Arte Fiera

Note: I know I am behind on blog posts. Yes, I did go to Rome this past weekend. The post is in the works. Hang in there, everyone.

My studio art professor planned to lead us on a trip to Arte Fiera, this large art fair, in Bologna. At Arte Fiera major galleries from all over Europe and even the US bring parts of their exhibits to the convention center in Bologna and set up "mini galleries." It's one of the best opportunities to see a lot of contemporary art at once so it was really exciting that it would be only an hour train ride away. Some friends who were not in the class decided they wanted to come along.

This was our first free weekend of the program and a ton of people were taking the opportunity to travel. The big destination for the weekend was Interlaaken, Switzerland. There's a program called "Bus2Alps" that provides transportation, a hostel, and some meals. It would be an awesome deal if it wasn't so expensive. Plus, you have to rent ski and snow equipment, though I would probably stay away from the ski equipment since I haven't gone skiing in six years. Basically, if I went on this trip I would risk breaking the bank and my neck. Valuing both of those things greatly, I opted to go to Bologna.

To spice things up a bit, my friends Kim, Alysse, Callan, Keith and I were planning on going from Bologna to Milan, then Lake Como, then home to Firenze. However, as the day approached I decided that I was honestly too sick to go. It's one thing to be coughing your lungs out at home. It is an entirely different thing to do that in a hostel. It was sad to think that my friends were going to have fun without me, but fate was on my side--they waited too long to book a hostel and once they found out it was snowing in Milan (keep in mind--Florida kids who are not used to the snow) they decided to just come back to Florence after Arte Fiera.

The train from Florence to Bologna was about an hour. It was my first European train ride. Nothing incredibly exciting, I have to admit. The trains are nice, clean, and comfortable. They arrange the seats in groups of four, two facing two, so everyone gets a table. The train station was less than clean, comfortable, and nice. Florence is a beautiful city and is for the most part very safe, but, as with any city in Europe, the train stations are usually the worst part of the city. Santa Maria Novella is not the city at its finest.

On the train an Italian who spoke very good English (he lived in England, he told us) talked to us for a while during the ride. He of course wanted to know what we were doing in Florence, where we were going, and the usual smalltalk. He then proceeded to talk at length about American movies. Out of all American actors, Tom Hanks is his favorite. His favorite American movie is Shrek. Other than our movies, he did not know much about America. He was astounded when we told him how long it would take to get from say New York to Los Angeles. You can travel between European countries faster.

He began talking to us politely, even if he intruded on our conversations, but after talking for a little while he began to go on the offensive asking us why we would come to study in Europe. "America has good schools. Why are you here?" He went from curiosity to confrontation. "You know how much we have to pay to have you come and study here? You cost us a lot of money. So why are you here?"

Well, it was a little hard to react to that. He was certainly the first person I met who thought that studying abroad was in anyway a bad thing. Also, I didn't know we cost Europeans money. I'm honestly not so sure he was even telling the truth, the way he was talking. I almost told him, "Do you know how much money we've spent in the two weeks we've been here? Ok, we'll leave, and your tourism industry will go with us." When I told him I came here to be immersed in a new culture and to inhabit a bigger world, he shrugged it off, saying, "Alright." The conversation died out not long after that, and our attention went back to the festival.

Arte Fiera was AMAZING! Just the scale of it was incredible. Also, all the art was at the very least interesting, most of the time really impressive. It was a contemporary festival, so some of the works were either a little strange or were really pushing my artistic limits. Most of it was really awesome. Some of my favorites were some Edward Burtynsky photos and James Nares paintings. That is only the beginning, and we didn't see all that much of the exhibit, it was so huge. It was basically art junkie heaven. Also, highlight: Alysse and I went to the publishing section and got free tote bags. I love free stuff!

After the festival some of us went to spend part of the afternoon in Bologna. I won't go into details but my art professor is less than organized and we spent most of the afternoon running from place to place, almost missing lunch hour, almost missing our train, and freezing our butts off. I was also sick so this did not make me happy. My memories of Bologna from five years ago with Aunt Janet are a little nicer.

We got back to a rainy Florence which didn't help colds or spirits, but the night got better. We went to hang out at one of the other apartments from our program. This apartment, Vespucci, has been nicknamed "The Real World." Honestly, MTV should get in on this. There are 13 people in this apartment, three guys and ten girls. A few of my close friends live here, and life is fun but a little nuts. I'll tell you about a few people. The three guys are Kieth, Jesse, and Evan. Kieth hangs out at our apartment a lot and is a good friend. Jesse and Evan are a piece of work.

Jesse and Evan, or "Jevan" as we call them, even to their faces, are ridiculous. They are two best friends that came here together and they are utterly inseparable. They are also inebriated 80% of the time that I see them; in class, at dinner, any time of the day or night. Jevan is kind of stupid at times and always funny, even if they do not mean to be. They chat like an old married couple. I was walking around with them in Rome and I was privvy to a ten minute conversation about the difference between a church and a cathedral. I probably could have saved them some trouble and solved it for them, but it was too funny to stop.

Jevan was not there this night, but our night hanging out at Vespucci was really nice and put a good relaxing cap on a long day.