I currently have the worst cold I've ever had in my life. Ack! I've mostly been trying to drink a lot of water and make sure I have kleenex in my pocket and try my best to ignore it. It's hard though; I'm kind of sick of being a dripping ball of moucus that is rapidly coughing up it's own lungs.
On a more positive note, We went to the Gori collection this week. The Gori collection is this beautiful villa property up in the hills near Pistoia that has become the site of these amazing site-specific scultptural works. We had a wonderful guide to show us around on our four hour hike around the grounds. If you'de like to read about it, here's there site: http://www.sculpture.org/documents/parksdir/p&g/gori/gori.shtml . The collection is viewed by appointment only and there's a limit to how many appointments they book so it was really cool to be able to see it. I could talk about the work, but instead I'm going to tell you two embarassing things because they'll be more amusing:
1. it made me feel like a hobbit. It was all woods and fields and some sculptures, like these giant figures in rock which looked like Bilbo's trolls in the Hobbit, just made me feel like I was a Took (or at the very least a Brandybuck)! Yeah, I'm in Italy looking at world famous art collections and I'm excited because I can hum the lord of the rings theme song as I bound through the woods and actually feel legit. I'm the coolest person I know.
2. At the end of our long hike, we got to sit for awhile and eat or whatever. So we found this praying mantis hanging out inside this giant metal geometric sculpture. So I think it's a good idea to take a closer look and I start following it on all fours. Until it starts flying at me, I freak out, flail, fall backwards and-in front of everyone- smack my head against a metal beam behind me. You could have heard the ping of my skull against that thing a mile away. No permenant damage done besides a little bump though. Well, and the loss of dignity. But, it seems like that's not particularly one of my vital organs.
Well, embarassing stories aside, I don't have much other news. We went to some chapels. We saw some paintings. They were a lot cooler than I make it seem but I just don't feel like regurgitating all the awesome things Peter Porcal said.
I had my first critique and it went well.
That is all.