Chris' Pregnant Belly

Hello From Greece

Hello,

It's been a while since I have talked to many of you, so I just wanted to send an email off to let you know what is going on with me.

I was in Italy for a month traveling all over from top to bottom and many places in between. I had such a fabulous experience, and nothing beats actually seeing the things that you have been studying about for years right in front of your face. It was a really intense experience for me, but I loved it. If you are interested in all of the details of that trip, I kept a daily journal for each of the days I was there, and it has been posted online at www.yellowcowphoto.blogspot.com

I am now again in Paros, Greece on a little island studying photography, writing and art history. I love all of the subjects I have been working with, and the teachers are amazing. Tomorrow I really start cranking down on some projects, and I get to work on necessary items for my portfolio and the student show.

I will be on Paros until December 16th. Jared is going to come visit me in about a month, and we are both very excited to again be together in this wonderful and exotic land. There are so many things that I love about this place. I feel right at home, and it has in fact been my second home for the past two years making a tie with my house in Portland as far as time spent. :)

And yes, I'm doing all this pregnant. Currently, I'm 19 weeks, and it's really exciting. All of this traveling has really been amazing for me and for the baby. I swear that the baby is going to be speaking more Greek and English, and if I don't cook fully Greek meals, it will experience intense culture shock from day 1. I had an ultrasound last week, and everything looked fabulous. I'm even starting to feel better. It looks like there may be an end to this intense morning sickness! There are some photos of me online, but I don't look 19 weeks pregnant (or so everyone keeps telling me). To say the least, I'm still having to peel foreign men off me. It's kind of fun to watch the reaction on their faces when they realize that they just tried to hit on a pregnant woman though.

I am available again by email. I will try to contact you about once a week.

I hope that your autumn is going wonderfully. My blog has some photos and a lot of writing if you have some time or interest about my intense and wonderful trip to Italy.

Until next time.

Christine

Pregnancy Update

For anyone that is reading my blog, I'm sure that you know by now that I'm pregnant. In the middle of all of this crazy traveling stuff I'm doing, I figured that I would give you an update on that end of life.

I am now 19 weeks pregnant. Some photos of my still rather small belly are a little further back on my blog. I will try to post some new ones shortly.

I had a sonogram this last week, and the doctor told me that everything was fine. I got to see the head and the heartbeat, and it was really exciting.

We are thinking of names, and we have some that are definite candidates in the running. However, even if we do decide, its going to be a secret until the baby is born, just for fun. :)

I'm still a little sick, but it seems to go away more and more every day. Hopefully the burning Greek sun I'm in constantly will help with that.

I'm on email again, so if you want to send me one off with any questions, I am totally here.

Hope to hear from you soon.

Sunday, October 8, 2006

Ok. I’m really sorry that there has been such a long lapse in my writing. It’s been a while since I got a chance to sit down and write. I’ve spent the last week settling down again on Paros and getting ready for the last semester here at the Aegean Center.

Last weekend, I just got my apartment ready for living in and then I spent some time catching up on my sleep. As soon as Monday hit, I was in photography class almost 12 hours a day either developing my 22 rolls of film and figuring out what to print, or teaching some of the newer students how our darkroom works. I also spent some time cleaning and doing other random things to help the rest of the semester go smoothly.

I can now say that I have developed all of the film that I took in Italy, and I am quite happy with it. Starting at 8:00 tomorrow morning, I will be in the darkroom printing it and getting it ready to put in the photo show at the end of the semester. There are a lot of great shots, and I have put together a project that really communicates how I have blossomed as a person and as an artist while on this island.

There were a couple of things that happened over this past week that really put me back into the spirit of being on this island.

1.) I went swimming. It was amazing. There is nothing more fabulous than floating in the super salty Aegean Sea. It is warm this time of year, and I had a very wonderful time floating around out in the middle of the wine dark sea.

2.) We went on a hike with John. As soon as he started picking the oregano all of the lovely things about this island hit me smack on the head. There was a lovely breeze during the hike, and the ability to pick the spices that I was going to need to use in food that night was amazing.

3.) Speaking Greek is coming naturally to me again, so that is really nice to be around.

