AS ROMA vs SS LAZIO

sorry that i haven't been updating this blog much. school has been consuming my life. although i've been taking breaks only to watch ROMA/VALENCIA (champions league), and ROMA/LAZIO (derby) game. i've been waiting for the ROMA/LAZIO game for the entire semester. when i picked up my ticket for the valencia game, alec and i saw that the tickets for the ROMA/LAZIO game were on sale. we soon found out the it was impossible to go to the game. only fans who were members could get tickets to the game. he suggested we go to the LAZIO ticket station, although he never told us where one was. ha. good thing i remembered that earlier in the semester i had stumbled across one in search for a skate shop. so later that day niki and i got tickets to the game. we went to the lazio stop and asked for seats with the ROMA fans. after getting the tickets it was back to work. flash to the end of the week. we made it to the stadium and it was going insane an hour before the game. when we entered the grounds someone had lit a M80 (an M80 is about a third of a stick of dynamite). we stared at it as we walked passed, the BBBBOOOOOOOOOMMMM!!! niki yelled i peed a little bit, and i yelled back oh my heart!!! what a nice welcome. we found our gate and went through the large security system that was in place for the game. one of the security guards yelled NAKATA!!! yeah... anyway we found our seats and the stadium was already going insane. ROMA was on the curva sud and LAZIO was on the curva nord and both sides where we were sitting. the game was a let down LAZIO crushed ROMA 3-0. after the game we headed back to my apartment and got back to work.

DANCING, DISCOTECAS, AND DANGER!!!

so last night (friday) trevor, scottie, and i went to meet the girls (angel, katelin, niki, amy, renita, jessica, melissa, sharron, ashley, laura, and katie) for a night of dancing. yes dancing. we decided to go beyond our normal bar/dance hall to a part of the city unfamiliar to all but some of the girls. testaccio is a part of town is known for their clubs. so we headed out from angel, katelin, niki, amy, and renita's apartment. we had to take the metro which means no walking home. from the metro we went to ashley's apartment and looked at the latest elle magazine while eating hot tamales. after making a mess of the apartment we headed out for a night full of dancing. we walked down to testaccio where all the clubs were located, there we met up with trevor, angel, and katelin. there we walked around until we found a club that didn't look ridiculous. these clubs have a absurd cover charge of ten dollars for guys, although we didn't have to pay them because of the ladies. the first club was all alright, they played nothing but gangster rap. it was pretty funny because we were the only people dancing in the club. the italians just watched as we all cut the rug to shreds. after about an hour it was time to find a club that had more people who wanted to dance. we then went to a place called coyote. after we got in we dance on the veranda to kylie minogue. this is where the night turn interesting. scottie and i were taking a break on a railing when some guy came and sat down ext to us. i got up and went back out on the dance floor and trevor took my place on the railing. all of a sudden trevor was pushed into the crowded dance floor. he then quickly turned around and headed back towards the guy who was sitting next to him (the guy wouldn't move over even when he had a foot of room on the other side of him). by this time the guy was theratning trevor ready to throw fists. trevor told him what he did was uncalled for and he was retarded for resorting to pushing (i was really impressed with the way trevor held his composure and was so calm in that situation). scottie was next to trevor, niki was in between the guy and trevor and i was trying to calm down the guy who was flipping out. all of a sudden i was shoved into the railing by his friend. so i confronted him and told him with colorful language that we were trying to resolve the situation. after everyone calmed down they left. i really hate this american male tough guy attitude, i thought i left that stuff back in ames. this kind of stuff makes americans look horrible to everyone else who is observing. so out of a packed club the americans are the ones causing trouble. wow.

NORTHERN EXPOSURE

last weekend (november 2 to 5) our class went on our northern field trip to zurich and venice. we spent about 18 hours on trains this weekend. my roommates and i left for termini around 6:30 a.m. we then had a four hour train ride to the milano centrale where we a quick transferred to our next train which took us the rest of the way to zurich. on the train we went through the swiss alps also on the train people started to get crazy. zak started throwing bree rines at trevor while he was sleeping (maybe it would be funnier if you were there and trapped on a train for eight hours straight). when we finally arrived at the zurich bahnhof around 5:00 p.m. by the way zurich was COLD... Very, very, cold. it was nice though it actually felt like november should feel. i exchanged some of my euros into swiss francs and got on tram number 7 and headed towards the youth hostel near morgenthal. the hostel was amazing. it was very clean and nice. it had an fantastic common room with a fusball table, pingpong table, etc. i roomed with reid, scottie, and brenton in room 312. after getting settled we head back into the city and found something to eat that wasn't made entirely out of sugar. we found a nice mexican restraunt, it was pretty good. after that we headed back to the hostel and played some fusball. i went to bed early because the train wore me out and i needed to get pretty early the next day.









