A Day In Ravenna

“Hey guys, it’s like 7…” Dangit Daniel… He was supposed to get me and Wes up at 6:45am so we had more than enough time to get dressed and get to the bus in time. Well, I got dressed with lightning speed and made it there well before 7:30am and in plenty of time to wait on the bus to get there – in the freezing cold weather. Soon enough the bus was there and I was one of the first ones jumping on. I found a seat, got comfortable, turned on the mp3 player, and slipped away back into the sleep that had been interrupted for all the mess explained above. Somewhere between 10:30 and 11:00am we arrived in Ravenna and while I hadn’t slept the best on the bus, I had slept some. We got off the bus and started our grand walk through the city to our first stop, a Byzantine church. Just for all of you that don’t know, Ravenna is pretty much the center for Byzantine architecture so I’ll go ahead and tell you all of what we saw pretty much was. We entered a church and I really absolutely loved it. I’m not usually a fan of Byzantine, but I was a fan of this church. After I took some pictures we moved on to the outside in a courtyard adjacent to the church and visited a small mausoleum there. Then we went back through the church where I took more pictures, this time trying without the flash (it was really dark in there) and then we left and continued our walk to another part of the city. Here we visited a baptistery that was built by some priest that started the Aryan movement (yes, this is where Hitler got the name) and it was a movement that said that Christ was only a man so it had one of the 2 mosaics in existence that portray him as such and therefore totally nude. Honestly, I wasn’t impressed, but whatever. After this we walked across the city again to another church that was pretty cool, it had a totally flat roof which we hadn’t seen yet and the entire roof was coffered. Anyway I actually got a few souvenirs here for a few special ladies in my life that I still needed to get something for. (Mom, Mom#2, & Kimber.) After this church we made our way to another baptistery that was much smaller than the first and wasn’t all that interesting to me, and then we were finished. By this time it was well after noon and I was starving so I followed a group of people in search of sustenance. We finally found this little cafeteria place and the food was good and cheap. Both important, just by the by. After lunch I followed them some more in search of gelato and I finally found some and they disappeared. I then ran into a bunch of us in the main square sunning themselves and joined them. We killed a lot of time doing nothing and I sketched a little, listened to music, and chatted and then finally we went back to where we were supposed to meet to get on the bus. After some more waiting they got there and we all anxiously boarded. Again I tried to listen to music and sleep, but my thoughts had been haunting me all day. So I slept some and thought a lot while I listened to Jars of Clay, Project86, Living Sacrifice, and Switchfoot – 3 old groups and one new one and all very enjoyable. I’ve actually been listening to them all a LOT the last few weeks and I think its helping something, I’m not really sure what though. Anyway I was pretty much awake for the last hour of the way home and jumped off the bus to race back to the center and pee. Then I went to dinner and now I’m here. I think we’re planning on working on our project a little, a little later, but I’m not sure. We’re all pretty pissed about studio right about now because we’ve yet to start the final phase of this project which is where we split off on our own and design an entire building from the ground up with every possible drawing you could imagine and multiples of many. The problem is that we have a little over a week and a half left before it’s due, and like I said we haven’t started yet. This studio is such crap… I have nothing to show at the end of the semester. Probably not an A and definitely a bad attitude about the whole experience. But, on the plus side, we only have 18 days left before I’ll be home. THANK GOD! I am planning on going to Sorrento not this weekend but the next and probably Capri a little too, but Daniel and I haven’t started all of the technical planning as of yet. Soon though hopefully. Okay, that’s all I have for now, I hope you enjoy the pictures and the journal entries and thank you for the e-mails – I cherish them all, helps the time be a little happier. I love and miss everyone and I hope you guys have a great day and week. Ciao!