4.) Greek food (including Greek yogurt) is really helping me to get over my continuing morning sickness.

5.) Love of the island and the sea overcome me every time I am here, and I forget each time I leave how many of the small details make up the perfect place that is this island.

Tomorrow I get to serious work, and you’ll hear more about that.
We have the snorkeling trip scheduled for next Friday, so you’ll definitely hear about that.

Until Later.

Saturday, September 30, 2006

We took the boat to PAROS. More on this later.

Friday, September 29, 2006

The fever didn’t break day before or even in the day, so I was miserable when I woke up. I decided that I was not going to allow myself to not go on the trip to the Archeological Museum because it was one of the most important of the trip for me.

I ended up dragging myself there, and I was happy that I did. The things in that museum are amazing. I have been studying them for three years, and having the ability to see them and look at them for as long as I wanted in real life was great. There are so many things in that museum of great importance to Greek history.

After the museum, I was feeling badly, so I went to bed.

Thursday, September 28, 2006

We went to the Parthenon with Jeffrey. I had been there before on my own before, so I was able to see the things I had seen and studied about before in a much more detailed light. It was very nice to see it again, and I loved being in the Greek air finally hearing the Greek language around me. It made me feel wonderful.

Unfortunately, I got a really bad fever while we were there, so I spent the rest of the day trying to sleep it off.

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

We took the plane to Athens this day.

The only notable part of the journey was that I was escorted through security for causing trouble. I asked if they would hand inspect my film, and they refused to do it. The security person made me send it through and guaranteed that it would be fine. When I asked for his name, he called the military to escort me away from security as I sobbed about my film being x-rayed.

It all worked out though. The film developed fine, and I wasn’t thrown from the airport and stuck in Rome alone.

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

This was our last day in Rome. It was supposed to be very magical, and it turned out to be for me at least.

We spent the morning in the Roman Forum with Jeffrey. It was a lot of fun to walk around what used to be a busy street and try to put it all back together. I had been there before, but being guided through it with Jeffrey really was a big help.

We ended the morning tour in front of the Coliseum, and we were allowed to go wherever we wanted.

A group of us ran over to the church that holds Michelangelo’s Moses for the tomb of Pope Julius. We were kicked out quickly because the church was closing, but I at least got the joy of standing in front of it.

After that, I walked with a group of people to another church. I went in and they continued on to the church that they wanted to go see. My church turned out not to be so good, so I ended up meeting the group on the steps of another church that was closed.

We decided to go see if a museum was open, so we walked past yet another church that was designed my Michelangelo on the way to the subway station that we took to the museum we were interested in.

The museum didn’t look as promising as I thought it would, so I left the group alone and decided to walk across Rome alone on my way home.

It was a wonderful walk. I went into any church I could, and I saw a lot of good things. I ended up seeing the Deposition of the Cross by Michelangelo as well as many Carravaggio paintings. The afternoon turned out to be a very good one. I was ready to head to my Greek land.

Monday, September 25, 2006

This was one of the most inspirational days I’ve had, and I am doing the very rare thing of writing about it actually on the day because I do not want to forget everything I have to write down.

Early in the morning, we had to wake up and get ready. The Vatican Museums are known for being really crazy, and you have a chance of getting there before the real crowds hit if you get there early.

While Christy was showering, I decided to call Jared, and I actually ended up getting a hold of him right as he was coming back from his surprise Birthday party put on by his mom. He said that there were a lot of people at the party and that it was really nice. I was happy to hear about it.

We headed down and had a very big breakfast before heading off onto the bus. The bus was really crowded, but we managed to cram in as a group of 20 on our way. When we got off the bus, it was still before 8, but the line for the museum wrapped well around the block already. We were told that it was bad news, so we sat and waited. The Museum didn’t even open for another 50 minutes, but we were able to fill the time. The line moved very quickly, and we were in only an hour and a half after we had arrived. However, we were not able to beat the crowds. Once we got in, we were walking shoulder-to-shoulder with the many other people that were in there, there was no room to move or breathe, and it really was very crazy.

