Archives for May 2009

The weather is hot here, unseasonably hot I hear. Today we are just “chilling” at home, trying to stay cool before Brandon has a birthday party to go to in a couple of hours.

Yesterday we spent an enjoyable day in Pavia, a town about an hour’s drive south from our house. It is a beautiful little town, with some interesting sights to see and a history going back to Roman times. Unfortunately there is not a lot of information on the town in English but Patrick managed to research the history a bit online. Between that and the map we bought of the city when we got there, we saw a lot of interesting things!

As always, visit Patrick’s blog for more details on our day and the places we visted, and go here for my photos of the day. I tell my stories more with pictures than words, so that is what you are going to get from my blog. 🙂

And maybe some comments on the creative process as I explore that more… Like the fact that I noticed yesterday that I am becoming more comfortable with carrying my “big” camera around. Not as in physical comfort, but not feeling or caring that I look odd. I was looking more for the details or the things that strike me. What would tell part of the story of our visit or what just caught my eye. That means that I am taking more pictures these days, and I have more that I like to share with everyone.

So beware, when you visit my albums, it may take a while. 🙂

This morning I woke up and couldn’t ignore the morning light on the balcony flowers. You see, our bedroom has a set of glass doors that open out onto the balcony and we’ve been sleeping with them open because it’s so hot. So I woke up to the beautiful morning light, and had to get up and get a few pictures.

Enjoy!

Sunday afternoon was Stage 9 of the Giro d’Italia in Milan, so we went downtown for the day. Funny how after a couple of trips it’s no big deal to get to the Metro station and get into Milan – it seemed like such a project a few weeks ago!

Our plan was to arrive downtown by 9:30am so that we could get in early to see the Monet exhibit at the Palazzo Reale (Royal Palace). This exhibit is “Monet: Time of the Water Lilies” and focused on the influences on Monet from Japanese art and gardens. He built a Japanese garden at his home in Giverny and that is where his water lily paintings were painted. There were 20 works of water lilies, weeping willows, reflections in the pond and the Japanese bridge in his garden, along with paintings and photographs of gardens from Japan that influenced Monet.

First off, can I just say, it was incredible to see some original Monet paintings and to enjoy them in person. To see the colors he used first hand – what a range! From soft, dreamy pastels to bold purples and greens, all intermixed to create the image. And then the texture – to see the brushstrokes up close, the places where the paint is thicker or fades out. It was amazing.

It was also fun for Brandon, because in his art class at school they had studied Monet and impressionism a little bit, so he liked to see it. I have to say, it makes me appreciate the Art@Adams program a lot more seeing now what Brandon has learned in art in just a couple of years of elementary school! At age 8 he has an appreciation for art that I am surprised at, but love.

It makes me want to learn how to paint with oils – the colors, the textures… I’m going to have to try it sometime! No pictures of the exhibit though, which is too bad, but also just fine because the pictures just would not do the paintings justice. Looking in the books right after seeing the paintings was disappointing, because the colors were just not right!

From the exhibit we went up on the roof of the Duomo, it was open and Brandon was dying to go up! It’s a nice view of the city, and so different from the “downtown” of your average US city. There are no skyscrapers, for one. The streets aren’t laid out in the typical grid pattern we are used to. There are all sorts of bell towers and church domes dotting the skyline. Different.

The rest of the day was spent watching the Giro d’Italia! It kicked off about 1:30pm. Mike came down and we wandered from the Duomo and Castello area over to the Porta Venezia area of Milan, following the course and seeing the riders from different locations. We ended up at Mike’s new apartment to see it and also the last lap of the race a block or so from his place. From there we took the Metro back and headed home. A long, hot, sunny day but fun! Of course there are pictures – go here.

On days like yesterday, it is just so amazing to think that we live here and can do all of these things in one day!

The weather has been warming up and I have no shoes to wear to work that don’t require socks. Ugh. Too warm! I hate socks in the summer! My feet need to breathe… In Corvallis, I would be wearing my crop pants and Birkenstocks to work if the weather was this warm, but that just isn’t quite right here. 🙂

Today I was in the city center of Vedano al Lambro to put in my application for residency, and there was a street market. These markets move around, every town has one on certain days of the week. They sell food, plants, household items and clothes too! So as I wandered by I took a look and found these cute shoes, so now I can go to work without socks!

(Taken in the park by our house, where we went to play this afternoon.)

Brandon has a new friend, Naruyuki, who he really likes at school. He and I met his family at the park last Sunday so that they could play together, they get along really well. Naruyuki’s Mom is Japanese and his Dad is Italian.

We were talking last night about seeing if they are free for a playdate on Saturday. Brandon started said something like, “Maybe someday we can have a sleepover, but we aren’t to that stage yet.” He then proceeded to tell us the stages of friendship:
1. Play date at the park
2. Play date at your house for a couple of hours
3. Come over for lunch
4. Come over for dinner
5. Sleep over

We jokingly added Step 6: Visit each other in Oregon or Japan.

Where does he come up with this stuff? He even mentioned it again this morning, something about “we aren’t to that stage yet…”, I don’t even know what he was talking about.

I wonder what detailed process and stages he will come up with once he starts dating!!

I don’t know why, but a priority for me here is decorating the apartment to make it ours! We found a great but LARGE picture on our first IKEA trip, so we had to measure the car to see if we could get it home (we have a tiny little Fiat Idea). Turns out, yes, we could, but pretty much only one of us could go because we needed to put the seats down and it would fill the entire back of the car. So yesterday after work I went to IKEA and picked up the pictures along with the cool red clock I wanted that was out of stock last time. Along with a picture frame for the picture of our nephew (thanks Brookie!) I think we are pretty well set in this room.

So, here it is, what do you think?