i cant believe i only have a few more days of this class. im going to miss quite a few of my friends from this class, but i am excited for when mom gets here tomorrow.
we are working on creating a portfolio now, and im waiting to meet with claire. we are going over what i have, what i should add, what i should take out. so far i have like.. 7 really strong images that goes with the theme and mood of the portfolio. im going to make a few more portfolios for other things, but this is my main one. im happy with it. but i do not like writing artist statements. they always sound slightly pretensious, and as much as i like to be pretensious, its for fun, not something serious like an artist statement. hmmm. we will see.
in january will be the huge exhibition of everyone's work. we might even make a book. we will have to see but its all very exciting. things are going better. i think everyone is really tired, but really wanting to make these last few days amazing... so mostly good.
we had a free weekend so julz, garrett and i decided to go to elba. it was a five hour journey from siena, about 22 euro one way, but we finally arrived around 3ish. we spent about two hours trying to find a hotel, gave up and went swimming instead. the beach was all pebbles and garrett found pebbles that looked like birds. he was thrilled.
we got dinner after that, super tasty. and headed back into the main town part and basically just walked around until 1am when we checked for the earilest ferry out of elba (530am) and went back to the pebble beach and i slept on my damp town with my dress, my nightgown and shorts on, and garretts shorts on my shoulders. it was pretty awesome. sleeping on a beach sounds romantic and fun.. but its really not that exciting. more like cold and irrating. hahahaha.
but we got on the ferry and went back home. got some really good night pictures of the ferry dock which i added to my portfolio. i really wish i had reservations somewhere (saw the coolest little hotel on the beach!) and had a few days to spend and maybe not in the town we were at and i wish dad was there! since that was one of the places we were going to go. but it was a good trip minus the shitty parts. hahaha.
we have been cooking dinner lots at our house. usually luke, dean and/or corrina come join us too and everyone brings something and its really nice. i really enjoy it. its like a really mellow hangout time. we spent most nights either hanging at each others house, or in the campo.
the other night we found a democratic party thing which had a live band that did bad covers of american music, like rage against the machine, nirvana and foo fighters. we left soon after for the campo.
mom gets here tomorrow and i still cant figure out how to use my stupid phone card!
hopefully i can post pics soon, but we will see.
love jordan.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
i pushed pisa
hello hello
today 5 of us decided to go to pisa after class. we headed down to the train station, caught the next train and two hours later just wandered around the city. really fun to photograph and had a really nice time. the tower was pretty cool to see, glad i did. overall a nice little sidetrip. only spent like.. 3 or 4 hours before heading back.
at luke's house for dinner. their apartment gets internet at times so i brought over my computer to upload some pics.
stupid internet wont let me upload some palio pics, so if you dont have myspace or facebook, you will have to wait.
love you!
jordan
today 5 of us decided to go to pisa after class. we headed down to the train station, caught the next train and two hours later just wandered around the city. really fun to photograph and had a really nice time. the tower was pretty cool to see, glad i did. overall a nice little sidetrip. only spent like.. 3 or 4 hours before heading back.
at luke's house for dinner. their apartment gets internet at times so i brought over my computer to upload some pics.
stupid internet wont let me upload some palio pics, so if you dont have myspace or facebook, you will have to wait.
love you!
jordan
Monday, August 18, 2008
22 now
its been a strange week. i turned 22 on tuesday. we all rode the train to verona, spent like 5 or 6 hours traveling. i bought myself a wine juice box. i thought it was funny. we got to our hotel around 2pm and went out to get food. ended up splitting up with everyone and eating with six people from the group. walked to a castle, took lots of pics and headed back to take a nap. went out to a park nearby and had some wine. some people went to a bar and i went to bed. talked to mom.. that was nice. but i dont know. it was strange. the park was fun but it didnt feel like my birthday.
everything here.. i feel like i dont know what i expected from this trip, but it wasnt this. i dont know if that is a good or bad thing, just strange.
its hit a point with the 19 of us where we all are together constantly for the past... 20 days and tensions and frustrations are running high. all the little things are starting to become big issues. it should all get resolved, but right now its just irrating.
when we got back from verona, which is an adorable little city, the palio was full swing. i staked out a spot by the wall to get some good horse race pics for two or three hours for one of the trial races. the day after, i didnt get to go to any of the other trials because it was pouring down rain with thunder and lighting. it was pretty intense and really enjoyed the bit of rain and the break from the sun. for palio all the pre races were cancelled.. so i decided to brave the crowds and get locked into the campo for the horse races.