We had to walk through four or five very long crowds to make it to the Sistine Chapel, and once we got in there, it was very crazy. However, it was very worth it. When I looked up on the ceiling and saw the real fresco of Michelangelo of God giving life to Adam, tears welled up in my eyes. It was as emotional for me as seeing some of the other amazing Boticelli pieces that I had so long admired. I felt so lucky to be there even though it was difficult physically to get there and to be there.

We spent quite a bit of time in the chapel going over each scene and each character. The impact of the scenes on me was immense, and being in that chapel was one of the best things that I have done so far in this life. Michelangelo really does change the entire space of the architecture of the building with only paint. It was very impressive.

Jeffery then went over the Last Judgment with us. We had a little time then to look at the other frescos in the chapel painted my Boticelli. I was very happy to see them as well.

When we left the Sistine Chapel, we spent time going through the other parts of the Vatican Museums very slowly. We saw the cabinets that used to house the volumes that are now in temperature and climate controlled vaults out of view of the general public.

I saw frescoes that have the maps of Italy on them that are very famous.

We moved slowly through the Egyptian and Assyrian parts of the museum before landing in the Ancient Greece and Rome section. I was able to see some of the statues that were very influential to the people of the Renaissance. The sculptures are just amazing, and it reminds me what an incredible group the human race has been and that this brilliance is not just isolated to the present day. The experience was very humbling.

We then moved back through toward the Sistine Chapel to look at some rooms that Raphael was working on at the same time that Michelangelo was painting. I saw the School of Athens fresco, which was something I have seen many times, but never expected to see today. Raphael did a very good job in his day.

We then headed to the painting section of the museum and looked at the last Italian Renaissance paintings we will look at as a group. The painters were amazing, and the evaluation of them was very easy because I now have a large amount of understanding of Italian art under my belt from which to judge. It was amazing to see the masterpieces in that museum.

Everyone was very tired at this point, and our feet were hurting, so we decided it was time to take a break for lunch. We had seen all of the important parts of the Vatican Museums, so we headed out onto the streets and into the rain for lunch. Christy and I spent some time walking up the street until we came to Saint Peter’s Square. We decided to eat the lunch we packed under the protection of the covered walkway leading to the church. It was a very nice way to eat lunch. I had bare feet because walking in my sandals was slippery, and I did get stepped on. I got accused of being an American for getting mad at the person I stepped on. The charge, for which, I am guilty.

We then headed off into the rain to get gelato and umbrellas, and eventually, we had found both. I had even managed to get a white umbrella, which I have been looking for for a very long time.

We then walked back to Saint Peters because it was raining very hard. We still had quite a bit of time, so I asked Christy if she would be willing to photograph me in the rain with my umbrella. She did a little bit, but then my friends showed up, and we started to run around. Eventually, we had ditched the umbrellas and our shoes and were running around in a torrential downpour. We were dancing and doing cartwheels (yes, the pregnant woman was doing cartwheels). Christy took quite a few photographs of us messing around. We decided to play follow the leader in the rain and ended up running around crazily laughing and smiling. I am told that we attracted quite a bit of attention, and we were photographed by many tourists who found us amusing.

It was finally time to meet up with the group to go into Saint Peter’s Church.

The church is amazing. It is very big and is in fact the biggest church ever. As we walked in the doors, which are great masterpieces, we came upon the stone where Charlemagne knelt and was crowned emperor by the Pope. That was very amazing. I felt like a piece of history.

I was able to see Michelangelo’s Pieta. It is very amazing, but we were not able to get close to it because it has been well protected since a crazy man attacked it. The people were all just standing there trying to take photos of it, but I weaseled my way to the front and got to spend some time looking at it. It was very amazing.

We looked at the rest of the church after that. The church has a lot of legends and other things associated with it like the spear that put the wound in Christ and the rag that wiped his face on the way to the cross. Saint Peter is said to be buried under the church, and the altar over his body is very magnificently made.

There are so many fine things in the church that the only way to describe it would be to send someone to look at it. I was humbled by it, and I plan to return tomorrow without my camera to look some more, even in more torrential rain.

Photos of the Villa in Pistoia

Photos of the Villa in Pistoia

Sunday, September 24, 2006

It was time to leave the villa and head off to Rome. John hired a coach bus to come and take our luggage and us to the hotel in Rome, so all we had to do was show up on time at the door of the villa with all our luggage.