after waking up and getting ready for the i ate a nice breakfast buffet which consisted of a hard roll, yogurt, cereal, juice, and a cup of coffee. it was nice to finally have a decent breakfast. after the hearty breakfast scottie and i went and explored our neighborhood. we then headed back to the hostel to go to the plakatraum (poster gallery). there we saw some fantastic 40's and 50's italian/swiss style posters. they were absolutely amazing and i felt inspired to design for the first time in quiet a while. i bought a book on hand made posters which blew my mind. after the poster gallery we went across the street to the museum fur gestaltung, at the museum we viewed the swiss federal design prize and japanese poster today exibits. both were amazing. after the museum i ate lunch in the bahnhof which included a brat and roasted chestnuts. then i went to siegfried odermatt and rosmarie tissi's studio, their studio was filled with original famous posters that i've only seen in text books. i then helped them setup for their lecture to our class at the hulls school. after the presentation i went back to their studio and bought a siegfried's book which he signed for me. i went back to the hostel and met up with the guys and went out to dinner at a chinese resturaunt. after dinner i went to bed, i was still tired.













































we had to get up early the next day and head to venice. the train ride was LONG. during the ride niki and amy put salad on me while i was out cold. they called me an oriental salad. i also heard that italians passengers where even taking pictures of me. after arriving at the train station we took a vaporetto to guidecca island (the zitelle stop) where our youth hostel was located. the hostel was nothing like the one in zurich. we shared a room with random travelers. some put his crap all over and left his beer cans on the floor of our room (thanks). we then went to piazza san marco and had a quick lecture from paula and cheri. the piazza was empty. after the lecture we had some free time in venice to have dinner and explore the island. most of our group at a sitdown restaurant, but scottie and i didn't feel like spending ten euros on a coke and a fruit cup. so we went to mcdonalds. i know but would you want to spend ten euros on a fruit cup and a coke? the answer is NO. exactly. after two hamburgers for two euros we explored the island. we made it back to the hostel around 10:30 and sat in the common room and played cards with leah and hana. did i ever tell anyone how bad i suck ate card games? i'm horrible at card games. around midnight the employees turned out the lights and told us to go to bed. so i did, but not because they told me to, but because i was tired. after a nights sleep i got up and decided to stay in venice with the group for the day. i was planning on coming home for the AS ROMA game against FLORENTINA, but when is the next time i'm going to be in venice. i spent the day walking through the streets of venice where we finally found our way to piazza san marco. the piazza was packed with people and pigeons. after spending an hour in the piazza we made our way back to the train station to pick up our bags and catch our trains back to rome. we made it back to rome around 12:30 p.m. so by this time the metro and buses had stopped running so i spent the night at niki's apartment. on monday afternoon i got back to the apartment. end of story.













































so this trip has solidified that swizterland is one if not my favorite counrty that i've ever visited. hostels can be nice or a complete dive. and that mcdonalds is always there when you need it to be. also on monday night i saw the DEPARTED, it was the best film i've seen this year. warning it is violent...very violent.

HOOKAHS, HALLOWEEN & HAIRCUTS

on friday alec and i went out to find some more chisha (sp) for the hookah. by the way it's a three hose hookah. anyway the chisha we first got was absolutely terrible dry and harsh. so we were told about a place closer to the studio. it was a nice shop that sold middle eastern rugs, beads, etc. alec asked if they sold chisha and he brought out some double apple. he then asked if he carried any other flavors, the man reach into a secret compartment in the seat he was sitting on and pulled out a box of some of the most potent double cherry chisha that i've ever seen. alec thought that we didn't have enough so the shop owner said if you don't have the money in 15 minutes he wouldn't sell it to us, because we were to much of a hastle. we actually had enough on us at the time. alec then asked if we ever needed anymore if he would sell us some more. the answer was no he said, "if you go through this entire box before two months your worst than the turks." we had a chuckle and were on our way.

yesterday the guys threw a halloween party. lets just say it was nothing short of amazing. given the lack of resources people came up with good costumes. out of the entire group of 70 designers about 40 made an appearance. the guys costumes were hilarious; zach was a terrorist, zak was the late steve irwin, alec was paula, nick was tom cruise, trevor was a pan handling gypsy, frank was a italian, reid was borat, scott was a turd, tony was static cling, and i was a panda. pictures courtesy of niki brown and the facebook.

























i got a hair cut, and finally we got an appointment for last friday at nine for our permessos. they asked about tatoos, then the hand printed me. yes, you heard it correctly hand printed me. so finally i got my permesso of stay. if i hurt my self i can actually go to the hospital. also i'm heading out of the country on thursday for our northern fieldtrip. we are going to zurich and venice. but don't worry i'll be back in time for the florentina game on sunday.