before heading to the campo, i went to the duomo and took pictures of the parade of all the contradas. it was pretty cool. we walked into the campo 3 hours before it started and it wasnt too bad, but more and more people kept streaming in. very impolite too. i whacked some mans leg for stepping on our bags and he was a pissy asshole about it. it was crazy. so many people. they had almost 1 hour of false starts before the race actually happened. and it was over so quickly after all that waiting. the winners, the silk worms, all head to the duomo, the giant cathedral, to celebrate. that was even crazier than palio. people were trying to fist fight at the entrance to get in or out. i just wanted to get out. i couldnt believe the whole atmosphere. the entire thing is crazy. men dressed in medieval gear and knight suits and flag throwing, its just such a huge deal to them and so important. the second place is the worst place, if you arrive second place they run from the campo. to hide. its insane. completely insane.
made dinner after that, and went to the campo and drank wine. yesterday we had a dinner party at four of the girls house. almost all of us brought food and/or wine.
i enjoy siena more that im staying here, then a quick visit.
its just been a strange and crazy week. im ready to do something else though.
ill post more pics when i can.
lovejordan
everything here.. i feel like i dont know what i expected from this trip, but it wasnt this. i dont know if that is a good or bad thing, just strange.
its hit a point with the 19 of us where we all are together constantly for the past... 20 days and tensions and frustrations are running high. all the little things are starting to become big issues. it should all get resolved, but right now its just irrating.
when we got back from verona, which is an adorable little city, the palio was full swing. i staked out a spot by the wall to get some good horse race pics for two or three hours for one of the trial races. the day after, i didnt get to go to any of the other trials because it was pouring down rain with thunder and lighting. it was pretty intense and really enjoyed the bit of rain and the break from the sun. for palio all the pre races were cancelled.. so i decided to brave the crowds and get locked into the campo for the horse races.
before heading to the campo, i went to the duomo and took pictures of the parade of all the contradas. it was pretty cool. we walked into the campo 3 hours before it started and it wasnt too bad, but more and more people kept streaming in. very impolite too. i whacked some mans leg for stepping on our bags and he was a pissy asshole about it. it was crazy. so many people. they had almost 1 hour of false starts before the race actually happened. and it was over so quickly after all that waiting. the winners, the silk worms, all head to the duomo, the giant cathedral, to celebrate. that was even crazier than palio. people were trying to fist fight at the entrance to get in or out. i just wanted to get out. i couldnt believe the whole atmosphere. the entire thing is crazy. men dressed in medieval gear and knight suits and flag throwing, its just such a huge deal to them and so important. the second place is the worst place, if you arrive second place they run from the campo. to hide. its insane. completely insane.
made dinner after that, and went to the campo and drank wine. yesterday we had a dinner party at four of the girls house. almost all of us brought food and/or wine.
i enjoy siena more that im staying here, then a quick visit.
its just been a strange and crazy week. im ready to do something else though.
ill post more pics when i can.
lovejordan
Monday, August 11, 2008
some europe pictures!
so here are some images from my trip. the first two are for my assignment today that claire said i nailed. it was about how light tells a narrative. they are here in siena. the next shot is the seashell contrada (which is the one i live in) doing a giant parade in el campo in siena, which is one of my favorite places to hang out. they are dressed in their traditional gear with flag throwing and drum playing. pretty cool dudes. the next two pictures are from my trip to follonica. the first one is joysha, jewls and i in front of some monument i think. the next one is the beach after everyone else has gone home. the medditerrean is so much fun to swim in.
im at AHA, where we have our classes and they have wifi, which means i can actually upload these pics from my laptop. im going to upload to myspace and facebook, so if you have those, check those out too.
verona is tomorrow, as is my 22nd birthday. im pretty excited.
love you all!