We had all bought shirts on the trip that said “Chao Bella.” Almost everyone had a different color, so we decided to do a group shot with everyone wearing his or her shirt. It was a lot of fun to set up.

The ride to Rome was long, so I slept.

When we got there, we put our things in our rooms and then we headed off with John Pack on a walk. He was going to show us around Rome and take us to some of the sites around our hotel that really inspired him. One of the first things we did was go and see the Pantheon. I was just amazed at the workmanship of the dome, and it was truly an incredible thing to see. Our walk took us all over Rome up to the Capital that Michelangelo designed, down to the Roman Forum and through the Jewish Ghetto back to our hotel.

The walk was really amazing. Rome isn’t one of my favorite cities, but I was able to truly appreciate the beauty of the place that it was and that it has been.

We walked off at night alone to the Trevi Fountain. I threw a coin in for good luck. It is supposed to mean that I will return to Rome.

Saturday, September 23, 2006

I have nothing exciting to report for this day. I spent the day packing and lounging getting ready for the next big week in Rome and Athens and then on to PAROS!

Friday, September 22, 2006

It was hard to believe that after all of the things that we had done that our time was coming to a close. It was our last trip to Florence before heading away from Italy. I was really looking forward to it.

Our first mission was to head to San Miniato. It is a church above the hill in Florence, and it is fabulous. It has a really good view of the city. The church is one of the best that I had been in. It was also one of Michelangelo’s favorites, and I can see why. The church was right along the defense walls that Michelangelo helped to put together when Florence was under siege.

The time we spent in the church was amazing because it was all covered inside and out with perfect white marble. It was a really good church to end our tour of Florence on.

After that, the group walked down the hill to Florence and had lunch.

After lunch, we met up at the Medici Chapel. The goal was to go in and see the Medici tombs as well as the work that Michelangelo did. It was a really fabulous visit, and the works are by far some of my favorite works that Michelangelo did. We then went around and went into the church of San Lorenzo. It is one of my other favorite churches. The entire thing was designed my Brunelleschi, and it has a very fabulous feel. It was one of my favorite spaces to spend time in.

We were all tired, but because it was our last trip in Florence, I headed off with a couple of people to see some other churches. The church of Santo Spirito that was wanted to see was closed, so Jeffrey recommended that we go to the Church of SS. Annunziata. It was nothing like the other churches we had been in, so we did not stay long. The cloister was amazing, but that was because Brunelleschi had a say in it’s design, and it was not ruined too much by later people.

On the way home, I stopped off on the train to Prato. The city is a beautiful little city that I had wanted to see. The only thing that Jeffrey told me would be of interest during a quick trip would be the Duomo. I loved it. I was so surprised by its simple beauty. It is legend that the girdle that Mary was wearing when she ascended to Heaven was thrown down on her way up, and it is supposed to rest in the Duomo in Prato. I was able to see it.

It was nice to take the side road off alone to Prato to see all the wonderful things there were to see.

Thursday, September 21, 2006

Not much to say about this day. We didn’t have anything scheduled for the day, so I decided to take a nice hike up to the hill above the villa and visit the old monastery there. Christy and Matt decided to come with me.

At first, we started right up through the olive groves, and it was a beautiful hike. We eventually came upon a house where a farmer was working. He asked us where we were going and then opened all the gates on the property for us to be able to go through. He was nice, and it was a “cultural” experience, as my friend would say.

The monastery was very wonderful, and the view was fabulous.

After the hike, Matt and I headed to Pistoia where he bought me some lunch, which was very nice.

The rest of the day was spent doing little else but getting ready to head to Greece.

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Lucca was our last day trip out to a new city, and I was really looking forward to it. I had not heard about the glories of Lucca, but I was sure that it was going to be fabulous.

We got there and found out first thing that the church that we were first going to look at was closed. While the professors regrouped and got some coffee, my friends and I discovered that it was an important day in the town and that there was a good market going on. We found a stand that was making fresh donuts, and I had one. It was really amazing.

We then walked on through the town to see the glories that Lucca has to offer.