AS ROMA vs CHIEVO VERONA

on sunday twenty two designers went to the AS ROMA vs CHIEVO VERONA match. although days before the match trevor and i went to the ROMA store to purchase our tickets. we accidentily bought tickets for the curva sud (south side) instead of or regular curva nord. this means we were with the hardcore season ticket holder ROMA fans. everyone else got tickets for the curva nord. the game was really intense. ROMA had so many chances to put the ball in the goal but could never capitalize. there was an offsides and a hand ball in the box causing the goals to be withdrawn. VERONA scored first when the keeper rushed to the 18 but misses the tackle as well as a defender, this left the striker wide open. ROMA answered back with a string of fabulous passes leaving totti to slot it home. the south side went insane screaming TOTTI. the game ended in a draw. another great game. i think ROMA is at the top of the table in the SEIRE A. i might be going to a champions league match next tuesday. we'll see though.

MIDTERM

i didn't get a midterm. so mom you don't have to worry. although i did get a ticket to the AS ROMA game. school is starting to pick up, we had a in class crit on our packaging prototypes. cheri and paula liked my idea of the broken bridge package. i've been working on my symbol and type journal as well. the topic is graffiti in centeral rome. i have to find as many non-crappy stencils and a wide variety of type and then analysis them. i've also started on working on an identity system for tiber island. i need a hair cut.



we started playing soccer at a park last monday. it feels great running around again. the pitch is absolutely horrible, i think everyone fell at least once. it was hilarious when the italians would stop to watch a bunch of americans look absolutely ridiculous trying to play soccer. although a lot of them wanted to play with us. i think this is going to be a weekly activity.





because of the amount of work that has come down on me this month and mom and jessie visiting in november niki and i are think about moving our trip to germany to late november/early december.

FIRST ALL NIGHTER

i had to go back to my sight which was tiber island, because i heard that the bottom half of the island was open to the public. so niki and i decided to check it out. when we got there the stairs were being cleaned so niki climbed over the railing by the church (it was a less of a drop). she then started her way down the hillside made of cobblestone. i then hopped the fence and started down the hill. i saw her sitting and scooting down the side of the hill and asked myself why she was sitting. i then slipped on pine needles and fell on my tailbone, both hands, my right elbow, and my camera. i then proceeded to slide down the ten foot hill and got up quickly and tried to walk it off. niki burst out laughing and so did the doctors that were on their smoking break. note to self use the damn steps. after taking one of the hardest spills in a while i took some pictures of my sight and made some observations of the people visiting the island. then i decided to do some freestyle walking, because that's what all the cool kids do. ha. after going back to the studio i worked on my sketchbook until i had to go to art history. we went to the vatican where there were 1,500 german pilgrims. they were really loud and excited. they wore light blue shirts that read ROM. most of them were pretty nice and spoke english pretty well. the parents on the other hand were not cool, they would cut in line, push, and breath really hard on me. it was like they didn't know what a personal bubble was. this was weird because germans that i've met are so much more hospitable. one parent pinned me against a barrier and wouldn't let me pass trying to block me in so his kids could cut in front of me. so i said he should calm down, we're all going to the same place. he then pushed me hard into the barrier, so i push him back and got back with the rest of my class. after finally getting into st. peter's we were told we couldn't be there because of the size of our group and our professor wasn't supposed to be taking. so i guess he was the only one that couldn't talk, because everyone in the entire church was allowed to. so we had our leture on the steps. after class i worked until four in the morning. i then had to listen to a lecture on illuminated manuscripts. i love how they stress sketches and research when in the real world we might get a couple of hours instead of a month and a half of not doing anything productive. i 'm glad i'm paying a lot of money to do absolutely nothing. i just want a project that applies to graphic design not arts and craft. for adrianna's birthday niki and i bought her a 5 kg industrial size jug of nutella. she was happy.