Sunday, August 10, 2008
free weekend!
so this weekend we had our first free weekend to go wherever and take pictures. so clare, our professor, was going to the ocean and invited who ever to tag along. about half of us end up going. we went to Follonica which was the most adorable little beach town. we all found an umbrella and swam in the mediterrian sea. we played volleyball, ate at a little restaurant on the beach and people watched. i think i spent like 5 hours in the water. i applied liberal amounts of sunscreen, but i still got a little sunburnt on my shoulders and lower back, but not bad at all, especially considering my last sunburn. i had such a wonderful time swimming and hanging out with everyone, it was such a good group of people who went. the water is so salty and warm with barely any waves, i couldnt believe how beautiful it was. we could see the island of elba in the distance too.
me and my roomies jewls and joysha bought a one way ticket there with the idea that if we find a place to stay we would buy a ticket for tomorrow and if we dont we will buy one later that day. we started to head into town around 4 or 5 and the third place we went into had a vaccancy. it was not super fancy, but next to the water and the main boardwalk. we took lots of pictures and i saw my first oleanders. we found another little italian restaurant on the beach and had some of the tastiest italian food ive had here so far, clams and noodles and stuff. we split a bottle of wine and watched the sunset. i just had the best time in follonica.
we found a night market in the centro and i bought awesome jewerly. we walked on the beach and i got some cheap sandals. it was so hard not to jump back into the water. next day we just wandered around until our bus came at 3.
do you know how much they try to charge for sunscreen? like 22 fucking euros!!! thats like.. 45 dollars and for SPF 8. so if anyone wants to send me a calling card, or waterproof sunblock SPF 75 or however high you can get it... i would not be opposed to recieving that. just a suggestion. haha.
when we got back we picked up clare's niece at the bus stop, she is staying with clare for a few weeks with her friend and wanted to go out for her 20th birthday. since the last bus to where they are staying is at 10, they brought sleeping bags to crash at our apartment. we rounded up some of the group still in town and went to two bars, then found people who knew of a contrada party nearby.
side note: siena has 17 contrada's, which take turns competing in the palio, the horse race on august 16th. they are like little districts with flags and very loyal to thier contrada. the porcipine contrada got disqualified from competing for several years after over 100 porcipine contrada members mobbed thier jockey after he lost. they put him in the hospital for several months. i guess he struck a deal with porcipines enemy contrada, the shewolf, to lose so they would win. obviously... they did not like it. so.. thats what i get to see in less than a week. the city is getting busier and busier as it gets closer and all the contradas are celebrating with giant dinner parties in the streets, and dance parties. its pretty crazy. 10 contradas are going to complete including the district my apartment is in, the nublina (the shell) contrada. so i think my roommates and i are going to buy the contrada scarfs everyone wears. its really exciting to be here at this time.
so we find the unicorn contrada party with 50's american music. the live italian band were italian but sang american songs. about... 12 of us just danced and danced until 230 in the morning. i just had so much fun dancing with all my friends and amanda said it was one of her best birthday's ever. i really enjoyed the free weekend and i miss follonica! im excited for when mom comes, i asked clare if she could come see all the final presentations of the portfolios, so she can see that now. i really wish we had internet at the apartment, i have so many photos to post and i cant do anything!
we have a night photography demo tonight and class tomorrow. im going to take a nice slow day and just take lots of photos. i really havent been doing much else though. haha.
on tuesday, my 22nd birthday, we are going to verona. im excited.
alright. im bored of internet cafe and need to shot some more.
much love.
jordan
me and my roomies jewls and joysha bought a one way ticket there with the idea that if we find a place to stay we would buy a ticket for tomorrow and if we dont we will buy one later that day. we started to head into town around 4 or 5 and the third place we went into had a vaccancy. it was not super fancy, but next to the water and the main boardwalk. we took lots of pictures and i saw my first oleanders. we found another little italian restaurant on the beach and had some of the tastiest italian food ive had here so far, clams and noodles and stuff. we split a bottle of wine and watched the sunset. i just had the best time in follonica.
we found a night market in the centro and i bought awesome jewerly. we walked on the beach and i got some cheap sandals. it was so hard not to jump back into the water. next day we just wandered around until our bus came at 3.
do you know how much they try to charge for sunscreen? like 22 fucking euros!!! thats like.. 45 dollars and for SPF 8. so if anyone wants to send me a calling card, or waterproof sunblock SPF 75 or however high you can get it... i would not be opposed to recieving that. just a suggestion. haha.
when we got back we picked up clare's niece at the bus stop, she is staying with clare for a few weeks with her friend and wanted to go out for her 20th birthday. since the last bus to where they are staying is at 10, they brought sleeping bags to crash at our apartment. we rounded up some of the group still in town and went to two bars, then found people who knew of a contrada party nearby.