I am writing this a little bit after the trip. The experience of Lucca is the city itself. There wasn’t a lot of great masterpieces that we saw while we were there. The city is a well-arranged city that has many medieval palaces in it. The streets are lined with the feeling of being old in a modern time.

The churches that we visited were very amazing. I got some post cards of the facades of them because I really enjoyed the time I spent in them.

Of course, as in all churches in Italy, I saw many relics.

We made our way slowly home after a long day of looking at the beautiful city of Lucca.

Dinner was steak, and it was fabulous.

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

We had such a small amount of time left in Pistoia, so we decided to again go down into the city and explore the things that it has in store.

We headed in to the Commune building to explore the Commune Museum. It is a museum with a lot of important works done in Pistoia all through history. We spent a lot of time in the Renaissance section. There weren’t a lot of great masterpieces that are well known, but it was very educational to look at the art that was being done. A lot of it was every bit as good as some of the stuff we were seeing in Florence. It’s hard to imagine that Pistoia was also a VERY important city in the Renaissance—unlike it’s role today.

After the Commune Museum, the group headed off to a museum of work by a famous sculptor named Marino Marini. It was interesting to look at his work. He is a modern art sculptor, and I did not like his work at all. I felt that he had never learned how to draw correctly and traditionally and was thus unable to transfer any quality into his work. I did not stay long, and I vowed to never let my art quality get to the point that I thought his had gone to.

I went home and spent the afternoon photographing one of my friends in the fountain of the villa. She has a wonderful personality, and I’m sure that if you see my portfolio that you will see the photos I took of her.

Dinner was Calamari, soup, turkey with spinach, fish, fruit, cheese and bread.

Monday, September 18, 2006

We were going to have another day in Florence. I have really gotten to know the city well, and it was a joy to be able to spend another day in it looking at the amazing works of art that are available.

We all traveled in to Florence together and went directly to the Bargello. The Bargello is the most important sculpture museum in Florence and quite possibly the world. It has some of the most important pieces from some of the most important sculptors in the world. When we got there, we were able to get in for free because we were technically a “European school group.” We then also found out that the top floor was completely closed down for “unknown reasons.” We later found out that “unknown reasons” meant that there had been some minor thefts done as inside jobs and that they were being investigated. (Was I supposed to publish that information or not?)

The sculptures in the museum were very wonderful. I’m sure that on my blog that I have used many different adjectives over and over again in a very tiring manner, but the truth is that they are all completely accurate.

The Bargello had quite a few works that I have been studying for my entire Art History career. The ability to see Donatello’s David was very incredible.

I was also able to see lots of works by Michelangelo. The only ones that I have not seen now are the ones that are in the Casa Buronotti and the two works in Milan and Bruge.

After a long lunch, the group headed off to Santa Croce. The church has a lot of importantance as far as the history of Florence is concerned. Michelangelo is buried in it, and he spent time during his life studying in it. There are some very important frescoes by Giotto and the cloister (which is amazing) was designed by Brunelleschi. I really enjoyed the area.

We went home and made it home just in time for dinner.

After dinner, we listened to music with Jeffrey again.

Sunday, September 17, 2006

Jeffrey had us all headed down to the city very early. To get to Pistoia, it is necessary to take two buses. If the buses meet up with each other, it is called “coincidence.” If they don’t meet up, it is only necessary to walk about 10 minutes down to the place where the second bus connects. Of course because we were relying on the bus system, it dictated our schedule, and most mornings we had to be on the 8:17 bus fed and ready for a day of exploring.

We stopped off at the old hospital to take a look at a frieze that has been done by Della Robbia’s sons. Della Robbia is well known for inventing a way to carve and glaze terra cotta so that it looked like marble. He became rich during the Renaissance using his technique because he was able to make sculpture/reliefs much faster and much cheaper than a traditional marble sculptor. His son inherited his workshop and then was able to change the technique to include many more colors. The old hospital (it is actually still part of the hospital), has a really amazing frieze in terra cotta with many different colors. We evaluated it for quite a while after a nice break in the coffee shop.

I had some hot chocolate that was like drinking hot pudding. It was very amazing.

We then headed off to another church to look at the Renaissance architecture. It was a really amazing church. I have come to really love and appreciate Renaissance architecture.