  This will be harder than it should be.  Then peel the coconut and shred it, while trying not to injure yourself.  This works best if you've baked the...

Hello everyone! Sorry for the delay in posting, but it's been a busy week. Here are the photos as promised from last weekend (Valentine's Day). I started out my walk by visiting some early Renaissance palazzi, including the Palazzo Cancelleria, Palazzo Farnese (now the French Embassy and closed to the public), and Palazzo Spada. On my way I saw the market at Campo dei Fiori, a fruit and vegetable market by day, popular hang-out for college students at the bars at night. There was also a really cute fountain with turtles! Apparently during WWII the locals were afraid the turtles might get stolen, so they were removed during the occupation and then put back afterward. Then I ventured southward toward the former Jewish Ghetto with the Synagogue (it has an aluminum roof), the Theater of Marcellus and other ancient ruins, and Trastevere (the area of town across the river, Tevere being the Italian word for the Tiber River). In Trastevere I saw some churches, including ...

On Sunday the 31st we spent the early afternoon in Saint Peter's Square after taking it easy in the morning... sometimes you need to take the day off from sight-seeing! The line to get into the basilica was extremely long so we didn't even try to go in, especially since it was a Sunday so there was probably mass going on. We made meatball subs for lunch, which was an experience; we discovered that meatballs aren't just meatball-shaped pieces of ground beef but actually require seasoning. Next time we'll know better! This week hasn't been too intense, although we have had a couple cooking failures. This week I printed a color relief print using plywood (see pictures below for pictures of my black and white linocut print also), saw five works by Caravaggio in-situ in churches around Rome (in Sta. Maria del Popolo, San Luigi dei Francesi, and Sant'Agostino), and with my Late Antique class, visited St. John in Lateran (the cathedral of Rome), and the remain...

Hello avid readers! On Tuesday of this past week (the 27th) I visited the Doria Pamphili Gallery with my Baroque Art class; I was proud of myself because I managed to get there and back to school without having to consult my map a single time. I'm becoming pretty good at navigating the metro/bus system here. And tomorrow (Sunday the 1st) I finally get to start using my new monthly pass, so I can take the bus as much as I want! The gallery was interesting because it's a private collection only recently opened to the public--about 10 years ago--and is still organized and looks like a private villa with art covering the walls from mid-wall to the ceiling, frescoed ceilings, and a late-Baroque gallery based on the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles. To the Pamphili family belonged Pope Innocent X, of which there are several busts by Bernini and a portrait by Velazquez. Thursday my Late Antique/Early Byzantine class went to see the imperial buildings of the late Antique emperors Dioc...

Friday, Jan. 23rd On Wednesday the 21st I had one new class: Late Antique/Early Byzantine Art and Architecture with Professor Jan Gadeyne. I really enjoyed it--I think this will be my favorite class. My advisor at Duke recommended him, and I can see why now! He has a very entertaining lecture style and a great accent (he's Belgian). I also bought my textbooks. Thursday morning with Professor Gadeyne we went to two museums: the Palazzo Massimo and the Palazzo Altemps. We met up first at the Piazza Repubblica, pictured below. In the museums we looked at classical Roman sculpture and some Late Antique sarcophagi to see the difference between them, and how Late Antique art grew out of changing social/political conditions in the late Roman world; this will be the theme of the class. Today, Friday, we went grocery shopping and did laundry (we don't have classes on Friday) and this afternoon visited La Sapienza, the main campus of the University of Rome. The University of Rom...

Saturday, January 17, 2009, 4pm It’s Saturday, and everything is finally starting to come together. I’ve figured out the metro stops, found the grocery stores, and this morning experienced the outdoor market. The market is crazy—hundreds of little old ladies pushing you aside to get to the produce. The market closes at 2pm and isn’t open on Sundays, so when we got there at 12:30, most of the best produce was already gone. By 1:00, when we had had time to look around and decide what we wanted to get, most of everything was gone! We only managed to get onions and some cashews, then had to go to the regular grocery store for the rest of what we wanted. Below is a photo of our school in the Villa Caproni: Fortunately, all the Italians I’ve interacted with have been very helpful and patient with me. At the grocery store, someone helped me find the right button on the scale so I could print the sticker for my broccoli… the lady selling nuts had to explain that they were 1.5 euro per 10...

Roma, Italia, 23:36 CET Hello from Italy! Last night I finally arrived at the apartment after spending two hours at the airport trying to file a claim for my luggage, which didn't follow me when my flight got moved up by an hour out of Dulles. Fortunately, it arrived tonight around 10pm, so I only had to go one day without it. Our apartment here at the Residence Medaglie d'Oro is quite nice, with two bedrooms, one bath, a sitting room with a day bed and adjoining tiny kitchen area. It came furnished with plates and cutlery and a few pots. Our greatest excitement of the evening was trying to cook dinner on the gas-burning stove: none of the four of us had ever lit a stove like this before! We had to ask the porter to come up and show us how. The weather here has been overcast and a little rainy, but not too cold; almost exactly like weather at Duke usually is in the winter. Maybe a little warmer here than at Duke. But the scenery is obviously very different! On the shuttle here ...