side note: siena has 17 contrada's, which take turns competing in the palio, the horse race on august 16th. they are like little districts with flags and very loyal to thier contrada. the porcipine contrada got disqualified from competing for several years after over 100 porcipine contrada members mobbed thier jockey after he lost. they put him in the hospital for several months. i guess he struck a deal with porcipines enemy contrada, the shewolf, to lose so they would win. obviously... they did not like it. so.. thats what i get to see in less than a week. the city is getting busier and busier as it gets closer and all the contradas are celebrating with giant dinner parties in the streets, and dance parties. its pretty crazy. 10 contradas are going to complete including the district my apartment is in, the nublina (the shell) contrada. so i think my roommates and i are going to buy the contrada scarfs everyone wears. its really exciting to be here at this time.
so we find the unicorn contrada party with 50's american music. the live italian band were italian but sang american songs. about... 12 of us just danced and danced until 230 in the morning. i just had so much fun dancing with all my friends and amanda said it was one of her best birthday's ever. i really enjoyed the free weekend and i miss follonica! im excited for when mom comes, i asked clare if she could come see all the final presentations of the portfolios, so she can see that now. i really wish we had internet at the apartment, i have so many photos to post and i cant do anything!
we have a night photography demo tonight and class tomorrow. im going to take a nice slow day and just take lots of photos. i really havent been doing much else though. haha.
on tuesday, my 22nd birthday, we are going to verona. im excited.
alright. im bored of internet cafe and need to shot some more.
much love.
jordan
Thursday, August 7, 2008
typing in class...
hello hello.
currently sitting in photography class listening to clare talk about the series "cape light" and italian photographers. this is like.. day 6 in siena. dean, one of the guys from class, is having birthday party tonight at his apartment so the whole class is going to go and drink wine, make dinner. the class is great, i really enjoy everyone in the group.
i love gelato. god its tasty. and the wine. and i had the most amazing lemon rosemary risotto. buying groceries from myself is cheaper, so i do that mostly.
cant believe how expensive it is here. went to florence, which i loved. it was so beautiful and i really enjoyed it. saw venus de milo and david statue. the city was so big and interesting i want to go back so badly! some people are going to the beach tomorrow, of course im going. i cant believe how hot and humid it is here, and am dying to swim in the ocean. and take pictures .
i think my roommates and i are all going to chip in to rent a modem for a month to get internet in the apartment because i hate not having it and i feel bad updating and emailing during class. looking at italian nude photography now. hot. it is so expensive. you all back home will have to deal with little gifts because i cant afford anything else!
if i get internet ill update more. but yeah. just hanging out around siena, florence, taking pics.
love jordan.
Sunday, August 3, 2008
siena siena
if you want to send me a letter in the next week or two, here is my address:
AHA Siena program
jordan ford
la lizza 10
53100 Siena, Italy
but email works fine.
class is going great. siena is beautiful and i am so happy with all my classmates. the first night here all together was one of the girls, katie, birthday, so we all went to the centro and drank wine until late in the night. every night they have been having a parade for the porcipines, the winners of the palio last year. palio is the big horse race on august 16th which should be crazy and is a huge deal to everyone in siena.
we got into our apartments, which have a kitchen, a sun room, two bedrooms in the downtown area. everyone else has apartments outside the walls of siena, i guess the boys have the best one with a balcony and a couch, so i think lots of hanging out there will happen. wine is cheap. eating lots of caprese salads and gelato, which is tasty! but everything is very expensive and i havent even bought a single present for anyone including myself.
im heading back for lunch now. much love. jordan.
AHA Siena program
jordan ford
la lizza 10
53100 Siena, Italy
but email works fine.
class is going great. siena is beautiful and i am so happy with all my classmates. the first night here all together was one of the girls, katie, birthday, so we all went to the centro and drank wine until late in the night. every night they have been having a parade for the porcipines, the winners of the palio last year. palio is the big horse race on august 16th which should be crazy and is a huge deal to everyone in siena.
we got into our apartments, which have a kitchen, a sun room, two bedrooms in the downtown area. everyone else has apartments outside the walls of siena, i guess the boys have the best one with a balcony and a couch, so i think lots of hanging out there will happen. wine is cheap. eating lots of caprese salads and gelato, which is tasty! but everything is very expensive and i havent even bought a single present for anyone including myself.
im heading back for lunch now. much love. jordan.
Friday, August 1, 2008
finally in siena
took me 30 hours of traveling and waiting. but i made it.
so the long version... last day in paris had breakfast with my very sweet japanese roomate in the hostel, she studied in america to improve her english. i went to find the internet cafe and ended up finding a photography exhibition of annie lebowitz's work which of course i had to see. it was amazing and i am so glad i went. got my stuff and heading to the train station to get to the airport. you take a train, then a taxi to this airport. ended up missing the deadline time by 15 minutes, still had 30 minutes til boarding but they wouldnt let me on. they kindly offered another flight for 75 euros extra the next night. ended up crying and going fuck this, and taking a shuttle back to paris. 13 euros. then went to go to the train station to catch a train to italy instead. i was just done with planes and the cheap air fare ticket wasnt worth it. now i know why they are cheap.
but anyways. i get on the metro to go to the train station and had to get off at gard du nord. we pass paris nord, which is a different name so i wait for my stop. but that was my stop. so i end up traveling all the way to charles de gaulle, the other airport and start crying again. 1.5 hours later i end up at the train station about 10ish, which is now closed. i have no ticket, no train, no plane ticket, no hotel and am stuck in paris.
so i am preparing myself for more crying which some boys from york go.. speak english? come join us. end up hanging out with these 19 year old boys from york who just graduated and are doing a month long tour of europe and two 20 year old girls from denmark, also travelling. we sat in the train station and drank beer until one am when the train station says "we invite you to leave the building for cleaning" so we are kicking out of the train station in paris and end up sitting outside of it until it opened at 4am. i have never felt more classy. i was like a parisan hobo. you should have seen my feet and legs, i had to scrub them clean! but i am very fortunate to have found the group of people i did. they were really nice and we just talked all night and i wasnt alone, which would have been very bad. i have all their emails and took photos of them so it was cool. although a horrible horrible day, it ended up okay.
in the morning i got a train ticket for milan, 95 euros (killing me!), went to a different train station and caught the stupid train. when i woke up i saw rebecca, my roommate and travel buddy, getting on the train. she ended up in the aisle across from me and we travelled together to siena. i was so happy to see her after all that crap. it worked out wonderfully, we traveled together, got to talk and got a hotel room together. we are staying in the hotel everyone is meeting at today for class and i got to shower and we had tasty italian food and wine last night. so i am clean, in siena, with becky and although i am quite poorer.. i am here.
so im going to wake up becky so we can explore siena together.
lovejordan.
so the long version... last day in paris had breakfast with my very sweet japanese roomate in the hostel, she studied in america to improve her english. i went to find the internet cafe and ended up finding a photography exhibition of annie lebowitz's work which of course i had to see. it was amazing and i am so glad i went. got my stuff and heading to the train station to get to the airport. you take a train, then a taxi to this airport. ended up missing the deadline time by 15 minutes, still had 30 minutes til boarding but they wouldnt let me on. they kindly offered another flight for 75 euros extra the next night. ended up crying and going fuck this, and taking a shuttle back to paris. 13 euros. then went to go to the train station to catch a train to italy instead. i was just done with planes and the cheap air fare ticket wasnt worth it. now i know why they are cheap.
but anyways. i get on the metro to go to the train station and had to get off at gard du nord. we pass paris nord, which is a different name so i wait for my stop. but that was my stop. so i end up traveling all the way to charles de gaulle, the other airport and start crying again. 1.5 hours later i end up at the train station about 10ish, which is now closed. i have no ticket, no train, no plane ticket, no hotel and am stuck in paris.
so i am preparing myself for more crying which some boys from york go.. speak english? come join us. end up hanging out with these 19 year old boys from york who just graduated and are doing a month long tour of europe and two 20 year old girls from denmark, also travelling. we sat in the train station and drank beer until one am when the train station says "we invite you to leave the building for cleaning" so we are kicking out of the train station in paris and end up sitting outside of it until it opened at 4am. i have never felt more classy. i was like a parisan hobo. you should have seen my feet and legs, i had to scrub them clean! but i am very fortunate to have found the group of people i did. they were really nice and we just talked all night and i wasnt alone, which would have been very bad. i have all their emails and took photos of them so it was cool. although a horrible horrible day, it ended up okay.
in the morning i got a train ticket for milan, 95 euros (killing me!), went to a different train station and caught the stupid train. when i woke up i saw rebecca, my roommate and travel buddy, getting on the train. she ended up in the aisle across from me and we travelled together to siena. i was so happy to see her after all that crap. it worked out wonderfully, we traveled together, got to talk and got a hotel room together. we are staying in the hotel everyone is meeting at today for class and i got to shower and we had tasty italian food and wine last night. so i am clean, in siena, with becky and although i am quite poorer.. i am here.
so im going to wake up becky so we can explore siena together.
lovejordan.
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